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I hate noise. Ordered a NoFan CR-80EH CPU Cooler and some BeQuiet! Silent Wings 3 fans. When drinking and appreciating music and surfing bullshit online the fans don't even come on. At full chat they're soothing white noise. The Fractals had a rhythmic thrumming that drove me f'ing nuts.

Underclocked a 10700K and the silence is golden.

 

That's quite a high TDP for such a small cooler.
How far did you have to underclock to make it work for you?

I also use NoFan coolers in two of my builds.
Both are specced out with their TDP below the maximum the coolers are rated for.
I treat the cooler's TDP as a hard maximum as my builds are pure convective.
Actually no fans. Including the power supplies.

This one is for linux. It runs Mint.
Don't mind the dust. I've misplaced my air compressor.


Specs are here.
Power supply is overkill because less did not exist at the time.
RAM is under-specced because of clearance issues.
The CR-80EH does not clear standard height memory on this M-ITX board.
No cable management because I can't be arsed.
SSD lives in the front where it's nice and cool.

 

I managed to get a silent build but I went another direction with it. My case is so huge I have space for massive overkill on my radiator surface area so I have a 280x80 and 420x60 both with push/pull fans that are at ~200 RPM idle. That maintains idle temps of ~25°C on my CPU (i7 8700K @ 4.8Ghz) and ~28°C on my GPU (GTX 1080 ti). The fan speeds are so low that honestly you really can't hear them above ambient, let alone if you are playing games/watching films/listen to music.

 

Finally got around to installing a hybrid AIO kit to my 1080Ti FE. The stock blower fan started to get to me as I usually use K701s or HeX V2 for gaming. Temps went down significantly as well, sitting around 50-55 Celsius average at full load.
One caveat is that the now-VRM 92mm fan is not PWM and basically runs full blast at all times..will have to do some research to see what I can do about that.

 

I've just done some basic tweaking, but I seem to have a nice balance of fanless and quiet. Using XTU as a test environment with 2 Silent Wings 3 as front intake and one as rear exhaust, Fractal Define 7 case with the vented top panel on, not the solid top panel.

• Multiplier is set at 36 vs 51 stock, all cores synced.
• Turbo Power Max and Short Power Max set at 80 watts (I haven't played with this other than just capping to the cooler TDP rating).
• Turbo Power Time Window is 10 seconds vs 56
• Fans are 0% PWM until 55 deg C CPU temp, then they start to ramp to 100% by 75 deg C.

Running the base CPU stress test in XTU for 5 minutes I stabilize right on 74-75 deg C with ambient about 24 deg C. It takes about 3:30 to start levelling off. So not bad versus a locked variant, but obviously hobbled from a Turbo perspective.

I am an office worker type user, I'll also run a VM doing not a whole hell of a lot and some OBS for virtual workshopping and that sort of thing. Under casual conditions temps seem to sit at around 45 deg C, watching a 1080P movie around 50 deg C, so no fans involved at that level. 4K video puts me to around 33% CPU utilization and 58 odd deg C. so fans are ramping but effectively silent.

I need to put OBS through its paces, but I am very happy with what I have so far - and there is clearly some headroom for fully fanless even with some increased ambient temperature (30 deg C tomorrow so I'll be able to test that headroom).

I have RGB RAM and the Mobo has a little bit too - set to a nice flaming orange it lights up the cooler perfectly.

 

I disabled "Turbo boost" on my 2700X.

Opening a browser window made the fans audible. It seems deafult max clock is near an exponential rise in power consumption. Voltages and clocks are on the high side default, more perf. is allowed with more cooling - automatic controll. Downside is definitely power consumption.


If I need moar performance I can get a Kraken watercooler for €60. Nothing comes over 20 to 30 % usage so I am good.

 

Build complete. Picked up a 3070 from Best Buy earlier in the week (I lucked out in one of the recent drops). Sadly, that is with the extra $50 tariff fee on top of it. Sorry for the cable mess near the PSU. The stock pigtail PCIe cables from Corsair were not long enough to route through the grommet with the 24pin cable shown below. Plus, I'd like to keep the area in front of my push Noctua fan clear.

CPU: Intel i7-10700K
GPU: Gigabyte 3070 Gaming OC

Temps (room temperature: ~21C):

CPU/GPU (idle): 40C/43C
CPU/GPU (Heaven Benchmark 4.0: 4K, Ultra settings): 61C/66C

A couple things learned after completing my first build in over a decade (been a laptop guy during that time):

• Should have went for a Design R6 for much better and cleaner PSU cable management and probably no HDD cage rattle (the R6 did away with the HDD cage). I wanted to go with the Design R5 due to its extra 5.25" bay, which I was thinking about making a hot-swappable bay for 3.5" HDD's, but I'll need a PCI x4 SATA card for other HDD's that I want to keep in the setup, which leads to ...
• I should have looked at mobo's other than MSI Z490 MPG Gaming Edge Wifi that I settled on because I wanted at least another PCI x4/x8/x16 slot closer to where the last PCI x1 slot is on my MSI mobo (nearer to the PSU than GPU). There is a free PCI x16 slot near the GPU, but placing a PCI x4 SATA card there would almost block one of the intake fans. The PCI x1 SATA card near the GPU is good enough for now, but it is speed limited somewhat when shared with three other HDDs.

 

100% what @zerodeefex said. I was able to dial down the noise to subjectively acceptable levels with a few small tweaks:

1. flipped the 92mm Noctua NF-A9x14 under the motherboard to exhaust to vent out GPU and CPU heat
2. adjusted the fan curves for both the TY-100 and NF-A9x14 exhaust fans to no greater than 60% until 85'c (which basically never happens because of the next step)
3. enabled PBO Overdrive with a negative 30 mV offset on the 5900X
4. (maybe not needed) tossed the 3090 for a RX 6800 instead:



The net result is that the noise of the system is now generally dictated by the NF-A12x15 pulling through the Black Ridge fins. The fan ramps up to 100% (1800RPM) at 80'c, but generally during most gaming loads the RPM is around 1200-1450 as the processor is usually in the low-mid 70s. PBO boost with the undervolt has done wonders as the 5900X routinely pegs to 4950MHz during gaming while staying in the mid 70's with 80-90W package power. Cinebench R20 is finally up to about 7500 consistently after 3 passes but haven't had the guts to try a full Blender run yet.

Ray tracing and DLSS aside, RDNA 2 is pretty awesome. Between SAM and an overclock to 2.4GHz the 6800 manages rasterization performance in the same ballpark as my undervolted 3080 XC3 while consuming 50W less and being much, much cooler (<200W and <69'c). I think overall the thermals off <8L sandwich designs are dictated by GPU heat, to which end the 6800 forms a perfectly reasonable compromise. I'd have to undervolt a 3080+ significantly (800mV or less) to get comparable thermals and noise.

I still think there's more tweaking to be done to dial in the noise -- I haven't been able to get SpeedFan working but I'll see if there are any BIOS utilities for me to be able to get the right balance across the three sets of fans.

 

SpeedFan doesn't seem to be updated or maintained anymore, so when I was looking for a fan control software I came across FanControl. It is free and works awesome. I found it quite easy to setup and create different curves for GPU, CPU, intakes, and exhaust. I would highly recommend.

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1099996-fancontrol-my-take-on-a-speedfan-replacement/

I was able to score a 3060TI back in December and it has been an awesome upgrade from my old 980, especially at UW 1440p. The FanControl software also made it easy to setup a custom fan curve on the gpu. I was having issues in Afterburner trying to create a curve as it doesn't scan the limits of the fan and the fans on my card operate in a strange range (around 70-100% was the only usable range in AB). Between a curve that doesn't sound bad, and undervolting the card it sits at a comfortable volume and temp. I still might flash a different bios as this doesn't have any room to play on the power limit slider.

I've been considering switching to a SFF setup but I think that I am going to wait for a bit as my current setup is running pretty well at the moment. Plus keyboards are distracting enough for the moment.

 

Thanks for the pro tip! SpeedFan used to work on my 9900K so I'd never even looked at alternatives, but looks like FanControl accomplished exactly what I wanted without having to resort to Gigabyte's incredibly crappy motherboard utilities.

I ended up finding that the NF-A9x14 Chromax was (by far) the noisiest fan in my system, emitting an annoying pitch starting at around 40-45%. The Thermalright TY-100 is so much quieter that I might look into modifying the case spine to accommodate another under the motherboard. I have no idea how folks with the Asetek 92mm AIO put up with the fan noise unless the 92x25mm fans are that much better.

Overall noise is still almost entirely determined by the NF-A12x15 RPM but I'm generally happy with the mid-70s CPU temps, especially since I wasn't sure the 5900X would work in this case at all. A friend of mine with a 5800X seems to be having far more trouble keeping that cool under a 280mm AIO.

 

Hey - I am not sure how much this is a "build" question, but I thought this wasn't a bad place to pose this question without starting a new thread. I recently decided to move over to a Mac Mini rather than do a new PC build following the complete collapse of my old Dell. We still have several Windows work laptops in the home and I thought a Mac might better integrate with our various IPhones and IPads, plus I really like the M1 Air I bought my son for school this past year.

Anyway, I fretted for a while over configuration and decided on a M1 Mac Mini with 16GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage with the intent of adding a 2TB external SSD. Most review and YouTube videos I read an saw emphasized Apple's outrageous prices for internal storage and I do not disagree. However, as I wait for the Mini to arrive this week I am pricing out external SSD's and see that it will cost me around $300-325 for a decent SSD like a Samsung T7 as opposed to paying $600 for that same storage from Apple. I am not sure it is worth it to me for that difference in price to deal an external drive for my everyday use files and am considering canceling my order and just paying for 2TB internal instead. While SSDs seems to be quite popular for expanding storage I do see complaints about compatibility, disconnects and overheating. But maybe an external is a better option and maybe I do not need the latest and greatest. Maybe an older and cheaper Samsung T5 or older Sandisk model would be fine and half the price. I just don't have a good sense of what speed I, in fact, need if all my data were to be external with the internal drive being just for OS and program files. My files are mostly lossless music library, photos and videos. I expect to buy a new mirrorless camera very soon and am planning to have more photos and videos than I have had in the past.

Curious as to people's thoughts understanding this thread is primarily about PC builds.

 

What about a NAS? Can get big time storage accessible from all devices. If you need speed for processing or editing, you can move what you need back and forth. For simple playback access, it would work a treat. For reference, I have a measly 250GB main drive with an 8TB NAS that houses all my photos, videos, docs, etc. I move stuff back and forth as needed for editing. Added benefit of access from my laptop, streamer, etc.

 

Good point. I actually bought a WD MY Cloud NAS years ago. It has to be at least 3 and possibly closer to 4-5 years old and was bought for the express purpose of hardwiring my music library to the network for Sonos streaming. I never set it up (never even unwrapped it). I am wondering if it would still be good or if the tech has moved on and I would need to buy something newer Regardless, I am interested if you find the speed to be sufficient for your needs. Presumably if a NAS is fast enough for managing files then a directly-attached SSD would be even faster even if it were not the quickest model. I don't mind buying a SSD, but if the price gets too high relative to internal storage then maxing out the internal drive becomes more attractive.

 

If for the the most part, you are just looking at storage and access, then I think a NAS makes a lot of sense as reasonably cost effective way to get a lot of storage with bonus access and functionality that a simple external drive could not provide. A 512GB internal ssd should give you the space and speed needed to process most normal consumer things that you could have and then move to the NAS. This would require a minor amount of workflow thought, as you couldn't let too many files build up. My computer use case where this is relevant is processing vacation photos and videos (from the before times). I only do minor editing so I don't have huge project files or anything even for my 4K videos. I don't think having a large amount of super fast storage is a necessity for most people. For large PC game libraries, working with huge 3D or 4K project files, or any pro style work, then definitely it can come into play.

But this is just me. I like the larger storage and accessibility that comes with a NAS, particularly because 3 computers and a couple streamers access the files on it. If you anticipate just a single computer use case and don't want to deal with networking, getting an external for $250 seems like a perfectly fine choice. Personally, $600 for an internal upgrade is quite the upcharge and even if the money didn't mean much to me, paying double for something never sits right.

 

Well more than some basic tweaking done now. I wanted to see if I could get the system to turbo even for a short while rather than just ratchet the cores down. I found a nifty new feature in the 10th gen+ Intel CPUs called Thermal Velocity Boost, which allows you to squeeze just a little more out of the chip if the thermals are good. However I've bastardized the feature to do thermal throttling for me. Basically you can set a target CPU temperature limit and give the CPU a throttling value from 1 to 20 to apply as it goes over the target.

First, Max Turbo speed is set at 5.1Ghz, and a cap of 200W for Power Max. With some testing I found that a target temperature of 60 deg C and max throttling value of 20 keeps the CPU in the 55-60 deg range (no matter the load), and when used for regular office/WFH duty the CPU is generally sitting at 4.9 Ghz and gives me a snappy responsiveness, while effectively throttling as temps run over 60. Under full load it sits at about 2.9Ghz and about 60-65 deg. This allows me to run the system completely fanless with the 'best' of both worlds.

I have profiles to up the target temp to 70 and 80 deg C which I prefer to run with fans. At 70 I see temps of 75-80 under full load and at target 80 deg C I see 85 to 90, so 70 is good for general performance with some mild fan noise and 80 if I need to crank on something, giving me around 3.7 Ghz sustained which is pretty decent IMO for a fanless cooler with 3x900rpm low-flow case fans.

 

• AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
• Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite rev 1
• Fractal Design Define 7 Gray Brushed Aluminum
• CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600)
  • 64GB is overkill, but I got a good price on the first 32, and killer price on the second 32.
• Scythe Mugen 5 Rev.B CPU Air Cooler, 120mm Single Tower, Intel LGA1151, AMD AM4/Ryzen
• Sabrent 2TB Rocket NVMe 4.0 Gen4 PCIe M.2 Internal SSD Extreme (for data)
• Sabrent Rocket Q 1TB NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 Internal SSD High Performance (for data)
• Sabrent Rocket Q 1TB NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 Internal SSD High Performance
• Samsung 860 EVO 500GB (Windows 10 Pro boot)
• Samsung 860 EVO 500GB (Windows backup clone)
• 3 4TB Seagate NAS drives in RAID5. Used for Macrium Reflect backup
• Samsung 860 EVO 500GB
• Fractal Design Ion+ 760P 80 PLUS Platinum Certified 760W
• NVidia GeForce GTX 960 (waiting for something better once prices get reasonable again)

Build is pretty darned quiet. I mostly use it for email, browsing, Lightroom, and light gaming. Probably overkill. I played a little with overclocking, but this system is fast enough for me stock.

 

This should be pretty decent for emails. I wouldn’t go any lower than a 5800X for that, though.

 

LOL! I like to reply fast

It's really for Lightroom and photo (and a little video) processing. That's why I don't need a killer GPU; Lightroom just barely uses a GPU.

 

Updated my PC setup with a new keyboard. I ended up building myself a Melody 96 using Boba U4 switches and it is an absolute dream to type on!

 

Original Build:

• I7 4770K - Delidded and OCed to daily drive at 4.5GHz (Benchmarks done at 4.7-4.8ghz depending on stability)
• GTX 780Ti
• Asus Z87 Deluxe Pro
• 32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 (2133 MHz XMP)
• 256GB Samsung Evo SSD (Cant remember the generation)
• EVGA 750BQ PSU
• EKWB XLC 360 AIO W/ QDC for CPU and later added GPU to the loop

Note: Cant remember the case sku for the life of me, something corsair

Current Rig:

• Ryzen 5 3600 - Got it for $150 at Micro Center with the intention to replace it later with a 5900X
• GTX 1080Ti
• ASUS X570-E
• 32GB Crucial Ballistics DDR4 3600MHz CL16 (Other timings are a little looser, need to tighten them)
• 1 x 2TB Sabrent Rocket TLC NVMe drive and 2 x Intel QLC 660p NVMe drives in a PCIe card enclosure(1GB and 2GB both using windows storage spaces as software raid 0)
• EVGA 850G2 PSU
• Same AIO as above but 1080Ti added via QDC and EKWB Block
• Corsair 760T

Also, most of my old rig is now setup in a new chassis as a Pfsense router and using UniFi APs for WiFi and their managed switches

Edit: Adding a pic of the setup. Excuse the mess in the corner, small one bedroom apartment constraints and all