This would be my next attempt in silencing a high-end gaming rig.
The goal would be that the machine is quiet during "normal" usage (internet, office,...) and would make minimal noise when gaming (1920*1080)

Any advice on the component list would be highly appreciated !
(ps: my firm is paying, so on some parts, I can go a bit "overkill" )

Case: Cosmos II
fan setup in the case: 3 noctua's NF-S12B FLX to replace the 2 HD fans and the 120mm outtake; 1 Thermalright TY-140 to replace the 140mm outtake. The original 200mm as intake would stay.
Fan controller for this: Lamptron fc Touch. I was very happy with the Scythe kaze server, but the buttons on this controller will collide with the front panel of the cosmos II. The 2 hd fans would run at the lowest speed possible. During "normal" pc usage, the top 120mm noctua and the processor cooler fans would be turned off.

processor: 3770k + prolimatech genesis & 2x red vortex 140mm (both fans would also be connected to the fan controller and shut off when normal using the pc)
mobo: ASUS P8Z77-V DELUXE
memory: 16 GB corsair 2133Mhz
soundcard: Auzentech x-fi home theater (used on a rather good germand surround set)
hard drives: 2 SSD's (intel & samsung) & 5 HD's (1 caviar black, 4 caviar greens for the data)
power supply: seasonic x-850

graphics: not sure yet. Was thinking about the Gigabyte gtx680 OC windforce 3x since aftermarket coolers for the GTX 680 seem to be missing (the arctic accelero xtreme III fits on very few GTx680 brands and is also not yet in stock). Other candidate would be the Palit GTX680 jetstream

tl;dr: 11 fans in a case and expecting it to be quiet seems utopic, but hey, stuborn as I am, I might give it a shot
during "normal" use, only 1 intake, 1 outtake, 2 HD fans and the graphics fan would be running. Since the pc is placed under my desk (at least 3 feet away), I do not expect lot's of noise here.
When gaming, there would be some noise, while when OC'ing, the fans may go @full speed

Any comments/suggestions/mental sanitariums are highly appreciated

PSU: Your system will draw ~100W AC at idle and maybe 360W AC at gaming load. I'd aim for a lower power PSU to get better efficiency at low load and a Platinum rated one for higher efficiency at your gaming load. The Kingwin LZP-550 is a good example.

Case: You won't need to go to the gym - just use the case for calisthenics. You really want a case that big?

Case fans and control: Use Fan Xpert2 to set your fan profiles and you won't need a separate controller. I know you don't need that many case fans...but until you build your rig and do some fan-fu, you won't know how many and at what speeds are optimum.

memory: take a look at samsung's low profile 1.35V RAM.

storage: I'm baffled to why you need 2 SSDs and a WD Black? Having 5 spinning drives will be your loudest component when doing office work.

Gfx: Haven't seen a decent review on the Gigabyte card, yet.

The Palit GTX680 JetStream is an alternative version of the Gainward Phantom. Of the two, the Phantom should potentially be quieter as it has just two 80mm fans against the two 80mm and one 92mm of the JetStream.

Despite its appearance the Polimatech Genesis does not seem to be a particularly good performer according to one reviewer. For overclocking an Ivy Bridge 3770K I would suggest the Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 2, which has dual PWM fans. It will need to be paired with low or standard profile memory, as it will overhang the memory slots. This would mean replacing the 16 GB Corsair 2133Mhz with something like the G.Skill ARES 2133Mhz low profile units. Using G.Skill instead of Corsair would not have any adverse effect on overclocking the CPU. The Dark Rock Pro 2 would be a better fit for your Asus motherboard, which has both a CPU and a CPU_OPT fan header. This is designed to support two CPU PWM fans without the need for a splitter cable. The motherboard has excellent BIOS fan controls that supplemented by the supplied Fan Xpert 2 software can control a mixture of three pin and four pin PWM fans. So there's no reason why in the first instance you should not simply plug the fans supplied with the Cosmos II into the Asus motherboard and see what can be done with them with Fan Xpert 2. You should get better results than with the fan controller built into the Cosmos II, and it would certainly be more convenient than both the built-in controller or a supplementary manual controller. If the supplied fans are not good enough, then consider replacements of your choice.

What the Asus motherboard BIOS controls and/or Fan Xpert 2 provide is thermal control of fan speeds, so quieter fans at idle but automatically increasing fans speeds under gaming and overclocking stress. One of the particularly relevant features of Fan Xpert 2 for you may be its ability to allow fans to not turn on until a preset CPU temperature is reached. So you could fit extra fans that for example will not run until the CPU hits 50C, to provide extra airflow for overclocking but reduce fan noise when the system is idling or under low load by stopping once the CPU temperature falls under the trigger point.

@CA_Steve: I'm planning on OC'ing the graphics card & processor. This in combo with all the HD's will draw more than 360w, no ?
I went for the seasonic since it's semi-passive and is of incredible good quality. But I'll look into some other available power supplies.

Case: I like the looks, I like the space in it and I'm not planning on moving the monster
memory: whow, that samsung is some sweet memory Definetly going to try to get my hands on that kit !
storage: I already have a small SSD (current pc) for the OS, a 2nd one will be used for some games/programs that benefit from it. The other HD's will not always be in use (I currently already have 4 of the 7 disks and I do not hear them in my FT-02)

@ Lonestar:
looking into the gainward phantom. Disadvantage is the power socket: on the gigabyte, the 2 sockets are horizontally, meaning that the arctic accelero xtreme 3 would fit on it (once it's available). On cards with vertical power sockets (such as the phantom and most other brands), it won't fit.
to clarify: gainward
gigabyte

The genesis generally seems to get good reviews, even on SPCR

@ both: thanx for the fan xpert 2 notification, I completely missed the review on SPCR here
so the fancontroller is out and I'm gonna use the fan xpert 2. I think I'll also skip one of the 2 outtake fans (probably the 120mm top fan), leaving me with 5 fans for the fan xpert 2 (case fan, HDD fans, CPU cooler fans)

I missed the OC part

If you don't overvolt the CPU, then maybe 400W, max. Here's HardOCP's article on overclocking a GTX 680 using an overclocked (and over-volted) i7-2600K. The Ivy Bridge CPUs have a VERY steep power/thermal slope when you start applying additional voltage. I'd go for the max stable clock at stock voltage and call it a day.

You really need a case that big?

As said before: I like the looks and the space.
And besides: my firm is paying for it, so I do not have to cough up the absurd amount of money

I think that what you need is a good work desk and a computer to go with it. As the company are paying maybe something like this would do http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQnoZ6dbWMM.

I think, using a case with that many fans doesn't make sense. Old style i'd look for a decent airflow in the right direction with the least amount of fans possible.

Having intake fans often punishes you with more noise and only 2k of temperature difference. To cool your hdds would be the only reason to use an fan in the case front imho, albeit set to something like 500 rpm.

On almost any vga you would either mod bios settings for fan control or use some software to dial down fan speed when idle.

So you'd basically have two cooling profiles, idle and gaming. Using Asus fan expert doesn't only save some money for not buying a fan controller, it also saves you a good amount of cabling and hassle.

nonetheless, Fractal Design R3 would be a better case from a silencer's pov.

I have a gigabyte 670, which uses the same PCB and fans as a the 680. it is quiet

11 fans *CAN* be quiet. It's probably overkill, but I think your setup will work. I would double check the power draw and make sure the controller can handle all of them at low rpm levels.

The caviar black is loud. More importantly, the drive vibrates heavily. It's something to consider. Soft mounting it would improve your acoustic considerably.

I would replace the prolimatech fans.

one final question: will the asus xpert 2 take the 3pin fans and be able to control them correctly ?

I'm pretty sure about that. In all the video reviews where the ASUS guy was in, they used standard 3-pin fans from Antec. But you would need others to confirm that.

seems that 3pin fans can indeed be controlled via xpert2.

I'm a bit confused about 2 things however:
1. Will fan xpert 2 be able to shut down fans when below a certain temperature threshold
2. both the asus pro & deluxe motherboard seem able to control 6 fans; however in the SPRC review, there are only 5 fans mentioned. Can fan xpert 2 control 6 fans if the mobo (such as the asus z77 deluxe) allows it ?

Found the answer to both my questions:
* turning off fans is possible
* the 6th fan is the OPT_header and is linked to the CPU fanheader

However, I've found a new problem:
the 4 case fanheaders can control 3pin & pwm fans. The cpu fanheader however needs a pwm fan to be controlled correctly via xpert2

Since both the noctua's & prolimatech fans are 3pins and only the thermalright is a pwm fan, this causes a problem.

I thought of the following to solve the problem (but if there are better alternatives, I'd like to hear them):
* put the 2 noctua HD fans on a splitter so that they take up only 1 case fanheader. Since both fans will be running at the same (fixed) speed, this should work
* the 2 cpu heatsink fans & the top exhaust fan (aka the prolimatech fans & the noctua fan) would be connected to the other 3 case fanheaders on the mobo, allowing fan xpert2 to control these.
* the PWM thermalright ty-140 (rear exhaust fan) would then be connected to the CPU fanheader on the mobo, so that I could also control it via fan xpert 2.

Since fan xpert 2 only seems to take the CPU temperature into account, I do not see problems this way ?

The second alternative seems to be the easiest fix for your problem.

To give an update about this setup:
Fan xpert2 works like a charm !

On normal use, the fans can be made inaudible for me:
* passive PSU on low load
* 2 hd-fans @ 500-600 rpm
* front intake, 1 cpu fan & top 140mm case fan: stopped
* other cpu fan & top 120mm case fan: +/- 700 rpm

This results in a very quiet setup (even with a total of 11 fans in total)
Even with all the fans on full speed (only used for extreme stressing after an OC), the sound level is very acceptable. Of course, you can hear a "whoosh", but it is a very soft & smooth "whoosh" sound.
My FT-02 with all the fans on max (the original 4 case fans and 2 CPU s-flex 120mm fans) is noisier imo and has a less pleasant sound characteristic (think the 180mm fans are to blame)

Do not that the setup above is WITHOUT the GPU, since I'll cover that below

Only downside is the Gigabyte gtx680 windforce (which has 3 fans).
Before I get into that, let me explain how I evaluate noise. For me (as a gamer that likes silence), there are 2 factors: how noisy will the system get when gaming (upper limit) and how noisy will it get during light use (surfing,...) (lower limit).
When regarding the upper limit, I have nothing but praise for the Gigabyte gtx680 & for the Cosmos II on that matter. Airflow in the case & cooling on the card work very well, resulting in low (GPU) fan speeds, even when gaming (Risen 2, shogun 2, Skyrim, Crysis 2,...) on 1920*1080 with max options enabled.

But when "idling", the fanspeed does not go below 40% on the Gigabyte, which makes it too audible for me. My previous GPU was a powercolor 5870 pcs+ and that card was nearly inaudible on low fan speeds (only 1 fan and it went lower than 40% fan speed)
Tools like afterburner and such also cannot lower the fanspeed below 40%, So I'm looking for a solution

Things I'm thinking of:
* try speedfan
* a custom/modified/updated BIOS for the GPU (I cannot make this myself, so I'm not really hoping on that option)
* custom card cooling. Best bet seems the Arctic accelero xtreme III, but I'd need to be sure that fan speed would go lower than 40% and that the xtreme III has better fans than the original Gigabyte fans
* replace the stock fans with other fans (I'm not sure if this is doable). Basically it would be like creating my own arctic accelero xtreme III with fans of my own choosing.
Any advise there would be appreciated.

Finally, some closing comments on the Prolimatech red wings red vortex 140mm fans: These are great fans !
I won't discuss the looks since that's something personal, but I like the sound level and signature very much !.
The 120mm variations of these fans seem to be rather bad (when it comes to sound level), but their big brother delivers on all fronts: cooling, sound and looks (imho)

Hi,
For your GPU, the easiest way would be to get an updated bios (did you check gigabyte's website ?).
Other than that, do you know what kind of plug the fans have ? (On my gigabyte cards, it's a small non standard plug) Maybe you could wire together (buy ?) an adapter that would allow you to plug the fans into the motherboard somewhere and control them using speedfan.

Any reason you don't want to do this? It is not hard with NiBiTor.

If the video BIOS is set to run at a minimum of 40%, they'll still run at 40% regardless of fans. If however it does a better job of cooling then it may run at a lower % when things warm up. In addition the Accelero will be quieter at 40% than the stock fan at 40%. To make real headway though you would want to edit the BIOS as well to take advantage of the Accelero's higher cooling efficiency by lowering the minimum fan speed to less than 40%.

It would be a bit of a challenge to match a standard 120mm PWM fan to the PWM header on the card as you would have to work out which wire is which and reterminate onto the different header. Power draw shouldn't be a problem but do check that the fans you'll use aren't higher power draw than the stock ones as this will blow the header. I did this once on a Geforce FX but the rest of the card still works! What you also might find useful so that you can use a standand non-PWM fan is something like this:
http://www.paqt.co.uk/store/index.php?a ... roductId=5

Modify the connector on this to fit the 680 and you will then be able to connect up a standard 3-pin fan and use the small variable resistor to tune the fan curve. I have one for a 3-pin fan on a PWM motherboard header and it's wonderful.

As for mounting 120mm fans on a big heatsink, cable ties work about as well as anything factory made.

thank you for the remark, there was indeed a new bios which lowered the min fanspeed (from 40% to 25%), making the Gigabyte card also quiet enough for me !

All in all, it's a successful build which I might improve (seal of some of the top venting spacing in the case to allow less sound to escape from the top)