modernize my current build with Fractal & Noctua

[Kev1]

Once a upon a time, there was a young little boy who bought hos first part for his gaming machine. he chose each individuals parts with care, making sure that all pieces will fit together. Those choice where optimized for the type of gaming, he chose the i5 3570k for it best ratio performance/core because FSX... He knew that this game doesn't scale with better GPU, but he also wanted to be able to play some descent game like StarCraft II who need more that a little integrated GPU, so he took an Readon 7850. For the power supply he knew that it was a serious part of the build but didn't know so much but the 80+ bronze/silver/gold rating. he also didn't know which manufacturers where good and which were bad, the only one he heard was Corsair, so he calculated the wattage needed for this build. 600W was the magic number, he checked his budget and realized that there wasn't much left so he picked the lowest 80+ bronze 600w that has all the cabling for his build and the Corsair CX600 builder edition went to the cart. Now to fit and cooled this amazing build, he checked those gaming case with a lot of fan and big open grill... Hummm Those blue LED seem so beautiful he couldn't resist for the Antec Nine Hundred.

 

Now the little boy grow up and realized that his case make more light than his light room. In his room, this computer is a distraction when he try to watch a movie and even with all case fan running at 0 or 400rpm and the CPU fan running at 650 rpm the power supply fan make too much noise to browse in silent. So the little man decided to upgrade his gear because LED and airflow are not all variables he discover the SILENT... Soooo relaxing... 

 

 

So that's my story. Now I want a silent rig, I will buy a Fractal Define R5 without windows (much mature case now that i have the experience), but a silent case with DUST FILTER (GOD THANKS because I live between 2 sand pit so do you imaging how often i need to clean my case) is not enough to shut my PSU's noise off so I decided to go with the Seasonics 520W FANLESS recommended by SPCR. To continue to have a great airflow at 300-400rpm now that i have a front door and dust filter 2 or 3 Noctua NF-A14 PWM which will be set as front intake the front fractal will be put as bottom intake, but I'm not sure if the noctua are the right choise.

 

I know that Linus and all his fans are sold to the Noctua but I need an objective opinion here. The situation is that this 2 fans will be sitting in front a a dust filter and a HDD bay which may one time bee full of hard drive and those 2 at all load, except maybe when i'm doing a 8h long rendering, will be turning at 300-400 rpm. those 2 fans need to be dead silent under 800 rpm and produce the maximum static pressure between 300-800 rpm. I have a budget of CAD23$/fan max (I saved 3 noctua in my cart at Ncix when they were at $22.99)

 

If some of you have other option for the power supply keep these thing in mind, I will keep this power supply for the next build for sure and consider that my build last about 7-8 years so don't cheap out on the quality because in 10-11 years I want a functional PSU without noise, speaking of noise the PSU fan is the only one that i can't control so if you propose something with that make sure that it don't spin at 250watt and even at 500 watt make no noise... like a 300-400 rpm max because in the future I may get better CPU cooler/Graphic card that make even less noise (maybe i will want a sub 21-22 decibel machine) so I want the next PSU to be VERY quiet.

 

My Current rig:

 

• CPU
  i5 3570k
• Motherboard
  Asus P8z77 V-LK
• RAM
  16GB (2x8GB) G. Skill ripjaws 1600
• GPU
  AMD Readon 7850 2GB
• Case
  Antec Nine Hundred
• Storage
  1x OCZ Vertex 3 Series 120GB; 1x Seagate Barracuda 1TB; 1x WD Green 3TB
• PSU
  CORSAIR CX series CX600
• Cooling
  Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO

[Kev1]

Thank you BurnerMC it was an hour long to write and tweak this intro

[brob]

A fanless psu sounds like a good idea, but for this build it is not optimal. Fanless psu exhaust hot air up into the case. In this situation it will make the case fans work harder. A much better option would be an oversized psu with smart fan control. As long as the psu fan stays below 30 db, it will not be noticeable. You may want to consider XFX P1-750B-BEFX, Corsair HX750i, SeaSonic SS-860XP2, or Corsair AX860i.

 

Stick with the stock Fractal Design fans and use the motherboard fan headers along with the Asus Fan Xpert+ software to control them.

[Kev1]

A fanless psu sounds like a good idea, but for this build it is not optimal. Fanless psu exhaust hot air up into the case. In this situation it will make the case fans work harder. A much better option would be an oversized psu with smart fan control. As long as the psu fan stays below 30 db, it will not be noticeable. You may want to consider XFX P1-750B-BEFX, Corsair HX750i, SeaSonic SS-860XP2, or Corsair AX860i.

 

Stick with the stock Fractal Design fans and use the motherboard fan headers along with the Asus Fan Xpert+ software to control them.

 

I see your point for the heat coming into the system from the power supply but those power supply with 0 rpm technology will bring the same heat into the system than a fanless when the fan doesn't spin which will be all the time because my system don't pull 300 & more 

 

and i'm not sure to understand you perfectly about the fractal fan because of course I will plug all fan in my motherboard header and control them with Fan Xpert+, but did you said that the airflow provide by 2 fractal fan running at 400 rpm are plenty enough airflow for this system and i don't need any Noctua or other brand fans to achieve very low rpm while getting a good enough airflow ???

[brob]

I see your point for the heat coming into the system from the power supply but those power supply with 0 rpm technology will bring the same heat into the system than a fanless when the fan doesn't spin which will be all the time because my system don't pull 300 & more 

 

and i'm not sure to understand you perfectly about the fractal fan because of course I will plug all fan in my motherboard header and control them with Fan Xpert+, but did you said that the airflow provide by 2 fractal fan running at 400 rpm are plenty enough airflow for this system and i don't need any Noctua or other brand fans to achieve very low rpm while getting a good enough airflow ???

 

Not so on the heat issue. In the R5 a psu is normally mounted with the intake drawing cool air from beneath the case and exhausting it directly out the rear of the psu. When the fan is not spinning, it's true that some heat will radiate from the top of the psu, but more will exhaust out the rear through convection. A fanless unit is mounted with its ventilation grill on top. Air is drawn from the rear of the psu and exhausted out the ventilated top through convection. A number of XFX and Seasonic units offer a hybrid mode that spins the fan at very low rpm until conditions warrant ramping up the speed. This is likely the optimal setting for the configuration being contemplated.

 

I think the two fans of the R5 should be sufficient, especially given the assist provided by the Hyper 212 EVO. If you do find that the fans have to spin too fast, additional intakes can be easily added. But mounting any in the top will allow more noise to escape. So exhaust options are fairly limited.

 

Does the 7850 gpu have a stock or after market cooler?

[Kev1]

I didn't think that the grill of fan's psu will be reverse than the fanless.

 

My 7850 has an after market cooler from XFX

 

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150609&_ga=1.58133930.1264836783.1423251054

[brob]

I didn't think that the grill of fan's psu will be reverse than the fanless.

 

My 7850 has an after market cooler from XFX

 

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150609&_ga=1.58133930.1264836783.1423251054

 

PSU with fans can be mounted fan down or fan up. The usual position is fan down so that psu cooling is isolated from the rest of the case.

 

The gpu cooler will help to draw air up from the bottom intakes and push it up to the Hyper 212 EVO which will then direct air out the rear exhaust.