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3x Panaflo 80mm L1A; 1x Panaflo 92mm L1BX; XP-90

Koing

Koing

Elite Member <br> Super Moderator<br> Health and F
3x Panaflo 80mm L1A (2x intake and 1x exhaust); 1x Panaflo 92mm L1BX; XP-90

Yup fitted all that ah heck in to my pc case a Lian-Li PC61.

Well now I'm wondering how quieter if I change out the Enermax 380W PSU?

It has a variable dial on the back of the Enermax psu so I can have it from L to M in and control the sound.

I don't game and just browse and do work on my pc. I paid about £60 ~ $110 for my PSU in England and it has been great for 3yrs+.

Now my pc is a slight hum to it and is not as loud as it use to be.

I do have 4x WD SE hard drives in my machine though. The HD's do hum a bit when my case side bit is off BUT when it is on you can't hear it. It is coming more from the PSU area.

Thanks

Koing
 
congrats on the move to panaflo :thumbsup:

Try looking at seasonic power supplies. The super tornado or silencer series are very quiet. I would probably aim at the 400 Watt Rev 3 Super Tornado, although i do not believe Rev.3 is available in england. check out www.silentpcreview.com for a more extensive "quiet psu" recommendation. They have a section (link on the left portion of their homepage) that points out several quiet psus they have reviewed. The Seasonics I mentioned, along with Antec phantom are at the top of their recommended list of PSUs. Problem with antec phantom is its heavy price of 150US$ however, all of these psu's are very efficient so that is an added plus.

Edit: After your psu upgrade, you will start to want to do something about your harddrives. In fact, stick a cottomswab or "Q-tip" to stop the fans and see if it is actually your psu making the noise. perhaps your HDD noise is escaping out of the psu!!!! If you can, I would highly recommend consolidating your HDD to 1 large harddrive (keep your 4 WD as backup offline hdds) like a seagate.

Also, stop your graphics card fan. this might be a significant source of noise. In addition, check out your motherboard fan as well.
 
Thanks.

My graphics card fan is NOT MOVING!

I have a Ti4200 and the fan isn't working anymore. I took the fan off to check it and cleaned it up and such. So that is quiet right there. I want to replace it as I don't want my graphics card to burn out and me having to spend more money to replace it. I touch the Heat sink and it is hot.

Yeah thanks for the link I'll go up on the psu's. I want to find out how noisey mine is compared to others. If it makes a difference then I may get a new PSU.

Wouldn't stopping the psu with a pen or something like that damage the fan?

No mobo fan just a heat sink on the chip. Asus P4G8X.

The HD's are already large in size:

80,
80,
160,
250,

😛

I do some video editing and the noise from it isn't much from 15inches away.

I can hear the PSU fan though.

Thanks for the reply.

Koing
 
Checked the psu and it is making very little noise at the lowest setting.

Koing
 
I do have 4x WD SE hard drives in my machine though. The HD's do hum a bit when my case side bit is off BUT when it is on you can't hear it. It is coming more from the PSU area.
Click to expand...

You would be surprised how much noise those drives are really creating!
I have two of them. (1 is dead now)
I thought my chipset fan was my biggest source of noise. Then I put a passive Zalman in it's place only to find out it was actually my WD 800JB making all the racket.

A month ago I purchased a Samsung SpinRight 160GB drive and it is incredibly quiet!
You can hear no bearing noise at all and bearly hear any seek.
 
I'm going to stop my exhaust fan and psu fan and see where the noise is coming from.

It doesn't see to be coming from the rack at the bottom of my Lian Li case where the 4x WD SE drives are.

Koing
 
Hmmmmmm....

The noise isn't coming from the:

exhaust fan
psu

It's really weird.

A humming still from the system.

The system IS ON TOP OF MY DESK and about 24inches (front of case with 2 exhaust fans) from my ears. The back of the case is about 30inches away.

Koing
 
When I figured out my hard disk was whining, I pulled off the side panel, unpluged all the case fans, and turned the CPU fan down to 7v. Then I just stuck my head in there.

I was really apparent the hard disk was the source.
 
Hmmmmmm....maybe the 4 HD's at the bottom.

I'll only connect up one HD and see how it is then and compare it. I'll do it later as I can't be bothered to restart my computer as I'm like that 😛

Koing
 
Yeah I'll boot later and take out the HD's and see how it sounds with none or one in the system.

Koing
 
Taken the 4x HD's out and the case was quieter BUT the not that much.

I only sit 30inches away from the back of the PC case so could that be a factor? It is also on the desk and not on the floor under the table.

Would lumps of sound shielding material in my case improve it?

Koing
 
Really you still need to figure out where your noise is coming from.
Sound deadening material will have a limited effect since your case has to breath and you can't plug up all the vents where noise is escaping.

Take the time to determine where the biggest noises are coming from and address each.
 
For Sound Dampening material to do anything you need to use a mount for your HDD and Optical drives. Also you need to turn your fans down.

I have 4x 80mm Panaflo L1A's at 1.3 speed, a 92mm L1A for CPU at 1/3 speed and a Seagate HDD. My PSU is the 520Watt PSU. I can hear my case but im using a Chieftec Dragon case, which isn't really noise friendly. I can barely hear it though. Sell those WD HDD and get like 2 big Seagates instead. They will be much quieter. Also get a fan controller for those fans and turn em down a bit.

-Kevin
 
Thanks xbassman. I really do have to determine where the dam noise is coming from!

gamingphreek how did you get your 80mm Panaflo L1A's at 1.3 speed? I have my 2 intake connected up to the Lian Li PC61 'wannabe' fan controller. I get L, M and H. It works well imo blowing across my 4x HD's.

The noise is coming from the 4x WD HD. The cpu fan is a 92mm Panaflow L1BX that is quiet. I have my PSU that is quiet and my 80mm Panaflow L1A as an exhaust. That is also quiet.

I I could get rid of the 80, 80 and 160Gb and get 2x 250Gb HD's though. The Seagate are suppose to be more quiet right with the fluid ball bearings right? Then I'd have more storage too boot.

Hmmm...any other way I could say have a box of say 3-4 HD's or so and have my IDE cable run out of my case and have that 'box' of HD's furhter away or under the table? Someone must make it right? I have seen some SCSI ones but I have IDE drives.

Thank you guys for the advice in my quest for a more silent case 🙂

Koing
 
I could get rid of the 80, 80 and 160Gb and get 2x 250Gb HD's though. The Seagate are suppose to be more quiet right with the fluid ball bearings right? Then I'd have more storage too boot.
Click to expand...
Seagates and Samsungs are in a league of their own when it comes to quiet.
(Although, I see some of their competitors starting to use the fluid bearing tech.)

Seems like I can remember seeing somebody encase their hd in foam, but you would have to find a way to transfer the heat generated.
Really the easiest way is to live with it until you can get quieter drives.
 
I see.

Thanks xbassman for all the help.

I'll hopefully soon change out the 3 drives for 2 seagates.

I may look in to a new PSU and a fan controller also.

Koing
 
It is possible that the hdds are vibration enough to resonate your case. This was what happened with my raptor. I had to suspend it via bungee cord.

Using a qtip to stop your psu fans wont damage it. Its a great way to stop a noise source that otherwise is not stopable. In addition, your cooling fans might also be resonating your case.
 
I think it is the HD's and the PSU but I can still hear the panaflo's 😛 Or it could be that my system is just too close to my ears? it is only about 50-60cm away from me.

Hows your setups?

Koing
 
Originally posted by: Koing
I think it is the HD's and the PSU but I can still hear the panaflo's 😛 Or it could be that my system is just too close to my ears? it is only about 50-60cm away from me.

Hows your setups?

Koing
Click to expand...

Fan Controller. Panaflos indeed are "loud" at full blast. They do make a pronouced whin sound. However, this is the next step on the quieting run. Any quieter than now will probably require you accepting higher temperatures. First thing I would do is run the bottom intake panaflo's at Low. Your LianLi supports this feature. Secondly, keep the PSU on low, however still check to see with a qtip if these fans are quiet enough at "low". Thirdly, your exhaust fan will need to be lowered. A 6$ zalman fanmat will do well here. Just lower the voltage to say, 9V to start. For the CPU, lower its voltage down to 9V as well. If your system can handle it, lower all fans to 7V. The "Low" setting on the LianLi corresponds to approximately 7V.

After this, all you can do is: invest in either 3x nidec motor Samsung 160GB, or 1x Seagate 400GB PATA (quieter less performing than SATA). Also, a quiet power supply like seasonic.

Finally, after all that, perhaps start looking at dampening techniques. However, at this sound level, most people are happy.
 
I see Tiamat.

My 2 intake fans on my Lian Li case are on 'low'.

I'll have to get a fan controller for the exhaust. How do I lower the CPU fan voltage? In the BIOS?

I've done the ear bud things on the PSU and it sounds quiet. Not whiney just a slight hum to it when my head is about 1 inch away from it 😛. I think it is the HD's and the exhaust.

What PSU do you have?

Koing
 
I agree with everything Tiamat said but I control both the exhaust and CPU fan with SpeedFan. In idle states I run both at about 60%, my intakes stay at 60% constant. As the temp increases so dose the RPM of the fans, for the record I'm using 1 Panaflow L1A for the exhaust, 2 for the intake and a 80mm Sanyo Denki, 1400RPM min 2400 max.

The best of both worlds, extremely low noise and performance cooling when it's need, and no cumbersome fan controllers to F' with.
 
hahaha, Unfortunately I have not had the funds to make my psu quiet. It is pretty much the final hardware piece to the my quieting "puzzle"

Right now, i have the Antec TrueBlue 480. It is pretty noisy.

As Operandi mentioned, you can use a fan controller on your cpu fan. First thing though, you have to disable the BIOS from shutting down your system when CPU fan RPM is 0. Instead, have the BIOS shut down your computer when your CPU hits say 68C.

You can use a Zalman Fanmate, or a 5.25" bay fan controller. I happen to use the "not so great" looking Sunbeam and it works like a charm. It allows me to access voltages below 7V unlike most other fan controllers. Some fans, like my evercool 120mm alumium fan i used to use could accept less than 5V.

If I were in your shoes, I had your computer, and I wanted to quiet it down as much as possible, I would set it up similar to this:

Seasonic SuperTornado 400
Rear 80mm Panaflo L1A @ 5-9V depending on temperatures controlled by a fan controller like the zalman fanmate or sunbeam 5.25" bay controller
CPU fan @ 7V-9V depending on temperatures. This also controlled by a fan controller
Intake fans @ 5V. Not using the LianLi fan switch, but hooking up to 5.25" fan controller.

What are you temps now? I would remember those and try to stay within 5C of those. Varying your cpu fan from 7V to 12V will probably give you an 8C temperature spread - here is where you use your personal comfort level with temps balanced with noise.

If you have 2 hdds, I would line them up with the motors of the panaflo intakes as best as you can so that the fans blow on both sides of each of the hdds. If you have more hdds than 2, it might get a little crowded down in the bottom hdd bay.

Hope this helps!
 
THANKS alot Tiamat and Operandi.

I think I'll get the fan controller and do exactly what you said. Hook it up up.

My CPU is the P4 2.4GHz B the one with 533MHz FSB. It runs at 41-44 C idle with a Panaflow 92mm L1BX and a XP-90.

Koing
 
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