Noise reduction?

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18 Jan 2006
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I've recently upgraded my set up to the one in my sig, and I love the performance I'm getting. I've yet to O/C the cpu, but intend to do so eventually.

What I do not love, however, is the noise that my system makes when the fans on the 7970 spin up. The minute that I start playing any game, they are whizzing and whirring like mad, and it's noisy. The wife does not like noise, and so neither do I.

I'm sure that part of the solution will be a new case, and some proper cable management. I've got an Antec 900 with some noise dampening foam, but the cables are everywhere, and that's got to be causing higher temps than normal and the fans to have to spin more than they should. I'm looking at the cases designed for quiet PCs (things like the Fractal Design R4 and the Nanoxia Deep Silences), but worry that the suboptimal cooling on these will cause the GPU to continue to make a racket.

So, i thought that mebbe Watercooling might be my answer. I'm guessing that it would have to be a custom loop, due to wanting to remove the gpu fans, but then I start looking at blocks and get confused and give up. I also worry that the pump and fan noise for a watercooling solution will be louder in day to day operation than my existing set up.

So, is watercooling really that much quieter? Is there any way to cool my Gigabyte windforce 7970 under water? Would a water set up with a big case be better than an air set up with a quiet case and better airflow?

What do you think?
 
it is much quieter in general compared to stock cooling.
I used to hate the spin up of my 6970 and now with CF 7970s and CPU under water I only get a light hum.

Sound will depend on the rads you choose to push or pull air through.
The fans you use, get yourself some quality fans and attach to a fan controller.
pumps generally are fairly quiet. I would suggest to get some foam like a shoggy sandwich to dampen vibration from the pump.

EDIT: I am not sure if there are appropriate blocks for your particular card anyway
 
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Water cooling can be made almost silent, but its an expensive way of just getting rid of the stock cooler noise, Artic Accelero might be the way to go if people can confirm its a lot quieter than stock.
 
It'll fit any 79xx card and it's very quiet even at 100% fan speed.

Might want to check your case clearance around the HDD bays though.

Edit: Have a read through here. Big thread, but very informative and even a little entertaining :)
 
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Fantastic, that's excellent news. I shall have a good read through the thread and mebbe look to go with the new cooler and a new case. Thanks for the help and advice
 
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