Quiet but powerful PC
Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 8:00 pm
Hello,
Finally time to buy a new PC which I am really trying to make quiet. I was hoping the experts on this forum might be able to help with getting together a good parts list to meet this goal. I'm intending to buy as soon as the 3770K becomes available where I live (which should be real soon now).
My last PC was purchased in 2003 (yes!), and my new PC will try to address the problems I had. Goals (in order of priority) are to be quiet, to allow high performance from multiple apps, some gaming, some video processing, minimise requirement to upgrade for at least the next 5-8 years. Budget is not a big consideration.
Problems with my old PC:
The PC became very loud, even when idle. So this time I want quiet components. Also, this time I am going to build it myself so that I know what I am doing when I need to replace parts that have become noisy.
I had to upgrade the memory as it was constantly paging. This time I am going to max out the memory.
The power supply blew. This time I will get a high quality power supply.
The power supply couldn't support the new parts I added as it wasn't powerful enough.
So this is what I am proposing:
Ivy Bridge 3770K
Prolimatech Genesis
GELID PWM Y-Cable
Either
2 x Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm Fan
or 2 x Thermalright TY-140 ( but cant find these on the web now?).
ASUS P8Z77-V PRO Motherboard
Fractal Design Define R3 Black USB 3.0
Corsair Vengeance CML16GX3M4A1600C9 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3
Crucial M4 SSD 256GB
Sapphire Radeon HD7950 3GB OC Edition
Corsair AX850 Gold Power Supply
Nexus Real Silent PWM 120mm Case Fan x 4 (2 front, 1 rear and maybe 1 bottom),
Reasoning:
* Get the 3770K for video performance. Puts out less heat than Sandy. Budget is not a real factor.
* Prolimatech supposed to be very good performer on low rpm fans, which is what I am hoping for. Also may provide some cooling to video card. Also looks less bulky than similar performers (e.g. DH14).
* Fractal Design is one of the quieter case and looks good. Would be nice if the drive bay could be removed to allow better airflow.
* I will have a separate NAS in the garage so no need for hdd. I've already done the 2 x CAT 5E runs for 2 Gbps of throughput.
* AX850 is a very quiet power supply and fan not likely to run up for this rig.
* According to Anandtech Sapphire Radeon HD7950 is very quiet and makes no noise at idle (fans stop) and very quiet at load.
Can I improve this rig, given the goals I have?
Pinky
Finally time to buy a new PC which I am really trying to make quiet. I was hoping the experts on this forum might be able to help with getting together a good parts list to meet this goal. I'm intending to buy as soon as the 3770K becomes available where I live (which should be real soon now).
My last PC was purchased in 2003 (yes!), and my new PC will try to address the problems I had. Goals (in order of priority) are to be quiet, to allow high performance from multiple apps, some gaming, some video processing, minimise requirement to upgrade for at least the next 5-8 years. Budget is not a big consideration.
Problems with my old PC:
The PC became very loud, even when idle. So this time I want quiet components. Also, this time I am going to build it myself so that I know what I am doing when I need to replace parts that have become noisy.
I had to upgrade the memory as it was constantly paging. This time I am going to max out the memory.
The power supply blew. This time I will get a high quality power supply.
The power supply couldn't support the new parts I added as it wasn't powerful enough.
So this is what I am proposing:
Ivy Bridge 3770K
Prolimatech Genesis
GELID PWM Y-Cable
Either
2 x Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm Fan
or 2 x Thermalright TY-140 ( but cant find these on the web now?).
ASUS P8Z77-V PRO Motherboard
Fractal Design Define R3 Black USB 3.0
Corsair Vengeance CML16GX3M4A1600C9 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3
Crucial M4 SSD 256GB
Sapphire Radeon HD7950 3GB OC Edition
Corsair AX850 Gold Power Supply
Nexus Real Silent PWM 120mm Case Fan x 4 (2 front, 1 rear and maybe 1 bottom),
Reasoning:
* Get the 3770K for video performance. Puts out less heat than Sandy. Budget is not a real factor.
* Prolimatech supposed to be very good performer on low rpm fans, which is what I am hoping for. Also may provide some cooling to video card. Also looks less bulky than similar performers (e.g. DH14).
* Fractal Design is one of the quieter case and looks good. Would be nice if the drive bay could be removed to allow better airflow.
* I will have a separate NAS in the garage so no need for hdd. I've already done the 2 x CAT 5E runs for 2 Gbps of throughput.
* AX850 is a very quiet power supply and fan not likely to run up for this rig.
* According to Anandtech Sapphire Radeon HD7950 is very quiet and makes no noise at idle (fans stop) and very quiet at load.
Can I improve this rig, given the goals I have?
Pinky