Quieter PC

rhirhi · 16 Aug 2006 at 21:23

My current spec is:
Thermaltake mystic case
e6300
Asrock Xfire Mobo
2 GB Corsair Value RAM
Antec 450W Smartpower PSU
X1800XT
Samsung Spinpoint 250 GB HD
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 HDD
Standard Thermaltake 1 x 80mm fan, 2 x 60 mm fan
Anyway i was sitting here today looking at my new computer and behind the system fans i can hear a faint whirring noise, just wondering what it could be.
Also i am looking at trying to make this PC as quiet as i can for as cheap as possible. The case is fairly big but not quite big enough to fit an arctic freezer 64 pro, case is about 5 mm to short. I have only overclocked to 2100 as i think that is all the mobo will let me (read elsewhere) but this is plenty fast enough.
Any ideas on the quietening. Thanks

dante6491 · 16 Aug 2006 at 21:44

you mean freezer 7 dont you, the 64 wont fit. You could fit a VF-900 on the x1800xt, not sure if you mobo is passive cooled or not, but you could fit one of those zalmans, replace all case fans with asaka ambers and mount the hard drive in a passive cooler/ accustive dampening. I liek *** way mine are mounted, i have them suspended on elastic bands so they dont rattle the case

Devils-Blood · 16 Aug 2006 at 22:12

I would have gone for a thermatake case with two 120mm fans. Very quiet and the fans move masses of air through the case.

ScoobyDoo · 16 Aug 2006 at 22:32

Its worth investigating the noise. Try unplugging the fans etc one by one to see which is making the noise. Ive done this with my media centre pc, there was a loud whine coming from it. I found that it was one fan which was vibrating through the case. Put a fan controller on it and turned it down and that solved the problem.

Worth listening to find out where its coming from before spending money to silence it.

Mrchu_ · 16 Aug 2006 at 23:58

test all the fans including the power supply.
to do this (scary but safe,if done correctly)short circuit this (google search for shorting psu)turn it on, and in a quiet room have a listen.These fans can be replaced with quality ones with quieter bearings,if they suggest excessive noise.This has worked for me in the past.

chipset fans on mb are notoriously nasty.(and loud)replace with fan mate and better cooler or passive if theres space.

x1800xt is loud but what do you do.Depends on your experience as to whether you start replacing the cooler.suggestion; setting profiles for the overclocks you use for different games and turn the sound up,on oclocks during gameplay.

case fans => fanmate.larger ones at slower speeds,get yourself a dremel style tool for case mods.see modfathers(hope i can add that)They have some links for fans mods and how tos.but a member might know where a fan mod page/thread might be

martianrobot · 17 Aug 2006 at 01:10

dante6491 said:
I liek *** way mine are mounted, i have them suspended on elastic bands so they dont rattle the case

How do you do that? I have a Samsung Spinpoint 250gb too, and am disappointed that its louder, hotter and more vibratory (is that a word?) than other Spinpoints I've had in the past.

I have an Antec NSK4400 case that comes with rubber mounting grommets for drives but I still get some nasty vibrations now and then, including the odd bizarre rolling vibration that won't go away.

Am thinking about investing in a P180... or maybe if I get good money for one of my kidneys, the Zalman TNN 500AF.

martianrobot · 17 Aug 2006 at 01:22

Mrchu_ said:
x1800xt is loud but what do you do.Depends on your experience as to whether you start replacing the cooler.suggestion; setting profiles for the overclocks you use for different games and turn the sound up,on oclocks during gameplay.

I did try replacing the standard X1800XT fan with an Arctic Cooling Accelero X2 fan, but was not impressed with the way it blew hot air straight at the mobo instead of out of the case - yes, it was quiet, but my system temp went up 10-15 degrees and cpu temp went up 5 to 10 depending on load!

So instead I've put the stock cooler back on and use atitool to quieten it down, in fact, I've un-installed the Catalyst Crash-Prone-Resource-Hog Centre and use atitool for everything.

I've set it up so that at bootup it sets itself to use a low speed profile so my X1800XT uses less power and therefore generates a bit less heat - I set the core to 300 and memory to 350 which is a 50% underclock. Then it automatically detects when a 3D game starts and goes to the default 600/700 speed. I also set the fan to be dynamic so that for anything up to 65 degress it runs at a very quiet 18%, then 23%, 27%, 36%, increasing incrementally like that according to temp up to about 75% for over 100 degrees which its never got anywhere near. It runs at idle in the low speed profile at under 65 degrees and usually hits about 80 when in heavy games.

My system, which has a 50% overclock on the CPU, now runs very quietly normally (apart from the case vibration from the hard drive mentioned above) and the fan noise is not noticeable in games with the sound on normal volumes, though I do have a nice pair of full closed cup Sennheiser headphones which helps too

I have a ThermalTake Big Typhoon for the CPU and a single Antec Tricool 120mm case fan set to low, though am thing of investing in 80mm inblowing Acoustifan for front. My system runs at about 35-45 degress and CPU 25 to 35 depending on load. Nice.

shimy182 · 17 Aug 2006 at 01:54

have you got a flow going through your system? and maybe a fan at the top blowing out. Hot air rises and if your keeping that in or blowing it back down thats no good.

there are cases with 25cm fans, because there big the RPM can stay slower than any other fans therefore less noise. seach 25cm on fleabay and take a look.

shimy

martianrobot · 17 Aug 2006 at 02:06

shimy182 said:
have you got a flow going through your system? and maybe a fan at the top blowing out. Hot air rises and if your keeping that in or blowing it back down thats no good.

there are cases with 25cm fans, because there big the RPM can stay slower than any other fans therefore less noise. seach 25cm on fleabay and take a look.

shimy

My 120mm Tricool is chugging it out the back. The mentally large Big Typhoon on the CPU sits about 2 cm from from the case side vent - its so big I had to remove the supplied duct from that vent! The SmartPower PSU has no vents at the bottom so that is just blowing its own heat out, nice and quietly. I guess I do need a fan at the front to suck cool air in, though I feel my temps are pretty good as they are. Will probably get an Acoustifan from my local Craplin store tomorrow.

I guess those cases you've seen with the dopper fans are BTX? Not sure where I'd put a 25cm fan as my case is only 19cm wide, and if it was to go on the side panel it would have to be pretty slimline so it could fit in the case with the Big Typhoon!

dante6491 · 17 Aug 2006 at 11:57

well the p180 cam with these annoying brackets to mount the harddrives and i couldnt get them to work (they sue screws then click in place and arrrghhhh) so i just left the screws, out and elastic band x4 (one for each screw) under them and tightened. then jsut fix them to the case somehow, cable tie, look the elastric abdn through itself first etc.

martianrobot · 17 Aug 2006 at 19:30

dante6491 said:
well the p180 cam with these annoying brackets to mount the harddrives and i couldnt get them to work (they sue screws then click in place and arrrghhhh) so i just left the screws, out and elastic band x4 (one for each screw) under them and tightened. then jsut fix them to the case somehow, cable tie, look the elastric abdn through itself first etc.

Might have to give something like that a try - not much room for hanging hard drives in my Antec NSK4400 though, especially with the Big Typhoon taking up about half the case!