Reducing vibrations and noise - ANTEC 300

[The_Ollienator]

If you're on the old AC freezer 7 pro then that thing is quite loud at full speed, I had a problem with my old one where it ignored the smart fan thing on the motherboard and just ran at 100% all the time (on an ASRock motherboard) I'm pritty sure I'm not the only one who's had this issue.
I think it's a fault with the fan.

depends what you class as old. I think ive had it 2-3months now.

I didnt notice it being quieter so it could be doing what you described. Depends how long the stock was kept in ebuyer.

[Pob255]

by old I ment the one I used to have, which I since replaced with a thermalright ultima90

[The_Ollienator]

Could anyone take a listen at these sound recordings? My hearing is terrible (Dr. says so ) so i can't really listen to the samples and decide what is creating the most noise. I would say CPU Cooler myself, but then i cant turn that off and record at the same time (recording software is on OS so it needs to be on - i can't stop it turning when its already spinning round.

http://files.filefront.com/PC+Sound+.../fileinfo.html

[Biscuit]

from that i would say its your CPU cooler causing the problems, the quietest one was the one with all the system fans disabled (which i assume are the case fans?)

[The_Ollienator]

from that i would say its your CPU cooler causing the problems, the quietest one was the one with all the system fans disabled (which i assume are the case fans?)

Yeah, case fans = system fans.

[The_Ollienator]

Just booted the system with a lollystick jammed into the AF7 fan and i can safely say thats is pretty much the reason why i get all the noise - suprising for me really, as it is suspended on rubber thingies - fan itself must be quiet loud. The top fan comes in 2nd in terms of the amount of noise generated - you can notice a difference, and a reasonable one at that, but only when the cpu fan is off.

So i guess the thing i've got to find now is a heatsink thats really quiet yet can cool a 4ghz overclock sufficiently.

[Emirzan]

Not too suprised, quite a few people complain of the noise of that cooler. What's your budget for the replacement? I can recommend the Xigmatek HDT1283, definitely capable of cooling your chip and reasonably priced too. It comes with a fairly decent fan which if slowed down in the BIOS is quiet. Has rubber mounts for the fan too.

[Biscuit]

I would recommend the ultima 90. Its quite expensive and you have to get your own fan but its definately worth it, would easily handle the overclock i would have thought.

[The_Ollienator]

Not too suprised, quite a few people complain of the noise of that cooler. What's your budget for the replacement? I can recommend the Xigmatek HDT1283, definitely capable of cooling your chip and reasonably priced too. It comes with a fairly decent fan which if slowed down in the BIOS is quiet. Has rubber mounts for the fan too.

Well, as it stands, there isnt really a budget - I'm in the process of spending all my £240 savings on a GTX260 55nm.

After that, id likely be looking at something like you mentioned, or a Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120.

[Webby]

I have to say in my opinion the Xigmatek is a bit overpriced now for £28 you can buy a Thermalright Ultima 90 and a cheap 92mm fan for £30 you can get it with a very nice quiet fan (Akasa Amber 92mm) see thread in main hardware section for some numbers on an E7300 (I think) it is also worth waiting a bit as Scan have had Thermalright coolers on offer twice in recent weeks with the Ultima dropping to £20.

Pros of Ultima over Xigmatek
Better cooler
Better mounting system
Comes with a backplate
Supplied thermal paste is good enough (but buy your own if you want to eek out every last drop of performance)

Cons
With the current cost of the Xigmatek the are no cons.

[Pob255]

Yep though so, the ACf7p is loud when at 100%
I'd start by updateing the motherboard bios and seeing if you can get smart fan working, that should massively reduce the noise
the next option is look at a better cooler.
I'd actually consider the new Arctic Cooling Freezer Extreme, it's had some good reviews so far.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Arcti...39-AM2-AM2plus

Although for £25 the ultima90 is a good cooler. However it's a bugger to fit on the Neo2 motherboard, the northbridge cooler and mosfet cooler get in the way of the bracket no matter which way around you try to fit it. I had nibble off the end of the retaining bar with my dremel to get it to fit.
thought I had a photo but I don't basically the bracket it self fit ok but then you have to screw on a bar that holds the cooler down and I couldn't get it on so a had to very carefully trim the end off the bar without cutting into the screw hole to be able to fit it.
I wish thermalright supplied the same cross over bracket that the Ultra120extreem uses it would fit far better.

Another option is to try replaceing the fan on the ACf7p with a different 92mm fan

[The_Ollienator]

Yep though so, the ACf7p is loud when at 100%
I'd start by updateing the motherboard bios and seeing if you can get smart fan working, that should massively reduce the noise
the next option is look at a better cooler.
I'd actually consider the new Arctic Cooling Freezer Extreme, it's had some good reviews so far.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Arcti...39-AM2-AM2plus

Although for £25 the ultima90 is a good cooler. However it's a bugger to fit on the Neo2 motherboard, the northbridge cooler and mosfet cooler get in the way of the bracket no matter which way around you try to fit it. I had nibble off the end of the retaining bar with my dremel to get it to fit.
thought I had a photo but I don't basically the bracket it self fit ok but then you have to screw on a bar that holds the cooler down and I couldn't get it on so a had to very carefully trim the end off the bar without cutting into the screw hole to be able to fit it.
I wish thermalright supplied the same cross over bracket that the Ultra120extreem uses it would fit far better.

Another option is to try replaceing the fan on the ACf7p with a different 92mm fan

Ok, had a look, got smartfan to work and set it to minimum speed 25% (seems to spin around 900-1000rpm when not under load/hot) and tempurature it kicks in at 40*.

Definately makes a difference, still quite noisy though - Guess thats the price i pay for having a gaming system. Cooling doesnt come free, so to speak.

Thanks alot,

[The_Ollienator]

Scratch that, ignore the above.

Just done some further tests with smartfan running and it turns out its not the cpu cooler (like before mentioned) and it is in fact the other system fans i have.

With the front Hiper 120mm off, it makes a heck of a difference, and with both that and the top fan off, its as quiet as id expect/want it to be!!

So the thing now is to buy a replacement 140mm fan and kit out the rest of my case (3 slots remaining if you take the hiper fan out) with nice and slow/quiet fans.

Recommendations? Look forward to hearing from biscuit on his new fans (and the gtx260 )

also have fans running on low, though i dont know how to undervolt the other. Its running straight from the PSU so i guess it has to be plugged into the motherboard for undervolting to work?

[DDY]

I've been running my Antec Three Hundred for months but only recently I've successfully eliminated case vibrations.

Starting off, the top 140mm fan doesn't do anything useful unless the RPM is turned up. At low, it just sits there oscillating the roof. Removing the fan actually improved my CPU load temps by 2°C.

Secondly, I removed the side fan, despite being fitted with rubber grommets it also contributed to case vibrations. Of course without the fan my two HD 4850s would roast. One card was removed and the other fitted with an Arctic Accelero S1 equipped with a 5v 120mm fan strapped to the bottom blowing air towards the PSU (which exhausts the excess air without any problems).

Thirdly, the hard drive bays are great at amplifying HDD noise. The only cheap way to fix this is to suspend the HDD, I did this using cheap clothing elastic grabbed from Woolies before their demise.

Fourthly, optical drive choice has a considerable effect on noise. My old Sony NEC Optiarc DVD-RW drive was one hell of vacuum cleaner impersonator, my newer Samsung DVD-RW drive is far quieter.

Finally, silence. This machine can now only be heard 30cm away with the case cover off, even while folding, one GPU and three uni processor clients.

EDIT: The rear and two front fans are Scythe Slipstream 1200 fans at 5v. CPU cooled by TRUE with Scythe S-Flex 1200 at 7v. CPU loads at 55°C, GPU 60°C.

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[The_Ollienator]

[QUOTE=DDY;1610604]Post/QUOTE]

Thank you for that post - very informative.

Did you not try putting washers/anti vibration screws on to attach your HDD/optical drives? I was planning to pick some of those up.

See my CPU only loads at 45*ish, but then its also alot louder than yours

Have you considering buying an after-market 140mm fan? i would say that the antec stock one could easily be beaten in terms of noise levels.

I found these http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/120mm...bber-A-V-Plugs which appeal greatly to me - 9-12Db and a decent airflow for such a quiet rating, plus i can turn LEDs off at night. Tempurature control too!

[Biscuit]

im guessing the ratings on them are quite optomistic it will be closer to 15-20 dB i imagine and i have read the sensors dont work too well. Il let you know though, should arrive tomorrow