changing stock fans on 650D + H80

I currently have the following set-up :

- Corsair Obsidian 650D case

- Corsair Hydro H80 Cooler

- Asus P8Z68-V Intel Z68

- Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 6970 2048MB GDDR5

- Intel Core i7-2600K @3.40GHz / stock (not planning to OC at this stage as my CPU is not the bottleneck for the games I play)

- Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB

 

ISSUE:

My Gf is always complaining about the noise of the PC when I'm playing next to her when she watches tv. The couch she's on is maybe 1-1.5 meter from the case.

The truth is, at full loads when I play BF3 at max settings, the PC is kind of competing with my hoover

I have pushed the button on top of the H80 as it was set to the 2nd position and I set it to the 1st positions, but it didn't change much noise-wise in fairness.

I am looking for an alternative CPU cooler that is as quiet as possible and compatible with my set-up.

Budget is €50-60

 

Any suggestions ? I don't care at this stage to have a closed water cooler or an air cooler. I am quite disappointed with the noise of the H80. Also If you can recommend a great thermal paste, I could use advice on that.

 

Thanks very much !

After spending about 300$ on Fans.. I finally found the right ones. I HIGHLY SUGGEST you check out Noctua NF-S12A PWM - 120MM Premium Fan.

 

I went through every fan in the book. Nothing can hold a candle to these bad boys with or without the resistor.

 

If someone finds a fan quieter than this one please tell me. I will pay $$$ for it.

 

You could also slap some resistors on your current lines and get quiet for a cheap fix but you will sacrifice some heat issues. If you got 60$ check out what I said. Unfortunately on my machine I got a Thermal Take Extreme 2.0 with 4x XIGMATEK fans and its quiet as a churchmouse I was a XIGMATEK fanboy until I seen the Noctua's in action. Both are expensive fans. I am utilizing the Xigmatek's with resistors even and im still able to overclock to 4.8~5.0 stable and totally undercontrol. Unfortunately none of these companies offer great software behind these automatic CPU coolers. Thermal Takes sucks even worse than Corsairs - Someones gotta get in there and write some good software for WIN8 - Stupid win8 is so much different then win7... stupid....

Keep your fans and spend $20-$30 on a 5.25" fan controller. Your running stock anyways you can turn those h80 fans way down. Just saw your running a 6970. Its probably your GPU making way more noise than any other fan in your case.

thanks both for your comments.

what about the cases fans ? any suggestions ? i think they are 200mm each for the front and top one... And by the way how can i know how to mount them in order to respect the internal air flow ?

and finally, any recomandations for a 5.25 fan controller ?

Thanks !

I ran this controller with an h60 in a 600t. Controlled both my rad fans, top and front fans.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811998063

 

For fans your best bet is spectre or spectre pros. Seeing as you want silence I'd go with the spectre. The angle of its fins help pull through the front filter as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835345003

They come in any different colour led also. I used a spectre pro in front and regular spectre in top so the front pushed some extra cfm to support the h60 in exhaust.