Hi guys, I'm about to build a super-quiet PC for music-making. It won't be amazingly powerful (i3 530 + H55) but I've budgeted instead for silent and/or reliable components. That out the way, I'm considering getting the above Lian-Li case, and wondered if it's worth replacing the two fans that come installed with Noctuas for extra quiet-factor. Anyone with experience?
Thanks, murraynt, I understand that's so, but size is also an issue as I need to transport the machine on occasion. The Lian-Li is titchy!
Lian Li stock fans are not quiet. They're pretty strong though! Yeah i'd swap them out. But like i always point out, if you're using the stock Intel heatsink, replacing that with an aftermarket one will always be more effective than a "silent" case.
I'm planning to use a Megahalems + Noctua and have all fans controlled by the motherboard. Also, I'll be getting the seasonic fanless 400W b*stard to power it all. With this in mind, the only noticable sound source will be the quiet clicking of HDDs until I can replace at least one of them with an SSD.
Nice! I think you're good to go with that. Dampening doesn't make much difference at all if everyting is already quiet, but you can buy dampening kits later, for the cool factor if nothing else. I did that with my previous case. Watercooling, passive GPU, all my fans running on 5v and dampening. If it wasn't for the front panel LEDs i wouldn't have been able to tell if it's running.
Awesome. Water cooling is not something I'm too interested in at the moment but have seen some ace silent performance from it.
An i3 isn't something i would watercool. If it was mine i'd slap a huge passive heatsink on it but you mentioned you're going to transport it so that wouldn't work for you. Although... you're already looking at a tower cooler... aren't you worried about the pressure this would put on your motherboard while you're moving it around? I'd look at something flat like a Scythe Zipang.
You mean the Shuriken? That's certainly very low profile. Well, Gigabyte mobos (I'm getting the UD2) are always amazingly strong, and the Megahalems has a back plate. Do you really think it will be a problem?
Just looked up the shuriken, damn that's low. Either that or the zipang should be fine. Well, as strong as Gigabyte boards are, i wouldn't take the chance. The i3 doesn't need a tower anyways.
Reviews suggest the Shuriken/Zipang is a nightmare to install and impinges on RAM, but no reviews have said there's a problem with the Megahalems's weight or size. Most think the bracket is God's gift to mankind. Going the Scythe route entirely removes the opportunity to damage the mobo though. Difficult decision to make.
I think I'm going to go for this: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Thermalright-AXP-140-heat-sink-for-Intel-LGA775-CPU-(without-fan) with the 1156 bracket. Similar design but extra security from the bracket and you can place the bulk of the heatsink where it will be least intrusive.