Quiet PC

[Preacher]

I'm going to change the case fan in my PC in an attempt to make it quieter.

At the moment it's the fan that came with my Arctic Cooling Freezer i30.

im using a noiseblocker m12-PWM fan on the i30 heat sink.

Is it still between the noise blocker and gentle typhoon for the quietest fan or is there a new model out which is better? Can't believe the GT has been discontinued!


I still can't get my PC quiet enough, even though I'm using onboard graphics, silent psu and only have one non-ssd hard drive!!

[Bonebreaker777]

I have 2 x Akasa Apache Ultra Silent Fan. Both on PWM regulation. And a NZXT FN-120RB. the NZXT was left behind from a PC build (so free for me) and it is 3PIN only, so no regulation on my MoBo. So it is running with a Zalman Fan Speed Reducing Resistor RC100 5v adapter.

I would say if you don't like the current noise of your fans, buy couple of these bad boys and you will see (make sure your fans will still enough juice to start up).

[dacads]

Akasa Apache will be nice and quiet

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/120mm...blades-1300rpm

[wasabi]

Get a BIG passive heatsink, leave the side off the case and get rid of fans entirely.

[Pob255]

What other fans are you using in the case? are you sure it's the cpu fan? have you done actual elimination tests?
What's your PWM settings?

I think it's probably the PWM settings as the noiseblocker m12-p is a very good fan, and is very quiet when the rpm is throttled right down around the 1100rpm area, at the full 1800rpm it is rather loud but is moving a heck of a lot of air.

One other major issue you'll hit is, Sound is subjective, what you might think is loud I might think is quiet and vis-versa.
Also sound is very environmentally influenced, put a washing machine on spin permanent cycle next to your pc and you'll never hear your pc again.

[Preacher]

I'm happy with the noise blocker, I can't even hear that. It has to be the best quality fan I have ever seen!

It's the fan that came with the i30 which I'm using as a case fan that's the problem..

I have the fan settings to low but my mobo (ASRock pro4m), asks for CPU temp settings. For a stock 2500k what temp should I be setting it at?

I was thinking of going to a non pwm fan, my rig can't be producing that much heat can it?

My case is an antec p180, old I know but I bought a new Lian li and it was a LOT louder so sold it and moved back to the antec..


Dacads - thanks that does look quiet! If I go for PWM will def consider that one

[Bonebreaker777]

Dacads - thanks that does look quiet! If I go for PWM will def consider that one

Hah, I mentioned them in the post before

Anyway. If I were you I would easily set the target CPU temp to 60 degrees (work for me on a passive Xigmatek Thors Hammer even under long term full load with my i5-2400).

About the Akasa Apache. I have TWO on PWM. One is on 50% speed setting as CASE FAN minimum setting (what results in like 1100 RPM, making it the loudest thing in my case but compared to a any regular PC is silent already) and the second is 25% CPU FAN (1000 RPM). With my configuration they can still easily cool everything in my case. But if you would like to have really quiet fans, choose some which have round 1000 RPM on full speed (so you can reduce even further) or use the voltage reduction adapters I mentioned in my post above.

[Pob255]

The Apache make better cpu/rad fans then they do case fans, they are really nice under PWM, but at full speed they are a little noisy, they are actually made by Scythe they use the same excellent bearing as used in the old SFlex series but it does make them a bit pricey.
I use a pair on my hyper 212plus cooler

"low" is a flat out male-bovine-excrement PWM value, is there no manual setting? or is there a software utility for actually setting control? (I know Asus uses a very nice software utility to allow fine control of PWM fans)

Fan air flow / noise dynamics is a really complex subject when you really dig into it, but their is one basic rule of thumb which generally hold true across all fans:
rpm = noise + air flow

A cheap high rpm fan will produce more noise and air flow than an expensive low rpm fan and vis-versa, the big area that fan quality really comes in at is at below 1200rmp because here motor and bearing noise can easily be louder than the noise of the airflow.

One thing I want to point out about the Scythe gentle typhoon, these are best for radiators/coolers not so much case fans, also the noise they make is higher pitched than most fans so at low rpm they are generally louder/more noticeable but where they really shine is at higher rpm (1600rpm+) where they are far quieter (relatively) than other fans of the same rpm

Getting a fan controller might be a good move for you to give you the fine control over your fans, the 3.5" bay 3 fan Akasa Fan controller is good for a cheap option http://www.scan.co.uk/products/35-ak...x-usb-20-ports also comes in a slightly more expensive version with usb3 ports http://www.scan.co.uk/products/35-ak...2-usb-30-ports

[pipTheGeek]

I have an Antec TrueQuiet Pro 120 which I'm impressed with. It comes with a hi/lo switch, I have it on high speed becuase it makes no difference to the noise it makes. One thing with it though is it mounts on long rubber things which stick into the case a few inches. The other end of these rubbers is a flat disc but it takes up slightly more thickness than a screw and you can't use screws to mount the fan.

I did recently change my PC case. I used to have a Lian-Li V1000, was a good case but my GTX570 didn't like it. Running any 3d game made it spin its fan up to jet engine noise levels. The PC was always audiable, even when idling. I've since changed my case to a Crosair 550D. I can't descibe the difference this made. At idle you can't hear the PC over the noise of the fridge or freezer (no, the PC isn't in the kitchen). As long as I keep the dust filters clean, the graphics card can only just be heard while gaming. If I let the filters get blocked up then you can hear the graphics card but it is still less noise than the PC used to make in the Lian-Li at idle.

[BatXDude]

Wouldn't getting an overkill PSU mean you get more silence because you won't be using all that power in large amounts?

[Pob255]

Umm, no, psu wattage has nothing to do with it.
Also he's got one of the best psu's on the market, which is already rather overkill for what he's powering.