Im building a new PC that I will have in my bedroom and will be on all the time so I want it to be completely quiet. The good news is I am building the entire thing from scratch so am not trying to reuse any old parts. I want to use the new Haswell CPU probably i7. I am looking for suggestions for making this thing absolutely silent. I am pretty new to building PCs. The parts that make noise will be anything with moving parts so I guess it would be case, cpu cooler, psu, graphics card, hard drive...is there anything else? Looking for 3TB of storage. Im not heavy into gaming so might stick with the built in graphics card for now but would still appreciate any suggestions for future reference. Thanks!

Welcome to SPCR. Wait a couple of months if you want to do a Haswell build to let the BIOS revisions and firmware updates settle down...unless you like dealing with this kind of stuff. In order to help you with a well rounded build - what are your applications?

Some gaming maybe the latest MMO. I will also be doing some guitar recording. Other than that heavy streaming, watching movies, web browsing.

I second Steve suggestion, wait some time for bios revisions to come out, and not deal with the release issues, probably wait for the C2 chipset revisions that should be out around august, thats my plan atm, but i get craving to just buy now, but trying to resist.

I would buy all the other stuff though, practically all but the motherboard, maybe memory if you want to go by motherboard aproved memory list, but the rest you can pratically buy it now and just wait for the mobo.

Would be best if you can detail what exactly you plan to use the PC for. Like what programs will you be using, for example even if you are not into gaming heavy... what games do you play, if this is also going to be used for pure emial/surfing or more into editing videos/audio. etc. Also what your budget, how much you willing to invest in your pc.

(Abula: you were caught by the moderated post monster )

Based on this, you don't need to spend the $'s on an i7. An i5 is plenty. Gaming sets the bar on how much CPU you need, guitar recording sets the bar for how quiet you need it to be, and the differences between the two will determine your tradeoffs. Basically, you can only put so big of a graphics card in there before it will be the loudest component.

So, here's some thoughts:

PSU: go passive. An i5 system will use maybe 130W under stressed load. Actual load, maybe 100W. The biggest passive video card you could put in there is maybe 100W. So, 230W total. A Seasonic x-400 is a good fit.

Case: do you have any size constraints? Do you care whether it's a tower or mid tower or smaller? At the mid tower size, some favorites are the Fractal R4 and Antec Solo II.

Mobo: To early to tell. Need to let some more of the reviews come in.

CPU: i5-4570 @ 3.2GHz will do.

cooler: The Noctua NH-U12Sis nice. As is the Thermalright TRUE Spirit 120m + a replacement fan like the Nexus.

Are you using an external audio mixer/codec for the mics? What's the interface?

SSD: Use an SSD for OS/Apps. I'd suggest getting something like the Samsung 840 240GB so you can also use it for your track recording (and leaving the HDD for large data storage).

HDD: WD Red is nice.

=0) btw when i posted didnt see his post, like it appear later in between.... really weird.

This is my suggestion, very similar to steve, just some tweaks

PSU: Rosewill SilentNight Series 500W
Reviewed by SPCR Rosewill Silent Night 500 Platinum 80 Plus

Case: Antec Solo II (specially if you going to use mechancial drives, has a suspension mechanism to help lower the noise). Fractal Design Define R4 also agood option as Corsair Obsidian 550D
Reviewed by SPCR Antec Solo II: The Legacy Lives On
Reviewed by SPCR Corsair Obsidian 550D Quiet Mid-Tower Case

MOBO: ASUS B85-PLUS LGA 1150 Intel B85 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Cheapest Haswell Asus motherboard with FanXpert2, just wait some time for bios to mature, maybe for C2 version, and search for reviews online, but this would be my pic for none overclocking setup.
Check some more info on fanxpert2, Asus P8Z77-V Pro: Xpert Fan Control for LGA1155 and this video Cool Tech: ASUS Fan Xpert 2 Demo - Take Control of Your CPU Fans

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670 Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80646I54670

CPU Cooler: Thermalrigth HR-02 Macho
If you go with R4 i would grab a TY-147 and move the included fractal fan to the front and this to the back. With the Solo i would just get 2x Nexus Basic D12SL-12 and place them both on front, and control them with fanXpert2.
Reviewed by SPCR Thermalright HR-02 Macho Quiet/Fanless Cooler

GPU: ASUS GTX650TI or if you have more money, ASUS GTX660 TI-DC2O-2GD5

SSD: Samsung MZ-7TD250BW 840 Series Solid State Drive (SSD) 250 GB Sata 2.5-Inch one of the cheapest and with steve research, its endurance is fine.

HDD: WD Red 3 TB NAS Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA III, 64 MB Cache - WD30EFRX (and with the suspension on the solo ii would be very quiet)
Reviewed by SPCR Western Digital Red 3TB & 1TB Hard Drives

Thanks for the suggestions! I don't really have a preference for case size, probably not an enormous tower. Just one that is quiet. For my recording I am not sure what I'm going to use. I still have to research what my options are. Would certain options involve alot of power consumption where I should consider a bigger PSU?

If you want to dive deep into the technical aspects of digital recording, visit gearslutz. A lot of folks with DAW builds that wander into SPCR tend to use external mixers that digitize the tracks and interface with the PC via FireWire. So, before you settle on a motherboard, figure out your mixer board first


nope. It'll be a pittance compared to the CPU.

It just seems weird. New users' first two posts don't show up until approved by a moderator. The OP answered my q's, but his post wasn't approved until after you posted yours.

Good point about the mobo. How important do you think it is to wait for problems with the Haswell to be ironed out? I don't know if I have the patience to wait until August :/

- Every new platform released since there was ever a PC is buggy. Every single one. It could be a hardware flaw, it could be a software/firmware flaw.

- There's a bug in the Intel chipset's USB3 controller. The bug prevents some attached devices from being recognized when the PC returns from a sleep state. Hardware Info found something like 17 of 22 USB thumb drives were susceptable when they tested it. If you buy a mobo today, the fix is to remount the device when it disappears. The long term fix is a revised southbridge chip which won't be released to mobo mfgrs until mid July. So, it's a guessing game when the older mobo stock is finally purged from retailers. Maybe September. If unplugging/replugging in a USB device doesn't bother you, then it's not a big deal.

- In the first few months, there's a spate of mobo BIOS/driver revisions. These slow down after 2-3 months. If you don't mind updating BIOS and drivers, then this isn't a big issue.

If you are still set on building this summer, then wait a month. There will be tons on motherboard reviews and it'll help making an informed decision (rather than basing it on people saying "this board looks nice").

The fanless PSUs are pricey compared to the fanned counterparts. Do you think I can get away with a fanned PSU and still have a silent system? Do all PSUs with fans only turn on when it gets too hot or just certain models?

- Yes, no magic involved, just pick your parts carefully

-Yes and no. All PSU do ramp up when they have to deliver more output. Some modells don't spin the fan up under 200W, some do different. How fast and how high the fan ramps up is up to manufacturers -> Different modell, different fan behaviour

If you find the fanless too expensive, maybe look into hybrid PSU, that will be passive under light load (fan wont start) and once you load the pc and temp starts to go up it will start the fan, this is what i would recommend if your budget allowed it.

Seasonic 560W 80 Plus Gold ATX 12V/EPS 12V Power Supply - X-560 SS-560KM $115 (fully modular), here some reviews (i would buy it right away $115 is a good price for it, only 3 in stock).
JonnyGuru Reviews - Seasonic X-560 560W
Seasonic X-Series 560 W Power Supply Review | Hardware Secrets
Seasonic X-Series: X-560 Power Supply Review - HardOCP

If still find it too expensive, your looking for something cheaper, check Seasonic G series, the fans will start from the power on, but under idle they are very quiet, they will ramp up depending on the condition.

SeaSonic G Series 550-Watt ATX12V/EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply SSR-550RM $80 (semi modular), here some reviews,
JonnyGuru Reviews - Seasonic G Series 550W
Seasonic G-550 Power Supply Review | Hardware Secrets
Seasonic G-550 Power Supply - HardOCP

Take some of the extra $100 you would have put into getting an i7 toward the PSU. It's the second longest life item in your build (next to the case). With your recording requirement, I'd steer toward either the hybrid fan types or a passive.

Complete silence will be hard if you want something in the Haswell class.

I was a little disappointed yesterday when I was installing my operating system in a ~quiet room. The noise from two low rpm case fans, a low rpm heat sink fan, Asus Direct CU cooler and PSU was clearly audible from 6'+ away.

A little later in a not so quiet room I noticed that an HP tower PC is noticeably louder, even over the increased background noise so I'm becoming less disappointed.

I will fool around with fan control and trying to "silence" my cheapo case but my 80mm fanned PSU was certainly not the loudest part.

If you go with a PSU that has a low rpm 120mm fan, it can potentially be quieter than mine but you still have to fix everything else and a HDD (mine is SSD only).

Depending on how quiet your room is and how much noise you can tolerate, you probably want to invest in a "silent" case and pay special attention to your HDD because it will probably be the noisiest part (not counting optical drives).

How do I figure out how many watts I need? I read that its best to run your system at 50-60% of the PSUs capability for best efficiency. I want to leave enough room in case I get into gaming and want to get a badass graphics card in the future.

I'm going to do some load testing and benchmarking with my not so badass video card and expect to see about 200 watt maximum draw at the wall, assuming 90% PSU efficiency that means around 180 watts out of the PSU.

You can estimate your full load total by adding up your TDP numbers.

For me its 77 watt CPU, 85 watt GPU, ~1 watt SSD maybe 4 watts for my low voltage ram, a few more watts for fans and call it 10 watts for my motherboard. That's about 180 total but in normal use you will never see everything at 100% load.

For you, your choice depends on how badass of a GPU you want to get. Most low wattage PSUs lack the connectors required for real high end stuff like a Titan so you might have to get a 650 watt PSU to ensure that it will plug and play with anything.

If your card is more modest, the PSUs in the 450 watt range should be plenty.

I went for efficiency and since I estimate a real gaming load will be more like 120-140 watts on my machine, a 255 watt PSU should be fine but getting a 255 watt PSU with a PCIe 12v connector meant some soldering and wire splicing (but it was cheap).

From my first post:

If you opt to go bigger than the 7850, here's a not quite so up to date list of gfx card TDPs. If you game at 1080p, there's no reason to get a card that uses more than 150-175W. So, worst case, that brings you up to 300W stressed load. Actual gaming load is more likely to be around 250W.

So, you could still go with a passive 400W PSU...taking into account whether or not it has the extra 6/8 pin power connectors you need for the video card you select.

The 50-60% efficiency thing: sort of true but for the wrong reasons. A lot of fanned PSUs have aggressive fan rpm profiles once you get to/past 50% load. So, if you never want to hear the fan, you might opt to get a PSU rated much higher than your actual load...like 2x. Sort of depends on the specific PSU and the dBA rating at your load.

The other side of the equation is don't completely overspecify the PSU, because it's efficiency when your PC idles will be poor.

The 80+ test on my PSU showed 89% efficiency at 100% rated load which means it never makes more than about 28 watts of waste heat.

A PSU that has a higher power rating and lower efficiency can generate a lot more waste heat which means more aggressive air flow is required.

Luckily PSU transistors are pretty durable and at 100% load they are running hot and not that far from their failure point but since the delta t is so high it doesn't take much air to keep them from blowing and that's fine unless you constantly run at 100% load.

Running at 50% with 91% efficiency, my PSU will generate about 12 watts of waste heat which is easy to handle.

Where it gets tricky is when you get a 650 watt PSU to have capacity for a beastly GPU and use it to power a PC that idles at 45 watts. At 7% load your efficiency might be less than 70%, even if its 80+ rated because 80+ is only tested at 20%, 50% and 100% load and suddenly you're making more waste heat at idle than mine does at load.

At 20% my PSU is 90% efficient so at 45 watt idle, I know its going to be close to 90%, 5 watts waste heat, nice and cool.

Appropriate wattage and 80+ gold certification are about as good as it gets. There are platinum and titanium rated PSUs but not with wattage appropriate to a low power PC as far as I've seen.

I'm thinking of going with the Thermalright macho. Can anyone confirm it fits the 1150 socket?

http://www.amazon.com/Thermalright-Mach ... B009MS326U

1150 isn't mentioned in the description. Anywhere else I can get it?

1150/1155/1156 has the same separation of holes for mouting the heatsinks, so all sandy/ivy bridge coolers should compatible with 1150 board, as long as there is nothing in the way.

Nan's Gaming Gear seem like the dealer/retailer that has all thermalright stuff in the US, some other have very few items, but i would buy there since its cheaper.

1156, 1155 and 1150 all use the same motherboard hole pattern so compatibility is fairly certain, the biggest thing to worry about is a motherboard with some component that interferes with the mounting bracket. You can probably find photos that show the areas in question but most new motherboards are designed with a big keep out area to ensure compatibility.

I'm using a socket 775 heat sink with a socket 1156 adapter bracket on a socket 1155 motherboard so if I can do that, using an 1155 heat sink on an 1150 is child's play.

Thanks for the info. I still haven't grabbed a PSU. I'm trying to find a good deal. I saw the Silencer MKIII 500W on newegg for $48. Do you think I'm safe with 500W for any kind of video card as long as it's only 1 video card. I just want to leave my options open in case I get back into gaming.

It's based on the Seasonic M12II. So, it's a good, but older design. Not the quietest out there, not the loudest. Only has 1 PCIe graphics connector.