I was going to make a thread about this question, but this thread is so close I think I'll stick my head in, if you don't mind.
Can any of you lads recommend me a proper, honest, silent case? Something that blocks as much noise as possible, but preferably without the price tag that is normally garnered from calling it silent (though frankly, I will take the hit if I have to)
I know it's all about finding quiet fans, but they'll never be silent unless the case knows what it's doing too. I would like a passing moth to be able to drown out the noise of my machine.
Good point, but it all seems a bit of a ...faff. If it isn't I'd gladly check it out, but as it stands I'm going for massive heatsinks, and large, slow fans.
>>8323 I've gone the Pentium M route in my small desktop machines. They're the laptop/mobile version you find in a lot of the smaller form-factor PCs. They need less fans and are a lot lot quieter.
If you want a lot of horsepower and it to be cool your only options are Peltier or water-cooling setups. I have had many people say good things about the Zalman water-setups. I have a couple of their heatsinks/fans, they're high quality.
I do need power, and that is my problem. I also need fast drives, which is obviously another problem, and I just can't afford a big enough SSD.
I'm considering building some sort of isolation chamber, though I'm not sure what that would do for the cooling. I think my best bet really would be to wait until I am in a property that I am allowed to drill holes in, so I can just put a desktop in another room, problem solved.
I have always wanted to build a water cooled rig, though. I remember a time when you needed a plumber to help you...
These lads are really good, I have bought stuff from them before. Look up the acoustic foam they sell from Acousti. You can fit it inside your PC to dampen sound. They have specific modules for hard-drives and the like. Pretty cheap as a kit.
I have bought a couple of full-size acoustic racks from them, they are expensive but work very well.
>>8338 You call an extra 1Ghz nothing? You are a hard person to please. Besides, if its FPS you're after, it'll be the GPU that will need the most tweaking.
This is a little program that monitors and adjusts fan speed to reduce noise and temperature. A must have for people who don't want to fork out for a water cooling system.
>>8344 That's if your motherboard supports in-OS adjustments. And if you've got one you probably have enough cash to spend on a small water cooling system.
