Serenity :How quiet is "quiet"? How to shop by decibel? Other customization questions

[mistral]

I absolute loath computer noise, so I am excited to spec out a Serenity system.

I read the Silent PC Review certification of the Silent Sandy Bridge system
and I am absolutely convinced of Puget's ability to quiet a computer.

I am having trouble shopping, however, because when I hit the "Customize" page, I don't know how much silencing I actually need to match the performance components I choose. It's easy to run up hundreds of dollars of fans and insulation upgrades that I might not need.

My particular questions, that I would love to see answered on Serenity overview and customization pages:

#1 How do I determine my target decibel level?

For my case, I am not doing audio recording work, I just want a machine that idles and spins below ambient noise in my apartment. During 4x100% CPU work, audible fans are OK, but I'd like them to not drown out my entertainment music/TV.

I've done some reading, and I've been carrying around an (unreliable) Sound Level app on my smartphone, and I think I'm looking for a total ambient noise target of 30-35dB .
(I am not counting music or talking or car horns into this target level. I I am counting house fans blowing and the electronics throughout my house, and general city din coming through my windows)

#2 How does sound accumulate?
I know that +3dB is "twice as loud". Does that mean that (roughly speaking), a 20 dB computer plus a 20 dB background equals a 23 dB total sound level? Or does sound level combine in a different way?

Customizing my build
That's it for general questions. Next, parts-picker questions.
My overarching concern is this:

I can (basically) figure out price/performance with my own research. But I rely on Puget for heat and noise management and "compatibility". So, I want to set a hard noise budget (20dB, say), and then get a restricted menu of options that I can choose freely from within. The "Custom build" page shows me the nifty power budget of my build; I would like a noise level budget on the Serenity page, or some sort of rough estimate.

#3 How quiet are these PCs, with various options?
On the Serenity Overview page, I see that the SCPR is 11dB, and the other Serenity models are 20dB. Does that mean I can choose *ANY* components I want from the drop-down menus, and still stay in the model's sound envelope and get sufficient cooling for safe operation?

#4 How optional are the cooling features?
On the Serenity Profressional customizer, Tranquillo cooling is non-optional, but the case-fan upgrade and the AcoustiPack are de-selectable. How do I determine/estimate the noise change if I de-select those options? (Or is that de-selectability a bug in the configurator?).

#5 How does "fanless" interact with CPU auto-clocking?
Modern CPUs/chipsets have TurboBoost for "auto-overclocking" and a efficiency/safety features for "auto-underclocking". If I try to build a powerful quiet system, am I at risk of losing performance? (For example, might my 3.4 Ghz 95W i7 throttle itself down to 1.7Ghz to avoid overheating?) Will I lose TurboBoost?

#6 Do I need to pick a "QUIET" video card?
At time of writing, the NVidia 210, NVidia 430, and ATI 5750 are labelled "QUIET" in the model name. Those happen to be the only ones available in SCPR edition, so I assume "QUIET" really means "Silent", and all of the Serenity video cards are "quiet". I would like the menu to be more clear on this point, though.

#7 How much silencing do I need for a "quiet" PC?
I need some guidance (or at least reassurance) as I am working through the configurator to customize my order. (I know this is a hard question to answer without standing in front of a demo unit.)
For example: Your page on Case Fans Upgrade Kit says

good pick if you are very picky about having a quiet computer... It is just a question of whether it is worth spending the extra money to make it a little quieter.

...most of our cases are already pretty nice quality, so I usually only recommend this upgrade to the most noise-sensitive customers.

If you aren't sure if you need these feel free to check with our sales staff.

It's obvious that your posted advice is trying to be helpful and not pushy (and noise is exceptionally hard to write about), but descriptions like "pretty nice", "very picky", "not very loud", and "a little quieter" don't move me toward a Yes/No decision. Some numbers (measurements taken with/without fan upgrades, or a certain cooler, applied to a popular reference system) would go along way to helping me decide if I am "very picky" or if "a little quieter" matters to me in the system I am speccing.

#8 I'd like a more "barebones" option
I have enough hard drives and optical drives at the moment, so I would like a Serenity option that doesn't require me to buy both a new hard disk and optical drive.

I have enough basic competency to insert drives and RAM and cards on my own, and frankly, "warehouse" sites are better at managing inventory to get discounts on these piecemeal -- which is not to slight Puget at all). I want to pay Puget for the complicated (to me) portion: airflow design, power budget, screwing together the barebones bits and pieces.

I would rather pay Puget an extra "barebones" fee of $50 or $100 or whatever your margin is on the user-serviceable components I don't want, than have to buy those components to waste space and money.

#9 I'd rather not have these questions answered privately by a sales rep
You Puget folks seem really smart and honest, and I'm sure you could answer all my questions personally and help me spec a system. I don't want you to, though, because I don't know if I am ready to buy, and I'd rather your answers help all potential customers. I don't want to spend your personal time if I'm not ready to hand your some money, and I don't want to feel "obligated" to spend because you've spoken to me personally.

Other thoughts

Overall, I love the store and the systems Puget has designed, and I trust the advice you give as being honest and accurate. I am in the fitful phase of deciding whether to pull out my wallet and if I can wait one more month for hardware upgrades (and Linux Sandy Bridge support!) and whatnot.

On a personal note: I work for a web-enabled companies that sells in a different industry, and we have a similar approach that focuses on extremely thorough and transparent product information, best-of-breed search/shopping tools for customers, and personal touch to help finalize a purchase decision. I think it's a wonderful way to run a business.

I also love the personalized commentary you post on each part in your catalog. My company is working on a similar feature in our industry.

[PCC-William]

I'm not really qualified to answer your first two questions, but I can take a crack at the rest:

3) The values shown for dB ratings on the Serenities are in their default configurations. However, the SPCR version's page is specifically tailored to avoid someone adding any additional noise - as long as you don't *remove* any of the quieting features then it should stay right around 11dB. The other Serenities could be made louder than even the 20dB depending on the exact specs you pick out... and if you take off the quieting features then they aren't really even Serenity systems any more (and the way our page works at the moment they can't be locked in, unfortunately).

4) As I alluded to above, if we could make it so those couldn't be de-selected we would - they are critical to keeping the systems at the low noise levels we advertise.

5) The Serenity is not entirely fanless: there is a fan on the CPU cooler, on the power supply, a couple on the case itself, and (optionally) on the video card. The CPU fan is very much capable of keeping any of the processor options on the Serenity plenty cool - you won't be giving up Turbo Boost at all. Those processors *do* slow down when you aren't using them, though, to reduce heat and save power.

6) Yes, the cards specifically marked "Quiet" in the name are those with no cooling fan - so they are in effect "silent" on their own. Those are the only options on the SPCR edition, but it doesn't sound like you need absolute silence... so if you want a more powerful card please feel free to go with a system that will allow one.

7) Noise is such a hard thing to quantify - even dB, as you noted earlier, don't really help someone understand how loud something is intuitively. I'd put it this way:

SPCR Edition - Silent. You should not be able to hear this, unless in a perfectly quiet room and quiet close to the tower.

Mini / Professional - Near silent to very quiet. If you pick a fan-cooled video card or multiple hard drives you may be able to hear these systems, especially under load, but they certainly should not exceed average background noise from a normal user distance.

From your comment at the beginning that some fan noise under load would be okay I think any of the Serenity designs would do the trick - or maybe even something scaled back a bit, though I'd say better safe than sorry when it comes to the low-noise mods.

8) If you have a couple of none-core components you want to reuse we can certainly either omit those from the build - or better yet, you could send the components in and we could install them for you. We draw the line on that at core hardware, though: the motherboard, CPU, RAM, chassis, and power supply usually. Those are so important to ensuring stability that we can't skip on them in a build without compromising our quality and the ability to properly support the system.

9) If you prefer a public line of communication like this that is fine, but don't feel like calling or emailing us privately in any way obligates you to purchase. There are plenty of folks I've worked with who have gone on to realize that a different option was better for them - or even sometimes to keep using the computer they have and get the most out of it before purchasing a new one. We won't hold that against you!

[mistral]

Thank you very much, William. This advice helps me better understand how to balance cooling/quieting components with performance components in the Customize page.

(Please disregard/delete any reposts of my question that come through from my account. I was confused by the error page that appeared after I posted, so I ended up submitting 2 or 3 similar posts afterward.)