PC Tech Thread

Fethead

Nice

I could.

But I'm very happy with my set up... yes I use it for video conferencing, but also for recording training videos, and some music (I'm bad at this, but hey... I try).

"he has the distinct air of a virgin who still lives with his parents"
Nailed it, and although this is going to sound sarcastic- thats defo a measure of a man I take notice of.

Usually, compression/limiting, de-essing, an HP filter and some downward expansion. For non-broadcast stuff, you can do everything in the box

I only mentioned hardware, I run these plugins in software https://www.waves.com/bundles/vocal

Yes, and there's no perceivable delay if that's what you're wondering. This isn't a laptop and it appears to work fine and sound great.

Anyone had luck with quiet/silent PC cases? I would like to shut mine up a bit. It’s an ATX board in a very old case.

What's causing most of your noise...fans? Easier to replace the fans than change the case.

Not sure tbh - it’s had new fans in the past and the old powersupply (which recently shit itself) was quieter but the case rattles and has no damping or airflow design. I’ll take a video/pictures this evening to demonstrate.

The case is the only remaining part of a gaming PC I got in about 2001/2 and has dodgy grounding and a big Perspex window.

I mean, case transplants can be a pain in the arse but its not as if we don't have the time for tasks like this now days!

Its all down to how much money you want to spend tbh. Decent quiet fans are not cheap. If you need a new CPU cooler and a couple of case fans, that can be £70 to £100. A new case, a quiet one, will be more than that.

I'm not the most experienced in building PCs but I would have thought that it's better to eliminate the noise in the first place rather than try to supress it by wrapping it in a new case. Ideally, you'd want to do both.

I got a custom Quiet PC from https://www.quietpc.com/ :)

It's totally silent.

However this is only achieved because there are no fans anywhere in it (no case fans, no CPU fan, and no GPU card)... if you add a fan you will have a hum from it. The hotter the components get (CPU, GPU, motherboard) and the less cold air that can pass over them... the faster the fans run and the worse the noise.

Yes you can change the case, but there is a natural tension between the volume of air that can pass through the case (holes) and the increase of noise associated (sound is carried by air passing through holes).

I'm basically saying: Yes, change your case and it will make a difference... but if your CPU and GPU produce a lot of heat then you'll never get it to silent so don't be too spendy on the case unless you want to go all-in and tackle the root cause which will be the choice of components.

latest estimated delivery was yesterday :(

Hey I need to upgrade the ram on my QNAP Nas, anyone got some 8gb DDR3 204 pin ram.
Would need 2 as I'm looking to upgrade to 16gb from the 2gb I currently have in there.
so like these
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008LTBJFW?t­ag=kongsumer-21

I could for the 2x 4gb route, but was hoping to future proof a tiny bit.

If you've got any 4gb or 8gb let me know.
Otherwise I'll bite the bullet and get it from amazon.

Yeah I’ve definitely got time!

That’s a fair point - if I can get a quiet case with a couple of fans though, I think that covers a lot of ground. Are CPU cooler changes still as messy as they used to be?

This it’s what’s in there (apart from the P/S and plus a EVGA GTX 750 Ti SuperClocked 2GB GDDR5) - I remember being impressed at how cool it ran when new but I haven’t checked for years.

I don’t do much gaming so doubt the graphics card fans are kicking in - it’s all system fans.

1 Attachment

I built up a silent PC by swapping out the CPU cooler for a nofan one and a low noise power supply. It's entirely silent but I did have to consider the processor as it only has passive cooling. Getting rid of the fans means the case isn't too important so long as it has a lot of ventilation.

estimated, a lot of stuff seems to take a few days longer now.

As the others said it depends a lot on your case design, you can look at Noctua fans like was discussed a littler earlier in this thread, they are quiter than most others. Also check if there's any rattle of the fans against the case, you can unplug them from the mobo and see how loud it is while running without any, apart from the inbuilt ones in the PSU and the one on the CPU, obv don't run it for long with no fans. Also if you're not already then change the fan screws for rubber ones:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/595296762?iid=143335117978

You could also try and install a fan controller to keep them running slower but you'll probably also want something like Speccy to check on internal temperatures too.

That CPU... https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/88184/intel-core-i5-6500-processor-6m-cache-up-to-3-60-ghz.html

It puts out 65W of heat and it's an LGA1151 socket.

You can get something like this for it:
https://www.quietpc.com/mugen-5-pcgh

Which will take the CPU fan down to 15 dBA at peak.

There's no mention of a GPU, so I'm guessing you're using the onboard on the motherboard https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z170-HD3P-rev-10

I think you should be fine to get a big case that could take a larger CPU heatsink and achieve total silence.

The only other fan in your system appears to be the PSU:
https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=120-G1-0650-RX

Something like this: https://www.quietpc.com/fsp-hyper-m?product=5375

This is only 600W, but without an optical drive or GPU... you don't need 650W.

With a new CPU heatsink and a new PSU and a case, the entire system would be under 20dBA (basically virtually unnoticeable).

What case do you have?

The case is a big factor IMHO. You might have quiet fans but if flimsy, ill-fitting side panels are vibrating in harmony and amplifying it all, it's a bit of a waste of time.

Personally I have a Fractal Design something. Cost over £100, but worth it over the decade I've used it. I knew it was heavy, but having just checked, it's 12.5 kg!

I do have an optical drive and the GPU is an older GTX 750 TI, which doesn’t get much use and I don’t think the fans ever kick in. Definitely not when I want it to be quiet anyway! There’s also a couple of mechanical HDs.

I’ll try the p/s, CPU heatsink and rubber screws and take it from there.

I thought it would be impossible to find but apparently not! Just googled ‘Z pc case’
https://www.newegg.com/amp/black-raidmax-scorpio-atx-mid-tower/p/N82E16811156135

It’s really shit. Disconnected the lights years ago but it’s somehow tough and flimsy at the same time.

Ah, there was me hoping you could go fully fanless :D or at least bigger slower fans.

Yeah I upgraded my case for better cooling and quiter running. It's definitely achieved that, it probably doesn't go over 20db and the CPU stays at like 10 degrees max even after gaming for house. The downside is it's bloody huge.

There’s also a couple of mechanical HDs.

Now you tell us!