PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

Have any of you guys tried liquid cooling systems?

What are you views on the best quiet/cooling systems or both?

Thanks.

unless you are recording the most delicate sounds possible, the current computers are pretty darned quiet. quiet fans help as does using ssds(hard drive noise is the biggest offender). water cooling helps, but even stock cooling is more than quiet enough for most work.

The liquid cooling system I'm using has 3 fans to cool the radiator and a pump to drive the coolant and is unfortunately plenty noisy.
I think I'd prefer a good cpu fan and a 230mm case fan and have the noise contained in the computer case, I remember that being quieter

My tower fans were really old and sounding horrible, so I recently replaced with these guys:
ARCTIC F8 Silent - Ultra-Quiet 80 mm Case Fan
ARCTIC F9 PWM - 92 mm PWM Case Fan
ARCTIC F12 Silent - Ultra-Quiet 120 mm Case Fan

With the fans and the SSD, my music pc is really quiet. I don't get annoyed or distracted by random pc sounds anymore.
Not overclocking or anything so they've been enough.

Im using only "be quiet" fans cpu cooler and power supply. That's the best for me.

If you don't build for bleeding edge performance, systems today are pretty quiet in general.

I am enamoured with the idea of a low power scope system based on a board that will last 10 years, we're getting so close to the end of what we know of for silicon that the performance difference between this system vs. 10 years from now will be so much less than the 2001 era scope machine I have and a modern system, and it's amazing how much that old box can still do for audio!

I recently upgraded my old Scope machine and bought a new silent ATX case:

https://www.nzxt.com/products/h440-white (I paid 100€ for it on sale)

It is very silent but still very efficient because of the 4 fans in there. The only thing I hear now are the old HDD's and my GFX when gaming

I'm coming in late on the conversation but this topic is near and dear to my heart. Even more so now because I'm taking an A+ hardware certification class at my local community college. The text book I bought for the class is a most excellent resource for all things hardware related. I would recommend it without reservation if it wasn't for the price (new >$100). Anyway, CPU cooling and power supplies are a current topic. The liquid cooling solutions were originally there for the gamer crowd who like to overclock. Seems like it has taken the old school fan guys a while to catch up but there are now nearly silent fans out there that rival liquid cooling in terms of noise floor and cooling efficiency. I have a stock Intel fan on my i5 (Haswell) CPU and even THAT is very quiet. I remember having to put my computer inside a soundproof box. Those days are over. My PC is a rack-mount affair sitting right next to me at my mix station. I can't hear it unless I stick my ear right up to the case and that includes a front panel fan drawing air into the case. I don't know what your tolerance is for this sort of thing but I record in the vicinity of the computer all the time with no ill effects. The artist makes more noise than the computer lolol

Regarding power supplies. Do you guys ever take stock of the wattage requirements of your entire PC system? Ever added up the numbers? You'd be surprised how fast they add up. I have a 650 watt PS in my system. I bought it originally with no math. Just blind faith it would be enough. Seems to be ok but something in the textbook caught my attention. You're supposed to be buying a PS that has excess capacity. There are reasons for that. Normally you'd want an extra 30-50% headroom. I found out after adding up all the bits and pieces that I was right at the max capacity of my system. One of the "signs" of an under-powered system are random and unexplainable bugs. Weird graphics anomalies, Just things happening for no good reason. Take a good hard look at your power supply. The motherboard with CPU and memory runs as high as 300 watts. The graphics card is another resource hog (can be as high as the mobo). Then the drives and fans. You might not be over but you would be pushing the efficiency of the PS. The newer units have a >80% efficiency. Some as high as 90%. I'm not saying this is a cure-all for everything that ails ya but it would be worth considering. I'm upgrading to a 1000 watt unit.