Concluded: Quest to build the world's quietest computer.
The Problem:
A loooooong long time ago, I posted a couple of threads about trying to build a very quiet computer. I do audio recording in my own little home-studio, so I need it as quiet as possible in my room. After much research and consideration, I went with various air cooling options using components that all had the words "Silent" or "Quiet" in their name. Quite frankly,.. I was disappointed. It wasn't as quiet as I really needed, and to top it off.. it didn't really cool my system effectively. At first it seemed like it might be alright... but in the end, I went through a lot of trouble, and got very little satisfactory results.
Well... a year or so later, there are butt-loads more options out there for quiet PC components. And since a PC upgrade was long overdue (seeing how I usually upgrade every 6 months) I decided that I would once again try to build my new 'puter as quiet as I possibly could... but this time... I'd do it smarter.
The Solutions:
After much research and consideration (again), I decided to go with watercooling. But since I don't like to mod my cases (at all), I didn't want to have to build a WC setup from scratch... then I stumbled across Koolance. Yeah... I knew that they didn't use the worlds best WC components... and maybe I coulda saved a couple bucks if I had built it from scratch... but money wasn't really a concern. On top of that... I found the case I was looking for at Info Tech for only 200 bucks (which is less than most WC Kits go for), so I figured, "What the heck."
Anyway... now that I had a quiet way to cool my CPU (and my GPU), I needed a quiet PSU. After a lot of research into quiet PSU's... I ended up going with this one. It had the most potential, I felt, out of all the PSU's I looked at.
Then... having realized that the stock cooling fans that come with the Koolance would be too loud, I needed to find some quiet alternatives. So I picked up some Panaflo 12L's. The Koolance case basically has two fan settings, "low" and "high". So I figured that the Panaflos would be pretty darn quiet on low, and that I could just turn them on high only when I needed to.
The Results:
When I got the SilenX PSU, I immediately jumped the cable and plugged it in.... it was dead freaking silent. I kid you not... I had to put this thing right up to my ear just to hear anything. When holding it in my hand no more than a foot from my face, I couldn't hear a thing. So... the PSU obviously passed the initial test.
Then I installed the Panaflos into the Koolance case and found that they wouldn't run at Koolance's "low" setting, but they would run at the "high" setting. Even on high they really aren't that loud, at all. But the good part is, when I switch the Koolance to "low" it turns the fans completely off... I am slightly disappointed in the noise made by the three Panaflos when on "high", so I think my next step will be to buy a Sunbeam rheostat so I can turn them down to whatever levels I want. But regardless... the noise level is fairly low even when they're on high, and obviously it's even lower when they're off. :p
As for the cooling abilities... well... I left the system on all night last night to see how it would do... when I went to bed, the temp was 30*C. When I woke up.... the temp was 30*C. Needless to say... that's a good thing. :p
But... the system doesn't meet to up to my "silent" needs with those fans on... so, if I turn them off completely,... there is almost no noise, at all, coming from my case... I mean... you might hear the slightest "whir" from a pump every once in a while, or the faint din of a HDD or something... but when I turn those main fans off... it's dead... freaking... silent. (Which is exactly what I was looking for.) The only down-side to doing that is that the temps go up to about 45*C and hang there... Now... you may think that's a bad thing... but consider the fact that 45*C was normal idle temp on my old "silent" air-cooling setup.
The Verdict:
My final verdict is that I've finally found something that I'm satisfied with... If I need to, I can press a button (to shut off the fans) and have a dead quiet computer whenever I want. The temps are very desirable when the fans are on, and very acceptable when the fans are off. Once I mess around with rheostat options, I may be able to find the perfect mix of low fans/low temps, and then I may never need ot turn them off... but in any event... this setup has worked for me. Even with a XP2800+ T-Bred (which has a Wattage rating as high as the 3000+ Barton), and a Radeon 9700 Pro, I'm still able to keep my system quiet and cool.
This is, by far, the best cooling solution I've ever used, and it makes all those "silent" air cooling options I was previously using look like the complete wastes of time that they are. :p That's not to say that all air-cooling options suck... but the ones that I was using did. And I can't imagine any air-cooling setup being as quiet as mine is when the main fans are turned off.
The Recommendations:
In any event... I'm happy with what I got and I would recommend it to anyone... especially the ExoticPC PSU's. They really are that freaking quiet. They use a modded Fortron PSU (which got rave reviews from THG) and a super quiet Ahanix fan. It's the only other fan in my case other than the ones that are built into the Koolance unit.
The Koolance case is also a good value (especially if you pick it up for only 200 bucks), and while I did have a few gripes about some difficulties in getting it setup, over-all I wouldn't hesitate to recommend using it (so long as you get the Gold CPU Cooler). The original fans weren't crazy loud or anything, but when they were on "low", it was about as loud as when the Panaflos are on "high" (just to give you an idea). So I suggest modding the fans. You will have to sacrifice being able to use the different speed settings on the Koolance, (because I had trouble getting any of my other fans to run on the "low" setting) but if you throw in a rheostat and use that to control all your fans, I don't think it'd be an issue.
All in all.. I think my quest is over, for now. I may tinker with this setup a little and see if I can tweak it out here and there. But at least I can finally say that I've found the quiet system I was looking for.
WATYF
