This is a case refit. I previously had this PC in a Dark Base Pro 900. The case was great, especially after I purchased the Rev. 2 mods after they were released (a PSU shroud and HDD bay covers).
But the reason I left is that my case was oversized. I had no use for all the space since I only run a couple of M.2 drives.
Secondly, my pump on my Eisbaer 420 was making a little noise that you could here from within the case.
Also, although this is a delidded w/ liquid metal and copper IHS 9900k that I completed. Being that this PC is my Windows box mostly used for business applications, I no longer needed the overclock and giant radiator.
So I decided to return to my previous chief design goal of a silent PC as opposed to making it look super pretty with lights, etc.
I came across the Fractal Design Define C. A case designed for efficiency and silence. This was a perfect candidate.
I purchased the NH-D15, to go away from any pump noise and kind of see how this cooler worked. Just so happened that the chromax version was released right around the time. I ended returning my brown NH-D15 and keeping the chromax one. This was a great choice. I purchased some Cablemod cables to complete the build.
I also did a sound test. With the computer off (without my A/C running) and then with the computer on:
- Computer off - 29.8-30.4 dB - Computer on - 29.9-30.5 dB
This test basically proved that my PC is practically inaudible. Mission accomplished.
An update, this motherboard has ASUS AI Optimized Overclocking. Basically, it monitors your cooling performance and auto overclocks your processor.
This cooler, the NH-D15, actually is overclocking better than my Eisbaer 420. The Eisbaer had a rating of about 169pts and my Noctua NH-D15 is getting 184pts. It's overclocking my machine 51/50 with the Nocuta versus 50/49 with my Eisbaer.
I also replaced the RX 580 with a GTX 1660. The RX 580 would actually start flickering every time I watched a high quality video full screen on my 4K monitors. It was pretty bad. The 1660 runs much cooler and has no issues playing back videos.