PC Tech Thread

Case fans spin relatively slowly, they produce some noise but not the most noise.

What you need to look for are the small fans, and the fans that spin at high speed in small spaces.

• Motherboard fans
  
• Graphics card fans
  
• Potentially CPU fans (if small, or on a smallish heatsink)
  
  

The biggest benefit is usually gained from passively cooling the motherboard locations if you have space for a more CPU-like heatsink.

Then attacking the graphics card.

The graphics card is best solved by choosing one of the more recent models which will not power the fans unless you're gaming. Which means that they have hardware modules for decoding video, so even when watching a 4k film my home graphics card is still passively cooled by the heatsink.

Attack the things that move the fastest, it's the smallest fans in tightest spaces wherever those are.

Water cooling, if you're not overclocking, isn't really worth it long term. Satisfying short-term... but long-term a pain in the arse.

What you need is an independent source of proper measurements:

http://silentpcreview.com/

Which case? (Edit, below)

Water cooling generally isn't quieter unless it's a 1kW SLI gaming rig because you have to add a pump and fans on the radiators are generally in free air with nothing to absorb their noise before it reaches your ears.

edit:

Spec needed:
Case
CPU
GPU
Discs
PSU

With details of the above, should be able to work out the power consumption, and since this isn't a bicycle light, almost all the energy input as electricity will be output as heat. If your components aren't particularly recent, it may end up cheaper selling components and buying more modern replacements, or just flogging the whole box and replacing it.

Fanless is awesome.

Spendy, but awesome.

Did I mention my new machine is awesome?

QuietPC.com really good to deal with too.