Making a gaming rig silent - advice needed

[bnk]

I have an i7 4770 stock cooler, min itx MB (gigabyte z87 N), sapphire r9 280x (with three fans), p182 case, 850W corsair psu.
I would like to make it more silent, starting the stock cooler with a newer designed case (the NZXT s340).
I thought of going water cooling with NZXT s340 and kraken x31 or x61.
What do you think?
Any better solution to make it more silent?

[CA_Steve]

Welcome to SPCR.

The stock cooler for the i7 Haswell is utter crap. Chances are the CPU is throttling or close to it at high loads. You don't need liquid cooling to make it quieter than the Gfx card. The Scythe Kotetsu will do just fine. Check your headroom on your P180 (I couldn't easily find CPU cooler clearance online) and make sure it'll handle 160mm height as well as your other mITX clearances. If you OC the i7, then maybe the Ninja 4 would be better (if it'll fit).

Which specific Sapphire model do you have? Vapor X, Tri X , Tri X OC?

[bnk]

Thank you.
Actually I have the p182 not the p180, but it will be replaced to NZXT s340.
I have the Sapphire r9 toxic (1100 OC).
I also have the Noctua NH-D14 but it won't fit with the mini MB.
There is enough headroom in the p182.
The water cooling such as the x31/x61 looks cleaner install and future proof if I upgrade to a new OC'd CPU, Will it be more silent than the air cooler?
I can also get the Corsair water coolers.

I wouldn't mind making the GFx card silent as well.
I don't OC (the 4770 is locked).

[CA_Steve]

Will it be more silent than the air cooler?

Nope. You can get down to 17dB(A) or so with the Krakens vs 12-13dB with the Scythe coolers mentioned. In any case, the gfx card will become the primary source of noise.

Your gfx card looks to be ok at idle and kinda loud with load. You could use MSI Afterburner s/w to lower the fan rpm at load a bit. There are aftermarket cooler replacements if you really want to throw some bucks at it.

[quest_for_silence]

What do you think?
Any better solution to make it more silent?

Hold on your P182, pick a Thermalright True Spirit 120i (it's a slanted design for crappily placed socket in mITX boards), then try SpeedFan to cook a custom fan curve for any fan you have (it could be able to drive your Sapphire too). The Antec stock fans worth a replacement too, maybe with PWM ones.

[Smanci]

+1 for the 120i. I've got it mounted on a Z77N wifi and it fits well even with the ASUS GTX 960 (has backplate on it). The stock fan, though, got replaced with a better sounding and performing Slip Stream SY1225SL12LM-P set at the lowest possible PWM setting trough BIOS.

[quest_for_silence]

+1 for the 120i.

And if you (the OP) are one who dares, delid your CPU and replace the TIM with the Coolaboratory Metal Liquid Pro.

[bnk]

12-13dB with the Scythe coolers mentioned.

How low can I get with atx mb and the "best" coolers for both cpu and gpu (which coolers?)?

[xan_user]

12-13dB with the Scythe coolers mentioned.

How low can I get with atx mb and the "best" coolers for both cpu and gpu (which coolers?)?

how low do you really need to go? whats your ambient noise floor?

[bnk]

A typical calm room.
How low is needed to be inaudible at home?
Measuring using the cell phone it looks like the spl is 55dba (?).

[CA_Steve]

I think a calibrated microphone with a self noise of less than 10dB used for testing (that costs more than your phone) may be a bit more accurate than the ten cent mic in your phone...you'd be lucky to see anything below 40dBA.

If you replace your gfx card cooler with one of the Arctic Cooling solutions, like the Extreme III or IV, under 20dB might possible. In any case, my suggestion would be to work incrementally. Move to the new case, if you want. Replace the CPU cooler. Then, decide if you are happy with the idle and load noise. If not happy, move on to the next loudest component (the gfx card).

[quest_for_silence]

A typical calm room.
How low is needed to be inaudible at home?

Talking for SPCR recordings, in my experience 12-14dB is virtually inaudible at close distance in broad daylight, but on the other hand that will be much more easily noticeable (though still unobtrusive, probably) at late night (before midnight, however), even 2-3mt from the source. So, your mileage may vary, it depends of boundary conditions.

Measuring using the cell phone it looks like the spl is 55dba (?).

It's pointless (or meaningless): the mic app cannot record anything meaningful under a certain threshold, paired with the phone mic (due to their specs, their "inner" electronic "noise", way higher than 30dB), so that every cat will look black when the night is really dark.

[bnk]

In that case, as quiet as possible (is used at night as well).