How to Silence an old system

celliott · 29 Oct 2006 at 22:55

I currently have an old P3 Dell SFF unit which is acting as my home server, sharing the internet, files and printers with the other PC's in the house.

I really want to try and make this silent, as I cannot afford a Router, print server and network storage to replace it, plus its easier being able to do it all from one unit.

Cooling in this system is pretty bad, cpu temps are around the 43-45c mark even when its not doing anything. The hard drive is making most of the noise as its one of those old ones that constantly makes a whining sound. This was getting pretty warm so I have fitted a extra 6cm fan in there running at some stupid rpm to help it stay cool.

I have tried many brands of hdd and it seems the only way to get a silent hdd is to buy one of the latest models, which then brings the problem of heat even more.

Whats the easiest way to get this system running quiet (so its barley noticable) and running at reasonable temperatues? Or do you think its a better idea to try and build something cheap that will run quiet?

I have a max budget of £100 for this but would like to spend as little as possible.

Any suggestions appreciated!

Thanks, Chris.

Joe42 · 29 Oct 2006 at 23:21

Best place to start is to get a bigger case. Unless you need it small?
Get something cheapish. I would go for one of the cheaper antec ones with an included antec psu. They are good psus and more importantly quiet.

Also get a cheap box to put the harddisk in, such as the Scythe Quiet Drive and a fan controller and you should be sorted.

Being a dell and an sff you may have problems with non standard components, check to see if the board is standard mAtx, and check that connectors are all standard types and would work with a new psu.

Another option to consider is getting a completely new machine, you can get old but decent machines for £100. You would have to do some reaserch to check its silent, but problems like the old noisy disk, small case and possibly non standard parts would be solved.

celliott · 29 Oct 2006 at 23:24

Well the PSU in this system is already silent. Its just the cpu fan and the hdd which are causing all the noise.

What sort of price am I looking at for the Quietdrive?

Joe42 · 29 Oct 2006 at 23:25

celliott said:
Well the PSU in this system is already silent. Its just the cpu fan and the hdd which are causing all the noise.

In that case go for a scythe quiet drive to sort out the harddisk. What size fan is the cpu fan? I'm guessing 40mm, in which case get a zalman fanmate or something to slow it down, and if that doesn't work a new quieter fan.

I bought a quiet drive earlier today and it cost me £30 exc postage.
Going to see if its as good or better than my Nexus drive a way.

I assume you have a bay to fit the quiet drive in?

Hades · 29 Oct 2006 at 23:32

If looks are not an issue then get a cheap large heatsink and 120mm fan fron the members market. Cut a large hole in the case and mount it. Then spend the rest on a cheap Samsung Spinpoint hdd also from the forums.

Or sell it and put the money towards a NAS

Could probably build one for £100.

Joe42 · 29 Oct 2006 at 23:34

I don't think these cheap nas boxs are much good. I decided to build a cheap fileserver rather than get a nas because they were either too expensive for what they are or had rubbish performance.
And i suffer from the same noisy old harddisk problem

But its not in my room so i don't care.

I think if noise did become a problem for me i would try to move it to a different room before spending lots of money on silencing.

You should consider that, as that £100 spent on silencing could be spent on 500gb of storage.

celliott · 29 Oct 2006 at 23:59

I must admit I do like the idea of having the server in another room but there isnt anywhere else it could go really, and I would have to move the printer too since its USB only.

Joe42 · 30 Oct 2006 at 00:35

celliott said:
I must admit I do like the idea of having the server in another room but there isnt anywhere else it could go really, and I would have to move the printer too since its USB only.

That reminds me, so would i

Not such a good idea after all perhaps. Can't really hide it away somewhere with a printer attached. Although you can get a print server for around £40...