gaming desktops silent

tiberiusrex

I have an asus gaming laptop. it's good but it's not silent. my desktop is a jet engine. I want to build a new silent computer that can handle this game without sounding like a landing strip and things like oculus rift.

what are you running? is it silent? building our own is within our capabilities if you have components to recommend.

shockerizer

That is a tough question to answer. My system is very quiet but it has all slow rotational fans and a large air cooler for the CPU (5960x). It runs pretty cool.

Take a look at a larger case with big slow fans. I have an Antec 1100. Coolermaster and Enermax fans. I use a big Enermax CPU cooler.

sandukutupu

My friend told me a few years ago (just as a hobby) he built an oil filled computer. They place all the components in an acrylic aquarium (not the hard drives) just the power supply and motherboard. This was filled with mineral oil from a hardware store to cool all the parts. He said it was very quiet and ran very cool. However after some time the novelty wore off and he got rid of it.

You can find many such computers built on YouTube but don't use biodegradable oil as that is no good over a long period of time.
https://youtu.be/X-cjF1ZqIsw

micky1p00

There are several noise sources in a computer, those except one are all fans, to cool stuff, so:

CPU, you can use one of the large air coolers like

• "Be Quiet BK019 Dark Rock Pro3"
• "Be Quiet BK019 Dark Rock Pro3"
• Scythe Mugen 5
• Noctua NH-D15

Those are very quiet, and can work for years. The installation is usually tedious, and one thing to notice, is because of their size you usually can't put memory with high heat-sinks.

There are the closed loop water coolers, the difference from the custom variant is that they come already with everything connected. The performance is usually starting at the biggest air coolers for the cheap closed loop kits with small radiator (1x120), but with the smaller pump variants you don't have the clearance issue, nor the few kg of weight on the motherboard. On the other hand you do need a computer case where you can put the radiator, in most cases it's a space of two 120cm fans on the top, and some have very think radiator that is a clearance problem on it's own.

Various examples are:

• NZXT Kraken X61
• Corsair Hydro Series™ H115i
• Arctic Liquid Freezer 240

Usually the air coolers are really more than enough, even if overclocking and pushing the system for full load. The water solutions can dissipate more heat, but in normal installation it's more expansive for little gain.

GPU Not much to do here, except picking a silent card from the start (ofcourse there are third party options, and even water cooling, but I want to suggest something more consumer friendly and not a building hobby)

• Sapphire Nitro series (AMD)
• MSI Twin Frozr

All of the more known companies have some variant or another, here the choice is also towards what card to begin with, some cards take a lot of power and turn that into heat, others usually newer cards (smaller fabrication process) in the mid-range run very cool, quiet and enough to run most games at best quality with decent frame rate.


PSU The power supply unit usually has one 120mm fan, some have bigger like 135mm. IMO it's better to invest in higher efficiency model, modular, and high 12v rail numbers than total high wattage.

• Seasonic
• Corsair (like the RMx series IIRC)

HDD These used to make a lot of noise, but now you just grab SSD, and use that for everything from OS to game installations. For large storage like movies and stuff, HDD are great, and they sit idle (spun down) when not in use so don't make noise


Case, and case fans
In many cases computer stores cut costs and use a cheaper case, this end up as a rattling drum with bad fans. Usually getting something with better quality, both the case and the fans that come with it, solves that major issue:
Some examples for well known companies:

• Corsair
• Cooler Master
• Antec
• Fractal Design
• Nanoxia
• Thermaltec

I personally use a Lian-li very expensive one, with Noctua fans with special rubber mount thingies to make it silent, but I've bought it many years ago.

There is another thing that can create annoying sound that when everything else is silent is really easy to hear, and it's coil whine. But usually higher quality motherboards and cards exhibit this less.

I hope I didn't forget anything. And the above companies an stuff is from general memory so just for example. It's best to look up for reviews at hardware sites before buying anything. There is always variation of what available where in the world, and what warranty and prices.

Personally, long ago, I had a custom watercooling thing, swiftec based with 2 pumps and 2 x3 radiators.
Now it's a
Scyte mugen for CPU cooler,
Sapphire Radeon 380x (The Nitro series) that very quiet,
Noctua fans,
And corsair HX520 psu (made by seasonic) that is working great for 10 years now or so.
Oh and this Zalman MFC1 (I think) fan controller bar thing with HAMSTER that goes into one of the drive bays, back then the motherboard fan controlling options were worse and the lian li has 4 fans on the hdd bays and room for more, so it needed to be quiet and controllable.

kalina311

Just put the computer in a closet and run long cables and be done with it : D or just get a sound proof enclosure/ rack like for a music studio and put any computer you want in it ..

get an asus fanless
ASUS GeForce® GT 1030 2GB GDDR5 low profile graphics card for silent HTPC build (with I/O port brackets)

https://www.asus.com/Graphics-Cards/GT1030-SL-2G-BRK/

zanaspus1

I had a computer guru build me a water-cooled unit this past fall. Apart from a case twice the size of an original IBM PC, there can be no complaints.