vibrokatana
New Member
A) choose the motherboard/CPU, right now the best deal is AMDs set, they recently cut prices, run cool with the stock sink, and are fast. for a intended quite computer, I usually use AMD's Cool 'n Quiet and asus' QFan. This will lower the fan speed to bairly audible.
B) choose a case and fans. unfortunately there are a billion cases out there. Generically a case made out of aluminum will handle case vibrations better, but is not always the case. Fans that use a 3pin motherboard header and a motherboard with a fan controller(like asus' qfan) can throttle the fan down to a bairly audible level.
C) quiet down the cdrom, usually liteon drives ship with a speed tool that you can use to limit the maximum read speed, but sometimes it doesnt work
D) Hard drive choice, generally the new Wester Digitals and Hitachis are pretty quite, the seagates I rate is so-so. You can download a tool from the drive manufacturer to change the various settings on a drive to adjust for various settings which can help limit the noise. I generally avoid using a hard drive bay (ie silencers) for thermal reasons, but these will drastically cut down on the noise
E) video card, the best choice is to test your existing cooler on your video card to see if it is quiet enough. replacing a cooler is very tricky and can result in a cracked gpu. the current generation of cards will clock back in 2d and when your playing games, usually you will have alot of noise going on anyway and will probably not notice it.
just a few tips from building a couple "silent" systems for people.
B) choose a case and fans. unfortunately there are a billion cases out there. Generically a case made out of aluminum will handle case vibrations better, but is not always the case. Fans that use a 3pin motherboard header and a motherboard with a fan controller(like asus' qfan) can throttle the fan down to a bairly audible level.
C) quiet down the cdrom, usually liteon drives ship with a speed tool that you can use to limit the maximum read speed, but sometimes it doesnt work
D) Hard drive choice, generally the new Wester Digitals and Hitachis are pretty quite, the seagates I rate is so-so. You can download a tool from the drive manufacturer to change the various settings on a drive to adjust for various settings which can help limit the noise. I generally avoid using a hard drive bay (ie silencers) for thermal reasons, but these will drastically cut down on the noise
E) video card, the best choice is to test your existing cooler on your video card to see if it is quiet enough. replacing a cooler is very tricky and can result in a cracked gpu. the current generation of cards will clock back in 2d and when your playing games, usually you will have alot of noise going on anyway and will probably not notice it.
just a few tips from building a couple "silent" systems for people.
