- Dec 31, 2010
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Hi,
I'm a self confessed quiet freak when it comes to building computers so I've done a lot of research into how to build the quietest PC possible. I thought I'd share that knowledge with the rest of the community for anyone else that wants an extremely quiet PC.
Firstly you have to identify the sources of noise in a PC. The only noise should be:
1. Moving parts such as fans, mechanical hard drives and optical drives (and to a lesser extent, water cooling pumps). The movement itself can make noise and even vibrate the case to make even more noise.
2. Airflow: Even if the motor in the fan was perfect and didn't make any noise, moving 100CM3/H of air will make some noise on its own.
3. Coil whine. Sometimes capacitors and other electronic components can make a very faint and high pitched whining sound that is only usually noticeable when the PC is quiet anyway. This is especially true for lower quality components.
- In order to reduce the amount of moving parts as much as possible in a PC, try to have as few fans as you can get away with and avoid hard drives, optical drives and water cooling.
- In order to reduce the airflow as much as possible, you need to have components that don't put out much heat so they will run cool even with low airflow, this means picking components with low power consumption*
- The only way to avoid coil whine is to only buy high quality components from respected manufacturers and hope for the best as you can sometimes still get a component with some whine but not all manufacturers will replace it for this unless there's a fault with it.
* In order do explain why low power consumption is best, I need to explain how heat is created in a PC. All components require a certain amount of energy to run, some a lot like 200-300W graphics cards and some not a lot like 3W SSDs. You can get a rough idea of the amount of power each component draws by looking at the TDP (Thermal Design Power), this is roughly how much power it will draw from the PSU when being 100% utilised. Most of that power/energy will go towards running the component but some of it will be wasted (10-30% or so) because no component is 100% efficient. That wasted power turns into heat energy and makes the component hotter. If a component gets too hot it can shut down to avoid being damaged so it needs to be cooled. This means that the less power a component draws in the first place, the less it will waste and the less heat it will generate. This is why something low-power like RAM or an SSD doesn't need dedicated cooling, they're usually OK just with some air around to ventilate them whereas GPUs and CPU's need dedicated heatsinks, fans and sometimes even liquid cooling. PSU's work much in the same way, lets say they need to provide 400W for all of the components in your PC and it is 80% efficient, it will actually pull around 500W from the wall (because 400W is 80% of 500W). This means in this example it will be putting out 100W of heat, obviously this is a lot and this is why PSU's also have dedicated cooling.
So by now we know that we want high quality efficient components that don't need much energy to run with as few moving parts as possible. You are always going to need a few fans but we can just make sure they are great quality so they make as little noise as possible.
So lets say for example we want to build a PC for audio recording, you need quite a powerful PC but it should be as quiet as possible so it doesn't distract you from work and so the noise isn't picked up on recordings. This is the sort of thing I would go for.
Intel Core i7-4770S 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor
Noctua NH-U9S 46.4 CFM CPU Cooler
Asus H81I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard
Kingston Savage 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Inwin 901 Mini ITX Tower Case
SeaSonic 360W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply
Total - £643.66
The reasons for these choices are that the i7-4770S is the low power version of the i7 which is only 65W so it is easier to keep quiet. The fan on that Noctua cooler is controlled by PWM, this means it has a 4 pin connector and the 4th pin makes sure the fan only speeds up if the PC is getting hot. This means that most of the time it should stay at around 400RPM and for a 92mm fan that is simply inaudible in my experience. Even for a 120mm fan I can't hear anything under around 600-700RPM unless I take the PC apart and put my ear next to the fan. I picked a SSD because it has no moving parts so it makes no noise whatsoever, the case has no fans included and is made from a single piece of aluminium and this will reduce any vibrations. Lastly the PSU is made by Seasonic which means the quality will be fantastic as usual, the fan will be very quiet and the 80 PLUS gold certification means it will produce a tiny amount of heat.
If I was to use a case fan, I would buy another PWM fan and a PWM Y connector. This means you can connect 2 PWM fans to the same 4 pin connector on the motherboard and both fans will slow down/speed up at the same time based on the temperature of the CPU.
Even with a case fan that means the only noise coming from that case should be from 3 extremely quiet fans, it should be completely inaudible when idling and possibly even under load as well
Other things to look out for in higher end components that will make the PC even quieter are fanless components such as the Seasonic X-400. I'm not a big of these myself because if the PC did get too hot I'd rather it just get slightly louder than shut down and/or possibly damage components.
Something that is even better than fanless in my opinion is hybrid fans such as those on the Corsair AX-650 and Seasonic X-560. These fans are controlled by PWM like most PSU fans but they can go down to 0RPM if the temperature allows. The holy grail of quiet computing in my opinion would be no moving parts except for a few hybrid fans. This means 0DB when idling and so long as you don't get really hungry components, it should stay quiet under load as well.
I hope this guide has been helpful! Feel free to PM me any questions about quiet computing and I'll do my best to answer them.
I'm a self confessed quiet freak when it comes to building computers so I've done a lot of research into how to build the quietest PC possible. I thought I'd share that knowledge with the rest of the community for anyone else that wants an extremely quiet PC.
Firstly you have to identify the sources of noise in a PC. The only noise should be:
1. Moving parts such as fans, mechanical hard drives and optical drives (and to a lesser extent, water cooling pumps). The movement itself can make noise and even vibrate the case to make even more noise.
2. Airflow: Even if the motor in the fan was perfect and didn't make any noise, moving 100CM3/H of air will make some noise on its own.
3. Coil whine. Sometimes capacitors and other electronic components can make a very faint and high pitched whining sound that is only usually noticeable when the PC is quiet anyway. This is especially true for lower quality components.
- In order to reduce the amount of moving parts as much as possible in a PC, try to have as few fans as you can get away with and avoid hard drives, optical drives and water cooling.
- In order to reduce the airflow as much as possible, you need to have components that don't put out much heat so they will run cool even with low airflow, this means picking components with low power consumption*
- The only way to avoid coil whine is to only buy high quality components from respected manufacturers and hope for the best as you can sometimes still get a component with some whine but not all manufacturers will replace it for this unless there's a fault with it.
* In order do explain why low power consumption is best, I need to explain how heat is created in a PC. All components require a certain amount of energy to run, some a lot like 200-300W graphics cards and some not a lot like 3W SSDs. You can get a rough idea of the amount of power each component draws by looking at the TDP (Thermal Design Power), this is roughly how much power it will draw from the PSU when being 100% utilised. Most of that power/energy will go towards running the component but some of it will be wasted (10-30% or so) because no component is 100% efficient. That wasted power turns into heat energy and makes the component hotter. If a component gets too hot it can shut down to avoid being damaged so it needs to be cooled. This means that the less power a component draws in the first place, the less it will waste and the less heat it will generate. This is why something low-power like RAM or an SSD doesn't need dedicated cooling, they're usually OK just with some air around to ventilate them whereas GPUs and CPU's need dedicated heatsinks, fans and sometimes even liquid cooling. PSU's work much in the same way, lets say they need to provide 400W for all of the components in your PC and it is 80% efficient, it will actually pull around 500W from the wall (because 400W is 80% of 500W). This means in this example it will be putting out 100W of heat, obviously this is a lot and this is why PSU's also have dedicated cooling.
So by now we know that we want high quality efficient components that don't need much energy to run with as few moving parts as possible. You are always going to need a few fans but we can just make sure they are great quality so they make as little noise as possible.
So lets say for example we want to build a PC for audio recording, you need quite a powerful PC but it should be as quiet as possible so it doesn't distract you from work and so the noise isn't picked up on recordings. This is the sort of thing I would go for.
Intel Core i7-4770S 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor
Noctua NH-U9S 46.4 CFM CPU Cooler
Asus H81I-PLUS Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard
Kingston Savage 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Inwin 901 Mini ITX Tower Case
SeaSonic 360W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply
Total - £643.66
The reasons for these choices are that the i7-4770S is the low power version of the i7 which is only 65W so it is easier to keep quiet. The fan on that Noctua cooler is controlled by PWM, this means it has a 4 pin connector and the 4th pin makes sure the fan only speeds up if the PC is getting hot. This means that most of the time it should stay at around 400RPM and for a 92mm fan that is simply inaudible in my experience. Even for a 120mm fan I can't hear anything under around 600-700RPM unless I take the PC apart and put my ear next to the fan. I picked a SSD because it has no moving parts so it makes no noise whatsoever, the case has no fans included and is made from a single piece of aluminium and this will reduce any vibrations. Lastly the PSU is made by Seasonic which means the quality will be fantastic as usual, the fan will be very quiet and the 80 PLUS gold certification means it will produce a tiny amount of heat.
If I was to use a case fan, I would buy another PWM fan and a PWM Y connector. This means you can connect 2 PWM fans to the same 4 pin connector on the motherboard and both fans will slow down/speed up at the same time based on the temperature of the CPU.
Even with a case fan that means the only noise coming from that case should be from 3 extremely quiet fans, it should be completely inaudible when idling and possibly even under load as well
Other things to look out for in higher end components that will make the PC even quieter are fanless components such as the Seasonic X-400. I'm not a big of these myself because if the PC did get too hot I'd rather it just get slightly louder than shut down and/or possibly damage components.
Something that is even better than fanless in my opinion is hybrid fans such as those on the Corsair AX-650 and Seasonic X-560. These fans are controlled by PWM like most PSU fans but they can go down to 0RPM if the temperature allows. The holy grail of quiet computing in my opinion would be no moving parts except for a few hybrid fans. This means 0DB when idling and so long as you don't get really hungry components, it should stay quiet under load as well.
I hope this guide has been helpful! Feel free to PM me any questions about quiet computing and I'll do my best to answer them.
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