Looking for a very quiet ATX case with PSU on a budget

[AMcDermott]

I inherited a new PC - an AMD FX 6300 on an Asustek M5A97 R2.0 motherboard with a Radeon HD 6950. It's in an old CoolerMaster CM Stack case and has an Icy Box IB-554SSK (or maybe IB-555SSK) SATA 5 x 3.5 hot swap bay.

It's very noisy, and I do audio recording frequently, so it's pretty much unusable as-is. I need to find a solution to the noise. Quiet is more important than performance for the most part (I don't mind if it gets loud when doing something like rendering video etc).

I've already disabled the Icy Box fan, and the ceiling fan inside the CM case. The GPU fan doesn't seem to be too bad when not spun up. The CPU fan is quite noisy and I got suggested a Noctua nh-d15 CPU cooler for that.

But I think the major culprit now is the PSU. It's a Seasonic SS-850AM (80 Plus Bronze/M12II-850Bronze). From what I've read, this should be fairly quiet when not under load, so there could be a fault with whatever triggers the fan, but it seems to be on 100%.

I could look at buying the Noctua suggested, and a new PSU, but I'm wondering if I'm better off just buying a more modern quieter case and PSU, and transfer the components over rather than trying to fix other options to quieten the existing case.

I would like to keep the overall budget as low as reasonably possible, I was thinking a max spend of £150 all-in, ideally less but could spend more if absolutely necessary.

PC spec: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nof0rtc71jzn16z/pc-spec.html?dl=0

Photos of current case/PSU: http://imgur.com/a/1IrbK

Any other suggestions or ideas?

 

[CTurbo]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£69.98 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£74.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £144.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-03 04:21 GMT+0000

 

[CTurbo]

You would benefit greatly from newer more efficient cpu and gpu as well. There is nothing quiet about a FX cpu and a HD6950.

 

[skippyboy92362]

I'd just keep the case and replace all your fans with Noctua or Cougar and keep the case. CoolerMaster's fans are loud anyway. Also replacing the CPU cooler with something else will help out a lot so your on the right track there. If your still interested in a budget case more than likely you still may have to replace the fans with something more quite and of better quality. Make sure the case has no windowed side panel too. With a case I'd look into Lian Li first than Fractal Design. Stay away from Corsair if you think your PC's fans are noisy now. Your power supply looks fine so I wouldn't replace just yet. Something else is your can go into bios on this board and if the case fans are hooked up to the motherboard you can put them to silent performance.

 

[AMcDermott]

You would benefit greatly from newer more efficient cpu and gpu as well. There is nothing quiet about a FX cpu and a HD6950.

I see your point, but that's completely out of scope for the budget I have right now.

That R4 case looks good.

Regarding the PSU, PcPartPicker calculator says it idles at 115 and full load of 345w so recommends a 450w PSU. In real world does that mean I can go with a 450 or 550 here?

I'd just keep the case and replace all your fans with Noctua or Cougar and keep the case. CoolerMaster's fans are loud anyway. Also replacing the CPU cooler with something else will help out a lot so your on the right track there. If your still interested in a budget case more than likely you still may have to replace the fans with something more quite and of better quality. Make sure the case has no windowed side panel too. With a case I'd look into Lian Li first than Fractal Design. Stay away from Corsair if you think your PC's fans are noisy now. Your power supply looks fine so I wouldn't replace just yet. Something else is your can go into bios on this board and if the case fans are hooked up to the motherboard you can put them to silent performance.

The more I look at this the less I think I can keep the existing case. It's quite old and was never intended to be a quiet case. Too many openings, undampened walls, loud fans and loud PSU.

 

[skippyboy92362]

550 watts should be plenty. A good 80 Plus gold one from the tier 1 list of brands is the way I'd go.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

I do like Cturbo's Idea for getting a Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl Case. With that case, a good quality power supply, and a new Noctua Cooler will set you back around $200 U.S.

 

[CTurbo]

The FD R4 is a very quiet case.

You need 550w minimum psu and really 650w would be better.

 

[AMcDermott]

Can you explain the difference between putting say a 550w vs a 650w? Normal running is going to be well under 200w and I won't be gaming more than a few hours a month. If load is getting maxed out e.g. gaming at 345, let's round it up to 400w just to give overhead for a phone charging and some other draw, surely a 550w is enough?

I'm looking at the the EVGA Supernova G2 550W and Corsair VS550 PSU's, with the EVGA being the forerunner due to fanless mode.

For the cases, I'm able to price a Fractal Design Define R4, Fractal Design Define R5 or a Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 all within budget.

Regarding the case, if I purchase one of the above new, does it come out of the box ready to go with fans for air cooling, or do I need to source the fans myself?

 

[skippyboy92362]

All 3 cases have at least two fans pre installed. I recalculated here http://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator on your power usage and added a few things for expansion latter on. Total what I got was around 482 watts. With that said me personally I like about 150 to 250 watts over that is required for power usage which is less strain on your power supply. If you can afford it go with a 650 watts 80 Plus gold unit. This is the one area I'll tell people to spend the money when they build a PC, it saves lots of issues down the road by having a great power supply.

 

[CTurbo]

I would get a R4 and keep the Seasonic psu you already have. Great psu.

Add an after market cooler if you're still using the stock one.

 

[AMcDermott]

I've ordered the EVGA 650 W G2 power supply - around €104 all in. More than I intended to spend, but I've been convinced to over budget on the wattage by folks here and further reading, and from the reviews it'll be a very quiet unit which is a high priority.

Haven't decided on the case yet, considering the following:

Fractal Design Define S £61.99 (approx €80)
Nanoxia Deep Silence 3 £68.30 (approx €89)
Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) £69.98 (approx €91)
Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) £77.99 (approx €101)
Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 £84.07 (approx €109)

I think the Nanoxia's are out - the DS2 is out of budget, and the DS3 has a very poor review on Amazon.co.uk (hard to know if that's an outlier or a real issue).

The Fractal Designs are €80, €90 and €100. The R5 has really great reviews but I'm wondering if I can get away with the R4 or even the S. Any thoughts on that?

 

[CTurbo]

The R4 is great

 

[AMcDermott]

I downsized to a EVGA 550W GS. After reading a bunch of reviews to make sure it'll fit what I need I've also gone with the Fractal Design Define S.

Total cost comes to €187 delivered - that's a bit over my original €150 but happy to keep it under €200.

 

[CTurbo]

550w is plenty of power, but you stated you were concerned with quiet. A 650w p2 psu would be quieter than a 550w gs

 

[AMcDermott]

I am. But budget is also an issue, and these units are expensive, have to compromise a little bit. From what I've read, the 550 GS is fairly quiet - I'll leave a review on that issue specifically when I get it.

I really appreciate all of the contributions from everyone to the thread, it really helped me in the right direction and I've learn a lot about PC components as a result.