Firstly would just like to commend this site and the community around it - very impressive
Secondly, I need some help...
My under-desk Windows rig spec is below - I built this May/June this year and it's the first PC I've build since around early 2004.
- Case - Corsair Graphite Series 780-T (air filters on front grill and top grill removed)
Case Fans- 2x Noctua NF-A14 PWM (intake - front)
1x Noctua NF-S12A FLX (intake - bottom)
2x Noctua NF-A14 FLX (exhaust - above radiator)
1x Noctua NF-A14 PWM (exhaust - rear)
Mainboard - MSI X99A Gaming 9 ACK
CPU - Intel Core i7-5960 8-core 3.0GHz (mild o/c to 3.4GHz as struggles with anything higher)
CPU Cooler - Swiftech H240-X (mounted under top grill, stock fans replaced)
RAM - G.Skill Ripjaws 8x8GB DDR4-DIMM 2800MHz
GPU - 4x ASUS GeForce GTX Titan X 12GB (mildly overclocked)
SSD - 1x Samsung M.2 XP941 512GB (on mainboard) + 2x Samsung 850 Pro 1GB
Optical Disk - LG BH16NS40 Blu-Ray burner
O/S - MS Windows 10 (up to date), with nVidia driver v358.91
Sound - Weiss DAC202 (USB) + 2x Event Opal monitors or Sennheiser G4me PC360 Headset - 2x Noctua NF-A14 PWM (intake - front)
However, when I'm not gaming, I'm using my MacPro (for personal stuff) or company laptop (for work stuff) as my main computer and this rig is dedicated 100% to full power folding (i,e Folding@Home, churning out approx 1.5m ppd).
- When idle: CPU cores average 32C, GPUs 1-4 average 43/51/51/57C respectively with fans at approx 1050/1050/1050/1200 - not exactly quiet but tolerable enough.
When fully folding: CPU cores average 61C, GPUs 1-4 average 84/84/84/96C respectively with fans at 2480/2600/2600/3175 - quite loud and barely tolerable.
Options to consider:
- 1) Whether I would get less noise via a proper silence-focused case - options include Fractal Design Define XL R2 or Arc XL, Nanoxia Deep Silence 5 or 6, Phantecs Enthoo Luxe or Silverstone Fortress FT02. Would any of these cases provide same or better airflow whilst restricting the noise ?
2) Any ideas on anything else to change or re-configure on the current set up ?
- a) I did wonder about reversing the rear fan and making it an intake, so all air exhausted out of the top - though might then start sucking in all the hot exhausted GPU air ?
b) Do I have the right fans in the right places ? Should I be running them differently ?
c) Are there any significantly quieter fans on the market that still cool as well or better ?
d) Is the PSU overkill for this rig and perhaps replaceable with something quieter that won't ever trip ?
e) Anything else ?
- a) I did wonder about reversing the rear fan and making it an intake, so all air exhausted out of the top - though might then start sucking in all the hot exhausted GPU air ?
Regards.
PitBullCH.