Best easiest/cheapest ways of PC sound dampening..?

[o]

Im wondering what are the best first/cheapest/easiest ways to improve PC quietness...


Using larger fans seems good..

I was wondering if something could be put in extra empty 5.25" bay areas to reduce/soak-up noise (and/or to reduce stagnant airflow space)


Thanks

 

[Tu13erhead]

Best way is to pinpoint the loudest cause of noise in your case and go from there.

I'd recommend 120mm case fans and HSF, since they're slower, quieter, and move more air. Often times the chipset or video card fan is the culprit for making the most noise.

There's not much out there that will "soak up" noise. There's stuff like this which is supposed to help, but in reality it only cuts down on very high pitched noise, if that. Plus it's more likely to heat up your case.

 

[Malak]

A completely fanless system is the quietest. Of course, your harddrive may still make noise, but everything else should be quiet. Liquid cooling ftw

Voodoo in fact makes a fanless computer. It's expensive, but neat.

 

[o]

(a 120mm CPU HSF!?!? :-O )


Whats the price difference in liquid cooling (is it useable with all regular hardware? or very expensive and must be sorta modded/hacked?)
compared to quiet(er) fans?


"grommets" for fans..?


The fan vent holes on a lot of cases Ive seen seem very unnecessisarily inadequate/undersized/inefficient... is that on purpose to help sound dampening?

Is seems strange to me that computers and "high-tek" stuff were developed this way without heat not being reduced/improved more first or in balance better (its really inefficient after all.. heat waste.. not to mention the rest of the problems..)

 

[ubercaffeinated]

good idea is to start with the loudest noise components usually. case fans, heatsink fans, gpu fans all makes tons of noise. look into some big low speed panaflo fans for your case and heatsink, and mod your gpu fan. if you need it even quieter than that you can go for acoustic dampening mats. you can go further with replacing your hdd and psu with those designed specifically less noise.

 

[Malak]

I've seen one water cooling solution that was less than $200 and cooled both your CPU and your GPU. That pretty much covers everything. If you could get a variable speed case fan that you could adjust yourself, you could keep your system very cool and very quiet. I wish I could tell you what the water cooling system was, but I don't recall.

 

[bdww00]

get quiet fan and either larger diameter heatsink&fan my cpu fan is loudest in my system its 60mm and my other fans are 120 and a 92 on top of the proc. fan

 

[rudder]

totally quiet

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: rudder
totally quiet

That's interesting, but I wonder what it'd really look like if you did use the recommended motor oil. And isn't that a hazard?

 

[kalrith]

Depending on your situation, a fan controller might do the trick. Like everyone else said, figure out what's making the most noise. I bought a fan controller and a cpu heatsink with 120mm fan and turned them all down half-way. It wasn't until I replaced my loud video-card hsf that my pc finally became quiet.

 

[Tu13erhead]

Originally posted by: o
Whats the price difference in liquid cooling (is it useable with all regular hardware? or very expensive and must be sorta modded/hacked?)
compared to quiet(er) fans?

The fan vent holes on a lot of cases Ive seen seem very unnecessisarily inadequate/undersized/inefficient... is that on purpose to help sound dampening?

The cheapest water cooling kits start at about $100 or so. Something decent will easily run you $300 or more, plus they are often custom jobs which involve a lot of work. Besides, a good air cooling solution will be much cheaper, probably provide better cooling and won't be much louder than water cooling, if at all.

I don't know why manufacturers make fan intakes/exhausts with tiny holes. They actually increase noise as there's more turbulence created by the grates around the holes.

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: o
(a 120mm CPU HSF!?!? :-O )

Yep, or at least 92mm, all the overclockers use them.

Whats the price difference in liquid cooling (is it useable with all regular hardware? or very expensive and must be sorta modded/hacked?) compared to quiet(er) fans?

Water cooling is quiet but expensive and totally unnescesary unless you're hard out.

"grommets" for fans..?

Rubber washers from the local hardware store will absorb vibrations from fans if placed in between the case and the fan housing.

The fan vent holes on a lot of cases Ive seen seem very unnecessisarily inadequate/undersized/inefficient... is that on purpose to help sound dampening?

Is seems strange to me that computers and "high-tek" stuff were developed this way without heat not being reduced/improved more first or in balance better (its really inefficient after all.. heat waste.. not to mention the rest of the problems..)

They have to put those fan grills on to stop people trapping thier fingers and sueing for it. Cut them out with an angle grinder.

 

[o]

thanks

Ok, at this point these seem like the main/first/best things:

*use larger fans
*(7v) voltage reduction mod for all fans (using a fan controller/'baybus' [homemade] or something possibly)
*attempt to find/use Video Cards and PSUs with quieter fans
*rubber washers/gromets for fans (if needed / test first)




>mod your gpu fan

how?



>They have to put those fan grills on to stop people trapping thier fingers and sueing for it. Cut them out with an angle grinder.

yeah, but I mean theyre way more reduced than they need to be.. more than the grill on any PSU...



What case aspects effect noise?

Would it be better to block the extra empty unused fan hole(s) and other vent holes? (for sound dampening and faster airflow?)


Doesnt more empty space amplify racket?

Seems like reducing excess empty metal-surrounded-space, especially filling it with some sound dampening type of material.. could have some effect. Regular (sound studio) sound dampening obviously works (for echos etc.. and quieting) to some extent. Seemed like this _could_ have some effect inside a PC case, and the materials and texture/shape could make more of a differnce helping to "trap" or "soak up" sound...

 

[o]

thanks

Ok, at this point these seem like the main/first/best things:

*use larger fans
*(7v) voltage reduction mod for all fans (using a fan controller/'baybus' [homemade] or something possibly)
*attempt to find/use Video Cards and PSUs with quieter fans
*rubber washers/gromets for fans (if needed / test first)




>mod your gpu fan

how?



>They have to put those fan grills on to stop people trapping thier fingers and sueing for it. Cut them out with an angle grinder.

yeah, but I mean theyre way more reduced than they need to be.. more than the grill on any PSU...



What case aspects effect noise?

Would it be better to block the extra empty unused fan hole(s) and other vent holes? (for sound dampening and faster airflow?)


Doesnt more empty space amplify racket?

Seems like reducing excess empty metal-surrounded-space, especially filling it with some sound dampening type of material.. could have some effect. Regular (sound studio) sound dampening obviously works (for echos etc.. and quieting) to some extent. Seemed like this _could_ have some effect inside a PC case, and the materials and texture/shape could make more of a differnce helping to "trap" or "soak up" sound...

 

[ubercaffeinated]

when i said mod your gpu fan, i meant add an aftermarket cooler on it. Zalman makes some good ones. I personally have a VF700 cu on my vidcard and it's super quiet on the lowest settings, and that's after I've OCed it a good bit too. Course when it gets real hot in the summer I have to plug the fan to the higher setting, but it's still quiet even then.

as for using dampening materials, you have to realize that you will most likely be increasing temps by blocking off airholes and potentially even cutting off circulation. using it lightly on the inside portions of the side panel, bottom, and top may help a bit.

 

[o]

couple more things I was wondering,

When using low voltage (7v instead of 12v etc..) with fans, is it best to use regular fans, _not_ 'quiet' fans..? would the output possibly be too low if you used 'quiet' fans _plus_ lowvoltage???

Are there any motherboards made standard to accept 120mm (or 92mm?) size fan for the CPU? (is it usually always 80mm?) or is that something only possible with tedious mods?

thanks

 

[Vinnybcfc]

It depends on the cpu heatsink/fan you have bought some will let you put in 120mm fans others come with bigger fans

 

[alkemyst]

First is to know what cooling needs you have. Then add just what is needed. Too many people rush to do 3 or 4 fans from the start, when one could have been fine...possibly even none (except Vid and CPU).

I have about 5-6 fans in my full tower to keep the heat down, but they are all ultra quiet: 5 x PC Power & Cooling Silencer 80MM #802312 (27 CFM / 20 dBA / 1700 rpm) (3in/1out+PSU) and a Thermalright XP-120 (Artic Silver 3) and Panaflo 120mm FBA12G12L1A (68.9 cfm / 30.0 dB / 1700 rpm) for the CPU. BFG 6800GT OC with the newer quieter fan.

I can hear it when my ear is by it, but at my keyboard the fan in the room is louder. In total silence I can barely tell the PC is on.

 

[o]

I was thinking just 3 internal fans: (Id like/wish them to all be 120mm if possible - all as large as possible for noise and best efficiency/cost..) :
*one 120mm for front/case fan (blowing across the hard drives)
*one for CPU (large as possible)
*one for the back if the psu fan isnt enough (btw: would it be too difficult/possible or worth it to adapt a 120mm fan to two modified side-by-side 80mm fan openings, using some kind of a shroud? for the back output)
(*and use a fanless video card)

I wouldnt want to spend alot or pimp anything out (overclocking, 'badass-looking' or lights stuff..)
It just seemed like the best choice.. but I dont know enough about it

I mean, is the ability to fit 120mm fansize common or stock *ever*, or is it always going to require more expensive/specialty 'pimp-it-out' / 'look at my freakin hotrod cpu cooler -wow' type special heatsinks to fit sizes larger than 80mm or 92mm??
Is 80mm the regular stock fansize used for CPUs (AMD socket 754, 939 etc..) ?

 

[Tu13erhead]

Originally posted by: o

I was thinking just 3 internal fans: (Id like/wish them to all be 120mm if possible - all as large as possible for noise and best efficiency/cost..) :
*one 120mm for front/case fan (blowing across the hard drives)
*one for CPU (large as possible)
*one for the back if the psu fan isnt enough (btw: would it be too difficult/possible or worth it to adapt a 120mm fan to two modified side-by-side 80mm fan openings, using some kind of a shroud? for the back output)
(*and use a fanless video card)

I wouldnt want to spend alot or pimp anything out (overclocking, 'badass-looking' or lights stuff..)
It just seemed like the best choice.. but I dont know enough about it

I mean, is the ability to fit 120mm fansize common or stock *ever*, or is it always going to require more expensive/specialty 'pimp-it-out' / 'look at my freakin hotrod cpu cooler -wow' type special heatsinks to fit sizes larger than 80mm or 92mm??
Is 80mm the regular stock fansize used for CPUs (AMD socket 754, 939 etc..) ?

There's no "regular stock fansize used for CPUs". It's probably safe to say there are more CPU heatsinks with 80mm fans, but not all cases/motherboards have room for 120mm CPU fans.

Anyways, I've got 5 120mm fans in my P180. No adapters or anything - the case is designed to use them. I've got one fan in the front, one in the rear, one on top, one in the lower chamber, and one on my CPU. I would definetly recommend a 120mm CPU HSF if you can fit it. If you're not sure, read reviews, sinc there are probably people who have tried the same heatsink on your motherboard. You're probably going to pay more for a larger heatsink, but if you want cooler temps and quieter noise, the difference is worth it.