spec me some noise reduction

"andy"

"andy"

"andy"

Soldato
Joined
9 Jun 2005
Posts
13,990
hi

right im in the process of giving my pc a bit of an overhaul before i go to uni

first thing i want to do is try and make it a bit quieter ,at the moment it would probably be impossible to leave it on overnight , infact you might even hear it in the next room:p

specs with bits that move , fans etc are :

PSU - is a hyper modular 580w - please dont say this is a noisy psu ! , if it is then how could it be quietened ?

oem ocuk 6800gs agp with stock fan - i know this is noisy . what you recommend for quietness ? any passive coolers good enough for this card ?

2 case fans that came with soprano case - can these be modded to run slower or anything ? i dont overclock and the pc doesn't get that hot

big typhoon cpu cooler :eek: - i think i can just fit any size 120mm fan to this so whats quiet ?




thats it i think ,as said i dont overclock and the cpu is a 4300 cure2duo at 2.0 so shouldnt really run that hot , i think the main issue is the gfx cards fan and the case fans unless the psu is overly noisy

also is there a hdd to look out for thats quiet or are they all similar these days ? any of the caddy things make them quieter ?

im not too fussed about it getting a bit warmer in there since nothings overclocked and i dont game that much

loooking for some value for money cooling , i know i could go spend hundreds on some fancy silent case , psu etc but im not that fussy... or rich

any help or advice would be great ?

is the guide for slowing down fans about and does it work with any case fans ?
 
For case fans get Yate Loons which only cost £3.99. Try stopping the gpu fan while the computer is on and see how much difference it makes before buying an expensive after-market cooler.
 
for the current fans you could try 7v them, use a zalman fan mate or connect them to a fan controller, depending on budget.
if they are connected to the mobo you may be able to control them via speedfan or similar software, same as the gfx card fan.
 
The 120mm fans in a Soprano use 4 pin molex connectors, just 7v them they are quiet enough. You'll have trouble replacing the front fan with another brand as the fans are quite shallow (a 120x25 fan is too fat to fit). Your PSU fan is pretty silent.
 
You could get Yate Loons or Sharkoon silent eagles for the case fans and if you want to replace the cooler fan. 5v mod your existing fans if you stick with them - but check they start ok, 7v mod requires you to draw more power on the 5v line to avoid sending power back into your PSU which is bad. If you get Yate loons you might want to volt mod them still. Mine start without a problem at 5v.

The hyper PSU isn't noisy but it's by far the noisiest thing in my PC - my antec stopped working :(. You could replace it with a seasonic S12 for around £30-£40. These are very quiet. Fanless and semi-fanless PSUs which are quieter still are around £70-130.

If the graphics card cooler is loud try the fanless ones that have just been released - the Arctic Cooling AC-S2 Accelero S2 can be found for less than £10.

Get some rubery cord or something and susspend your hard drives with it in 5 1/4 bays if your PC is still too loud - they can make a lot of noise by making the case vibrate. If you do this make sure they have sufficent airflow not to get too hot. I got some cord at auction for <£3 delivered. Laptop harddrives also tend to be quieter and you can susspend them in the origional bays - I have two WD scorpios RAID 1 in my PC but then I only have 75GB of disk - depends what you need I guess.

What else is there... CD drives will always be noisy unless you go for an external one but then I don't think you'll be running the drive at night. A tip here though - my drive makes noise even when not running if there's a CD in it. It makes no noise if it's empty.

From reviews the fan on the big typhoon is quiet if undervolted. I think it takes a 92mm fan but I could be wrong - remember the diameter of the blades will be smaller than the fan since the measurement is the size of the casing not the blades.

Finally check out Silent PC Review for loads of great info.
 
thanksallot everyone !

some great info in here , i will try 7v / 5v ing the case fans later on or in the morning for sure , probably the cpu fan too , its 120mm and the same branding as the case fans iirc

am going to do some reading up on those silent vga coolers too

gunna get a roll of that stick backed foam to try and stop and vibrations where bits are touching bits

will think about suspenidng the HDDs too ,maybe have to leave that one a few weeks till the comp is at uni so im not transporting it up there with my hard disks swinging about :p

thanks again though all , will let you know how i get on in the morning
 
"andy" said:
will think about suspenidng the HDDs too ,maybe have to leave that one a few weeks till the comp is at uni so im not transporting it up there with my hard disks swinging about :p
Click to expand...

While I agree this is a good idea my drives are very secure while suspended. On the forums over at Silent PC Review there's useful info on how to do it well.
 
Im getting some Antec Tricool case fans for my Soprano tomorrow, so I will let you know how they work tomorrow night-Im getting them mainly for the better airflow than for silence though...

Incidentally, I have the Soprano without the window, and therefore without the 80mm side fan. Does anyone know if this significantly improves cooling? If so, is there anywhere that I can buy a side panel without buying a new case?
 
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