Opinions On My New/Upgraded Computer

[PsYcNeT]

The Twin Frozr is a better cooler, but the Direct CUII series is quieter under load. If you are not planning to shoot for a massive overclock (or overclock it at all), I would recommend the ASUS over the MSI.

The DirectCUII runs my 580 at a 15% overclock with fans at a set 30% whisper quiet. I just recently finished upgrading everything else in my case to ultra quiet (500r case, h100i closed loop cooler with the stock fans replaced with two 1450rpm Gentle Typhoons, NZXT Sentry Mesh 30w fan controller), and I will never buy any market cooler that isn't a DirectCUII just to keep my whole setup under 30db at load.

Also, Gentle Typhoons (only available in Canada from NCIX.ca weirdly enough) are amazing. 2x 1450rpm at 100% are imperceptible.

[photon]

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX40895
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX40903

I like the nvidia cards better at this point, and I've had better success with ASUS for whisper quiet, the msi looks good but I've returned both an MSI and Gigabyte that had impressive looking coolers that were pretty loud.

Mind you now looking at the prices of the 7870 they're quite a bit cheaper and should be about the same as the 660ti, so maybe the ASUS 7870.

[Brannigans Law]

Appreciate the input a lot fellas. Im down to this so far:

CPU= it 3750K http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX39008
Memory= Gskill ripjaw 8 gigs http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX33238
MOBO= This one I'm totally clueless about. I don't need a fancy mobo. I will never use 2 video cards (I don't think? Maybe I will...? I'm not that hard core a gamer..) and I don't want onboard video. So just USB 3, future friendly Mobo with a good onboard audio. Please help lol.

HDD= 3TB Caviar Green 5400rpm SATA III w/ 64MB Cache http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX34380 I'm going with WD this time because the 2 gig seagate I bought for my current computer chirps a lot. What a POS.

Case= http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX17509 Sonata III by Antec. This one I'm still wondering about. I just want quiet, and a good quality case. I won't be doing the build myself but I also don't want a machine that will be hard to upgrade. If someone could recommend a nice case with no flashy lights and a super quiet profile like this one I'd love to hear it.

[cDnStealth]

2 video cards is pretty useless for gaming as most games don't take advantage of them. As for your motherboard, I would recommend you grab one bundled with the processor you've picked out. Something like this http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/BDL_3570K_Z77VLK

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by cDnStealth

2 video cards is pretty useless for gaming as most games don't take advantage of them. As for your motherboard, I would recommend you grab one bundled with the processor you've picked out. Something like this http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/BDL_3570K_Z77VLK

This guy knows what's up.

So yeah, motherboards are tricky. There are dozens of variations within a chipset, and they all seemingly offer more options than the other, but you really want to get ones that are noted as stable. The ASUS V series has been the most stable and reliable motherboard set for the last 5 years.

[photon]

I thought dual card support was much more prevalent these days.

[Brannigans Law]

Decided on getting these too:
CPU cooler http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX34315

The DB level is incredibly low on this, very attractive. I've decided on the Sonata III case and a front fan for additional cooling on my HDD's with this:

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX34321 5-6.8 DB's on low load quiet mode which is all I'll require. Awesome. This computer will be much quieter than the windy little ####### I have now.

[cDnStealth]

Originally Posted by photon

I thought dual card support was much more prevalent these days.

From my understanding the only place you'll really see a difference is if you're running a game across multiple monitors.

[photon]

Re CPU Cooler: The Silver Arrow is even better:

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX38725

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coo...w_6.html#sect0

[PsYcNeT]

SLI gives an increase, but the scaling variates *a lot* from card to card (anywhere from 10%-50% increase, though some card have as much as 90% scaling).

It's fairly hard to buy a motherboard that isn't crap with only one 16x PCI-E slot however, though I'm sure they exist.

Originally Posted by Brannigan's Law

Decided on getting these too:
CPU cooler http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX34315

The DB level is incredibly low on this, very attractive. I've decided on the Sonata III case and a front fan for additional cooling on my HDD's with this:

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX34321 5-6.8 DB's on low load quiet mode which is all I'll require. Awesome. This computer will be much quieter than the windy little ####### I have now.

That's a fantastic after-market air cooler, but keep in mind it's a lot of money to pay for quiet. Unless you're planning to OC, you would likely be better off just getting a $30 CPU cooler and sticking an ultraquiet (like a Noctua NF-F12) fan on it.

[Brannigans Law]

I don't mind spendnig the extra 50 bucks and knowing I have a great and silent cpu cooler. photon are you sure tho? the DB rating is lower on the one I posted, or do you have personal experience with the Silver Arrow and can atest to it's silent nature? edit: I guess it's no matter they dont have it in stock

[photon]

I linked the review for the Thermalright, here's the accoustic performance graphs:

Spoiler!

From the review:

As you can easily notice, Thermalright TY-140 fan is way quieter than Noctua NF-P14 FLX. And the difference is so significant that at the level of acoustic comfort when both fans produce the same amount of noise the difference in rotation speed reaches 200 RPM in favor of the Thermalright solution. From the subjective prospective I would also like to point out not the low level of noise from TY-140 that much, but the pleasant sound it makes: it doesn’t rattle, crackle or whistle. There are no acoustic parasitic additions of any kind. At up to 800-850 RPM we can only hear the sound of flowing air creates by the fan blades. In other words, while Thermalright Silver Arrow didn’t really outperform Noctua NH-D14 that much in cooling efficiency, but when it came to acoustics, Silver Arrow was indisputably on top.

I've used a few different Thermalright heatsinks before (not this one, but one of their previous supercoolers) and I really like them.

Silent PC review comments:

Our experiments with the two stock fans suggests that the 14cm fan is doing most of the cooling work, although the 12cm fan is very helpful at lower speed with a red-hot CPU. Depite all the features to reduce noise and improve airflow, the Noctua fans are not exceptionally quiet. Their tonal aspects are sometimes intrusive, and their ultimate noise-to-airflow ratio is not remarkable.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1020-page9.html

For not super overclocking though you'll be able to crank down the fan RPMs on both so you probably can flip a coin. The Thermalright is a bit cheaper.

I don't mind spending a few bucks on a great cooler as well as I usually keep them across 2 or 3 processor upgrades as well.

[PsYcNeT]

If you're doing minimal overclocking, an H80i with a Gentle Typhoon 800rpm or 1150 rpm is probably your best bet for ~110$ if you want something supremely quiet.

But that's just my experience, some people don't like dealing with closed loop coolers.

[photon]

All reviews I've ever read of water cooling have the water cooling being nosier. You can get a quiet fan, but the pump will still make noise (unless they've managed to make silent pumps now).

Plus it's added complexity for no gain, a air supercooler will let you overclock quite a bit while keeping your CPU cool an still remain quiet.

The review I linked uses a Core i7 3.33GHz OCed to 4.41GHz for their tests, and both the Noctua and Thermalright keep the CPU at or below 80 degrees while being near silent.

[PsYcNeT]

The i-series pumps are super quiet. Just the stock fans are terrible.

[Codes]

I just finished a build myself.

My only cautionary tale is to be careful about the size profile of the RAM you are using, and how it is distributed on the motherboard if you intend to use a bulky heat sink such as the NH-D14. In my build, I used the Asus P877Z-V Deluxe motherboard with Corsair Vengeance RAM. This RAM is quite tall with the heat fins, and this prevented me from installing the NH-D14 in any possible configuration.

I didn't catch this until after the fact, so I have an NH-D14 that I can't use.

PsYcNet, I've been looking at the H100i. How has it performed for you so far? Everything I've read indicates it's a great cooler, but switching out the fans is a must. I heard there were some issues, and Corsair released new firmware to address them.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Codes

PsYcNet, I've been looking at the H100i. How has it performed for you so far? Everything I've read indicates it's a great cooler, but switching out the fans is a must. I heard there were some issues, and Corsair released new firmware to address them.

Corsair released new firmware, and then it bricked 40% of the units, so they revoked it again.

Basically, if you run the stock fans (2700rpm Corsair-lite types with high CFM) through the h100i's Corsair-Link interface, they rattle in a bizarre way. If you plug them into a fan controller they run much better, but are still loud ~1500rpm and don't have great CFM.

The Pump/Block/Tube/Radiator unit is phenomenal however, and again, I will recommend ordering two Gentle Typhoon 1450rpm/21dBA/85(!)m3/h fans. They are whisper quiet and are literally made for radiator use. They're also startlingly heavy @ 200 grams per fan.

I run my i5-3570k @ 4.6 (1.28v) with the fans on 100% (1450rpm) and average 68-69c (almost 30 degrees below TJMax) while running Prime95 for an hour test in a Push>Out config in a Corsair 500r with all stock fans on Low (via the 500r's built in fan controller), except the rear outflow fan which is at ~70% (1100rpm) via my aftermarket fan controller (NZXT Sentry Mesh 30w, which currently controls the two radiator fans, the rear out fan, and a low speed in-fan mounted on the bottom beside the PSU (some Silverstone in a full cage that I use the controller to turn down below the audible threshold).

I don't have a decibel meter to tell you how quiet it is, but suffice to say since I've built it, I find my storage drive (1 TB platter HDD) to be so maddeningly loud when accessing the disk I've installed a second SSD just so I have to use it less.

[photon]

What brand regular HDD?

I've found the most recent Hitachi drives to be very good noise wise, was miffed when I had to buy WD Reds for my NAS (even though it sits in the basement and I don't ever hear it).

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by photon

What brand regular HDD?

I've found the most recent Hitachi drives to be very good noise wise, was miffed when I had to buy WD Reds for my NAS (even though it sits in the basement and I don't ever hear it).

It's a WD Caviar Black 1TB w/ 32MB cache, but it's also ~4 or 5 years old...

[photon]

Guh yeah I had two of those in my PC and they were the loudest thing in it, much happier with the Hitachi.

Which reminds me I still need to RMA one of them.