Sticking a hunk of acoustic foam in one’s case is far easier than it might appear at first glance. Cut the foam to the desired length, remove the adhesive, and let ‘er rip.
Soundproofing foam, meet case door. Case door, meet soundproofing foam.
Now, where do you stick the material? Anywhere you’d like—provided you aren’t covering any active ventilation areas, like the cut-out holes used by a spinning fan. I stuck soundproofing foam to the top, bottom, sides, and front of my chassis. The more foam you use—or the thicker the material—the more you’ll be able to keep errant noise from escaping.
Simply peel back the adhesive backing on your foam to begin—careful, it’s sticky!
One caveat: Make sure you measure how much wiggle room you have to work with. Slap a full 2 inches of foam on the side panel of your case, for example, and you might not be able to actually get the panel on.
Gently apply foam to the case, ensuring that you don’t (accidentally) cover any ventilation holes or mounting bits.
I opted to try out some NoiseMagic No-Vibes III hard drive silencers for the rig, in the hopes that every little bit of sound-dampening available would allow the system to achieve top-notch results. Hard drive vibration, after all, can have an impact on the acoustic profile of a PC. However, I only ended up using the kit on one of the two hard drives—the 2TB Seagate Barracuda XT storage drive.
Though it looks like a futuristic torture device, the NoiseMagic No-Vibes III is really more like a hammock for your drive.
Why’s that? The other drive, a 600GB WD VelociRaptor, is a 2.5-inch device mounted on a 3.5-inch cooling bracket affectionately known as an IcePak. And the rubber-based drive tray that I used to stash it in my Silverstone PS05’s drive bay was more than adequate for preventing extraneous noise. Turning the drive on added nothing to the case’s overall noise.
Glorified rubber bands suspend your hard drive so it never touches metal. No metal-on-metal contact, no vibration. No vibes, no noise. Got it?
Also, using one of the NoiseMagic No-Vibes III drive silencers turned my 3.5-inch device into a 5.25-inch extravaganza. I’d much rather keep the system’s primary drive nice and cool in the proper drive bay area of the case—right in front of a fan—as opposed to the fanless 5.25-inch bay section.
Using the same logic as I did for the CPU cooling, I opted to pick up Zalman’s aftermarket VF3000F cooler for the system’s Nvidia GTX 480 graphics card. A flashy heatsink coupled with two 92mm fans for cooling should, in theory, allow the card to hit lower temperatures and cut down on the GTX 480’s infamous noise production.
I’ll go over how one actually installs an aftermarket cooler in a moment. Just know that it is a far more difficult process than that of an aftermarket CPU cooler. With the GTX 480 in particular, it’s maddening. As other online forum posters have noted, Nvidia has really applied a ton of torque to the super-tiny screws it uses to connect the videocard’s proprietary heatsink to its circuit board, so much so that I completely stripped one of the screws when trying to remove it from the graphics card.
The worst thing about NZXT’s Sentry LXE is its medusa of cables and thermal probes.
What do you do in this kind of a situation? Cry. Because nothing short of drastic measures—including an attempt to superglue a screwdriver into the bored hole that was once a Phillips head—is going to get that screw out. In my case, I strapped on my +10 Goggles of Bravery, took a brief detour down to the hardware store a few minutes before it closed, and picked up a drill and a 1/16-inch bit. I bored a hole through the screw while visions of destroyed electronics and angry editors flashed through my head.
The new GPU cooler ended up working out just fine. I then attached the cable for its fans—and every other fan in the case—to my final, secret weapon: the NZXT Sentry LXE five-fan controller.
Yes, Virginia, that’s a touch-sensitive display. Control your fans with your fingers to totally customize your cooling.
The beauty of this device is twofold: It provides detailed precision over exactly how much juice the cooling devices receive and, more importantly, it does so via a wicked touch-screen panel that you can stash just about anywhere you’d like. With but the press of a finger, you can adjust your fans for any situation.
An aftermarket GPU cooler is exceedingly complicated to install, and you run the risk of bricking your card if you do it wrong. Here’s the gist: You unscrew the stock heatsink on the card via the super-tiny screws on the underside of the card. Take care not to bend or otherwise grip your card too tightly and, for the love of all things holy, be gentle—but forceful—when removing the tiny screws.
Note the sheer size difference between the card’s stock heatsink (far left) and our aftermarket cooler on the right. Goodbye, noise!
You’ll have to clean off the GPU (rubbing alcohol works great) and likely apply more thermal paste to it and to any of the other raised components that touch your new heatsink. You’ll also have a complicated series of washers, standoffs, and screws to fiddle with as you mount your new cooler in place—this varies based on the aftermarket cooler you’re using. No matter what, be careful: A videocard is a delicate object. Snap off or otherwise bump the wrong electronic element, and you’ll find yourself with a $300 coaster… or worse.
Taking a videocard down to its raw components—a circuit board and chip, in this case—is an extremely delicate process. You can easily brick a PC part.
Ultimately, my silent build was both a win and a loss. My work did indeed improve acoustical performance over my default Maximum PC test bed, which has stock coolers, no aftermarket accessories, and standard fans in an NZXT Panzerbox case. Using a Digital Sound Level Meter by Extech Instruments—which starts its measurements at 40 decibels—I clocked significantly higher sound readings from all measured portions of the Panzerbox chassis versus
my customized rig.
Extech’s 407727, which we found in the Lab, is a good sound-level meter, but it can’t match ultra-sensitive professional models, which cost about 40 times the price.
I also beat the results of the exact same system built in the soundproofed R3 case from Fractal Design, although not by quite as much as I had hoped, save for the hurricane of sound coming from the rear of the Fractal’s chassis.
Fractal’s R3 case is a crafted beauty, offering easy installation and preset soundproofing material for folks looking for a good off-the-shelf, silenced solution.
However, here’s the kicker: My system did not perform nearly as well against either rig in the recorded temperature tests. What I gained in acoustical excellence, I traded off in higher temperatures. This fact couldn’t have been made any clearer than when I ran an unofficial test to see if I could kick up the thermal performance of my hand-built rig. I cranked all of the system’s internal fans (save for the aftermarket GPU cooler) to maximum and my recorded temperatures still couldn’t match either my test bed or the Fractal R3–based system.
There are three key elements that you have to concern yourself with—above all others—when crafting a quiet PC: acoustic foam, fans, and the case itself. I think I did the best job possible with the foam, although I can appreciate the design of the pre-configured-for-silence Fractal R3. Because that case has a front door with side vents, air can be drawn in from the sides of the front panel while enabling the interior of the door to be fully covered with acoustic-damping foam.
Regardless, were I to do it again, I’d roll my own chassis in a heartbeat. However, next time I’ll select a chassis that allows me to use larger fans across all measured areas. A larger fan, after all, allows you to push more air at a lower speed, giving you the best of both worlds: less noise and increased cooling. I would also give myself more room for even thicker soundproofing foam where possible, to ensure the best possible trade-off of exposed space for cooling versus completely covered space for silence.
The noise levels of the aftermarket GPU and CPU coolers met my expectations. But I was surprised by the CPU cooler’s lack of, well, cooling. I wasn’t expecting a miracle, but I did have hopes that it would perform better than the stock cooler. I suspect a lack of external airflow into the case to be the primary culprit—with only one intake fan, the PS05 is hard pressed to provide the intake the Jing cooler needs. GPU temperatures weren’t recorded with the aftermarket GPU cooler, since we removed the onboard temperature sensor with the stock heatsink.
Just about any case can be quieted with the use of sound-damping materials and anti-vibration mounting—our Silverstone PS05 is quiet, but doesn’t look stuffy.
I would veer away from using special mounts for hard drives, preferring instead the simple rubber fasteners that give you some protection against vibration without forcing you to stash your hard drive in a different-size bay entirely. I’m not sure the trade-off of cooling loss versus potential acoustic savings was worth the effort or cost.
Overall, I’m pleased with my results. My system’s temperatures were a touch higher, but it’s a small price to pay for a stacked rig that purrs like a kitten when I fire it up. The NZXT fan controller single-handedly made this challenge a success, if for nothing else than allowing me to test cooling against acoustics on-the-fly. I highly recommend adding it to the top of your shopping list. The bottom line is that silence doesn’t come easy, and a truly noiseless PC doesn’t ever come cheap.
| Sound-Dampened PC | Fractal R3 PC | Stock PC | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Temperatures (C) | |||
| CPU Temp (idle) | 47.25 | 39 | 36 |
| CPU Temp (Max) | 83.75 | 77.75 | 76.5 |
| GPU Temp (idle) | No Reading | 40 | 36 |
| GPU Temp (max) | No Reading | 92 | 85 |
| HDD Temp (Barracuda) | 37 | 26 | 24 |
| HDD Temp (Raptor) | 33 | 25 | 26 |
| Sound (dB) | |||
| Front (min/max) | Low/Low | Low/Low | 56.1/58.2 |
| Side (min/max) | Low/Low | Low/44 | 51.3/55.6 |
| Top (min/max) | Low/40.1 |
Low/42.1 | 54.5/56.8 |
| Rear (min/max) | Low/43.4 |
56.5/60.6 | 64.5/68.8 |
All temperatures measured using HWMonitor. CPU temps measured after an hour of inactivity and an hour of full CPU load. GPU temps measured after two successive iterations of the Heaven benchmark at maximum settings. Acoustics measured using Extech 407727 SLM at 6 inches from center of panel. Min and max levels recorded; “low” indicates sub-40dB.
Your case, motherboard, and cooler all come with useful instructions, but be sure to check out our most recent step-by-step guide at http://bit.ly/bldcreed.
Comments are closed on this article
blueglowtech
April 18, 2011 at 10:37am
It would seem to me that it would be possible to craft your foam in such a way as to create air channels inside the machine, but leave everything else packed in foam. Basically, you would be left with really very little airspace in the case, but the airspace you have left would be much more efficient.
What I would have done with a similar setup is to mod the case so I would have basically 3 airflow channels - one for the CPU/North Bridge, one for the GFX card, and one for the HDD. The HDD channel would come in the front-side of the case, and out the other front-side. The GFX channel would come in as a slot-style intake near the middle-rear of the side and exit as the card's stock cooler would - I favor rear ejection over aftermarket for silent-ish builds. And last but not least, one larger channel for the CPU/N.Bridge that uses the main case exhaust as it's thrust.
Everything else is almost completely acoustic foam.
aferrara50
April 11, 2011 at 1:57pm
Looks like no time at all was spent on wiring. C'mon maximum pc! That computer is embarassing.
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rockaddict
March 22, 2011 at 7:39am
I would like to know where the sensors on the NZXT Sentry LXE were placed. I am using and H70 but I am not sure that it is a good idea to control those fans. But that is prolly a different article.
s.calvin.s
March 11, 2011 at 6:52pm
Although this PC has some nice specs, I must say that I found a much better PC build at www.buythebestpc.com It might not be as quiet, but it really kicks this PC's butt in proformace and price. I would recomend the 2000 dollar build on the site to anyone who wants a sweet custom PC.
zigojacko
February 25, 2011 at 3:39am
Great guide, will definitely keep this handy for when I attempt a silent pc build myself. I got mine from http://www.computerplanet.co.uk/systems/silent/silent_pc.html a while back which is serving me well currently :)
ligaweb
February 16, 2011 at 7:10am
I think that you can create a quiet and cool PC for even less than $2,318. Web design
lb_felipe
February 03, 2011 at 4:53am
I doubt that this setup is actually quiet, nor silent.
It should be relatively quiet. But we can do better. With the same cost and approximate performance.
For example:
AMD Phenom II X6 Black 1090T
ASUS Crosshair IV Formula
ASUS Xonar Essence ST
ASUS Radeon HD 6970
G.Skill Flare 8GB(4GB x 2) DDR3-2000 (PC3 16000) 1.55 Volts
Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB
Two of WD Caviar Green 2TB MVW
Pioneer BDR-206
Antec P183 V3
AcoustiPack ULTIMATE
Puget 120mm Fan Mount Cover
SilverStone SDP08
Antec CP-850
Thermalright Ultra120 eXtreme Rev.C
ARCTIC Accelero Xtreme Plus
ARCTIC VR001
ARCTIC MX-4
Arctic Silver ArctiClean
Scythe Slip Stream 120 PWM
Two of Antec TrueQuiet 120
Remove all stock fans. Use only front and rear case fans on the Antec P183 V3 (cover the top fan hole with Puget 120mm Fan Mount Cover). Apply AcoustiPack ULTIMATE in the case. Use Scythe Slip Stream 120 PWM with Antec P183 V3. Select all adjustments of speed fan to low.
Ready. Here is a really quiet computer project.
All key components were chosen based on analyses of Silent PC Review.
WD Caviar Green too. But the specific model number of Caviar Green was obtained with the help of a X-bit labs review.
FascistNation
February 01, 2011 at 4:27pm
Silent means silent. What you built was a quiet gaming system, but it can still be heard. Now get rid of ALL of the fans and I will be impressed. Until then you didn't come close to building a silent PC.
Athlonite
January 29, 2011 at 2:47am
A case that uses large fans like the RV02 uses 3x 180mm bottom mounted fans with 700/100rpm speed switch my comp is barely audible
QuadraQ
January 23, 2011 at 3:07pm
I subscribe to the magazine and I was a little disappointed in this article. You did a good job using parts that people might already have, but I was hoping for more.
I really think this is cover article material, and should include varius builds with different goals. You covered silencing a typical PC a user may already have, but what if I'm building one from scratch? What are the best options for silencing a PC? Best cases? Best powersupplies? Best fans? Etc.
More and more I want the most powerful PC I can get, but also want it to shut up - I'm just sick of the noise. I don't think I'm alone. Like you said building a top end gaming machine is easy. Making it quiet at the same time is hard - exactly the sort of thing readers like me look to the magazine for help with.
tonyaldr
January 23, 2011 at 9:13am
Guys, you left out the "Print" format button for the articles. Please bring it back! Otherwise we have to print screen by screen.
teejay007
January 23, 2011 at 8:55am
Amazing ..you have told us nice tips for assembling a silent pc at this cost...Thanks
Guisano
January 21, 2011 at 1:43pm
What is the purpose of wearing the latex gloves? Do they minimize static discharge or similar?
HeartBurnKid
January 21, 2011 at 3:49pm
I think this got asked in a letter to the magazine, and the answer was that they're there to cover up the editors' nasty-looking hands. They're geeks, not hand models. :)
TheMurph
January 21, 2011 at 3:51pm
I think that's total BS, mind you. My soft, moisturized hands would look great in a feature spread.
sniggler
January 20, 2011 at 4:31pm
You could build something for half this price and the same noise level if not better... Really, a GTX 480? Did you choose Nvidia's nuclear reactor so you could prove a point?
Why not go with a more budget-friendly and lower power-consumption build... Even a GTX 580 would fare better than it's hot-and-hungry cousin (still a beast but a big step towards better thermals for the Fermi lineup). Or why not a lower-end card, like a 6950 or a GTX 460?
And what's with the Thermaltake CPU cooler? Why not get a Hyper 212 and put some Noctuas on there, or even a Corsair H70 / Noctua combo?
I'll bet if i stuck an H70 in my system with Notcua fans / my 2 GTX 460's with their stock heatsinks would be quieter than this beast and still perform right alongside it (at least until you turned up the fans on them to %100, which NEVER happens without doing so manually).
Danthrax66
January 20, 2011 at 5:28pm
Well technically the silencer material including case cost $300 which isn;t bad the rest was just parts they had laying around probably and those can be interchanged.
Ruins
January 20, 2011 at 10:36am
are the Noctua family of case fans. I also used the Gigabyte Cupio 6140 Ultra Quiet Special Edition sold by Quite PC USA. I built a gaming system around these two componets and could not be happier with the results.
Sprunth
January 20, 2011 at 1:41am
" I also decided to build a rig inside of Fractal Design’s R3 chassis—a $120 case that arrives on your doorstep pre-configured for silence (see review here)"
Page 1...the 'here' is not hyperlinked. ;)
TheMurph
January 20, 2011 at 9:56am
Silencing an air-cooled PC impacts a larger number of people than trying to convince people with air-cooled PCs to build a custom water-cooling loop.
At least, if my geek skillset wasn't very high, I still think I'd be able to handle sticking foam in a case. Watercooling... not so much.
misha573
January 20, 2011 at 3:58am
I was wondering about that myself. Murph, unless cost was a factor, why didn't you put it under water? A decent radiator (or two, or three) and some quiet fans in push-pull, an appropriately sound-dampened pump, etc. and you should be gaming silently without compromise.
JonC
February 09, 2011 at 8:42am
I was considering using water cooling in my rig, but the closed-loop coolers (e,g Corsair H50/70) pumps are reported to be noisy (buzzy). Are there pre-packaged systems that are quiet, or can the Corsair pumps be silenced?
NanoTech
January 19, 2011 at 8:52pm
For a website based around PC enthusiasts I'd have to say this is rancid build quality. This is a good example of why Mac Users mock PC users. It may be silent but look at that Cable Management! Yuck! It's very simple to use some zip ties and clean up this mess as you build it.
If you are building a silent system, chances are you are using very low RPM fans. Better cable management = better the air flow which in return = Cooler silent system.
Nice choice in parts but I'd recommend cleaning it before you show it off.
Scootiep
January 19, 2011 at 9:44pm
"This is a good example of why Mac Users mock PC users. It may be silent but look at that Cable Management! Yuck!"
Good God, you sound like my sister looking at cars:
her: "Oh, but this one looks CUTE!"
me: "Yeah, but it's engine is a 7 horsepower lawnmower motor."
her: "But it's light blue! I LOVE that color!"
me to the salesman: "Dude, just take her money, she's an idiot and deserves it."
mah_101381
January 22, 2011 at 12:21pm
My sister is the same way, she went to a Dell retail store and paid $1000 for a pc that had XP with integrated everything, 1 PCI slot, 40GB HD and 128 MB RAM, this was about 6-8 years ago. She then had the nerve to ask me, after not letting me come aong, why it ran slow slowly. I added a 512 MB module of RAM and it ran a lot better. Couldn't do much else, we didn't have a copy of XP.
Tophar
January 19, 2011 at 9:29pm
Your gonna knock the cable management?
1. These guys probably have to build tons of rigs, cable management is nice, but it adds time to the build and is not needed.
2. The focus of the article was to build a quiet PC, not a neat looking one
3. Its probably also indicative of the build, since your adding a bunch of sensor's and have taken away space on the sides of the case to tuck wires neatly away, you probably can't route cables as neatly or easily.
4. Your right Mac users don't have to deal with messy cable management, they probably can't even figure out how to open their case and look inside
DJSPIN80
January 24, 2011 at 7:17am
I'm a Mac user, and I, too, can open my case and fiddle with stuff. And fiddle with stuff, I do.
On another note, adding a bunch of sensors does add more cabling. Cabling that can be difficult to re-route.
NanoTech
January 19, 2011 at 11:19pm
I understand that they might build lots of rigs on a weekly basis if not daily.
I also realize that the topic is not to build a neat PC but a Quiet PC.
Although seeing how you just took sentences I said out of context. I said that improving cable management improves air flow. That isn't opinion, it's fact. If it's clean and open inside you'll get more airflow which in return makes the system cooler. This is especially important when building a silent PC do to using low RPM fans. The lower the RPM = less air flow you get per cubic inch.
Mac users was just a term I happen to use. It could be related to anything. You wouldn't open a silent Alienware or Maingear system and have it look like that.
I was simply saying I expect a little more from a top rated PC Magazine to provide a cleaner build. They could of at least managed that rainbow colored cord and it would have looked 100% better.
Scootiep
January 20, 2011 at 7:09am
You're still somewhat missing the point of the article. It's not to make the tidiest looking PC with the best thermals out there, it's to make a nearly silent gaming PC. Keeping things cool is important, sure, but it wasn't the focus of the build. Also, you're griping about cable management. 3 or 4 black zip ties and your entire argument is gone. Who cares about a few zip ties. They don't need to show us that, any idiot can figure it out. The focus was high performance and silence. Something many, MANY people fail to do. Eye on the ball here Corky, eye on the ball.
TheMurph
January 19, 2011 at 11:30pm
rainbow cord -- if I'm correct -- was for front-panel sound. It was short enough such that there was no other way to route the cable except for right over the vidoecard. An annoyance, indeed.
Anyway, I agree. Better cable management equals better airflow. I do note, however: "The inside of our case looked a lot cleaner before we inserted the PCB for our fan controller (and its tangle of fan cables and temperature probes)."
SongEmu
January 19, 2011 at 7:56pm
I spent less than $800 on my gaming rig and I STILL managed to fit in a 1 TB drive AND an SSD. HDD spins down when not in use = a little less noise.
On top of this, there are way cooler cards than that toaster called the 480... least you could do is go with the GTX460, 500 series, or 5000 ATI line.
TheMurph
January 19, 2011 at 11:26pm
The focus of the feature was silence, not necessarily cooling. We picked the 480 due to its noise -- dampening it would be a challenge. As well, it would make a system louder, in general, for our acoustics tests.
nmanguy
January 19, 2011 at 7:06pm
That's pretty expensive. I don't like spending more than $700 on a PC. If I did want to make the computer silent, I'd spend an extra $80 on a huge-ass case with half a dozen fans and just set them rather low.
TheMurph
January 19, 2011 at 11:24pm
The most important thing you can buy is acoustic foam, which costs less than $80 for a full set. Next up -- replace or control thy fans.
Hondoe1950
January 19, 2011 at 6:53pm
I too took great pains to build my own "silent pc" and the result was just too darn noisy.
After living with it for a couple of years, I broke down and bought a new silent Serenity system from Puget Systems.
It was the best choice and the best computer I have ever owned.
Now when I enter my office, I can't even tell if my PC is on until I get really close.
Ah, the peace of silence.
bdcrlsn86
January 19, 2011 at 6:53pm
You could've saved a lot of money and produced less heat by going with a Sandy Bridge CPU/Mobo and a GTX 570. Just saying.
TheMurph
January 19, 2011 at 11:23pm
Didn't have access to Sandy Bridge at the time of the article's writing, alas. Also, the 480 was specifically chosen for its louder acoustics.
gvansly1
January 19, 2011 at 6:43pm
Case: Silverstone....Bad Link........................
Good Link: http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/enclosure.php?area=for
gendoikari1
January 19, 2011 at 6:06pm
Good for a silent gaming rig. I wonder how an entirely noiseless PC would work out (SSD, passive CPU cooler, fanless case, fanless PSU, passive GPU cooler)?
TheMurph
January 19, 2011 at 11:23pm
That'll be one low-power PC... if it even runs for very long. ;)
Danthrax66
January 20, 2011 at 5:46pm
SeaSonic makes a 400 watt fanless PSU.
Fanless CPU cooler
http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/cpu/036/scorc1000_detail.html
Fanless GPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125328
Remove the fans natural airflow case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129093
gendoikari1
January 20, 2011 at 9:58pm
That is quite possibly one of the biggest and ugliest CPU coolers I have ever seen
neo_mouse
February 01, 2011 at 1:15pm
i dont know about that, the cooler master v10 was pretty damn ugly!
rawrnomnom
January 19, 2011 at 5:34pm
Its kinda nasty that a professional PC magazine would post that rats nest on their site.... Cable Management Fail...
rawrnomnom
January 20, 2011 at 8:29pm
ive seen people shove more stuff in a PC case than this and have it look far neater. Even with a lot of cables some management can be had, dont believe me? check out some threads on thebestcasescenario dot com, i appreciate the silence as much as the next guy, i just like to see things done right. With all the emphasis on the need for silence and keeping a pretty hot and powerful PC cool cable management goes a long way.
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