Quiet components needed!

[Holtzclaw]

Hi all,
Just before the end of last year, I built a new system (see specs), but have found some components namely the hard disk and cpu fan, which is the one that came with my cpu are far too noisy for my liking. The cpu fan is so loud it sounds like the pc is about to take off, and the hdd, samsung spinpoint 80GB, grinds away like a biatch!

Therefore, does anyone know which brands of HDD are supposedly "quiet", or quieter than the Samsung? I've been looking at the Zalman CNPS7700-Cu for the cpu cooler, which looks good on paper (er.. or on screen!), although I've no idea how it actually performs! Does anyone have one? The Zalman site says noise levels are 20 ~ 32dB +/- 10%. Does anyone know of figures for the stock cooler of the AMD X2 3800+, so I can compare? I can't find them anywhere.

If anyone has some suggestions, they'd be most welcome.

Many thanks.

[ajones]

Can't hear either my 7000 or 7700 HSF, and you will notice the difference over the stock fans, even a full fan speed. Haven't any experience of X2 though...

I'm a great follower of (dread he say it.....) Hitachi drives. Always found them to be very quiet.

[Holtzclaw]

Great, thanks for the reply - I'll look into them.

I hear Seagate make good drives too. Anyone know if they're quiet or not?

[cptwhite_uk]

I have a samsung and a seagate - I'd say noise levels were comparable

[MSIC]

The Samsung Spinpoints are really quite quiet, unless you want to start getting into 2.5" (laptop) hard disks.
I wonder if you have something a bit wrong with yours?
A quick look over here actually does mention a duff batch of spinpoint p80's, so maybe try one of the new 250GB SATA spinpoints?

[Noni]

Which cooler do you have on your 7800GT, if its the old one thats very loud.

Queitening a computer means checking a replaceing most fans in your computer.

CPU COOLER- Just get a 9500 from scan and put it on minimum setting.

HARD DRIVE- SAMSUNG PINPIONT are the quietest out there.

What case do you have?

[Holtzclaw]

@Noni, I just have a cooler that came with the card from XFX. I can't really hear it, so that's not much of a problem to me.

My case is a Tsunami Dream, without the window. So I have 2x120mm fans, one front intake and one rear exhaust. You can hear them, but they're not that loud by any means.

Interesting you say that samsung are the quietist - maybe I have a bad drive as MSIC suggested, or I'm just too picky! My drive is considerably louder during read/write acitivity. Idle, I can hardly hear it - maybe this is normal and there's nothing that can be done?

[schmunk]

Try isolating your HDD. The vibrations on read/write and seek propagate through the case and cause everything to rattle.

The way Antec do it in some of their cases is to suspend the 3.5" HDD in a 5.25" bay - You could give it a go with a couple of rubber bands and 4 matchsticks (or something similar and more sturdy)

[Noni]

Have you got the stock 120mm fans?

If so, they are loud lol.

Go here-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWN%3AIT&rd=1

(look on list view) and buy 2x of these with a fanmate and split cord. PM him first and he should give you a nice price. AND if you buy outside of ebay he gives you 10% off.

A GREAT GUY.

Replace your CPU cooler,

and see what happens! good luck.

[manwithnoname]

I have a WD2000JB HD, from what I have read not the quietest thing on the block,it is sat in the lower chamber of my P180 case. I can only hear my HD during read/write if I turn all the fans off on my pc (except the video card), are you sure your not been to picky?

Watch out you may find you have components than are just a bit quieter than your loudest component, this is a post of a brief experience of trying to make 'old faithful' quiet(er). It was very quiet, if a little unstable. If you can turn off all your fans you should be on a winner - I can see why people use water cooling.

btw those Zalman HSF for video cards are good. A quick lession: check it is going to fit on your card before you remove the current one - don't make the mistake I made with my ti4200

[Holtzclaw]

Hi all, sorry to dig this up again, i've been thinking about a few things for too long since the last post!

Firstly, can someone tell me the benefits of using a fanmate and split cord as Noni suggests? What's the split cord? (pls exuse my ignorance! noob here!) Would the split cord come with the fanmate?

From what i understand at the moment, fanmate's allow you to control fan rpm. so does that mean it stays the same rpm under all circumstances, (unless you increase it), so it's not controlled by the bios? Is this dangerous?

Secondly, if I upgrade my cpu fan, what can i use to remove the thermal paste that came with my stock cooler? Do I have to buy something particular?

Thirdly, if I went for a Zalman 9500, should I use Artic Silver 5, or the thermal grease that comes with it? Any real notable difference?

Lastly, does anyone use a fanless cooler for overclocking? Would you recommend/not recommend this? Obviously fanless coolers are the ideal solution for a noisy fan, but how do they perform when you start to overclock??

I know there are a few q's here, but would appreciate any advice!!!!!

Many thanks indeed!