Hello, can you help me build a semi passive PC?

[Uniwarp]

First of all, hello. I am new on spcr forums and let me start by saying it has been a great source of information to me in the past so if any of you have inadvertently contributed to my enlightenment, thank you. I usually don't build new rigs and am on a perpetual update cycle, usually a new CPU - Memory - Mainboard every few years and GPU upgrades slightly more frequently than that. For work related issues, I have had to become a mobile person for the past few years and that has caught up with me because I skipped the last cycle, so my rig is now almost four and a half years old. This, of course is just another more indirect way of saying I want to build a new rig, fast.

Anyway, since my hiatus from performance desktop PCs, I have found new appreciation for silence, especially after working on a very silent laptop for long hours, for many late nights. I want my next build to give me the best of both worlds, sufficient cooling under heavy load but complete silence when I just want to hack at my keyboard all night long and perhaps when I decide to watch a youtube video or a movie. I have done some research yet there are a few specific issues I would appreciate the opinion of spcr readers and silence aficionados.

1. Power supply: I am torn between Seasonic Platinum 520W Fanless and Corsair RM750. Seasonic is more efficient and passive under any load, predictably. While I don't need 750W of power right now, Corsair has some headroom for future upgrades. They are both modular but where I live we don't get the choice of many exotic cases so I will have a more difficult time finding an ATX case for Seasonic. There is mATX Silverstone Precision 07 with a top mounted PSU which lets me place the PSU upside down so hot air can rise and Corsair cases (Obsidian, Carbide) with bottom mounted PSUs where I can place the Seasonic upside down but this is dumping heat into the case so some other fan has to work harder to get rid of the excess heat. From the reviews I read, Seasonic is the higher quality PSU, Corsair trailing behind but not by much. Corsair is said to be passive up to 40 percent load, which is 300 watts. I know I seem like I am leaning towards Corsair, because it is slightly less problematic for me to deal with given the limited options I have in terms of cooling and it has some headroom which might come useful later on. OTOH, worst case scenario I can use a PWM fan controlled by mainboard software to kick in after the CPU/GPU reach a certain temperature, indicating heavy load, if I were to top mount the Seasonic facing down.

Please feel free to try and sway my opinion either way.

2. CPU cooling: For a CPU, I am thinking of going with a Haswell LGA 1150 part, 4590 or 4690K if I decide to overclock. I know this seems contradictory but if I am not mistaken, adaptive voltage means no change at idle clocks even when you're overclocking. Given this bit of somewhat useful information, I am still thinking of going with air cooling. The reason for this is concern for pump noise coming from the closed loop cooler should I decide to buy an AIO unit. My choice for CPU cooler is Thermalright Silver Arrow but I'm open to suggestions for an AIO watercooling unit with a really quiet pump. Ideally, I would prefer zero moving parts at idle or reduced load.

3. GPU cooling: Thinking about Prolimatech MK-26 coupled with two low rpm silent fans, perhaps Corsair SP or AP running off of motherboard pwm fan headers. Since I'm going to first try and play some of the games I missed during my hiatus from PC gaming, I'll make due with the GTX 560 I never really got around to playing with. I can also reuse the cooler when upgrading as it's pretty much compatible with anything on the market right now.

4. Choice of mainboard: I want a mainboard with no coil whine issues, obviously no active cooling and lots of PWM headers (for case fans, cpu fan and gpu fans) and a decent enough UEFI that I can use for fan profiles etc. Since I'm not limited to Windows in my Operating System, the more I can do in UEFI, the better it is. ATX is preferred, mATX is tolerable should I decide to buy Seasonic Fanless PSU and the Silverstone Precision 07 case.

5. Case: Since this is a semi passive build, I am not particularly worried about the noise for example when playing games or rendering, also partially because I believe the coolers of choice are able to handle the heat with low spinning silent fans. I might be completely off my element here when I say this but I am more inclined to go with a case that has plenty of ventilation rather than a case which is dampened with little ventilation. Silverstone PS 07 is one possible candidate, perhaps the only one if I'm given sufficient reason to choose Seasonic 520W fanless over Corsair RM750. An ATX build would focus on Corsair Carbide 400R and Obsidian 550D/750D cases.

What I'll be doing with this build: Mostly it is going to be my workstation but I'll enjoy some light gaming and multimedia work. I'll use it to rip my growing collection of PS2 and PS3 games as well as encoding blu-ray movies. It'll have a single SSD, which I'll be transporting from my laptop which is getting an msata drive and two hdds in raid 1 for data storage. Lastly, I'm thinking of buying an HDMI/Component capture card to record PS2/PS3 gameplay. This isn't primary to the build but it's something I would like to have nonetheless. Your comments are appreciated.

[MikeC]

Welcome to SPCR, Uniwarp.

Have you seen SPCR's Quiet ATX Gaming Build Guide? It'd hard to better that, but it's probably overkill, since you say you're only into light gaming. Just replace the Asus Strix GTX 980 w/ a passive GTX 750/750ti, and perhaps a Seasonic G550 or the X-560 (if they're still offering it). You'd be delighted. Oh, and the new Fractal Define R5, which should be out soon.

[Uniwarp]

Thank you for your response. I have skimmed over the guide to compare the parts that I had in mind with those recommended by spcr. As I mentioned before I have to make do with certain parts as I don't have means to buy any part I want simply because they aren't available in any retail channels where I reside. That sort of limits me to certain brands and certain products. What I can do however is compare the parts and try to find equivalent parts from other manufacturers based on reviews, including those conducted by spcr. So here it goes,

Asus Z97 Pro - check. I read the relevant parts of the review, it's exactly what I wanted in terms of setting up fan profiles from the UEFI. Though some features of the board are overkill for my current needs, I think I would stick with it as long as I can keep to my budget or don't overshoot it by much, for the future proofing if nothing else. Now, I can't recall reading this in spcr review of this board, perhaps you can clarify this issue for me. CPU_OPT header which is the 6th fan header that is said to be non-configurable in the review is explained as a mirror of cpu fan header in some other sources. If this is true, this means it's actually controllable but not separate from the cpu fan. I'm asking this specifically because the Silver Arrow SB-E that I am contemplating purchasing has two fans and even though it's just a mirror, it will allow me to stop the fan.

Recommended Case and Power Supply - although Fractal Design is a no go, since they aren't available here, the internal layout of the design isn't that far from the Obsidian 550D / Carbide 400R-500R series cases that are available to me. For the power supply, since the guide suggests Corsair RM650 along with a bunch of other semi passive power supplies, I think I am confirmed in my decision to buy the RM750.

CPU Cooler - I'll stick to my decision as Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E comes with high recommendations and as I said I am worried about pump noise in the dead silent of the night since I have never used one of these AIO or Closed Loop liquid coolers before. Of course I must have some mock up test fit in my head before pulling the trigger as this cooler is a beast.

If I'm not mistaken, the fan profile settings in the guide are not necessarily designed for a semi passive build but technically there is nothing preventing me from, say keeping the fans from spinning until 50 deg. C and slowly increasing rpm only after a certain temperature threshold has been reached.

[MikeC]

You should just list your location in your profile, no need to keep it secret, others in your area may be able to help with component availability, sources, etc. People from all over the world hang out here.

I think you're right about CPU_OPT. We didn't check it that closely. But you really don't need an CPU cooler that big unless you're going to totally OC a 125W CPU. The vast majority of tower coolers in our recommended pages will do fine with a fan running <500rpm at idle and not much more at high load -- as long as the case has good ventilation and a small steady amount of airflow all the time.

I question the need or benefit of entirely passive cooling even at idle. These days, I always do unless you want something right under your nose at your desk rather than under or beside the desk. There's just no way to have any decently powerful system w/o a case fan going, and as soon as you have one, then you're at 11~12 dBA, even with the fan running so slowly as to be barely moving air. Mostly you'll want 2. So now you're at 13-14 dBA. What will one more slow fan do? Virtually nothing to the noise signature. Your board (and other) components will be far more likely to survive a long life than w/o airflow -- even at mostly moderate loads. -- and your cost for adequate cooling will drop. Yes, you can set your fans to ramp up when a certain temp is reached, but you risk yoyo-ing -- ie fans going on/off around that target temp. This happens & is very annoying, even when the fans run quietly.

You do know that unless you go for a previous gen high end video card, it's very difficult to exceed 300W DC power draw w/ a single GPU system even under lab stress test conditions? The 520W you mentioned is more than adequate for "future proofing" and there are real benefits to matching the power draw of the system to the peak efficiency of the PSU -- which usually occurs at 50~75% of full load. Assuming your average high load is under 250W, a ~500W is the most you should go for. With a 750W PSU, you'll never see the peak efficiency from it.

Obsidian 550D is probably your best bet there. We're not that happy with the intake vent design on some of the other Corsairs; on the inside, the fans get partially blocked in some by a metal frame that acts as the side of the HDD cage. The sound quality of the Corsair fans is not the best, esp as speed is reduced; be prepared to swap them out.

[Uniwarp]

Sure, I actually didn't care to disclose it, not because some need for secrecy but because I'm familiar with pretty much whatever product is available in local markets as there's not many to keep track of. I live in Istanbul by the way. That immediately rules out case somewhat niche manufacturers as Lian Li, Fractal Design, Bitfenix even the likes of Antec are no longer imported through distributors limiting choices of decent cases to Silverstone, Corsair and Cooler Master. So long as I'm whining, I should also mention we don't even get basic stuff like Xeon processors and ECC memory through regular retail channels the likes of newegg and have to rely on obscure ones who import stuff after they receive the money so it's like a month or couple before you receive the product.

Back on topic, I think I might actually overclock, using Asus' convenient tools of course, so going with a bigger cooler that I can get my hands on while it lasts in stocks appeal to me as the safest bet, again, primarily because I have no idea about how loud most AIO/closed loop liquid coolers' pumps are. This is not to say I don't trust your judgment and expertise, in fact I'm researching many of the options you have referred to me, both in terms of local availability and performance. It was a gut over-reaction to go with as big as possible since the thought of going back to a noisy desktop is pretty scary. The computer will sit about 1.5m away from me in a large desk, partly blocked by a monitor in front of it. My concern is this, when I work at night there is almost no background noise, I don't really need much horsepower to play with because all I do is hack away at my keyboard, go through some files etc. Fan noise, especially a pulsing one, can become very irritating and it actually distracts me from my work. I don't have this problem with my laptop which is passive most of the time, but my laptop doesn't really cut the mustard and I don't care for switching back and forth for different tasks and rearranging my desktop every time. All that I want you might say is a passive type writer, web browser and document reader for the quiet of the night. When I'm playing games and doing CPU intensive work, I have no issue with fans chugging along because that's mostly during the day and it'll be drowned out by background noise from the street anyway. It seems like I want the Jekyll and Hyde of PCs.

I agree with your assessment on the power supply requirements and efficiency. I am mostly concerned about the placement of the PSU in the cases available to me and since both Corsair RM750 and the Seasonic Platinum 520W fanless cost the same and has the same warranty period, I am leaning towards the Corsair. I think in the long run, I will appreciate the semi passive nature of the Corsair unit as it gives me further flexibility in buying just about any other case in the future if I'm not satisfied with my purchase. That being said, Seasonic Platinum from the reviews I have read of it so far, is one beautiful engineering marvel to witness. It's fanless, platinum efficiency, delivers every bit of the watts promised without breaking a sweat etc. I just wish I could actually buy a case like Antec Solo II and it would be a no brainer. The only good option available, the Silverstone PS 07 limits me to mATX mainboards unfortunately. I know, once again whining about lack of choice, but sadly it sort of defines where I can go with this build. Also, I truly appreciate your help without knowing the kind of limitations I have to work around, it's frustrating enough knowing and finding your way through these, I can't fathom how it would be to suggest completely reasonable things to a person asking for help and finding out about them after you have responded.

Yes, I will swap the case fans with Noctuas or better ones from Corsair. I will also remove one of the hdd cages to help with the airflow as I only need to utilize one. Once again, really appreciate the advice.

addendum - just to clear a few things about my psu requirements, these are the parts I am planning to work with for the next six months or more. As I mentioned before I'm truly a light gamer and all I want to play is some not so demanding games I missed out on the PC, some as old as 4-5 years.

CPU - Intel Core i5-4690K overclocked to whatever Asus' software deems worthy while keeping adaptive voltage for idle speeds.
Memory - 32GB DDR3-1600 ideally. Don't need fast memory, just stable and verified for the mainboard will do.
Graphics - 1GB GTX560, stock speeds.
Mainboard - Asus Z97 Pro (thanks to the guide you referred to)
Storage - 1 SSD and 2 Intellispeed WD drives. Blu-Ray optical drive.
Optional - HDMI/Component capture card, to be seldom used.
Fans - 1x150mm and 1x140mm on the Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E, 1x 120/140mm on the Prolimatech MK26, 2 front intake case fans 120/140mm, 1 exhaust fan 120mm.

[MikeC]

No need to apologize or anything -- just that full disclosure is the quick way to get the best advice.

I spied at the very bottom of your last post -- 2 Intellispeed WD drives. These will make a constant noise, and they will set the baseline or noise floor of your system. There's no way to go lower, and they will mask any other noises that are slightly lower in level -- including slow spinning fans. The very quietest Greens we measured were 2TB models, at 12~13 dBA. ( see -- http://www.silentpcreview.com/article29-page2.html ) Two of them will go to 14~15 dBA. All the other Greens are slightly louder. Reds were quieter in general when we first reviewed them, but there's user feedback that the later ones have changed, they are somehow noisier. If you don't soft-mount them, most drives will make more noise mounted inside a case, depending party on sample vibration variance. The grommets in most case HDD mounts do little; much softer mounts are needed to keep all vibrations out of the chassis.

The stock Corsair case fans might still be audible with WD Greens in the system, even at very low speed, depending on how much they buzz. But certainly Scythe, Antec TrueQuiet or good NoiseBlockers will not be. Your trepidation about pulsing fans in this system build is unwarranted; there's no reason any fans would do that at low load -- and not at high either, if the system is set up right.

All this is to say there's no benefit to trying to keep the system fanless at low load when you have 2 HDDs in there. You can set the fans up so you can't hear them over the HDDs anyway. FYI, a Truequiet 140 on the low setting (500rpm) measures less than 11 dBA. 2 of them might hit 13. This makes them inaudible with 2 WD Greens. see -- http://www.silentpcreview.com/140mm_Fan_Roundup2

I'd guess if you did it just right, you might end up with a ~16 dBA system at idle. At 1.5m you would not hear it esp. with a blocking desk in the way. Suspending the HDDs with elastic cord might help a bit or lot, depending again on the vibrational qualities of your particular drives.

Can you get Scythe or Antec fans btw? None of the Corsairs are worth buying imo -- if you are a silencer. Noctuas are OK, not as good for acoustics, and not a great value given their pricing. NB are v. good too but also v. pricey.

[Uniwarp]

Ouch, never saw that coming with the drives. I actually have a file server, namely my old desktop, only wanted the drives on this build so I could put that to sleep and save some energy (being the selectively green hippie I am) after getting the files I needed to work on for that day. Also, for clarification I bought 1TB reds recently but I doubt they are in fact recent ones because I bought them in a relatively small retailer which is nearby. At least, that's what I am hoping for.

If I were to buy the Corsair 550D, how do you suggest I go about soft mounting? Corsair is pretty adamant that they have a good mounting mechanism for 3.5" drives so they keep pushing this drive cage / plastic trays combination throughout their mid to high end cases. Perhaps 5.25" to 3.5" adapters? In any case, I'll try out the drives in a regular mounting position, and then try to soft mount them as you advised and if the drives are going to be a problem regardless, they will go back into the file server.

I'm limited in my choice of fans, unfortunately. Corsair SP/AFs and Noctuas are pretty much the only fans out here that are not generic crap or generic crap that was rebranded. Since you say Corsairs are not worth it, I'll probably be paying through the nose for the Noctuas. I'm going to have to go to sleep now, gotta work tomorrow. Thanks again for the help.

[useful_idiot]

There's just no way to have any decently powerful system w/o a case fan going

Oh really? I beg to differ

viewtopic.php?p=589576#p589576

[xan_user]

There's just no way to have any decently powerful system w/o a case fan going

Oh really? I beg to differ

viewtopic.php?p=589576#p589576

I guess it all depends on how you define the word "have". i can "have" a fanless powerful system tomorrow, but will it still work in 6 months or a year....? (unless you have really low ambient temps, or don't really stress the system much, life span will be limited..)

Fanless (and powerful) is just not worth the hassles or the cost.... or the risk. a single spcr recommended fan @ 500-750 rpm is inaudible in any home setting. -unless of course you live in an actual cave.

[useful_idiot]

There's just no way to have any decently powerful system w/o a case fan going

Oh really? I beg to differ

viewtopic.php?p=589576#p589576

I guess it all depends on how you define the word "have". i can "have" a fanless powerful system tomorrow, but will it still work in 6 months or a year....? (unless you have really low ambient temps, or don't really stress the system much, life span will be limited..)

Fanless (and powerful) is just not worth the hassles or the cost.... or the risk. a single spcr recommended fan @ 500-750 rpm is inaudible in any home setting. -unless of course you live in an actual cave.

My ambients are fantastic thanks to the case. I sacrificed size because form follows function. 4790K yawns at anything you can throw at it except for something specifically designed to increase loads to 100%. I did spend alot but im at the silence "end of the line." I was so disappointed with the nexus fans i was determined to go fanless. I'll let you know when anything breaks.

[MikeC]

useful_idiot --

Well perhaps I worded it badly; I mean it's unhealthy to run a powerful system without any airflow unless you have great heatsinks that work passively on all the hot components. Whenever you run electronics hotter, it doesn't last as long. Hows the temp on your PCH? The VRMs?

From the quick scan of your thread, it looks like you have no moving parts -- and no noise except electronics -- at idle. That's great. But as soon as you put a load on your system, the PSU and VGA fans kick up. To me, that's far from a 0 dB system, and the cycling between silent and plainly audible (if not loud?) would not be my choice. I have several systems in the lab and in my home, most of which run fans, and all NEVER sound any different. They range about 13~16 dBA @ 1m. Under my desk, under the TV in a sturdy cabinet, on the shelf in the lab -- they aren't audible in normal use. Their fans never ramp up, their noise is always the same. I do have to clean out dust filters sometimes, but the temps don't change much even if I forget about it for 6 mos. None of the fans are pushing that much air, so the dust is slow to collect.

My quietest system is a NUC modded for passive cooling in one of the Akasa cases, with a 120gb SSD. That doesn't make any noise & I never get close enough to tell whether it makes any electronic noise. The components -- PCH, VRM, SSD, CPU a bit -- all run hot, and I am pretty sure it won't last as long as the fan cooled systems. I accept that, it's just a client box, really, to feed movies from my server to the TV.

The ATX Gamer we built for the build guide last week ramps up just a wee bit at full gaming load, but the difference is less than 5 dBA, and it's under 20 dBA at load. And the <15 dBA idle/low load on that system is inaudible in normal use, while internal temperatures of all the components are always well within safe limits.

[xan_user]

just so we're on the same page, ambient is the temperature of the room the PC is in, it has nothing to do with the case, heatsinks or components.

your rig will likely work for many years, as it has at least one fan to stir up the air in the case (7v GPU), and with overclocking grade parts that are built to handle higher than normal temps. -as long as ambient temps in the room don't get too high.

a single case fan or two, set at low RPM, can save you $100's in build cost, when compared to 'fanless' grade parts, and still wont be any louder than the average home or office noise floor.

[useful_idiot]

Guys, lets not get too far off-topic. I have spent alot on quiet parts in the last few years without any help from SPCR in my quest for silence. I only posted to document where i ended up to save others money. I was very close to silence in my OP and finally had the "sword in the stone" breakthru when i was able to silence the video card. My system is silent 24/7 even under gaming(typical steam games). The 7v constant on the artic accelero can only be heard when i take the cover off and stick my ear in the case near the card and it stays at 7v constant under gaming load. The artic Accelero is such a beefy cooler it makes any OEM cooler look like junk. Does my PSU fan spin up under gaming load..?, probably but ive never heard it. My house goes library quiet at times and that is when my rig really shines, no noise..no fans spinning, just pure silence while im simultaneously watching vids, editing spreadsheets, have 50 tabs open, decompressing rar's, returning emails, and looking at a few pdf's.

[MikeC]

My system is silent 24/7 even under gaming(typical steam games). The 7v constant on the artic accelero can only be heard when i take the cover off and stick my ear in the case near the card and it stays at 7v constant under gaming load. The artic Accelero is such a beefy cooler it makes any OEM cooler look like junk. Does my PSU fan spin up under gaming load..?, probably but ive never heard it. My house goes library quiet at times and that is when my rig really shines, no noise..no fans spinning, just pure silence while im simultaneously watching vids, editing spreadsheets, have 50 tabs open, decompressing rar's, returning emails, and looking at a few pdf's.

Fair enough, it does sound like a v. nice system. You had mentioned fans ramping up under load but never said before that they still weren't audible. Kudos.

Uniwarp --

Obviously this is another approach you could take. A fanless massive NoFan CPU cooler + passively cooled VGA card with perhaps a single exhaust fan running at <700rpm on the back panel, with a semi-passive PSU & no HDD. That could get you down to maybe 12 dBA or less -- depending on the exhaust fan.

[bbalex]

I agree, my build is similar to useful_idiot's. It's a 4790K with a Nofan CR95C, only that I have no case fan (in fact, for now I have no case, period). My only issue is with the electronic noises that both the motherboard and the supposedly 0dB Hx750i PSU make, in gaming conditions - although the GPU card is then a far worse noise source. Imagine doing everything else except gaming, in complete silence, and this without any case to hide anything - it really is possible.

[Uniwarp]

Mike, I was very much busy the past day and didn't have the chance to update on this thread. Now that I did, I have reconsidered some of my initial convictions and made some changes accordingly. I have decided to relocate the PC to the very end and back of the desk, increasing my distance to it by about a meter. Since I don't need constant access to my optical drive, I will just order a usb hub and some longer usb cables. If it comes to that the purchase of a e-sata or usb 5,25" enclosure is much more easily justifiable than running a file server 24/7. I'll keep the WD red drives in the case and go with a Seasonic PSU, 750W X series or 620W S/M12ii series if that is not available. From what I read, Corsair just is overcharging a lot for inferior parts / design by bundling it with gimmicks such as Corsair link etc. Given the increased distance, my choice of CPU cooler might change too. Although my partiality for the Thermalright still continues, perhaps another air cooler that is a little more install friendly (not that sb-e is particularly difficult) might sway my opinion. I tink I will pull the trigger and order the parts quite soon so I'll keep you updated.

edit - can you also point me towards some affordable acoustic measurement tools that I can perhaps find in hardware stores?

[MikeC]

Sounds like you're getting practical

edit - can you also point me towards some affordable acoustic measurement tools that I can perhaps find in hardware stores?

Not recommended, as none are worthwhile (if you're looking to measure quiet PC gear) till you get to >$2000. It's around that price that you start to find devices that can read under 30 dB.

[xan_user]

older links, but if you havent seen them its worth a read;
http://www.silentpcreview.com/anechoic_chamber_SPCR
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article875-page1.html

(time sure flys! seems like it was just yesterday when mike built that...)

[Uniwarp]

Practical but never unambitious. After reading about Corsair RM series (I had no intention of spending a good portion of my budget on an AX/HX PSU that was never going to be utilized to it's potential) I didn't think the compromises in build quality and using second best components in some corner cutting measures warranted my hard earned cash, despite the five year warranty. Many others who know much more about this stuff than me seem to agree so I went with a Seasonic PSU instead. Actually, I pulled the trigger on the CPU, Memory, Mainboard, Case, PSU and CPU Cooler. I won't purchase any case fans yet, I have limited memory to 16GB from my original intent of 32GB because I wanted to see the system up and running stably first and spending some time with it getting familiar with the Asus UEFI before going ahead with the process of silencing it to my needs. I will buy quieter case fans as necessary while I tweak and tune the system. Plus, I'm already having to wait for my order to ship because of the retailer sourcing the parts in stock from the distributors, I'd hate to wait further for some fans (IIRC it said 3-5 days before shipping) while the components waited in their boxes.

@xan_user - thanks for the links, that was a nice read, though I mostly looked at the pretty pics. It gave me some good ideas about what to do with my torture chamber / basement.

[Uniwarp]

Update - Received the parts yesterday, the cpu cooler fans were a b...h to install because I had to install the cpu cooler after installing the motherboard in the case or else I wasn't going to access some standoffs and power connectors. Once the cooler was installed there was little room on top of the case to work with Thermalright's weird fan wires that needed some force to be properly seated. One thing that got working for me though, was the venting holes on top of the case which allowed me to see what the hell I was doing during this process. I can honestly say I spent as much time installing the cooler as much as I did building the rest of the system. On the bright side, the cooler is a beast and although I didn't really test with an OS, uefi temperatures after being left on for an hour or so reported 25-26 degrees celsius for the cpu running at 3.5 GHz constantly. Now, because of the integrated fan controller of 400R, the front fans are powered via this device that is itself powered via a molex connector. It can turn fan leds on/off leading me to believe that the fan connectors are proprietary and I don't have much chance of trying these fans out with lower rpms by connecting them directly to the motherboard. It's all right in any case, I planned about switching them anyway. Meanwhile, any advice from anyone who is familiar with the case on this issue is most appreciated as the advice given to me so far has been. Overall it has been a fun building experience, considering I haven't done this in a while, and I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth it went despite certain complications when compared with the horrendous time I had working with older atx cases and parts, even though those builds were much more basic. Thanks again for all of you who chimed in with your advice and experiences.

Update 2 - System chugging away on temporary test bench... pics added.... well, I seem to be unable to add more than one attachment. Weird, I guess I'll upload them to an image host later on.