Hi guys, i joined the forums a long time ago, but never posted, and have only just recently stumbled upon them again. The reason i am posting is i need to get a new cooling system for my pc as my aero 7 has just packed in . However i dont know whether to get a top end air cooler for my cpu or delve into the realms of water cooling, and this is where your advice come into it. I probably have about £100 to spend (i dont plan on spending it all on an air cooler!) so what would you guys recommend? I am a big gamer, especially unreal tournament but i also play alot of champ manager half life you all know the games so i am after something that has good performance but is also relatively quiet. My system can be seen in my sig. As you can see from it, my case is also pants (present off my mam for my bday) so i am also thinking of upgrading that as well maybe modding it any suggestions as to any good cases? Any help from you guys would be appreciated
First things first, because it changes the answer: You gonna overclock? If yes, then watercooling can help, but you may not get a real extreme increase out of your system no matter what unless you change around some components (ram, for example). For the bit that you WILL be able to push out with no system upgrade, you can probably get away with air cooling, see below... If not overclocking or leaving your system alone, you can probably use air cooling along the lines of a Zalman 7000Cu or something similar. They give really good temps for air, don't cost an arm and a leg, and run QUIET. Did I mention they're QUIET? I can't hear mine running over my hard drive, usually. If you decide you want to overclock or be prepared for future OCing, then you should consider upping your budget over time, buying an air cooler and then buying a w/c setup piecemeal, or learning how to build some of the more expensive (and fairly easy to build) components such as your waterblocks and reservoir. The last idea will generate you a TRULY custom setup, and can be the height of modding. And as for the case, be creative! There's lots you can do aside from buying an expensive case. You can build your own (if you have the tools or the idea), or ebay something cheap and make it your own! What makes a great modded case is what YOU do to it, not what it started out as. Poke around on the "project logs" section for ideas there, as well as seeing what pre-made cases many people are using. Hope this helps, and Good luck!
Cheers for the advice Da Dego, i dont plan on overclocking im happy with the way my system runs as it is, although i am planning to change my ram in a couple of months anyhow. Ive been looking through the project logs and the way some of them look really are amazing. Im thinking of trying to do something based around unreal tournament, which is my favourite game of all. Im currently amasing a big library of images based on the game to give me ideas, and the things others have done are also giving me loads of ideas. What tools should i have in my box before i even start a project? Any other suggestions from anyone else on anything ive mentioned would be much appreciated. I also forgot to add, im planning on changing my case fans. I have been using the poor raidmax ones that come in the case (3 of them) and a thermaltake one that came with my psu. What quiet fans would you recommend i buy?
i would go for vantec stealth fans, i have a 120mm fan and its only noticeable if you put your ear right next to it. pretty low rpm tho!
I haven't heard a Vantec Stealth but from other peoples comments at full speed it is anything but stealth. Best place to find about silent kit is www.silentpcreview.com and their forums. Check the recommended list of kit. I have a couple of SilenX 120mm fans rated at 14dba. They aren't 14dba though.
The definitive "quiet" but powerful fan is the panasonic panaflo. It is about half the noise of any other fan that most people on this forum have found (a drop in about 3-4db is about half the noise level) on full blast. Because of their design, they also handle a lower voltage very well, in case you'd rather run it on 7 volts instead of 12 (to make them even quieter). They're also not the most expensive thing in the world, because they weren't designed for modding. Only problem is that comes with the weakness that they're also not the prettiest in the world, because they were designed for other applications. Hope that helps!
Yep Panaflos are the kings of (quiet) fans. Imo a Thermalright XP-120 and a 120mm Low speed Panaflo would handle the amount of heat from your prescott fairly well, and you would still have headroom for some overclocking. The Zalman 7000 is a great cooler also, and cheaper. it probably won't have as much headroom for overclocking as the Xp-120, though. I have both the XP-120 (+panaflo L1A) and the Zalman 7000-cu, and they are about the same loudness. At full speed, neither are exactly dead quiet, but are FAR from loud. At about 7v both are almost silent, and still cool well .
Uh, just because it's the most silent *you've* heard doesn't mean other people are wrong. There'a lot of combined experience on this board that have bothered to measure the decibels of the vantec as well as other comparable fans, and they mostly tend to disagree that it's the quietest out there...a quiet fan, definitely, but not as much as some others in the same price range. Just a friendly note to watch generalizations like "you're all wrong." Tends to get those who have actually done the work and testing a little riled up, and I figure it's better to hear it now than when some guy who's been doing this for years starts throwing up the dBa specs.
We've said it before and we'll say it again, you simply cannot beat a Panaflo L1A for value for money/ cfm/ noise ratio. If you're not going to overclock there isn't that much need to overclock. A Thermalright XP-120 and a Panaflo L1A will suffice
sry, i just meant it is the quietest fan i have heard from a large selection, i was by no means saying it was the 'queitest' i just think it does live up to its name as 'stealth'. didnt mean to rattle you cage
