Quiet Computers 3

[RRoswell]

Hi,

I'm thinking about buying a new desktop, and I've heard that the liquid-cooled kind were more quiet than the air-fan alternative.

Is that true?

I'd really appreciate some pointers on where to buy a quiet desktop PC.

Thanks.

 

[MonkeyX]

Mine is very quiet! But it very much depends on the radiator and pump setup. However, there may be cheaper means to get a silent PC. For example, using a single larger fan that spins at a lower RPM (i.e. quieter) still moves the same amount of air as two smaller higher RPM fans. The liquid cooled systems are great if you are overclocking your system. Are you looking to buy or build this system? If you are buying one possibility would be to look for media center style PCs that are meant to be used in you entertainment system. Liquid cooled systems usually have a premium attached to the price. Also there are maintenance issues to contend with. If you are building this system I would be glad to give a few pointers on that as well! In other words you get to learn from my mistakes (and trust me there were enough of those!)

 

[wahnula]

I hate noise too...all my systems run Nexus PSUs from

http://www.endpcnoise.com

and Zalman flower coolers and they are truly silent. Use the Silencer series of PSUs from

http://www.pcpower.com

if you need more juice.

The latest Zalman s9700 cooler is noisier than their others, and the model I bought has no fan speed control. Forget the fanless ZeroTherm BTF cooler. My next purchase will be Thermaltake's new V1 cooler, it outperforms the Zalman according to reviews.

As for water-cooling, I believe that is more for performance than silence. Use 120mm fans with a front bay controller with temp probes, I have 6 fans in my rig and you can't hear any of them except the Zalman...and ambient case temps are in the 25-30C range, CPU maxes out at 37C under load. The Antec SpotCool is great for hotspots too.

Tony

 

[RRoswell]

Thanks for your input.