I bought new computer parts a month or so ago, and eagerly put it together. After the initial adrenaline rush I realized that my new friend was not a very quiet one. Before I go any further, let me post my computer specs:
Motherboard: Asus P5Q Pro Socket 775
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3,0GHz
Graphics card: SAPPHIRE TECHNOLOGY Radeon HD4850 - 512 Mb GDDR3 - PCI-Express 2.0
Memory: Corsair DHX 2x2048MB Kit DDR2 TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX
I also bought three Noctua NF-R8 (80mm that is) upon recommendation from a friend.
Those are the new parts. Stuff I have from before:
PSU: Corsair HX620W
Hard drives: Three HDDs of varying sizes, one Seagate and two Samsung drives.
I'm running the CPU and graphics card with stock coolers, so I was expecting my computer to generate quite some noise. Good news are that I'm going to fix it, and that I'm willing to spend some money on it. I want my computer to be as quiet as possible, without too much hassle, or having to spend a fortune. I want to be able to run my computer normally to slightly overclocked.
Initially I was considering water cooling, but after discussing this option a bit on another forum I've come to the conclusion that water cooling probably isn't for me. I've no past experience with this cooling method, and I'm not going to heavily overclock my computer.
That leaves me with some form of air cooling. I've come up with the following parts:
Chassis: Antec P182
VGA cooler: Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 rev2 (compatible with HD4850 according to Arctic Cooling's website.)
CPU cooler: Thermalright HR-01 Plus
Chassis fans: Noctua NF-S12-1200 120mm
and possibly
Fan controller: Zalman ZM-MFC1-Plus
I'd like the CPU and VGA to be passively cooled.
These parts will cost somewhere between $300-400 depending on where they're available, and how many fans I buy. (If the price sounds unreasonably high, it's probably because of the unreasonably high VAT in Sweden. )
Don't know if this is a high-end system by SPCR standards, but to my fairly thin wallet, being a poor university student and all, this is quite an investment. I'd love to hear some opinions and thought on everything and anything in my post, especially my shopping cart.
As mentioned above, I want a system that is as quiet as possible, without too much hassle. I'd be willing to shell out up to around $600 (again, remember the 25% VAT!) but that is my absolute limit, and my system would have to be nearly dead silent to warrant such a price tag. I'd rather pay less than more, and I suppose I can get almost the same performance for much less, say around $300-400, like my cart above.
Some questions on the top of my mind:
- 1. Will I be able to passively cool the CPU and GPU with these parts, even when gaming or heavily straining my computer?
2. Can my shopping cart be improved somehow, given my budget?
3. How quiet will this system be? Your subjective opinion please!
4. Does anyone know how good the Zalman ZM-MFC1-Plus is? I haven't been able to find much info on it.