How to Build a Quiet Custom Gaming PC

Computer components produce heat. We all intuitively know this, whether from feeling our phones after playing a game or showing someone a video, touching the bottom of our laptops after watching a movie, or noticing the air coming out of our desktops. The more we push our components, the more electrons are running around in the wiring, and the more heat they produce. This is obvious as we all can hear the fans in our custom gaming PC spin up as we play games or watch movies (or gasp, use Google Maps on Chrome!).

You may be surprised to learn that watt for watt, computers produce the same amount of heat as space heaters. However, those that have studied physics should note that energy must be conserved, and in a computer the electricity is not used to convert to any other type of energy and thus it is converted to heat. The light energy is absorbed by surfaces and turns into heat, as does sound, and the kinetic energy from the fans.

Speaking of sound and fans, there’s a lot of effort that goes into keeping our PCs cool. High temperatures will damage sensitive (and expensive) components in a custom gaming computer, so fans work to bring in cool air and keep hot air out. This makes a lot of noise especially during a long and intense gaming session.

This is not ideal for those that like quiet, or have roommates, or are trying to stream their gameplay to twitch. No one wants to hear your computer fans drone on and on. There are a few solutions to this noise problem that people use to build custom quiet gaming computers.

One of the most popular is to use liquid cooling. This uses pump, tubing, radiator and coolant to extract heat from your CPU (and/or other components) and is similar to the cooling system in your car and air conditioner. 

Another option is to use quiet fans that are designed to operate without producing much noise. Obviously they are not cheap, and can sometimes be quite large as they may spin slower but still need to move a volume of air. Currently Noctua is the best known provider of quiet fans.

The best method is to combine the abovementioned tactics into a dampened computer case. These cases use different materials to contain the noise inside of the computer. The exterior of the case is usually build out of something like steel and may be a unibody construction to keep noise from escaping. Foam padding may absorb sound, like what you may see in a music studio. Lastly, filtered and hidden fans draw and push air through screens that are hidden around the edges or bottom. This makes it so that dust doesn’t enter the computer, which means that heatsinks will be cleaner and more efficient, which in turn means less work for the fans. 

If the noise volume of computers is off putting you or making you avoid gaming or for example is disturbing work in a science lab or graphic design studio, consider looking into ways to make your computer quiet. Who knows, maybe these technologies will soon make their ways into custom laptops!

Budgeting a Custom Gaming PC Build

When shopping for a custom gaming PC it can be easy to become overwhelmed and think that a custom gaming computer will be extremely expensive. When you’re learning about the components that will go into your computer you (if you’re anything like me) will often compare similar graphics cards, RAM, motherboards etc. and as you’re comparing more and more parts, you convince yourself that you need the most expensive, high performance, option. 

It’s easy to get carried away when configuring a custom gaming build, like those here: http://www.avadirect.com/mini-custom-gaming-pcs. When I’m putting together a computer on somewhere like PCPartsPicker or Newegg I often end up dreaming about the best computer I could possibly build instead of realistically putting together a configuration I could actually afford. There is definitely a difference between window shopping and actually preparing a computer that you intend to purchase.

For one, consider what you’ll use the computer for. Specifically, which games will you play? Consider that some of your favorite games may be a little older. I mean, who doesn’t love to fire up Portal every now and then? However, you should also consider that this computer will also need to play new games that are released several years into its lifespan. And just because you’re into simulations and strategy games like Cities: Skylines and Kerbal Space Program, that doesn’t mean that you won’t be playing the new Star Wars: Battlefront, Fallout 4 or Half Life 3!

When choosing parts for your custom gaming computer it’s easy to convince yourself that you need the highest performance parts available. However, this isn’t always true. Consider the processor. Sure, the Intel i7 is the top of the line (well, except the Xeon processors which are for servers and workstations), but do you really need it? Most often the answer is no. If you’re playing graphics intensive games like first-person-shooters, your computer will need lots of graphics processing performance, but not so much general processing. For these games, even if you have multiple GTX 980s, an i5 will be just fine. If you’re playing simulations games like Kerbal Space Program, then your computer will need more processing power, and less graphics performance. However, if your computer is able to output a frame rate that is higher than the refresh rate of your display, this doesn’t matter. Additional processing power will make your computer output higher FPS, but your monitor won’t be able to display the additional frames and you won’t see any benefit.

So it doesn’t always make sense to get the highest performance components. Myself, I prefer to get an Intel i5 (a K version so that it is easy to overclock) and the best graphics card I can afford.

Why Choose a Custom PC?

There are thousands of computers available for purchase today. With all of these PCs to choose from, why would anyone decide to buy or build a custom computer? One could certainly argue that you could find exactly the PC you are looking for that has been pre-configured and built by a large manufacturer and available for purchase at a retailer or online. This certainly makes sense for someone shopping for a laptop or simply a cheap computer for basic office tasks. Sometimes, though that simply won’t do. Gamers often have specific criteria when they are looking for a new computer, and these criteria will be drastically different depending on the specific person and what kinds of games they are looking to play.

First person shooters are a popular category today. These games require lots of graphics performance to produce a high frame rate that is crucial for competitive online play. In these games the CPU doesn’t matter as much, as long as it is at least an Intel i5. The graphics card is usually the bottleneck and will determine your gaming performance.

Strategy games, on the other hand, like Heroes of the Storm, Dota 2 or Hearthstone are usually limited by the processor. These games don’t have intense 3D graphics like first person shooters (they do have 3D graphics, in a sense, but they are usually limited to just a few perspectives, and this doesn’t require lots of graphics processing performance). These games will hardly use the graphics card and have the processor running at full steam. However players will usually get very high frame rates with these games in the triple digits, and at this point it doesn’t really matter since gamers are limited to the refresh rate of their monitor. Some monitors have refresh rates as high as 144Hz meaning it could handle up to 144 FPS, but many gamers have monitors that are only 60 Hz.

Since some people demand very specific specifications on their computers, they opt for a custom PC that is designed to fit their needs exactly. Because of this they also save money by not buying components that they do not need. Some manufacturers bundle high performance graphics cards with top-of-the-line processors like the Intel i7, but many people would prefer an i5 instead. If you buy a preconfigured computer then, say, upgrade the RAM yourself, you will have spent extra money on the memory that you took out of your computer. What a waste! When you're building or buying a custom gaming PC every component and every dollar matters.