It leads to silence. I was finally satisfied once I couldn't tell if my computer was on or off. So in the end I did get a happy resolution.

Regarding the monitor: for me raising the brightness to 100% on the monitor and turning the brightness down from the video card's software did the trick.

How are the R5's front fans fastened to the case? One of my bigger gripes with the Define Mini (other than HDD vibration, which the R5 seems to be prone to as well), is that the front fans pop into a rigid plastic frame, which makes the whole case vibrate at certain RPMs. There is no way to fasten t...

Keep in mind that many 970s suffer from disturbing levels of coil whine. This seem to be much less prevalent with 980s since those have better power circuitry. You can find a list of good and problematic 970s at the bottom of this topic: http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=68043

Anyone know if the lower hard drive cage for the Fractal Define Mini is riveted in? Or can I unscrew it from the bottom of the case. Also, hoping they come out with a matx version of the define s =) I have the Define Mini, and they are riveted in. You can use a drill to remove them, which may have ...

I would choose Scythe Kotetsu for the great review it received here. However, according to the PWM control test, the lowest possible rpms achieved by the included fan through Fan Xpert were 560 rpms at 10-11 dBA (about 400 rpms were reached under voltage control). Just a note on noise values. I tak...

I did build an inaudible PC inside the Define Mini, and I like its sturdiness and very high quality finish (much better than the Silencio). Consider the following though: 1) It failed to hide the noise of a 7200 RPM hard-drive (even on elastic strings), so go for a 5400 one or full SSD if you want i...

I am interested in buying a silent-at-idle graphics card that remains reasonably quiet under load. With the introduction of the GTX 970 based cards I though I found just the thing, but it turned out before my purchase, that all semi-passive cards suffer from coil whine. Luckily it became widely know...