Parts for a quiet build?

[asiancowboy3]

If I wanted to build a computer with the main focus being the noise level, should I just get as many "be quiet!" parts as possible or are there other components that out preform the brand?

 

Thanks 

[LienusLateTips]

There are some stuff even quieter.

 

SeaSonic fanless is quieter because it has no fan compared to the fan on the power supply

 

Budget?

[Fungal]

I have some bequiet silent wings 2 fans and they are definitely the quietest fans I've ever had. But you should also checkout some of noctua's fans and cpu coolers, I've never used anything by them but everyone praises them. You can also get a high wattage (1000 w) power supply and use that in your pc and it's fan probably won't turn on unless you're under heavy load. That power supply option will cost you about another $100. At the very least if going for a quiet system get some nice fans, relatively quiet case (fractal etc.), and a decent non reference gpu. 

[asiancowboy3]

15 minutes ago, JDE said:

There are some stuff even quieter.

 

SeaSonic fanless is quieter because it has no fan compared to the fan on the power supply

 

Budget?

No budget, just as quiet as possible lol.  

[loculus]

Depends on what you're cooling, how quiet, etc. But largely Be Quiet! products are not particularly noteworthy, though some of it is pretty good.

 

Fans are actually relatively unimportant here because you don't want to be running anything at a mid to high rpm anyway, and most decent quality stuff is similar down in the lower ranges, with many exceptions.

 

For sure you need to plan on having a quiet power supply, as you can't control its fan speed curve later. You need something quiet up through the power draw/temps you'll be using. That could be a fanless model, something with a fanless mode through the power draw you'll see, or just something that only spins slowly with a reasonable quality fan through the loads you'll encounter (e.g. 600 rpm on a 12 cm fan).

 

The main problem for a lot of builds is cooling the GPU quietly. How feasible this is depends on how many graphics cards you're running (2 and definitely more than 2 might only really work with custom watercooling), the power and temp targets and overclocks and so on. Ideally for low noise you would undervolt and run at lower power levels. The right model graphics card, if sticking with air cooling, is a must. Some are much quieter than others for a given temp target. Check TechPowerUp reviews, among others. Either that or you'll want an aftermarket cooler for that, in which case you need a model with a layout supported by the aftermarket cooler.

 

CPU cooling is another big problem if overclocking substantially. If not, a decent aftermarket cooler and that is probably fine running a low fan speed curve. Ideally you get a better model but it's not like you necessarily have to run an NH-D15 or similar top-tier air cooler unless you're trying to max your overclock under a given noise constraint. Something closer to $30-40 could be okay, but if overclocking or using a high-end-desktop chip, be wary of fans/coolers tuned for performance at a budget where the acoustics of the fan are relatively lousy (e.g. CM Hyper 212 variants and so on).

 

If the rest is quiet, actually the loudest components may be any hard drives. You definitely want as few mechanical drives as possible, and you want them to all be 5400 rpm (or I guess 5900 rpm), preferably with fewer platters. Unfortunately not many especially these days review hard drives for noise. Ideally you would elastic suspension mount them to remove any vibration transfer, but a decent drive-mounting mechanism may be acceptable. There are some aftermarket solutions for dampening drives as well. Well, if "no budget" means "budget is no object" then I'm sure you can use all SSDs.

 

Generally, the key to low noise to have low-noise components, not to smother higher-noise components with a closed-off, sound-dampening case, though that also works to an extent. If you don't have any mechanical hard drives, an alternative case strategy can be to use a very open, free-flowing case—if everything inside is quiet, the build would then be quiet. If you have mechanical drives (or dealing with coil whine, as suggested below), then using a more solid and sound dampening case is usually a better idea.

 

Whatever case fans and CPU cooler / other stuff you have, you want all to be software controlled based on temps, probably, maybe with fans turning off at low enough temps, Asus tends to have full control, both PWM and voltage, across fan headers. Some others may these days too.

[DJ46]

The requirements depend on your hearing and noise floor. For example, at night, I can hear a slight annoying hum from my Noctua fans, running at 400RPM. To me, a completely silent system would be passive cooling and some way to silence coil whine, probably with some mods.

 

I don't know what your budget is, but I made my computer as cheap as possible. If I had a bigger budget, I wouldn't get used Noctua fans.

After some research, I found out BeQuiet top range fans are quieter (some dude on a forum even said that BeQuiet at 500RPM is as loud/a bit quieter than a Noctua at 400RPM).

Also, Most GPU's come with pretty small fans, even ones with a giant heatsink. You can easily mount a 120mm case fan with good static pressure. Often to do this you need to remove the cooler so you can get rid of the shroud, so that might void the warranty on some cards. I use SpeedFan to regulate mine, but a safer way would be the fan connectors on the new Strix cards from ASUS.

Also, I wouldn't use a hard drive at all. Even after sticking my old one in a cooling box it was still the loudest part of my system. If you want silence, you have to go all solid state.

 

But, as I said, this all depends on your requirements. Everyone is comfortable with something different. Some people void warranties and hate noise, some people are scared of modding and don't mind a bit of fan hum.

Most people are quite comfortable with an AiB GPU with the stock fan curve, a PSU that stops its fan on idle and a big CPU heatsink/AIO. They "can't hear it" at idle and use headphones while gaming.

[DJ46]

3 minutes ago, loculus said:

Depends on what you're cooling, how quiet, etc. But largely Be Quiet! products are not particularly noteworthy, though some of it is pretty good.

 

Fans are actually relatively unimportant here because you don't want to be running anything at a mid to high rpm anyway, and most decent quality stuff is similar down in the lower ranges, with many exceptions.

I can't say I agree with this. Most people might not be able to tell the difference, but there's a reason BeQuiet has a 6-pole motor instead of a 4-pole in the high-end models. I've used quite a few Noctua fans and some from other brands. The older Noctua fans were some of the worst fans to control by voltage, wouldn't run under like 7 volts and had issues with starting that low, they needed to start at 12V all the time. All the F12s I had made a really weird noise when run at low RPM. The P12s were quieter, but I had to control them with software to start them at 12V while booting.

 

Also, I would say that even a system with components known to be quiet should be in a sound-dampening case for the best results. You simply can't control coil-whine and most retailers (at least over here) won't replace a working part that is audible to you, but they can't hear it in their loud testing space.

I would say I recommend the passive PSUs from Seasonic for a quiet rig, but I can't. Ironically, they have probably the worst reputation with coil-whine. Gold or Platinum model, doesn't matter. Super Flower was considered really good (along with the EVGA G2 and G3 PSUs - made by them), but I can't tell you for certain because I used a G2 750 in a rig for a customer and at idle it whines at a definitely audible level.

 

Overall, coil-whine is the worst enemy of quiet computing, IMO. It is just so random. Fans can whine, motherboard and GPU VRMs can whine, PSUs can whine, and sometimes a quiet GPU with a quiet PSU will whine because the combination of them makes them. Your monitor PSU can whine as well, and good luck doing anything with that.

[asiancowboy3]

Do Corsair ML fans preform well?

[LienusLateTips]

12 minutes ago, asiancowboy3 said:

Do Corsair ML fans preform well?

Yes, but I'm pretty sure they are loud.

 

BTW remember to quote people so they get a notification.

[loculus]

8 hours ago, DJ46 said:

I can't say I agree with this. Most people might not be able to tell the difference, but there's a reason BeQuiet has a 6-pole motor instead of a 4-pole in the high-end models. I've used quite a few Noctua fans and some from other brands. The older Noctua fans were some of the worst fans to control by voltage, wouldn't run under like 7 volts and had issues with starting that low, they needed to start at 12V all the time. All the F12s I had made a really weird noise when run at low RPM. The P12s were quieter, but I had to control them with software to start them at 12V while booting.

 

Also, I would say that even a system with components known to be quiet should be in a sound-dampening case for the best results. You simply can't control coil-whine and most retailers (at least over here) won't replace a working part that is audible to you, but they can't hear it in their loud testing space.

I would say I recommend the passive PSUs from Seasonic for a quiet rig, but I can't. Ironically, they have probably the worst reputation with coil-whine. Gold or Platinum model, doesn't matter. Super Flower was considered really good (along with the EVGA G2 and G3 PSUs - made by them), but I can't tell you for certain because I used a G2 750 in a rig for a customer and at idle it whines at a definitely audible level.

 

Overall, coil-whine is the worst enemy of quiet computing, IMO. It is just so random. Fans can whine, motherboard and GPU VRMs can whine, PSUs can whine, and sometimes a quiet GPU with a quiet PSU will whine because the combination of them makes them. Your monitor PSU can whine as well, and good luck doing anything with that.

That was all things considered, starting from a typical build and working down. Coil whine (though not at high levels that may be successfully RMA'd depending on brand) and fan acoustic quality and differences when runnning low rpms is relatively less important when compared to a typical 7200 rpm hard drive vibrating a whole case, or the average video card running the default fan curve. You have a point with some of the old Noctuas and on many of the other issues, though.

 

"Most people might not be able to tell the difference" is kind of exactly the point.

 

Once you get down to builds going way under 20 dB SPL @ 1m and demand quieter then you have to pay more attention to a lot of the things that concern you more.

 

I guess more attention should be paid to the OP's expectations, which are not given. Or even just preferences with respect to load and idle. Some need virtual silence at idle while others are more focused at reducing noise at load.

[seon123]

If you have no budget nor any expectations of performance, just get the Intel Skull Canyon NUC, spec it out with an SSD, and get a passive cooler for it.