Advice on reducing PC noise please?

silverburn2000

silverburn2000

silverburn2000

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Joined
22 Nov 2010
Posts
47
hi,
a few questions about cutting down the (-droning, irritating!) noise from my pc:
i was planning on replacing the stock extraction fans at the back of the case with two Xilence red wing 80mm fans, would this be a good choice?
the decibel level seems good in the spec details but how do i know if the air volume it will move is enough?

im also looking for a quiet/silent graphics card as the one i have isnt the quietest!, (-ive posted a question about this in the graphics card section.)

the case has a mesh covered air vent at the side, on the removable panel above the cpu and heatsink approx 4" square, would it be advisable to cover this over and if so what should i use?

ive heard of acoustic insulating material being used like acoustipack for cutting down on the escaping noise, does anyone have any experience or advice on using this sort of material?
im not sure if i could cover the inside of the case with it to cut down the noise, how would this affect the heat build up inside?

sorry about the long story!!
any advice would be much appreciated,

many thanks.

Pc spec:
Mesh praetorian aluminium case, asus a8n-sli deluxe, n force 4 mobo, hec 550w psu, 4gb ddr ram (pc 3200, 400mhz)
athlon 64 x2 4800+ dual core processor, 300gb hard drive, windows xp sp3
(32 bit), Leadtek winfast px 8800gts tdh 640mb nvidia graphics card.
 
If your two 80mm fans are noisy then it's worth replacing them. The Xilence are 1500 rpm fans which are reasonably quiet even at full speed. You may get decent results though by slowing your existing fans down using a fan controller.

As for the vent provided you cover it with something thick enough it will reduce noise emitted from the hole. I used acyrlic to cover a 120mm fan hole and it works well enough.

As for the graphics I think you could go for something around the AMD 6770 or higher to get just a boost in speed. I'm not sure which, if any, could be considered quiet with stock cooling on but I'd go for something with the largest fan and heatsink I could find. If you were upgrading to a 'tide me over' card then I would suggest getting a decent speed card with aftermarket type cooler, or get a reference and fit an aftermarket cooler yourself.

Might be worth kicking that PSU out of your case too. A 70% efficient PSU is very innefficient by today's standards. For every 100W you burn in your PC it must dissipate 30W as heat, meaning the fan spins faster. A 88Plus Gold PSU converts AC to DC power with only 8-9% wasted energy that needs active cooling. Some of the top end Gold rated PSUs don't have the fan spin up until you are pulling over 300W.

As with all noise reduction you must work out which is the noisiest component then either replace it, slow it down or isolate it's vibration/noise from the case.
 
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