[Claus1100xx]

I have 2 computers. One is housed in a minitower and the other in a huge tower. The big one is barely audible, no matter what I do. The little one is amazingly loud. It has a side fan mounted , but I don't think that one creates the noise. Maybe it's the video card, but it gets loud even just listening to music and such. Playing games, it gets even louder and it is just insane the amount of noise it makes? Any way I can make this thing quieter or maybe get a case that is quiet.
any suggestions? I don't mind swapping everything out into a new case if that case will be quiet.

I just need quiet when I listen to music, because I can hear the fan with my headphones on and it drowns out the music.

Thanks

 

[meat01]

Smaller fans with high RPMs are usually louder than larger fans moving slower. Panaflo fans are nice and quiet and can be purchases at SVS Computers online. There are other tricks for cutting the voltage to fans so they don't move as fast. It could also be your power supply fan.

 

[Claus1100xx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by meat01 Smaller fans with high RPMs are usually louder than larger fans moving slower. Panaflo fans are nice and quiet and can be purchases at SVS Computers online. There are other tricks for cutting the voltage to fans so they don't move as fast. It could also be your power supply fan.

I suspect it is the power supply fan. but does it make any sense to switch it out, or will it just be as loud? or get a whole new case alltogether?

 

[tkam]

Are you sure its the power supply fan? My first assumption is either motherboard fan assuming there is one and then video card fan.

 

[philodox]

Do you have a chipset fan on your motherboard? What model is it?

 

[psychogentoo]

The "side fan mounted" comment leads me to believe that the computer has intake, side, exhaust, CPU, GPU, PS and possibly a fan on the northbridge...

thats a lot of fans...more fans in your puter than the number of Michael Bolton fans on head-fi (no offense at the MB fans).

If the number of fans in your case is what I suspect it to be, then disable the side fan, really doesn't correlate with the ATX design for air flow but I digress and this is a discussion on a different thread. Get larger, slower moving fans for the intake and exhaust and get a quieter fan for the CPU and/or a rheostat to control the fan speed. You can also get a quieter PS or a passively cooled PS to control more noise.

OR

You can convert your puter to use water cooling.

I think the least expensive solution is to get larger diameter, slower moving fans that push the same CFM. But before you do, an experiement to try out. Try unplugging the side and intake fan and see how much quiter it is. DO NOT unplug the CPU fan when experimenting since this could result in the CPU core frying. You may also want to get the info on the CPU fan to see what the dB rating is on it to see if changing the fan/heatsink combo will result in a quieter machine.

thats it for now...will post more later on when I have time.

 

[SptsNaz]

I'm kind of in the same situation. I did replace my stupid chip-set fan though, cause it was louder than all the fans I have combined. Now I just have to replace the stock A64 fan, but I'm not sure with what. I don't even know the diameter of the thing, so I'm refraining from buying just another fan.

What are the best case fans you can buy in terms of the sound : performance ratio? I know Nexus fans are good, but they're just a bit too expensive for what you get. My chipset is frying right now cause there's no airflow to cool the zalman heatsink

For thread starter: If there is a chipset fan, then its probably the greatest contributor to the noise. Replace it with a fanless one. Get rid of the case fans and see if the temperature rises drastically. If it doesn't, then don't put them back on

 

[MaGG]

What are the specs of the computer?

As someone stated before, Panaflo fans are the best price / performance fans out there. They push a decent amount of air with hardly any noise as compared to competitors that push the same amount of air. For instance, the 92mm that I have on my XP-90 heatsink pushes 48CFM of air, but at only 30dBA, which is virtually silent unless I put my ear next to it.

Check out www.sidewindercomputers.com for their great selection of Panaflo's and other fans.

This link will show you how to do fan mods, which will take your fans power down from 12V to either 7V or 5V. This will make it spin slower and obviously push less air, but with that comes silence. View it here: http://www.radiativenz.com/guides/fa...od/index.shtml

When you post specs, hopefully we can help you better.

 

[imported_dom_]

my suggestion would be 2 120mm fans in the case if possible, sucking air through the pc, as in one sucking in one expelling. if not 90mm or 80mm

silenx are literally almost silent. worth the extra £'s

with a good setup (2x120mm) and a good cpu fan/heatsink (zalman) you can achieve cheap watercooling temps.
for watercooling you really need high investment and much case modding/time to make it worth while.

psu wise you can only get nice low noise models by spending money, you can get one without fans for more money, but something like a tagan or antec is usually good enough with a low enough sound output.


also if you have fans that rattle, take the sticker over the bearing off, you will see a c-clip over the bearing. squirt a tiny amount of wd40 in there then replace the sticker.


edit:

http://www.quietpc.com/ <- go there

edit edit:
im using a coolermaster stacker case (not exactly small) with 2x120mm fans a zalman flower and an a arctic cooler on the gpu. the case temperature is rarely above room temp and cpu temps are always low.
aslong as you minimise mess inside and route cables properly so you can have great airflow you will have no problems with temps. noise only comes with cheaper components which cant handle the temps or over use of fans

 

[Claus1100xx]

well some people have been talking about lian lin pc cases? do these come with fans and everything mounted and are those quiet? My case is butt ugly as well, so if I get to change it at the same time for something aestatically pleasing and quiet I woulnd't mind either. Any other case reccomendations?

that quietpc has some great looking cases and awesome fans. that link is great.

 

[imported_dom_]

lian li cases are good, but often dont come with fans so you can choose the configuration, size and type of fans.

 

[Claus1100xx]

yeah I have seen that lian lin are all barebones and a ton of $$$ for that. the quietpc cases (silentium ) come with the fans and power supplies and everything and are "only" $120.

 

[imported_dom_]

lian li (not lin) are very well made good quality cases.

but you may not need this for yourself, its great to have all the extra features if you clock/mod etc your case.

but you probably will not need the features.

have you checked out www.bit-tech.net ? its uk based but has a good usa base. they are more the extreme end but there are plenty of knowledgable people there.

 

[Stephonovich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dom_ my suggestion would be 2 120mm fans in the case if possible, sucking air through the pc, as in one sucking in one expelling. if not 90mm or 80mm

Agreed; but it must be combined with a good case design. A friend of mine builds a new high end gaming system every 3 months or so (entirely too much disposable income, I tell you...), and uses 2x 120mm fans. No aftermarket GPU or CPU coolers, either. Kept his CPU below 30C (P4 Northwoods usually, but he has one Prescott, I think - didn't like the increased heat output).

Myself, I have an XP 2000+ with, um... /me counts... 1 120mm top mounted fan feeding the CPU via dryer hose (stock cooler just wasn't cutting it with all the components I crammed in there), 2 stacked 80mm exhaust fans, and stock CPU/GPU fans. I need to get a better cooler for my video card, though (eVGA 6800 NU), as I've been having weird lines coming up on the screen whenever the ambient temperature gets above 25C or so.

 

[Alexhifi]

I replaced my CPU fan, 2 case fans, video card fan, and put in a silent power supply. Computer is near dead quiet...got all my stuff from endpcnoise.com. It wasn't cheap all together, but it was worth every penny. If you have a loud harddrive, your only recourse is probably a quiet one from Samsung or whoever.

Just a week ago I replaced my GF's CPU fan. Thing is at least 50% quieter. Easy way to tell is (*briefly*) stop a fan with your finger to see where you noise comes from.

-Alex