5punk

I think I'm going to start by getting me one of these:

http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/produc ... s/nova600w

It's a good balance of power and noise which also removes a heat source from the case to allow me to use more passive cooling inside. Perhaps only using front and back case fans to keep the air flowing across heat sinks on the CPU and graphics card, the case fans being quiet 120mm jobbies. But that is the next step.

Also I don't intend to jump straight to a 8800 card as they current too pricey, too hot and not really worth it as I don't intend to install Fista until I have to. A 7950 looks the most attractive option at the moment.

Any comments or suggestions?

Well, it's certainly quiet. Ugly though. Is 600w enough?

Dog Pants wrote:Well, it's certainly quiet. Ugly though. Is 600w enough?

should be fine for most stuff.

Yep. Unless you're a rich bastard with 2 8800GTX's or 2 DAAMIT R600's 600 is plenty.

spoodie wrote:http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/produc ... s/nova600w

That thing is going to draw in dust like mad

I'd honestly consider looking at passive (or very slow fans) watercooling and modding a normal PSU to use slow/silent fans.

I used to run a system like that, you couldn't tell if it was on or not from 12" away.

I don't really want to go the water-cooling route but there are internal PSUs that are just as powerful and semi-fanless available. If I keep the internal components down to a minimum, only 1xHD and 1xoptical it could reduce heat/noise/power enough for it to work out.

give it a go and report back.

edit: as a test for noise levels, you should be okay to unhook the fans in your current psu for a while, that way you'll see if the weird external psu will help noise enough to be worth doing.

High efficiency, 83% at full load

I think this looks one of the most impressive things, especially for a 600W PSU.

I'm getting one of these instead:
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/produc ... esteq-psus

It should be a bit better than my current "quiet" PSU which is now making a rattling noise.

The passive cooled 7950GT which I've ordered

Doesn't it look nice

All the other bits are ordered, info and photos of my new semi-fanless wonder PC to follow. I haven't had the balls to go for fanless CPU cooling but I may experiment in the near future.

My wallet hurts.

i have recently made a computer as quiet as possible, and i think that although fanless graphics & cpu are a nice idea, the huge heatsinks still need airflow to work. somewhere along the line, you need fans.

ProfHawking wrote:i have recently made a computer as quiet as possible, and i think that although fanless graphics & cpu are a nice idea, the huge heatsinks still need airflow to work. somewhere along the line, you need fans.

That is a major problem with any PC that needs significant CPU and GPU power for gaming, etc. But at least case fans can be larger and in theory quieter.

Yes. But there are alternatives. I went for watercooling, using a large radiator that relies on convection to carry heat away. The psu still has a slow 120mm fan in it, but its not bad.
The hard drive is hardest to keep quiet. Its in a silentdrive enclosure, but its still slightly clicky when busy.

spoodie wrote: That is a major problem with any PC that needs significant CPU and GPU power for gaming, etc. But at least case fans can be larger and in theory quieter.

I thought I'd posted in this thread before about the PSU - having one where it only uses the fan if it needs to, like the one you mentioned above with the temperature dial, just seems to make sense.

Unless you're going to have watercooling, I can't see how you can go completely fanless - you're always going to need some airflow, even if it's from a big, slowly-turning case fan, or everything inside, including the heatsinks will get hot eventually.

All the fanless motherboard and graphics card designs rely on the general temperature inside the case being lower, although you could theoretically remove the case and air-condition the room, instead.

ProfHawking wrote:Yes. But there are alternatives. I went for watercooling, using a large radiator that relies on convection to carry heat away. The psu still has a slow 120mm fan in it, but its not bad.
The hard drive is hardest to keep quiet. Its in a silentdrive enclosure, but its still slightly clicky when busy.

So there's no water pump involved?

I've never had a problem with HD noise, I have to look at the lights on the case to see if they're being access. Did you use any acoustic foam insulation?

edit: I've just released my new Bubba does a lot of quiet clicking but then that's nearly all harddrive and no insulation.

spoodie wrote: So there's no water pump involved?

There will be a pump, but no fans, so very close to silent.


I've done the silent pc thing in the past using proper watercooling and standard fans 7-volt modded, ended up with a machine you couldn't tell was on or not.

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:I've done the silent pc thing in the past using proper watercooling and standard fans 7-volt modded, ended up with a machine you couldn't tell was on or not.

You said "in the past", why don't you still do use it?

I think I'll investigate the water cooling scenario if this doesn't work as well as I expect it to.

Fuck quiet PCs, I've got a 53db fan in mine that probably gave Prof tinitis at the LAN. When that thing runs you can tell it's turned on from anywhere in the house!*



*I've disconnected it though.

There's no technological reason I don't still do it, But I actually prefer a quiet pc* to a silent one, silence was just a little spooky.


*remarkably, The Gonk is fairly quite, despite the 11 fans in there