Quiet, cool system?

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coolitdown

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Dec 18, 2013
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I'm looking to buy a desktop that stays as quiet and as cool as possible. I want to be able to leave it running for a long time without having to worry about it degrading due to heat issues, but it'll also be in a high traffic area so I don't want it to sound like a jet engine 24/7.

I know these are kind of opposites, as you're going to need a fan going to keep it cool, but I'm looking for a happy medium.

Also, anyone have any tips for keeping it cool on the software side? I'm guessing profiling the system down to keep as little resources being used as possible, and maybe even underclocking the CPU.
 
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Onus
I agree that building it yourself is a good way to go. You can get 80+ Gold "fanless" (actually "elsewhere-fan" is more accurate) PSUs, e.g. from Seasonic, that are dead silent; intake fans on your case push the limited air they need through them. They're a little pricy, but if silence is your goal, I think worthwhile.
Intel's IGP is probably enough. If you observe stuttering or other issues, particularly in Blu-Ray playback, you can get a HTPC card like a HD6450 or GT610. Fanless versions of both are available.
Use a SSD for the system drive. They're silent and generate insignificant heat. Use WD "Green" or Seagate "LP" drives for your media. They are optimized for power-saving over speed, so they generate less heat and are...
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rvilkman

rvilkman

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Most cases running 120mm or larger fans are virtually silent, especially if you have those hooked up to a fan controller to run them at the appropriate speed. In addition to this some cases have extra padding to soak up noises such as the Corsair 330R and the Nanoxia Deep Silence Series. They still maintain good airflow and cool componets properly.

The same goes for CPU coolers 120mm or larger fans make them quite silent unless you are running very high overclocks.

On the GPU front you need to be looking at custom cards and coolers. Asus DirectCU II line is extremely quiet and MSI's TwinFrozr line almost as quiet gigabyte windforce series is quite ok as well. All of them provide very good cooling regardless.

So you can build a cool and quiet PC pretty easily, without breaking the bank even.
 
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bigshootr8

bigshootr8

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If you get solid fans in a quiet case its quite possible. What I would suggest. Fractal Design Define R4 w/o window and Noctua NF-F12's and that should do it. Your computer will be darn well near silent. Your GPU of course could create note depending and the cpu cooler as well could but with a Fractal R4 you get sound dampening padding which will help with the sound.
 
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DarkSable

DarkSable

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You're used to really old computers, aren't you. :p

Modern computers are going to be pretty quiet. That being said, there is going to be very little you can do on the software side that's going to make any bit of difference. Yes, you could underclock your CPU, but that would just give you less power, and isn't really necessary.

So. Here lemme ask you what you're going to be doing with this. What is this computer going to be used for?

If it's just general office work and stuff like that, the new Chrome OS all-in-one would be a great option.

If you want it for gaming, and you want it to be quiet and good, you HAVE to build it yourself.

If you want something cheaper, running windows, building it yourself is still a far better idea; it's easy, you get way better parts and it's going to be way quieter.... and cheaper than any comparable computer you could buy off the shelf.
 
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coolitdown

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It'll be a media server and for office work. I won't be doing any intense gaming or anything requiring heavy processing power.







Sadly, it has to be a prebuilt system, so my options are limited here. I might be able to replace a fan.



I'd do a Chromebook, but sadly I need Windows.

Does anyone have suggestions on specs to look for/avoid? Is a PSU with a lower wattage going to result in a system that's equally as lower powered, hopefully making it quieter/cooler?
 
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DarkSable

DarkSable

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Why does it have to be prebuilt? I highly suggest that if it's because the thought of building a computer intimidates you, to go look up a youtube video on how to do it. It's actually really easy. You get better parts for less money with better warranties.
 
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rvilkman

rvilkman

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With a psu you should go for efficiency. If you don't have high power draw a good 80+ gold or platinum rated solid unit from seasonic for example won't even run the fan until the powerdraw exceeds 25% of the capacity, and even after it is really quiet. Basically the more efficient the PSU is the less heat it produces and the less cooling it will need.

Basically you should be looking at an intel system, as they generally are more efficient. If it is mostly media server then probably a dual core such as an i3 would do, but if you do other stuff with it while it serves media, possibly you could use an i5. The integrated graphics will be sufficient to run any office applications so that shouldn't be a problem. Some kind of aftermarker CPU cooling is recommended to keep temps down and sound low.

Probably should have 16GB of memory to serve as cache and memory when you are using it for office work.

You should have the OS run from an SSD, for a media server you probably could squak by with a 64GB, but a 120GB are pretty cheap now so it should run your server os and have space for your applications.

Then obviously the bread and butter of your system is the HDD pile and this is kind of where most of the heat in the system is generated so good cooling to blow over the hard drivers in the server would be important. Also you should pick drivers that are meant to be used 24/7/365 so stuff like WD RE series. They come with a 5 year warranty for a reason, although you do pay a premium for such luxury.
 
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Onus

Onus

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I agree that building it yourself is a good way to go. You can get 80+ Gold "fanless" (actually "elsewhere-fan" is more accurate) PSUs, e.g. from Seasonic, that are dead silent; intake fans on your case push the limited air they need through them. They're a little pricy, but if silence is your goal, I think worthwhile.
Intel's IGP is probably enough. If you observe stuttering or other issues, particularly in Blu-Ray playback, you can get a HTPC card like a HD6450 or GT610. Fanless versions of both are available.
Use a SSD for the system drive. They're silent and generate insignificant heat. Use WD "Green" or Seagate "LP" drives for your media. They are optimized for power-saving over speed, so they generate less heat and are quieter than high-performance drives like the WD Black models, but are fast enough for media sharing.
 
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tsnor

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UPDATE: I didn't see this "..It'll be a media server and for office work..."

If the data is important you want RAID 1 mirroring (two disks each with a copy of the data you need automatically maintained with automatic failover if a drive fails). Suggest an INTEL based system and use of INTEL RST drivers to get RAID 1. Total cost is an extra $100 to add the second drive. Do not get a case that can only hold 1 drive. If the data can get large you'll want room for four drives. If the data is small you'll want room for two drives. You'll want a backup solution and email alerts when a drive fails. If people will be waiting while data transfers then consider using raid 10 where the data is both striped and mirrored giving you 2x the data rate. IF many people will be hitting the server then use a lot of memory as cache, if just a few using the server this won't matter. If you'll have several people watching video streams from the server at the same time consider using SSDs although this gets expensive.

If the data is important then get a PC with error checking/correcting memory (ECC memory) this means a small server not a normal desktop. The price just went up $300 to $500 higher.

Suggest you post budget and more info on use. The right answer can swing from a $500 PC to a $5K server.

Ignore original post below:

If you need windows I'd strongly consider a LAPTOP. You can get a good, cheap, low power thinkpad for $350 new with good windows licence out of the lenovo outlet store. (I just got two i3 based 13" laptops there for xmax). Set to a low power profile that keeps the system from sleeping and you are done. IBM mainframes use a pair of thinkpads internally for monitoring so you know they run with low failure rates. Funny to open the doors of a mainframe and see the laptops strapped in.

IF you didn't need windows then there are a number of sub-$100 media servers that might meet your needs. Tiny. quiet. Good remote apps for android and windows.
 
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Onus

Onus

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^Using RAID makes sense. RAID1 is very forgiving, and even "LP" or "Green" drives can be used. RAID0 however will require enterprise-class drives with TLER (Time Limited Error Reporting) to avoid otherwise healthy drives dropping out of the RAID when simple, correctable read errors are found.
For your storage needs only (but not the Office applications), you can consider a NAS box. This is basically a box containing one or more drives that is accessible by any system on your home network. You can stick it in a basement closet or other out-of-the-way location (as long as it doesn't get too hot or cold, like an attic).
 
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