Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

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Abula
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by Abula » Fri Apr 06, 2018 9:36 am

visper wrote:Would the NH-D15S be offset enough not to block the first x1 PCIe slot?
Yes (in theory, i don't own it to say for sure but very likely, it was a version to do that exactly). But you lose one fan and the AM4 mount, so it would requiere spending more for having access to the 1st pcie slot.
visper wrote: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.
That's up to you, and i agree with you, but this will increase the cost into getting the S version + AM4 mount (if you buy it new you can get it for free) and maybe adding the extra fan, so its a luxury that only your wallet can decide. I personally like to use this place for soundcards and lan cards but the new 10ge cards now use 4x so its losing its appeal, but now a days a lot of manufacturers are starting to drop this slot in favor of placing a very long m.2 ssd, this tendency is growing more and more in newer motherboards.

Now one experience that might or not be worth it, as i cant say for sure that your will be the same, on my AsRock X399 Taichi i used a NH-U14 TR4 (like D15), i was expecting the first pcie (16x) to be blocked but no, i can place a GPU even with a backplate, its very close but still clears fine (and i didn't use the offset on the mounting arms), a lot depends on where the manufactuer placed the CPU socket. You should try to to look for builds with AsRock X370 Taichi + NH-D15 to try to guess how it will end up.

I found a couple of pictures on different builds that kinda confirms that it will overlap with the 1st pcie slot.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

visper
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by visper » Fri Apr 06, 2018 11:14 am

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 and makes me want to stick to a non-oversized cooler.

The Arctic Freezer being a decent cooler with two (cheaper) fans does seem like a good value overall. However, I will keep comparing alternatives.

Abula
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by Abula » Fri Apr 06, 2018 12:14 pm

visper wrote:The Arctic Freezer being a decent cooler with two (cheaper) fans does seem like a good value overall. However, I will keep comparing alternatives.
Value is on the eye of the beholder, the Artic is a $30 cooler that you will pay $65 and the noctua is a $90 that you will pay $115. Regardless of what i think, its your money, if you think you can achieve a quiet semi fans less setup with the Arctic go for it.

visper
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by visper » Mon Apr 09, 2018 11:12 am

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 the first place. So with the AM4 brackets and an extra fan all at the same price, the NH-D15 SE-AM4 makes more sense than the NH-D15S.

Advantages of the Arctic Freezer: cheaper in absolute cost, lighter so as not to cause concerns of stress on motherboard

Advantages of NH-D15: quieter even at load, great mounting system, overall higher quality

I can't believe I'm even considering a CPU cooler that costs more than some CPUs/APUs. Noctua should pay you a commission for upselling. :D

=====

On another note, is there any advice for choosing a UPS from a silence perspective? I've read some units have fans that turn on when on battery (ok) or periodically (not good). And of course there's the question of electrical/coil sounds.

Abula
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by Abula » Mon Apr 09, 2018 11:51 am

Noctua should pay you a commission for upselling. :D
I personally dont buy much of noctua, i feel its a little expensive, but everything is relative, being in canada closes the two brands that i use the most, Thermalright and Scythe. But i have bought NH-U14 TR4 recently, and i do think they are very good quality wise, i just think most of their cooler should be $10 to 20 less than what they retail. Now in canada due to the options, i dont think its that bad compared to others, you practically investing on cooler long term, as noctua will supply you with free mounts as long as the cooler is compatible with newer generations. But i have my eyes on the D15, will see in time, if threaripper cant acomplish what i need ill rebuild with skylakeX + D15S.

visper wrote:On another note, is there any advice for choosing a UPS from a silence perspective? I've read some units have fans that turn on when on battery (ok) or periodically (not good). And of course there's the question of electrical/coil sounds.
I own 3x CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD, its fanless and i cant hear any coil or electrical noise, i believe all that series is like this, so chose according to your power needs.

On Amazon.ca
On Newegg.ca

visper
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by visper » Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:39 pm

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 reason you chose the PFC (sine wave) over the AVR (simulated/stepped sine wave) model? The AVR costs less and has slightly longer runtime especially at lower loads:
https://www.cyberpowersystems.com/tools ... 1500AVRLCD
https://www.cyberpowersystems.com/tools ... 1500PFCLCD

From what I read so far, the pure sine wave isn't necessary in most cases except for certain medical or audio devices: https://superuser.com/a/912689

There's also APC's competing BR1500G (simulated sine wave) and more expensive Smart-UPS models (sine wave).

It's unfortunate that the battery capacity isn't usually indicated, just the VA rating is advertised.

Abula
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by Abula » Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:54 pm

visper wrote: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!
I'm sorry i didn't explain it correctly, the UPS is silent under normal conditions, when power is out or when you have a spike or a low, you will notice it, personally i never though it was a fan, first its a TOCK like a switch, and then its like its operating, but i never related to a fan, its definitely noticeable and you also get a beep every 30sec or so, so its not quiet under these conditions, what meant was on standby where the electricity is not affecting its operation, which is how it works 99% of time on my setups, but you do get spikes from time to time and you hear the UPS entering, even if power still on, but honestly never expected a UPS to work silent under load from the battery, remember its doing an inversion from DC to AC (or simulating it), like the inverters solar panel people use, i even have one on my car that don't have a fan, but its very low powered.... what im trying to say is that under normal conditions is silent, when it work due to an issue with power then its not silent.

I leave you other threads where you can see other opinions,
UPS CyberPower CP1500EPFCLCD / CP1500PFCLCD
Dead silent UPS

CA_Steve
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by CA_Steve » Mon Apr 09, 2018 9:03 pm

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.

visper
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by visper » Mon Apr 09, 2018 9:31 pm

CA_Steve wrote: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-UPS 750VA or 650VA. I noticed the annoying buzzing (and beeping!) when it's on battery, but since it's a rare event and for a limited time, it's acceptable as long as it's quiet under normal AC operation. Btw, I get about 3 hours of battery runtime with a modem, router, ATA, and cordless phone base.
CA_Steve wrote:I leave you other threads where you can see other opinions,
UPS CyberPower CP1500EPFCLCD / CP1500PFCLCD
Dead silent UPS
The threads and many reviews online for these CyberPower units are reassuring. They seem to be a good value offering similar functionality to popular APC's BR1500G at a lower price.

I'm between the CP1500PFCLCD and the CP1500AVRLCD. The difference is ~$40 ($240 vs $200). I can't find anything in favor of the PFC over the AVR other than reassurance that it will work with certain picky active PFC PSUs.

CA_Steve
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by CA_Steve » Tue Apr 10, 2018 6:59 am

fyi: APC updated their s/w settings to let you turn off the beeping - it used to freak out my dog.

cdnlinuxdude
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by cdnlinuxdude » Sun Apr 15, 2018 6:37 pm

visper wrote:
Abula wrote: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 Noctua's program. You're right that the availability of coolers isn't great here.
If you want an older cooler that is compatible with the AM4 socket, almost any of the Thermalright single-tower coolers will work if you also have the AM2/AM3 Bolt-Thru kit (because the Bolt-Thru Kit uses an X-type mounting bracket and the diagonal distance between the mounting holes on the back plate has not changed).

I found this out by accident when I ordered my X370 board, tried out one of the Bolt-Thru Kit brackets and it fit.

:twisted:

visper
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by visper » Sun Apr 15, 2018 7:29 pm

cdnlinuxdude wrote: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 fans. I don't know what's up with selling coolers without fans.

For new units, it's strange how the Noctua NH-U14S is just $10 less than the NH-D15. At that price, the D15 makes more sense if for nothing else than the extra fan. I might actually get the D15 SE-AM4 as a luxury and enjoy relatively quiet computing even at load (depending on how loud the PSU gets).

As for the UPS, I'll just get the CP1500PFCLCD and avoid bad surprises.

Given Ryzen 2 (Zen+) launch is in a few days, I'm waiting for reviews and QVLs to come out before choosing the CPU, motherboard, and most annoyingly, RAM. I've already started purchasing other components. The advice here has been great and really helpful. Thank you all.

Abula
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by Abula » Sun Apr 15, 2018 8:57 pm

visper wrote:For new units, it's strange how the Noctua NH-U14S is just $10 less than the NH-D15. At that price, the D15 makes more sense if for nothing else than the extra fan. I might actually get the D15 SE-AM4 as a luxury and enjoy relatively quiet computing even at load (depending on how loud the PSU gets).
The difference in performance is also small, the problem is what heatsinks to be more efficent need bigger CPU ISH, this is how Threadripper is still able be sustained fine with U14. I would think that twin tower coolers would perform better if they have bigger contact areas. But returning to the pricing, its fair imo, the difference is a few degrees for $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, specially now that some mobos are even thinner, that said, i never have had an issue with coolers and motherboards not tolerating them, but you would be surprise how many disapprove the performance just because of the size/weight.
visper wrote:Given Ryzen 2 (Zen+) launch is in a few days, I'm waiting for reviews and QVLs to come out before choosing the CPU, motherboard, and most annoyingly, RAM. I've already started purchasing other components. The advice here has been great and really helpful. Thank you all.
Just be a careful, given thats its not a new arquitecture, new things come in, so as steve suggest it, 3 months is a good mark where the bios have mature enough where you wont deal with all the initial issues, it wont be perfect, but the biggest gripes will be solved. That said, i didnt follow steve advise on 8700K/Z370 and i ended up buying 4 mobos, 2 different memory kits, another psu, even a second 8700K, just to know what was wrong, as a result i ended upgrading both gaming and sim, not what i had planed, but thats what you get when you enter beta testing. that said, the 2700X seems like a real muscle cpu, even the 2700 seems like a winner just for what it costs, practically its 1800x with a little more, makes me wonder what will threadripper2 2950X deliver..... 4.3 turbo, that would pass the i9 7960X that costs $1700.

visper
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by visper » Sun Apr 15, 2018 9:16 pm

Abula wrote:$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.
Abula wrote:even the 2700 seems like a winner just for what it costs, practically its 1800x with a little more
I want to see reviews before deciding on a 2700 or 1700, since the 65W TDP is appealing for silence. Also X370 or X470. I estimate a difference of $200 between 2700 + X470 vs 1700 + X370. I don't know if that's worth it, but we'll see soon... finally. Also, that price difference might increase if the sales on old hardware get better.

Out of curiosity, are the old gen CPUs still manufactured when the new gen is released? i.e. is there an overlap in their production or is it an abrupt change?

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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by CA_Steve » Mon Apr 16, 2018 3:53 am

Out of curiosity, are the old gen CPUs still manufactured when the new gen is released?
CPUs? Yes. There's always revenue to be had, inventory to be rid of, and they'll also have a required obsolescence cycle for their OEM customers. Intel parts might be sold for a few years after a new gen comes out. Some of the less popular SKUs might be dropped sooner. I'm sure AMD has something similar.

On the other hand, consumer grade GPUs can disappear pretty quickly from the retail market...or hang around for a decade.

cdnlinuxdude
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by cdnlinuxdude » Tue Apr 17, 2018 5:33 pm

visper wrote:
cdnlinuxdude wrote: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 fans. I don't know what's up with selling coolers without fans.
Until about 5 years ago, all the Thermalright coolers shipped without fans, AFAIK.

I too live in Canada and am trying to put together a quiet Linux workstation with a Ryzen 1800x processor. I have been trying to decide on a CPU cooling solution, and am leaning towards re-purposing one of the two Thermalright HR-01 X coolers that I had previously used to cool a pair of P4 Xeons. I had completely forgotten that I had them.

I also have a Swiftech H220 AIO watercooling kit that I bought as a clearance item four years ago but never got around to installing anywhere. I ordered some AM4 mounting brackets intended for the H220X and Apogee, but I have no idea if they will fit the H220. They have yet to arrive in the mail.

Anyway, here is what I have so far:

Phantex Enthoo Evolv Tempered Glass ATX case
Seasonic PRIME Ultra 650W 80+ Titanium PSU
MSI X370 Gaming Pro Carbon
AMD Ryzen 7 1800X
64G G.Skill Fortis DDR4 Ram
EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 SSC
1TB WD Blue M.2 SSD

visper
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by visper » Tue Apr 17, 2018 5:43 pm

@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.

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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by visper » Tue Apr 17, 2018 5:45 pm

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
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by cdnlinuxdude » Tue Apr 17, 2018 6:21 pm

visper wrote:@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.
Thanks.

I have seen the Phanteks PH-TC12DX selling for about $62 at Newegg. Which is about the best value I have seen among sub-$100 air coolers lately.

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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by CA_Steve » Tue Apr 17, 2018 8:17 pm

visper wrote:
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?
Yes.

Olle P
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by Olle P » Wed Apr 18, 2018 2:36 am

visper wrote:To be clear, they still manufacture old gen CPUs when the new gen is launched? Not just sell off the old inventory?
I wouldn't be as concrete as Steve.
There will be "old" CPUs available in stores for a while (weeks/months) after a successor is released.
Do not count on getting a brand new older generation CPU for cheap a couple of months after a new release.

My own experience goes a while back:
AMD announced their brand new Socket AM2 was to be released a few months later. At the same time one of the Sockets 754 and 939 was to be discontinued, but support with new CPUs for the socket was to continue "for at least a year".
At this time I was in desperate need for a system upgrade, and the question was what socket to go for. With Socket AM2 being brand new it was of course the most "future proof" option, but also with a high risk of teething problems. The Nforce chipset problems were not forgotten...
I went with socket 939, and purchased a single core Athlon 64 with the intention to get a dual core about a year (or more) later.
Soon after my purchase AMD announced that 939 was to be discontinued while 754 was to stay as the "low performance" socket. Not what I'd expected but no apparent problem...
About (only) three months later I suddenly realised that CPUs for 939 were becoming increasingly rare at the retailers. After realising the promised "one year of support" seemed to not hold true I quickly ordered a dual core CPU from one retailer that, as it turned out, was unable to deliver. Eventually I found another retailer that with an effort was able to deliver me a CPU. There simply were no more deliveries to Sweden!

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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by CA_Steve » Wed Apr 18, 2018 6:01 am

You can find the status of Intel's products via ark.intel.com. For grins, here's the status of the 4th, 5th, and 6th gen CPUs.

Intel, if they follow typical semiconductor practices, will tell their direct customers 6 months to 1 year in advance when they are going to obsolete a product and provide some time (~6 mo) after this for final deliveries. There's JEDEC standard for this: J-STD-048. Whether or not a distributor or retailer chooses to sell the product and whether mobo mfgrs provide mobo's up until that point is another story. :)

visper
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by visper » Wed Apr 18, 2018 9:48 am

@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 single core Athlon 64, but I had not tried upgrading it, although now I remember the disappointment in that socket. The noise that machine makes (X850XT blower video card, cheap case fans, rattling case panels) is a big part of why I want my current build to be silent!

@cdnlinuxdude The Phanteks PH-TC12DX seems decent, but don't forget with shipping it comes to $70. Also the fans at 600-1800 RPMs seem too high for silence. The nice part is the build and mounting system look similar to Noctua, and it won't block PCIe slots, although the fan might still block tall RAM. If I'm paying over $50 for a cooler, I want to get the quietest I can get. The D15 still seems to be the one to beat.

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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by CA_Steve » Wed Apr 18, 2018 10:56 am

Not sure how I can be any clearer on this..so I'm done.

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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by cdnlinuxdude » Fri Apr 20, 2018 5:45 am

visper wrote: @cdnlinuxdude The Phanteks PH-TC12DX seems decent, but don't forget with shipping it comes to $70. Also the fans at 600-1800 RPMs seem too high for silence. The nice part is the build and mounting system look similar to Noctua, and it won't block PCIe slots, although the fan might still block tall RAM. If I'm paying over $50 for a cooler, I want to get the quietest I can get. The D15 still seems to be the one to beat.
Well, all I can do is give you advice based on my own personal experience and the problem you were trying to solve in your original post (something that is inaudible at 2m when the CPU is idling).

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.

Unfortunately, with Thermalright and Scythe having abandoned the Canadian market, there are not a lot of inexpensive options.

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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by visper » Fri Apr 20, 2018 7:13 pm

cdnlinuxdude wrote: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 first choice?

===

Reading about Ryzen gen 2, I must say I'm tempted. And with the price not being too different between the 2700 and 2700X, the latter is appealing, except for concerns about the 105W TDP's impact on the silence goal. With the improved power per clock efficiency, and Abula's quiet 180W TDP Threadripper build, maybe silent idle is still possible?

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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by Abula » Sat Apr 21, 2018 8:28 am

visper wrote:I'm interested to hear your reasoning. And what would be your first choice?
Ideally under low rpms or near passive, you want bigger surface area and bigger space between fins, you want air to be able passthrough easier, cooler like Thermalright LeGrandMacho, follow this trend. You can read more into how it performs in the SPCR Thermalright HR-22 CPU Heatsink, check the second table on that page, you can see the cooler fails at later time that smaller coolers. Now if you see the 3rd table, you can see that under low rpms fans, the U14S performs slightly better than HR22 (legrandmacho), and the U14 is a tight fin design, so if you are willing to accept running fans at a very low rpm mode, you will get similar results saving money.

Again, its up to you, if you are serious about wanting to stop the CPU fan, LeGrandMacho is as good as it gets for a CPU that has the ability to run a fan (NoFan95 is passive fully and wont mount on Ryzen). But... there is always a but, the TY147B on the LeGrandMacho can not be stopped, even at 0% PWM it will run at 300rpms, so essentially you will still need to add a fan that can be stopped, Noctua NF-A15 PWM can be stopped and matches the mounting of the clips/cooler.

Overall i never aim to stop CPU fans, i have done with case fans, but the impact of the CPU fan is big, not having it the is something that i have only done with NoFan95. My personal goes is not to have a silent PC just as quiet as i can, i try to run my fans as high as i can without hearing them, one thing that dislike more than noise is ramping up noise, i really dislike when my fans go up and down constantly, specially if i can hear it, so i try to go as high as i can (without hearing them) to to absorb temperature spikes like for example opening a program, web browsing, watching youtube or a movie, things that don't have a steady load but do spike the CPU for a brief amount of time (this can also be done with delay on ramping but i find it hard to tweak and not all mobos are the same). But these are personal preferences thing that only you can decide on how you want your computer to work, we all are different so the answer is something only you can find out by doing your own tweaking.
visper wrote:Reading about Ryzen gen 2, I must say I'm tempted. And with the price not being too different between the 2700 and 2700X, the latter is appealing, except for concerns about the 105W TDP's impact on the silence goal. With the improved power per clock efficiency, and Abula's quiet 180W TDP Threadripper build, maybe silent idle is still possible?
Hard to say, the CPU seems to be tweaked to achieve higher clocks, how it behaves is something that very few know atm, my guess is it can be, specially if you allow underclocking/undervolting of the CPU under windows.

visper
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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by visper » Mon Apr 23, 2018 12:41 pm

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.silentpcreview.com/article1291-page6.html It's just unclear if AM4 mounting is supported.

I could also find NH-D14 (large fin spacing) used, but I'd have to get an AM4 mounting kit and the differently sized fans were apparently not great in their sounds.

As for semi-passive or keeping a low rpm at all times, I guess ultimately I'll have to experiment to see what's possible and let my ears decide. I agree frequent ramping of fans would be annoying.

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Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by Abula » Mon Apr 23, 2018 5:49 pm

visper wrote:I appreciate the explanations. It's too bad it's so hard to find the HR-22 here.
Thermalright HR22 is almost the same as LeGrandMacho, which is not hard to find in canada, just expensive.
visper wrote: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.silentpcreview.com/article1291-page6.html It's just unclear if AM4 mounting is supported.

I could also find NH-D14 (large fin spacing) used, but I'd have to get an AM4 mounting kit and the differently sized fans were apparently not great in their sounds.
I perosnally woudlnt buy D14, having the D15 and U14 around, but thats just me.
visper wrote:As for semi-passive or keeping a low rpm at all times, I guess ultimately I'll have to experiment to see what's possible and let my ears decide. I agree frequent ramping of fans would be annoying.
You should check the following video, Can this ENORMOUS cooler run PASSIVELY?, the cooler is similar to NH-D14 and cant handle a i7 passively, to me was expected, its not design for that, but with the middle fan on it sustain itself fine, doesnt even need the frontal fan. One fan makes a ton of difference, specially on heatsinks, so my suggestion is go with either the D15 or U14 the one that comes with AM4 mount, it comes with NF-A15 that can be stopped if you wish (but depends on the motherboard) its a solid combo, run it at 200-400rpms i doubt you will hear it inside a case and with that little rpms should be enough to handle you 2700 on idle, load... it will depend on a lot of other things, but certainly the D15/U14 are capable coolers of handling todays CPUs.

This will be my last post here, i think you got enough info to make a decision. Good luck.

visper
Posts: 45
Joined: Sat Mar 24, 2018 12:29 pm

Re: Possible? Powerful workstation + silent idle

Post by visper » Sat May 05, 2018 12:25 pm

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 after so little info available about 16GB modules. 3200MHz CL14 1.35V. It had to be set manually or with Asus' D.O.C.P. otherwise it was running at 2133, higher timings and ~1.18V automatically at first boot.
- The Noctua fans are great, at ~350rpm I can't tell the computer is on from 30cm away even with the case fully open.
- Glad I got the NH-D15 rather than the NH-U14 since the front fan won't fit above this RAM in the Define C. So instead I mounted the front fan as a case fan in front of the cooler.
- The Fractal Design GP-12 fans are annoying at 900rpm. I turned them off in BIOS until 60C for now. Notice that they are not spinning in the image above.

I'm just barely getting set up, but overall I'm really happy about the quietness achievable. Also, I had wanted to get the X470 Taichi motherboard, but the release got delayed to May 15th and... my patience ran out sooner than my wallet.

EDIT: How do I resize the image so it doesn't break the thread?
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Last edited by visper on Sat May 05, 2018 12:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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