making my PC quieter

[Nick Smith]

hi,
my PC is a bit noisy at the moment, and i want to make it a bit quieter, any ways to do with quite easily?

new fans? what else?

not interested in watercooling at the moment though.

thanks

[No.72]

sound proofing, I have it and it is meant to help. But I don't notice much cus I have two 250mm fans

[Nick Smith]

wont it work too well as the fans wont be covered?

[kalniel]

1) Find out what's making the most noise.

2) Stop it.

3) Find out what's making the next most noise...



Seriously, it is worth identifying the top few components. Powering up various parts of the computer with others disconnected is a way of doing that.

When you've identified the main culprit, investigate if lowering the speed helps with the noise - speedfan may be able to do this if the fan is motherboard controlled. *If* it doesn't (or you can't lower it without temps becoming a problem) then consider replacing it with a quieter version.

After that, check for things like vibrations or resonance that might amplify the effect, and consider foam sound proofing - this can help quieten noise, especially high pitched sounds, but it's greater value is in stopping resonance or even vibrations.

[Clunk]

A manual fan controller.

[Nick Smith]

good idea clunk, been meaning to get one of them for a while actually

[dave87]

Well thought out wire management is a must for a quiet case - otherwise your fans will have to work harder to give the same cooling, resulting in more noise.

If you haven't already, a fan controller is an essential purchase, or something like a Zalman fan mate. Alternatively, if you aren't overclocking, cool'n'quiet could be an option.

Silent GPU fans might be an option, aim for something like a vf900 or Thermalright V1 Ultra - should lower temps & quieten it down.

Soundproofing can work, but unless the above is sorted, it will just make the case hotter, and mean you have to turn up the fans to cool it down - making more noise.

Hope this helps,

Dave

[kidzer]

A few words of my experience with making a PC quiet (relativley) - coming from a Quiet PC noob

I shifted from a generic case with a 92mm fan, into an Akasa Zen with 2 120mm fans, which are quieter, but I also got given a 6800GT, which negates any gain from quieter fans!

Anyways, I replaced my CPU cooler with a Zalman cooler which I cant remember its full name, and a VF900-Cu should be arriving tomorrow for the 6800GT which should give me a fairly quiet machine.

Aftermarket coolers seem to be a lot quieter than stock ones, *a lot* quieter, if I stop the fan on the 6800GT for a few secs with the CPU HSF on low (controlled my a Zalman FanMate ) then its barley audible - which is where the hard drive really comes into the equation - my 80GiB Maxtor is a loud drive!

I guess the positioning of the machine helps dampen noise too, but potentially at the expense of cooling performance if there isn't adequate airflow around the case.

Hopefully some of my inane babble helps

[Clunk]

Sunbeam Rheobus £12 delivered - Black
Silver

[Papa Lazarou]

Yeah new fans might help - depending on whats making the noise. My case was loud as feck, I found just one of the fans, was causing 99% of the noise. Replaced it with an Akasa amber fan, and it really is a big difference.

My motherboard is quite good in that it has 5 additional fan headers to the CPU fan, which are all individually controllable by Abits "Fan EQ" controls. All my fans run at the lowest allowable speed at ordinary temperatures but I have set some of them to ramp up to full speed if case temp reaches 40 degrees for example. I don't know your motherboard but it may have something similar - I know Asus call it something like Q Fan control.

[Nick Smith]

thanks for them clunk...

i think its the front fan thats making most of the noise..and thats a bummer as its blocked by all the drive bays and as a total pc noob...im a bit nervous to touch anything inside the case too much in fear that i'll break it :/

[Clunk]

Just follow the wire from the fan to whatever it plugs into, and plug it into the fan controller, then plug a 4 pin molex into the fan controller and thats it.

You need to check first, if the fans are powered by the large 4 pin molex, or the small ones (like your cpu fan socket on the motherboard). If they use the larger 4 pin molex, then youll need some adapter wires, which may have come with your case (or the controller, cant remember), if not, all pc retailers will sell them.

[tanman]

Hi all

Ive been thinkin of gettin one of these.

two questions

how do you know if you need to turn it back up and have forgotton you have turned it down low

what program can you use / best one to see the temp inside and so on.

thanx

Tan

[amjedm]

Hi all

Ive been thinkin of gettin one of these.

two questions

how do you know if you need to turn it back up and have forgotton you have turned it down low

what program can you use / best one to see the temp inside and so on.

thanx

Tan

You can use the motherboard manufacturers temp monitoring program (e.g. Asus Probe) or something like Speedfan.

You will have to find out what voltage the fans start once you've plugged them in to the controller and then make a mental note or put a little dot on the dial. You can then tell by looking at the dial if the fan is working.

The only other way is to separate the fan rpm monitoring wire from the other wires and plug that in to the motherboard cpu header (once you've connected another header to it). The red and black wires can then be connected to the fan controller to adjust voltage. By using Speedfan or other program you will be able to tell the rpm of the fan.

[uk_sam]

I agree that 120mm case fans will make a big difference if you have cheap 80mm/92mm fans already. Replacing the graphic card fan will also make a huge difference as I've found that they are usually the noisiest component in the system.

My system no longer makes enough noise to annoy me but I really would prefer an almost silent system. At the moment I am running my CPU through passive cooling with only 1 case fan and a VF900. Getting it from quiet to almost silent is going to require a lot more cash.

[No.72]

Yep my 7600gt is rediclousy loud, by far the loudest thing in my system and I have 2x250mm,1x120mm and the cpu fan. The best thing to do will be; replace your gfx card heatsink with one of thoes silent ones imo. Tis what I will be doing once more money comes in.