The great thing about PC building is that it is wonderfully inclusive. You can build a budget system for as cheap as you want, or take things to the extreme with an overkill rig that would put NASA to shame. PC enthusiasts are rarely satisfied with standard hardware, always striving to maximize performance, minimize temperatures, and eliminate as much noise as possible.
That last aspect is what I'll dive deeper into in this article. While there are multiple easy ways to build a silent PC, ranging from picking higher-quality components to optimizing fan curves, most builds can never get completely silent, unless you are willing to brave it out with a fanless PC. Eliminating fans inside a PC can result in absolute silence, but brings its own challenges. That said, if you begin with realistic expectations, a fanless PC could be one of your most successful projects.
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7 Pick a low-TDP processor
Attack the source
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To start eliminating fans from a PC, we need to start with the biggest source of heat and fan noise -- the CPU. Modern CPUs can get really toasty, as they are engineered to run at near-maximum power out of the box. With a TJMax of around 100°C, keeping a high-end processor cool often requires powerful aftermarket coolers. Whether you use air or liquid cooling, you are going to be dealing with multiple large fans that can get noisy under heavy loads.
One simple way to reduce dependency on a heavy-duty cooler is to pick a low-power CPU that doesn't get particularly hot, even at maximum power. Thanks to the thermal efficiency of several modern CPUs, you can achieve this without significantly hurting performance. Think of the 65W parts from AMD or Intel. However, you should not just pick a Ryzen 5 7600 or Ryzen 7 9700X, for example, even though they're both 65W chips. Since we are building a fanless PC, we don't have the option of going with a discrete graphics card. For that reason, an APU that has decent onboard graphics compared to that found on regular CPUs is probably the better option. APUs like the Ryzen 5 8600G or Ryzen 7 8700G from AMD offer great alternatives to a separate CPU and GPU.
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6 Use a passive CPU cooler
You'd be surprised what passive coolers can do
The whole point of opting for a low-power CPU is to eliminate fan noise from the cooler. While you can manage near silence with a budget air cooler, it is still no match for zero fans, which is what you get on a passive CPU cooler. In the absence of fans, passive coolers use their massive heatsinks to funnel the heat generated by the CPU via exhaust through the top of the case.
These coolers usually cost much more than air coolers or even AIO liquid coolers due to the higher manufacturing cost arising from the large heatsinks. You would have come across the Noctua NH-P1 passive cooler with its distinct chrome design, humongous size, but incredible cooling performance. For a 65W CPU, the NH-P1 will face no hiccups. Although it can handle loads of around 100W without things becoming challenging inside the case, the delta over the ambient temperature becomes a bit too much in those situations. Hence, it's best to keep the limits of passive cooling in mind.
Another neat way of achieving a passively cooled setup is to use a motherboard with the CPU socket on the back. Combining a large, vertically oriented, passive heatsink with such a reverse CPU socket allows ample room for the heat to rise and escape from the top of the case, unhindered by the rest of the components on the front side of the motherboard.
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5 Skip a discrete graphics card
You can do a lot with integrated graphics
As I mentioned in the CPU section, an APU is perhaps the best choice for a fanless PC, considering the system is not going to be used for heavy-duty workloads such as AAA gaming, intensive video editing, or other CPU and GPU-demanding applications. The onboard graphics on something like the Ryzen 5 8600G or Ryzen 7 8700G are impressively powerful for casual gaming, media consumption, and even light image and video editing.
You also have the option of an Intel CPU with onboard graphics, if all you need is an HTPC or media server. Although fanless graphics cards exist, they have been particularly rare in recent years. I can only recall the Palit KalmX models that the company made for GPUs like the GTX 1050, GTX 1650, and RTX 3050, unless you consider graphics cards the likes of the GT 710. Finding a decent fanless graphics card online might be difficult, but if you can grab a Palit KalmX RTX 3050 for a good price, I'd highly recommend it.
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4 Use DDR4 RAM for lower thermals
You don't always need ultra-fast DDR5 memory
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DDR5 RAM brought much-improved transfer speeds and onboard voltage regulation to PC memory, but the significantly higher frequencies and onboard PMIC meant that DDR5 RAM usually ran hotter than DDR4 RAM. This isn't a challenge for a regular build that has fresh cool air passing over the RAM modules, but in our fanless build, we need to keep RAM temperatures in mind.
Choosing DDR4 RAM in such a build contributes to comparatively lower memory temperatures, and since gaming or intensive productivity isn't a priority, the comparatively lower performance is hardly a downside. You could remove the stock heatsink on the modules, apply some thermal paste on the chips, and install an aftermarket heatsink to further reduce temperatures, but I'm not going down the DIY route for this build, limiting the recommendations to components you can buy and use as-is.
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3 Eliminate storage noise with an NVMe SSD
It's time to leave hard drives in the past
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Storage drives don't have fans, but moving parts inside them can still add a significant number of decibels to the system noise. However, this is only a concern on conventional hard drives, since SSDs do not have any moving parts, and hence, no noise. You could go with a 2.5-inch SATA SSD for this build, but considering the performance and prices of NVMe SSDs, there is no reason to avoid them.
Some NVMe SSDs might run hotter than SATA SSDs, but as long as it comes with a bundled heatsink or your motherboard has a spare, you are good to go. On a regular build, the airflow inside the case helps keep the thermals in check for components like NVMe drives, motherboard VRMs, and even the graphics card. While we do not have that luxury on our fanless build, the NVMe SSD and motherboard should operate in a comfortable thermal range regardless.
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2 Get a fanless PSU for total silence
Fanless means fanless, after all
Most silent PCs do not take things as far as eliminating PSU fans, but this is a fanless build after all, so we need to be comprehensive. Although many modern PSUs have a zero fan or silent mode, which is enough when the PC is under idle load, it is still possible to go one step further and get a fanless power supply, that too from reputable manufacturers, and without sacrificing wattage or performance.
Brands like Seasonic and Cooler Master have been putting out fanless power supplies in the last several years, and you can buy units rated from 600W to around 1300W. Again, these fanless PSUs might cost slightly more than the regular units, but that's something you need to be okay with on a build like this.
If you are unable to find a fanless PSU, you could still achieve silent operation with a regular unit, as long as the PC doesn't draw more than 30-50% of its rated capacity. That range is where a PSU is usually the most silent, with the fan either not running at all, or operating at a really low RPM.
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1 Consider an open-air case for airflow
It's an open-and-shut case
The case on a regular build is responsible for bringing in fresh air from the outside to help cool almost every component of the PC. Since we cannot have fans on our build, picking an open-air case is ideal. Exposing the rig to air from nearly all sides will take care of air intake, at the cost of slightly more dust deposits.
If you don't like the look of any of the open-air cases on the market, you could still manage with a spacious case that has ventilation on as many sides as possible. The thermals would probably be higher than those on an open-air case, but the lack of a discrete GPU, a passive cooler on a low-power CPU, and the absence of heavy loads should make things manageable even in a regular case sans fans.
Enthusiasts can also consider fanless PC cases like the Streacom SG10 that use loop heat pipe cooling, where refrigerants are vaporized and carry heat to the massive heatsink at the top. Both the CPU and GPU blocks are connected to the loop heat pipe and eliminate the need for any fans. This case can handle a combined load of 600W on the CPU and GPU.
Such cases cost around a grand or even more, but if you have the budget for an extreme build with high-end components, you can overcome most of the performance limitations of fanless PCs. For instance, you could install an RTX 4080 Super and Core i9-14900K on the Streacom SG10, which is almost as high-end as it gets.
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High-end fanless PCs are very possible
Completely fanless builds relying on passive cooling and, sometimes, extreme solutions are definitely a niche, but for those who want complete silence on their machines, such a project is certainly worth the time and money. If you are embarking on a fanless build, make sure you monitor the system temps for a few days after finishing the build, so that you know it is suitable for long-term use.
Although high-end fanless PCs are possible with enthusiast hardware, not everyone wants to do that. Thankfully, you can build a great zero-noise fanless PC for your HTPC, office, and professional audio needs without breaking the bank.