Help wanted for my first quiet biuld (case+PSU)?

[radRAW]

Hi,
I'm going to upgrade (exchange:) my old rig sometime soon. It's got to be silent since I'm sleeping 5ft away from it:)

From what I understood while reading this forum there are two schools of making PCs silent:
- silent cases + good airflow = silent PC
- good airflow cases + silent components = silent PC

I'd like You to help me choose the right case and PSU for my new PC.

The internals will be :
CPU: Intel Core i5 4670K
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S or Prolimatech Megahelms or Prolimatech Armageddon (haven't decided yet:)
MB: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H
RAM: Corsair DDR3 2x4GB 1866MHz CL9 Vengeance Pro
SSD (system): Plextor M5 Pro
HDD (storage): 2TB WD Green
GPU: MSI Radeon R9 270X TwinFrozr
Additional case fans: Noctula NF-S12A series (PWM, FLX or ULN) or NoiseBlocker Black Silent Pro PLPS.

Now, I'm having trouble choosing the right case and PSU for this setup.

My questions are:
1. Should I go with active or semi-passive PSU?
What I'm taking under consideration at the moment?
- Corsair RM850W (SP)
- Fractal Design Newton R3 600W (SP)
- Seasonic X-Series X-650 KM3 (SP/A)
- Be-Quiet Dark Power PRO 10 650W (A)
- Be-Quiet Straight Power E9 680W (A)

If I'll decide to get a silenced case should I go with semi-passive PSU?
Or I shouldn't even bother with it and get an active one, with forced airflow to reduce internal temps?

2. Will this setup be quieter in silent case (higher temps) or meshed one?
What I'm taking under consideration at the moment?
- Fractal Define R4 (what draws me away: door opens to the left only)
- Corsair Obsidian 550D (what draws me away: front panel. How do I use my DVDdrive while having earphones plugged and 2 USB drives in use?)
- Corsair Carbide 330R (what draws me away: nothing really:)
- Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 (what draws me away: nothing, except it's really, really difficult to get:)
- Fractal Core 3000 (great case, lack of doors is a big +)
- Corsair Graphite 230T (great case, lack of doors is a big +)
- Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 (great case, lack of doors is a big +)

Best,
Radek

[CA_Steve]

Welcome to SPCR.

Don't have time atm to go into a detailed response. I did want to point out your stressed load power is in the 300W range and probably 250-270W while gaming. So, you could go with a passive PSU in the 400W range, or a semi-passive in the 550W range that would hardly ever spin up. Or, go with an always on like the BeQuiet DPP10...but in the 500-550W range.

[Abula]

The internals will be :
CPU: Intel Core i5 4670K
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S or Prolimatech Megahelms or Prolimatech Armageddon (haven't decided yet:)
MB: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H
RAM: Corsair DDR3 2x4GB 1866MHz CL9 Vengeance Pro
SSD (system): Plextor M5 Pro
HDD (storage): 2TB WD Green
GPU: MSI Radeon R9 270X TwinFrozr

All seem pretty decent, I would chose the U14S over the megahelms and Armageddon out of having a good included fan already, Noctua NF-A15 PWM that can range from 200-1500 rpms, this will depend into how your motherboard can manage it, not paticularly familiar with Gigabyte so my recommendations goes into Asus with FanXpert2 pretty solid software, a little bloated and weird way of reading temps, but its still amazing imo that with chosing the proper fans for each header (CPU_FAN = 4pin PWM, CHA_FAN = 3pin), FanXpert2 on the first tunning will check the fans range and have it operating at their lowest on idle, and provide a suggested curve on load, that you can change to your liking, but this is the easiest way to set it up a very quiet pc (again choosing the correct fans). Now if you are more a minimalist into not wanting extra software to control your fans, and you want pure bios, then look into MSI and Asrock motherboards, pretty good 4pin PWM fan control, but here is little more complex as you will need 4pin PWM fans and depending on the amount of fans you wish to control, a Y PWM splitter. Now if you prefer gigabyte because of whatever reason, try to chose a case that has a built in fan controller as if their fan control is not of your liking or speedfan doesnt recognize the sensors, then you have the fan controller as your fail safe, like Fractal Cases.

1. Should I go with active or semi-passive PSU?
What I'm taking under consideration at the moment?
- Corsair RM850W (SP)
- Fractal Design Newton R3 600W (SP)
- Seasonic X-Series X-650 KM3 (SP/A)
- Be-Quiet Dark Power PRO 10 650W (A)
- Be-Quiet Straight Power E9 680W (A)

I agree with steve, i dont think you need anything over 500W, even a GTX780 can be driven easily with 500W. Not sure whre you are buying it, or if other brands are available, I would consider Kingwin LZP-550 platinum, semi passive. If you cant find kingwin or its too expensive, then i would go with bequiet! Dark Power Pro 10 550W, If you cant find either, i would go with Seasonic X650. The RM seems like a nice option also, and reviews are decent for what it costs, but its relatively a new product, so i would go with the before if you can, but if you do go with it, then consider the RM550 or RM450 for cheaper and should power your setup fine with a lot of room still.

2. Will this setup be quieter in silent case (higher temps) or meshed one?
What I'm taking under consideration at the moment?
- Fractal Define R4 (what draws me away: door opens to the left only)
- Corsair Obsidian 550D (what draws me away: front panel. How do I use my DVDdrive while having earphones plugged and 2 USB drives in use?)
- Corsair Carbide 330R (what draws me away: nothing really:)
- Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 (what draws me away: nothing, except it's really, really difficult to get:)
- Fractal Core 3000 (great case, lack of doors is a big +)
- Corsair Graphite 230T (great case, lack of doors is a big +)
- Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 (great case, lack of doors is a big +)

Im going to contradict my self a little here, but bare with me. For me, the most important thing is functionality, if the door is not desired for your or makes your life complicated, then don't go with it, the doors helps a little to dampen noise, but not a big thing either. For building a quiet pc, the most important thing is to chose quiet components, specially since this will give you room later on to chose the most practical case, in my experience cases matter but not as much as people think, a lot believe that a case will silence an already noisy rig and doesn't work like that, at least on my personal testing, even SPCR a lot of not quiet oriented cases end up with editor choice like Silverstone TJ08-E or FT02, they are great cases for aircooling very efficient, and thus allowing the end user to spin down the fans where they are inaudible. What im trying to say is that if you chose your components carefully, then i think you could go with the Fractal Design Arc Midi R2, specially since you are placing big + to all cases without doors. It wont have dampeing as the R4, but you also gain a much easier filter removal, more fans slots in case you decide to increase your fans, etc, the insides are very similar to the R4, and working with it its very nice, has great room for cable management, good placement of grommets holes, decent hdd cages (i dont use them though). Now here is the contradiction, owning both the R4 and Arc Midi R2, i ended up with the R4, i tested both, and were very similar in noise, but i wanted the Arc midi R2 to have tons of fans spinning extremely low, but turn out that my NF-A14 PWM didnt like horizontal + pushing down (made a buzzing motor noise at all rpms), and i don't use opticals anymore, so decide toward the R4 as if im not going to have fans on them might aswell be closed to avoid dust, and to me personally i like more the look of a fridge alike case of the frontal door of the R4.

Additional case fans: Noctula NF-S12A series (PWM, FLX or ULN) or NoiseBlocker Black Silent Pro PLPS.

Just some final comments about the fans you are considering, the NF-S12A is a very nice case fan, but it does suffer on heatsinks or heavily restricted spots, the Arc Midi R2 has a sponge type of filter, not sure how will it perform behind it, its just more a warning than saying its a bad choice. The noiseblocker PLPS is a great fan, i used two for almost 3 years, and it cooled my HR02 and exhaust on my TJ08-E fine. But the only drawback of it, its the design of the PWM will only allow to be drop down to 650rpm, weather this is good enough only you can decide, but a lot of bios have restrictions into % for example my old GENE IV allowed only 20% this meant the fan lowest rpm that could achive on that setup was 900rpms (personally i find it to high for idle state). Other fans including the NF-A12S that you are considering that will drop much lower (around 250rpms) on pure PWM control, or even cheaper alternatives like Nexus Basic 120 that undervolts very well under fanXpert2 or a fan controller.



If you want to go with Noiseblocker and the fan of choice you planned is 3pin, then consider Noiseblocker M12-S1 (or S2 depending on your cooling needs), read the following review, Fan Roundup #6: Scythe, Noiseblocker, Antec, Nexus, Thermalright

Now if the case of your choice ends up being Fractal Arc Midi R2 or Define R4, then also read the following roundups that might help you decide on the 140mm fans,
First 140 mm Fan Roundup: Noctua, Phanteks, Xigmatek
Second 140 mm Fan Roundup: Antec, bequiet!, Corsair, Scythe

Try to decide if you are going PWM or Voltage control with your fans, then decide the case and the proper fans for each slot depending the motherboard and its limitations.

[CA_Steve]

If you don't like front case doors, add the Antec Solo II to the mix.

[radRAW]

The internals will be :

[...] this will depend into how your motherboard can manage it, not paticularly familiar with Gigabyte so my recommendations goes into Asus with FanXpert2 pretty solid software, a little bloated and weird way of reading temps, but its still amazing imo that with chosing the proper fans for each header (CPU_FAN = 4pin PWM, CHA_FAN = 3pin), FanXpert2 on the first tunning will check the fans range and have it operating at their lowest on idle, and provide a suggested curve on load, that you can change to your liking, but this is the easiest way to set it up a very quiet pc (again choosing the correct fans). Now if you are more a minimalist into not wanting extra software to control your fans, and you want pure bios, then look into MSI and Asrock motherboards, pretty good 4pin PWM fan control, but here is little more complex as you will need 4pin PWM fans and depending on the amount of fans you wish to control, a Y PWM splitter. Now if you prefer gigabyte because of whatever reason, try to chose a case that has a built in fan controller as if their fan control is not of your liking or speedfan doesnt recognize the sensors, then you have the fan controller as your fail safe, like Fractal Cases.

ASUS was my first choice while researching motherboards but, sadly, their decent (PRO/Deluxe) 1150/Z87 MBs no longer support PCI.
And I'm quite attached to my PCI/SB Audigy:)
Gigabyte has also nice software for advanced fan control which is very similar to Fan Expert2. I just hope its functionality is similar

[radRAW]

The internals will be :
I agree with steve, i dont think you need anything over 500W, even a GTX780 can be driven easily with 500W. Not sure whre you are buying it, or if other brands are available, I would consider Kingwin LZP-550 platinum, semi passive. If you cant find kingwin or its too expensive, then i would go with bequiet! Dark Power Pro 10 550W, If you cant find either, i would go with Seasonic X650. The RM seems like a nice option also, and reviews are decent for what it costs, but its relatively a new product, so i would go with the before if you can, but if you do go with it, then consider the RM550 or RM450 for cheaper and should power your setup fine with a lot of room still.

The reason why I've considered semi-passive Corsair RM and Fractal PSUs is because they all become active under 40% load.
If my calculations are correct, Corsair's RM 850W would start its fan after reaching 510W load - and to that point, it would be completely/dead silent.
Similar 500-550 semi-passive PSU would become active after reaching ie. 300W load.
Am I missing something?

[radRAW]

If you don't like front case doors, add the Antec Solo II to the mix.

Already seen it but all the USB and earphone plugs would be too low.
I'm keeping my PC on the floor, to my right. That's why I'm so concerned about R4 left-sided doors.
Otherwise it would be mine already

Same thing with Corsair's 550D. Very nice case, love the look, but I'm often juggling a lot of BR discs while listening to the music (earphones)
and using external USB 3.0 flashdrives and HDDs. Somehow i feel opening those doors would be a problem every single time. A problem that would repeat itself 10-15 times per hour...

Cooltek managed to work around the very same problem in Antiphon case (see image) but thermals are nowhere near as good as in 550D



You've affirmed my conviction that I should rather look for a case similar to Antec Solo II or Corsair Graphite 230T.
A case with good airflow from front to rear and fully closed top and sides to avoid unnecessary airflow noise?

[CA_Steve]

Am I missing something?

- Low load efficiency.
- Your CPU/GPU fans will be louder than any decent PSU at gaming load.

Either you want to go completely passive and get a 400W-ish PSU (check for the number of included PEG connectors), or just get a 500W range PSU with decent SPL at your gaming load. Going big adds zero value or than spurring the economy