Downsized my case; now machine is loud playing BF4.

[CuriousMike]

I have been using a Define R4 case for the past year; beautiful case but large for where it sits.

I wanted a smaller case that would fit my ATX motherboard, so I purchased an Antec VSK-4000 to move into.

I knew I was downgrading the quality of the case, but I didn't know I was downgrading either sound dampening or cooling as much as I have.

At idle ( browsing web ), the machine sounds OK.
Running the Tomb Raider Benchmark, it sounded OK.

Starting up BF4 it was "Holy Sh*t this is loud".

I was running HWMonitor in the background, and for BF4, the CPU never got beyond 64 and the GPU never got beyond 67.
So - it didn't seem like it was getting "hot".

I'm not even sure which fans were causing all the noise - I suppose I will tear the side off tonight and try to narrow it down.

i5-2500K at 4.0 ( I downclocked a bit when moving into new case )
7950 running at stock speeds.
I have a Zalman Tower cooler on the CPU.
The (Antec 520w) power supply mounts at the top of this new case; the bottom of the P/S has a fan that sucks [blows?] air from inside the case.

I have an Antec 120 fan on the exhaust of the case (behind CPU), that has L/H switch ( i have set to L )

I added another Antec 120 fan on the front of the case, pulling air in ( I have it set to L as well ).

Both of the case fans are plugged into motherboard headers -- my initial guess is that it is the chasis fans making all the racket... or the 7950 going crazy and I've just never heard it before.

 

[dma0991]

The sound could come from the system as a whole because there's a difference in what the Define R4 and Antec VSK-4000 is made for, one for silence and another for the budget conscious, which is usually made without emphasizing silence or performance.

Assuming that you didn't remove the ModuVent, the Define R4 counteracts noise with fan grill openings that can be sealed, thus reflecting the noise inwards and works in tandem with its sound dampening material. The Antec VSK-4000 has no sound dampening material and the open grill at the side makes it worse.

If the Antec VSK-4000 side panels are interchangeable, switch them. This should reduce the noise by a bit.