Something that i forgot to address, although it's not exactly about fans, but the lack there of instead.
Noctua is beginning production of their passive cpu cooler which was shown as a prototype back in 2019. Noctua never releases early, it's their tradition that they test products thoroughly before marketing them and by now i'm sure all the happy Noctua users can vouch for the Austrian brand's capability and reliability that also comes with a hefty 7 years warranty. The particular fanless cooler is targeted at 120w of heat dissipation in a fanless case and 180w with a case with silent fan(s) and decent airflow. I believe that this is a product of massive significance for professional and enthusiast DAW users. I have to say the price on this will NOT be cheap, but for those in a constant pursuit of silence that was always marred by "subpar" -or less capable if you like- products, this will enhance their "digital life". If all goes well, i expect the product to hit the market in spring time.
Some more info on this:

• 12x 1.5mm aluminium fins
• Six copper heatpipes
• Copper heatsink
• Weight: 1.5Kg
• Performance: targets 120W in fanless case or 180W with quiet case fan in cooler vicinity
• Good PCIe clearance
• 100 per cent RAM compatibility on modern motherboards
• Bundled with NT-H2 thermal compound

Cheers

 

Last edited: Jan 28, 2021

Oooohhh... I LIKE this! No doubt it will be massive seller for those who want as silent as possible!

 

Seen this?
https://www.monsterlabo.com/the-beast

 

Let me tell you my brief story...
2 months ago I upgraded my old PC that was using a rather noisy CPU fan (but I was used to it for 10 years), got a new PC with Noctua fans for case & CPU.
And then my nightmare started...
As the previous noisy CPU fan disappeared, more background noises from the house became more apparent which certainly didn't help when trying to build a new "silent" PC (by "silent" meaning as silent as possible, fan = noise)...
Long story short, I spent about a week of paranoia trying to make the new pc noiseless, trying all kinds of configurations, 2 slower fans on cpu, 1 higher rpm fan on cpu, changing cases, changing push/pull air configurations etc etc etc.
What was the result? I developed a serious case of tinnitus & hyperacusis because of this paranoia for silence which has not subsided yet. And I never managed to solve the noise problem because again, fan = noise, no matter what...

The ultimate solution to this issue once and for all with the least amount of effort AND money: MOVE THE PC TO ANOTHER ROOM AND RETAIN YOUR SANITY! I ended up spending a shit-ton of money on coolers-fans-cases + tinnitus/hyperacusis whereas I could have spent half or less money and be healthy...

 

Cool! (pun not intended but still funny). And if it doesn't work on your rig you can still use it as a cutting-edge paperweight.

 

Last edited: Jan 28, 2021

If you are an enthusiast, I understand why it's important to you, but personally, I would just go for a few big fans (set at low RPM) from a respected company, like Noctua, for example, and didn't bother too much.

Here's a recent and very interesting video from a guy who mixed Nick Johnston's Remarkably Human album. It's funny how details like that might not matter at all.

 

Hey, how are you ?
Oh i love this hehehe but here's the thing. I do remember the other case called "The First" from this Belgian company reviewed in LinusTechTips 2 years ago. But, as you can clearly see on the website, this is still not an actual released product yet, but on pre-order instead. So i think, wtf, ok let's see, and i quickly jump to their online shop to find out the Beast case with its accessories costs... 750 euros man. This represents the max cost of what most peeps here can afford for a whole pc and half the cost of a really decent one. I mean thnx but no matter if this thing works as advertised, the cost is prohibiting.
Cheers

 

You're no fun bro. Look at that massive fancy-ass thing!
Cool. And if it doesn't work out you can use it as a cutting-edge... brick?
And if they finally don't even launch it... mmm... ahem... let's see... paper-launch-weight?
Ok, I guess you could say that last one was pun intended

 

Yeah tell me about it huh ? Fucking old fart finds flaws in everything.
I can't remember who said " the older you get the more you want and at the same time you get less wanted"... hahaha.
Seriously speaking though, just a month ago, the Beast prototype was in this stage:

If you watched the video and visited the website, you can see that the finished product as shown in the "photos" is just a 3D design, not an actual photo of an existing product. So i seriously doubt they are about to start shipping anytime soon...
Laters mate :D

 

So imagine me, an old fuck, even worse
Now seriously, seems like they are in trouble. But even if they managed to pull that off, 6,5 kilos only the main heatsink?
On the other hand, advertising and selling pre-orders of non-existing products seems to be fashionable in these days. But at least the others seem to have made a whooping few dozens for the tech influencers reviews.

 

I am fine , just saying, I love the idea to have a high power passive computer.
And with The First they showed that they've gone beyond prerelease.
Years ago I wrote them and asked them if they plan to create a full ATX instaed onb teh mini atx (the first) version.
They told me that they are working on it , and now we have a prereleased high TDP full atx prerelease.
I call that promising

How do you call this a photo:

https://www.monsterlabo.com/page-d-articles/my-first-time-ryzen-5-3600-5600xt

 

Last edited: Jan 28, 2021

If i build a prototype case (which i sort of have btw, didn't go as planned lol, but that's another story) it doesn't mean that more than 1 people can actually buy it. On paper though, it can be sold to thousands, and to answer my friend @Xupito too many times we 've seen crowd funded tech to be praised and have thousands of backers only to arrive to them 2 or 3 years later! (Which in the tech world means 2 or 3 generations later, which in its turn makes a good tech product for the time it was purchased, being sort of obsolete by the time it arrived to the end user).
What the dude does is simple: He builds a prototype and if he gets let's say, 1000 sold, then he puts the parts on "print" in China or wherever, assembles the cases in his own lab with the help of a few others i guess, and sends them off to the buyers.
You can clearly see from my post that i 've watched the videos. I told you i love the idea too, didn't i.
But that case on the video is a prototype bro and it's definitely not for sale and not even a fully operational prototype to be exact and i 'll explain why. Btw, if you 've read any sort of disclaimers before, the actual product might be similar or not look like that at all. And to prove what i am saying, just watch the video named "The Beast EP.03". If you pay attention, you will see that the motherboard is facing top down (as i indicate with red) with the backplate being actually inside looking down and no way to access the ports on it. He doesn't need those ports for his cooling demonstration purposes, but just from experience and common sense, an actual working case product needs to have the backplate either facing back or up top (inverted mode as in the Silverstone Raven case for example). And you can also clearly notice that there is no backplate opening on the case he uses neither in the back nor on the top of the case:

But, in their e-shop the 3D pic clearly shows a backplate opening:

As shown in the picture i took, in its current state the case is pretty much unusable, unless you expect people who pay 750 euros for a pc case, to have it open 24/7 and take out their ssds/hdds in order to plug a usb cable lol. When the case on the vids starts to look like the one on the 3D graph shown in the e-shop, then i 'll start considering it as an actual product. Nuff said i guess hehehe.
Cheers mate.

 

Last edited: Jan 29, 2021

Personally me and many others for Audio, Graphics, and specially for Video editing ( loud GPU fans)
Have switched to cabinet located PC's or behind wall setups.

My current setup has the Video editing PC ( Mainly Video only) and the Everyday PC ( Audio Graphics and Video)
behind a wall which is in the furnace room. I have a KVM switch in the other room where I am to switch between PC's
I made a panel access door on the wall to bring all the wires into the second room wall to a Desk up against the wall in the second room ( the peace quiet room!!)

You need a KVM switch that supports your PC video outputs ( HDMI or VGA)
You need USB extension cables to support your devices ( I have 2 cables for each PC)
You also need whatever other extentions you need
In my case each PC has a PCie capture card and also HDMI out from the main video card so 3 HDMI cables for each PC
Ethernet Wires also come into this room where a switch setups up everything together.
I have also 2 Firewire cables ( one for each PC for Firewire devices hookup)

From the quiet room I can capture video, edit video, render on one edit on the other, Audio on one Graphics on the other, be online while the other Renders Video or Audio etc.

This eliminated all Fan noises ( specially the GPU throttle up and down fans!!!)
This desk does some Iphone repairs on a Microscope so I need super quiet noise for Audio/ Guitar jams and for SANITY lol.

This weird setup allows up to 4 PC's running behind a wall in another room with all the cables on the other side in a quiet room. I can switch from any of them and hook up anything to USB on the extensions that each one has.

Not everyone can do this, but for those who do SERENITY NOW...INSANITY LATER.

 

Have you even watched their videos ? There you can see it that it is real.
Anyways what are we laking about ?
What is is you point ?

My Point is: Interesting Case,I like to see more.

Never mind

 

Have you read what i wrote ? But you are right, no point in further talking, anyway i'd like to see more of this too, so agreed.

 

yea proberlly could remove some of the fans and still be fine as my pc is also custom liquid cooled.
set ups dead silent and runs at max 30 degress everything overclocked to the limits so im good.
ryzan 5950x at 5 ghz 2.1ghz 3080

 

Last edited: Jan 31, 2021

I had been prototyping a PC rack case for a quiet audio PC about 10 years ago, even planned to start a company specialised in quiet audio computers, but the lack of funding stopped me. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I particularly paid attention and spent a lot of time experimenting with fans and cooling performance, and lowering the noise as much as possible. What my findings were is this: the lowest noise can be achieved with fans creating a perfect pass-through of the outside/front air, or having just a good, noiseless, great CFM, big exhaust fan [120-140mm]. Also of note is that you get the best results when the case is completely closed, with only 2 fan holes, one at the front left and one in the back right, and a PWM controlled PSU fan can do the exhaust work.

This Fractal Design Define R5 case is one of the best I've seen to actually do exactly that. Put 2 of the same 140mm PWM controlled fans at the front and back, same speed, one low rpm fan of any kind but quiet on the CPU cooler, buy a 600+ W 0 RPM mode power supply like Corsair TX or RM, 0 RPM VGA with 2 80mm fans, and you've done the best you can regarding the airflow for quiet computing.

Creating positive pressure gives a slightly better results regarding cooling everything inside the case, but you get more noise since the exhaust fan gets to work harder thus creating more noise, so especially putting 2 120-140mm intake fans is a complete no-no for silence. Also, the difference in temperature is absolutely not worth it.

With such a good case, you can even get away quite nicely with only having a quiet 140mm PWM 400-1200rpm exhaust fan, actually, but the case have to be completely sealed [not the front grilles, obviously]. Having a completely sealed case is desirable in any case [pun not intended ], actually. So seal up those holes in the back, as they do absolutely nothing except lowering the air pressure in the case and letting the additional noise get away through them.

Just my 2p.

Cheers!

 

Last edited: Feb 19, 2021

update on the topic:

I unplugged bottom intake and lower front intake fan, so right now it's only 1x 14cm intake front upper and 1x 14cm exhaust at back, some holes on the bottom and back case taped by gafftape,

temps didn't increase noticeably but noise is noticeably lower - I also lowered the cpu cooler (NH-U14S with its 14cm fan) speeds to low 500's and results are nice - although definitely not as silent as my MacMini 2014 lying on the desk...

next step will be probably using Noctua's 4-pin low noise adapters on my 3-pin fans (I googled out it should work) on top of voltage-controlling fans by mobo bios, dropping case fans as low rpm as possible while maintaining reasonably useful airflow at idle stages

 

is there a good commercial quality soundset (Kontakt/WAV/etc) of computer fan and hard drive noises? It's good if they are round robin, don't want them to sound looped.