Silence is golden - Silent Build

[TrueZarken]

Hello LinusTechTips community, how are we all?

 

I've had the same approach to building my PC for a long time, performance is the goal and everything else be damned. I've now reached that point where the noise is just getting to me and I need a silent build and I was wondering if this fantastic community could help me out with some recommendations?

 

Currently my build is...

 

Case: Silverstone TJ07

Cooler: Corsair H100

HDD: Samsung 1TB 

SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB

Motherboard: Gigabyte X79S-UP5 

CPU: 3930K

Memory: G.Skill 1866mhz 16GB

GPU: HD 7970 

Power Supply: Corsair HX1000

 

I honestly do not know where to begin with making this build silent. After doing a bit of research replacing the H100i would be a good start, taking out the HDD so I am not hearing the HDD spinning up every time I try to access it. Replacing the HX1000 as mine coil whines and finally the case. The TJ07 has been with me since the very beginning and I wouldn't mind trying something a bit different and modern, but I will be sad to see it go. 

 

Anyway, all recommendations would be greatly appreciated and just to clarify I am aiming for absolute silence, no noise and I am willing to try anything to achieve this goal. Oh, and before I forget there is absolutely no limit to the budget, I want to achieve silence and I do not want to hear a horrible wind turbine in my office anymore, haha.  

 

Thank you very much in advance,

 

TrueZarken

[ilikemacandpc]

You would need a passive CPU cooler and a passive GPU cooler. 

 

ABSOLUTE silence would be nearly impossible b/c you have a 130W CPU and a 250W graphics card. You need some sort of fans. 

 

How about custom liquid cooling?

 

Take a look at Linus's system for references. he even has the same case as you:

 

[ZetZet]

Absolute silence on x79 is pretty hard since cpu will still need a cooler with a fan. I would start with one of the noctua giants though.

Oh damn I didn't even see you have a 7970 that will be even harder.  :lol:

For case Define R5? 

 

Yup, custom cooling as many rads as you can fit in a case and some very slowly rotating fans.

[TrueZarken]

You would need a passive CPU cooler and a passive GPU cooler. 

 

ABSOLUTE silence would be nearly impossible b/c you have a 130W CPU and a 250W graphics card. You need some sort of fans. 

 

How about custom liquid cooling?

 

Take a look at Linus's system for references. he even has the same case as you:

 

 

Well as long as I can get close to silence that is the main thing. I did check out Linus' personal build the frustrating this about my HD7970 is that it is the custom PCB one from Gigabyte and I haven't been able to find any waterblocks for it.

 

Absolute silence on x79 is pretty hard since cpu will still need a cooler with a fan. I would start with one of the noctua giants though.

Oh damn I didn't even see you have a 7970 that will be even harder.  :lol:

For case Define R5? 

 

Yup, custom cooling as many rads as you can fit in a case and some very slowly rotating fans.

 

Haha, yeah, she's not too bad. She's got a gigabyte windforce cooler on her. Custom watercooling and slow rotating fans looks to be the way to go at this stage. But as mentioned earlier in this post my 7970 is a custom PCB one from gigabyte so I may have to replace it with two 980's if my partner doesn't mind getting me an early Christmas present. 

 

Define R5? I've seen Dimitri's, Linus' and Logan's review. Tempting, although not a big fan of the new top moduvent system. 

[ilikemacandpc]

Well as long as I can get close to silence that is the main thing. I did check out Linus' personal build the frustrating this about my HD7970 is that it is the custom PCB one from Gigabyte and I haven't been able to find any waterblocks for it.

 

 

Haha, yeah, she's not too bad. She's got a gigabyte windforce cooler on her. Custom watercooling and slow rotating fans looks to be the way to go at this stage. But as mentioned earlier in this post my 7970 is a custom PCB one from gigabyte so I may have to replace it with two 980's if my partner doesn't mind getting me an early Christmas present. 

 

Define R5? I've seen Dimitri's, Linus' and Logan's review. Tempting, although not a big fan of the new top moduvent system. 

 

You said there is "absolutely no limit" to the budget...

 

Custom WCing is the best. 

[othertomperson]

I wonder how big a rad you would need for the surface area alone to dissipate all of the heat, no fans or anything...

[Rodneyg87]

Why not build a new rig with a i5-4690k and a asus strix 970 inside a define r5 case 

 

check out this video its on a passive cooling build which should reduce the noise to almost nothing. You could re-use some of your components like your ram, ssd, and hdd if you want and could sell off your old ones you dont want to re-use to recoup some of the cost so that the build wont be so hard on your wallet...

 

[TrueZarken]

You said there is "absolutely no limit" to the budget...

 

Custom WCing is the best. 

 

Haha, I did indeed say that.   I do already have a case that is pretty good for Watercooling so that does help there. Although I wouldn't mind a few update to date features and sound dampening material wouldn't hurt either. Maybe the Define R5 with a 360mm in the front and a 140mm in the rear would be an idea. 

 

I wonder how big a rad you would need for the surface area alone to dissipate all of the heat, no fans or anything...

 

That is a good question. Can anyone answer this? 

Why not build a new rig with a i5-4690k and a asus strix 970 inside a define r5 case 

 

check out this video its on a passive cooling build which should reduce the noise to almost nothing. You could re-use some of your components like your ram, ssd, and hdd if you want and could sell off your old ones you dont want to re-use to recoup some of the cost so that the build wont be so hard on your wallet...

 

 

Cheers for that one. While I have said that budget is no issue, anything easier on the wallet is always nicer at the end of the day.

[Rodneyg87]

 

 

Cheers for that one. While I have said that budget is no issue, anything easier on the wallet is always nicer at the end of the day.

yea because i was looking at some of the used prices for your video card and they are going around $200 here in the US right now the H100 is going for around $50 your mobo you should easily be able to get around $50-60 and your cpu still sells for $550+ so used on that at least $400 so essentially you could easily be able to update to a new quieter and cooler running rig for about what you can sell your old parts for.

[othertomperson]

Oh with regard to Lauren's semi-passive gaming pc. I tried doing that with SpeedFan instead of whatever the Asus fan control software is called (I can't remember) to get around the problem she was having with it, and I dunno if I could fix this by playing around with the hysteresis but the coil whine just before the speed was fast enough for the fans to turn on was horrendous. Makes sense given everything, but it was a lot less noticeable to just leave everything idle at 30%.