Advice Needed: Quiet & Cool (2015 Edition)

[caluk]

Last year I started a build but never got around to completing it. I'm trying again with the same goals, but I've upgraded some of the parts from feedback and newer models.

Highlights:

• 
  ■ Replaced the Nanoxia Deep Silence with Fractal Design Define R5
  ■ Replaced the dual GTX 780 with a single GTX 980
  ■ Replaced with Thermaltake Water Cooler with a Noctua Fan Cooler
  ■ Upgraded the Memory and the Drives

Of course after all that, I discovered the be quiet! line of PSUs. Is it worth it to (more noise reduction) by looking for a quieter PSU?

Here's the updated list:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($249.99 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($68.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 EXTREME6 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($151.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($217.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra II 480GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($208.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 4GB Twin Frozr Video Card ($549.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 (Titanium) ATX Mid Tower Case ($107.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Corsair RM 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Pioneer BDR-209DBK Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($59.99 @ Directron)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-P14 FLX 65.0 CFM 140mm Fan ($17.05 @ Amazon)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($21.24 @ Amazon)
Total: $1974.17
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-13 21:24 EDT-0400

 

[ingtar33]

are you going for < noise or performance?

cause i have a few suggestions either way.

 

[caluk]

are you going for < noise or performance?

I'm looking at noise - but I think I have a good balance right now.

Can I get less noise with the same amount of power? or vice versa?

 

[ingtar33]

yep.

there are "quieter" cpu coolers out there (amazingly enough) that are in the same performance class. Such as the Thermalright HR-02 Macho Rev.B; that one will do a steller job and be quieter then a whisper. they aren't easy to find though, i had to get mine 3rd party through amazon.com

I would suggest losing the WD hard drive if silence is your concern, once you have a really quiet system the noise a mechanical hard drive makes will drive you nuts. There are almost reasonably priced 1tb sized ssds now...

If you feel like gambling, the Seasonic X series features a variable fan that only turns on when the PSU needs is. Mine has NEVER turned on.

drop the DVD burner, they're even louder then hard drives, and frankly, i've not used one in YEARS. my own system doesn't have one, nor did the one before this one

I'd go with a Samsung or Intel SSD over sandisk. Sandisk has some pretty large reliability issues; furthermore, the high end SSD market is pretty much exclusively the domain of Intel and Samsung. they're both 2 or 3 generations of tech ahead of the rest of the field. it's hard to get a bad drive from them.

I've more ideas if you're interested.

 

[caluk]

there are "quieter" cpu coolers out there (amazingly enough) that are in the same performance class. Such as the Thermalright HR-02 Macho Rev.B; that one will do a steller job and be quieter then a whisper. they aren't easy to find though, i had to get mine 3rd party through amazon.com

Thanks for introducing me to Thermalright!

I would suggest losing the WD hard drive if silence is your concern, once you have a really quiet system the noise a mechanical hard drive makes will drive you nuts. There are almost reasonably priced 1tb sized ssds now...

That's interesting, but I need a massive storage drive. My plan was to use the SSD for high frequency ops (OS and Programs) and the WD for pure data.

If you feel like gambling, the Seasonic X series features a variable fan that only turns on when the PSU needs is. Mine has NEVER turned on.

Interesting, but that seems like I'm sacrificing temperature for quiet, not power.

drop the DVD burner, they're even louder then hard drives, and frankly, i've not used one in YEARS. my own system doesn't have one, nor did the one before this one

Yeah...the burner is a necessary evil.

I'd go with a Samsung or Intel SSD over sandisk. Sandisk has some pretty large reliability issues; furthermore, the high end SSD market is pretty much exclusively the domain of Intel and Samsung. they're both 2 or 3 generations of tech ahead of the rest of the field. it's hard to get a bad drive from them.

That kind of contradicts the 'Best SSDs' article that I found.

 

[ingtar33]

Interesting, but that seems like I'm sacrificing temperature for quiet, not power.



That kind of contradicts the 'Best SSDs' article that I found.

-the seasonic psu doesn't warm up my case noticeably. i have my gtx970 right next to it and it's fans never spin up, so obviously i'm not introducing that much heat. It can get hot to touch, but apparently not much of that heat radiates into the case, so it's a wash

-the THG best SSD article only looks at 2 things. price/performance. They do NOT look at reliability. this make their SSD article of limited value as they often "suggest" very unreliable ssds. for a time half their list was made up of OCZ ssds, which are historically the least reliable ssd's on the market.

The number 2 and 3 least reliable are Kingston and Sandisk. Heck, kingston has been known to ship reviewers "review" only SSDs, which are "stand ins" for the real product with the same name which is released later. the review SSDs usually have much better performance numbers while the production SSDs are cheap unreliable junk with half the specs (though advertizing the review unit's numbers on the packaging and advertising material).

Sandisk doesn't do such evil/nefarious things, they just produce drives that tend to fail at a high rate. So while many articles THG does are very informative take their SSD article with a grain of salt. because there rarely are "good" units listed in their list.

 

[caluk]

-the seasonic psu doesn't warm up my case noticeably. i have my gtx970 right next to it and it's fans never spin up, so obviously i'm not introducing that much heat. It can get hot to touch, but apparently not much of that heat radiates into the case, so it's a wash

I've learnt a lot more since the start of the post. This post makes it seem like the RM850 has a greater chance (if any) of failing so I'm almost sold on a seasonic x. But what did you mean about 'gambling' in the previous post?

-the THG best SSD article only looks at 2 things. price/performance. They do NOT look at reliability. this make their SSD article of limited value as they often "suggest" very unreliable ssds. for a time half their list was made up of OCZ ssds, which are historically the least reliable ssd's on the market.
...
Sandisk doesn't do such evil/nefarious things, they just produce drives that tend to fail at a high rate. So while many articles THG does are very informative take their SSD article with a grain of salt. because there rarely are "good" units listed in their list.

Thanks for the insight on the SSDs. I'm looking at the Samsung 850 Pro now.

 

[ingtar33]

I've learnt a lot more since the start of the post. This post makes it seem like the RM850 has a greater chance (if any) of failing so I'm almost sold on a seasonic x. But what did you mean about 'gambling' in the previous post?

well, the RM850 is a tier 3 psu. here is the psu tier list.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html#xtor=EPR-8886

typically tier 3 psus are usable, notice i didn't say it was junk (anything under tier3 IS junk); only that there are much quieter/reliable options on the market especially since you're thinking of plopping down $140 for it.

What i meant by "gamble" is while the seasonic X series psu is a top of the line, high end "Cadillac" psu, it does have a reputation for having a little coil whine. Now in a normal system you probably would never notice the coil whine, however most people use the X series in "quiet" computers, and as a result if you get one that has some coil whine it probably will be darn near unbearable to hear.

When i bought my X series, i knew some of them had coil whine issues, but i simply thought it was worth the gamble. My unit has zero coil whine. So it was a gamble i won. I actually tested it before installing by "jump starting" the psu to see if it made any coil whine noise i was so concerned (I would have sent it back for replacement had it done so. a needless concern, it worked right out of the box, no noise at all)

 

[caluk]

Thanks for the info!