Silence My Beast

not really sure where this should have gone so i posted here in Case Central...

performance wise i'm dead chuffed with my PC since i built it a few months ago, noise wise i'm not so pleased. it's been something that has always been on my "to do" list and i'm finally getting round to doing it, but would like some advice.

here's what i've got, what i'm pleased with and what i'm not:

AMD64 4000+ @2.6GHz (cooled by an Artic Freezer 64 Pro - pleased with this)
DFI LanParty SLI-D (northbridge fan isn't too loud, not much i could do with it anyway because of the GFX card over hanging the fan)
2GB G.Skill ZX DDR400
Point Of View 7800GT (stock cooler... needs sorting, but what with?)
74GB WD Raptor (not the best thing for a quiet pc, but its staying )
120GB Seagate Barracuda (not noisey at all)
NEC DVDRW (noisey little blighter IMO)
Hiper Type-R 580w PSU (not pleased at all, gone through two of these and the build quality is poor this ones PCIe connector doesn't even fit into a graphics card, i'm having to use a 2xmolex to PCIe converter... anyway... fan is noiseyish...)
1x120mm fan (unsure of brand, came with case.. too loud for my liking)
Antec Sonata I Case


here's what sitting in my shopping cart at the moment

FG-001-AF Acousti Ultra-Soft Arrowhead Fan Mounts - 8 Pack (FG-001-AF)
£2.95 £2.95
FG-000-GE Fan Guard - 120mm (Gold) (FG-000-GE)
£0.95 £0.95
FG-024-AK Akasa AK-183-L2B Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - 3 pin (FG-024-AK)
£8.95 £8.95
CD-053-LO Liteon SHW-16H5S-05C 16x Lightscribe DVD±RW (Black) - OEM (CD-053-LO)
£24.95 £24.95
HS-013-ZA Zalman VF700-CU Quiet Copper VGA Cooler (HS-013-ZA)
£19.95 £19.95
Subtotal £57.75
VAT £10.11
Total £67.86

i realise the VF900 Zalman cooler is out, but its a little out of my price range. i did look at the Accelero X1 coolers and the look nice on OcUK but reading reviews and looking at pictures of them in cases they look ghastley, and seem rather ineffective and also seem to push most of the air back down onto the motherboard rather than getting it out of the case

anybody have experience with Liteon drives, are they quiet? (Lightscribe is a must)

i'm thinking of a Seasonic PSU, would 500w be ample or should i go for 600w ?

i'm not sure what to do about the Raptor, no matter what i do this will be the main thing that will make noise in the PC... now to be fair i dont think its as noisey as some make out... only when its being accessed does it really make noise but when its idle i can't hear it. could i stick it in a 5.2" enclosure to make it quieter? any preferences as to which ones are good?

cheers for the advice

Well a Silentmaxx drive enclosure would lower the raptors noise down drastically.

The rest seems what I would be doing to silence my PC, seems as though you have most sorted, but I would run the fans at 5/7v though, just to make it that bit quieter.

Yewen said:

Well a Silentmaxx drive enclosure would lower the raptors noise down drastically.

The rest seems what I would be doing to silence my PC, seems as though you have most sorted, but I would run the fans at 5/7v though, just to make it that bit quieter.

Click to expand...

cool

annoyingly you can't get the SlientMaxx enclosures from OcUK at the mo :-/
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/cgi-b...ccessories.html#aHS_2d000_2dOK#aHS_2d000_2dOK
they're on the page but say 4-7 days and no buy button

how'd you run the fans at a different voltage? would a Zalman Fan Mate do the job?

sorry never bothered with this sort of stuff before

cheers for the nod on everything else though... anybody care to comment on the Liteon Drives? (guess i'll have to post in the Opticals forum for better view on these)

Most drives are about the same, I just always use NEC, only ever make noise when the drive is being used, and if you are at the PC doing something, I can usually bear the noise!

There is a guide in the sticky under V for normal case fan volt modding, the 4 pin variety.

Yeh the fanmate should be able to, although some only lower them slightly.

If you mod a delta to 5v, it becomes bearable

okay cool, i did look through the sticky before.. no idea how i missed the volt modding thing as it is the ONLY thing under V

i think i'll have a go at that and see how it effects the case fan i've got in here at the moment.

my NEC isn't noisey when its just sitting there (dont think it makes any noise at all tbh) but is quite when it spins up.

Gah, just noticed on a competitors (american part of their) webby that the Silencer isn't compatible with the Sonata II case... which is damn near identical to the Sonata I... so i dont think it will work. It doesn't mention this fact in their UK section though :-/

Have emailed them about the matter hoping they can give some info... can't seem to find anything on google about the matter...

Mutemat vers Foam

I tried some fabric type stuff called Mutemat as it was a lot cheaper than the foams that I had seen. Not perfect but easy to do and makes a difference. Anybody else had any results?

If you're concerned about drive speed noise on your NEC DVD-RW then install Drive Speed on your computer. I've used the Drive Speed Utility to reduce the disc read/playback speed on my NEC drive so that the drive is quiet. However, writing to a disc is noisy.

Also, it's worth investing in a quieter PSU, an aftermarket cooler for the graphics card (try the Zalman VF900 instead of the VF700), a fan controller and/or quiet 120mm case fans and finally some form of acousting matting/foam. The foam/matting won't silence the PC but it can help to make the noise more bearable (usually by changing the tone/pitch). I'm not particularly fond of rubber fan mounts myself because they're too flimsy although they are supposed to do a good job of reducing case vibration. If the silentmaxx drive enclosure isn't compatible with your case then look at one of the many alternative drive enclosures (e.g. scythe).

After doing all of the above you'll soon start to appreciate how loud a hard drive can be, my seagate drive is the noisiest component in my pc so i imagine that your raptor will be even worse.

Good luck