System temperatures of silent gaming PC
Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 9:05 am
Hi all,
After reading a lot of reviews and comparison data I treated myself to a brand new PC. The system had to be silent during daily tasks but was allowed to be audible during gaming. I was eager to spend some money on the components to silence the PC but the hardware was chosen on price/performance base and had to be future proof. It also needed the possible to extend the PC with a second graphic card in the future and leave the option open for water cooling.
Based on those criteria I chose following hardware:After having assembled and installed the PC I noticed it made quite some noise. The headers of the 6 fans (2 for the CPU each with 4 pins, 4 for the case each with 3 pins) are plugged in the motherboard so I had to make some adjustments in the BIOS to improve the noise level of the system. Unfortunately I still couldn't get to the noise level described in the review of the Silverstone FT02 (inaudible in a living room during daytime).
The MB is delivered with software to handle the fans: AI Suite II. With the switches of the 3 bottom fans set to high, it seems impossible to get the fans spin under 40% of their speed with AI Suite. This causes the system to be to loud when idling. If I put the switches on low, the fans won't spin under 78% of their speed, which leaves little room for extra cooling. Also, I believe the AI Suite only takes into account the CPU temperature (picture)and might not be able to handle the second CPU cooler (picture) .
Could anyone recommend a better way to control fan speeds without the usage of a fan controller?
I might actually consider buying a fan controller but with almost all fans connected to the MB I believe it's a shame. The idea of a tweak-able system which autocratically adapts to internal temperatures seems very appealing to me.
During testing of system temperatures I used several applications and I noticed big differences between them. The applications reported following inconsistencies for the idling system (in °C):
- MB: Speccy=55, SpeedFan=25, FanXpert=26
- CPU: SpeedFan=55, CoreTemp=25, FanXpert=26, Speccy=24
A temperature of 55°C for an idling system seems extremely high to me.
Should I be concerned about the high temperatures reported by some of the tools?
Could anyone tell me which of the tools I can trust?
I hope to keep the hardware for a long time and I believe temperatures plays a role.
(coretemp, fanxpert, speccy, speedfan)
Another thing I also noticed is that the HD makes some annoying noise. After a while the OS takes care of putting the HD to sleep (might even shut it down) but in the meanwhile I have to tolerate sound of a drive I don't even use.
Any trick I could apply to make the HD go to sleep a bit faster?
Thanks to all people who are reading this and are willing to help me out.
I really appreciate your help.
PS: The packing of the case surprised me with the SPCR logo
After reading a lot of reviews and comparison data I treated myself to a brand new PC. The system had to be silent during daily tasks but was allowed to be audible during gaming. I was eager to spend some money on the components to silence the PC but the hardware was chosen on price/performance base and had to be future proof. It also needed the possible to extend the PC with a second graphic card in the future and leave the option open for water cooling.
Based on those criteria I chose following hardware:
Code: Select all
Case: Silverstone FT02 (UBS3)
PSU: Seasonic X-1050
MB: Asus P9X79 Pro
Processor: Intel i7-3820
Heatsink: Noctua NH-D14 (SE2011)
GPU: Saphire Radeon 7850 (2G)
SSD: Samsung 830 (128G Desktop)
HD: Western Digital Caviar Blue (500G)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Blue Series (16 G)
Burner: Plextor PX-L890SA
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate (64b)
The MB is delivered with software to handle the fans: AI Suite II. With the switches of the 3 bottom fans set to high, it seems impossible to get the fans spin under 40% of their speed with AI Suite. This causes the system to be to loud when idling. If I put the switches on low, the fans won't spin under 78% of their speed, which leaves little room for extra cooling. Also, I believe the AI Suite only takes into account the CPU temperature (picture)and might not be able to handle the second CPU cooler (picture) .
Could anyone recommend a better way to control fan speeds without the usage of a fan controller?
I might actually consider buying a fan controller but with almost all fans connected to the MB I believe it's a shame. The idea of a tweak-able system which autocratically adapts to internal temperatures seems very appealing to me.
During testing of system temperatures I used several applications and I noticed big differences between them. The applications reported following inconsistencies for the idling system (in °C):
- MB: Speccy=55, SpeedFan=25, FanXpert=26
- CPU: SpeedFan=55, CoreTemp=25, FanXpert=26, Speccy=24
A temperature of 55°C for an idling system seems extremely high to me.
Should I be concerned about the high temperatures reported by some of the tools?
Could anyone tell me which of the tools I can trust?
I hope to keep the hardware for a long time and I believe temperatures plays a role.
(coretemp, fanxpert, speccy, speedfan)
Another thing I also noticed is that the HD makes some annoying noise. After a while the OS takes care of putting the HD to sleep (might even shut it down) but in the meanwhile I have to tolerate sound of a drive I don't even use.
Any trick I could apply to make the HD go to sleep a bit faster?
Thanks to all people who are reading this and are willing to help me out.
I really appreciate your help.
PS: The packing of the case surprised me with the SPCR logo