Hi there,
I'm building a new PC, aiming to make it ultra silent and still high performing...
so far what I've got
Antec P182
MB ASUS -- P6T
Intel Core i7 920 - 2.66GHz BOX
Noctua NH-U12P SE1366
VGA ASUS -- GeForce GTX275 896MD3 HTDI PCX
CORSAIR -- 650W TXEU
CORSAIR -- DDR3 3x2048MB 1333MHz C9 for i7
APACER -- CARD READER AE101 3.5" BLACK bulk
DVD RW -- SAMSUNG SH-S223F SATA black bulk
HDD SAMSUNG 320GB SATA2 16MB - HD321KJ, HD322 1 platter F1 (for OS and apps)
HDD SAMSUNG 1TB SATA2 32MB 5400 rpm HD103SI - ecogreen (for DATA)
I'll try to run the case first with original fans, will see what noise it makes.. Any tips, suggestions?
Building a silent Antec P182 Intel i7 build
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
The Noctua 1366 cooler comes with two of Noctua's fans from memory. You don't need both on the CPU heatsink - a review I saw noted that the second fan only cut 2-3C max from full load temperatures vs only one fan.
You could take this extra fan and use it as a front intake fan. Buy a Nexus or Scythe fan as the rear exhaust and use an undervolted Scythe S-Flex 1200rpm fan as top exhaust. (Or you could use the second Noctua fan as a top exhaust and buy matching Nexus or Scythe Slipstreams for front and rear fans). Make sure to soft-mount all your fans with rubber fan mounts instead of screws.
Mount both your HDDs in the bottom bay and tape up the exhaust holes around the PSU area in the P182. That way, you won't need the fan in the middle area of the PSU chamber.
Speaking of the PSU, I'm not sure how quiet that particular Corsair PSU is. The HX series from Corsair are generally regarded as being the quietest in Corsair's range.
I don't know how quiet the GTX 275 is. SPCR reviewed a 260 and found that to be fairly quiet. You can always look at RivaTuner for software control for the fan speed of your graphics card to reduce noise, or go with an aftermarket cooler.
For a higher performing system, the P183 (a refresh of the P182) might be a little better for airflow (and therefore temperatures) because of its open front. The changes in styling are a matter of taste, I suppose.
You could take this extra fan and use it as a front intake fan. Buy a Nexus or Scythe fan as the rear exhaust and use an undervolted Scythe S-Flex 1200rpm fan as top exhaust. (Or you could use the second Noctua fan as a top exhaust and buy matching Nexus or Scythe Slipstreams for front and rear fans). Make sure to soft-mount all your fans with rubber fan mounts instead of screws.
Mount both your HDDs in the bottom bay and tape up the exhaust holes around the PSU area in the P182. That way, you won't need the fan in the middle area of the PSU chamber.
Speaking of the PSU, I'm not sure how quiet that particular Corsair PSU is. The HX series from Corsair are generally regarded as being the quietest in Corsair's range.
I don't know how quiet the GTX 275 is. SPCR reviewed a 260 and found that to be fairly quiet. You can always look at RivaTuner for software control for the fan speed of your graphics card to reduce noise, or go with an aftermarket cooler.
For a higher performing system, the P183 (a refresh of the P182) might be a little better for airflow (and therefore temperatures) because of its open front. The changes in styling are a matter of taste, I suppose.
1. Allright. I think I'll take the out-take Noctua fan from the CPU and mount it to the top.
2.
I'll add one For rear exhaust and one for front intake. Which should I take?
SCYTHE S-FLEX SFF21D 800rpm or SCYTHE S-FLEX SFF21E 1200rpm ?
Noctua NF-S12 800 or Noctua NF-S12 1200 ?
With the stock fans for the P182, my motherboard heats up quite a lot when playing games. Idle at 43C (109F) and when gaming at around 63C (145F) (most likely because of the graphic card, which is silent). I do want to drop the gaming temperature to under 60. If I do pick one or the other, what voltage should I give it?
3.
HDDs are mounted in bottom bay. I am not sure what you mean by taping up the exhaust holes around the PSU area. How would I not need a middle fan around the middle area then? Wouldn't there be a weak airflow for the HDDs then?
4. Should I get a fan controler? Like the
SCYTHE KM02-SL-5.25 Kaze ACE ?
2.
I'll add one For rear exhaust and one for front intake. Which should I take?
SCYTHE S-FLEX SFF21D 800rpm or SCYTHE S-FLEX SFF21E 1200rpm ?
Noctua NF-S12 800 or Noctua NF-S12 1200 ?
With the stock fans for the P182, my motherboard heats up quite a lot when playing games. Idle at 43C (109F) and when gaming at around 63C (145F) (most likely because of the graphic card, which is silent). I do want to drop the gaming temperature to under 60. If I do pick one or the other, what voltage should I give it?
3.
HDDs are mounted in bottom bay. I am not sure what you mean by taping up the exhaust holes around the PSU area. How would I not need a middle fan around the middle area then? Wouldn't there be a weak airflow for the HDDs then?
4. Should I get a fan controler? Like the
SCYTHE KM02-SL-5.25 Kaze ACE ?
Use the 1200RPM fans front and back. Scythe, Noctua or even Nexus - you won't find much real difference (but you'll get lots of opinions...). Wire them to the 3-pin headers on your P6T. Turn off Q-fan in the BIOS and use speedfan to manage them down to 500RPM or so. Turn on Speedfan's automatic fan speed control to run them up when things get hotter.
The P6T allows speed control on the CPU (PWM only) and allows 3-pin voltage control on just two of the chassis fan headers (one near the back ATX I/O panel and one near the SATA ports). RTFM and make sure you connect to the right ones. If you put two fans in back make a custom Y cable and only wire through the speed sense from one fan. Same kind of Y cable for the front if you have two fans up there (I stuffed a 120x20 Yate Loon in front of the lower drive cage - it took some metal bending but it works - its a bit louder than the Nexus fans but it is the only 20mm thick quiet fan I could find).
If your ambitious you could mod the case to take out the fan grills both front and back. Open up the spacing between slats on the little black hinged doors over the front filters. Take the filters out completely unless you are in a dirty/dusty/pet hair environment.
I've got my rig set up this way and it works great (P180B, not a P182, and the M/B is a P5B Deluxe with a QX6700, which is the same TDP as your I7 but I believe it actually runs hotter than yours will). I use Nexus fans and I have Speedfan take them down to about 380RPM, which is as slow as they will run before they stop spinning. The thing lives in a bedroom running 24x7 and is nearly inaudible at idle. The fans tick up nicely at load and keeps the temps all comfortable without ever becoming too loud.
The P6T allows speed control on the CPU (PWM only) and allows 3-pin voltage control on just two of the chassis fan headers (one near the back ATX I/O panel and one near the SATA ports). RTFM and make sure you connect to the right ones. If you put two fans in back make a custom Y cable and only wire through the speed sense from one fan. Same kind of Y cable for the front if you have two fans up there (I stuffed a 120x20 Yate Loon in front of the lower drive cage - it took some metal bending but it works - its a bit louder than the Nexus fans but it is the only 20mm thick quiet fan I could find).
If your ambitious you could mod the case to take out the fan grills both front and back. Open up the spacing between slats on the little black hinged doors over the front filters. Take the filters out completely unless you are in a dirty/dusty/pet hair environment.
I've got my rig set up this way and it works great (P180B, not a P182, and the M/B is a P5B Deluxe with a QX6700, which is the same TDP as your I7 but I believe it actually runs hotter than yours will). I use Nexus fans and I have Speedfan take them down to about 380RPM, which is as slow as they will run before they stop spinning. The thing lives in a bedroom running 24x7 and is nearly inaudible at idle. The fans tick up nicely at load and keeps the temps all comfortable without ever becoming too loud.
Re: #2 - S-Flex E 1200rpm is probably the best of the fans you mentioned there. It undervolts better than the 800rpm version of the same fan and gives you some headroom. A Nexus 120mm fan or a Scythe Slipstream 1200rpm fan are other alternatives.tobuno wrote:2.
I'll add one For rear exhaust and one for front intake. Which should I take?
SCYTHE S-FLEX SFF21D 800rpm or SCYTHE S-FLEX SFF21E 1200rpm ?
Noctua NF-S12 800 or Noctua NF-S12 1200 ?
3.
HDDs are mounted in bottom bay. I am not sure what you mean by taping up the exhaust holes around the PSU area. How would I not need a middle fan around the middle area then? Wouldn't there be a weak airflow for the HDDs then?
You can use SpeedFan to control the speed of your fans via software or buy a fan controller for manual control. The S-Flex Es get quiet around 7V.
Re: #3 - have a look at the rear of the P182 case in SPCR's review. There are a bunch of exhaust holes near the PSU. By taping these up, it forces all the exhaust air to flow through the PSU using the PSU's own exhaust fan. This prevents the short circuiting of air flow through the exhaust fan on the PSU. Hard drives really don't need much cooling, so the airflow generated by the PSU fan alone is sufficient in the P182 where you only have 2 hard drives, like in your planned build.