I demand silence! (first time WC)

The title says it all:I'm sick of hearing fan noise from my system, and would like to see how quietly I can water cool it. That, and I've wanted an excuse to try water cooling for some time

My priorities, in order, are: 1) Silence! 2) Ease of setup and maintenance, 3) Overclocking, only if I have the thermal headroom.

The system:

• CPU: Intel E8500 @ stock (currently)
• VID: eVGA 8800 GT KO
• MB: eVGA 780i SLI
• CASE: Antec 1200

Anyone who's familiar w/ the 780i knows what kind of heat its northbridge puts out; It's definitely going in the WC loop. It's currently at 71c (idle) as I type this, being passively cooled w/ all the fans in my case on their low setting. With the fans at low I still hear them from the other room, which is definitely not stealth.

My strategy is to use a few moving parts as possible. Here are the assumptions I've made (please feel free to correct me):

• Most importantly, that water cooling can be dramatically quieter than air-cooling. If I'm wrong here, than I may have to try immersing the system in mineral oil, or something...
• A larger radiator can dissipate more heat than a smaller radiator, all else being equal. This means that I should be able to put less fan on a larger radiator and still get a decent amount of cooling.
• Different pumps may have drastically different noise levels.
• More water in the system, in combination with the larger radiator, may have some cooling benefit.
• Tube diameter shouldn't have any effect on noise.

I'm planning on putting my CPU, GPU, North-bridge, and possibly South-bridge all on the same loop so I can use a single pump. I'm thinking that my loop will go Reservoir -> Radiator -> CPU -> GPU -> NB -> [optional] SB. This would put the cooler components first so that they don't get the hot water from the warmer ones. The downside I see to this is that I'm planning on (somehow) mounting my radiator to the back of my case, so I may need additional tubing to go all the way from the res in the front to the rad in back to begin the loop.

Here are the parts I've been looking at:

Radiator: TFC XChanger 480 - In the back of my mind I'm hoping that it will be such overkill for my setup that I won't need to put any fans on it at all. Chosen over the Black Ice GTX480 mostly due to the review at Martin's Liquid Lab.

Rad fans: 2x Noctua NF-P12-1300 - If I can't run without fans, I want quiet fans.

Reservoir: Some dual-5 1/4" bay res, like XSPC Dual Bay Reservoir. - I've decided on a drive-bay reservoir because I have plenty of spare 5 1/4" bays, and they're easy to install. I chose dual-bay because I've heard that the single bay ones can be tricky to fill high enough that the water is above the barb holes.

Tubing: Tygon 1/2" ID tubing of some sort. I'll get metal 1/2" barbs all 'round.

Pump: This is where I have the least idea of what might be quiet. I'm looking at either the CPX-1 or CPX-Pro right now. Any suggestions?

Water blocks:

• CPU: Swiftech Apogee GT (I'd get GTX, but can't find it in stock anywhere)
• GPU: Swiftech MCW60-R
• NB: Danger Den 780i NB
• SB: Danger Den 780i

A pretty expensive setup all told, but I'm hoping that most of the parts can be reused for many years to come. Suggestions, criticism, and critiques are most welcome, and I'd definitely appreciate hearing from anybody who's done a stealth system.

Thanks much,
-pc

A 480 rad with two fans is just like a 220 rad. The other half of the rad will not dissipate heat with no fans. No air flow over the fins, no effective heat removal.

You already got all the 1200 fans on low? Well your as silent as you can get pretty much. You need at least a spot cool on the NB and a HR03 Thermalright on the GPU. It can be run with a 120mm fan on very low.

How about replacing all your case fans with a better brand? Aftermarket the GPU cooler and get the Antec Spot Cooler for the NB. I just saved you $300+.

Can't get silent on WC, but you can get great temps and still be quiet. You'll still need your case fans no matter what.

pcarini said:

• Most importantly, that water cooling can be dramatically quieter than air-cooling. If I'm wrong here, than I may have to try immersing the system in mineral oil, or something...
  Water cooling may be quiter than aircooling but only if less noisemaking components are used such as less fans.
• A larger radiator can dissipate more heat than a smaller radiator, all else being equal. This means that I should be able to put less fan on a larger radiator and still get a decent amount of cooling.
  Yes, larger surface area will dissapate more heat, but only is there is airflow. Deadzones will arise if there is no airflow meaning that you are wasting radiator space
• Different pumps may have drastically different noise levels.
  Of course! hehe
• More water in the system, in combination with the larger radiator, may have some cooling benefit.
  More water will give you a longer period of time until a given temperature is reached. After an hour of use the temperature will be the same regardless of how much water is in the system.
• Tube diameter shouldn't have any effect on noise.
  no, but it might affect cooling performance, necessitating more airflow and more noise

Click to expand...

Why not look at Zalman reserator 2?

You will not get silence by using water cooling as you are still using fans and you will still hear PSU noise. Unless you get a passive solution.

Have a read throuh here also:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/

Passive air cooling may be a better choice with some quiet case fans

Conumdrum said:

A 480 rad with two fans is just like a 220 rad. The other half of the rad will not dissipate heat with no fans. No air flow over the fins, no effective heat removal.

Click to expand...

this is incorrect.

thorilan said:

this is incorrect.

Click to expand...

What is your reasoning?

not reasoning . fact.
the laws of science dont change

tell me how DT works. tell me about total surface area of the system. if you answer those 2 questions alone you can see the answer

thorilan said:

not reasoning . fact.
the laws of science dont change

tell me how DT works. tell me about total surface area of the system. if you answer those 2 questions alone you can see the answer

Click to expand...

My reasoning is that you can increase surface area as much as you want, but without airflow, no heat transfer will occur (at any effective rate)

What do you mean by DT? what is that?

increasing surface area will help to lower temps... but obviously would be more efficient with the extra fans....

There are people running multiple rads in passive mode just fine. It isn't NEAR as effiecient as putting some airflow through them but they will still dissapate heat. To make the best watercooling system that is as quiet as possible, you need to get the best low airflow rads available which are the $$ Thermochill PA's, with Fesser being close behind. Personally, i'd go for a Swiftech QP 360 or 480 with Yate loon lows hooked to a Sunbeam 4 channel fan controller to make them even quieter, if you so choose. Even at full speed the lows are VERY QUIET. That would be more than enough to keep your CPU, NB, and GPU cool. There's no need to WC your SB. Enzotech makes some very good SB HS's. Check to see if the SLF-1 is compatible with your MB. The fan on it is dead quiet but you can attatch it to a MB header to adjust the speed as necessary.

Axis

Thanks for your replies! I'm a bit surprised that there is disagreement among the grizzled veterans here over something this seemingly basic.

Conundrum said:

You already got all the 1200 fans on low? Well your as silent as you can get pretty much. You need at least a spot cool on the NB and a HR03 Thermalright on the GPU. It can be run with a 120mm fan on very low.

How about replacing all your case fans with a better brand? Aftermarket the GPU cooler and get the Antec Spot Cooler for the NB. I just saved you $300+.

Click to expand...

The sound levels from the five tri-cool fans add up, even if the fans individually are quiet. I did consider buying five low rpm Noctua fans in their place, but I think the issue may be the same with them. Part of my justification for the proposed WC rig is that I'd be transferring all of the heat that needs to be removed from the system to a single point (the rad) where each fan I add will have maximum cooling effect on the system. The other justification is that I've wanted to tinker w/ water cooling. That said, I'm appreciative of you and others who are willing to take the time to try and prevent me from wasting my money.

aja said:

Why not look at Zalman reserator 2?

Click to expand...

That's a pretty nifty rig, but how is it all that different from my proposed setup? I'm seeing a reservoir, a radiator, a pump, tubing, and some water blocks that likely won't work for me... Is there something extra-special about their radiator that makes passive cooling feasible?

I would suggest a PA120.3 with 3 low speed yate loons from petras undervolted on a fan controller. Add an MCP655 on a low setting or a MCP355 with top as your pump. Also, go for a GTZ or Fuzion v2 for your cpu block. Your set up should be plenty quiet with that stuff.

pcarini said:

That's a pretty nifty rig, but how is it all that different from my proposed setup? I'm seeing a reservoir, a radiator, a pump, tubing, and some water blocks that likely won't work for me... Is there something extra-special about their radiator that makes passive cooling feasible?

Click to expand...

It is just a good setup if you want to get as silent as possible

The radiator has a large surface area and fins that are spaced wide apart to allow passive cooling.

Throughout industry you will notice that passive heatsinks have widely spaced thick fins. If the fins are thin and close together, like most watercooling radiators, little air will flow between them naturally. The convection currents simply are not enough to move air through the tiny spaces effectivey. (this theory also applies to memory heatsinks - choose sinks that have widely spaced fins/pins for the best passive cooling as opposed to those with tiny cramped fins)

Of course, if fans are used, more fins closer together will give better cooling by a long shot as there will be much more surface area.

A watercooling setup may be quieter than an aircooled setup simply because it is more efficient at removing heat so quieter fans may be used. But in practise this may be difficult. Air cooling may still be a better option.

It really depends on what you want

The Zalman products are, to say, okay. But they are way overpriced for what you get, although it looks very very nice. You can do as well in the noise department with a PA rad pump etc and have much more effective cooling, much better temps and the ability to choose better parts right off the bat.

I want the same thing.

I have a reserator XT which is far from silent.

Can I ask the esteemed membership what the effectiveness would be of sandwiching three fans in between two Black Ice GT Stealth 360 X-Flow

i.e. sucking air over 1 and pushing it over the other?.

If I have the fans on low speed sucking air over the "out"rad and pushing air over the "in" rad that would be effective no?.


Look forward to your replies...

gidface99 said:

I have a reserator XT which is far from silent.

Can I ask the esteemed membership what the effectiveness would be of sandwiching three fans in between two Black Ice GT Stealth 360 X-Flow

i.e. sucking air over 1 and pushing it over the other?.

If I have the fans on low speed sucking air over the "out"rad and pushing air over the "in" rad that would be effective no?.


Look forward to your replies...

Click to expand...

Well the Reserator XT is very different to the Reserator 2.

The configuration you mention would not really be efficient as the second rad would be getting hot air from the first

Here is some really esteemed input from another place, hope it helps.
Us? Esteemed? Hehe, I'm a noob compared to these guys....... Great post with charts involved.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=206829

And those rads you mentioned need lots more than low speed fans unfortunately.

aja said:

Well the Reserator XT is very different to the Reserator 2.

The configuration you mention would not really be efficient as the second rad would be getting hot air from the first

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, but if I pull air from the "out" rad, that would be significantly cooler than the "out" rad that it would be blowing air over. Also the air wont be "hot" unless these rads are really efficient, just a degree or two over ambient?.

Thanks Again

aja said:

A watercooling setup may be quieter than an aircooled setup simply because it is more efficient at removing heat so quieter fans may be used. But in practise this may be difficult. Air cooling may still be a better option.

It really depends on what you want

Click to expand...

Thanks again for your post. It makes sense that the Reserator, being built for passive cooling, is designed w/ fins further apart for greater airflow. I like the idea of it, but it seems somewhat clunky, and I'd be much more interested if it didn't come w/ its own water blocks.

To be clear about what I want, I want to get decent temps for my components at stock clocks/volts with the absolute minimum amount of fan noise. The reason I'm thinking WC would be better for this is that the fans I do use would be cooling at close to their peak efficiency. My understanding is that water-cooling IS air cooling, and that the water is only a heat transfer mechanism.

Conumdrum said:

Here is some really esteemed input from another place, hope it helps.
Us? Esteemed? Hehe, I'm a noob compared to these guys....... Great post with charts involved.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=206829

And those rads you mentioned need lots more than low speed fans unfortunately.

Click to expand...

See Esteemed is a worthy title.. at least your better with google than me, this is what I needed and exactly what I was trying to do.

Just need to find the best rads for the setup now.

Thanks Again...

gidface99 said:

See Esteemed is a worthy title.. at least your better with google than me, this is what I needed and exactly what I was trying to do.

Just need to find the best rads for the setup now.

Thanks Again...

Click to expand...

Question for you. Do you really need a PC case to hold all the parts? If it never moves, you have table or shelf space availible, no kids to play with it etc, then maybe caseless is for you.

Reason I mention it, I don't use a case anymore. I bought a tech station, which is no more than fancy plastic shelves with spaces for your parts, about $60. Placing this on a nice piece of butcher block gives you plenty of room and easy access to everything.

I have just 5 fans on mine. A quiet 120mm to blow on the HD, an Antec Spot cooler to blow on my SB HS (on low), and 3 fans on low for the rad. Absolute minimum fans, and low temps on all my parts due to no case heat buildup. It's pretty much as quiet as it can be. The rad fans blow on my Mosfets and Mem so they don't get dead air.

Rads for low noise............. Only TWO choices. Thats the Thermochill PA 120.3 and a nice copy, the TFC 320. They are the only two who work well with low speed fans. Pricy, but you get what you pay for. Look at my sig, my 120.3 keeps temps low, and noise is low due to 3 Yate Loon mediums turned down to low with a cheapo fan controller.

Link to one place that has both rads.
http://www.dangerden.com/store/
Best peeps, great customer service. BTW, finding a PA 120.3 in stock can be hard, they sell like candy.

The place to buy my fans is here. I hear great things about a few other brands but at $20 each I'd just use these at about $6 each, used by TONS of WC folks. Package deal for 4 can't be beat.
http://www.petrastechshop.com/
Amazingly, another wonderful place to buy stuff. I'm not kidding, these two places will get nods that their customer service is #1.

Lastly, here is ugly pics of my caseless setup. It's gone thru lots of changes for GPU etc, but you can see what I mean. Can't get any quieter.