Want to cool my PC and make it quiet.

jn0505

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Hi guys, this is my first post on this site, so I'm not sure if this is the right thread to post to. Sorry if it isn't.

I got my PC about a year and a half ago, of off Craigslist for $300. Once I saw the post i was really excited because I owned a Dell N17 from 2011, so it wasn't the greatest thing to game or render on as I am studying 3D animation and modeling. And I started gaming quite a bit on the PC when I was only into Consoles at the time.

Anyways, here is what I'm here for, and here are the specs.

ASrock M3A770DE
AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.2 GHz(Black Edition)
Noctua NH-D14
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1gb DDR5
4x 4gb Viper Extreme
Cooler Master RS-700
x2 Corsair SP120 Performance / x2 Corsair SP120 Quiet Edition
Samsung 830 128gb
Seagate Barracuda 500gb
Cooler Master HAF 912


I've been wanting to cool off my PC for a long time now, and make it quieter, it's extremely loud, and I'm 100% positive that it's the PSU making all the noise. Also, the heat is definitely coming from the GPU when I game. I never once made changes to my setup within the 1st year of having the computer and my temperatures were around 32C - 34C idle. having everything stock that came with the case. I didn't have the Noctua cooler until 2 weeks ago, and I bought the 4 Corsair fans about 3 weeks ago. So everything else was just stock until about a month ago.

As I installed the new cooler and fans, my idle is at about 31C - 41C, just completely random at times... I don't understand why, I bought a better cooler and better fans, I thought that would help the heat. I have the hottest room in the house as my window faces the sun from 1pm to 6pm sunset, I live in South Florida so it's always hot in here, my room also collects dust like it's going out of style, I have wipe the dust from my vents every 3 days, it just accumulates so much... Anyways, I play games like League of Legends, which used to hit about 46C max with stock, but now hits around 48C - 68C, and when I play games like Thief, Battlefield 3, any current games I get around 77C - 79C, which is what I used to get stock either way, so I guess that's just my card maxing out.

So now, should I get a new PSU to make it quieter and swap out my GPU to get a little less heat? I know my GPU is old, I'm hoping to upgrade soon once I can afford it and my CPU as well, unless I can run my PC cold enough to where I can overclock it instead. I just spent like $170 on the cooler and fans, I still have time to return them and get something else, but most of the liquid cooling systems don't fit in my case.

Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated as to what I should do.

Thanks. Have a good day.
 
Solution
that's odd, i have a 965 BE overclocked with a NH-C12P SE14 and never saw it go above 42c. what paste did you use... and was there a clear sheet that you removed off the cooler's base (ive almost left one on myself being eager to finish a build).

this aside, nvidia would lean towards quieter, avoid blower style coolers either way for a more silent run.

Fans - the performance fans are probably going to drown out the quiet edition ones... cougar and noctua make some darn silent running fans as well.

would look to get some more exhaust from your case... honestly NOT a fan of the hAF912, but it shouldn't be impacting you at all like this.

check the connections of the noctua sink, if the clear film was accidentally left on, check for...

PvEdominator

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Try doing some Positive pressure for no dust, you can Google how to do Positive pressure with case fans. That temp for the GC is pretty normal under load, and switching to a new PSU is a great idea as more wattage or better quality will never hurt! With that new PSU you can switch out for a new GPU which is quieter, more leaning towards Nvidia for quietness, and will run cooler than AMD GPU's. Overall Great deal on the system and hope you have fun with the new parts! :D
 

noahhicks

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Good advice about the positive pressure option. You might also want to look into picking up some air conditioner filters from your local hardware store if dust is really a problem. I don't know about the HAF912's filters but adding some more wont hurt. You should also clean inside the case on a regular basis if you're cleaning the filters every 3 days. I do my case interior about once a month.

Personally I'd hold off on a new CPU. I'm running the same model exactly and it's not slowing down my gaming at all.
I've had great success using software overclocking to get to a modest 3.8 without any difficulty. The majority of other CPUs that fit the socket (AM3 or AM3+ depending on the MB) wont give a dramatic increase in performance. Put your money into a video card and PSU.

You can check the "Gaming CPU Hierarchy Chart" and see that the 955 sits comfortably near the top.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

It's not the best CPU, but you would probably require a new MB in order to see great performance gains.
 

vagrantsoul

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that's odd, i have a 965 BE overclocked with a NH-C12P SE14 and never saw it go above 42c. what paste did you use... and was there a clear sheet that you removed off the cooler's base (ive almost left one on myself being eager to finish a build).

this aside, nvidia would lean towards quieter, avoid blower style coolers either way for a more silent run.

Fans - the performance fans are probably going to drown out the quiet edition ones... cougar and noctua make some darn silent running fans as well.

would look to get some more exhaust from your case... honestly NOT a fan of the hAF912, but it shouldn't be impacting you at all like this.

check the connections of the noctua sink, if the clear film was accidentally left on, check for that, and check to make sure it's fans are running correctly in push pull.
 
Solution

jn0505

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Thanks, I'll check that out, and see how it goes. Hopefully you're right and it works. I'll keep you posted.
 

jn0505

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Yeah, I'll start cleaning it out regularly I guess, and I should check some filters. I always wondered but never took any action. Thanks for the heads up.
 

jn0505

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Hey, I checked the heatsink, everything seems fine, there was no clear film on it, and I used the compound that came with the cooler, the NT-H1 Thermal Compound. And I put a dab of it on, like the instructions told me to. Should I have put a bit more? Also, the fans I have aren't even that loud, compared to the PSU I have, this thing sounds like an idle car. The fans sounds like a car's AC on the lowest.

I have the 2 performance fans pulling in from the front, one quiet pulling from the side and the other quite pushing from the top at the back where my Noctua is. The Noctua fans are pushing air towards the back where the other quite one is.

I placed the fans the way the old ones were set.
 

jn0505

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I removed my graphics card, and the temps went down to about 28C - 31C. Not much, but it went down...

Here's the sticker for it.

3vx4.jpg
 

jn0505

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I don't have another power supply at the moment, but I can ask a friend to bring one of his old ones over, and see how that works out. This computer was loud from the second I bought it, I haven't had a desktop since 2004 and didn't think anything of the noise, but when I go over my friends house, his computer is super quiet and cool. Temps at around 25C and not a sound. He has the same case as me, no dust either.
 

jn0505

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Well, if you can't see it, then here it is:

COOLER MASTER RS-700
ATX 12V V2.3 Active PFC
AC INPUT: 110-240V~ 10-6A 60-50Hz
DC OUTPUT: +3.3v +5V +12V - 12V +5VSB
MAX. OUTPUT: 25A 25A 52A 0.5A 2.5A
 

jn0505

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Not yet, I will once I have more time and don't need my computer at all. Probably on saturday. I'll take everything apart and give it a nice cleaning and then reassemble properly. Hopefully that helps. I'll keep it posted.