damen
06-28-2011, 02:36 PM
I know, it sounds insane - impossible even. BUT, Christina has started complaining that my gaming PC (which resides in the living room) is too loud. In my attempt to not have her turn off my computer every time I turn around - killing whatever jobs/processing I was running - I have begun the process of quieting my reasonably hard-core gaming rig.
pictures to come later
Step 1:
Replace my Thermaltake Armor case with an Antec LanBoy Air.
This went quite well. The Antec case has more fans, but they are larger (120mm) and slower. While generally speaking people dont rate the case especially well for cooling (no directed airflow), I havent found this to be an issue. That said, my case fans were NOT the primary source of noise.
Step 2:
Replace my random BestBuy purchased 750W PSU with a Thermaltake Black Widow 850W PSU. Why this particular power supply? 140mm fan. Again, big fans spin slower and generally quieter. This also helps, but still not my primary noise source.
Step 3:
Replace my OEM AMD Heatsink/Fan with an Antec Kuhler H2O 920 Water Cooling unit. Holy cow I love this thing so far. I'm having some issues with getting it working properly (it has a USB connection to the motherboard that gives a lot of people - myself included - issues), but it seems to be cooling my system extremely well and sweet monkey jesus it is QUIET. It also uses 120mm fans, which I'm sure helps. UPDATE: I got this working last night and it is definitely still super quiet. I love it. Note that is is a completely self-contained system. It comes pre-filled with 'water' and doesnt require any new/additional parts to set it up/get it working.
http://fightingisyourfriend.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=450&g2_serialNumber=2
At this point my computer is pretty quiet, but I think I can do better. I am considering replacing my now aging GeForce 9800GT with a Zotac GeForce GTX 480. This comes with a crazy custom cooling solution which everyone reports to be extremely quiet - call this guy step 4 ;)
Current System Specs:
Case: Antec LanBoy Air
PSU: Thermaltake Black Widow 850W
Motherboard: MSI 790FX-GD70
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 945 Black Edition (3.4GHz)
Memory: 16 GB DDR3 1333
GPU: GeForce 9800GT
pictures to come later
Step 1:
Replace my Thermaltake Armor case with an Antec LanBoy Air.
This went quite well. The Antec case has more fans, but they are larger (120mm) and slower. While generally speaking people dont rate the case especially well for cooling (no directed airflow), I havent found this to be an issue. That said, my case fans were NOT the primary source of noise.
Step 2:
Replace my random BestBuy purchased 750W PSU with a Thermaltake Black Widow 850W PSU. Why this particular power supply? 140mm fan. Again, big fans spin slower and generally quieter. This also helps, but still not my primary noise source.
Step 3:
Replace my OEM AMD Heatsink/Fan with an Antec Kuhler H2O 920 Water Cooling unit. Holy cow I love this thing so far. I'm having some issues with getting it working properly (it has a USB connection to the motherboard that gives a lot of people - myself included - issues), but it seems to be cooling my system extremely well and sweet monkey jesus it is QUIET. It also uses 120mm fans, which I'm sure helps. UPDATE: I got this working last night and it is definitely still super quiet. I love it. Note that is is a completely self-contained system. It comes pre-filled with 'water' and doesnt require any new/additional parts to set it up/get it working.
http://fightingisyourfriend.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=450&g2_serialNumber=2
At this point my computer is pretty quiet, but I think I can do better. I am considering replacing my now aging GeForce 9800GT with a Zotac GeForce GTX 480. This comes with a crazy custom cooling solution which everyone reports to be extremely quiet - call this guy step 4 ;)
Current System Specs:
Case: Antec LanBoy Air
PSU: Thermaltake Black Widow 850W
Motherboard: MSI 790FX-GD70
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 945 Black Edition (3.4GHz)
Memory: 16 GB DDR3 1333
GPU: GeForce 9800GT