New Rig

Looking to buy a new PC? Want to make sure it won't blow out your ear drums everytime you turn it on? Here's a few helpful tips to make sure you get the right bits for the job without cranking up the decibels.

Case

The first place to start when buying a new PC for quiet operation is the case, as it's the main contributing factor to your new rig's noise levels. If it's got lots of small fans without much sound dampening, it's going to be loud regardless of everything else. Lots of sound dampening and a few large fans and you could be on to a winner. So what to look for?

Many manufacturers have realised that quiet PCs are the order of the day for most people, so they've started releasing cases that come prefitted with sound dampening features. Some to look for are:

• Case panels with sound deadening foam
  
• Large, slow spinning case fans
  
• Rubber fittings for optical drives
  
• Silicone or elastic fittings for HDDs
  

There are also a fair few things that should be avoided if you're looking for a quiet PC:

• Bundled PSUs - unless it's a top brand you recognise, chances are it's cheap, nasty and loud.
  
• Excess plastic - if not secured properly, this plastic can vibrate, causing rattling.
  
• See through windows - although they look great, they don't deaden sound as well as a solid case panel.
  
• Cheap cases - it sounds a bit of a sweeping comment, but in general, the cheaper the case, the cheaper the materials used, so the higher chance of everything not being secured as well, meaning vibrations are more likely.
  

Some of our favourite noise reducing cases are: Antec P182, Lian Li PC-B20 and the Antec Solo.

PSU

The PSU is a very important part of choosing a quiet PC, as if it's effective it can be a main part of the cooling of a rig. In the same sense, being at the rear of the case, if it's loud, it will usually be the loudest part of your PC, so take care in choosing. There are many passive units around now, but while these are silent, they do nothing to cool other components. Picking a unit with a large fan, without a rear smaller fan is a good place to start, though if the figures are available it's never a bad plan to check it's decibel rating.

CPU

The CPU is quite an important choice, and depending on which you choose, can mean that your cooler doesn't have to be anywhere near as big as it could be. Both AMD and Intel offer low energy solutions of some of their CPUs now, but in general terms, the slower and more "lower end" the processor, the less heat it puts out, and therefore the less cooling it will need. Be aware though, there are stark differences in performance between the top end CPUs and the lower end ones. It's all about finding a compromise.

CPU Cooling

There are many companies out there producing a myriad of CPU coolers, some are more effective than others but almost all cool better, and quieter than the stock Intel or AMD offerings.The size rule usually applies here though, the larger the heatsink, the less air that needs to be moved and the larger the fan, the more air it moves at lower speeds, so the quieter it is. A good way to go is to get a large CPU cooler with plenty of heatpipes and as big a surface area as possible. Some good examples of this would be: Scythe Andy, Scythe Zipang or the Noctua NH-U12. It's also not a bad plan to grab one with a fan controller as you know you'll be able to adjust the speed to match the noise level you are most comfortable with.

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Motherboard

Motherboards aren't as contributing a factor to noise levels as they used to, as most manufacturers have come up with clever heatsink designs to keep everything passive instead of the older active cooling solutions. However, some still use fans for cooling hot chipsets and it is usually quite important to either replace these immediately upon receiving the mobo or make sure that you buy a passively cooled board.

RAM

RAM is almost always passively cooled, so there is nothing that need be done to memory to reduce their noise output. Pick the best you can afford based on performance, though be aware that the more powerful ones produce marginally more heat.

Graphics Card

Again, as with the CPU, the more powerful it is, the more heat it puts out and therefore the better cooling it will need. This doesn't necessarily mean it will be louder, but it does mean it will require a more effective cooling solution which can often mean a faster spinning fan, and therefore more noise. Regardless of which card you end up buying, getting one with an aftermarket cooler (either factory shipped with one, or buying one afterwards) as they are almost always leaps and bounds ahead of the stock nVidia or ATI coolers in terms of temperature, and noise levels.

Graphics Cooling

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Much the same as CPU coolers, the bigger the heatsink, the less air that needs be moved across the surface of the fins, and therefore the slower the fan can spin. Also, the larger the fan the more air that can be moved at slower speeds. Many after market cooler come with fan controllers which can help those wanting to adjust the noise levels minutely.

HDD

Hard Drive choice is quite important when building a quiet PC. Make sure when making your HDD choice you check peak noise levels as some of the performance drives can be very noisy indeed. A rattling drive can vibrate around in it's mounting, or if screwed in incorrectly can even vibrate and rattle your whole case. However, most will only make the most amount of noise when heavily accessed, so if you don't mind periodic noise then a performance drive isn't out of the question. There are also ways to quieten them down, these are discussed in the next section.

Optical Drive

Unfortunately, there aren't many choices for quiet optical drives. Both Samsung and Asus make models that are supposedly quieter than others, but this is questionable. There are a couple of techniques you can use to quieten them down though, these are addressed in the next section.

Water Cooling

Finally, something to consider for cooling all your components is water. While it's a bit fiddly and it's temperatures aren't always that much better than high end air cooling, having everything cooled on one loop with 1-3 120mm fans cooling the radiator is often a lot quieter than having lots of different fans cooling individual components. However, it does cost more than air cooling and the mountains of tubing can quickly reduce the air flow in your case causing components not cooled by the water to not be cooled as effectively. There are also very few cases that can fit a tripple radiator setup, so most are unable to use water to its true potential.