Looking for a QUIET Workstation for $2050

[LukeSavenije]

2 minutes ago, FinalFantasyBros said:

Was that with the quiet profile or the performance for the h150i? jerubedo had originally suggested to leave it on quiet because it keeps the fans at aminimum regardless of load and still keeps it cool.

as you can see here, at 7,5 volts the nhd15 is quieter than the h150i pro. and i assume you can tune the fancurve a little to make it as quiet as possible

 

the best thing? both the nhd15 and drp4 can be had for around 85 bucks

[FinalFantasyBros]

46 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

as you can see here, at 7,5 volts the nhd15 is quieter than the h150i pro. and i assume you can tune the fancurve a little to make it as quiet as possible

 

the best thing? both the nhd15 and drp4 can be had for around 85 bucks

How do I set them to 7.5V? Is there software for that? And is 12V the default? I'm guessing so because of of the reviews I saw put it at around 35db at its stock settings.

[LukeSavenije]

2 minutes ago, FinalFantasyBros said:

How do I set them to 7.5V? Is there software for that? And is 12V the default? I'm guessing so because of of the reviews I saw put it at around 35db at its stock settings.

12 volt is the absolute max it can pull from the header, so 100% speed

 

you can set it in the bios (or sometimes mobo software)

[FinalFantasyBros]

2 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

12 volt is the absolute max it can pull from the header, so 100% speed

 

you can set it in the bios (or sometimes mobo software)

ahhh ok. Sorry, I usually have pretty good Google skills but I can't seeem to find data this deep. So at that 7.5V, what are the temps at load? I can see that with the h150i, even at quiet mode it still keeps the CPU below 80, is that still the case with the lowest PWM setting on the air ones?

[LukeSavenije]

1 minute ago, FinalFantasyBros said:

ahhh ok. Sorry, I usually have pretty good Google skills but I can't seeem to find data this deep. So at that 7.5V, what are the temps at load? I can see that with the h150i, even at quiet mode it still keeps the CPU below 80, is that still the case with the lowest PWM setting on the air ones?

probably not with the absolute lowest

 

@Princess Cadence might have some insight here?

[Princess Luna]

2 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

@Princess Cadence might have some insight here?

Regarding what? If he wanted the absolute quietest cooling system he shouldn't have gone with AiO in the first place hehe, that's why we are always recommending the NH-D15 and Dark Rock Pro 4.

 

If this is about setting the Fan Curve to assist with noise, all latest BIOS gives you full control of the curve, 80Cº (max) is hot but still fine for an Intel processor, throttle starts at 85Cº and TJuntion is 102Cª

 

The problem with hot chip is that it will require more voltage to keep frequency high, more voltage causes more heat and this became a vicious cycle.

[FinalFantasyBros]

13 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

Regarding what? If he wanted the absolute quietest cooling system he shouldn't have gone with AiO in the first place hehe, that's why we are always recommending the NH-D15 and Dark Rock Pro 4.

 

If this is about setting the Fan Curve to assist with noise, all latest BIOS gives you full control of the curve, 80Cº (max) is hot but still fine for an Intel processor, throttle starts at 85Cº and TJuntion is 102Cª

 

The problem with hot chip is that it will require more voltage to keep frequency high, more voltage causes more heat and this became a vicious cycle.

I'm looking to run a 9900K, most likely overclocked to 5.0GHz. I want the quietest solution and from what I've read, the H150i if kept on quiet mode can still keep that CPU under 80C while keeping to 24db. Would one of the air coolers also maintain below 80C at that same (or lower) db level?

 

EDIT: oops, sorry. The 33.1db is for performance mode, quiet mode is 24db. So my question stands with 24db.

[LukeSavenije]

5 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

Regarding what? If he wanted the absolute quietest cooling system he shouldn't have gone with AiO in the first place hehe, that's why we are always recommending the NH-D15 and Dark Rock Pro 4.

 

If this is about setting the Fan Curve to assist with noise, all latest BIOS gives you full control of the curve, 80Cº (max) is hot but still fine for an Intel processor, throttle starts at 85Cº and TJuntion is 102Cª

 

The problem with hot chip is that it will require more voltage to keep frequency high, more voltage causes more heat and this became a vicious cycle.

mainly regarding that.. thanks!

[FinalFantasyBros]

13 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

Regarding what? If he wanted the absolute quietest cooling system he shouldn't have gone with AiO in the first place hehe, that's why we are always recommending the NH-D15 and Dark Rock Pro 4.

 

If this is about setting the Fan Curve to assist with noise, all latest BIOS gives you full control of the curve, 80Cº (max) is hot but still fine for an Intel processor, throttle starts at 85Cº and TJuntion is 102Cª

 

The problem with hot chip is that it will require more voltage to keep frequency high, more voltage causes more heat and this became a vicious cycle.

To clarify these are the charts I'm looking at, both for OCed. I'd be planning on running the H150i in quiet mode at all times. So can any of those air coolers you mentioned pull these same temeratures at equal to or less tahn 24db?:

 

 

[Princess Luna]

2 minutes ago, FinalFantasyBros said:

So can any of those air coolers you mentioned pull these same temeratures at equal to or less tahn 24db?:

Both the Dark Rock Pro 4 and NH-D15 can achieve 24db or less depending on how 'aggressive' you set the curve on your BIOS.

 

You see mate, one thing these high end air coolers have in their favour that you won't find on an AiO is the a technology called "Vapor Chambers" and this is the differential, regardless how hot the processor gets the heat dissipation is always optimal as all heat goes straight from he IHS straight to the (pipes) vapor chambers getting spread across the secondary metal layers.

 

You can go fanless with those heatsinks on less demanding processors like a Ryzen 7 1700 even.

 

AiO's though they only work by water being the heat spreader, if it's hot enough this water needs to be cooled and the radiator alone is very bad at eliminating this heat without proper ventilation, why do you think even motorcycles with big ass radiators needs active cooling by fans? Also pump is another even if small noise producer.

 

The longer you use the processor at peak the hotter the water gets so the fans on the radiator needs to make up for that, artificially locking it to a low rpm to reduce noise might increase temperatures to throttling levels on extended usage.

 

This is a non issue on great air coolers that can dissipate the heat even at a static fan rpm, not to mention the fans on both the NH-D15 and Dark Rock Pro 4 are the brands (Noctua/Be Quiet) top of the line ones which are currently the quietest we have.

 

I hope this is of any help, cheers!

 

[jerubedo]

13 hours ago, FinalFantasyBros said:

I've looked at each article you linked.

 

For the first one: 30.5db vs the hx1200 <28db

Second: 31.4db vs <28db

Third: 30db vs <28db

Fourth: THIS one matches. <28db vs <28db BUT the efficiency is less. It's only 92% vs the 93-94% of the HX1200. The temps were also 42C vs 38C

 

So how are any of those better outside of being cheaper????

They aren't. Each one of them at your max load is louder and/or higher temperature with lower efficiency, as you've already pointed out. Those numbers speak for themselves and data is data, there's really no arguing with it. 

 

The review you found completely demonstrated my original point. The HX1200 maintains a 94% efficiency rating at your 430W load, which is partly why it's able to stay below 40C. It's also a physically larger unit which is the other half of the story. The fan never kicked on all the way until 500W of load was hit where temps began to rise. Your system will never hit 500W as it is right now. So for all intents and purposes it's the most quiet solution while maintaing excellent efficiency and temperatures, unless anyone can show me any other smaller capacity PSUs that also maintain a less than 28 decibel noise rating WITH sub-40C temps and 94% efficiency at 430w load?

[WkdPaul]

* Thread cleaned *

[FinalFantasyBros]

8 hours ago, jerubedo said:

They aren't. Each one of them at your max load is louder and/or higher temperature with lower efficiency, as you've already pointed out. Those numbers speak for themselves and data is data, there's really no arguing with it. 

 

The review you found completely demonstrated my original point. The HX1200 maintains a 94% efficiency rating at your 430W load, which is partly why it's able to stay below 40C. It's also a physically larger unit which is the other half of the story. The fan never kicked on all the way until 500W of load was hit where temps began to rise. Your system will never hit 500W as it is right now. So for all intents and purposes it's the most quiet solution while maintaing excellent efficiency and temperatures, unless anyone can show me any other smaller capacity PSUs that also maintain a less than 28 decibel noise rating WITH sub-40C temps and 94% efficiency at 430w load?

Thanks! I was starting to cave, and was thinking about getting

 

https://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/zardon/fsp-hydro-x-650-power-supply-review/5/

 

that @Stefan Payne mentioned. It's the only one he mentioned that keeps the same level of quiet. The temps are a few degrees higher though and the efficiency is slightly worse, so let me ask, does that few degree difference actually matter and does the 1% drop in efficiency matter?

[jerubedo]

1 minute ago, FinalFantasyBros said:

Thanks! I was starting to cave, and was thinking about getting

 

https://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/zardon/fsp-hydro-x-650-power-supply-review/5/

 

that @Stefan Payne mentioned. It's the only one he mentioned that keeps the same level of quiet. The temps are a few degrees higher though and the efficiency is slightly worse, so let me ask, does that few degree difference actually matter and does the 1% drop in efficiency matter?

The drop in efficiency doesn't really matter, no. For your specific case, however, the temperature difference of a few degrees DOES make a difference. You're looking to run as quiet as possible, which generally means running any fan in the system at it's lowest RPM setting, so shaving off even an extra degree that would heat up the system is beneficial. Temperature is the main enemy of electronics.

[FinalFantasyBros]

I got my parts in today! I put everything together and I've tested it for about 2 hours now. Here's my results:

 

This thing is inaudible at idle. I wound up getting the H150i after doing further research because those larger air coolers all cover the RAM slots. I prefer to have east access to those slots, so that made the choice easy. I keep the H150i on quiet at all times, even under full load, and I have it set to disable fans completely at idle. At idle there's no noise, obviously, and at load, it's inaudible.

 

I got the 1200w PSU since no one made any comments against the data I found. Both at idle and load, the fan has NEVER turned on. I tested for a straight hour and a half as well. In order to max out the load I used Prime95 small FFT in addition to Folding@Home for the GPU. That should be an absolute full load. The fan never kicked on. You can't hear any noise from the PSU unless you put your ear right against it, then you hear some coil whine, but moving your ear just a few inches away makes it inaudible. U'm very happy with it. I have no way to test the temp and the efficiency, but since the review I found was correct about the noise, I assume it was also right about the temps and efficiency.

 

I overclocked the CPU using the "quick and dirty" method of setting the voltage to 1.35 and bumping up the multiplier to 50. I will be adjusting this over time and trying to get the lowest possible voltage while still being stable. Right now it seems stable, but I will be doing a LinX test overnight to test fully.

 

Temps on the CPU with the small FFTs get to 88 on one core and 83-84 on all the other (again wtih quiet profile) and I'm not seeing any throttling happening. I can only guess that the throttling occurs at a package temp of 85, and not the core temps. That's good enough for me. Those temps were after the full hour and a half of load.

 

The GPU is loud at load. Not terribly loud, but I can hear it from a few feet away. This isn't ideal for me. I think I might add some further sound proofing to the tower by way of sound dampening foam. Does anyone know if the foam is any good? I was thinking of covering the top ventallation with it since it seems there's enough airflow from front to back to get any hot air out. Are there any thoughts on doing that? That seems to be where most of the sounds seeping from, the top.

 

Anyway, overall I'm happy. I'd like to give a speaical thanks to @jerubedo, @LukeSavenije, @Princess Cadence, and @GoldenLag for your help as you all paid specific attention to my specific use case and needs.