Help me make the quietest pc for $750

[ph00p]

I'm wondering if anyone else here has tried this? Is it doable w/o really compromising power? I've got ~750 to spend, I don't need hard drives and I don't need optical drives, I do however need everything else.

Any ideas?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[ASharp]

What kind of power are you looking for? Do you plan on doing some heavy gaming or just some light gaming.

Most of the noise from your PC will be coming from fans and well, any moving parts really. Things like the motherboard, CPU, RAM, etc. don't make any noise so it doesn't really matter what you choose. Hard drives, fans (and any vibrations they cause) are the main causes of noise. All you need to do is try to get rid of any moving parts that aren't necessary or somehow find a way to dull the sound.

If you have any case fans, then you can try giving them less voltage so they'll spin slower but more quiet. Running a cool CPU with a Scythe Ninja heatsink passively will get rid of any noise coming from the heatsink fan that would normally be there. If you get a video card that's loud, you can try throwing an Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 on it and run it passively too. Important thing is that you need good airflow in your case for it to work well. These little things cost some money though.

It really depends on what you want to use your system for. Also, are there any specs you had in mind already?

The SilentPCReview (http://www.silentpcreview.com/) forums (as well as the site itself) is a great place for information if you want some ideas to seriously quiet down your system. Those guys are pretty hardcore about silence though.

[enko]

Should be doable - Antec Sonata is great for silence on a budget, comes with a decent power supply.

Most important thing is the video card, these are all over the map, some are okay, some are really loud...I find my 8800GT is fine with the stock cooler.

[torseller07]

Silent chasis fans are going to cost a bit. An Acoustic Noiseless Fan is going to easily cost $30 each. Assuming you want 3-4 of these, it would easily cost over $100.

Depending on your configuration, you could probably replace chipset fan with a good passive heatsink (like Zalman heatsink (http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=131) for about $6-8) and get a HDCP compliant, passive cooled video card (cost around $120-150 after taxes). A quiet, copper based CPU cooler is going to cost around $40-60. For PSU, I currently use Corsair HX620W PSU. They are modular, fairly quiet and are known to provide consistent power under high temperature. You can probably get one for around $130-140 after MIR and taxes.

The above roughly occupies 50% of your budget. You would need to cover case, CPU, RAM and motherboard with the other 50%. If you are not too picky about 3D performance (assuming you want to build a HTPC), you could probably pick up some parts from used market (+/- $100).

Hope this helps. :)

[woof]

There are a number of sites devoted to this. eg

http://www.silentpcreview.com/

[vrus]

well, do you want high performance?

just get a passive hsf, passive vga and put your hdds in case like the solo w/ rubber banding. If you still can't get the hdd quiet, you can buy quieter ones like samsung.

[Amourek]

If you use NCIX to pricematch directcanada/nxsource/tddirect you can get:

$220 Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz
$35 Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B
$87 Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
$33 OCZ Gold XTC DDR2-800 2x1GB*
$190 Galaxy Geforce 8800GT 512MB*
$27 Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev.2
$60 Corsair CMPSU-450VX 450W*
$68 Antec Solo 18"*
===
$720

(* = MIR)

CPU runs pretty cool, so a Ninja can cool it without a fan. Accelero S1 allows you to run a 8800GT fanless. 450VX is probably the quietest PSU you can find for under $100. The Solo is a case designed for quiet PCs. It's got acoustic dampening foam and elastic suspension for hard drives.

DS3L is a basic board - may want to upgrade it if you want more features. If you don't game, you can ditch the 8800GT for a passive Radeon HD3450. Money saved can be put into a quad core CPU, more RAM, better mobo or what have you. Can't really say since I don't know what the purpose of the machine is.

[ph00p]

Thank you for your responses!

Sorry that I didn't mention the purpose, I'd be looking for a middle gaming rig of the line or something like Amourtek has suggested, any ideas what slightly better motherboard would be for that setup?

I won't be gaming exclusively on it, only when something new comes out, I'll want the power to play it, but not at uber high settings or anything. Mostly I'll just be watching movies with it, so I need a video card that can upscale to 1080p.

[hehehaha]

if you are looking for a medium gaming rig, perhaps you can buy a something like this from FS or BB: http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=557712


buy a video card, then you are done, these machines are really quiet...

[Silver Bullet]

$220 Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz
$35 Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B
$87 Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
$33 OCZ Gold XTC DDR2-800 2x1GB*
$190 Galaxy Geforce 8800GT 512MB*
$27 Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev.2
$60 Corsair CMPSU-450VX 450W*
$68 Antec Solo 18"*
===
$720

(* = MIR)



Only two things I'd change:

Asus P5K-E (I like asus better as the Gigabyte board I used (P35-DS3L) gave me really strange problems - ended up just taking it back and getting the asus mobo.)

$26 OCZ Platinum XTC DDR2-800 2x1GB (AMIR) - better timings and cheaper (infonec.com)

Otherwise Amourek build is really good.

[enko]

If you're going to buy locally, I would leave all your aftermarket cooling until after your PC is built. Then slowly upgrade your heatsinks.

For me, I swore I'd need an aftermarket video card cooler.. but I didn't. My PC is extremely quiet. After I upgraded my CPU cooler, the first time I powered it on, I didn't think it was turned on.

[Silver Bullet]

If you're going to buy locally, I would leave all your aftermarket cooling until after your PC is built. Then slowly upgrade your heatsinks.

For me, I swore I'd need an aftermarket video card cooler.. but I didn't. My PC is extremely quiet. After I upgraded my CPU cooler, the first time I powered it on, I didn't think it was turned on.

I'd be more inclined to do the cpu cooler upgrade while building the system, as its a pita do to it later on. Though I do agree though you might not need the video card cooler and most cards these days are pretty quiet when you not playing games.

[Brandon]

What degree of silence do you want? If you want extremely quiet and don't plan on overclocking, read below.

Get a Thermalright Ultra 120 (regular or Extreme), and run it without a fan. The placement of your heatsink when installed in the Antec Solo case will allow the case fan to provide a little bit of airflow through the heatsink, even with the case fan at low. I tried it with my E6300 in a case with less ventilation (Lian Li PC65), and it was fine. Temps were higher than with a fan on the heatsink, but still safe even fully on load.

For the video card, you can run a Thermalright HR-03 GT on an 8800GT. You MAY be able to do it passively (not sure with the Antec Solo), but if not you can put a very slow spinning fan on it.

Best case scenario, you'd only have a case fan and power supply fan spinning in your computer. What is nice is you can add a fan to the heatsinks in the future if you decide you want to overclock.

[ph00p]

Thank you for all your advice.

I'm not looking to overclock at all so maybe your suggestion would be a good one Brandon.

[Amourek]

Ninja + Accelero S1 are both superior to the Ultra-120 Extreme + HR-03GT for passive cooling. The wider fin spacing make them ideal.

[enko]

I'd be more inclined to do the cpu cooler upgrade while building the system, as its a pita do to it later on. Though I do agree though you might not need the video card cooler and most cards these days are pretty quiet when you not playing games.

Yup, I'd agree with that... CPU is definately a PITA, and it's usually not very expensive compared to some of the viddy card ones.

[ph00p]

I have to agree, I'd skip the optional cooler for the videocard.

I soon get my tax rebate back, that will dictate how much I really put into this.

[grisensko]

There is something you should take care off..

You could get a completly fanless pc....
Fanless PS, fanless VideoCard etc...

However the noise comming out of a fanless PC can be worst than from a PC with fan. HardDrive access, dvd drive... they produce a non-constant noise that can be really bad.

A big not too loud 12'' Case fan could be ideal to hide the song of those drive access.

[Brandon]

There is something you should take care off..

You could get a completly fanless pc....
Fanless PS, fanless VideoCard etc...

However the noise comming out of a fanless PC can be worst than from a PC with fan. HardDrive access, dvd drive... they produce a non-constant noise that can be really bad.

A big not too loud 12'' Case fan could be ideal to hide the song of those drive access.


I don't have a fanless PC, I'm using the Antec P190 with all fans at low, but I can still hear my hard drives when they're seeking hard, and my optical drives when they're spinning up.

For hard drive noise, there are solutions that are basically noise insulated boxes for hard drives that fit in a 5.25" drive bay. Ideally, best case scenario for noise (not including SSD's) would be to have a drive for all applications, and all data is on a networked drive in another room.

[fitbrit]

So, did everyone who helped receive $750? :razz:

[ph00p]

So, I got my tax rebate, it surely wasn't $800, does anyone know of components that have great prices w/o having to deal with MIRs? Also the price of shipping is a big factor, as I won't be able to go to any of these places, I live in NL :( .
I've been reading about the Antec Sonata line, they say that they're kinda quiet but not at all times. Which is the quietest sonata? I've read alot of conflicting reports.

[Brandon]

So, I got my tax rebate, it surely wasn't $800, does anyone know of components that have great prices w/o having to deal with MIRs? Also the price of shipping is a big factor, as I won't be able to go to any of these places, I live in NL :( .
I've been reading about the Antec Sonata line, they say that they're kinda quiet but not at all times. Which is the quietest sonata? I've read alot of conflicting reports.

NCIX has $5.99 ground shipping this week and they do price matching, you may want to try them. Not sure if the ground shipping offer applied to your province though, but give it a try.

The Sonata III should be good bang for the buck, and it should be quiet for your system (just set the case fan speed to low). It includes the Antec EarthWatts 500w PSU, so for $100 it's a good combo.