Silencing my PC

[lizardo]

I'm thinking of trying to get my PC to be a little less noisy, as it's very noticeable when it's on and as it lives in the sitting room I find it pretty annoying. My current spec is:

Lian-li PC-60 case (with orignial case fans - 80mm)
Enermax 350 W PSU
AMD 2600+ XP CPU (with retail bundled heatsink & fan)
Asus A7N8X Deluxe m/b
2x 512MB Twinmos RAM (running dual channel)
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600 Pro
DVD-Rom
DVD-RW
Floppy drive
1x 80GB + 1x 120GB Maxtor SATA Hard Drives

I recently put some rounded IDE cables in for the floppy and DVD drives to try and improve airflow through the machine, although my CPU is still running at over 50 degrees most of the time.

Anyway, I was looking into some Zalman kit (on quietpc.com) to try and help with the noise. For the CPU there's either the flower cooler or the super-flower cooler (and very pretty they are too!). I was wondering if anybody had success installing these on the A7N8X Deluxe as on Zalman's compatability list they both seem to be in the "will probably fit as long as there's no interfernce with the PSU" list. Should I be worried about this or will it be fine. Also, will the Zalman kit actually reduce the CPU temp or is there any danger of it getting even hotter. Thought I probably ought to get hold of some Artic Silver paste too to try and help cool it down.

The other thing I think I'll go for is the double-sided heatsink they do to replace the fan on the 9600 Pro - just wondered how easy it is to remove the fan and attach this. Anyone tried it before?

I figure these are the two biggest sources of noise in my machine, so hopefully I'll be on the way to having a quieter PC - next up I suppose will be the PSU and the case fans...

Lizardo.

[easy]

Well my idea would be:

1. Make as much of the inside of the case Passive cooling.
2. Try and make a 120mm intake and exhaust fan, one at front and one at the back.(120mm because the rotate slower and make a lower frequency noise which is less annoying)
3. Line as much of the inside of the case with sound proofing, this absorbs vibrations. Vibrations are the cause of noise.
4. Make sure everything is secure and dust free because not only will this stop vibrations it'll reduce the chances of problems further down the line.
5. Purchase some RAM coolers and install them aswell.
6. Check the running under load temperature after doing every change and see if it is resonably safe.

Hmm everything above sounds as tho it'd do the job nicely :thumbs

[lizardo]

Thanks for the tips easy, will see what I can do. Unfortunately my budget for doing any of this is a bit limited, so I probably can't do all of this at once. Which things do you think should be tackled first, i.e. which will have the biggest impace sound wise whilst also helping to drop the temperatures. My CPU went up to over 65 degrees yesterday playing Far Cry and I'm getting a wee bit freaked! I thought that the CPU and Graphics Cards were probably the noisiest components, so was looking at dealing with these first, but I'll gladly listen to any other advice... Also, is there a way to replace 80mm fans with 120mm, as I know all the current case fans are 80mm, so assumed I had to replace them with ones of the same size.

Lizardo.

[BLUTO141]

yup farcry will do that, it ats cpu like a eat chocolate, by the bucket.

[easy]

Thanks for the tips easy, will see what I can do. Unfortunately my budget for doing any of this is a bit limited, so I probably can't do all of this at once. Which things do you think should be tackled first, i.e. which will have the biggest impace sound wise whilst also helping to drop the temperatures. My CPU went up to over 65 degrees yesterday playing Far Cry and I'm getting a wee bit freaked! I thought that the CPU and Graphics Cards were probably the noisiest components, so was looking at dealing with these first, but I'll gladly listen to any other advice... Also, is there a way to replace 80mm fans with 120mm, as I know all the current case fans are 80mm, so assumed I had to replace them with ones of the same size.

Lizardo.

Ok so easiest question first..

Fan size adpaters, easyily available, look like this:




h**p://store.over-clock.com/Fan_Adapters.html

I'm not sure about the shop thats selling them tho but atleast you know what your looking for now.

I'm thinking... If your components are running that hott with active cooling then you should leave it like that just now (You dont want to remove the active cooling, replace with passive, then have all your components blow up because of excess heat) :nono So, Maybe i would now suggest getting more drastic, like.....

1. Well before you get drastic, make sure you have done all you can in the way of cleaning the inside of your case, tighting screws and tidying up cables as much as you can.

2. Cutting another blowhole in your case. It'd really cool things down, you'd see the greatest drop in temperature from the case temp but it would help keep components cool aswell. Theres plenty guides out there about cutting blow holes in your case:

Guide 1
Guide 2

Not only can it improve the looks of your case (or you can hide them if you like your case as is) It can be quite fun if your into those sorts of things

3. Hmmm Cheap sound dampening. :nowords: If i were you i'd have a look at this website http://www.soundsuckers.com/ It seems to beable to give me ideas about installing this sort of foam in my pc. Theres ups and downs tho. This would increase ambient temps in your case quite alot because the heat isn't getting conducted by your case metal and transported to outside, which would normally happen :nowords:
I suppose this subject would be quite tricky and i'd probably go for the lower temps first then try and make it run quietly. You say your budject is quite low really so why not get your hands dirty and experiement with case modding?? I found it quite fun. Anywayz, any more questions, fire away....

[lizardo]

Hmm.. drilling holes in my PC. Well, I must say that makes me a little terrified - think I'll see if there's another solution. Not sure there's room around the existing fans to up them to 120mm, but will take a look when I get home.

What confuses me is why my temps are getting this high. I used to have my CPU running at a nice 42-43 degrees idle, and now this is over 10 degrees higher. Here are all the things that I've changed recently:

Added second SATA hard drive (in a nice spacious airy part of my PC at the front by the intake fans)
Updated the BIOS for my m/b (as it was having problems booting with the new SATA drive in it - can BIOS changes affect temperatures?)
Replaced IDE cables with rounded cables for DVD-Rom, DDV-RW and floppy.
Tidied up cables as much as possible using cable ties so that there's nothing blocking the main airways of the machine.

Now I understand that the first thing would up the temperatures, but didn't expect it to raise them that much! The second thing I have no idea if it's relevant but as I have changed it I thought I ought to mention it. But the last two things should presumably be helping to cool the machine. What's going on???

Lizardo.

[easy]

Hmm.. drilling holes in my PC. Well, I must say that makes me a little terrified - think I'll see if there's another solution. Not sure there's room around the existing fans to up them to 120mm, but will take a look when I get home.

What confuses me is why my temps are getting this high. I used to have my CPU running at a nice 42-43 degrees idle, and now this is over 10 degrees higher. Here are all the things that I've changed recently:

Added second SATA hard drive (in a nice spacious airy part of my PC at the front by the intake fans)
Updated the BIOS for my m/b (as it was having problems booting with the new SATA drive in it - can BIOS changes affect temperatures?)
Replaced IDE cables with rounded cables for DVD-Rom, DDV-RW and floppy.
Tidied up cables as much as possible using cable ties so that there's nothing blocking the main airways of the machine.

Now I understand that the first thing would up the temperatures, but didn't expect it to raise them that much! The second thing I have no idea if it's relevant but as I have changed it I thought I ought to mention it. But the last two things should presumably be helping to cool the machine. What's going on???

Lizardo.

Maybe you've knocked your CPU cooler and its not getting an idle contact with the CPU. You could try some new thermal paste and resitting the cooler on the cpu. See if that fixes CPU high temps??

[Gunnzie]

Your biggest sources of noise are :

1. Enermax 350W PSU - not the quitest in my opinion. Nexus are better
2. Case fans - replace with Panaflo or Papst and run them at 7v if possible.
3. Sapphire 9600 Pro. The passive heatsinks are pretty easy to install - but make sure you take into account that you may lose a PCI slot. Alternatively, if you are not confident doing this mod then sell it on ebay and get one of the Sapphire Ultimate range which are passive out of the box (and run cooler).
4. Maxtor HDs - Seagate and Samsung are better. The best are definitely the old Barracuda IV drives but difficult to get hold of these days. I have 4 and wouldnt get rid of them for any money - simply the quietest.
5. The Lian Li case - sounds stupid but I hate those cases from a noise point of view. Seem to amplify any vibration. Aluminium case vibrate a lot in general - steel is much better. Thick perspex even better (starting to become more mainstream)

As well as that, consider applying rubber gromets to any moving component attached to the case (e.g. PSU, HD, Fans). This can cut down the vibration quite a bit.

Also, consider suspending the hard drives using elastic string. Amazing the difference this makes.

Without doubt cut out the case grills for the fans. This improves air flow. The easiest way to do this is with a pair of Wiss Tin Snips.

Also, consider selling the two hard drives (120gb and 80gb) and buying a 200gb instead (you can always partition it). One large drive creates less heat than 2 smaller drives. Plus less strain on the PSU which will also run quieter as a result. And less heat from 2 HD means less noise.

[Gunnzie]

Now I understand that the first thing would up the temperatures, but didn't expect it to raise them that much! The second thing I have no idea if it's relevant but as I have changed it I thought I ought to mention it. But the last two things should presumably be helping to cool the machine. What's going on???

Lizardo.

Dont forget by adding another HD, not only is that creating more heat, but the PSU is creating more heat too.

That said, its still a big increase in temp. Make sure when you updated the BIOS it didnt some how increase the vcore in the settings. This would cause the CPU to run a lot hotter.

[lizardo]

Ahem, what's vcore? Sorry if this is a dumb question but I'm still learning a lot about PCs. Also, with regards to the PSU generating heat, it has two "bundles" of cables and connectors coming out of it. In order to improve air flow I'm basically using nearly all of the connectors from one "bundle" and leaving the other coiled up and out of the way. This imbalance wouldn't be causing the PSU to generate any more heat would it? I assumed that it's providing the same amount of juice no matter how things are connected and so it shouldn't affect temperature, but I could be wrong?

[easy]

Ahem, what's vcore?

This is the amount of voltage supplyied to the CPU core.

[lizardo]

And how do I know what this should be set to?

[easy]

And how do I know what this should be set to?

It should be set to what the cpu needs, should say in manual or something. Try amd's web site or someone on here should know.

[easy]

Try finding your CPU in the list, it tells you. http://139.95.253.214:80/SRVS/CGI-BI...,Solution=3913

[Hangman]

Lizardo

I have a very similar set up to you except I have already got the Zalman flower and my video card (a 9600 pro) had a passive hs out of the box.

On my system I also have a front and a rear intake / extraction fan and tbh these are the noisest things.

I can defo recommend the zalman flower it is very easy to install with no problems on your mb. The fan has a speed regulator which I have set to maximum as standard.

According to Asus probe my cpu is currently 35 C and the case temp is 28 C and this is in a loft conversion after a sunny day.

This is my setup:
Antec Super Lanboy case - AMD 2600+ CPU, 2x 512MB PC3200 DDR, Western Digital 120GB HD, Radeon 9600 Pro with a CD RW and DVD Rom.

I hope this helps.

[karlhungus]

i have to say i got a zalman silent cooler and its no quiter than the coolmaster (silent2) heatsink that i got from ebuyer. Change that, maybe get a silent drive case for your hd. I added a couple and it dropped everything by about 10dB. Then all that was left to change was a quieter case fan and a new psu

[lizardo]

Thanks for all the replies guys! Here's a quick update. Checked the vcore last night and it seems to be fine. Opened up the case and decided to separate the hard drives a bit more (so there's now two empty slots between them instead of one). I also took a closer look at the heatsink (retail one that came with processor). I unscrewed the fan from the top of the heatsink and found a nice layer of dust covering the top of the heatsink! I cleaned this off, replaced the fan and powered up again. My idle CPU temp has now gone down to around 46-47 degrees, which makes me feel much better! Running Far Cry for about 15 mins didn't seem to send the temperature any higher than 56 degrees.

Given that the temperatures seem a bit better now, I can get back to thinking about silencing the machine. I'm probably at an either or situation.

I either get the Zalman flower/superflower cooler and the Graphics card heatsink, or I spend a similar amount of money on a set of silent case fans (thinking of the Acoutsifans on this page - http://www.quietpc.com/uk/casefans.php). Or I suppose the other alternative is to just get a new PSU (like the look of QTechnology 350W with the 120mm fan here http://www.quietpc.com/uk/psu.php).

I'm most tempted by the first option as I think this might have the biggest effect, although I think the case fans I have at the moment are far from quiet. I don't think my hard drives are making much noise compared to the rest of the case, so I think I'll leave them for the moment.

So, any final thoughts on where my money should go?

[Gunnzie]

You wont notice a big difference between the Enermax and QTechnology PSUs. I once had a QTechnology PSU and though it was very badly made.

The Nexus with a 120mm fan is a much better bet and quieter.

I also used to have a pair of 120mm Accoustifans - they are nowhere near their specified db level - rubbish in my opinion.

I have spent years researching and changing my machine to be as silent as possible. All my research started from www.silentpcreview.com. They recommend silent pc components and give them a "silent" rating out of 10. This includes fans, heatsinks, psus, etc.

I really recommend you check it out and take a look at the forums over there.

As I dont play games much, I recently changed to a Shuttle ST62K machine. I then modded it fairly extensively. Out of the box it comes with a fanless external PSU (perfectly silent!!!), built in graphics (again obviously fanless). I then suspended the hard drive using elastic rope (the single most effective mod you can do for silencing). Cut out the grill fan (first thing I do when I get a new case) and created a couple of new grill holes on each side of the case. Then replaced the case fan it came with with a Panaflo running at 5v.

This thing is whisper quiet - in fact virtually silent. When I first completed it and the monitor went into standby I would actually turn the machine off thinking it was already off and I was turning it on.

I only mention this so that you are aware that as long as you have a PSU with a fan, you will never achieve silence or even very quiet operation. Its not until I went the external fanless PSU route, that I finally have achieved my aim. Yet I still have a gutsy Pentium IV setup.

Be careful with the internal fanless PSUs. These use a heatsink that sits out the back of the case but require really good airflow inside the case with fans which normally have to be ramped up higher than normal to compensate. This makes the fanless PSU fairly pointless in this scenario as the reduction in noise from the PSU is made up for in the increase in noise from the case fans.

Anyway, check out www.silentpcreview.com and their forums. You'll learn more than you ever wanted to about silencing a PC Its worth checking out before parting with your money as I have spent more money than neccessary silencing my machine by buying one component and then replacing it again with another.

[lizardo]

Thanks tridion, I'll definitely take a look at that site before I make any decisions, looks like a very useful link. I don't necessarily want a completely silent PC (well, not at this stage), but just want to cut down on some of the noise if possible. Didn't realise I was opening such a hornet's nest by planning to do this!

[lizardo]

Actually tridion, another quick question for you. That mod with the elastic holding the hard drives looks so simple I'm tempted to give it a go. My Maxtor SATAs have one side which has what looks like exposed circuitry on it - will this be a problem in terms of putting the elastic string across? - thought this might be something you've come across before. The drives in the guide on the site you linked to look like they're covered on both sides.