How loud is your PC?

Vandravcek

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Hi all,

My current computer noise is making me crazy, so I'm on the quest of building "death" silent yet relatively powerful PC. From your experience is that even possible?

My build so far:

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz (65W TPD)
CPU Fan: Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Slim (135mm fan)
MB: Gigabyte - GA-AB350M-Gaming 3
RAM: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000
SSD: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB
HDD: Western Digital - BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM (used only for storage)
GPU 1: Sapphire - Radeon RX 580 4GB NITRO+ (passive fans until 60 Celsius is reached)
GPU 2: Sapphire Radeon R5 230 Eyefinity passive cooling
Case: Be Quiet! Pure base 600 (Pure Wings 2 fans - 120mm at the rear, 140mm at the front)
PSU: Corsair - RM850x - 850W 80+ Gold (zero fan mode until 340W)

Mind you, I will not overclock anything, my main goal is "death" silence under heavy CPU and light GPU workloads, machine capable of running 8 displays simultaneously and staying within 1.000 € budget. Do you think this build setup will deliver that? Thanks for your replies.
 
Solution
You might want to read this article on the different WD hard drives. Some are quieter than others.
WD red, for example.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Understanding-the-WD-Rainbow-674/
I'm not sure how helpful it could really be, since thermal issues could exist, but I bet you could make a really silent machine by incorporating sound dampening foam into the rig somehow. Other than that, I'm not really sure, but your post made the idea cross my mind.
 
First off, why are you using such a old GPU? You can possibly go with two 470s or two 480s if budget is an issue. Just don't see the point using such old hardware. However, not sure about near death, but it should definitely keep quiet.

Side note: Why 8 screens?
 

Vandravcek

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I don't need powerful GPU per se, I just need 8 display outputs. I added R5 230 only because it's cheap, has passive cooling and 2 DP/1 HDMI outputs. If Ryzen would have IGP, I wouldn't buy R5. Two rx 570/580 would also be power hawks, using 150-200W in idle, so 60 degrees Celsius (when fans kick in) would probably be reached pretty easily.

I do large data analysis for financial firms and I find eight 24"displays (1920x1200px) optimal for my line of work. (5+3 rows). I also don't want to throw 1000 bucks for Quadro, Firepro or Maxtor professional GPU, I just don't need it.
 

Vandravcek

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Sound dampening foam is already incorporated in case (Sound insulating material on top, side and front that dampens vibration and further guarantees silent operation), I just don't know how well it works in reality. I have Antec case with sound dampening foam everywhere now, don't it really doesn't help much.
http://www.bequiet.com/en/case/750
 
how loud is your pc?

if i turn on my external hard drive(mechanical drive) its slightly louder than my pc

though i am using full watercooling and all fans are set under 1,000rpm maximum--currently they are only at 700rpm

what in your current pc is actually making all the noise?

 
Quiet or inaudible is possible, silent is likely not.
A good source for quiet computing is www.silentpcreview.com.

Any pc that includes a fan will not be silent.
Noise comes from fans running at higher rpm's and from hard drives which are mechanically spinning.

About the lowest TDP processors that are capable of real work might be the T suffix kaby lake like the I7-7700T.
Priced around £330
You should be able to find a motherboard that can output three monitors using the integrated graphics.
There are some coolers that are fanless, but even they require some sort of fan in the case .
I might suggest the scythe kotetsu and run the fan around 500 rpm which will be inaudible in a case.
Here is a review:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1391-page6.html

RX580 will need a 6 and a 8 pin power connector. It also has two fans so you hope that it does not get hot.
For that, you will need more case cooling which adds noise.

I suggest you budget a single 140mm front intake fan and plan on running it as close to 600rpm as you can.
Noctua may be a good choice, but consult spcr.

For graphics, I would use a more modern gpu from nvidia. Two pcie x16 slot powered units if necessary. GTX1050 should do the job.

Good pick on a gold rated psu and over provisioned. It will loaf.
I use a Seasonic X750 and have never heard the fans spin.
Seasonic warns you to not think anything is wrong if you do not hear the fan.
 

Vandravcek

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My old Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 FLEX GPU mostly and two ZALMAN FS-V7 Fatal1ty CPU coolers (running at 1.350 rpm - it can't go lower) on Xeons. Reviews said it's a low noise GPU card - well it isn't. I also don't know how far away was ZALMAN to measure 23.7±10% dBA, their CPU cooler are way louder then that.

 

Karadjgne

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Nvidia Quadro P600 supports 4 monitors, 2x would cover your 8 needed, and is only $180 each.

This would be a far better idea than trying to find any amd cards right now with the current explosion of altmining coins. Downside would be crappy gaming.

If you want truly quiet, get a larger cpu cooler, the bigger the cooler, the better the heat dissipation, the slower the fans run. I'd suggest a Noctua NH-D14.
 


i always take manufacturers noise levels with a pinch of salt

but fans that cant go below 1350rpm certainly wont help

newer graphics cards should be quieter--though i dont know about amd ones my last amd card was the 7970--but my gtx1070 didnt even hit the 65c it needed to before the fans came on before i watercooled it

though it had a huge heatsink on there i must admit probably the biggest i have seen on a gpu--palit gamerock version

same for my psu the fan only spins when you turn on the pc then stops totally--corsair ax860i

though aiming for as near to silence as you can get will depend on ambient temperatures as well--if you are in a very hot country with no air con indoors then it will be much harder to achieve

 

Vandravcek

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Thanks for the URL I will look into it.
I'm keen on Ryzen because of 6 core/12 threats CPU, which is very beneficial for my multi threated work. I now use two old 4 core Xeons, so Ryzen 1600 should do the job just fine. Multi threated intel's CPUs are still way to expensive.

I was thinking in the line of open case, PSU and GPU fans not spinning at all and CPU cooler spinning at 350 rpm (25 % max fan speed). 120mm rear and 140mm front case silent wings fans spinning at minimum speed (I think around 500 rpm). Is this realistic expectation?
 
Just a thought:
Have you considered using two 40" 4k displays?
For example the Philips BDM4065UC
https://www.amazon.com/Philips-BDM4065UC-Resolution-Speakers-DisplayPort/dp/B00SCX78JS
Each can display the equivalent of a 1080P in terms of pixels.
That would give you borderless images and the ability to size each better.
Modern kaby lake motherboards can output 4k @60hz.
A single GTX1050ti can also and it would be virtually silent.
 

Vandravcek

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Thanks for the suggestion, but I already have 4 HP and 4 DELL IPS monitors and am very pleased with them, so I intend to use them in the future.
 


For a truly multithreaded workload, ryzen 1600 is very good.
65w is, by today's standards not that high so you should have no issue finding a good cooler.
Here is a recent review of some very capable 140mm coolers.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/11407/140-mm-slim-tower-cpu-cooler-roundup

You need to be careful about undervolting fans. Most will not start below 5v,
Better to buy a slower fan in the first place.

Easy to do on case fans, but not so easy for graphics cards.
Better to buy a graphics card that does not need much power to run and the consequent need to cool it.
 


open case would allow slower fan speed

but also allow more noise to escape

so guess its one of those things you would have to try for yourself to see which was better for you

also if you are younger normally you can hear any higher pitched noises more than us oldies can

 
A 200mm front intake fan will run at low rpm and push lots of air.
There are some number of cases out there that can accommodate such a fan.
If you have sufficient intake air capability, the rest of the case needs nothing; all that comes in will exit somewhere, taking component heat with it.

 

How much storage do you actually need? In a very quiet system that's running its fans at low speeds, the hard drive can potentially be more audible than the fans. Generally, a slower ~5400 RPM drive will tend to be a bit quieter than a 7200 RPM one, and performance should be good enough for most bulk storage needs.

Of course, if you don't need a terabyte of storage, you might just use the SSD for everything, which has no moving parts and should be silent. One option would be to skip the hard drive, and just have the SSD, or perhaps a larger one if you need more space than 250 GB, or two SSDs, if you want to keep backups on another drive for redundancy or something. Of course, if you want the extra storage of a hard drive, you could likely set it to power down when not in use, assuming you're not accessing files on it constantly.

The case is probably a good choice. As you said, it's built with noise dampening materials and is supposed to be one of the quieter cases out there. Just make sure you have enough air circulation to keep the CPU and GPU cool to keep their fans from ramping up, since it doesn't have as much airflow as some other cases. The fans that come with that case will probably do a decent enough job though.

Like someone else said, the system won't be completely silent, but it would likely be very quiet, so long as it's not being used for gaming or anything like that.
 


the enthoo luxe is one example

mine came with a 200mm front fan--and phanteks make decent fans

and think its got the option to add a top 200mm as well

and its a great case in my opinion as well

even with only a 200mm front fan the whole top near enough has little holes to let any heat just rise out

 

Vandravcek

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Mar 30, 2017
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I use SSD Samsung EVO 250 GB for active workload and use HDDs only for making archives. I intend to do the same on new machine. 250 GB is more then enough for me and I just add new HDD when "old" gets full so HDD noise is not a problem.