If the environment is dusty, I prefer to avoid dealing with fans altogether.
But if it's Dusty --in your house-- then the problem isn't the fans, rather, you should clean the house no ?It depends on the location (environment/climate), part of the year, and finally, old houses tend to be dusty in general… not to mention smokers and what not.
You could probably get away with the gtx 970. my asus runs silent.
I actually have all of those parts you mentioned. the 950pro, 16 ddr4, and the 6500
If the environment is dusty, I prefer to avoid dealing with fans altogether.
If this is the office at work.. makes sense..
But if it's Dusty --in your house-- then the problem isn't the fans, rather, you should clean the house no ?Show Image(http://emoticoner.com/files/emoticons/onion-head/embarrassed3-onion-head-emoticon.gif?1292862502)
You don't need passive cooling for silence..
You just need a 120mm cpu cooler mounted to the graphics card..
Low RPM is the key to silence..
You can get low enough, such that your cpu-gpu-motherboard- electronics whine, will be louder than your fans..
I know those feels, the house we moved out of we had to have the bed in the livingroom (house was terrible) and my computer would get insanely dusty.If the environment is dusty, I prefer to avoid dealing with fans altogether.
If this is the office at work.. makes sense..
But if it's Dusty --in your house-- then the problem isn't the fans, rather, you should clean the house no ?Show Image(http://emoticoner.com/files/emoticons/onion-head/embarrassed3-onion-head-emoticon.gif?1292862502)
No matter what I do, when I remove dust half an hour later it's there again.
For 2560x1440 you'll have to go DisplayPort to do 60 Hz if I'm not mistaken: HDMI only goes up to 30 Hz @ 2560x1440.
I've got a Linux-only system with a 2560x1440 27" screen but so far it's running @ 30 Hz. I found a nice little fully passively cooled (not a gamer, no need for crazy perfs: but I'd still like 60 Hz) GPU (with DisplayPort) which I plan to order but I don't have the link here (it's on my computer at home and I'm on vacation). I don't think it could drive 3 screens though: maybe two + one driven by the mobo's integrated GPU (meaning one screen @ 30 Hz).
If you find a nice GPU either fully passive or with a very very quiet fan (but I'd prefer fully passive: one less thing to worry about) that can drive 3 monitors @ 2560x1440 / 60 Hz I'm all ears: don't hesitate to report your findings here.
I'm thinking about a relatively cheap build (samsung m.2 950 pro, 16gb ddr4, i5-6500 3.2ghz) that will be my main dev station. Just dev (and music / watching movies / browsing on the side). So probably xfce / i3 with tmux all over dah place.
I'm thinking about a relatively cheap build (samsung m.2 950 pro, 16gb ddr4, i5-6500 3.2ghz) that will be my main dev station. Just dev (and music / watching movies / browsing on the side). So probably xfce / i3 with tmux all over dah place.
tmux FTW!
Anyway, I'm interested by your build... Which mobo? I was thinking about an ASUS Z170A for a similar setup. It has 3 PCI-E and a M.2 x4 / 32 Gb/s so your M.2 SDD should fly on such a motherboard (I saw some benchmarks of the Samsung M.2 950 pro and this things seems to be really fast)
Not too sure about the 3 PCI-E: could you just buy 3 cheap Sapphire R7 250 Ultimate (fully passively cooled, doing 4 K @ 60 Hz) and plug one in each PCI-E slot? Would that even work to drive the three 27" screens?
I'm really curious because my workstation is Linux-only too and I'm thinking about a similar setup too. At first I was thinking about a single 34" (curved) screen but three 27" would probably be even better.
For 2560x1440 you'll have to go DisplayPort to do 60 Hz if I'm not mistaken: HDMI only goes up to 30 Hz @ 2560x1440.
I've got a Linux-only system with a 2560x1440 27" screen but so far it's running @ 30 Hz. I found a nice little fully passively cooled (not a gamer, no need for crazy perfs: but I'd still like 60 Hz) GPU (with DisplayPort) which I plan to order but I don't have the link here (it's on my computer at home and I'm on vacation). I don't think it could drive 3 screens though: maybe two + one driven by the mobo's integrated GPU (meaning one screen @ 30 Hz).
If you find a nice GPU either fully passive or with a very very quiet fan (but I'd prefer fully passive: one less thing to worry about) that can drive 3 monitors @ 2560x1440 / 60 Hz I'm all ears: don't hesitate to report your findings here.
For 2560x1440 you'll have to go DisplayPort to do 60 Hz if I'm not mistaken: HDMI only goes up to 30 Hz @ 2560x1440.
I've got a Linux-only system with a 2560x1440 27" screen but so far it's running @ 30 Hz. I found a nice little fully passively cooled (not a gamer, no need for crazy perfs: but I'd still like 60 Hz) GPU (with DisplayPort) which I plan to order but I don't have the link here (it's on my computer at home and I'm on vacation). I don't think it could drive 3 screens though: maybe two + one driven by the mobo's integrated GPU (meaning one screen @ 30 Hz).
If you find a nice GPU either fully passive or with a very very quiet fan (but I'd prefer fully passive: one less thing to worry about) that can drive 3 monitors @ 2560x1440 / 60 Hz I'm all ears: don't hesitate to report your findings here.
You might be waiting a while before you hear of a passively cooled GPU that can handle that kind of load. A hybrid cooled gtx of some kind (can replace fans with quiet varieties) sure no problem. Oh.. Linux.. Sorry :-X
I can't help with the card, but I can with the noise and dust. I've battled both for years.
Large low rpm fans as mentioned is key to not just noise, but a larger fan can move more air without picking up as much dust. Lots of air, at low speed and low pressure.
I prefer boxes with a large mesh front, with only large fans in the rear blowing out, allowing the entire front to act as a low pressure/velocity intake. This allows the air to move into the case slowly and dust to settle, be it outside the case, or just inside the front panel. If you blow the air in, it sucks in dust and blows it right at your card. Also no top ports.
The more air moving through your box, the less hard your gpu fans will need to work, which translates to less noise and dust. If you have spinner drives, mount them high and out of the air flow. In it, they obstruct flow, act as a holding area for dust, and put heat into the air stream.
If you have a basement, put it in there, and use long cords, I currently do that, despite a quiet system. No computer in the room at all is better than any fan.
I'm thinking about a relatively cheap build (samsung m.2 950 pro, 16gb ddr4, i5-6500 3.2ghz) that will be my main dev station. Just dev (and music / watching movies / browsing on the side). So probably xfce / i3 with tmux all over dah place.
tmux FTW!
Anyway, I'm interested by your build... Which mobo? I was thinking about an ASUS Z170A for a similar setup. It has 3 PCI-E and a M.2 x4 / 32 Gb/s so your M.2 SDD should fly on such a motherboard (I saw some benchmarks of the Samsung M.2 950 pro and this things seems to be really fast)
Not too sure about the 3 PCI-E: could you just buy 3 cheap Sapphire R7 250 Ultimate (fully passively cooled, doing 4 K @ 60 Hz) and plug one in each PCI-E slot? Would that even work to drive the three 27" screens?
I'm really curious because my workstation is Linux-only too and I'm thinking about a similar setup too. At first I was thinking about a single 34" (curved) screen but three 27" would probably be even better.
I did some more reading... The ASUS Z170-A mobo's integrated GPU can apparently drive up to two 2560x1440 monitors simultaneously @ 60 Hz. The DisplayPort port (!) is DisplayPort 1.2 (1.3 would be even better in your case). Then I think you can add say the cheap Sapphire R7 250 Ultimate I mentioned above: it's passively cooled and should be able to drive a 3rd monitor.
If this work than I think it'd meet your requirements. I think that you'll need to tell the BIOS to keep the integrated GPU on after you've plugged a GPU (at least on my current setup I had to do that).
I'm buying a new workstation anyway (not right away: currently travelling) and I'm going for that ASUS Z170-A + either Core i7 6700 or Core i5 6600 (not the 'K' version: I don't care for OC and want the 65 max TDP) + M.2 SSD build and I'll be running Linux only. I've got access to many monitors so I should give a try to a tri-monitors eventually but don't hold your breath :)
I also plan to try a curved 34" 3440x1440 screen and see if I can drive it @ 60 Hz using the DisplayPort 1.2 on the ASUS Z170-A mobo (it should work fine).
I have a home-built i5 server with 4 spinning hdd's (WD RED 5400rpm), integrated gpu, and custom tweaked fans. It is really silent. People always ask me whether my server is off or something is broken, because they literally never hear it. I also never hear it. Only when I literally hold my head against the case. So it CAN be done. I used noctua fans for everything: cpu, case fans, extra hdd cage fan. I even swapped out the PSU fan for a noctua. And it's been running for almost 3 years now and still good. Noctua with their beige/brown look is ugly, but it IS quality.My systems are all pretty much dead silent as well, I still prefer it in the basement.
I have a home-built i5 server with 4 spinning hdd's (WD RED 5400rpm), integrated gpu, and custom tweaked fans. It is really silent. People always ask me whether my server is off or something is broken, because they literally never hear it. I also never hear it. Only when I literally hold my head against the case. So it CAN be done. I used noctua fans for everything: cpu, case fans, extra hdd cage fan. I even swapped out the PSU fan for a noctua. And it's been running for almost 3 years now and still good. Noctua with their beige/brown look is ugly, but it IS quality.My systems are all pretty much dead silent as well, I still prefer it in the basement.
Besides there being no sound (or interference), there's no (ugly) box getting in the way. With it in the basement, I can use any case, and not have to look at it. There are some rather functional cheap cases out there, they just look terrible.
Could you describe your workstation? Components, distro, typical software? I'm really curious to learn about how people use linux as their serious productivity driver.
My setup is completely silent:
Gigabyte GA-X99P-SLI
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980Ti 6GB G1 Gaming OC Edition
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-21300 Memory
Noctua NH-D15 SS02 D-Type Premium CPU Cooler
Intel Core i7-5820K 6 Core 3.3GHz Processor
Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD
Seagate 2TB HDD
Corsair RM1000 Power Supply (Fully modular)
DIYPC D480-BK Case - supports 120mm fans, mesh front and top with filters
Even when I play games it's quiet. My Afterglow controller scares me when it registers feedback (plugged in) while I'm using my keyboard/mouse for gaming.