Silence my new pc

Scottie2004 · 11 Jul 2006 at 11:44

Hi,

I've recently bought a new rig with the Antec Sonata II case and an X1800 XT. I'm quite disappointed with the noise coming off of it as I was expecting near silent. When at idle there is still a low humm. When I take the case lid off I hear the loudest noise coming from the CPU Fan which was the stock AM2 one. If I bought a 64 Freezer pro would I notice a decline in the ambient noise coming off the pc? Also, when the X1800 XT powers up in games the fan is pretty noisy, is there a utility to adjust the fan speed or am I better getting a replacement GPU cooler? Any suggestions?

grahamjenks · 11 Jul 2006 at 11:51

The artic freezer pro isn't silent at full speed - although with something like a zalman fanmate you can slow the fan down and it pretty much silent. The cooler on the x1800xt will be the next problem - replace it with th zalman vf900 if you want to aim for silence. You can also alter the rear exhaust fan on this case.

Admiral Huddy · 11 Jul 2006 at 11:51

I'm not to familiar with that case. Does that case have 120mm fans? Any 80mm fans are going to be noisy. Also, do the case screws/HHD mounts have rubber washers.. that works a treat to stop unwanted vibrations.

Also, what about your PSU?

Grahpics card.. maybe time for a new cooler.

What H/Ds you got.. depending on the bearings, these can be quite noisy.

Scottie2004 · 11 Jul 2006 at 12:32

120mm fans, I think in the general the case is noted for being pretty quiet. It has rubber grommets, admittedly the new hard drive is audible but I don't mind that. PSU is pretty silent as well. I'm just wondering to what degree a decent CPU cooler can reduce the ambient noise from the computer?

Scottie2004 · 11 Jul 2006 at 12:39

grahamjenks said:
The artic freezer pro isn't silent at full speed - although with something like a zalman fanmate you can slow the fan down and it pretty much silent. The cooler on the x1800xt will be the next problem - replace it with th zalman vf900 if you want to aim for silence. You can also alter the rear exhaust fan on this case.

Why would I want to alter the rear exhaust fan? I'm pretty sure at the moment this case is near silent. It's really the CPU / GPU that makes the noise I think.

grahamjenks · 11 Jul 2006 at 12:54

Scottie2004 said:
Why would I want to alter the rear exhaust fan? I'm pretty sure at the moment this case is near silent. It's really the CPU / GPU that makes the noise I think.

You might not unless you've not go it on the lowest setting! I find when set to medium it is audible even with the case in my desk.

Scottie2004 · 11 Jul 2006 at 13:12

grahamjenks said:
You might not unless you've not go it on the lowest setting! I find when set to medium it is audible even with the case in my desk.

When you first got the Sonata II did you use a CPU stock cooler at any point? Did you notice a difference between previous cooler and Freezer 64 with regards to noise?

Rick_Barnes · 11 Jul 2006 at 14:02

you can use ATI tool to slow the fan speed down on your x1800, that should help lower the noise, but ultimatley an artic cooler or Zalman cooler is what you need to get rid of it all together

grahamjenks · 11 Jul 2006 at 14:02

Scottie2004 said:
When you first got the Sonata II did you use a CPU stock cooler at any point? Did you notice a difference between previous cooler and Freezer 64 with regards to noise?

No I didn't I'm afriad - was using a zalman cooler with my previous skt 754 board and went straight to 939 with a artic freezer pro. Never used the stock in this case.

pcoltrane · 11 Jul 2006 at 14:12

A scythe ninja will happily cool that CPU passively with no noise at all. However - I'm not sure if there is an AM2 version out yet.

Marc

Admiral Huddy · 11 Jul 2006 at 15:50

Personally, i didn't notice any difference in noise levels from switching from a stock cooler to the freezer 64 becuase of other fans.

However, my PC is quiet anyway so i'm not to bothered.

I think the Seasonic 600w PSU, the Samsung HD and the passively cooled chipset all help.

I've now added an Aero cooler too.

young lad · 11 Jul 2006 at 19:04

I have same case all i hear is my x1800xt and i ahve a 64 cpu cooler,
What i will be upgrading my my gfx coolor then i am almost silent from a simple ear test on which component is noiseist and also you can change your fan speed on the x180x0t with ati tool 0.25 8 beta i think it is.

Vegeta · 11 Jul 2006 at 19:13

Arctic cooler freezer 64 pro is far from silent, I have one and its the loudest thing in my pc, I let it run at 1000 rpm rather than the standard full speed 2500 which makes it quiet.
I also have a x1800xt, this sounds terrible the stock cooler when gaming is really loud, get a Zalman VF900 and stick the fan on low via the provided fanmate, this will sort out the two major sounds from the PC.

What psu/case fans/northbridge fans/hard drive do you have?

Scottie2004 · 12 Jul 2006 at 14:25

Vegeta said:
Arctic cooler freezer 64 pro is far from silent, I have one and its the loudest thing in my pc, I let it run at 1000 rpm rather than the standard full speed 2500 which makes it quiet.
I also have a x1800xt, this sounds terrible the stock cooler when gaming is really loud, get a Zalman VF900 and stick the fan on low via the provided fanmate, this will sort out the two major sounds from the PC.

What psu/case fans/northbridge fans/hard drive do you have?

The noise coming off of the ATI x1800 xt doesn't bother me when I'm gaming, it's the ambient noise at night when my pc is still on acting as a media server.

Mobo has no onboard fans, passive cooling. Bought it specifically for this reason so the mobo is silent.

Young lad -> When your pc is idle is it still the GPU cooler you hear above the CPU? I've just been using my ear as a guide but I'm convinced the stock AM2 cooler is the noisiest.

Vegeta · 12 Jul 2006 at 14:30

Scottie2004 said:
The noise coming off of the ATI x1800 xt doesn't bother me when I'm gaming, it's the ambient noise at night when my pc is still on acting as a media server.

It's all relative I suppose but the noise of the x1800xt is too much for me.

krooton · 12 Jul 2006 at 16:30

Adjust the idle fan speed of your gfx card with AtiTool, I use it to keep my X800 fan at 30% when idling.

I have a thermalright XP90 with a Panaflo 92mm fan hooked up to my fan controller, and a Tagen PSU.

All incredibly quiet in my P180

young lad · 13 Jul 2006 at 20:07

Scottie2004 said:
Young lad -> When your pc is idle is it still the GPU cooler you hear above the CPU? I've just been using my ear as a guide but I'm convinced the stock AM2 cooler is the noisiest.

Yes because i set my GPU cooler useing atitool to 40% all the time untill it gets hotter that 65C But i am replasing both soon as they both are loud.