It is difficult to find an exact comparison as they are from different eras. I would suspect the Noctua will be better by a few degrees particularly if you run 2 fans but how are you running your Mini Ninja as it can also run 2 fans? What fans are you running and what speeds?

What components are you intending to use? Watercooling isn't generally considered that silent around here due to the added noise of a pump.

Compared to the early 2000's normal computer components have become much quieter. We no longer have 7200rpm disks running on bearings made from gravel. CPU's don't run at full speed all of the time and aren't cooled by little blocks of extruded aluminium with a 60mm fan doing 6000rpm. Graphics cards...

If quality really matters then using something better than an iPhone to record it on would be the best thing. FLAC of course is a wonderful format. Apple's failure to support it is just one more example of Apple using open source software to produce a closed product. Some products support FLAC and o...

Be careful with future proofing, your plans won't often match what actually happens so it is best to buy for the short term and let the technology catch up. You could better plan for a decade by saving the money now, investing it wisely and when you actually NEED to upgrade, doing it then. For examp...

Watercooling is not the favourite cooling method around here - pump noise tends to become more apparent that fan noise and it's unlikely to give much better cooling than some of the bigger air coolers on the market. Looking at the hardware listed in the link, are you using a 3570k for a new build? I...

kopilu wrote:At the moment, I have the CM silencio 550 case... What I'm trying to find out is if it's worth it to change the case for the smaller one.

If it's the case that you already have that case, then definitely not. No point in changing case for that unless you have some desperate pressure on size.

If you set up your airflow so that it is managed in and out of the case, flowing across all of the components correctly then the case volume will have no significance at all. Air is lazy and it is arguable each way that if you have a larger or smaller case that airflow will be worse, it just depends...

They're not that much of a big deal really for actual cooling. They're often not even in good thermal contact with the chips. They are a major marketing tool however, making a very generic looking product (chips on a PCB) have some kind of visual USP. Really tall ramsinks are particularly silly. Sta...

To me if giving the side of the case a knock stops the noise then the issue is not the fan but vibration of some part of the case. It may be fixable on it's own.

I didn't find the stock Ninja 4 fan that good as it does make some odd noises. I have replaced it with a Noctua NF-S12a.

With the radiator mounts and fan count this is unlikely to be aimed at being that silent. For silence you want air cooling of the CPU and 160mm is OK clearance but isn't enough for some of the really massive heatsinks you can get. Another 5mm would help here. I don't particularly like the aesthetics...

I've had good results with a Raijintek Metis but it will need modification. Putting air vents in the top panel would allow it to work very well with that level of graphics card.

Or you could try a Linux Live CD with a built in antivirus.

No ionisation monsters?

I personally don't like dimmer switches as they don't work with many energy saving bulbs, thus limiting bulb choices. What bulbs are you using?

Do they buzz when at full brightness or part brightness?

They have been superseded by the Platinum series which you might want to consider instead.

Maybe find an old CPU heatsink, drill a few holes and screw it on? I've done this a number of times with Athlon XP, Pentium 4 era heatsinks which have nice flat bases and also just for a laugh I have put a 120mm nameless tower heatsink on a Geforce FX5950 Ultra. It's worth trying if you have the par...

Try it? These heatsinks have so many hole patterns that it probably will fit one some set of holes.

All cases make exactly the same noise: none at all. Noise comes from the components you put in it. Noise dampening from a case is no longer something to talk about anymore unless you have really loud components and are trying to insulate them which is not as good as making the components quieter in ...

...or hide the cables in the wall/monitor mount that you are using. There are always ways of hiding cables.

A lot smaller than the Ninja 4...

mcoll wrote:Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately it doesn't meet the necessary criteria of being passively cooled.

Then use a really low power CPU/undervolt/underclock and stick a passive heatsink on it.

Something I ran into with Linux compatibility on Z170 boards is that lm-sensors won't pick up fan speeds readily. I did find a solution to it though: http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=603520#p603520 lm-sensors doesn't seem to be getting much development at the moment which explain...

Content on the Internet IS getting worse. I also really hate how politics now seems to be being influenced more and more tribally online. This has been seen in the 'Post-truth politics' election of Donald Trump in the US and the Brexit vote in the UK. A lot of the misinformation is spread online thr...

Accelero S3 should be able to cool this passively. If not, strap a 120mm fan to it.

In 18 months time there will be components available that are not available now, therefore I don't think any kind of definitive recommendations can be made at this stage.

Very detailed testing Luca! Looks like the Ninja 4 just wins although the differences are small enough that most users would not notice.

What's wrong with buying a normal router? I can't understand spending this kind of money for a home router if it is then going to sit right next to your bed but I suppose we must have very different priorities.

Asus or ASRock would be a better choice for fan control.

You don't strictly need 4 headers to control 4 fans if you have a PWM splitter cable. These are worthwhile if controlling 2 identical fans in a similar configuration, for example push-pull fans on a big CPU cooler.

I wouldn't consider a case upgrade for the sake of it. The reasons you have given don't seem to be strong enough arguments. Just to future proof for SLI make little sense as if ever you were to buy a second graphics card you would get better value just buying one newer, faster, more efficient graphi...