By Jimmy Thang on Jul 26, 2017 08:30 pm
How To Build A Silent PC
Have you ever played on a blisteringly loud computer? It can be really immersion-breaking when your fans drown out the sound effects and music coming out of your speakers. Whether you're building a PC from scratch or would like to make modifications to your existing rig, it's important to keep your computer's acoustics in check. With that said, we're going to show you how you can build a nearly silent gaming PC in a few simple steps. Table of Contents
Get a high-quality CPU cooler
CPUs can generate a lot of heat, especially if they're overclocked. If you aren't using a high-quality cooler, your CPU fan can be one of the loudest parts of your rig. Some premium air coolers include the Noctua NH-D14 or Be Quiet!'s Dark Rock Pro 3. For a step-up in cooling, however, we recommend going with a water cooler. Take for instance the Kraken X62, which is an excellent closed-loop solution. NZXT's cooler uses two 140mm fans coupled with a 280mm radiator. Just be sure that your chassis supports 140mm fans and has enough clearance for your radiator. In general, we recommend going with a CPU cooler that uses 140mm fans as opposed to 120mm ones. The larger fans will be able to move more air at lower RPMs--this makes them quieter. If you really want to go the extra mile, you can opt for high-end custom loop coolers. EKWB, for instance, sells excellent pumps and radiators. They are much harder to install, however, and can leak if you don't know what you're doing.
Use high-quality thermal paste
While the thermal compound that comes pre-applied to most CPU coolers isn't bad, to absolutely ensure your thermals are in check, you should apply premium thermal paste--just make sure you clean off the stock stuff with isopropyl alcohol first. Noctua's NH-H1 ceramic paste, for instance, is excellent and is known to outperform other high-end compounds by five degrees Celsius.
Get additional fans and maintain good neutral airflow
It may sound counter-intuitive, but if you want your rig to make less noise, you should install as many fans as you can into your case. If you have more fans, they won't have to spin as fast to stay cool. For a silent build, we recommend low-noise fans such as Be Quiet!'s Silent Wings 3 or Noctua's NF-A14 140mm solutions (Again, make sure your case supports 140mm fans). Once you have the fans, you'll want to set them up so that you have neutral airflow. This means you should ideally have as many intake fans as you have exhaust fans. This will ensure that you'll always have a steady stream of cool air coming into your case. You'll want to make sure that you set up your PC so that the fans assist each other and don't compete. Popular fan arrangements will have intake fans at the front and have exhaust fans either at the back or at the top of the case (heat does rise, after all).
Get a quiet or fanless PSU
Power supplies generally aren't the loudest components, but they can generate a distracting hum. You can circumvent this by getting a PSU that has a fan that only spins when your system heats up. Just make sure to mount the PSU fan facing up, unless you have a case with a vent at the bottom, as power supplies use intake fans. There are passively cooled power supplies like Seasonic's Platinum 520 or Silverstone's NJ520, which are completely silent.
Get a quiet graphics card
Besides the CPU, graphics cards are usually the loudest component of any gaming rig. The key to getting a quiet video card is to get one with a power-efficient GPU. Nvidia's 10-series graphics cards with their Pascal architecture are generally good in this regard. To take it a step further, aftermarket variants often offer more fans and larger heat sinks to keep thermals in check. The fans on Zotac's AMP Extreme GTX 1080 Ti won't turn on until the card hits around 60 degrees Celsius, for instance. For an extra quiet option, companies like Corsair and MSI also sell water-cooled GPUs that come with a fan and radiator.
Skip the hard drive and stick with an SSD
Hard drives aren't consistently loud, but their whirring sounds can be pretty annoying when they're fetching data. This is because HDDs use rigid metal platters that have to spin very fast. You can circumvent this issue altogether by simply going with a solid-state drive setup. While SSDs are much more costly than HDDs, they have no moving parts and are therefore completely silent.
Get a sound-dampening case
While you may have sorted out the quietest components, to really seal the deal (and the noise), you'll want to use a sound-dampening case. Chassis like Be Quiet!'s Darkbase Pro 900 or NZXT's H440 use a bunch of thick closed-cell sound dampening material that mitigates noise bleeding. These cases may cost a bit more, but they're worth it if you really want a quiet setup.
Use good cable management
Good cable management ensures that your rig will get optimal airflow. Make sure you're properly routing all your cables behind your case cutouts and using zip ties or Velcro straps to strap them down. Many cases will also allow you to remove unused hard drive cages, which will open up a little more airflow.
By Mat Elfring on Jul 26, 2017 04:10 am
During the July 22 weekend, San Diego hosted one of the biggest conventions of the year, Comic Con. Over the course of five days, a plethora of trailers for upcoming movies and television seasons were released during panels, and fans got to witness early looks at some of the biggest properties coming out in the next year. After the dust settled, we asked the staff of GameSpot what their favorite trailers were and narrowed it all down to the top five movie and television videos released at the con. Here's what we thought, starting with television. If you want to skip ahead to movies, click here.
TV: #5 Preacher
Surprisingly, AMC released a trailer for the second season of Preacher, which is currently airing on the network. We got to see what's coming ahead for the rest of the season, which involved quite a bit of Herr Starr and a little more of Hitler, who has been imprisoned in Hell with Eugene. Aside from the use of Bel Biv Devoe's "Poison," what made this trailer great was the introduction of Herr Starr, the leader of a religious group. To wrap things up, we got to see the Saint of Killers demand to see Satan, and if you've read the comic, you know where that story is going. The trailer laid out a lot for the rest of the season, and it all looks sinfully entertaining. Season 2 of Preacher is currently airing on AMC.
TV: #4 Star Trek: Discovery
Although Star Trek: Discovery has had some delays, fans got a full-length trailer for the series, which will air on CBS All Access in late September. The new video sets the tone for the series and sets up the Klingon empire as the villains for the season. There was a lot to love in the trailer because it made this show seem sprawling and epic, which is especially cool for a show with a smaller cast, at least when compared to another epic show like Game of Thrones. There were quite a few shots in space, and the ships have some incredible designs, even though some CG moments were less-than-stellar. Most importantly, it feels like it fits in to the Star Trek Universe, even if the current film franchise takes place in a separate timeline, which is a whole different conversation altogether. Star Trek: Discovery comes to CBS All Access on September 24, 2017.
TV: #3 Defenders
Finally, the wait is over. The heroes of the Marvel television universe--more specifically, the ones on Netflix--are teaming up for next month's The Defenders. Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist are working together against the ninja clan known as the Hand, although they don't all seem to be on the same page in the new trailer for the show. Everything that's been building up in the other Netflix series comes to a head here. The trailer grabbed our attention because it was pretty action-packed, and it had a whole lot of Sigourney Weaver, who plays the season's villain, Alexandra. Defenders is the culmination of years of planning, and even after some stumbling--we're looking at you, Iron Fist--this trailer has raised our hopes. Netflix's The Defenders comes out on August 18, 2017.
TV: #2 Westworld
Westworld was the surprise hit of 2017. Who knew that an HBO series, based off of a weird Michael Crichton movie from the '70s, would have captivated us this much? HBO got us all excited by revealing some footage from the next season, set to debut in 2018, which you can watch here. Much like the show, the trailer is mysterious, and we're assuming it's filled with secrets that won't be fully realized until next year. Why is Arnold staring at a tiger? Why is Dolores riding a horse, shooting down people? Has the Man in Black lost his purpose? All of us are really excited to get back to Westworld, but it's a bit saddening that we have to wait until next year to return. Westworld Season 2 returns to HBO sometime in 2018.
TV: #1 Stranger Things
Of course, the staff here at GameSpot fell in love over the weekend with the trailer for Season 2 of Stranger Things, which you should watch multiple times here. Dripping in '80s nostalgia, like failing at Dragon's Lair, the new trailer mixes Lovecraftian horror and a suspenseful story revolving around young Will Byers, all set to the backing track of "Thriller." The end of the first season left us all wondering what's going on with Will, and that seems to be the focus with Season 2. We're going to be getting a whole lot more of the upside-down, along with a Cthulhu-type monster as well. In addition, Eleven is back, as revealed during the final moments of the trailer. Is it October yet? Season 2 of Stranger Things comes to Netflix on October 27.
Movies: #5 Ready Player One
Steven Spielberg takes on Ernest Cline's nostalgia-heavy book, Ready Player One, and adapts it to the big screen in 2018. A trailer for the upcoming film was revealed during the Warner Bros. panel over the weekend, detailing the story of a young man searching for an Easter Egg inside the MMO called Oasis. The dystopian future has people literally living on top of each other, and the only real escape is through virtual reality. We spent most of the time during the trailer picking out some familiar elements from the cinematic past like the Iron Giant or the DeLorean from Back to the Future. Most of the fun from the trailer came from us just remembering things we grew up with, which makes us wonder, "How long did it take to get licensing rights for all of this?" Ready Player One releases on March 30, 2018.
Movies: #4 Bright
The only movie trailer on this list that isn't a sequel or based on another property is the Netflix original film Bright, coming to Netflix later this year. The new trailer for the film was revealed during the Netflix panel at Comic-Con, and it stars Will Smith as a cop whose partner is an Orc. It's Training Day meets Dungeons & Dragons. Netflix has produced quite a few original films, but this is the most big-budget looking one of them all. On the surface, it seems like a silly idea--and a film that may not appeal to as many people if it was in the theaters--but this seems like the perfect weeknight-at-home type of movie and reminds us of when Will Smith used to do fun, summer blockbusters like Men In Black or Bad Boys. Bright releases on Netflix this December.
Movies: #3 Justice League
The first trailer for DC's Justice League was a bit polarizing when it debuted; however, during Comic-Con, fans got a better look at the fall film when a four minute trailer was revealed during the Warner Bros. panel. The superheroes of the DC Cinematic Universe--sans Superman--will be taking on Steppenwolf, a soldier from another world. The first trailer showed us that the movie will have a sense of humor, and the newest one really hits that home, especially when The Flash doesn't realized the rest of his team has disappeared while talking to Commissioner Gordon. Yes, the film still looks like it's a bit too much green screen, but it looks fun, nevertheless. In addition, we can all play the guessing game of "Who is the mysterious person talking to Alfred at the end?" (It's probably Superman) Justice League releases on November 17, 2017.
Movies: #2 Thor: Ragnarok
According to the newest Thor: Ragnarok trailer, it's going to be a buddy cop movie starring Thor and Hulk. The new trailer for the film--revealed at the Marvel panel--expands the film's story, revealing it's more of a team film than anything else. The two minute video shows off a lot of the story, which we broke down here. Yes, there are a lot of Guardians of the Galaxy elements to this trailer--mainly with the music and title cards--but this seems like it could be the best Thor film to date, which shouldn't be too hard. The back-and-forth between Thor and Bruce Banner/Hulk are the highlight and seeing Thor work with other people again--on a team--is pretty awesome. Thor: Ragnarok releases on November 3, 2017.
Movies: #1 Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Finally, our favorite movie trailer from San Diego Comic-con was Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Eggsy is back, but we learn that the villainous Poppy, played by Julianne Moore, has destroyed England's spy agency, so Eggsy has to team up with the Americans known as the Statesmen. The trailer is fun and very tongue-and-cheek, delivering the same over-the-top entertainment as the first installment, with flips, shooting, and a ton of unnecessary movement while fighting for your life. This was also the first time we got to see Colin Firth return, as he was "killed" in the 2014 film; however, this time, he has a sweet eye patch. The trailer shows a ton of promise and suggests that this will be a rodeo of fun, especially with all the lassos we saw. Kingsman: The Golden Circle releases on September 22, 2017.
By Array on Jul 26, 2017 01:53 am
Astra and Logan Cosplay
San Diego Comic-Con has changed over the years, but one thing will always be there: cosplay. Cosplayers of fan-favorite characters from comics, movies, anime, games, and more descend on San Diego to show off their costumes. And, as usual, DC Comics characters were well represented among the cosplayers. In this gallery, we've collected photos of some of the best DC cosplay out of SDCC. If Marvel is more your speed, we also have a gallery for all the best Marvel cosplay. Be sure to check out our other galleries, as well, such as the first-ever Doomfist cosplay based on Overwatch's upcoming character and a truly ridiculous number of fidget spinners. Mera - Astra and Logan Cosplay
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