I currently have an Intel 2600k cooled by an Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 on an Asus P8P67 board, with several DSP audio cards, a passively cooled Nvidia GT240 and three suspended hard drives, in an Antec P150 case with a Seasonic 430 watt PSU (and one 12” case fan, I think by Zalman). The system is probably fairly low noise by most standards (the CPU cooler being the biggest contributor to noise I think), but I’m a recording musician and really need as near to silence as I can get. I’m wondering what the best way to achieve this is – keep the Antec P150 but buy a quieter PSU, CPU cooler and fan, or go all the way and buy a new case as well?

Not sure how the P150 compares to more recent cases, but I’ve looked at www.quietpc.com and I’m very tempted to try a fanless solution with the Nofan/Nofen cases and CPU coolers, which I could combine with a Super Flower 500w fanless PSU (if I can find one in the UK that is). The only problem would be accessing the slots for my graphics and DSP cards, as the CPU cooler is so large. Or could I get a similar result with my current case by picking the right components? Any advice about a combination of PSU, CPU cooler and fans for as near to complete silence as is possible would be much appreciated.

I should mention that I’m also considering replacing my HDDs with one SSD and a large, quiet 2 or 3TB drive to further reduce noise.

Opinions on the NoFan CPU cooler seem to be mostly about the fear of it snapping/crushing something on the CPU or motherboard. You will be able to get better silence with modern components with lower power consumption but the NoFan is not the only way to do it.

If you're still going to have a mechanical hard disk then a fanless setup isn't going to lower the sound floor drastically as the hard disk is going to be the limit. A 500rpm fan or two would dissappear under that.

If the CPU cooler is more loud than three hard drives combined then this should be your number one priority to replace. Fortunately, there are many quiet CPU coolers out there such as the Scythe Mugen 3 and the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (and a good PWM fan).

The only major contributor to heat is the CPU. Your case should easily be able to cool this, so I don't see the need for you to replace the case. I would replace the components first and then reconsider whether the computer is quiet enough.

The Antec P150/Solo is a pretty darn quiet case and has been used by other DAW builders. If you like it, then rebuild with quieter components and see if it'll meet your needs.

Some suggestions:
- Do you need the GT240 for some apps or will the HD3000 iGP work? Delete the GTX-> less heat ->better airflow in the case.
- going with an SSD for OS/apps and 1 HDD for storage is a good plan. WD Red is reviewed here.
- cooler: Scythe Mugen 3 is popular around here.
- case fan: replace the rear stock case fan with a low rpm fan hooked up to a fan controller (Speedfan utiity or a manual control like the fan mate 2. A Scythe slipstream slowed to 500rpm can't be heard.
- PSU: a passive Seasonic x400 would work well.

Passive psu is not a good ideea in a p150 case but rather in the solo 2.
Mugen 3 is decent after lapping.

The P67 chipset doesn't support the use of the integrated GPU, sadly.



True! A 500 rpm Scythe SlipStream 120 mm, or an 800 rpm SlipStream 120 mm, undervolted to 5 volts. The ASUS motherboard controls the fan sufficiently, so I wouldn't bother with Speedfan.

And I can wholeheartedly recommend an SSD for any built expect for in a few cases where only one programs is used for an eternity (like a dedicated Folding@home rig). But for anyone who turns on applications regularly (like a regular user doing web-browsing, Microsoft Office etc.) an SSD has a significant impact on the snappiness of the computer. It's like going from 2 GB of RAM in Vista/7 to 4 GB. Or from 0.5 GB to 1 GB in WinXP if you will.

Thanks all for the responses, really helpful suggestions. I do unfortunately need the gt240 for video editing work. I think the options are:

- keep the antec case, but replace the fan and cpu cooler with something quieter, but still with fans. This will be nearer silence but will still have noise from the psu, cpu cooler and case fans.

- get another case which allows for a fanless psu, plus the above mentioned fan/cooler changes. This would be quieter still, but for the amount of hassle I could go further still and...

- build an entirely fanless system with the Nofan CR95 cooler and CS80 case. The disadvantage here seems to be that fanless machines are seen to be a bit risky in terms of heat distribution, and if I did end up having to add a fan the open nature of the case would make it more audible
..

<facepalm>

Though the fanless option might sound tempting, fans running at about 500 rpm or below are extremely difficult to hear i.e. they are inaudible in practice. So I would go for the first option that you are mentioning.