PC Fan Noise
Sep 21, 2005 at 1:29 AM Post #16 of 28
By far the noisest fan in my computer was my chipset fan, until I removed it. Most of the time you don't need them unless you're overclocking.

(note I said fan, not heatsink.)
 
Sep 21, 2005 at 2:34 AM Post #17 of 28
Check out the Antec P180 case. I just rebuilt my machine in one from a Lian Li PC70.

The PC 70 is much more roomy and easy to work in but all the quiet features I put into it over the years are already in the P180 and then some.

Fan on north bridge = bad for me, also I put a zalman passive cooler on my video card and a zalman cooler on the cpu (did that long ago). While not silent I can now hear my lcd monitor (and it is pissing me off).
 
Sep 21, 2005 at 4:28 AM Post #19 of 28
The new Coolermaster 120mm Sleeve Bearing (UV or LED) fans are as quiet as Nexus 120mms, with a better air/noise ratio. At 5v it's inaudible (quieter than the Nexus at 7v [won't undervolt to 5v]), while pushing the same amount of air.

I have 2 Nexus 120mms, 2x SilenX 120mm, around 8 CM 120mm SB, and 5 Nexus 80mms.. I retired all the 120mms other than the CM ones, believe it or not.
 
Sep 21, 2005 at 6:45 AM Post #21 of 28
What's your CPU and video card? Certain models are easier to cool quietly than others.

I found that there wasn't one single "loud" fan in my box. Every time I knocked off the loudest, I just started getting annoyed by the second loudest...

I got a mondo passive heatsink for my prescott, and one of these for my overclocked nvidia 6800gt:

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga1.php

... it ducts out the back of a PCI slot, instead of recirculating hot air back into the case.

They also sell passively cooled power supplies now. And before buying new case fans, trying getting some of those cheap inline resistors that lower the voltage first. A lot of fans are almost inaudible at 6-7V. Motherboard fans are usually louder than snot, because they're cheap, and passive heatsinks work real well on those chips. Any by all means, don't do this without a temperature probe handy. Those chips can overheat *fast* if you go overboard.

Once your fans are quiet, if you have a loud hard drive (that bearing ringing), those noise dampening boxes for disks work pretty well if the drive isn't overly hot. Forget it if you've got 10k+ drives.


Water cooling is also potentially very silent. Especially if you locate the pump in a different room. Haven't quite gotten up the energy to play with it...
 
Sep 21, 2005 at 6:50 AM Post #22 of 28
Quote:

Originally Posted by dom_
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.


WD40 is mostly a solvent. It does make things slippery, but once it evaporates, things will wear quicker.

You might get better results with some kind of thin lubricating oil. Or WD40 followed by some oil if it's gunky.
 
Oct 11, 2005 at 6:00 PM Post #23 of 28
I found the culprit. IT was the CPU cooler that runs amazingly loud and it almost always spins at around 5000rpms. I replaced it with a Zalman all Copper cooler. WOW that thing runs quiet now.
Do I need the side fan to run as well? any ideas? or is the Zalman enoug to cool the CPU and internals?

Now my fridge is louder than my computer.
biggrin.gif
 
Oct 11, 2005 at 7:31 PM Post #24 of 28
Hey I was just going to recommend that Zalman to you... its one of the best HSF combos I've used. Good choice!

As for your other question, it depends on your configuration. Did you post your system config? I didn't see it but I admit to just skimming the rest of the thread.

Generally you don't need side fans (in fact they are really only useful under specialized circumstances.). However, I would always recommend that you have at least an exhaust fan in the back... otherwise the heat will get trapped in your case.

My current config is the Zalman HSF cooling an AMD XP 2400+ with a single 120mm exhaust fan and my temps are just fine (39c idle/44c load) all in an Antec Sonata case.
 
Oct 11, 2005 at 8:06 PM Post #25 of 28
No silent PC discussion can carry on without a link to the Silent PC how-to.

On a slightly more serious note, I've been meaning to get a new heatsink for awhile now. Sleeping in the same room as a computer with a CPU heatsink, PSU fan, graphics card fan, and 3 extra fans whirling away at full speed... it's not fun. I'm not sure about how much noise is coming from the PSU or CPU, but I've narrowed the cause of all my troubles to those two.
 
Oct 11, 2005 at 8:22 PM Post #26 of 28
Just don't do what I did. Went all out on my watercooling rig, only to find that Raptors in RAID configuration are frigging loud. Oops.

Side fans are useful in certain cases. If you have a long video card, it can cut off main case fan circulation for the expansion slot area. A pair of well spaced 60 mm fans at 5 or 7 volts in push pull configuration can do a lot of good here.

Another fun thing to do is play with cardstock ducting. Ducting can be used to reroute case airflow to remove heat from hotter sections of the case, i.e. video card. My graphics card temps fell by 10 degrees C under load using this method. Not too bad for ten cents worth of index cards.
 
Oct 11, 2005 at 8:33 PM Post #27 of 28
Config Is

P4-3.00 GHZ (Socket 478)
ASROCK P4S61 Motherboard
Zalman CNPS 7700 CU Cooler
1024 MB Ram (PC3200)
Lite-ON DVD Rom Drive
Sony DVD Burner
Western Digital 120 GB HD (not sure about model)

Nvidia GeForce FX 5700LE
EMU 1212M

350W Raidmax PSU (I think it is a pretty crappy one)

I don't use my graphics card for gaming - just for putting images on my monitor. So I don't think it will run too hot.
There is a side cooler installed in the case - which is now louder than the CPU cooler. Should I keep it going or can I unplug it?
 
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