The 'Rolls Royce' of Sound deadening

DamanC

DamanC

DamanC

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Hi Guys, im on a quest to build the 'Rolls Royce' of quiet PC's but on a reasonable budget.

Soi far i have chosen

A Lian Li PC 60
2 x 80mm papist 11db fans
1 x scythe 120mm 8.7db fan
Zalman Passive WC
Lian Li Fan controller
Antec Neo HE500 18DB

My Final item, should it be worth it would be to add some sound deadening. I was looking at Akasa's PaxMate Plus Acoustic Absorption Mat. Firstly, is it any good? And secondly......how does it fit? Is it a case of just cutting to size and sticking to the inside of a case?

Also, do OCUK do vibrating reducing feet for cases? Im sure they used to exist a couple of years ago?

Any imput regarding my choices or the Mat and feet is appreciated :)

Daman
 
Right, what i'd do;

Forget about sound dampening material. It doesn't work great, and the little it does do, is outweighed by the increase in temperature your likely to see. Scrap the 80mm fans. Replace the 120mm scythe fan with a Yate Loon or Nexus fan, and 7 or even 5 volt it. If the PC 60 has meshed fan guards, then cut this away to remove air 'whoshing'. The Zalman Passive WC is fine, although most of the noise from a waterloop is from the pump, so you might be just as good off getting a normal, well specced loop with some low rpm fans, and a nice quiet pump, seated on gel insulation material. And personally id replace the PSU with a Seasonic one.

:)

Edit; Oh and gel or silicone feet if you can find them are a good idea.
 
i went for something for quiet running too,

Goods Shipped:
£7.50 x 2 - Coolink SWiF-801 80mm Case Fan
£29.99 x 1 - Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler

just ordered.

all 3 come with fan controllers that fit into the pci plate slots. so it should perform when neccessary but be quiet when i want it to.

gunna get some tights and hack em up and put em in front of the fans.

Russ.
 
Wouldn't touch the paxmate stuff personally, doesn't do much for noise imo. If you do get it, bluetack it in instead of using the sticky side, you might regret it otherwise ;)
 
also buy one of the new solid state hdd's :) I used to find that once you've quietened your case fans down and cooling, that the HDD will be making a heck of a noise.

:)

or a samsung spinpoint :)
 
Solid state HDD's? Haven't heard of these being used in pc's before, sounds interesting and a next step towards quiet pc's.

£300+ for 32gb's - can't wait until they come down in price :p
 
Thanks for the input guys, appreciated.

Ok, sound insulation out of the window :eek:

messiah khan are you saying do away with the front, 80mm fans all together? Nice idea, but is it sufficient for cooling?

Just for info the rig going in there is simply a P4 775 3.6 2GB, 3HDD and couple of Optical drives. The machine is not going to be overclocked.
 
VaderDSL said:
also buy one of the new solid state hdd's :) I used to find that once you've quietened your case fans down and cooling, that the HDD will be making a heck of a noise.

:)

or a samsung spinpoint :)
Click to expand...

Noted, thanks :)
 
$loth said:
Solid state HDD's? Haven't heard of these being used in pc's before, sounds interesting and a next step towards quiet pc's.

£300+ for 32gb's - can't wait until they come down in price :p
Click to expand...

They have! I remember when they were about £500,000 for 1Gb! :eek:

DamanC said:
Thanks for the input guys, appreciated.

Ok, sound insulation out of the window :eek:

messiah khan are you saying do away with the front, 80mm fans all together? Nice idea, but is it sufficient for cooling?

Just for info the rig going in there is simply a P4 775 3.6 2GB, 3HDD and couple of Optical drives. The machine is not going to be overclocked.
Click to expand...

You might be alright with just one fan if your watercooling tbh. Having said that, you might be better off getting a PC-7, with a 120mm intake and a 120mm exhaust. Whatever you do though, I wouldn't use 80mm fans. Even 'quiet' ones will produce a noticable whine.
 
VaderDSL said:
also buy one of the new solid state hdd's :) I used to find that once you've quietened your case fans down and cooling, that the HDD will be making a heck of a noise.

:)

or a samsung spinpoint :)
Click to expand...


Yup once you get to HTPC, the 3.5" drives are the noisest. Moving the two 3.5" out into a NAS in another room, and fitting a 2.5"... :)
 
messiah khan said:
They have! I remember when they were about £500,000 for 1Gb! :eek:



You might be alright with just one fan if your watercooling tbh. Having said that, you might be better off getting a PC-7, with a 120mm intake and a 120mm exhaust. Whatever you do though, I wouldn't use 80mm fans. Even 'quiet' ones will produce a noticable whine.
Click to expand...

Thanks again, i too was thinking this. The PC-7 is also cheaper :)
 
sound deadening might be useful if the side panels flex a fair bit, if you dont want to use that find some other way to stiffen the panels.

hard drives, cheapest/easiest solution is to suspend them so they dont have any contact with the case, other way is to by the drive coolers, which help deaden the sound as well.
 
I have to disagree that sound deadening material is a waste of time... particularly if you re using an aluminium case (not an ideal choice of material) like a Lian Li, which WILL resonate. Acoustipak is one of the best you can get and its mass will help stop the side panels making a racket. Unless you're prepared to isolate your drives & fans and hunt down every cause of noise I'm afraid your set up will be no where near the "Rolls Royce" of quiet pcs. If you're serious I would read www.silentpcreview.com and take the time to research the subject. Building a very quiet pc is more difficult than building a fast, overclocked pc no matter what people here will try and tell you.
 
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mnemonix said:
I have to disagree that sound deadening material is a waste of time... particularly if you re using an aluminium case (not an ideal choice of material) like a Lian Li, which WILL resonate. Acoustipak is one of the best you can get and its mass will help stop the side panels making a racket. Unless you're prepared to isolate your drives & fans and hunt down every cause of noise I'm afraid your set up will be no where near the "Rolls Royce" of quiet pcs. If you're serious I would read www.silentpcreview.com and take the time to research the subject. Building a very quiet pc is more difficult than building a fast, overclocked pc no matter what people here will try and tell you.
Click to expand...

Considered exactly the same thing as you here mate! I know the acoutipack is awesome as my bro got his PC with that preinstalled, one of those big funny look ones which I so cant say the name of :p but it does work really well!

Im looking at putting it in my system after I try a couple of fans out to see how they do first
 
P180 is a great base for a silent case.

Walls are tripple thickness (alu, plastic, alu)
120mm Fans
Dust guards
Big case for passive cooling (eg plenty of cool air inside)
PSU is thermally isolated from the rest of the case (so it dosnt have to spin up to help move heat that's not it's own)
Plenty of room for watercooling, 2 120x120mm rads can be fitted without modding the case.
Rubber grommets preinstalled for HDDs
Solid construction (no vibrations at all)


Saying all that ITS SOOOOOO HEAVY, so i sold mine lol.
 
Rick_Barnes said:
P180 is a great base for a silent case.

120mm Fans
Big case for passive cooling (eg plenty of cool air inside)
Plenty of room for watercooling, 2 120x120mm rads can be fitted without modding the case.

Saying all that ITS SOOOOOO HEAVY, so i sold mine lol.
Click to expand...

The 120mm fans that are included arn't great imo. And are we talking about the same p180? Big inside? Id have to disagree with that tbh. I found it small and cramped inside, and not hugely well thought out. I now own a v2000, and its a much better case.
 
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