Liquid Vs Air

[TubsAlwaysWins]

So what would be better for my system to achieve near silence (Probable drop fan speeds down to off or barely moving) while getting great overclocks on a 6800K?

Should I air or water cool? It will be in a Phantex Evolv ATX TG probably. Im also not talking about custom loops, so either a AIO or a normal cooler. Also what cooler should I get for it? Thanks

[Oshino Shinobu]

Air cooling. Something like a Noctua NH-D15 with low RPM fans would work well (if it fits in your case. I can't recall off the top of my head)

 

AIOs are fairly loud once you factor in pump noise and the noise of pushing air through the radiator fins. (You get the latter with air cooling too, but often to a lesser extent) 

[Guest]

Trying to figure out if my water make a sploosh or woosh sound 

[TubsAlwaysWins]

Just now, dexxterlab97 said:

Trying to figure out if my water make a sploosh or woosh sound 

lol

[ForumTryhard]

Do the wooshies

[Zyndo]

9 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Air cooling. Something like a Noctua NH-D15 with low RPM fans would work well (if it fits in your case. I can't recall off the top of my head)

 

AIOs are fairly loud once you factor in pump noise and the noise of pushing air through the radiator fins. (You get the latter with air cooling too, but often to a lesser extent) 

I have a H1100i V2 installed in my system about 1-2ft from my head. there is absolutely 0 pump noise. its completely inaudible. as far as wooshing fan noise....  that will be completely dependent on how much cooling you require. There is no reason for radiators to be any louder than traditional heatsinks (realistically they should even be quieter)

 

That being said there is nothing wrong with the D15 if you want to go that route. it performs quite closely to a lot of AIO's on the market as far as strict cooling numbers go.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Just now, Zyndo said:

I have a H1100i V2 installed in my system about 1-2ft from my head. there is absolutely 0 pump noise. its completely inaudible. as far as wooshing fan noise....  that will be completely dependent on how much cooling you require. There is no reason for radiators to be any louder than traditional heatsinks (realistically they should even be quieter)

 

That being said there is nothing wrong with the D15 if you want to go that route. it performs quite closely to a lot of AIO's on the market as far as strict cooling numbers go.

I've had a H100i and currently have a D5 vario in my system. I can hear both of them, with the D5 being noticeably quieter since moving to a full system, but still audible. As for fan noise, it's good to note that radiator fins are often a lot more dense than air cooler fins (especially on AIOs), so the pressure required to push air through it higher. With such low fin density, large air coolers work better for low RPM fans than AIOs. 

 

Noise can depend quite a bit on the case as well. I have a Corsair 700D which had giant fan grills everywhere and a massive window with basically no sound dampening, so I can hear pretty much any noise in my case (it's also very quiet where I am in terms of ambient noise, so small sounds carry). 

 

Without going into full custom systems, air cooling is the way to go for silence. 

[Zyndo]

4 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

I've had a H100i and currently have a D5 vario in my system. I can hear both of them, with the D5 being noticeably quieter since moving to a full system, but still audible. As for fan noise, it's good to note that radiator fins are often a lot more dense than air cooler fins (especially on AIOs), so the pressure required to push air through it higher. With such low fin density, large air coolers work better for low RPM fans than AIOs. 

 

Noise can depend quite a bit on the case as well. I have a Corsair 700D which had giant fan grills everywhere and a massive window with basically no sound dampening, so I can hear pretty much any noise in my case (it's also very quiet where I am in terms of ambient noise, so small sounds carry). 

 

Without going into full custom systems, air cooling is the way to go for silence. 

higher fin density means more surface area. more surface area means more cooling potential. more cooling potential means lower fan speeds required to reach the same cooling. lower fan speeds equal less noise. It really works out to be about the same (again, with radiators being the better way to go for silence as far as fans are concerned).

 

As far as pump noise goes. I cannot vouch for first hand experience over what i've never used. I would assume noise would change from one unit to the next. But my case is nothing special. in fact it was super cheap (Thermaltake Vera N21, dirt cheap 50 dollar case of mediocre build quality and 0 sound dampening). Even without the side panel on, the pump makes (literally) 0 noise. To the point where I was originally paranoid it wasn't working at all(since everyone always says how noisy pumps are supposed to be) but my thermals seem to be about where they need to be so its obviously gotta be workin lol. I dunno, maybe i got a lucky unit or something, but I'm telling you it doesn't make any noise at all.

[meenmeen1103]

1 hour ago, TubsAlwaysWins said:

So what would be better for my system to achieve near silence (Probable drop fan speeds down to off or barely moving) while getting great overclocks on a 6800K?

Should I air or water cool? It will be in a Phantex Evolv ATX TG probably. Im also not talking about custom loops, so either a AIO or a normal cooler. Also what cooler should I get for it? Thanks

From a purely quiet and aesthetics point of view, I'd suggest looking into the Thermaltake 360mm RGB aio. Now I know, it's not a popular, highly talked about piece, but I can say it's a rather nice cooler. I've had mine for less than a year but very happy with it. I chose to not go based off of the most recommended price/performance aio's and looked solely for something with a lot of surface area to be able to have a lot of slow moving air instead of lesser but faster moving air. Your case accepts 3x120mm fans up top, which is where I installed mine. It comes with an obnoxious control for the rgb and speed (high/low) but I can also control speed through mobo in conjunction with that. As far as the pump, mine's easily quieter than any HDD I've owned. The logo on it is a little off-putting imo. Can't vouch for reliability yet (besides, a sample size of 1? come on)but the big majority of reviews I read were good.

[WoodenMarker]

4 hours ago, Zyndo said:

I have a H1100i V2 installed in my system about 1-2ft from my head. there is absolutely 0 pump noise. its completely inaudible. as far as wooshing fan noise....  that will be completely dependent on how much cooling you require. There is no reason for radiators to be any louder than traditional heatsinks (realistically they should even be quieter)

The reason AIO's are louder are due to the pump. If you can't hear the pump, it's either your hearing not being sensitive enough or your fans being too loud and masking them. I pretty easily hear the h100i v2 pump. 

4 hours ago, Zyndo said:

higher fin density means more surface area. more surface area means more cooling potential. more cooling potential means lower fan speeds required to reach the same cooling. lower fan speeds equal less noise. It really works out to be about the same (again, with radiators being the better way to go for silence as far as fans are concerned).

Lower fan speeds doesn't make pump noise go away.

 

Air cooling is able to get quieter than liquid cooling ever could be.

That being said, high capacity cooling is surpassed with liquid cooling and might be necessary depending on what the OP means by 'great oc's'.

[Zyndo]

1 hour ago, WoodenMarker said:

The reason AIO's are louder are due to the pump. If you can't hear the pump, it's either your hearing not being sensitive enough or your fans being too loud and masking them. I pretty easily hear the h100i v2 pump. 

Lower fan speeds doesn't make pump noise go away.

 

Air cooling is able to get quieter than liquid cooling ever could be.

That being said, high capacity cooling is surpassed with liquid cooling and might be necessary depending on what the OP means by 'great oc's'.

I have SP120 blue LED fans on the rad running at 60% (lowest setting). they're pretty darn quiet...

 

Buuut whatever. enjoy yer air coolers.

[WoodenMarker]

Just now, Zyndo said:

I have SP120 blue LED fans on the rad running at 60% (lowest setting). they're pretty darn quiet...

Buuut whatever. enjoy yer air coolers.

Your hearing probably isn't nearly as sensitive as mine in that case. 

SP120 LED fans are barely quiet at 60% and the quieter ringed AF120 QE's are barely passable for my taste. 

I personally run my Noctuas at a constant 300rpm and don't start to mind them until they get past 600rpm.

[Zyndo]

10 hours ago, WoodenMarker said:

Your hearing probably isn't nearly as sensitive as mine in that case. 

SP120 LED fans are barely quiet at 60% and the quieter ringed AF120 QE's are barely passable for my taste. 

I personally run my Noctuas at a constant 300rpm and don't start to mind them until they get past 600rpm.

Well if you're so certain the pump should be makin noise, perhaps I should reinvestigate the possibility of a broken/inoperable pump

 

 

How would one go about diagnosing such a thing accurately?

[WoodenMarker]

2 hours ago, Zyndo said:

Well if you're so certain the pump should be makin noise, perhaps I should reinvestigate the possibility of a broken/inoperable pump

How would one go about diagnosing such a thing accurately?

It's probably not broken if your temps are fine at load.

You can run the system with nothing on but the pump and possibly psu fan if you'd like.

[Deli]

4 hours ago, Zyndo said:

Well if you're so certain the pump should be makin noise, perhaps I should reinvestigate the possibility of a broken/inoperable pump

 

 

How would one go about diagnosing such a thing accurately?

AIO pumps are relatively inexpensive and the quality varies quite a bit pump to pump. I have use three different AIO OEM by Asetek. The noise of the pumps are not the same among them. You could be lucky to get a quiet one. But they are many noisy ones out there for sure.