Hi there, I have a fractal define r3 and I was wondering how I can configure it for optimal silence and cooling. At the moment it's pretty quiet but I think I could do better. I'm currently running a amd 955 processor which always seems to be exceeding the maximum operating temperature of 62 Centigrade while gaming and that worries me a bit. I'm also running a radeon 6850. My cooling setup is 2 intake fans in the front of the case and a coolit eco in the back in push/pull with noctua nf-p12 fans. The moduvents are all covered. If you guys have any advice for me, I would really appreciate it.

Should I be looking at a new cooler or fans?

Your setup is similar to my r3 except I have the 2 front intakes + 1 bottom intake and 1 rear exhaust. All moduvents are closed off, I use an NH-D14 for my HSF though.

Do you have your fans uber low and what is ambient temp?

Room temperature is about 28-30C. It's the warmest in the house. The 2 noctuas on the coolit eco are set at 70%, if it's any higher, I find it annoying. The 2 front intake are also set at 70%. The fans are a scythe slipstream and the fan that comes with the coolermaster 212. I recently tried undervolting my cpu and the temperatures have improved significantly. It's not set at 1.15v. On prime 95, it reached a max of 56C. So cooling is not a problem anymore but I think I could do better for a quieter PC. Any thoughts?

The Coolit Eco is not he worlds best water cooling system. See:
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.c ... 662&page=5

Why don't you try replacing the two noctuas on the radiator with two Scythe Gentle Typhoons. They are good static pressure performers. That means they will push more air through the radiator at lower RPM.

If it is just the CPU that is generating much of the heat and the rest of your components do not have a heating problem, try reversing your air flow so that the radiator is being cooled with cool incoming air as opposed to hot outgoing air.

As a last resort you might consider changing your CPU cooling system to a high end Corsair water cooling system... or even a large aircooler like the Noctua NH-D14.

What is the source of your noise? Maybe changing all your case fans to undervolted Nexus reference fans might help?

I would start by getting a single 1150 RPM Scythe GT fan and a single Nexus reference fan and experimenting. See what a single 1150 RPM Scythe GT fan mounted inside your case on your radiator does. That by itself might make a big difference.

Thanks for the advice, I'll be sure to give those fan a go. The 1150rpm fans seem to be scarce, would the 1450rpm ones suffice if I dial it back down? Are the scythe fans quieter than the noctua ones?

The 1450 RPM model is worth trying as well. You can play with downvolting it. From what I hear, some people complain about noise when you downvolt them.

Read this:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1266-page5.html
"The GT 1450 RPM model is also very quiet for its cooling peformance. The 19°C temperature rise at the 20 dBA SPL (at full speed) is comparable to what the big Thermalright 17cm can achieve at the same noise level. No other 120mm fan in this roundup does as well."

It would not surprise me in the least that one of these GTs will do the work of both your current fans and do it more quietly.

I'll try to keep my eye out for the 1150rpm but at the moment it doesn't seem they're available at NCIX where I usually shop. I've heard some good things about noiseblocker and be quiet fans, would you recommend those fans as well?

Noiseblocker are good, though prices are high ish in some places (ie Europe)
Have you tried undervolting the processor? I've found AMD quite good overall for undervolting. In some cases this case lead to quite a notable drop in temps. But it varies from CPU to CPU..some undervolt better than others.

Yes, I'm currently in the process of testing for a safe undervolt right now. Currently trying 1.17 volts. 1.15 was unstable when running prime 95, was getting fatal errors. The temps have been much better tho. Getting a max of 54C.

What CPU cooler are you using? That means a lot more than the case fans.

I have R3 and I'm using a single Nexus Silent 12cm @800rpm at the rear of the case. It suffices just fine. I have Intel E6400 @3GHz. Temps are just fine. You don't need 3 case fans. You need a low power CPU and a big heavy heatsink with a big slow fan.

Do you guys know where I can get the ap13s in Canada. Stores either don't carry them or they're sold out.

Try using the two intakes as exhaust fans. Mount both fans at the top. And reverse the air stream through your radiator, as ces mentioned. €: Don't close the front gaps

Watch gpu temps, they might go up a little. Switching fans at least doesn't cost money. Could be worth a try.

Additional reading

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/ ... t-1/1473/1

and

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/ ... oling/1416

Got some news to report. Finally gotten around to ordering some gentle typhoons. Will report back once I pick them up.

Finally put the gentle typhoons in and they are very quiet. Unfortunately after fixing 1 problem another one presents itself. The h80 that i got for my birthday has terrible pump noise which seems to be a problem with air bubbles. It is an amazing cooler though. I have researched this extensively and it seems to be a common problem. Apparently it can be fixed to undervolting the pump slightly. Any ideas how to go about doing that? I currently have the pump connected directly into the psu and the 3 pin on the pump only has 1 wire which I'm assuming is for monitoring purposes.