Seeking silence for a 500$ computer as we spend extra ~220$

[Nighthog]

Hi all, silent peers!

I want a little advice on what to spend some about 220$ or precisely about ~1500kr. (Swedish currency)
On this computer I and my older brother are building for his son as a Christmas present.

We have already bought hardware for about a worth of 500$ or 3500kr.

The parts we have are:
AMD Athlon X3 450 3.2Ghz with stock LOUD shitty cooler. A large hunk of single piece aluminium.
ASUS M4A785T-M
Kingston ddr3 2x2Gb 1333Mhz low profile.
Samsung F3 1Tb
Ace Ecco 220 (came with 1x no label 3pin 120mm fan)
Corsair CX 430W
Samsung dvd-burner

I've installed a Win XP pro I had laying around. lol it didn't have even SP1 (updated and all now though)

We are looking to buy a discrete graphics card for it next.

I've eyed in a XFX HD5770 1Gb single slot.
It's currently available for 1149kr as long as they are in stock on this one place inet.se (167$ usd VAT included 25%)
What I've gathered it should be a good deal. More silent than the stock HSF for these cards and as a bonus it's the cheapest HD5770 I could find from places I would consider to buy from.

My brother said he wanted some extra case fans and I looked into it a little quickly and the Nexus 120mm seems to be a good deal for 82kr a piece.
The chassis can take a total of 5x 120mm fans.
We started to discuss about noise levels as I checked out that the XFX HD5770 SingleSlot wasn't too loud. reviews gave a pleasant surprise.

I then talked with him if he would consider having the stock HSF replaced when I heard he could spend about 1500kr.
As it is the computer isn't silent at all. Mostly thanks to the stock HSF. But the Corsair CX does make noise as well. Mostly of the high frequency whine kind. Just plugging in the power cord and having the main breaker in the back on the psu gives off a low "iii iiiiii iiii" to my own ears. My brother could not hear it though. With load and computer running it went to more of a kind "iiuuui uiiiiu uuuiii". The PSU fan I can't really rate yet as the cpu and whine is just to much on their own. But it didn't seem as quiet as my HX620 at all.
The 120mm fan that came with the case seems to be the most silent yet. Though I think a Zalman 7v fan adapter resistor I have laying around will make that behave if the other sound problems can be fixed. It's pointless if the others aren't tamed.

I checked on available cpu coolers on the same place and found the Cooler Master Hyper 212 plus appealing because of price. Read some more about it like here and I am sold on it.
They are currently out of stock but seem to get it in stock the 16th. No problem as we can't really order before the 19th as my brother gets in cash.
But I still need to check it's height clearance. Not too sure if it will fit in the Ace Ecco 220 Chassis. It just might be too tall.

I then checked a little more on available fans on the site and wondered if the Scythe Slip Stream 120mm fans are a better choice for case fans or alternatively if we can get the CM Hyper 212 plus take a nexus or Scythe to be thrown on it rather than the stock fan it comes with. I read the SPCR review about it.

Cost for graphics card 2x fans and cpu cooler though goes a little above the budget about 1600kr. I still need to talk with my brother some more if he will consider spending that money to try and silence the comp a little.

But anyway... Is the XFX HD5770 a good choice?
Go with Nexus 120mm or try Scythe Slip Streams?(scythe are slightly cheaper at 72kr compared to the nexus 82kr)

Would it be a good idea to if we get the CM Hyper 212 plus to have a Scythe 120mm pwm fan on it?
Scythe slip stream pwm can be had for 65kr. or with pwm/vr12 for 76kr.

The pwm/vr12 seems like a good option to have for cpu cooler. We could manually tune it for silence or performance then.

But the question is... Are the Scythe Slip stream fans any good concerning silence? The fan recommendation list was a little old I saw. 2007?

... might be the Hyper 212 plus is to tall after all. I read a review of the chassis and they said about 15cm max height. Other recommendations?

[nerdmagic]

The CM212 would cut it very close in your case. My guess would be that it won't fit.

Ace lists 187mm width for the Ecco 220 on their website. This week I put a CM212 on an AMD chip in a 193mm case, and it only cleared by 7-8mm (at a guess). And that's in case in which the motherboard mounts directly to fixed standoffs on the case side (Lian Li Q07).

While the standoffs are high (perhaps 10-11mm), I expect they are still effectively lower than conventional standoffs screwed into the high portions of a separate motherboard tray.

I'm sure you don't need anything close to five fans in a system that size. Without a video card, more like one 120mm fan at 5-7V (plus CPU fan and PSU).

I'm very unqualified to answer the fan model questions so will defer to the experts.

[Nighthog]

Ok shortly after I found out someone put the Hyper 212 plus into the Ace Ecco 220. It fits just by a hair.

So it's a option once again.

I looked at other coolers and found the Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev.2 as a alternative in same price range. But it will be in the wrong orientation for the chassis I found. Will point up to the roof where the psu is just above... Could maybe work... (air up into psu fan who then takes it out the back of chassis)

Still no word between the Nexus or Scythe Slip streams? (there is a larger selection of fan rpm speeds for the scythe ones)

[nerdmagic]

Given the CM212 will fit, it's a great bargain. But if you are going to buy a replacement fan with it, then here in the US for about the same price one could buy a Scythe Mugen II which comes with a PWM Scythe Slipstream. Not sure if that's available to you or what the price would be. If the CM212 will fit the width of the case then the Mugen II should also, I think it's actually a little shorter but I will check relative height for you if interested tonight. Though it's a big cube that can interfere horizontally sometimes, especially with high-profile RAM heatsinks.

Or you could always run the CM cooler on the CM fan and see what you think of it, before buying a replacement.

[Nighthog]

Sadly the Scythe Mugen 2 rev. B available on the same place costs 418kr about 60% more than the hyper 212 plus.

It would mean we would not get a single extra chassis fan with the graphics card. Mugen 2 seems overkill as well.

Requirements are that the cooler should be able to cool the Athlon II X3 450 silently at stock. OC:ing seems unlikely. (I've already undervolted and put K10stat to good use with it) but didn't help much to the noise.

There is a Scythe Katana 3 for 200kr could be a another alternative but seems it's not too great performing looking at the reviews on the site. seems to have a 92mm fan sadly.

[boost]

The Scythe Mugen 2 is 1mm shorter than the Hyper 212. It comes with a Scythe PWM fan. If it's no more than the Hyper 212 + Scythe fan I'd go with that it. The Mugen comes with a backplate which makes installation a little harder, but the extra pressure will give you lower CPU temps.
A very quiet 5770 from MSI or Gigabyte, or a fanless model from Gigabyte 5770 is 130€.
A quiet GTX 460 Gigabyte or MSI Cyclone is 160€.
I'm having a hard time with currency conversion here.
You want a CPU cooler and a new graphics card, anything else?
Is one of these cards within your budget?

[Nighthog]

There is a little price premium with VAT/TAX here.

The XFX HD5770 single slot I've listed is the cheapest HD5770 I could find unless it was on a dubious site.
1159kr... many others HD5770 cost 100kr or more.

Second cheapest is the XFX HD5770 with dual slot cooler. for 1191kr.
The fanless gigabyte model goes for 1434kr which is 207$ usd. I could only afford a single extra chassis fan with it(which will be needed with this card)

Besides the fanless gigabyte 5770 would not work to well with the Ace Ecco 220 chassis. To wide with the heatsink on the side.
Causes problems with the hdd bracket.

I can get the Hyper 212 plus with 2x Scythe slip stream's or Nexus 120mm fans for same price as the Mugen 2.
The Nexus and Slip stream fans cost about the same on the site.

[Nighthog]

Just a update.

We ordered and got the delivery. Sadly we went with only getting the graphics card and two 120mm Nexus fans.
Damn was it a tight fit to place the two 120mm fans in the front of the Ecco 220. Took quite a while to get them there using the rubber mounts.

I was quite surprised by the low noise level of the XFX HD5770 single slot. And the fan doesn't even reach 60% speed at furmark 100% load and stays in cool 70-73C.
Though the overall idle noise went up with the extra fans. Load noise level didn't really change as the cpu fan is still the loudest when it ramps up at full load.
GPU at idle or load barely makes a difference in sound.

A good thing is the whole case stays cool. So I see much potential for much less noise with slightly higher temperatures. I'll have to do this all though after the kid gets the comp and ask him if I can mess with it to get it quieter.

I have a 3pin 7v and 5.5v resistor adapters. a molex to 3pin adapter and the two Nexus fans can be run off the molex to 3pin with a 3pin Y-adapter I have and then them using either resistor
Then the backside 120mm no label fan can take the other resistor... or... maybe better. Place that thing on the cpu fan. (or steal the zalman fanmate from old computer)
Why do motherboards have such lacking fan controls >_>; can't even use the back fan with other than max speed.
There is a little tweaking possible with the cpu fan as the cpu temp stayd at about 51C the other day with full GPU and CPU use.

The gpu fan could be manually set to 50% as it seems to be quiet enough there or lower depending on what temps that will result at with furmark.