Silverstone TJ08-E Watercooling.

[SharkByte]

So I'm attempting to build my first watercooled machine and I need some advice and knowledge from the guru's that know this kind of stuff.

Before I get into any of the specification I want to explain my goal: minimal noise! This will be my utmost priority and the whole purpose of the watercooling (having a noisy machine next to me on my desk will give me a mental breakdown). I will be using the TJ08-E case and installing two radiators: one 180mm in the front and one 120mm in the back. Both will be 35mm or so thick so thin radiators! Also, I will only be using one set of fans on each rad, no push-pull full stop! I will be cooling an i3 2120 and a GTX 560 Ti or GTX 570. But I do not intend on overclocking the GPU so take that into consideration and the i3 is pretty self-explanatory. Should this be able to cool these components sufficiently and quietly?

I haven't quite worked out the rule of thumb yet, but is radiator ability measured by the full area (square/rectangle) or by the circular area that's covered by the fans? If by circular area, this setup should work similarly to a 360mm rad, and if it's full area, it would be much more so. Please correct me though if I've got that all incomprehensibly wrong! =D

Also, I plan to run all fans on as low as reasonably achievable to keep as quiet as possible. I thought Noctua's would be a no-brainer but I've heard they perform surprisingly loud when in a radiator scenario. If this is wrong, again do correct me, and if I'm right could you please recommend good, quiet 120/180mm fans.

Thanks

- Jonathan

 

[WillSK]

considering you aren't overclocking it just seems a waste of money to go the water cooling route for silence. I appreciate it may be quiet but there are so many good fan set ups now that will be close to as silent as water cooling.

May i recommend one of the be quiet CPU coolers. I really cannot hear it at all unless i put my ear to it

 

[SharkByte]

Yeah, sorry, I forgot to mention I would also appreciate other suggestions that could produce just as quiet results. It's not so much the CPU, that I can chuck in with an H60, with one Noctua fan on the lowest setting, but it's the GPU with its massive dual fan setup that would probably be the biggest problem! When gaming I'll have my headphones on and probably won't hear my PC but when idle, I want it barely make a sound (If that's possible?) In fact, when I think about it, watercooling probably is ridiculously overkill.

@willsk Is your 560 Ti loud when idle?

 

[WillSK]

I'll be honest. i can't really say for idle as my 600t with default fans is relatively loud, actually looking into getting some bitfenix spectre pros to replace these on my case.

The twin frzr 3 cooler on my Hawk is pretty loud under load in my opinion and others with the same card as me have agreed. I know there are GPUs which are a hell of a lot quieter but can't personally vouch for any of these.

Case fans: like i prob will i might suggest the spectre pros or even wait to see what the new corsair fans turn out like in terms of noise

Heatsink: Def recommend the Bequiet dark rock series but as you said the corsair H series could be just as good (might need to replace the fan though)

as for GPU i'm afraid i am none the wiser to which manufacturer makes the quietest cooler but i'm sure the knowledgeable people here will suggest something. I think i'm correct in saying the nvidia 600 series uses less power so they should be slightly quieter by default and prob therefore have quieter configirations. The 660Ti with a good cooler will undoubtedly be a nice quiet card when it's released.

by the way if anything i have said is incorrect please correct me guys

hope this helps SharkByte

 

[SharkByte]

Thanks!

The preinstalled Silverstone 180mm Penetrator fan is apparently very good, so I won't be needing the replace that one.

I might build my rig soon but without a GPU and wait until the 660 comes out! That sounds a plan. With two fans, a dead silent PSU and no mechanical hard drives it'll be pretty much silent! Can you remotely turn down GPU fan speed manually?

 

[WillSK]

Yeah just make sure that you're power consumption is around 50-60% of the max on the PSU as i believe this is when they are most efficient and quietest. i.e i have a 750w PSU but i could almost definitely run it on less. this very slight overkill prevents my psu getting hot and keeps it quiet.

GPU fans can be controlled easily with an app like MSI afterburner

I just felt that with your set up and no view to overclock, why spend money you don't have to on a custom waterloop (as sexy as they are) when fan tech etc. is all getting quieter