Silent cooling in Antec 1200 case

[laststop420]

First want to start off by saying long time lurker here. I finally got the balls to not buy my next computer from dell and to build my own how hard could it be right its all basically plug and play im hoping.

I only have 3 parts purchased for my system so far
- Asus Sabertooth P67 mobo
- Antec 1200 V3 Case
- Antec CPX form factor CP-850 850 watt PSU

I went with antec 1200 and cp-850 combo because from what i've read this power supply performs amazingly well less then 1% voltage drop from 20%-100% on 12V rail and is virtually dead silent. The only problem is only a few antec cases can fit it as it is rather quite large compared to normal psu's.

Since I am a noob building computers I know I can't set up my own water cooling system but I'm confident I can set up the pre made closed loop systems out. I'm pretty set on the corsair h80 or h100 which i believe both will satisfy my cooling needs for my i5 2500k or i7 2600k (havent decided which I want yet.) I am not going to be overclocking to the very maximum. I'd be happy with a stable 4.4ghz turbo disabled. i wont be pushing it to 5ghz like i see many doing.

Since the H100 is only 15 dollars more I figure that is the better buy but I am worried the 240mm radiator will not fit without some sort of crazy mod to the case which im not willing to do. Can I mount the H100 rad on the inside or outside without any special case mods? Is that corsair digital link monitor worth it to get more control over the cooling?

I'm also looking to replace all the stock fans throughout the case with after market fans. What are the absolute best and quietest aftermarket fans I can buy money is no object?

My computer will be running 24/7 seeding terabytes of torrent data (of course none of the data is copyrighted) but it's in my bedroom so I need it to be silent hence why i chose the cp-850 as my psu for it's extreme quietness and why i'm willing to spend a lot replacing every case fan with its noiseless counterparts and why I want water cooling for the cpu + the water cooling block and tubes dont block the airflow in a case like a huge air cooler would and the heat is transported off the rad directly out the case unlike an air cooler that just blows the heat into the case. My current computer is an old dell dimension 8200 with a 3.8ghz pentium 4 and some geforce graphics card with only 256MB of video ram and this computer is VERY VERY noisy when I'm trying to sleep with it on seeding torrents.

So just to sum up what im asking
1. Will the Corsair h100 fit without any modifications whatsoever to the antec 1200 case?
2. Is the Corsair digital link monitor for the h80/h100 worth the steep 100 dollar price?
3. Not factoring in price or bang for buck simply what are the quietest but still well performing 120mm and 200mm fans I need 6x 120mm fans and 1x 200mm fan?

 

[LennyRhys]

I will try to answer number 3 for you.

"The absolute best and quietest fans" don't exist - the quietest aren't the best, and the best aren't the quietest.

Generally speaking, any 120mm fan from 800-1000 RPM is "silent": its rotation is so slow that there is very little (if any) motor noise, and the air movement is low enough for there to be very little (if any) air noise. The compromise with low noise is... performance. Also, the more fans you add, the louder it will become, even if all the fans are extremely quiet.

Since you said money is not an issue, the popular (and most expensive) silent fans are:

• Noctua NF-P12 (three speeds of 900, 1100, and 1300 RPM)
• Scythe Slip Stream SY1225SL12L/M (L is 800 RPM, M is 1200 RPM)
• Scythe Gentle Typhoon D1225C12B3AP-13 (1150 RPM)

My personal choice of silent fan is Xilence Red Wing - they are very cheap and quiet @ approx 1300 RPM.

As for your Pentium 4 system, these old computers use small fans which spin very fast, hence the noise level.

 

[laststop420]

So would you recommend not using every single spot a fan bracket is? The case has 3 fans in the front 2 fans in the rear 1 on the side and the 200mm on top. If i cut out say the side 1 from the front and 1 from the rear would it compromise my cooling greatly?

Also what about 200mm fans? Do those models listed above come in that size as well?

 

[LennyRhys]

You don't need as many fans as the case can take, but it's up to you - more fans means a higher volume of air, but also more dust. You can use all six fans if you want, but when I had the Antec 900 I used only four: two at the front, and two at the top/back. IMO that's all you need.

As for 200mm fans, the only one I have experience with is the Antec "big boy" 200mm. It's a three-speed fan which is very quiet on low speed, and I would recommend it.