Dual tower CPU heatsink cooler for "cheap" from Poland

[quest_for_silence]

JFYI: SilentiumPC Grandis XE1236.

[Dr Prozac]

I've decided to take a risk and buy it. The heatsink isn't expensive, so even if the fans turned out to be bad, I could always buy better ones for the same money as some other coolers.
My current gear that can affect the sound is as follows: R5 case with stock fans, an Asus 960 GTX (passive at idle), Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 550 W and WD Red 3 TB drive.

It seems that the most audible component is the hard drive. It's not very bad (at least after I've suspended it) though. On other hand without it the build would be almost inaudible even from short distance.

The fans that came with the SilentiumPC Grandis are good. The rpm range is about 450-1400 and at 450-500 rpm they are without doubt as quiet as the R5 case fans (which I guess is very good). They are quite quiet up to about 800 rpm, after that the airflow noise becomes increasingly loud. Actually, I think they are just as good as the Fractal Design fans up to that speed. All this with the case closed, from around 50 cm.

The bearing is different, you can feel it when you spin them by hand. When the power gets cut off, the Silentium PC fans stop almost immediately, while the Fractal Design ones keep going for a few seconds (inertia). I don't know if the fact that the first ones are PWM fans has something to do with this. The bearings sound differently, though at the moment I find it hard to tell which ones are better.

According to the Asus app he controllable range is 31-100%, and at 31% one fan spins at 460 rpm, the other one at 490. Interestingly the TechPowerUp! review claims that at 25% the fan spins at around 540 rpm. Also, Asus Fan Xpert lists 230 as the minimum rpm (450 is the starting one).

If I find time to examine them a bit better (with the only the SSD enabled, with case panels open etc) I'll let you know. I'll be getting an Antec TrueQuiet 140 fan soon.

Regards,
Dr

[quest_for_silence]

Thanks a lot for your personal review, Dr Prozac.

About your WD Red, maybe you may try this HDD enclosure, which should be rather effective, as reported by our co-forumer Tzeb (and in case you may even suspend it "vertically", or just placing it over a foam sheet or similarly damping materials).

[Dr Prozac]

Thanks for the link, I was already thinking about it. Unfortunately it seems there are no HDD enclosures for sale on the Polish market. At leas I can't find any. Maybe I'll have to make my own, though the disk sin't that bad. It makes strange noises on power up, like a floppy drive.

I made some Prime95 tests. With two case fans at around 500 rpm the temperature was between 50 and 62 C, while the CPU fans spun between 450 and 700 rpm. Noise levels remained good. Running Furmark (auto rpm, there are some problems with the GTX 960) with Prime95 had no noticeable effect on CPU temperatures, at least during a short test. Asus AI Suite reports around 32 C as idle temp (it can increase the multiplier by itself, so it may be lower).

I think that better results could be achieved by optimizing the thermal paste thickness or compound, but it's OK how it is now.

[Dr Prozac]

Thanks for the link, I was already thinking about it. Unfortunately it seems there are no HDD enclosures for sale on the Polish market. At leas I can't find any. Maybe I'll have to make my own, though the disk sin't that bad. It makes strange noises on power up, like a floppy drive.

I've made a so called Bitumenbox for the HDD. It's now much quieter. Maybe if I find some time, I'll post a topic about it.

The floppy like noises during POST turned out to be generated by the DVD drive.

I didn't change my opinion about the fans added to the SilentiumPC Grandis. They are quiet at low speeds. The bearing sound is OK (one of my R5 case fans has much worse).