How quiet is a quiet PC?

[Yuval]

I have been obsessed with making my PC more silent, except one unidentifiable high pitched fan i cannot hear a thing, but i don't really know how quiet a performance PC can be?

 

so my question is, when you are just browsing or while having light workloads on your pc, how quiet is it? (without headphones)

 

and is it possible to have a completely silent PC while maintaining performance?

[k0enf0rNL]

wondering the same thing. how loud is my pc going to be and what can i do to make my pc more silent

[Wano97]

wondering the same thing. how loud is my pc going to be and what can i do to make my pc more silent

Depends on hardware, fans, fan settings

[k0enf0rNL]

Depends on hardware, fans, fan settings

calculated about everything and its about 47 dB(A) at 10 cm distance on full load. but i'm 1 meter away from my pc. and i dont know if its tested in a closed case on 10 cm distance or in an open case with 10 cm distance from the parts. and how loud is 47dB(A)? is it like annoying loud?

[TheRetiredSlave]

A quiet PC is one that is quiet enough for the user to not be bothered with it.. 

 

Tolerance to different amounts of noise is a somewhat personal thing, so it will really all depend on what the individual user thinks of it..

[AMD Lover]

My computer is probably 4-5 decibels when on the web and stuff. I have all SP120's at 50% and I have my GPU manually set to 35%. When I'm playing a game like BF4 I can keep all my fans at 50% even the ones on the CPU rad and keep the GPU fan at 35% and the CPU will stay under 50 @ 4.4Ghz and the GPU will stay under 85 (all temps measured in Celsius) and it's clocked at 1100Ghz.

I'm posting a build guide in a few days!!!!

[DLM_012]

My PC at idle runs at roughly <25Db I assume and probably doesn't pass 30-35Db.

 

That's with a Noctua NF-F12, a silence optimized GEILD 120mm fan, two 200mm case fans that came with my 600T, and lastly the fans on my 7950. 

 

I feel like I have a silent machine, electrical noise/coil whine from my 7950 aside. 

[FreezeFlyte]

When my rig in idle or even streaming and surfing is dead silent. My rig: Bitfenix Ghost chasis, Gigabyte GA-990fxa-UD3 mobo, corsair rm 650 psu, Asus R9 270X x2 gpus, H100i AIO cooler, Corsair AF120 Silent fans x2, 120mm spectre silent fans x2, Corsair SP120 Silent fans x2. AMD FX-8320. Granted under load the two cards in crossfire alont with the cooler can get a little loud its nothing compared to other rigs ive heard under load.

[Quantum]

A quiet pc depends on how well you optimize it to be silent. So if you get a high quality fans, the only thing you would really hear under load is your gpu and power supply possibly. 

[k0enf0rNL]

When my rig in idle or even streaming and surfing is dead silent. My rig: Bitfenix Ghost chasis, Gigabyte GA-990fxa-UD3 mobo, corsair rm 650 psu, Asus R9 270X x2 gpus, H100i AIO cooler, Corsair AF120 Silent fans x2, 120mm spectre silent fans x2, Corsair SP120 Silent fans x2. AMD FX-8320. Granted under load the two cards in crossfire alont with the cooler can get a little loud its nothing compared to other rigs ive heard under load.

did you overclock your cpu/gpu?

[HandsomeChow]

Honestly, it is up to personal preference. Web browsing and just general work loads (E.g word) is gonna be quiet. When underload, they should probs ramp up to 100% voltage or 100% PWM. Which could cause a lot of noise depending on how good your case is or how good are your fans.

Generally, slowing spinning fans at around 500 rpm to 1000 rpm is dead silent on full blast. Something like Superflower fans or Noctuas are really quiet at max. It also depends on how far you are away from the case. If you put your ear right up next to your case, your gonna hear some noise. But if it is just under your desk. It should be silent. It also depends on the case and mounting of the fans. Incorrect mounting of fans could lead to rattling noises and also case vibrations which cause a lot of noise. Cheap cases from unknown brands tend to have really thin metal sheets which are prone to such problems. The case can also be lined with noise dampening foam. E.g (Silverstone PS10) which will reduce the noise coming from the case. You can also set a rpm limit with software E.g (Asus's FanXpert 2/Thermal Radar 2). Or have a fan controller installed in one of your 5.25 inch bays to manually control then using knobs. 

In conclusion, you can really do a lot to make your PC dead silent if you put in the effort and the money. And it is not that hard. There are tons of kits out there available for purchase online. If you have good fans, quality case, good software/fan controller, noise dampening foam. You can really make sure your PC is silent even when under 100% load on CPU and GPU. That is however a bit overkill. But it is just here to give you an idea. Good fans and good case is more than enough to make a computer silent