Please help me quieten my PC

[steveg]

Hi,

The noise of my PC is beginning to get on my nerves. I currently have the following offending components:

Coolermaster HHC-L61 'silent' heatpipe cooler
2 X Antec blue case fans
Abit KX7-333 mobo with northbridge fan
Leadtek gt4 ti4200 with big fan
Cheap noisy 350w PSU

With an XP2400 my CPU temps have been climbing up to almost 60 deg C with the recent hot weather. I am thinking of doing one of the following:
* Replace the PSU for a quiet one and attempt to quiten down the case fans, leave the heatsink as is
* Replace the heatsink for a better one (i.e. Aero 7) and possibly disconnect the case fans altogether

I would have concerns over keeping the current HSF and slowing down the case fans as I would imagine temperatures would rise.

Does the Zalman PSU have the auto fan control gubbins? Are there any cheaper ones that also do this? And I currently have a 350w PSU, will 300 be enough for my XP, 2 hard disks, 2 CD ROMs etc?

I have already cutout the fan guard holes in the case which makes little or no difference to the overall noise.

ANy other suggestions are welcomed. I am not bothered about drive noises, just the constant fan hum. I have a Compaq P4 machine at work that makes no noise. The fans spin up for a few seconds when you first power it on, but after that you can't hear anything.

Cheers.

[steveg]

PS I am willing to spend up to £100 as long as I can definitely see (or hear!) a benefit. Although I would rather spend less.

[Alan]

You haven't said what kind of case?

The Zalman quiet PSU runs in silent mode up to about 45ºC then speeds up a bit then after 55ºC, runs faster. It usually doesn't leave the silent setting though gaming in this hot weather will make it speed up.

If the CM cooler is the one I think it is, then it probably runs at approximately 7,000rpm and is a delta style fan. The silent one is the L71 "Fujiyama" but it is only for the P4. The L61, I take it, has a high pitched whine?


Antec blue LED fans are not particularly quiet - about 34dBA - you want something around the 25dBA mark but the Papst silent fans (available at Kustom), though silent, shift about 19 to 21 cfm as opposed to a more typical 35cfm so they are not really the solution for something that is already hot.

Surprisingly, I have found, especially in this recent weather, a good exhaust fan near the PSU is more important than "through flow" of air. Perhaps a fan somewhere between the extremes of speed and noise might be a good compromise - or a larger fan running at a slower speed.

Sadly, (and I have said this before on this forum) a significant part of the problem is that you have an AMD.

(Sorry Conan, I'm saying it again:) ).

[steveg]

My heatsink is the low speed silent jobby which runs at around 3000 revs with a 60mm fan. I tried changing it to a 80mm slower fan which lowered the temp marginally but made no difference to the noise. I previously had a 7000rpm Coolermaster HCC-001 which was seriously unbearable. This one is bearly audible but I have to use more case fans to make up for the lower air flow of the heatsink fan.

I'm not sure what make the case is. It's one of those cheapish silver ones with a window in the side that you seem to be common as muck now (although not when I bought it!). Same as this: http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=42057

Does a proper quality case really make that much difference to noise?

[master baits]

earplugs 1.99 , stick in left ear , repeat with other. 98 quid for beer.

[Alan]

A decent size case CAN make a significant difference. I used the HHC-001 on my PIIIs and using a fan mate to slow the speed did the trick with the noise. (If gaming, put the speed back up, along with the sound effects).

James77 has basically the same hot components as me but his is in a Borg Cube with lots of fans and his temperatures are low, even when overclocked to 3.6GHz.

Mine is in a CM110 with, essentially, all the fans switched off and the temperatures, although high, aren't really life threatening (for the silicon that is).

Space in the case for air to flow from the front of the case and decent fans to vent the air out the back. The area above the CPU to be entirely clear of cables of any sort, Aluminium is a small bonus in the heat stakes, it's major bonus is looks.

[Clarksy]

PC Silencing can end up being a costly affair. You start by silencing the CPU cooler, you can hear the PSU. Silence the PSU, you can hear the GFX card cooler. Silence that and the case fans are too noisy, fix them. Suddenly your CPU cooler is making the most noise again....

Before buying anything make sure you systematically trace the noise. Disconnect fans one by one and see what makes a difference. (Make sure you do this whe the pc is cold and only run it for a few seconds at a time) Also try disconnecting your hard drives too. Does you Graphics card have a fan? This turned out to be the noisiest part of my entire system.


Try disconnecting in this order.

1) CPU Fan,
2) Hard Drive(s) (1 one at a time )
3) Graphics card GPU fan,
4) Case fans ( 1 at a time )


Once you have decided which fans are making all the noise you can set about fixing them...

PSU - http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/product.php?view=1728 - £65.00

CPU - http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/product.php?view=2655 - £38.97

GPU - http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/product.php?view=2815 - £30.00 (depending on your card)

Case fans - Try 7v modding (may not work with LED fans) or disconnect them alltogether.


I have taken all the steps above and have a very quiet CM111 Case, 2700XP CPU, GF TI4600 and Hard drive.

[steveg]

Thanks.

I am convinced my PSU is the worst offender at the moment so I will do something about that first. Then I'll stop all the other fans individually like you say to work out what I can do easily.

I'm not expecting my PC to be totally silent, I just want to reduce the 'roar' that is starting to annoy me.

[Clarksy]

If you feel confident enough you could open your PSU and disconnect the fan inside it temporarly - but ONLY DO THIS IF YOUR SURE YOU WONT END UP GETTING A SHOCK OFF IT!!!!

[conan]

Originally posted by Alan
(Sorry Conan, I'm saying it again:) ).

Carry on long enough and you'll convince me to go to the dark side:D

But, following the thread, also consider swapping your north bridge fan for THIS (http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/product.php?view=2811&PHPSESSID=86e11e43b5189cb977b20cb10cdf23aa). They work well and unless you're doing some serious overclocking it should be enough to cool the chip:)

[Alan]

I'd like to use that on my machine but the way the north briDge hsf is held on is non standard and I don't want to use epoxy.

Also, I think the Zalman 7000cu HSF for the CPU will get in its way.

Damn..

[conan]

Alan, I don't know about the interference from the CPU Cooler but if you mix the epoxy 50/50 with AS3 then it's not too bad to remove. It holds it in place but will come off with a good twist after being frozen.

[blackstar]

Originally posted by steveg
PS I am willing to spend up to £100 as long as I can definitely see (or hear!) a benefit. Although I would rather spend less.
interestingly, P4's are less thermally efficient (regards cooling) the AXP's, due to the thermal interface having an extra layer - heatspreader.
the tbred "b" and Barton cored Athlon's also generate less heat then an equivalent P4 (equivalent = pr, even if this is no longer accurate method of comparing p4c with AXP).
this is quite suprising - therefore, tbred "B" and Barton = cooler, pre tbred "B" = hotter.
so, the issue is not that he has an AMD chip, rather that he may have a palamino cored AXP..

[blackstar]

i cant edit my post, so ill just tag this on at the end.
he has a 2400+, which is therefore a tbred core.. the thermal output (max) is not significantly higher then a 2.4c (max), and thermal junction between die > heatsink is more efficient.

of course, an Athon clocked identically to a P4 would get hotter - it would also be significantly faster, 9ipc vs 6 (although 800fsb has increased average average IPC/ time of p4 significantly)

fast P4's are in no way "cool running" :)

please dont slate AMD without reason.

[steveg]

Cheers for all the replies. I have just fitted an Antec PSU and the difference in noise is almost unbelievable. Totally happy with it at the moment.

I would have got the Zalman one but didn't think 300W was enough.

Anyway as I get used to it I'll probably start wanting to shut other things up. The whine from the hard disks is the most annoying thing now.

[Kynoch]

always going to be one thing louder than another. :D

[conan]

Be warned, you've embarked upon a neverending quest:) Once you start it's very difficult to stop, that's why I ended up watercooling:)

/edit On saying that, I'm starting on the Kids now and gonna see how quiet I can get it on air then compare the two.

[blackstar]

thats the problem with quieting down pc's - the next noisiest thing becomes apparent.. theres passive northbridge coolers (zalman nb32j), 7volt mods to fans (imo, more effective then fitting papst fans), and passive video card coolers (zalman hp80 - a).. and of course, sound absorbtive matting for inside the case.

maybe you could think about a couple of silencing drive enclosures - kustom PC's sells them, as do www.quietpc.com

:)

[blackstar]

if you had a nice papst fan, it would probably be near silent anyway - i just 7v mod standard case fans to quieten them down.. altough i do find Ys tech fans run very quietly as standard (and are fitted to coolermaster cases, afaik anyway) - my Lian- Li has quite noisy fans, even as 7v so i'm going to swap the ones out of my old(er) coolermaster case into it. :D

[Big Adam]

Yeah, I agree.

A good quality standard fan (such as standard YS-techs) 7V nicely whilst still keeping a fairly decent flow-rate.

Word of warning - Don't try and 7V a Papst fan (why would you need to?) without checking the specs. Some low speed models need 12V minimum to operate.

Big A

[conan]

I 7volted the Adda fans in my Lian Li and found them to be as silent as the Papst:)

[blackstar]

cool - i was suprised too, its the top blowhole fan in my pc61 that is noticably loud. at 12v, its VERY loud indeed - perhaps a faulty unit? its louder then the other case fans, including the rear fan which is an identical unit.
it would be a shame to send this case back for 1 fan, so i've decided to replace them with ys tech fans @ 7v - any ideas about how to remove the lian- li fans? the top + rear ones are held in place with plastic rivets(!)..

[neocleous]

I have two papst fans in my case 8412NGML which is 19 db dont get me wrong there quite but I have also taken the path of a silent PC and they still seem quite loud so I 7V them and you cant hear them. I think I found them loud because one fan on its own is very quite almost silent however switch the second fan on and the noise really increases. I think this is because the frequency of both of the fans is in phase with each other so the noise is adding constructivly making the fans much louder then they really are. I dont know how practicle or even if it is possible but if the fans were exactly 90 degrees out of phase with each other the fans would be literaly silent as the waves would cancel each other out.

[Big Adam]

Don't forget that what you place in front of the fans can make a HUGE difference due to the added turbulance.

Bio-hazard grills all round may look neat but your ears will suffer. Better to use standard wire grills or better still, nothing!

Same goes for standard pressed vents on cases and PSUs. A quick dremel and file job, together with a wire grill will drastically reduce the noise level at very little cost (will also screw your warranty tho')

Big a

[conan]

Originally posted by blackstar
cool - i was suprised too, its the top blowhole fan in my pc61 that is noticably loud. at 12v, its VERY loud indeed - perhaps a faulty unit?

Could be some vibration, I had that with my top fan also. I took the fan off the case and it was fine, it's just a big panel with nothing on it except for a fan in the middle. I just put some slivers of paper in between the fan and the panel and that cured it.

[blackstar]

that sounds very likely in fact - a good explanation.

i replaced the fans with ystech fans, and they are slightly quieter - i do think that the top fan may always be very slightly louder (as you say), but testing my ADDA out of the case, it sounded very noisy - maybe it has a manufacturing flaw. never mind though :D

thx for all replies.
i would say replacing the fans is not as straightforward as screw fitted fans, particularly the top blower fan. but its very doable indeed :D
and i'm happy with the results too.

[Welly]

whats this about, how do you do it and what does it do?

[Raelrigs]

Originally posted by Welly
whats this about, how do you do it and what does it do?

the 7v mod is affectively what it says

to do it you need to limit the power to the fans from 12v to 7v inturn slowing the fan down and quietening them at the same time

how do i do this i hear you cry - well you need to get this (http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/product.php?view=2813) or maybe one of these (http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/product.php?subcat=19).

hope that helps

Rael

[Welly]

that could be expensive with having 5 case fans in my PC. :(

[Raelrigs]

indeed!!! but well worth the silence (IMHO)

Rael