Close to silent pc!

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Pao338
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Close to silent pc!

Post by Pao338 » Sun Mar 09, 2014 6:26 pm

Hi everyone,

I joined this great forum a little while ago, and it has been an invaluable source of help already (thank you CA_Steve and Abula once again for patiently sharing your knowledge)! :D

I would like to build my first desktop pc (so far I have only been using laptops…) but I need some help as I have little expertise on hardware configurations.
I’m looking for a “high performance” and close to silent pc for:
- extensive office use (Office suite, management software, online databases)
- Photoshop and CAD (not professionally)
- watching HD films (quite often)
- heavy browsing and p2p
- NO GAMING


So far I am oriented towards the following key components:

Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl
Intel Core i5-4670 3.4GHz 6MB Socket 1150 84W with GPU HD Graphics 4600 Boxed
ASUS Z87-Plus
Ram DDR3 Corsair Vengeance Low Profile CML8GX3M2A1600C9 1600MHz 8GB (2x4GB) CL9
(or Crucial Ballistix Sport 2x4GB)
SSD Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" SATA3
2 3TB WD Caviar hdds (either green or red)

I am planning to replace the 2 stock fans that come with the R4 case with three 140 mm aftermarket fans (2 in the front and 1 the back) in order to control each fan individually for optimized system cooling (priority is quietness at idle).

1) Do you think I would get any benefit if I also include a mid-range video card?
Or the integrated one would be more than enough for my use?

2) Considering the partial hw configuration I provided so far and the use of the pc, would a fanless PSU work well in the R4? Or do you think a semi passive one would more appropriate?

I was thinking about one of these:

Seasonic Platinum 520FL
Bequiet! Dark Power Pro 10 550W

I read they both received the Editor’s Choice.

Thank you in advance!

CA_Steve
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Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by CA_Steve » Sun Mar 09, 2014 7:06 pm

If you are just plinking around with CAD and Photoshop, then you don't need a graphics card, the iGP is fine. If you spend a lot of time with Photoshop and work with very large images, then there is some benefit at getting a low end gfx card to accelerate some of the functions. My guess it that it's marginal for you. As for CAD, you probably want to do a search on "gpu acceleration" for your specific program and see if there are benchmarks.

A Haswell quad core system draws maybe 130W under full stressed load. A 90% efficient PSU (at this load) only generates ~13W of heat. So, fanless is fine. Or go with a PSU that is whisper quite at your loads (most likely no more than 100W).

Pao338
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Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by Pao338 » Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:40 pm

CA_Steve wrote:If you are just plinking around with CAD and Photoshop, then you don't need a graphics card, the iGP is fine. If you spend a lot of time with Photoshop and work with very large images, then there is some benefit at getting a low end gfx card to accelerate some of the functions. My guess it that it's marginal for you. As for CAD, you probably want to do a search on "gpu acceleration" for your specific program and see if there are benchmarks.
Thank you CA_Steve!
Could you please give me some model examples of the low end gfx cards you have in mind? Like the Nvidia quadro? Are eventually silent?

CA_Steve wrote:A Haswell quad core system draws maybe 130W under full stressed load. A 90% efficient PSU (at this load) only generates ~13W of heat. So, fanless is fine. Or go with a PSU that is whisper quite at your loads (most likely no more than 100W).
130W under full stressed load without an extra VGA, right? Plus another 50/55W max if I include the above mentioned card.

So the 2 PSUs I'm looking at are quite an overkill for my build and I should get a less powerful one?
Seasonic Platinum 400/460 fanless (a little scared about the possible coil whine issue to manifest)
Seasonic x400/x460
or still go with the Bequiet! Dark Power Pro 10 550W since it's <11 dB until 300/350W

ohhgourami
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Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by ohhgourami » Mon Mar 10, 2014 12:00 am

If you're in the US, I'd look at the Kingwin STR-500/Rosewill SilentNight. No coil whine and the quality is just as good as the Seasonic models.

For your uses, especially if you won't be using a GPU (and even if you do), take a look into ITX builds. You don't exactly need a "quiet" case to achieve "silence". The most important thing is quiet parts. A big aircooler will be a must if you want a quiet rig. A Noctua NH-U14S is a good bet, along with NF-A14/15 fans for whatever case you're using.

I recommend getting at least 256gb of SSD storage. You could go for a 256gb Crucial M500 which is like $20 more than a 128gb 840 Pro. For the very slight sacrifice in speed, you get the same reliability and double the space.

I can definitely tell you the HDDs will probably be the loudest components in the build.

edh
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Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by edh » Mon Mar 10, 2014 1:49 am

I would suggest not bothering with a GPU initially and use the onboard graphics. If however you then find that you need more graphical power, adding a graphics card is easy. Far better this way round than buying something now which you then don't need.

Don't restrict yourself to looking at just Z87 based motherboards. If silence is important then many H87 boards might be better as they are more aimed at media centre use so tend to have more undervolting and underclocking options - regardless of CPU you will want to try this to get the quietest setup.

MiniITX might be worth considering but will add to the cost and limit options. MicroATX might be a worthwhile halfway point.

How much disk space do you actually need right now? 2x3Tb disks will be a major noise bottleneck. If there is anyway that you can run on just SSD that would be massively beneficial and if you run out of space in time, SSDs are only going to get larger and cheaper!

tim851
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Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by tim851 » Mon Mar 10, 2014 2:27 am

Pao338 wrote:I’m looking for a “high performance” and close to silent pc for:
- extensive office use (Office suite, management software, online databases)
- Photoshop and CAD (not professionally)
- watching HD films (quite often)
- heavy browsing and p2p
- NO GAMING
You're not looking for a high performance pc then... :lol:
I am planning to replace the 2 stock fans that come with the R4 case with three 140 mm aftermarket fans (2 in the front and 1 the back) in order to control each fan individually for optimized system cooling (priority is quietness at idle).
You don't need 3 fans. The only component in your setup that generates meaningful heat is the CPU. Put a Thermalright HR-02 or HR-22 on it and use the rear exhaust fan as the CPU fan. Easily enough.
1) Do you think I would get any benefit if I also include a mid-range video card?
Depends on what CAD software you're using and what you're doing with it.
Considering the partial hw configuration I provided so far and the use of the pc, would a fanless PSU work well in the R4? Or do you think a semi passive one would more appropriate?
Doesn't really matter. Your setup could be run off a PicoPSU 160.


The loudest thing will be the two hard disks. I would advise you to get a bigger SSD - Crucial is practically giving them away now - and put the HDDs in a NAS box and that NAS box somewhere it can't bother you. Mine is in the kitchen.

quest_for_silence
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Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by quest_for_silence » Mon Mar 10, 2014 6:40 am

Pao338 wrote:1) Do you think I would get any benefit if I also include a mid-range video card?
Or the integrated one would be more than enough for my use?


Any fanned video card is not compatible with a "close to silent pc", providing that silent mean actually silent.
Said that, you may consider an AMD FirePro V3900 or V4900 paired with an Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Plus: it's what I've done in a somewhat similar setup, and IMHO it works enough well even without any fan strapped on the cooler.

Pao338 wrote:I was thinking about one of these:

Seasonic Platinum 520FL
Bequiet! Dark Power Pro 10 550W

Think also to the already quoted Super-Flower based fanless PSUs (Kingwin, Rosewill, Super-Flower itself) and the Corsair RM-series.

For a discrete graphics setup, rather than the excellent Seasonic, personally I would opt for the BeQuiet or the Corsair (or maybe the Cooler Master V700, if it was enough cheap where you live).

At any rate, as said by others, any regular ATX PSU is way overkill for such an expected power draw.

Pao338
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Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by Pao338 » Mon Mar 10, 2014 8:34 pm

Thank you all for the good suggestions!
It looks like I should make some substantial reconsiderations here and I would probably need a little more help than expected....

At the moment I'm using three 3TB external HDDs and two of them are already full (probably within a couple of years I will end up having 4 hdds).
The idea was to try to sell them and get three internal ones. So for the time being I was planning to get 1 internal 3TB hdd + 1 ssd.

ATX vs. Micro ATX.
I thought that as long as I go for relatively low power components then the factor is not that important.
I chose the Define R4 vs. Define Mini due to the fact that it is probably easier to cool quietly in larger cases. Moreover, I thought that a little bigger case could be more adaptable to future configurations.
Now, taking in consideration the suggestions I received and the fact that my pc use won't change over the years, do you think it would be better for me to go with Micro ATX choosing a smaller case with only one bigger ssd and building/buying a NAS for the rest of the hdds?

ohhgourami wrote:If you're in the US, I'd look at the Kingwin STR-500/Rosewill SilentNight. No coil whine and the quality is just as good as the Seasonic models.
I'm in Europe, I could eventually find:
- Super Flower Golden King Platinum 500W
- Super Flower Golden Silent Platinum fanless 430W or 500W

ohhgourami wrote:I recommend getting at least 256gb of SSD storage. You could go for a 256gb Crucial M500 which is like $20 more than a 128gb 840 Pro. For the very slight sacrifice in speed, you get the same reliability and double the space.

I can definitely tell you the HDDs will probably be the loudest components in the build.
Ok!
CA_Steve wrote:If you are just plinking around with CAD and Photoshop, then you don't need a graphics card, the iGP is fine. If you spend a lot of time with Photoshop and work with very large images, then there is some benefit at getting a low end gfx card to accelerate some of the functions. My guess it that it's marginal for you. As for CAD, you probably want to do a search on "gpu acceleration" for your specific program and see if there are benchmarks.
edh wrote:I would suggest not bothering with a GPU initially and use the onboard graphics. If however you then find that you need more graphical power, adding a graphics card is easy. Far better this way round than buying something now which you then don't need.
Ok, I will wait and see if I need it!
edh wrote:Don't restrict yourself to looking at just Z87 based motherboards. If silence is important then many H87 boards might be better as they are more aimed at media centre use so tend to have more undervolting and underclocking options - regardless of CPU you will want to try this to get the quietest setup.
Could you please explain to me what you mean by 'tend to have more undervolting and underclocking options'?
tim851 wrote:
Pao338 wrote:I’m looking for a “high performance” and close to silent pc for:
- extensive office use (Office suite, management software, online databases)
- Photoshop and CAD (not professionally)
- watching HD films (quite often)
- heavy browsing and p2p
- NO GAMING
You're not looking for a high performance pc then... :lol:
That’s why I used quotation marks when I wrote “high performance”… :D
quest_for_silence wrote:Any fanned video card is not compatible with a "close to silent pc", providing that silent mean actually silent.
Said that, you may consider an AMD FirePro V3900 or V4900 paired with an Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Plus: it's what I've done in a somewhat similar setup, and IMHO it works enough well even without any fan strapped on the cooler.
So, going back to my question, are you suggesting that I should get a video card?
The setup you are referring to is it actually post it somewhere in the forum so that I could take a look at it to have an idea?
quest_for_silence wrote:For a discrete graphics setup, rather than the excellent Seasonic, personally I would opt for the BeQuiet or the Corsair (or maybe the Cooler Master V700, if it was enough cheap where you live).
Bequiet! Dark Power Pro 10 550W, Super Flower Golden Silent Platinum fanless 430W, and Seasonic P-460FL all cost the same.
Seasonic Platinum 520FL and Super Flower Golden Silent Platinum fanless 500W both cost eur 20 more than the previous three.

Could you please explain why you would prefer the BeQuiet over Seasonic?
quest_for_silence wrote:At any rate, as said by others, any regular ATX PSU is way overkill for such an expected power draw.
The power consumption of the AMD FirePro V4900 is nearly 75W and they suggest at least 450W of power supply. So, in case I get the video card (now or later) it looks like I need at least that amount of power supply.

Vicotnik
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Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by Vicotnik » Tue Mar 11, 2014 12:44 am

Pao338 wrote:At the moment I'm using three 3TB external HDDs and two of them are already full (probably within a couple of years I will end up having 4 hdds).
The idea was to try to sell them and get three internal ones. So for the time being I was planning to get 1 internal 3TB hdd + 1 ssd.
You could open up the enclosures and use the drives you already got. You would probably lose any warranty though.
Pao338 wrote:So, going back to my question, are you suggesting that I should get a video card?
Not at first, but maybe later. :)
Pao338 wrote:The power consumption of the AMD FirePro V4900 is nearly 75W and they suggest at least 450W of power supply. So, in case I get the video card (now or later) it looks like I need at least that amount of power supply.
If you get a quality PSU (as we all should, it's a critical part of any system) you can pretty much ignore what the graphics card manufacturers recommend. They are covering their asses, as they must I suppose considering the cheap crappy PSUs that are out there.

quest_for_silence
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Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by quest_for_silence » Wed Mar 12, 2014 12:54 am

Pao338 wrote:
quest_for_silence wrote:Said that, you may consider an AMD FirePro V3900 or V4900 paired with an Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Plus: it's what I've done in a somewhat similar setup, and IMHO it works enough well even without any fan strapped on the cooler.


So, going back to my question, are you suggesting that I should get a video card?


With reference to price performance ratio, it's strictly related to the actual use of Photoshop and CAD software: a "10-bit color" videocard such as a FirePro is noticeably faster than any current IGP, but without any actual needs (and probably without a 10-bit color monitor) it would be a waste of money.

Pao338 wrote:The setup you are referring to is it actually post it somewhere in the forum so that I could take a look at it to have an idea?


No, that setup isn't in the gallery or in any other forum section, at any rate it's a graphic workstation aimed at video and photo editing which sports about similar components: a Xeon with a Scythe Kabuto on top, a FireProV3900 with S1, an Intel 320 SSD and a suspended Seagate Constellation.2 hard disk, a fanless Seasonic 460, all in an Antec NSK3480 with just one 120mm Scythe PWM exhaust fan, coupled with an external backup (Seagate Go Flex) and UPS (CyberPower). With reference to your proposed setup, I have a smaller enclosure (with a top mounting PSU, not bottom), with one fan and one hard drive less (even if there's room to suspend even that).

Pao338 wrote:
quest_for_silence wrote:For a discrete graphics setup, rather than the excellent Seasonic, personally I would opt for the BeQuiet or the Corsair (or maybe the Cooler Master V700, if it was enough cheap where you live).
Bequiet! Dark Power Pro 10 550W, Super Flower Golden Silent Platinum fanless 430W, and Seasonic P-460FL all cost the same.
Seasonic Platinum 520FL and Super Flower Golden Silent Platinum fanless 500W both cost eur 20 more than the previous three.

Could you please explain why you would prefer the BeQuiet over Seasonic?


Well, there are no strictly technical reasons: I'm a bit biased against Seasonic recently, and personally I prefer a fanned PSU when it is bottom mounted, with a fanless videocard nearby.

Pao338 wrote:
quest_for_silence wrote:At any rate, as said by others, any regular ATX PSU is way overkill for such an expected power draw.


The power consumption of the AMD FirePro V4900 is nearly 75W and they suggest at least 450W of power supply. So, in case I get the video card (now or later) it looks like I need at least that amount of power supply.


The real power draw of both V3900 and V4900 is very similar, about 45-55W at most, 20-30W on average, so you should have an expected total power draw under 100W DC.

Just a final note: if you should opt for a discrete graphics, more probably that not any Core i3 would not be the best option with reference to price/performance ratio, while an Intel Pentium G3420 would seem a smart bet. Otherwise, the better IGP would matter.

Pao338
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Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by Pao338 » Thu Mar 13, 2014 6:11 pm

Thank you “Vicotnik” and “Luca” for your latest suggestions and explanations! :D

I am trying to put together all the valuable recommendations I received so far (along with extensive research) into the best possible set up for my actual needs…

I still have a couple of questions I would like to ask:

1) In terms of front e rear case fans, would be reasonable to consider the 140mm fans preferable over the 120mm due to the fact that they could perform same air flow at lower RPMs and therefore run more quietly? In making this assumption, I’m obviously considering the best performer for each size, all the rest being equal.
Taking into account my use of the pc, I am trying to determine whether I could still benefit in terms of silence from opting for the mid-tower Define R4 or I could get same results downsizing a bit with Define Mini and micro ATX mobo.

2) On an Asus mobo, would it make sense to use a PWM fan for the rear connecting it to the CPU_Opt Header (true PWM CPU mirror header) rather than a 3-pin fan?
In this way the exhaust PWM fan would run in tandem with the PWM CPU fan. Probably it would work even better if using identical fans!

markanini
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Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by markanini » Thu Mar 13, 2014 7:14 pm

Get the reds, some of the greens are still stocked with 667GB platters: http://rml527.blogspot.se/2010/10/hdd-p ... _1109.html

Pao338
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Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by Pao338 » Thu Mar 13, 2014 7:28 pm

markanini wrote:Get the reds, some of the greens are still stocked with 667GB platters: http://rml527.blogspot.se/2010/10/hdd-p ... _1109.html
Thank you so much for pointing that out...so many things to be aware of!! :shock:

quest_for_silence
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Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu Mar 13, 2014 10:58 pm

Pao338 wrote:1) In terms of front e rear case fans, would be reasonable to consider the 140mm fans preferable over the 120mm due to the fact that they could perform same air flow at lower RPMs and therefore run more quietly? In making this assumption, I’m obviously considering the best performer for each size, all the rest being equal.
Taking into account my use of the pc, I am trying to determine whether I could still benefit in terms of silence from opting for the mid-tower Define R4 or I could get same results downsizing a bit with Define Mini and micro ATX mobo.


With reference to a relatively low power dual core/IGP setup, I don't think that matter: on the contrary, with a more demanding CPU and with a discrete graphics, the superior cooling power of the 140mm fans may be useful to lower the overall system noise.

At any rate, broadly speaking usually a 140mm fan cannot run slower and quieter than a 120mm fan, and IMO the Define Mini is not so much smaller than the R4, as it's just 4cm less tall and 3cm less deep:

Image Image

Pao338 wrote:2) On an Asus mobo, would it make sense to use a PWM fan for the rear connecting it to the CPU_Opt Header (true PWM CPU mirror header) rather than a 3-pin fan?
In this way the exhaust PWM fan would run in tandem with the PWM CPU fan. Probably it would work even better if using identical fans!


Providing you won't use any software to control your fans, it could be a viable strategy: I would add that as far as I know any decent ASUS mobo should have one single true PWM fan header, along with the CPU one, if needed, and that you may also use a PWM splitter (like the Akasa Flexa, the Gelid one or the Swiftech 8W), if you need to control more than two fans.

markanini wrote:Get the reds, some of the greens are still stocked with 667GB platters: http://rml527.blogspot.se/2010/10/hdd-p ... _1109.html


Please, be careful: there are actual chances that current WD Red (NAS 2.0 fw) can be noticeably noisier than the original WD Red (NAS fw) drives, and therefore noisier their WD Green counterparts: viewtopic.php?t=65849p=582882#p582882

Perhaps a Seagate NAS drive might also worth to be considered, check the relevant SPCR review if you (I mean Pao338) mind.

Pao338
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Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by Pao338 » Fri Mar 14, 2014 8:24 pm

Thank you "Luca"!
quest_for_silence wrote:
Pao338 wrote:1) In terms of front e rear case fans, would be reasonable to consider the 140mm fans preferable over the 120mm due to the fact that they could perform same air flow at lower RPMs and therefore run more quietly? In making this assumption, I’m obviously considering the best performer for each size, all the rest being equal.
Taking into account my use of the pc, I am trying to determine whether I could still benefit in terms of silence from opting for the mid-tower Define R4 or I could get same results downsizing a bit with Define Mini and micro ATX mobo.


With reference to a relatively low power dual core/IGP setup, I don't think that matter: on the contrary, with a more demanding CPU and with a discrete graphics, the superior cooling power of the 140mm fans may be useful to lower the overall system noise.
My pic would be the Intel i5-4670 3.4GHz and most likely I won't need a graphics card (don't know for sure so I'm going to try without it at first)...if you were me would you go with the 140mm fans to be on a safer spot?
quest_for_silence wrote:At any rate, broadly speaking usually a 140mm fan cannot run slower and quieter than a 120mm fan, and IMO the Define Mini is not so much smaller than the R4, as it's just 4cm less tall and 3cm less deep:

Image Image

Easy to compare them now :D ...I think the Define Mini is almost 7 cm less tall but you are right, there isn't that much of a difference between the two. On the Define Mini you could only put 120 mm case fans thus...
markanini wrote:Get the reds, some of the greens are still stocked with 667GB platters: http://rml527.blogspot.se/2010/10/hdd-p ... _1109.html

quest_for_silence wrote:Please, be careful: there are actual chances that current WD Red (NAS 2.0 fw) can be noticeably noisier than the original WD Red (NAS fw) drives, and therefore noisier their WD Green counterparts: viewtopic.php?t=65849p=582882#p582882

Perhaps a Seagate NAS drive might also worth to be considered, check the relevant SPCR review if you (I mean Pao338) mind.
Thank you Luca! Reading all the relevant reviews and posts it looks like the WD Red 4Tb is still the best bet as the currently sold Red 2/3TB seem to be also noisier than previous models. But still sligthly better than the Seagate NAS HDD.

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Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by quest_for_silence » Fri Mar 14, 2014 11:24 pm

Pao338 wrote:My pic would be the Intel i5-4670 3.4GHz and most likely I won't need a graphics card (don't know for sure so I'm going to try without it at first)...if you were me would you go with the 140mm fans to be on a safer spot?


Well, it's hard to say, your mileage may vary.
With reference to a stock clocked Core i5, I think that 120mm fans are enough.
About the 140mm fans, I think it depends of the specific fans: at the same rpm of a 120mm fan, they are louder (at 5-600rpm a 120mm fan can be easily unnoticeable, while at the same speed you will clearly hear a 140mm fan).
So, providing they can go very low at idle/low load, then you might get better temps or lower noise at load without noise penalty at idle. Noise penalty also depends of your ambient noisefloor (which I don't know).

As far as I know (but I don't own them) the FD 140mm R2 fans shouldn't be able to go extremely low, they should be just under 400rpm at the lowest 5V setting, and some owner (CA_Steve I think) said they are very quiet but not silent at 5V.
Some Antec, Scythe or Noctua fans may have better sound signatures and, moreover, in most cases you can lower more their speed: but with an added cost over the R4 one.

Pao338 wrote:Easy to compare them now :D ...I think the Define Mini is almost 7 cm less tall but you are right, there isn't that much of a difference between the two. On the Define Mini you could only put 120 mm case fans thus...


Yes, my bad, I'm sorry Pao338: I beg your pardon.

I used the SPCR data published for the R3 review, assuming the R4 is just a refresh of it, but I was wrong, the R3 is 44cm tall while the R4 is 46cm tall, and "pour cause": the refresh was the new 140mm fans! So, the actual difference is just under 7cm as you know.

Please take note that even the photos are affected by the same error, and the actual height gap is higher by about 2cm: even so, in my opinion the Defini Mini isn't much smaller than the R4.

Pao338 wrote:Reading all the relevant reviews and posts it looks like the WD Red 4Tb is still the best bet as the currently sold Red 2/3TB seem to be also noisier than previous models. But still sligthly better than the Seagate NAS HDD.


If I understood correctly other people complains, now the entire WD Red lineup is noisier than it did before: but I can't help on that.

Pao338
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Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by Pao338 » Wed Mar 19, 2014 7:32 pm

Thank you Luca!
quest_for_silence wrote:So, providing they can go very low at idle/low load, then you might get better temps or lower noise at load without noise penalty at idle.
You mean the 140mm fans, right?

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Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by quest_for_silence » Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:14 pm

Pao338 wrote:
quest_for_silence wrote:So, providing they can go very low at idle/low load, then you might get better temps or lower noise at load without noise penalty at idle.
You mean the 140mm fans, right?


Yes, I was referring to the 140mm fans.

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Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by Troveo » Thu Mar 20, 2014 12:41 pm

did you get your PSU yet?

around a month or two ago, im also confused whether i shud go with superflower fanless or seasonic fanless or save money and go with psu that have quiet fans...

i chose superflower fanless platinum, because where i live, the local seasonic distributor when i asked on email seemingly said that if the unit is working fine, coil whine is not an issue, so i wnet with superflower fanless.

and i gotta tell you, it's the best purchasing decision i made on my first PC.
i wouldve get seasonic if i live in the US or Europe though, because seasonic sounds cool, superflower doesn't sound cool at all. haha.

about the drive, idk if its just me or is it a common issue but, my WD red 2tb is loud when it's being accessed.

if you save your work to it like i do, it's the noisiest in the whole PC. in my case it even beats my 3.5" mybook external (green?) drive seeking noise at least twice louder, more like three times.

idk why it's so noisy and im going to try RMA the drive though i'm quite concern that the local distributor probably won't accept it because smart test on crystaldiskinfo is showing everything is just fine.

doing wd data lifeguard atm. so yeah,, just want to share that.

it's very quiet when its not being accessed though.

Pao338
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Feb 24, 2014 11:33 am
Location: Italy

Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by Pao338 » Mon Mar 24, 2014 8:59 pm

Thank you so much for sharing Troveo! :D

Actually I had been following your thread...how do you like your 1st pc build so far?

I haven't bought anything yet...still undecided about what kind of system I am going to build. Atm I am still doing a lot of research, reading about other users' experiences and advice!

It seems like all the currently sold Red 2/3TB are noisier than previous models, unfortunately! :(
As others have suggested, I good option could be building a nas and put it elsewhere...

Irrelevant
Posts: 95
Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2012 9:44 am

Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by Irrelevant » Tue Mar 25, 2014 3:48 pm

Pao338 wrote:As others have suggested, I good option could be building a nas and put it elsewhere...
That would work, but you could also try taming the noise with a little modding. The forums are full of clever methods of decoupling and enclosing drives, but if you're not feeling adventurous enough for that kind of thing, upgrading the stock HDD mounting system with Sorbothane washers/grommets and butyl-based, constrained-layer damping sheets should significantly reduce the noise. It shouldn't cost you more than $40 and a few hours of your time, so it might be worth trying before investing in a NAS.

Troveo
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat Jan 18, 2014 2:32 am
Location: South East Asia

Re: Close to silent pc!

Post by Troveo » Thu Mar 27, 2014 6:41 pm

Pao338 wrote:Thank you so much for sharing Troveo! :D

Actually I had been following your thread...how do you like your 1st pc build so far?

I haven't bought anything yet...still undecided about what kind of system I am going to build. Atm I am still doing a lot of research, reading about other users' experiences and advice!

It seems like all the currently sold Red 2/3TB are noisier than previous models, unfortunately! :(
As others have suggested, I good option could be building a nas and put it elsewhere...

you hvn't bought anything yet? good. sorry to get back to you so late. here's what i'd learn from my first PC. if you are still at a point in your life where you hv considerably more free time than avg ppl... and/or you'd like to use the PC for more than 3 years, it's far better to buy an OC processor / boards even if you "think" you'll never OC.

it's been 3 weeks and i immediately regret not buying a K processor and an OC-able boards.

tweaking the HDD to dampen the noise is a good way to go, if you'd like modifying stuff, im more a i'd better buy smthn readily kind-of-person. so were it available where i live, i'd buy something like grow up japan or scythe hdd dampening stuff, cant rmmbr the name, but it isnt available here.

buy the case you really like the design, not from reviews because after all, you most likely see your case than anything else inside your PC.

noctua's fans won't match your build, if you want to build your PC with color themes but, it is extremely good. i'd have buy mugen HSF myself were it available here, scythe products are good in general for being quiet and more affordable than some other say noctua haha :D

thats pretty much it i guess. :D
thanks for asking.

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