Case cooling / fan advice please

PixelChef

PixelChef

PixelChef

Soldato
Joined
8 Oct 2007
Posts
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Hi,

I've never really bothered with buying extra fans in my case or replacing the ones that came with the case, etc. Or anything to do with fans for that matter :o so I am quite the novice when it comes to cooling.

Basically, my problem is noise. Even when idle, the PC is quite loud, under load while playing games etc, it can be very noisy. I'm pretty sure that most or all of the noise is coming from the graphics card, but the heat of it would be caused by the overall case cooling?

Nothing in my system is overclocked. Also might be worth mentioning that my PC seems to get very dusty quickly.

Pics of my setup below:

wUXkrpT.jpg

f6JB5R9.jpg


The case is an Antec P182 Midi Tower (I think), and the fans attached to the case are stock. The CPU cooler is an Akasa AK-CC4009EP01 Venom Pico Compact

I have a feeling that the CPU cooler is facing the wrong direction? Perhaps it should be facing downwards onto the graphics card.

So, any ideas how I can improve my fan setup to reduce noise and stop my graphics card sounding like an airplane taking off when under load? (be it replacement fans, extra fans, changing CPU cooler direction, etc)

Thanks :)
 
I would taking everything out and dust and clean it all. You might find temps are higher because of dust build up and so your fans are constantly at 100%. If your CPU and exhaust fans are loud gentle typhoons make a good replacement in combination with a fan controller.

Has your GPU always been loud at load?

Turning your CPU fan to point at your GPU wont do that much and will just probably make your components around your GPU dusty over time. There are a few solutions out there if you search for replacing graphic card coolers but im pretty sceptical about them all. I think there is an AIO GPU water loop which to be honest is quite expensive and not that effective. For the price of it you might as well sell your current GPU and buy a new more recent one which is known to have good quiet cooling.

You can also get a PCIe fan to direct assist in cooling your GPU, but im pretty sceptical about how effective that will be in reducing temperature enough to lower your GPU fan speed. As a rule, if you want to make a PC quieter, dont add more fans, replace them!
 
Avenged7Fold said:
I would taking everything out and dust and clean it all. You might find temps are higher because of dust build up and so your fans are constantly at 100%. If your CPU and exhaust fans are loud gentle typhoons make a good replacement in combination with a fan controller.

Has your GPU always been loud at load?

Turning your CPU fan to point at your GPU wont do that much and will just probably make your components around your GPU dusty over time. There are a few solutions out there if you search for replacing graphic card coolers but im pretty sceptical about them all. I think there is an AIO GPU water loop which to be honest is quite expensive and not that effective. For the price of it you might as well sell your current GPU and buy a new more recent one which is known to have good quiet cooling.

You can also get a PCIe fan to direct assist in cooling your GPU, but im pretty sceptical about how effective that will be in reducing temperature enough to lower your GPU fan speed. As a rule, if you want to make a PC quieter, dont add more fans, replace them!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I can't really remember, but I think my GPU has always been fairly loud. But overall, the PC seems to be getting gradually louder (maybe due to fans being old, case/case fans must be at least 4-5 years old now).

I did actually take the fans out a few months ago and clean them the best I could, also there is a fan controller on the back of the case for the top and rear exhaust fans, these are both set to low.

I think I will replace the top and rear fans on the case. Any suggestions on some very quiet but effective fans? (pref. not too expensive either.)

By the way, should by CPU fan be facing the rear exhaust fan so that the (presumably) hot air is blown out?
 
How loud is the system when you disable the case fans?

My "quietlist" of fans is

Scythe Slipstream 500
Xigmatek xof f1251
Enermax ub silence
Akasa Apache FN058
 
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how have you got the fans setup, rear and top ones drawing air out of the case ?

how many front fans do you have and are they drawing air into the case ?

if the fan controllers are set to HIGH does the noise increase ?

its better if the cpu fan and rear fan(s) work together, so if your rear one is drawing air out of the case then make sure the cpu one is pushing air through the cooler to the rear fan.
 
dacads said:
How loud is the system when you disable the case fans?

My "quietlist" of fans is

Scythe Slipstream 500
Xigmatek xof f1251
Enermax ub silence
Akasa Apache FN058
Click to expand...

It's still loud with case fans. Thanks for the recommendation for quiet fans.

mp260767 said:
how have you got the fans setup, rear and top ones drawing air out of the case ?

how many front fans do you have and are they drawing air into the case ?

if the fan controllers are set to HIGH does the noise increase ?

its better if the cpu fan and rear fan(s) work together, so if your rear one is drawing air out of the case then make sure the cpu one is pushing air through the cooler to the rear fan.
Click to expand...

Yes rear and top ones are drawing air out of the case. Setting the case fans to high does increase noise yep. I've put my hand next to the CPU fan and I can barely feel it blowing any air, but I will turn it 180 degrees to face the rear fan to see if that helps.

EDIT: Forgot to add that there are no fans at the front, only the ones you see in the picture.

greenbrucelee said:
is teh fan on the cpu cooler an intake or exhaust fan? if its exhaust you have it mounted the wrong way. Fan should be on the left i.e 180 degrees turn.
Click to expand...

I think it's exhaust, hard to tell because can barely feel any air coming out either side :p
 
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Pull the gpu out and boot it to see if it's the gpu fan. After that stop individual fans for a moment with your finger to find the noisy ones. Prob best to stop the middle of the fan btw
 
It's almost definitely the GPU fan. I've slowed it down manually using Afterburner and 80% of the noise is gone. But, my thinking is that the overall case is too hot which is causing the GPU to be too hot? What else can it be? Unless the GPU is faulty.

FvcIRBg.jpg
 
Simple way to tell which way a fan is blowing is by looking at fan. The side with nothing but fan showing is intake. The side with the braces/mount for fan motor is exhaust. Never seen a computer where this was not true.

Antec Tri-cool fans are not great but not terrible either. (I've used lots of them in the past.. still have some setting around) I notice you have HDD cage in. Moving your HDDs to bottom rack and removing the top HDD cage will help airflow. Do you have fans in both front intake vents? When were filters last cleaned? Dirty filters increase noise and heat. Having more fans mean they can spin slower / quieter and still move as much or more air. How many case fans do you have?

I assume your GTX 470 is a reference card and reference cards are noisy... and not much can be done short of replacing the cooling system on them.

If you want the quietest system, your mobo supports PWM and you can afford it get all new PWM fans and a Gelid PWM splitter with molex power. Run all fans on the PWM splitter with CPU cooler fan as master. All fans will idle when system idles and ramp up as CPU load / heat increases.
 
oL said:
It's almost definitely the GPU fan. I've slowed it down manually using Afterburner and 80% of the noise is gone. But, my thinking is that the overall case is too hot which is causing the GPU to be too hot? What else can it be? Unless the GPU is faulty.
Click to expand...

Just posted some suggestions.

How old is your GPU? If a year or more I would start with a good cleaning and probably re-seat GPU cooler.
 
@doyll, thanks for the reply. I'd never heard of reference cards before. After googling yes I think mine is. The card is 3 years old. I have never cleaned a card before (as in taking it apart), I assume it's fairly simple?

Also, from what you said I think my CPU fan is in the correct direction. I will try moving the HDD's to the lower cage and removing the upper one, but probably worth cleaning the GPU first.

In total the case has only 3 fans, top, rear, and one at the bottom next to the PSU. There are no fans at the front of the case, the filters there could probably use some cleaning.

I'm not too bothered about having a silent system, but this is too noisy.

Maybe if cleaning the GPU doesn't help, I should get 2 new fans to replace the top and rear ones, then put those two in the front?
 
I suggest moving your HDDs and remove the cage and clean everything first. You might be able to move HDDs up into 5.25 bays. If you have not been cleaning your filters every couple of weeks they are probably plugged with dust.

Your setup is only using 2 fans in main computer area; back and top. Ideally I would like to see 2 front intakes into computer compartment. This would mean removing 3x 5.25 covers and putting an intake fan in their place.

Bottom area has a fan cooling what? PSU can move it's own air in and out of case so the lower front fan at present is helping PSU move air. Maybe move bottom front to upper front intake.

Maybe get 2 new fans for the front? I believe in pushing air through the case instead of trying to pull it out. Using both intake and exhaust together.
 
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doyll said:
I suggest moving your HDDs and remove the cage and clean everything first. You might be able to move HDDs up into 5.25 bays. If you have not been cleaning your filters every couple of weeks they are probably plugged with dust.

Your setup is only using 2 fans in main computer area; back and top. Ideally I would like to see 2 front intakes into computer compartment. This would mean removing 3x 5.25 covers and putting an intake fan in their place.

Bottom area has a fan cooling what? PSU can move it's own air in and out of case so the lower front fan at present is helping PSU move air. Maybe move bottom front to upper front intake.

Maybe get 2 new fans for the front? I believe in pushing air through the case instead of trying to pull it out. Using both intake and exhaust together.
Click to expand...

Alright thanks for your help. I will do as you suggest, but probably won't have time till next weekend so I'll report back then :)
 
Your graphics card will be the loudest thing in your rig, also if you have some old hard drives they can be loud as well.

but to lower noise cheaply, simply buy a fan controller and run your fans at 5 volts.

i have the same case as you and my rig is pretty much silent. To improve your case airflow put your hard drives in the bottom and take the middle drive cage out and place a 120MM fan for intake there, it back in and make a duct for the air to go straight over your graphics card which will help it not ramp up a little.

If you want good fans that shift air and can be silent i would recommend buying a bunch of sycthe slipstream fans 1600 rpm ones as they are cheapest. You can hear them at 1600 rpm but when they are controlled by a fan controller at 5 to maybe 8 volts they are silent. This also give you the room to ramp them up to full whack if you want to benchmark, overclock etc.
 
oh yeh block the roof off, and get rid of the fan, to keep noise from escaping through the roof, temp difference will be next to nothing.
 
oL said:
Hi,

I've never really bothered with buying extra fans in my case or replacing the ones that came with the case, etc. Or anything to do with fans for that matter :o so I am quite the novice when it comes to cooling.

Basically, my problem is noise. Even when idle, the PC is quite loud, under load while playing games etc, it can be very noisy. I'm pretty sure that most or all of the noise is coming from the graphics card, but the heat of it would be caused by the overall case cooling?

Nothing in my system is overclocked. Also might be worth mentioning that my PC seems to get very dusty quickly.

Pics of my setup below:

wUXkrpT.jpg

f6JB5R9.jpg


The case is an Antec P182 Midi Tower (I think), and the fans attached to the case are stock. The CPU cooler is an Akasa AK-CC4009EP01 Venom Pico Compact

I have a feeling that the CPU cooler is facing the wrong direction? Perhaps it should be facing downwards onto the graphics card.

So, any ideas how I can improve my fan setup to reduce noise and stop my graphics card sounding like an airplane taking off when under load? (be it replacement fans, extra fans, changing CPU cooler direction, etc)

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

hey,

i was looking around the net and found by accident the perfect solution for your cpu and graphics card!!! Asetek 760GC Combo Liquid Cooler for NVIDIA GTX 470
 
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