Posted January 5, 2008 I'm still not entirely sure what I'm going to be doing for my next PC but one thing for sure that if I decided to do another custom build I want it to be dead silent and 'invisible'. Meaning no LEDS or lights or whatever on the outside. My goal: Not be able to tell if the computer is on or off. So if you guys could reccomend a case, cooling system, and whatever else I need to have a silent 'invisible' PC. Budget $400 at the very most, but I would prefer less... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 5, 2008 For $400, I don't think that you'll get anywhere quiet. Quiet cases and cooling are expensive to very expensive. For $400 you could probably equip an existing PC with silent parts and casings, but not build a new one from scratch. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 5, 2008 Haha $400 isn't the total budget. Just how much I want to spend on the silent parts. The total budget is around $3500 XD Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 5, 2008 http://www.quietpc.co.uk silent computer parts ahoy, watercooling is good but requires a lot of thought and money. Above website is where i got this bad boy from: (7950gt) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 5, 2008 PSU: http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.aspx?sku=315205 MB: http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.aspx?sku=329099 CPU Cooler: http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.aspx?sku=330008 (while there is a fan pictured, it can safely run without it, I used my FX-60 (quite hot) with just the heatsink at a max of 50C with load, the fan isn't very loud anyway) Graphics card: http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?id=18618 (The best silent card around at the moment.) Hard drive: http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.aspx?sku=327715 (while i have selected the quietest hard drive, you might still hear it, you can buy holders for hard drives which spread heat around and reduce vibrations if it's too much to bare.) The rest of the options are silent or inevitably noisy (the dvd drive). I should note that all this fanless stuff will leave your pc running quite hot, so it would be a good idea to stuff 1 or 2 120mm fans in there which should keep it cool and almost inaudible. Oh, also this is a more non fuss solution, if you want to overclock and shit then you'll need to invest in water cooling. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 5, 2008 Haha $400 isn't the total budget. Just how much I want to spend on the silent parts. The total budget is around $3500 XDXD, you could make your PC fly for that amount of money. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 5, 2008 Oh, a reminder, Marshmellow is in the US, so UK sites are little good as a direct buying, though i guess it will give a good idea to the parts to get. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 5, 2008 Thanks babe http://www.quietpc.com Cool site, I may order some soundproofing material off there. PSU: http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.aspx?sku=315205MB: http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.aspx?sku=329099 CPU Cooler: http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.aspx?sku=330008 (while there is a fan pictured, it can safely run without it, I used my FX-60 (quite hot) with just the heatsink at a max of 50C with load, the fan isn't very loud anyway) Graphics card: http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?id=18618 (The best silent card around at the moment.) Hard drive: http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.aspx?sku=327715 (while i have selected the quietest hard drive, you might still hear it, you can buy holders for hard drives which spread heat around and reduce vibrations if it's too much to bare.) The rest of the options are silent or inevitably noisy (the dvd drive). I should note that all this fanless stuff will leave your pc running quite hot, so it would be a good idea to stuff 1 or 2 120mm fans in there which should keep it cool and almost inaudible. Oh, also this is a more non fuss solution, if you want to overclock and shit then you'll need to invest in water cooling. Thats the current mobo I have now, but I want to get some DDR3 RAM so new mobo. I think for the CPU I may watercool it, Thermaltake has a pretty cheap watercooling system that looks good. And I couldn't find that graphic card anywhere for the US. But I will keep looking for it, because thats exactly what I've been looking. And I'm not sure if the PSU will support the specs or not, although it would sure be nice to have... Newegg Shopping Cart CPU Water Cooling Case Is this the same hard drive? Had trouble finding it in the US. If it is then I'll be ordering 4 of those. I'm not really sure how Raid works but if (can) I put all 4 of 'em in Raid 0 that makes them faster right? haha XD, you could make your PC fly for that amount of money. Hopefully:awesome: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 5, 2008 DDR 3 has horrible timings, is way too expensive and has no real performance benefits at all. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 5, 2008 PSU: http://www.scan.co.uk/shops/corsair/HXseries.asp Huge but slow fan you cant hear. Case: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=8863&page=10 Be practical. Water cooling may be alot of hassle and its not exactly dead quiet. Air cooling with big but slow fans is the best method. Use a killer heatsink and fan on your CPU. http://www.silentpcreview.com/article759-page1.html Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 5, 2008 Buy a cheap Core2 and Overclock. You will save yourself tons. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 5, 2008 Don't buy the 8800GT Silent, it's reported to go up to 120 degrees Celcius on load, and that can't be good. You could multiple CrossFire some Radeon 3870 Silent Editions for that money, at $200 per card. Or, buy some GF 8800 Ultras with watercooling, but that will be more expensive. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 5, 2008 Don't buy the 8800GT Silent, it's reported to go up to 120 degrees Celcius on load, and that can't be good. You could multiple CrossFire some Radeon 3870 Silent Editions for that money, at $200 per card. Or, buy some GF 8800 Ultras with watercooling, but that will be more expensive. the 8800GT Peaks at 111C without any case fans and top of the range components and full load (106 with case fans), and went through the tests without any glitches or crashes, so I don't see why it shouldn't be an option if he's looking for a silent PC. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 5, 2008 At that temperature there are composites that'll start decomposing, and it makes the rest of the system much harder to cool. It's a silent PC, so preferrably there'll be no case fans, and it's a high end PC, so he's probably going to want SLI/CrossFire, and then I wouldn't be putting in two 110C cores. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 6, 2008 Buy a gfx card but use enhanced cooling. There is alo the vent trick which involves using paper to direct the heat vents Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 6, 2008 All this for a PC that is silent? More trouble than it's worth imo. Just get expensive fans and run them all low. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 6, 2008 Oh, a reminder, Marshmellow is in the US, so UK sites are little good as a direct buying, though i guess it will give a good idea to the parts to get. Sorry my mistake i have .co.uk as my bookmark ^_^ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 7, 2008 Alright well I made some changes, because I really don't need that fast of things. And I decided that I will be keeping my current mobo and cpu. So here are the new specs, and most likely the final. I decided in the end to get a BFG 8800GT 512mb. And I'm going to watercool the CPU and GPU. I went against getting an ATI 3850 because my mobo only supports SLI and not Crossfire. And someday I'll be sticking another 8800GT in there. oh and Choze I thought about the Antec case, but it has to many fans:heh: and this one is way cheaper. So what do you guys think? And thanks everybody for the help! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 7, 2008 You're buying 5 monitors...? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 7, 2008 What an earth can you need 5 monitors for? 5 monitors and over the top cooling just so your parents cant tell your PC is on downloading 10GB porn movies overnight... must be nice having money to burn! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 7, 2008 Is that supposed to be a watercooled gaming rig or a silent pc? Nice spec, but if you're after a silent computer you've picked the wrong components Try having a read on this site: http://www.silentpcreview.com Personally i'd go for an Antec P182 and then add passive coolers to the CPU (Scythe Ninja) and GPU (Arctic Cooling S1 + Turbo Module). The P182 has rubber grommets for the drives which will eliminate a reasonable amount of drive vibration noise and swapping the CPU and GPU fans with passive models will remove the 2 noisiest fans in the system. That should make the system pretty much silent. Water cooling is very expensive and unless you're going to superclock the thing it's not really worth it. Vibration from the drives tends to drown out the case fans any way, so watercooling if a waste of time unless you've done this to you're PC and still find it too noisy. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 14, 2008 PSU: http://Be practical. Water cooling may be alot of hassle and its not exactly dead quiet. Air cooling with big but slow fans is the best method. Listen to this. Fuck water cooling, it almost always isn't necessary and just causes issues, and is a pain in the ass to install. Get yourself a Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120 with a nice big quiet 120mm fan jammed on the side of it, and your CPU won't get warm, at all. Other than get a decent passively cooled graphics card, or fit a big fuck-off cooler to the card - http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=147 for example. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
