So, since cheap computer parts is happening soon, is there anything that would be worth upgrading from my Xeon E3-1230 for? My best understanding is that it's (more or less) equivalent to the i7 2600, which is alongside every other recent Intel processor at the top of the Tom's Hardware gaming CPU hierarchy. I just find it difficult to believe that nothing has been placed a higher hierarchy level during the past 3.5 years.
If you absolutely *need* the beefiest processor (without pushing over the $1k price point), the new batch of i7 Extremes are probably what you're going to end up looking at. Basically, something like this processor should remove any CPU bottlenecks you might run into for the foreseeable future.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
+1
Options
Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
Does anyone happen to know what part prices are like in Canada compared to the US and the UK? Since I have some bad video card problems I was thinking about making some... upgrades. Maybe throw a hot new nvidia card and an i7 at this bad boy. Treat him right.
An easy way to compare is pick out what you are looking for on pcpartpicker.com, then just put a "ca." at the beginning of your build url. I think that should work. Or at least I think that's what I've been doing
There's an even simpler way. There's a drop-down currency selection box at the top right of the screen on pcpartpicker. When you select the currency relevant to you, the whole selection of parts is filtered to your countries suppliers and prices. It's quite depressing to build a system before remembering to switch it to Australian dollars and then see that apparently half the components are straight up not stocked at all by any store in the whole country.
Hey computer build thread.
I did it. I built my first pc. It took me all day and i'm very proud.
Couple of questions though.
My Case pretty much didn't allow for very tidy cables, so i tried to get them all across to one place without blocking any fans. So far so good.
But my cooler that i put in is a CoolerMaster Blizzard T2 with heat pipes. The only way to get a couple of particular cables to not cross over the fans for it was to run them underneath, near some of the heat pipes. Is this fine? There's nothing in the manual that says anything like "don't let cables touch heat pipes" or anything and i can't find anything online, but i do worry that it'll suddenly melt or catch fire or something.
Secondly all of my fans (gpu, cpu, main fan) point downwards with the exception of the rear end fan. Is this fine too? I don't have any other fans to use (or space to put it!). I followed the digital foundry pc stuff for everything except my cooler (the stock one was rubbish) so hopefully it'll all be fine?
Anxiety getting the better of me perhaps but tips would be appreciated!
Thanks,
-Quical
NNID: Quical
STEAM: Quical
Check out my youtube channel, maybe subscribe?: NerdAndOrGeek
Eh, depends if you want ALL THE FPS or just run the game at 30 and be happy. If you want the best, yeah, you'll need a better CPU and a graphics card. And things are changing, as mentioned. They're pushing quadcores on us.
Quick follow-up on my earlier questions re: my new build: are fans (other than the one attached to the water cooling) usually included with the case, or are they something I'd have to get in addition to the components discussed earlier?
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
"Most" cases include a few fans, but they also include more mounting points than fans to fill them. If you want more than 3'ish give or take you'll need to get more. You shouldn't NEED any more fans, though.
Yeah your cables should be fine. I just stuffed the extra bit of cable for the fan on my cooler up under the radiator near the heat pipes. And I've done the exact thing you're talking about with my old case that had terrible cable management space.
As far as the airflow, which case do you have specifically? Ideally you want to intake from the front of the case and exhaust out the back and/or top. You want to be moving air front to back and slightly up, or from bottom to top and slightly back. So having your fans all pointed down is not a great solution. Make sure you have your CPU cooler situated so that its blowing air directly at the fan on the back of the case like here: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-Blizzard-T2-CPU-Cooler-Review/1847/4
And you say that the main fan is pointed down? Are you talking about your main intake case fan? You should definitely move that to the front of the case.
Computer Build Thread, I need your wisdom. This seems like such an easy question, but I don't want to fry my shit.
I'm trying to give my PC a graphics update on the cheap. The card I'm looking at requires a 300W PSU with 20A on the 12V rail. These are my PSU's specs. Do the 12VA and 12VB combine to exceed this requirement or am I totally off here? I'm just trying to get a ~$100 or less card without a PSU upgrade, and I pretty just play WoW and Steam games.
Check out the PSU I linked above. The short answer is "No." The manufacturers essentially install two separate 12V stepdown transformers (I'm sure I've got the nomenclature wrong) to provide two separate 12V supplies.
Games aren't very CPU bound in general (stupid DA:I/CoD:AW quadcore bullshit...), so I'd go with Tom's conclusions.
People keep telling me that, then I upgrade my CPU and suddenly my framerate is improved/more consistent. It depends on the game. The games I've been playing a lot of recently are certainly pegging out on the CPU long before they do the GPU, even at 2560x1440. In Warframe I don't even go above 60% GPU usage. 60 FPS makes Rose an unhappy person
Edit: And I just checked out Guild Wars 2. I'm hitting 50% GPU usage at 2560x1440 with super sampling turned on. I'm running the game at 5k and still CPU bound.
keep in mind that MMOs are inherently CPU-bound based on the way they're coded. most singleplayer games aren't CPU-bound*
*unless you count ubisoft's new releases with extremely shitty coding
curly haired boy on
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
so I was going to get an ASUS Strix gtx 970 4gb for 350, but amazon sold out of that too quickly before I could get it, so my family ordered a $409 by accident. what's another brand that's just as good that'll fall in the $350 price mark? there's a gigabyte version on newegg for $350 with 1 free game, would that be just as good?
So, my build I planned to do back in the summer has been shelved...all the way to Cyber Monday.
Honestly, I haven't really modified my selection that much in half a year time. I'm replacing a EVGA 780i from six years ago with a pair of GTX470 SLI (that'll be my last experiment with SLI). A decent number of the parts came recommended a few computer build threads ago, so I'd like to think they hold up..maybe I should grab that Crucial M550 that's on a 24-hour-deal for $80 less, so I'll have both my 512 GB M4 and that to rely on for most of my gaming needs.
Probably top that off with a copy of Windows 8 Pro, 64-bit, and maybe another monitor--I'm one of those plebians who's happy with 1080p, though I am more interested in touch-screen options for daily at my desk. Mostly I'm wondering if the 4 months since I first planned this build have changed anything--particularly my video card options. I want something in the power range of a GTX 780 (I won't be running SLI, that's a pain-in-the-ass I'm going to avoid from now on I think), and in that general budget, perhaps a little lower.
Any recommendations would be much appreciated. I'm going with NCIX because they were so warmly recommended (at this forum no less), and you can get some pretty good deals/price-matching (or at least you could in the past).
Games aren't very CPU bound in general (stupid DA:I/CoD:AW quadcore bullshit...), so I'd go with Tom's conclusions.
People keep telling me that, then I upgrade my CPU and suddenly my framerate is improved/more consistent. It depends on the game. The games I've been playing a lot of recently are certainly pegging out on the CPU long before they do the GPU, even at 2560x1440. In Warframe I don't even go above 60% GPU usage. 60 FPS makes Rose an unhappy person
Edit: And I just checked out Guild Wars 2. I'm hitting 50% GPU usage at 2560x1440 with super sampling turned on. I'm running the game at 5k and still CPU bound.
keep in mind that MMOs are inherently CPU-bound based on the way they're coded. most singleplayer games aren't CPU-bound*
*unless you count ubisoft's new releases with extremely shitty coding
I was with you in thinking this until fairly recently. But I am beginning to come around and now that Dragon Age Inquisition is out, and I see that it address and uses all 12 of my threads... I think we're going to see many more games that can benefit from a strong CPU; especially console ports, and even those that are well code, not simply that Ubisoft junk.
I mean the psu fan. Sadly my Case doesnt have a front fan but all temperatures seem fine so far. My cpu fan had two options. Up towards the psu (pointless) or down towards... Down. My graphics Card only fit one way. Right at the bottom. Though that also is doing fine temp-wise. Everything is looking dandy I must say. Although it's not registering a "system fan" as moving. I guess because I didn't buy a spare fan? I definitely plugged SOMETHING on to the "sys fan" pin. Nothing seems to be not working however and temperatures are around 20-25c.
NNID: Quical
STEAM: Quical
Check out my youtube channel, maybe subscribe?: NerdAndOrGeek
I have the STRIX and its fantastic, that said the Gigabyte is supposed to be the "best" performer in that you're able to overclock it a little further. The Gigabyte card is pretty long though, so if space is an issue (and it might be) you could look into grabbing the MSI version.
I have the STRIX and its fantastic, that said the Gigabyte is supposed to be the "best" performer in that you're able to overclock it a little further. The Gigabyte card is pretty long though, so if space is an issue (and it might be) you could look into grabbing the MSI version.
overclocking isn't much of a concern, and i'll measure but i should have the space for it. what's fantastic about the STRIX that would warrant me waiting for it to become available again at the $350 price point?
I have the STRIX and its fantastic, that said the Gigabyte is supposed to be the "best" performer in that you're able to overclock it a little further. The Gigabyte card is pretty long though, so if space is an issue (and it might be) you could look into grabbing the MSI version.
overclocking isn't much of a concern, and i'll measure but i should have the space for it. what's fantastic about the STRIX that would warrant me waiting for it to become available again at the $350 price point?
I went with the STRIX over the Gigabyte and MSI versions because I've had better experiences with Asus products. I also like that it has a back plate and is mostly metal, which is something I think the MSI lacks, and that its fans dont spin until 60c (which is higher than I'd like, but I really wanted a quieter computer and the STRIX got me that).
Honestly, I didnt spend too much time looking at the Gigabyte since I knew it wouldnt fit in my case (Define R3) and I was looking for a quiet card (the Gigabyte isnt loud per se but its not as quiet as the Asus or MSI offerings). If supply wasnt limited and I didnt have any brand loyalties, and the Gigabyte could fit in my case I wouldnt have had an issue going with any of them.
EDIT: Theyre all going to perform about the same which is really what makes the card fantastic, but the added quietness and perceived build quality really sold me on the Asus.
would a 600w PSU be enough for an i5 2500k and that gigabyte card?
Definitely.
awesome, good to know. now to decide whether to get that card (it fits, but i''m worried about it possibly bending because it's so big) or an MSI one
You know, I never thought about the card bending due to length. I've just gotten so used to cases where the motherboard is rotated 90-degrees that the idea never crossed my mind.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
It's not uncommon for big cards to sag a little bit in the PCI slot. While disconcerting at first and certainly a bit unsightly, I've never experienced or heard of it doing any harm.
Also, if I can't find a GTX 780, could someone recommend another good GPU for a new setup? The GTX 970 is very popular, but I'm wondering about the power difference between the GTX 780 and a newer chipset (but I think lower end) GTX 970.
Go 970 because we're getting to the point that you're gonna want more VRAM and the 900 series has more.
Like, I'm kinda thinking of dumping my 780 Ti because 3GB is limiting me in some games already.
Thank you, that makes sense--I really haven't followed these sort of things for a long time, so I wasn't aware of that. There's a $150 gap between the GTX 970 and 980....I want to assume that wouldn't be worth, and that might be better put into something else.
I think the general consensus is that the 980 is definitely better, but not $150 better.
I'm coming from a 6-year-old motherboard with two GTX 470 cards in SLI, so I'm open to making that jump...but I'm really not playing anything at 4K (at most, I might want a dual-monitor 1080p setup when possible).
Go 970 because we're getting to the point that you're gonna want more VRAM and the 900 series has more.
Like, I'm kinda thinking of dumping my 780 Ti because 3GB is limiting me in some games already.
Yeah, VRAM is definitely an important thing to consider when card shopping. I made sure to get the Superclocked 4GB variant of the 670 when I last bought a set of GPUs for my desktop and that decision has paid off in spades. I'm still not 100% sold on upgrading them just because they're carrying on like fucking troopers even when loading up Star Citizen at triple screen resolutions.
How tough are liquid cooling builds at this point? Not saying that I'm necessarily going to attempt one, but I'm always curious as to how practical mostly fan free builds are. I have a vague desire to one day have a silent rig.
You're never gonna go fan free because even liquid cooling builds need fans on the radiators. What you can do is pump the coolant outside the case and then use a gigantic radiator with large, slow-spinning fans so that they're spinning so slow you can't really hear them. At that point though, the PC's kind of immobile and unwieldy.
I mean, liquid cooling builds can get pretty silent in general, but honestly it's mostly up to the case choice. I snagged a NZXT H440 and I know the Define R4 is also really good for it. When my PC is on, even gaming, I can barely hear a thing. I have one of those all-in-one CPU coolers that has a 120mm radiator and other than that, all fan cooling. I have 2 up top, 2 in front, and one on the bottom, then the radiator fan on the back grill, and even with all that (because of how the case is made) basically no fan noise gets to me.
You're never gonna go fan free because even liquid cooling builds need fans on the radiators. What you can do is pump the coolant outside the case and then use a gigantic radiator with large, slow-spinning fans so that they're spinning so slow you can't really hear them. At that point though, the PC's kind of immobile and unwieldy.
Put the radiator on the roof like some sort of residential keel cooler. 100% fan free at that point!
On a serious note, yeah, you pretty much can't avoid using fans but with a good case and low dB fans you can get things pretty silent. If you want to loop your graphics card in with your CPU liquid cooling that can be a bit of a project but closed loop CPU coolers are super easy to install and work really damn well. I god damn adore my Corsair H100.
How tough are liquid cooling builds at this point? Not saying that I'm necessarily going to attempt one, but I'm always curious as to how practical mostly fan free builds are. I have a vague desire to one day have a silent rig.
A truly silent PC is basically a pipe dream unless you invest in specific fans and an extremely well insulated case. Even a custom loop watercooling setup will still have radiator fans and pumps chugging away.
You can reduce PC noise without going too crazy price wise by looking into insulated cases, noise dampening foam, quiet fans, or even cases with larger fan mounts (a larger fan can move more air at lower RPMs, which makes it quieter). A fan controller will allow you to adjust the speed of your case fans depending on how warm your PC is (higher/noisier when gaming, lower/quieter when web browsing or watching video) either automatically using internal thermal sensors or manually.
If you want to dick around with liquid cooling closed loop CPU kits are pretty cheap now ($60 to $100) and super easy to install. Check the reviews though, some models come with loud fans that are best replaced if you want to keep the noise level down (I need to replace the SP120 that came with my H60 because at load it sounds like a fucking vacuum). Liquid cooling your GPU is a little but more involved.
Which reminds me, My H60 is currently running in pull as exhaust because Corsair doesn't package full length screws with their radiators. I know which screws I need to buy, but I'd like to replace the SP120 that came with it and get two fans for push/pull. Which static pressure fans are people recommending these days that are powerful but decently quiet at full load?
As a side note, it's normally fairly warm inside, but the other day I accidentally left the heat off and my window open, so when I got home from work I was looking at a CPU that was over 30 degrees colder than I was:
0
Options
Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
(I need to replace the SP120 that came with my H60 because at load it sounds like a fucking vacuum). Liquid cooling your GPU is a little but more involved.
Which reminds me, My H60 is currently running in pull as exhaust because Corsair doesn't package full length screws with their radiators. I know which screws I need to buy, but I'd like to replace the SP120 that came with it and get two fans for push/pull. Which static pressure fans are people recommending these days that are powerful but decently quiet at full load?
Uhh, that's really weird. My H100 came with two stock Corsair PWM fans and I found them to be a smidge loud, so I replaced them with two of the high-flow version of the SP120, and they're as close to silent as I've ever heard a fan be in my life, so I would definitely suggest the SP120 fans...
Posts
If you absolutely *need* the beefiest processor (without pushing over the $1k price point), the new batch of i7 Extremes are probably what you're going to end up looking at. Basically, something like this processor should remove any CPU bottlenecks you might run into for the foreseeable future.
There's an even simpler way. There's a drop-down currency selection box at the top right of the screen on pcpartpicker. When you select the currency relevant to you, the whole selection of parts is filtered to your countries suppliers and prices. It's quite depressing to build a system before remembering to switch it to Australian dollars and then see that apparently half the components are straight up not stocked at all by any store in the whole country.
I did it. I built my first pc. It took me all day and i'm very proud.
Couple of questions though.
My Case pretty much didn't allow for very tidy cables, so i tried to get them all across to one place without blocking any fans. So far so good.
But my cooler that i put in is a CoolerMaster Blizzard T2 with heat pipes. The only way to get a couple of particular cables to not cross over the fans for it was to run them underneath, near some of the heat pipes. Is this fine? There's nothing in the manual that says anything like "don't let cables touch heat pipes" or anything and i can't find anything online, but i do worry that it'll suddenly melt or catch fire or something.
Secondly all of my fans (gpu, cpu, main fan) point downwards with the exception of the rear end fan. Is this fine too? I don't have any other fans to use (or space to put it!). I followed the digital foundry pc stuff for everything except my cooler (the stock one was rubbish) so hopefully it'll all be fine?
Anxiety getting the better of me perhaps but tips would be appreciated!
Thanks,
-Quical
STEAM: Quical
Check out my youtube channel, maybe subscribe?: NerdAndOrGeek
"Nothing is gonna save us forever but a lot of things can save us today." - Night in the Woods
STEAM: Quical
Check out my youtube channel, maybe subscribe?: NerdAndOrGeek
Yeah your cables should be fine. I just stuffed the extra bit of cable for the fan on my cooler up under the radiator near the heat pipes. And I've done the exact thing you're talking about with my old case that had terrible cable management space.
As far as the airflow, which case do you have specifically? Ideally you want to intake from the front of the case and exhaust out the back and/or top. You want to be moving air front to back and slightly up, or from bottom to top and slightly back. So having your fans all pointed down is not a great solution. Make sure you have your CPU cooler situated so that its blowing air directly at the fan on the back of the case like here: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-Blizzard-T2-CPU-Cooler-Review/1847/4
And you say that the main fan is pointed down? Are you talking about your main intake case fan? You should definitely move that to the front of the case.
http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemail/Nov-0-2014/FlashSale-BlkNv-23/index-landing23.html?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=IGNEFL112314&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL112314&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL112314-_-index-_-Header-_-SeeAll&et_cid=13270&et_rid=191380&et_p1=
Check out the PSU I linked above. The short answer is "No." The manufacturers essentially install two separate 12V stepdown transformers (I'm sure I've got the nomenclature wrong) to provide two separate 12V supplies.
keep in mind that MMOs are inherently CPU-bound based on the way they're coded. most singleplayer games aren't CPU-bound*
*unless you count ubisoft's new releases with extremely shitty coding
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
Honestly, I haven't really modified my selection that much in half a year time. I'm replacing a EVGA 780i from six years ago with a pair of GTX470 SLI (that'll be my last experiment with SLI). A decent number of the parts came recommended a few computer build threads ago, so I'd like to think they hold up..maybe I should grab that Crucial M550 that's on a 24-hour-deal for $80 less, so I'll have both my 512 GB M4 and that to rely on for most of my gaming needs.
A Fractal Design R4 Black ATX Case--very happy with what I've seen of this one.
An EVGA GTX 780 3GB--I like EVGA for its lifetime coverage and software support, but I may have to replace this if it doesn't come back into stock.
EVGA 750 G2 Power Supply--not really married to this one, but it's well recommended
ASUS 797 GA1150--again, highly recommended, though I wanted an EVGA mother board, if someone knows of a better one
Intel i5 670K Unlocked Quad Core 3.4GHZ--I really wouldn't need an i7, though I hope 3.4 is enough considering I can't overclock CPUs worth a damn.
Corsair Vengeance Pro Black CMY8GX3M2A1866C9 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1866--it's ram. I'll probably buy 2 just so I can have 16 GB and never think about it again
Probably top that off with a copy of Windows 8 Pro, 64-bit, and maybe another monitor--I'm one of those plebians who's happy with 1080p, though I am more interested in touch-screen options for daily at my desk. Mostly I'm wondering if the 4 months since I first planned this build have changed anything--particularly my video card options. I want something in the power range of a GTX 780 (I won't be running SLI, that's a pain-in-the-ass I'm going to avoid from now on I think), and in that general budget, perhaps a little lower.
Any recommendations would be much appreciated. I'm going with NCIX because they were so warmly recommended (at this forum no less), and you can get some pretty good deals/price-matching (or at least you could in the past).
I was with you in thinking this until fairly recently. But I am beginning to come around and now that Dragon Age Inquisition is out, and I see that it address and uses all 12 of my threads... I think we're going to see many more games that can benefit from a strong CPU; especially console ports, and even those that are well code, not simply that Ubisoft junk.
STEAM: Quical
Check out my youtube channel, maybe subscribe?: NerdAndOrGeek
I have the STRIX and its fantastic, that said the Gigabyte is supposed to be the "best" performer in that you're able to overclock it a little further. The Gigabyte card is pretty long though, so if space is an issue (and it might be) you could look into grabbing the MSI version.
overclocking isn't much of a concern, and i'll measure but i should have the space for it. what's fantastic about the STRIX that would warrant me waiting for it to become available again at the $350 price point?
I went with the STRIX over the Gigabyte and MSI versions because I've had better experiences with Asus products. I also like that it has a back plate and is mostly metal, which is something I think the MSI lacks, and that its fans dont spin until 60c (which is higher than I'd like, but I really wanted a quieter computer and the STRIX got me that).
Honestly, I didnt spend too much time looking at the Gigabyte since I knew it wouldnt fit in my case (Define R3) and I was looking for a quiet card (the Gigabyte isnt loud per se but its not as quiet as the Asus or MSI offerings). If supply wasnt limited and I didnt have any brand loyalties, and the Gigabyte could fit in my case I wouldnt have had an issue going with any of them.
EDIT: Theyre all going to perform about the same which is really what makes the card fantastic, but the added quietness and perceived build quality really sold me on the Asus.
Definitely.
awesome, good to know. now to decide whether to get that card (it fits, but i''m worried about it possibly bending because it's so big) or an MSI one
You know, I never thought about the card bending due to length. I've just gotten so used to cases where the motherboard is rotated 90-degrees that the idea never crossed my mind.
What's the wisdom in upgrading to a GTX 970 (mostly for the additional VRAM over my GTX 770) and not say 2x R9 270X's?
Like, I'm kinda thinking of dumping my 780 Ti because 3GB is limiting me in some games already.
Thank you, that makes sense--I really haven't followed these sort of things for a long time, so I wasn't aware of that. There's a $150 gap between the GTX 970 and 980....I want to assume that wouldn't be worth, and that might be better put into something else.
I'm coming from a 6-year-old motherboard with two GTX 470 cards in SLI, so I'm open to making that jump...but I'm really not playing anything at 4K (at most, I might want a dual-monitor 1080p setup when possible).
Yeah, VRAM is definitely an important thing to consider when card shopping. I made sure to get the Superclocked 4GB variant of the 670 when I last bought a set of GPUs for my desktop and that decision has paid off in spades. I'm still not 100% sold on upgrading them just because they're carrying on like fucking troopers even when loading up Star Citizen at triple screen resolutions.
I mean, liquid cooling builds can get pretty silent in general, but honestly it's mostly up to the case choice. I snagged a NZXT H440 and I know the Define R4 is also really good for it. When my PC is on, even gaming, I can barely hear a thing. I have one of those all-in-one CPU coolers that has a 120mm radiator and other than that, all fan cooling. I have 2 up top, 2 in front, and one on the bottom, then the radiator fan on the back grill, and even with all that (because of how the case is made) basically no fan noise gets to me.
Put the radiator on the roof like some sort of residential keel cooler. 100% fan free at that point!
On a serious note, yeah, you pretty much can't avoid using fans but with a good case and low dB fans you can get things pretty silent. If you want to loop your graphics card in with your CPU liquid cooling that can be a bit of a project but closed loop CPU coolers are super easy to install and work really damn well. I god damn adore my Corsair H100.
STEAM: Quical
Check out my youtube channel, maybe subscribe?: NerdAndOrGeek
A truly silent PC is basically a pipe dream unless you invest in specific fans and an extremely well insulated case. Even a custom loop watercooling setup will still have radiator fans and pumps chugging away.
You can reduce PC noise without going too crazy price wise by looking into insulated cases, noise dampening foam, quiet fans, or even cases with larger fan mounts (a larger fan can move more air at lower RPMs, which makes it quieter). A fan controller will allow you to adjust the speed of your case fans depending on how warm your PC is (higher/noisier when gaming, lower/quieter when web browsing or watching video) either automatically using internal thermal sensors or manually.
If you want to dick around with liquid cooling closed loop CPU kits are pretty cheap now ($60 to $100) and super easy to install. Check the reviews though, some models come with loud fans that are best replaced if you want to keep the noise level down (I need to replace the SP120 that came with my H60 because at load it sounds like a fucking vacuum). Liquid cooling your GPU is a little but more involved.
Which reminds me, My H60 is currently running in pull as exhaust because Corsair doesn't package full length screws with their radiators. I know which screws I need to buy, but I'd like to replace the SP120 that came with it and get two fans for push/pull. Which static pressure fans are people recommending these days that are powerful but decently quiet at full load?
As a side note, it's normally fairly warm inside, but the other day I accidentally left the heat off and my window open, so when I got home from work I was looking at a CPU that was over 30 degrees colder than I was:
Uhh, that's really weird. My H100 came with two stock Corsair PWM fans and I found them to be a smidge loud, so I replaced them with two of the high-flow version of the SP120, and they're as close to silent as I've ever heard a fan be in my life, so I would definitely suggest the SP120 fans...