help with "quiet" cooling in a new build

slug420

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Oct 31, 2003
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Just ordered the parts for my new PC...most of them anyway, and I am trying to plan the cooling for my system so I can order the necessary components.

Specifically I think there are three main areas:

CPU:
I went with an i7-3770 and have no plans to overclock it. Have not ordered any cooling for this yet. My goal is to be efficient but as much as possible..quiet. I was considering water cooling which I think is probably overkill for this situation (since I am not overclocking) but then read where the Corsair H100 (for example) was actually louder than some popular fans/heat sinks.

GPU:
I picked up an EVGA gx670 4gb. I dont know how much one typically meddles with GPU cooling but my current desktop is a mac pro with a ATI Radeon X1900 XT and I was able to replace the OEM cooling (fan) on that with a large heat sink and must say I LOVE how quiet that has made things. I dont plan on doing a lot of gaming so maybe that makes alternative cooling options more reasonable?

Case:
For the case I went with a corsair carbide 500r. Have not bought any fans for it yet (so I will just have whatever it comes with). As I understand it this case is designed to work with positive pressure and the fan configuration is as follows:

Cooling Front 2x 120mm intake fan
Rear 1x 120mm exhaust fan (supports 140mm)
Top 2x 120mm fan mounts
Side 1x 200mm intake fan (supports up to 2x 120/140mm fans)
Bottom 1x 120/140mm fan mount


Appreciate any suggestions!
 
I look at Frosty Tech's Top 5 Heatsinks. when looking for cooling options. There are plenty other websites out there, but they seem to have lots of quick info to digest, IMHO.

As far as GPU cooling, I would wait on that and see how noisy it gets when it's stressed or during normal operation. I personally have a headset on when doing some heavy gaming or if I'm listening to music (since I like to keep the room quiet as possible).

The case you ordered is a good one and I would normally leave the case fans where they are and the direction the have been installed. If you think you need more cooling for quieter fans, than there are options to consider. Again I would just see how it works out for a bit and see if you like/dis-like the noise you get from the system first.
 
Without doing any overclocking you will not run into a lot of extra fan noise and if your doing any gaming then that's when you'll run into some extra fan naoise as some games will heat upthe video card and make the fans run faster to provide extra cooling. I don't know what you ordered for parts but if you went with an Asus MB then you'll have the fan expert feature that Asus boards have.
One thing you can get is a fan controller and connect as many fans as you can to it so you can control the fan speed and with that the noise level. Any fans that you do buy you can look at the db level that that fan is rated at.

Water cooling is a solution if you commit to cooling all the components in the computer to that. I do water cooling and on my computer I cool the cpu, the two video cards, the ram and the motherboard chipsets by water cooling. I also have a fan controller so I can set the fan speeds on all the fans so that the overall noise level is relatively quiet. Currently I have 13 fans that are used for my computer, 10 of them are attached to radiators and you would never know it.
 
I am willing to bet even a coolermaster 212 evo(the plus is louder then the evo) will fit your needs.

I had a X1900XT so I can feel your pain. One Accelero X2 later it could not even hear the card anymore.

The dual towered Phanteks and Noctua heatsinks on the market are giant and quiet, but come at quite a cost. I have one(NH-D14) and it works very well, but in my rather poor airflow case, My CNPS 10X Flex with one NH-p12 fan was almost as good.
 

Picture please. PM if you do not wish to post in the thread.
 

Greatatlantic

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I actually own the same case, and it is pretty quiet. The fans (quality Corsair fans) have three settings set with the case itself, but I discovered turning up the speed didn't noticeably lower GPU or CPU temperatures (probably because the case has such good airflow) that I keep them on the lowest setting.

I ended up going with a Corsair H55 for cooling, though I was interested in overclocking and getting my feet wet in liquid cooling without spending a lot of money, so it was just a good fit for me. It is definitely on the quiet side and gives pretty good performance for the money. Anyways, you can pair it with a low noise adapter (sold separately) to slow down and quiet the fan. Which if you aren't overclocking, will leave your temps fine.

Right now, the loudest component in my case is the DVD reader, probably followed by the HD, then the GPU.

However, the nice thing about a CPU cooler is you don't need to buy one with your components. You can just use the stock cooler and decide later if its to loud for your likings.
 

spawnkiller

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For cpu, i recommend the Hyper 212 as it's cheap, silent and does an amazing job for this low price... For even more quiet operation, you could take a Noctua heatsink (but they're not cheap) but i certify that you'll never hear any sound out of it as i own the NHU12P SE2 and the loudest thing in my computer is the PSU (it's silent but i hear the PWM control)

For the gpu, pick a good aftermarket colled card like the ASUS Direct CUII, the EVGA Signature 2, MSI twin frozr and Gigabyte Windforce to name a few that i've used in the past (ASUS and EVGA ones are the quieter i've seen)
 
I want to see your water cooling setup

@Greatatlantic. LG dvd drives tend to be fairly quiet.

@ all, after replacing all my fans in my case, I could hear the power supply. It was strange as I always thought it was silent before that. It is still very quiet.
 

slug420

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thanks for the responses. I think I will wait and see how I feel about the case fans.

Not sure what I am going to do for CPU. I feel like I am going ot want an aftermarket cooler and would kind of like to put it on from the get go rather than use the OEM one and then replace it...so with that in mind I might order one tonight (since I expect to be building this weekend).

The Noctua DH-14 is the most recommended one online but it is huge and 80 bucks. At that point I wonder about just going to 100 bucks for a Corsair H100i...but kind of figure both of those coolers would be overkill for a non-overclocked 3770.

Atlantic: you went with the H55 for cooling...is there some measure of which liquid cooler is good for which CPUs? I know they list the socket sizes that they fit but I feel like I am not seeing any place quantify whether the H55 is plenty for the 3770 or if the H80 is best, or if the H100i is best... At some point I expect you are paying more for a bigger cooler and never using it to its full ability. Maybe if I convince myself to splurge on an H100i that would be the quietest since it would be so much more cooling than I need, it could run at low all the time and be virtually silent?
 
Since you won't be overclocking any of the water sealed coolers will run pretty quiet and the H-80 being a single fan size radiator would be much easier to mount and be unobtrusive compared to the H-100 which is a double fan radiator. There is also the H-70 and H-60 to be considered and the DH-14 is huge and since it is overkill certainly not needed.
 

shrikecurse

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I would recommend to check out BeQuiet, it is a company from germany that specializes in quiet operation products.

I bought for myself several items such as:

http://www.bequiet.com/en/powersupply/299

http://www.bequiet.com/en/cpucooler/309

http://www.bequiet.com/en/casefans/260
to replace the fans my Cosmos II case came with. The operation is super quiet, even with the asus mb quiet feature turned off, the whole system maintains a temperature rarely reaching 40 under load and under 30 on idle. The fan speed is on low for these temperatures.

The paste we used for cpu cooling was IC Diamond 24carat. even if only for its theoretical supremacy

the goal was to make a super pc so we ventured for the extra cost to add quiet operation, indeed the only audible noise is the velociraptor raid which was a requirement for this build
 


If you want better cooling and don't want to break the bank, the CM Hyper 212 EVO is a good option around $30. Here's Frosty Tech's review and in the later part of the review they list the CPU HSF's by performance, so you can compare other options too!