Dead-silent pc wanted!!!

DeDeRa · Post by **DeDeRa** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 11:05 am

I would like to buy, in maximum 2-3 weeks a silent, lets say even dead-silent pc.
I was thinking about:

CPU: AMD x2 240e with Scythe Ninja2 running fanless
Mobo: Gigabyte MA785GM-UD2H
Ram: Any DDR2 4GB @ 800mhz
GPU: Radeon HD4850 with Accelero S1 running fanless
HDD: Samsung 500GB F2 EcoGreen
Case: Antec NSK3480 with PSU fan replaced with Noctua 80mm @ 800rpm
Case fans: 2 intake Noctua 92mm @ 1000rpm and 1 exhaust 120mm @ 900rpm.

Any other suggestion? Had i thought well? Should i change anything?

Wayne Redpath · Post by **Wayne Redpath** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 2:32 pm

A hot gaming system can't be silent while gaming. It can be reasonably quiet and non-annoying at idle. PWM fans are an good way to easily achieve quiet operation at idle and still supply cooling power at full load.

= put fans on the Ninja and the Accelero
= fans on the front of the chassis are easily heard
= I've found that the CPU fan can be quieter with a less annoying noise character with the fan sucking from the heatsink instead of the turbulent air crashing into the heatsink.
= the Mugen2 comes with a PWM fan
= I use only one fan in my case. The fan is mounted on the Scythe Ninja on the side adjacent to the rear chassis fan location and blowing towards the rear of the chassis. A 2.5 cm (1 inch) duct made out of a 120mm fan with the guts cut out is mounted on the rear chassis fan location. The CPU fan and the duct align well enough for most of the air to exit the chassis.

Perhaps someone out there can tell you if that cooler-mainboard-chassis combination will physically fit together.

reddyuday · Post by **reddyuday** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 2:41 pm

Instead of running Ninja2 fanless and adding an exhaust fan, you might consider mounting a fan on Ninja2 and letting it also act as the exhaust. You might discover that you don't need the intake fans after all.

eitheta ran a system with a single CPU fan, which I found hard to believe initially, but it works for my system just the same way.

JamieG · Post by **JamieG** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 3:08 pm

Looks pretty good. Try suspending your HDD in the top chamber under the DVD drive.

As suggested above, you might not need all those fans, however.

rhys j · Post by **rhys j** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 3:18 pm

I was going to say you should be able to run the CPU and GPU passively for normal operation, and with good ventilation could probably turn off the case fans too, so your only moving parts would be in the PSU. But that case doesn't have any ventilation for the main compartment at the top, which would make this a problem. Honestly I would choose a different case.

DeDeRa · Post by **DeDeRa** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 12:57 am

Lets say i'll cut the case where it has the 120mm exhaust fan and i'll make an air-duct from the heatsink, cooled by his stock fan, but at 700-800rpm. Then i'll change my gpu with 4770 which i heard is more cool, has almost the same performance, consumes less. On top of it i'll put Accelero S1 with one Noctua @ 900rpm. Is this better?

Honestly I would choose a different case

What case? It must be standup, not verticaly one.

reddyuday · Post by **reddyuday** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 1:49 am

rhys j wrote:I was going to say you should be able to run the CPU and GPU passively for normal operation, and with good ventilation could probably turn off the case fans too, so your only moving parts would be in the PSU. But that case doesn't have any ventilation for the main compartment at the top, which would make this a problem. Honestly I would choose a different case.

One does need at least two fans in a dual chamber design like NSK3480. That should be ok if one uses good quality fans. I didn't mean to say that there should be exactly one fan. Actually, I forgot to mention that eitheta's design used an external power brick, not a regular PSU. If I were building in NSK3480, I would replace the stock PSU by Nexus Value 430 which has the right size for the case and has an amazingly quiet fan.

The main problem with NSK3480 is its low depth, which leads to cramped spaces and makes cable management difficult. Another case of similar size but without dual chamber design and the low depth problem is Silverstone TJ08. It doesn't look as elegant but, functionally, it should be easier to work with.

DeDeRa · Post by **DeDeRa** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 3:18 am

Another crazy idea. But i don't know how well does 785G performs. The same configuration, but with PSU Fortron Zen 300 and only 2 silent vents on exhaust an intake. No GPU...
So?

Jadukey · Post by **Jadukey** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 6:52 pm

I have the MA785GM-US2H and have noticed the NB/SB chips get pretty warm when I attempt fanless operatio ~45-50C. I believe the only two options are to create circulation near the existing heat sinks or to replace the two heatsinks with bigger ones (I'm currently looking into the heatsink option).