Yeah, that would probably be a good idea. I think its currently set to something incredibly low like .1 seconds. Thanks.

I realized I never really posted pictures of the whole setup. Here it is. It looks messy, but there is a monitor that sits right in front of everything so you don't even see the power supply.


Here is the power supply with the silicone fan mounts.

Using the computer this morning I'm quite happy with the power supply fan mod. It was quick, simple and easy to do. There is still some fan noise, but it is quite acceptable.

I've been revisiting the quietness of this PC lately. I started off with the CPU cooler as it is the loudest in the setup. I unplugged the fan and watched the temps rise. But, they really didn't rise that fast at all. The power sipping G4600 pulls an absolute max of about 22W according to HWMonitor ...

I've been running this system for over a year now. I love it. Works great, frees up space. It could be a tad more quiet with the OE cooler, but its really not bad at all. You have to stop if you're walking through the room to hear if the computer is on or not. That is success IMO.

I've already built and been running the new setup for a while now. I'm very happy with it. Thanks to everyone for the help! Here are some pictures of the open case setup: Here is part of the 3d printed mounting frame for the motherboard. http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/download/file.php?mode=vi...

The old Rosewill power supply gave up the ghost last night. I have a SS-350GT on order.

I got the rest of my bits ordered up on Sunday. I nabbed: Intel Pentium Kaby Lake G4600 3.6 ghz from Newegg for $87. Samsung - 850 EVO 500GB M.2 from Newegg for $170. GeIL EVO SPEAR 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4 2400 from Newegg for $73. and a HDMI to DVI cable for $3. I also used raise.com to buy newegg.com g...

And, now I'm thinking again and perhaps the G4600 is a better go just for the slightly better integrated graphics...

In any case, I purchased the new motherboard last night due to an MSI rebate going on. I went with the MSI B250M PRO-VDH. It was $60 shipped with $10 MIR.

After a bit more reading, I think I am going to go with the G4560 instead of the G4620. The price difference doesn't seem to be worth the performance increase.

I'm not currently planning on using a fan for the CPU cooler. As it is now, I just have the CPU fan in the place of the rear case fan. The slight breeze it makes (its dialed all the way down with the included fan speed adjustment / potentiometer), and the PSU fan pulling air through is all the airfl...

Thanks for the suggestions Steve! I never would have thought of that. The VGA issue eliminates the MSI B250M PRO-VD. Thats too bad, its currently only $38.50 on amazon for an open box! I'd have given it a shot for that price. This leaves the other three which do have an HDMI output as well as a DVI....

I've been discussing this upgrade for a bit in my other thread. I've started a new one to discuss the components a bit more and narrow things down. I'm upgrading from my last build in 2011 which is an Athlon X3 455 (detailed specs in my other thread). I'm hoping this next build will be massively mor...

Thanks a ton for the feedback guys! I think I have an okay handle on the build. I'll post it in the appropriate forum.

CA_Steve wrote:The trick to lower idle power motherboards is to have less stuff on it and optimize the VRM circuitry.

Would you recommend looking into mini-ITX form factor to have even less stuff on the board?

So I've been reading and poking about. I am interested in a Pentium setup, so I was looking for the recommended H170 motherboards with no frills. Then, I stumbled across MSI's eco motherboards. They made them with the H110, B150 and H170 chipsets. They claim no performance loss, and insinuate in the...

I'm wondering if anyone knows how upgrading to Windows 10 will effect power consumption? I am currently running 7 and I would assume 10 has more power saving features, but google isn't really giving me any good answers. I would imagine the amount of background processing would have a pretty huge eff...

I got the itch to do some work on the computer this past weekend. The XFX Radeon HD 6870 has always been a noisy card. For years now I've mitigated that by running MSI's afterburner software. This allows me to adjust the fan speeds based off of the GPU temperature. This has made things acceptable. H...

First I suppose would be to decide on AMD or Intel. If you are like me and want a system that draws as little power as possible during idle, then the choice of motherboard matters more than the processor really. Simple "non-overclocking" boards with less features tend to draw less than the boards w...

Thanks Vicotnik.

I figured the CPU was the main power hog of the system (assuming you don't have a video card). What else should I be looking into?

So basically the only way to really know how much a CPU will idle down to is to find someone who has actually tested it. TDP just gets you into the general area of what max power draw may be? Or, do all chips tend to idle at around the same power draw, their max TDP shows how much power they draw wh...

For a simple average comparison: X3 455 Passmark 2771. G4620 Passmark 5314. So, twice the horsepower for half the watts..and a gpu. Remember, not only is it 6 years of advancement, it's also got hyperthreading. Just for kicks I compared the A12-9800e 5506 and the Pentium G4620 5314. Their ratings a...

I posted this in the power supply thread I have, but I wanted it copied here for future reference. I did some digging on my power supply. It seems its efficiency is better than what I thought. At this point its not worth replacing as long as its works. Per this info : Efficiency at 100% 82.01% Effic...

I did some digging on my power supply. It seems its efficiency is better than what I thought. At this point its not worth replacing as long as its works. Per this info : Efficiency at 100% 82.01% Efficiency at 50% 85.61% Efficiency at 20% 84.72% Not too shabby for a 10 year old power supply! Now... ...

I use MSI's afterburner software to spin down my graphics card fan from being obnoxious. I checked out the program again and turned my GPU settings all the way down. This turned my 130W idle down to about 116W. However, I can't seem to get voltage control through this program. Anyone have any sugges...

Wow, I didn't realize that there was THAT big a difference between the two CPUs. Thanks! I haven't seen that site before. Its so hard to compare such old technology to so much newer stuff. That site has a wonderful catalog to help with that job. Solidwork's core program and functionality is mainly s...

Thanks for the reply Steve! I really appreciate it. There is so much info and so many reviews to wade through. That is too bad to hear about the APUs. It looked like a nice alternative. Would updating to the Pentium really be a boost in performance? Obviously it'll reduce power consumption a ton. Bu...

I just talked with a coworker about AMD's APU line of processors with integrated graphics. I saw the A12-9800e which is a quad core 3.1 ghz but only 35W thermal design. Is it just a downclocked A12-9800, or will it actually idle lower? In any case, its intriguing, and the price is alluring. Though, ...

Necro thread update! I am revisiting updating this setup. With your guys suggestions I went ahead and put another 4gb of ram in this machine bumping it up to 8. This added a bit more pep to the machine and allowed additional multi tasking (which we do a ton of). I added a 2nd 24" monitor which I abs...

I am looking into building a new system. It will be a higher performance office machine. I'm looking at something like a Ryzen 1500X, SSD, 16GB, no graphics card, virtually nothing else minus some occasional USB HDD use. I figure its no use mounting and powering a permanent HDD when I rarely use it ...