PC guru ?, noise

[928ram]

What can one do to quiet PC noise?

I know water cooling is an option but it seems overly complicated and labor intensive and expensive, relocation of the tower would be inconvienient for access.

What I've got has 4 fans running and a constant "whistle?" from the HDD; I'm giong to replace the chipset fan/cooler with a large heatsink, but that's the smallest and quietest as it is now. Is it possible to install a fast cpu and clock it down to where it can run cooler with heatsink only, or will this make it run slower than the clocked-down speed?

I'm thinking that I'm not the only person who finds their PC noisy and intrusive, what have any of you done to quiet your unit down, and with how much success? Is it possible to make these things completely silent?

[layzee]

Big and slow fans are the answer.

Take a look at the Antec Black Piano case if you want a quiet life.

[djmcmath]

HDDs don't usually "whistle." That may be your warning that the bearings are getting ready to go. As to your fans -- water-cooling is definitely the Right Answer (tm). An alternative might be quieter fans -- seems like there are companies that sell ultra-$$$$ quiet fans. If all else fails, try a search at www.slashdot.org -- this topic comes up about bi-monthly over there.

Dan

[Neilk]

I agree with Dan, get a new hard drive. Also, if you built the computer yourself, make sure that the fans are blowing in the same direction, ie, the front fans sucking cool air in and the rear fans blowing it out.

[id10t]

Larger slower fans would do it, or some form of passive cooling. For a "modern" system the only real option for passive cooling would be a mini-ITX board with one of the VIA chips on it.

[304065]

www.quietpc.com

[island911]

Noisey cmptrs annoy me. I'll suggest a laptop. They generally have engineers designing them. (as apposed to coolcollar desgners ) As such laptops often end up with smart thermal management. . . .Thermal sol'ns like lower voltage chips, and heat-pipes to high surface area exchangers. (High heat-transfer surface area is key to quiet.)

Fans make noise. Adding fans gives more chance of componding the noise, as they 'sing' off each other.

Here's a pic of one cool little item in my Dell notebook. (fits on the GPU, if I remeber right)

[mikester]

Check out these guys - they give you real options.

http://www.zalmanusa.com/usa/usa_index.asp

I have two fans in my computer right now that are bigger and slower and thus don't make a lot of noise if any. I haven't bought quiet hdds yet so that is where most of my noise is. I also have thier big CPU heat sink on my CPU and it works great with the two case fans and the speed controls to keep the speed down. If things heat up I can turn the fan speed up to adjust the temp inside.


http://www.zalmanusa.com/usa/product/view.asp?idx=33&code=005

Works great! Copper is the key as it it has the best cooling properties.

[928ram]

Wow, thanks for all the tips and links.

I'm going to start with layzee's suggestion for the Antec case and see how that handles the noise then proceed from there if it doesn't bring it in check. I'm about due for a newer and much nicer looking case and I doubt this one will survive another episode of "this old case".

As to the HDD, the sound appears to be not from the drive itself, but rater some sort of resonate vibration sound from the fins of the HD cooler; I'll make some little rubber buffers to stick between the fins.

Thanks much!

[layzee]

The Antec case has damped hard disc mounts - cuts out all the noise from them. Its really an amazing bit of kit.

[A Quiet Boom]

I also agree with the larger/slower fans suggestion. I have a Lian Li aluminum server case that came with a total of 4 120mm high speed fans. Since I'm running relatively cool running quantum raid drives (8 total) and a quiet and cool for it's speed Seagate 15k RPM drive I went to slower fans and dropped the noise substantially. On my server I built the case myself by essentially bolting two cases side by side with one side for the Raid arrays, I used Dynamat extensively in that case and really quieted down the noise. Dynamat is a self-adhesive sound deadner used by the car audio guys. Despite the fact that the machine has 12 older and really loud SCSI drives the dynamat reduced the noise to that of a regular computer. I've also become a fan (no pun intended) of the newer CPU heatsinks that use 80mm fans, I built a comp for my dad with one that I installed a two speed switch on, 90 percent of the time it's on the quiet low speed. Another great solution I use is what I've done for the comp in my entertainment center, I put it in a Wood cabinet and added front floor air inlets and rear exhaust. With the door closed you cannot hear the computer. A cheap Lowes or Home Depot cabinet works really well for this or you can build your own. One of these days I'm going to rebuild my home server using a custom wood case and one large squirrel cage blower for exhaust.

Water cooling should be a last resort IMO.

[jyl]

A lot of PC cases don't use natural convection, i.e. bringing in cool air from the bottom and exhausting hot air from the top. Maybe check and change the location of the fans.

There are utilities that idle the CPUs when they are not doing useful work, which is most of the time.

Some motherboards can control the speed of the fans based on temperature readings at various locations on the mobo.

Many new desktop PCs use ducts to concentrate airflow over the hottest components. You can make some from cardboard.

Some of the noise we hear is vibration, which can be reduced by tightening loose things and using pads. Hard drives do this a lot.

How about posting pics of some of these homebrew machines and cases? I'd like to see them.

[928ram]

I gotta tell ya guys, I got the Antec Sonata (thanks again layzee!) and I am happy. This thing is pretty and well made too; although the bright blue "running lights" may take some getting used too. The unit sits at ear level about 12" away and is now well within the comfortable sound range. The Dynamat sounds like a good idea too, can't hurt to be even quieter; can you get that at the big stereo retailers like Circuit City or would a small car audio shop be a better choice?