Reducing ambient noise levels for your gaming PC

I write down few tips how to build a completely silent 0db and powerful PC.

First of all, this thread is only for these who have PC in same room as audiophile equipment.
Most people know that PC will make annoying background noise, which is audible through the open headphones or speakers. Usually more powerful PC is more noise the cooling system will do.

Background:

Before audiophile hobby, my main hobby was computers and gaming, so i needed powerful gaming PC to run all the games i like at full settings. Around 2009 i got my first pair of HD650 with Chinese DAC/AMP combo, since i used computer as player, my headphones were near computer, cooling system noise started to annoy me so much i could not concentrate on music listening. So i decided to make my computer completely silent.

I had just bought first Intel i7 920 processor overclocked to 4ghz. Also i had dual graphics card, HDD-s, powerful PSU and so on. All this made lot of noise, which was very audible trough the HD650.

I decided to invest some money to build completely silent PC, it took many years to complete, but last 5 years i have had this setup. It is mostly one time big investment and little for later upgrades.

Build:

First of all, you need water cooling, it is only way to get all the heat outside of your computer case.
You can buy all the components from online water cooling shops (google something closer to your location).

Here are the water cooling components you need:

Water blocks - look for EK water blocks or similar what do full cover to components. I am using EK fullcover supreme blocks for MB, CPU and GPU.

Pumps - Laing DDC is most silent pump i have ever seen. Get two of them, if one of them fails, your system will not get cooked. Since pumps have lot of vibration, use dampening materials around it. Some foam and rubber and these pumps completely silent. Also i suggest to lower the RPM-s of the pump to make it more silent, if pumps do not have voltage regulator, then look for 7v mod, it will make it run on 7v instead of 12v. I am running dual Laing D5 pumps and using foam and rubber for dampening. At most lower rpm-s.

Hoses - rubber ones are best, you can bend them as you like. Most important get good clamps and right size hoses for fittings. I am using rubber hoes with metal clamps.

Fittings - get the metal ones, plastic ones are not reliable. I am using metal fittings, in maximum size.

Radiators - you need the big ones, only big enough i know are Mo-Ra radiators:
http://shop.watercool.de/epages/Wat...hops/WatercooleK/Categories/Radiatoren/MO-RA3
I have 3x of them, one of them can dissipate about 50w of heat, with 3 of them you can run computer 24/7 passive at usage about 150w of worth of heat. For 10 minutes it can dissipate up to 500w heat, after that the cooling liquid gets too hot. I suggest to put them more far from computer, some place where air is moving to get better result.

Fans - you still need few fans on radiators, if you have too much power and radiator space cannot dissipate all the heat.
Mo-Ra radiators have possible to put up to 9 fans. Use manual switch or automatic system, which turn them on if the temperature getting too high. I am using 9x silent fans on one radiator with manual switch, if i start gaming, i will manually turn on the switch. Actually only needed for new power hungry 3D games. I never listen the music same time and games sound is more higher than fan noise, so i never hear my fans.

Cooling liquid - my system takes 5 liters of it. Better is to get many pumps, running so much liquid needs more power. I am using distilled water with concentrated water cooling add-on.

Water reservoir - you need one to add water to your system. You need to place it most higher place to get air out of the system. Better to use clear material one too see what is going on inside.

Disconnects - since this system is big as hell, you need some disconnects to cut the system into different parts, there are some of them that can keep the liquid inside and you can remove the radiators. Needed for transport. I am Koolance quick disconnects between radiators and case.
http://www.thewatercoolingshop.co.uk/quick-disconnect-couplings/

Where to buy all these things? - i got all my stuff from these sites:
http://watercool.de/
http://www.thewatercoolingshop.co.uk/
https://www.ekwb.com/
http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/

How to put it together? - it is pretty easy, if all the components fit, need to see that fittings are all in right sizes and hoses are right sizes for fittings. Hardest part is to fill it with liquid and get the air outside, i first filled the radiators and then connected them to the system, then filled the water blocks. Computer needs to be in most higher place and reservoir must be on top. Pumps must be after the reservoir in system and must be set to full power.

Computer parts:

My computer is a little big outdated, so i recommend some best parts here for this build.

HDD - are noisy and cannot be completely silent. I replaced them with SSD-s and put storage to utility room into NAS enclosure. Now i can use my storage over 1gbit/s network. 1gbit/s network will provide about 120MB/s speed, which is enough for HDD reading/writing. SSD-s are completely silent, cool and up to 2TB size today and prizes for 256-512GB SSD-s are not high anymore. I suggest to get one or two for main data and operating system and hold other data on different place on HDD.
Example: SSD Samsung 960 Pro M.2

PSU - Get some PSU which is passive or passive at most of the time. I suggest to buy yourself Corsair AX or HX series, if the PC is idle or uses less power, they fan will stay idle and make 0db noise. I am using AX1200i, which is 1200w, but if the PC usage is under 300w (most of the time it is), then it is 0db. Also it does not make lot of heat and will work very well in case with passive cooling.
Example: Corsair AX1500i PSU

Processor - you can get most powerful one here, don't forget to OC it. Just use good water cooling block to make it silent and cool.
Example: Intel i7 6800k overclocked to 4.5ghz.

RAM - 16-32GB should be enough and something with big radiators is better, since it has passive air cooling, don't OC it. Best motherboards support 4-channel RAM, so you need to get 4x4 or 4x8 for that.
Example:

Motherboard - choose something that match your needs and which has full cover water cooling block available. Full cover block is only option, otherwise passive case cooling is not enough.
Example: ASUS ROG or MSI gaming MB-s.

Graphics card - if you like gaming, you need the best card money can buy. It is most important component in your system for gaming. Also you need full cover water block for this.
Example: GTX 1080 series or Titan X Pascal.

Case - get something that is open design, so the air can flow freely throw it.
Example: Thermaltake Core P5

Sound card - good motherboards already have good sound card, even some of them have clean power USB port for your external DAC.


Upgraddding:

It is mostly one time expense. Get 1200w or 1500w PSU and it will run all the systems what will come in next 20 years. Get good case which has enough room.
Basically you only need to change CPU, MB, RAM and GPU after they get outdated. I suggest to upgrade cpu, ram and MB together, every time you need to add only 100-150$ extra for new fullcover water block.
If you are gamer, then you mostly need to upgrade your graphics card, every GPU needs new water block, so you need to add 100-150$ extra for upgrade.



Conclusion:
Spend one time around 1000$ for cooling and special components and you can get 0db PC, spend 200-300$ extra for components upgrade in future. Not much if you see the prices of the other audiophile stuff here.

Note:
1. This guide needs basic knowledge how to build a computer, youtube has lot of instruction videos how to put together computer and water cooling components.
2. Computer parts always get outdated, so maybe there are better parts or solutions out there, you are free to add your own.

 

Just do what @ohhgourami did. I think a few people copied him (including me). The only moving parts on my open PC (when not gaming) are two Noctua NF-A15 fans running at about 200rpm. If it's only about audio just get a completely fanless PC. At this point the coil whine of my PSU and GPU are far louder than any fans and the CRT buzz is probably somewhere in between the PSU and the GPU. Even the HD800 has some isolation, so even that isn't a big deal. Pump noise never goes away while the fans running at 200rpm are effectively silent.

 

Noctua fans are fantastic. I have one for my CPU (I think I only mounted one of the two fans) and two in my case. They're extremely quiet and I always run them at the lowest voltage possible using a fan controller. I also have a MSI GTX 960 which has a feature where the fans turn off when the temps are low enough. A rubber silencer for the PSU mounting also helped too. I dynamatted my disk HDD since I have an old case . While my PC isn't completely silent, it is quiet enough that I can't hear it when I play my speakers.

5.5 years and still kicking.

 

This is serendipitous timing for me as I'm considering doing my own tower build after using laptops for about eight years. I'm reluctant to get involved with water cooling because I am not going to overclock anything and I'm not sure I need dead silence, just a quiet case. To that end I've been looking at the Fractal Design Define R5 case which is apparently acoustically dampened with foam or a similar material. Anyone familiar with this, or other "silent" cases?

Similarly, can anyone recommend a site to research bang for the buck components? I've been disconnected from the tech for a long time and need to re familiarize myself with what's available.

And finally, is there anything I really need to know about motherboard selection re: audio? My plan for now is to get a cheap PCIe card with optical out and then leave myself open to getting an AES card down the line (can't justify $600 on one right now).

 

Seems like the changstar archive is down, but here's an old pic of Jason's PC:



Case is a Lian Li T60. Mine is similar, except I have the stock fans on my GTX980 Jetstream. My PSU is an EVGA 850 G2 (Superflower Leadex). I'll upload a pic of mine when I get rid of the dust.

 

@zerodeefex

Your points are correct. But i am talking about totally different thing. This topic is about computers, not how to make computer perfect silent audio player.
Let me explain.... most people do not have separate room at home for powerful noisy PC and audiophile equipment. I am living in small apartment and need to keep my things in one place.

I am keeping my stuff in same room, but separately, i am using power cleaner and Raspberry pi based linux bitperfect audioplayer to prevent all the noise i have in power circuit and coming from computer usb. I am using this computer to control raspberry based player over network and keeping my audio files in network storage which is in other utility room. I can control it from my smartphone too, but i don't want to turn computer off every time i want to listen the music. It is also good if you want to enjoy some horror movies in night time and running them from PC.

Answers to point outs:
1. But you need one for powerful PC (gaming or whatever you are using it for). I never said you need to use this computer as audio player. Constant upgrades are needed to keep PC updated for future gaming.
2. They are very noisy and annoying, but some of them are silent if they are correctly damped. My pumps are running from computer PSU. Not same circuit where is audio stuff.
3. Tried this solution before, still too noisy, two gpus and overclocked cpu make too much heat even in idle state, all this heat stays inside your case, you need lot of fans running on 5v to get this heat out, more fans = more noise.
4. Every system is different, so there are no calculations about this. It depends on so many things, basically if your system get too hot, need to add more radiators or more fans. I started with one radiator, ended with 3. My system has been working passive like this 5 years for now, it is stable and working well, otherwise i would not recommend this. More info about is now added.
5. Indeed.


More info to add for clarification:
1. Temperatures - they are same level like my room temperature. So CPU block is not warmer than any other metal object in same room. Under full load it is about 50c in bios.
2. I tried to run pumps on full power, it did not change temperature at all. Even the small flow is enough with these big radiators to keep the system silent.
3. I already pointed out that running only low power or high power short time operations can keep the system silent. I can do 1 hour 3D gaming on this PC, after that the PC will get too hot and need to turn the fans in. I suggest to use automatic fan control with temp check, not manual. You might forget to turn them on and get a temperatures too high. I am planning to implement this soon in my system too.
4. This system is safe to try, most today's equipment have overheating protection inside, they will lower they speed or turn off if temperature gets too high. Two pumps avoid pump failure and water cooling avoids high temperature changes which might damage your system.
5. If you do not need powerful gaming PC in same room, then you can use silent fan and some passive cooling. But even with this solution you can run normal PC passive, without extra fans. If i remove double gpu from my system and start to use integrated GPU, i can throw my fans away.

P.S. next thread here will be here how to keep your family and your home appliances silent when you have them same room with audiophile stuff

 

I add few tips how to make pumps dead silent...

1. Lower the rpm, less rpm, les noise, less heat.
2. Put noise cancelling foam like that around your pumps:

Note: Your pumps may overheat if your rpm is too high, you can only cover the pumps with this material, if
they are not overheating inside there.
3. Under this put some rubber or some dampening material to reduce vibration.
4. Use rubber hoses, avoid plastic ones. Rubber damps the vibration better that coming from pupms.

 

I built my desktop with the main purpose of being quiet for similar reasons. I hate hearing computer noise, and it makes audio sound better when you have a more quiet background.

When I researched fans vs water cooling, I found that the consensus seems to be that as long as you're running your fans at low RPM, you're better off with fans. They're also easier to deal with, and while I built my own computer, I'm not someone who has a ton of fun messing around with hardware, so I wanted something simple.

• I used a Fractal R5 case, which has thick padding on the case walls which dampens sound significantly. I'm using the stock case fans, which are pretty quiet, with an added Antec fan to fill out the second fan slot in the front. I run all the fans on low RPM.
• I avoided using spinning disk hard drives and only use SSDs. I've seen people decouple HDDs by suspending them with bungee cord, but they still make noise.
• I went with a GTX 960 by ASUS STRIX, because it had a hybrid fanless mode where the fans are disengaged most of the time.
• Similarly, I went with a hybrid fanless power supply with enough power to be within its fanless mode all the time. (I originally bought a Seasonic, but combined with my system it had bad coil whine issues (as did a replacement), so I switched to a be quiet! power supply.)
• I used a Scythe Kotetsu branded CPU cooler, which has a single large fan that is effectively silent.

All of the above combine to make a PC that is virtually silent. It does make noise, but the noise is so low that you can only notice it when it goes from on to off at night. (If I turn it on during the day, general noise from outside is a bit higher so it's totally undetectable.) I could probably bring the noise level even further down by swapping out the stock case fans to PWM-controlled Noctua fans, which would allow me to set even lower RPM fan curves in my BIOS, but I haven't felt the need to do so.

The most important thing about this to me was that it was relatively easy. It's not a super gaming PC, but it will play games if you want. I mostly use it for work and media, and it fulfills that purpose very well (I just don't play a lot of games).

 

My power PC is primarily for media editing/creation, not gaming. Since I spend hours at a time sitting there it makes a lot of sense to also use it for music listening and to want it as quiet as possible. I may look into Raspberry Pi or something in the future but for now this is the simplest solution and I am satisfied with it excepr for a PSU that suddenly has a squeaky fan. I could just replace the fan but I think I'll replace the CPU with a more recent efficient model. Any suggestions?

 

-Zotac Zbox
-Intel NUC
-Raspberry Pi if you're cash-strapped

I do a lot of my listening with my big-ass tower PC that I used for freelance video editing and now mainly use for gaming. I am no wizard but as it was the first PC I built myself and I didn't want to muck about with fans, I bought a Nanoxia Deep Silence. It isn't dead silent but it's pretty damn close without significant load (i.e. when not playing a video game). Aside from a graphics card under load, when everything else is quiet hard drives are suddenly quiet loud. If possible, having your storage away from your listening position is good.

 

-Figure out the wattage you need (it is probably much lower than you think). Try this: http://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator
-Look at JonnyGuru reviews for that level: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Review_Cat&recatnum=13
(you can just skip to the last page and see the scoring to know what's worth reading. look for really low ripple and regulation)

 

Throwing this question out there again; you guys seem to know a lot so I consult the experts.

 

And if anyone wants to check frequency responses for fans, HDDs, and components (srs biz): http://silentpcreview.com/

 

Already know what wattage I need but I'll take a look at the ratings you mentioned. I'd love to hear specifically what anyone else settled on in the 650 watt range after researching for your own usage.

EDIT: Nevermind - already ordered

 

Before i went to this system i described in this thread, i had expensive ball bearing fans, running at very low rpms. Fractal Design case (one of the most quiet cases).
The problem i had, that more i damped my case, more heat it kept inside, i even removed fan grills to reduce noise, used dampnening screws between
fans and cases.
Finally this did not work out, it was too noisy and was getting too hot.

If your system uses 600w power at full load, you just cannot make it go away with few low rpm fans.

Anyway, wanted to point out that this "jason" caseless system is good, best way to keep your PC silent without fans, just add one to CPU and one to GPU. Put it few meters away from your computer table and you cannot hear anything if you are lucky.

 

I went ahead and ordered the Seasonic G-series.

 

I'd argue that PSU quality is something that isn't often considered as important as it should be, and not enough thought goes into it other than "More is probably better."

PSU's are generally measured for efficiency at 50-60% load, it's where the whole silver/gold/etc rating comes from. Unless your power costs upwards of $0.20 per KW/h, it's really never a sane idea to spend for a platinum/titanium power supply, let alone the idea of 'future proofing' your rig by over a 100% margin. Efficiency on gold rated PSU's drop by somewhere around 20% between them being at 50% load and 90% load. I highly doubt that most people will ever end up saving on their electrical bill by spending $100+ on a beefier power supply to stay in the 50-60% 'sweet spot' during intense gaming sessions.

A rig with dual 1080's only needs a 750W power supply, and that's giving it a fairly reasonable berth already. Especially with the industry trend of rising efficiency from smaller transistor sizes; I could probably figure out an entire GTX1080 gaming rig that would use less power than the Radeon 6990 card alone.

If you're building from scratch with all new components, the most I could reasonably suggest would be a gold rated 1000W PSU. Raw output and efficiency ratings won't imply actual noise from the PSU; if noise is a concern, you can get a PSU with a 'no fan' mode where the fan will only kick in once draw is increased (Typically when you start doing things like gaming or multi-browser loads). I'd guess that a PSU designed from the ground up to be quieter will produce less noise than one that's just highly efficient but not intended to be specifically quieter.

Finally, efficiency tiers. The costs maybe $20-30 to go from a bronze to a gold power supply, and probably another $20 to go from gold to platinum, and then even more to get to titanium. The difference between gold and titanium? On actual loads, less than 4%.

The only benefit that some PSUs have at higher tiers are better insurance and warranties, but if you're running servers in storm valley you probably know more than I do anyways. Specialized hardware and specialized needs and whatnot. But even for the 'average' enthusiast? Probably nah.

Here's a great resource if anybody is interested in some further reading;
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

Just my two cents.

tl;dr- You can probably stop at a 750W gold rated power supply, unless you actually know for a fact you'll need more than that for your system. Unless your electricity bill is handed to you in person by an overworked Goldman Sachs intern, platinum/titanium rated 1000W+ PSU's are probably not ultimately cost effective for you. Components are getting more efficient as time goes on, so 'future-proofing' by buying bigger PSUs may be unnecessary if this trend continues.