Nice post and component breakdown. I'm not familiar with watercooling, but 10C above ambient at idle seems... unexpectedly high? I would think it should be very close to ambient. I added a 120mm fan on the front of the NH-D15 (140mm doesn't fit) and it drops temps a few degrees compared to just a si...

Thanks for checking. I run both around 500 RPM too. With the BL067 it's really hard to hear, but I went looking for it since it's so obvious with the BL066. You made a good point about PWM implementation, so I tried in DC mode as well on the BL066. It's slightly less pronounced but the sound is stil...

@Abula, as usual, thanks for the suggestions. The NF-A12x25 seems perfect for the front of the NH-D15 with taller RAM. I'll keep that in mind. I wasn't planning on more purchases just now! haha Could you let me know if you can make out the noise of the SW3 vs SW2 in the youtube clip above, and wheth...

Is there any ticking/bearing noise expected from the BL066 or BL067? Eg. https://youtu.be/GAhFDG7HHk4 I got one of each and I hear this (irritating) sound. It's more obvious on the BL066 especially since it's an exhaust fan and thus more exposed. In a very quiet room I can sometimes still perceive t...

For someone who just wants to stick a fan and have it "work" silently out of the box, the pre-made exponential curve might be preferred. Again, this is purely a guess. But yes, a linear response would probably be preferable for a tweaker.

I've read elsewhere that these BQ fans have (or at least had) a problem with their PWM controllers, that tend to give an exponential curve, rather than linear results. Any idea if this problem has been sorted? Otherwise, they seem to be ideal silent case fans. Do fans typically have a linear respon...

so now you are running the Fractals around 400rpms? Yes, the lowest I saw while monitoring in BIOS was right around 400 RPM. For me the Noctuas are fine under low rpms, but when loaded and reaching above 800rpms i find the tone not that pleasing, i prefer bequiet pwm, specially the BL067 is right n...

Haha.. at first I didn't even realize how to calibrate the fans. It's called 'Optimize All' on the Q-tuning page. The two GP-12s got their minimum values reduced to 27% and 24%, maybe due to variance in the fans. That's down from the original minimum of 60% :D I was really unimpressed with them at f...

CA_Steve wrote:Congrats on your build. If you treat the image as a file upload (section below the preview/send/save buttons), it'll set the size smaller and we can click on it for a bigger pic.

Thanks. The 256KiB and 1280x1280 restrictions took a bit of effort to satisfy, but it's much better now.

Quick update: small.jpg Ryzen 7 2700X Asus Crosshair VII Hero WiFi (X470) 2 x 16GB G.Skill F4-3200C14D-32GTZ Micron 1100 Series 2TB SSD Corsair RM650x MSI GT1030 (fanless) Noctua NH-D15 SE-AM4 Fractal Design Define C CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD Notes: - The RAM works at its rated specs! Such a relief af...

I appreciate the explanations. It's too bad it's so hard to find the HR-22 here. What are your thoughts between the NH-D15 and the Phanteks PH-TC14PE ? The review on the latter seems good for quietness with its large fin spacing and fan acoustics, and close the the NH-D14 in performance: http://www....

The D15 is fundamentally a high airflow cooler intended to compete with the AIO water cooling kits. While it's generally not a bad option for quiet computing, it wouldn't be my first choice for what you are ostensibly attempting to do. I'm interested to hear your reasoning. And what would be your f...

@CA_Steve If 4th, 5th, and 6th gen CPUs are not listed as discontinued, does it necessarily mean they still manufacture them? That seems unclear to me, but then again I haven't been shopping for them. Still, funny. @Olle P I had forgotten about that! I still have a computer with Socket 939 and singl...

CA_Steve wrote:CPUs? Yes. There's always revenue to be had, inventory to be rid of

To be clear, they still manufacture old gen CPUs when the new gen is launched? Not just sell off the old inventory?

@cdnlinuxdude If you find any interesting quiet air coolers available in Canada in addition to the ones already mentioned, please let me know. Good luck with your quiet build. And that 64GB of RAM... drooool.

$10, up ot you if its worth it or not. Also a lot of poeple fear the weight that twin towers put the motherboards into $10 for a Noctua fan seems good to me. But yes the weight and clearance issues are also a factor. No easy choices. even the 2700 seems like a winner just for what it costs, practic...

If you want an older cooler that is compatible with the AM4 socket, almost any of the Thermalright single-tower coolers will work Thanks, I looked for used (or new) Thermalright and Scythe, and found practically nothing or just the odd discontinued model usually for Intel sockets, often without fan...

I have a couple APC stepped-sine units. 750VA and fanless. When power drops and the UPS kicks in, a stepped sine unit will cause your PC's switched mode PSU to buzz. Not a horrible thing, as you'll most likely be finishing up tasks and shutting down the PC. I might have the same one, an APC Back-UP...

The lack of availability does make it difficult. Aside from Noctua's price, I'm not thrilled about losing a PCIe slot on the X370 Taichi. Based on reviews it seems the CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD does have fans that may turn on during battery use. But it's good to know you never noticed! Is there a reas...

Noctua's customer service said the NH-D15S would still cover the top PCIe x1 slot on the X370 Taichi. I suspected as much, since the offset is just 8mm compared to the NH-D15, based on the diagrams on their website. That's probably not enough to clear a slot, depending on how much it overlapped in t...

I had seen the 2nd pic you linked. It's interesting that the cooler fans are mounted backwards in the 1st pic. The Asus Prime X370 Pro doesn't have a x1 slot above the x16 slot, so actually that board might be better for the NH-D15... if the x16 is not obstructed. It does seem like a headache though...

Would the NH-D15S be offset enough not to block the first x1 PCIe slot?

Actually, I considered running a NH-D15 without the front fan, since I found one locally without any fans for the same price as the Arctic Freezer. But losing a slot bothers me a bit, even if I don't intend to use it right now.

You make a good point about temperature spikes. I don't know how significant those are and whether a decent heatsink should be able to absorb them quickly enough. Even aside from price, I want to avoid blocking slots and possible RAM height problems, both of which exist with the NH-D15 SE-AM4. On th...

Noctua said that if you bought the cooler from an autorized seller (newegg is i believe) that you just need to send the proof of purchase and ask for the AM4 mount and they will mail it to you for free I was looking at a buy/sell/trade site to see what's available, so that wouldn't qualify for Noct...

Yes, the NH-D15 doesn't have the AM4 bracket, which is another reason I was less interested in it, although I know there are bracket kits sold on newegg etc. Thanks for confirming about the PCIe slot being blocked. Any similar info about the Dark Rock Pro 3's PCIe clearance? I've read the mounting i...

Is it possible to run semi-passively on coolers other than the Arctic Freezer 33 Plus? On local buy/sell sites I found a Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 3 for about the same price or only slightly more than the Arctic. I also found a Noctua NH-D15 without fans, which is probably not worth it given the price ...

right now my AsRock Z370 Taichi only has 2 switchable, the rest are pwm, so if you are only using PWM fans both mobos are the same, but for someone wanting to use the inclued fans on their case, and maybe wait to upgrade them... Good point about included case fans. I checked and the Define C comes ...

Great info. Thanks for testing. I hope the X370 Taichi is similar.

This ability to turn off also means the Silent Wings 3 might be better than the 120/140 ER for for low noise over all operating RPMs.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img923/8929/hWZ59I.png So the 120ER can move more air and has a higher turn-on threshold, but the SilentWings3 is quieter for a given volume of air moved. There always seems to be some tradeoff. Also, I don't know how much it matters, but the 120ER doesn't seem to ha...

The EK-Vardar EVO 140ER might make it possible to have a completely silent system at idle. Exciting. It does seem that there's a tradeoff between complete silence at idle versus higher noise at turn-on and loads. I found this review of the 120ER and it's interesting to compare with other popular fan...