[kelly]

I've already found a company called quietpc.com. Among my other plans for the coming year, one is to keep my PC as cool or cooler than it is now but QUIET. I have an AMD 1.3ghz processor on it and frankly, the cpu fan sounds like a hair dryer. That combined with the rest of the PC makes for some pretty unpleasant side effects. And no, turning the PC off isn't an option.

So I'm thinking about planning for the quiet copper fans and the padding inside the case. Anyone have any experiences with this you'd like to share?

Kelly

 

[MirandaX]

I highly recommend IBM's hard drives that use mercury rather than ball bearings. I can't remember model numbers off the top of my head, but replacing the internal hard drive (which was already pretty quiet) of my laptop with one of the mercury drives made a definite difference in the amount of sound. Similarly, look for fans that use mercury.

 

[cajunchrist]

Kelley:

Read this article.

In summary, it details a PC user's attempt to quiet a noisy case. He used a sound deadening mat, but I have something similar called B-Quiet sound deadening liquid. I have used it in my car and in my headphones to reduce resonances, and when applied to the inside of your PC case it will help to quieten without adding the bulk that the mats described in the article would. If you are interested, I still have half a gallon of the stuff. For the low price of shipping costs, I'll send you a cup or two, enough to fully coat the case several times. This tweak along with a quieter fan, etc. will go a long way to giving you a more pleasant computing experience.

 

[dcg]

It should help to replace your case fans (how many do you have?)with panaflo L1a fans - very quiet.

check out this thread: http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenT...2980937833&p=1
shows a company selling them for $2.00 each (they are usually around $10 a pop.)

I've got the same processor. what heat sink/fan are you using?

Dave

 

[aeberbach]

Yes, Panaflo L1A are a great step.

Also consider using Seagate Barracuda IV drives, they are so quiet I have to look at the light to see if they are working, and there are two in a RAID-0 array right next to me.

You can't get much better than the Silverado cooler from www.noisecontrol.de. I see they are also selling Papst fans, if there was ever a fan likely to be better than Panaflo they might be.
80mm fans at 19 or 26 dB? wow...

The Enermax EG465P-VE FC power supply is very quiet.

 

[dcg]

kelly - I checked the 80mm fans at quietpc, and the numbers are actually slightly better than the L1A - 28cfm at 20db vs. 24cfm at 21db, I believe. However, at a price of $20 a piece, you could have 10 L1As for the price of a single quietpc fan. Papst fans are supposed to be great as well, it's just a matter of whether you think it's worth it to spend the extra money (not for me, but then I have 4 fans in my case, plus the PS fan and hsf)

 

[CaptBubba]

http://www.thermaltake.com/v7+.htm

check it out, 24dB at lowest speed setting and 35 at next highest. That way you can keep it turned down al low as you can (as long as you CPU temp doesn't reach 60+ C you should be fine, but 55 C would be better considered a safe point.)

I have the Volcano 6Cu (4,550 RPM fan) and it works great and is not too lound. If only the same thing would go for my two case fans. Those panaflos look mighty temping.

 

[Mumrik]

H 2 O !


Watercool your CPU and perhaps your video card...
using 120-160mm fans at low speed when watercooling makes very little noise compared to a normal 60-80mm delta (or equivalent) fan strapped to a heatsink.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Mumrik,

How good does watercooling work? Do you generally have to run the processor at a lower speed or anything like that? I don't care about overclocking, but it would be nice to be able to use the latest processors. I wouldn't want to be restricted to using the new make of an older processor like you'd find in a notebook.