looking to Upgrade fan and PSU
#1
I currently have a stock heatsink/fan on my AMD Athlon X2 AM2+ CPU and a old power supply in my HTPC, they are rather loud and I would like to upgrade to very low or no noise options for both of these parts. Trouble is I do not know exactly what I am looking for when shopping for silent/low noise components so I need a little help. If you all could give me some suggestions or even inform me as to what to look for I would be most grateful.

Thanks,

Dragonschild

*edit*
I am using a regular ATX sized power supply in case that makes a difference.
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#2
I recently put a noctua 92mm fan in my ion htpc and 2 120mm noctua fans in my server, and i must say they are real quiet! very happy with them.
I dont like antec psu's, though ive only ever owned 1 product of theirs, antec sonata case. the psu would make this annoying buzzing sound all the time.
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#3
I did a lot of research about low noise power supplies when I built my last PC (Jan 09). I came to the conclusion that the best low noise power supply that had a fan in was the Corsair 650TX power supply. Coolermaster do a completely silent power supply (no fan) - the Nightjar (300W and 450W) - and this is what I'm using in my HTPC. They aren't cheap though!!

I also used a fanless cooler on my stock clocked E8400 (TDP 95W) and went for the Scythe Ninja. Having said that, you'd need a big case to fit that in - it is 150mm high and only just fits in my full sized case. Also the graphics card is fanless. I have 3 case fans all under volted via a drive bay fan controller. This is all housed in an Antec 182 case (real nice by the way).

I sit next to it all day and it is quieter than the HP laptop that sits next to me on the desk.

As to my HTPC, I've just (last night) ordered a Zotac F Ion board, 2G of memory and a passive 220 based graphics card. I'm going to try running this all fanless with the nightjar power supply and a SSD in a silverstone LC10 case. We'll see....

BTW, a good place for more information is http://silentpcreview.com as they test specifically for noise...
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#4
arad85 Wrote:I did a lot of research about low noise power supplies when I built my last PC (Jan 09). I came to the conclusion that the best low noise power supply that had a fan in was the Corsair 650TX power supply. Coolermaster do a completely silent power supply (no fan) - the Nightjar (300W and 450W) - and this is what I'm using in my HTPC. They aren't cheap though!!

I also used a fanless cooler on my stock clocked E8400 (TDP 95W) and went for the Scythe Ninja. Having said that, you'd need a big case to fit that in - it is 150mm high and only just fits in my full sized case. Also the graphics card is fanless. I have 3 case fans all under volted via a drive bay fan controller. This is all housed in an Antec 182 case (real nice by the way).

I sit next to it all day and it is quieter than the HP laptop that sits next to me on the desk.

As to my HTPC, I've just (last night) ordered a Zotac F Ion board, 2G of memory and a passive 220 based graphics card. I'm going to try running this all fanless with the nightjar power supply and a SSD in a silverstone LC10 case. We'll see....

BTW, a good place for more information is http://silentpcreview.com as they test specifically for noise...
Thank you for all that useful info, the PSU may have to wait if its going to run me a lot of money but if I can find a cheap silent heatsink/fan for the CPU that isn't really big ( I have a limited amount of space as my case is rather small) I think that would make a difference at least.

Also does anyone here know if I can run windows 7 off of a usb memory stick? as that would eliminate the HDD in the case and make less noise as well. I don't know that I can afford a SSD just yet so this would be great to know.
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#5
Dragonschild Wrote:I currently have a stock heatsink/fan on my AMD Athlon X2 AM2+ CPU and a old power supply in my HTPC, they are rather loud and I would like to upgrade to very low or no noise options for both of these parts. Trouble is I do not know exactly what I am looking for when shopping for silent/low noise components so I need a little help. If you all could give me some suggestions or even inform me as to what to look for I would be most grateful.

Thanks,

Dragonschild

*edit*
I am using a regular ATX sized power supply in case that makes a difference.

Hey Dragonschild,

I am also quite demanding on silence on my PCs. I have three ATX-sized PCs at home: one server (Semprom L-1250) , one HTPC (C2D E4400) and one hackintosh (C2D E8400).

For all of them I went with Noctua NH-U12P CPU coolers. I actually run all of them fanless (even the C2D E8400). I just turn on the fans on the hackintosh one when I am converting video files (I use a Zallmant ZM-MFC1 controller to turn CPU Heatsin fans on and off when needed).

As mentioned above, if you would go fanless on the CPU Heatsink, make sure you opt for a nice silent 120mm case fan. I also use Noctua ones for that, the NF-S12.

As for the PSU, I use 450W all around as I don't have any power hogs on my machines (like ultimate double graphics cards, etc). I went for the Corsair PSUs, they are doing a great and silent job. You have the choice of both modular (HX450W) and a regular (VX450W) PSU. I run my server with 5HDs in a 450W without any problem.

If you are considering changing your case, I recommend Antec Solo family. It is a sturdy silent case, with noise-reduction features. For the HDs I recommend Western Digital Green Caviar family. Very silent and they auto-spin-off when not in use after some time.

As a measure of silence: at my living room, getting closer to the TV/AV rack, I can hear the buzzz of my LCD TV but cannot hear my HTPC. Cool

Rule of thumb: keep as much as possible thing low power, then they will demand low cooling performance and less noise.

silentpcreview.com is your best friend for silent hardware reviews.
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#6
I will check out those Noctua coolers, and probably the psu as well. As for the HDD I am going to put some money aside to purchase a SSD to get some added silence. I don't really want to get another case as I like the look of the HTPC case that I have: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811133029. I think that the main sound issue is the HDD anyways as it almost sounds like a jet taking off when the computer boots up hehe. But I would really like an almost silent setup because I like to hear the movies and shows without the background noise.
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