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You could try putting the computer in standby and pulling the fans for a short period of time to see if you can isolate the noise. I had one case that had a grill cutout that was just perfect for making this awful hissing noise when a fan was placed against it. In free-air and against an open grill, the fan was not noisy, but that grillwork... HSSSSS! You can always cut away some of the grillwork if you find you have the same problem.
 
Replace your 120mm fans. Contrary to popular belief, they do get LOUD. Your best bet is a set of Evercool 120mm Aluminum fans. They're rated at 84.5 CFM and 31 or so dBa, so they'll push plenty of air, but won't kill your ears.
 
Before you start replacing the fans, note that Antec has a new case out. The SLK3700BQE. This is the silent version of your case. You could replace the fans and still be left with the offending noise. The case itself might be resonating like a wind instrument. You may want to try and make your case into the SLK3700BQE after the fact. All Antec did was add some sound dampening grommets to some new places.

I have an Antec830 with two 10K scsi drives and 4 80mm fans plus powersupply. My hard drive whine and I can hear an oscillation between the hard drive noise and the fan noise. Replacing my fans won't solve my problem.
SLK3700BQE
 
I'm playing with an Antec 3700BQE right now and comparing it to my regular 3700AMB. The BQE has no extra sound dampening grommets anywhere. The difference s between the BQE and the AMB are:

1)BQE has fan grills from the Sonata. They are waaay less restrictive than the AMB grills.

2) BQE has the HDD drive cage rotated 90° like the Sonata. Drives mount to the rack using the same rubber grommets and shoulder bolts as the AMB. Drives are bolted on from the bottom of the drive instead of the sides.

3)The optional front (120mm) fan mounts to the BQE on the front (outside) of the front wall. There's no room to mount it behind the wall in the normal position because of the redesigned drive cage.

4) The BQE's PSU is a special single fan quiet version of the SmartPower 350.

5) The BQE's included 120mm rear fan is a special low rpm, low noise version.

6) The BQE is a semi-gloss (true) black, the AMB is a dark greyish/silver metallic color.

That's it. They are otherwise indentical cases.
 
Thanks, It might be a case of resonance, but if so, I would think others would notice it too, as the main "source" noise seems to be the 120mm stock exhaust fan. I'm going to replace the Volcano 5 soon anyway (its loud, and there are better HSF, out there, suggestions on one that isn't too pricey and fits an Epox 8RDA+?). After I swap that out, we'll see what the noise is. Any links on modding the fan grill?

P-X

Edit: As far as resonance goes, I still could here the low sound with one case panel off, I'm FAIRLY certain the 120mm fan is the culprit. Lower sound = slower revolutions = 120mm fan. It MIGHT be the PSU, but I couldn't even localize the fan from the PSU, so I doubt it. I may disconnect the exhaust fan (should be easiest to do)...and this should give me some information. I'll post my results when I can.

P-X
 
How is the 120mm fan getting power? Since you have the AMB and not the BQE, your stock fan should be even louder then the one in the BQE/Sonata, and even the one with the Sonata is loud at 12volts (like every other 120mm relative to 'quiet' 80mm).
Either run it off the 'fan-only' connector, if the PSU has one, or undervolt the fan to 5 volts or 7 volts.

The PSU fan might be noisy too. The stock Sonata had the PSU fan as the loudest component, even when controlled by the PSU at ~5 volts.

Edit: Oh and about the general droning noise from the computer, I think that's probably the case vibration caused from everything inside the case. So the fans and drives would contribute to it.
 
Interesting...didn't get a chance to do anything with it last night..will try tonight.

As far as the droning, its definitely fan only...on standby with no active drives it still drones. Any recommendations for a retail HSF for the Epox 8RDA+? I AM o/c'ing this and I'd like to avoid a vcore bump if I can (getting some random restarts that COULD be memory issues...ran Prime95 the other day while I was doing other stuff...ran for 5.5 hours with no problems, so need to check memtest...will do more serious stress testing in the near future).

P-X
 
I'd get a Thermaltake Silent Boost HSF for a relatively inexpensive and fairly quiet solution, but I'm not sure if it'll have any problems mounting onto your mobo. I don't think there will be any issues though, you'll have to check on that.

If it's the fan making the droning (or a majority of it), then it's probably the fan is vibrating and shaking the entire case.
To test, wait for the hard drive to stop, or disconnect, with the case panel still installed. See how much droning and case vibration with the fan.
Then open the case and disconnect the fan, and then put back on the panel. See how much of a difference there is.
If it is the fan, replace the fan with one that vibrates less, and/or buy fan isolators. Best to do both for quiet.
 
Thanks for all of the help!!

1. You pretty much defined resonate in your last post
vibrating and shaking the entire case
Click to expand...
. I'm more interested in which component is causing it, not what it is (since I already determined that's what was happening 🙂)
2. I already followed the procedure you described and eliminated the drives as the source of the resonation, so it is one of the three fans in the case (PSU, HSF or Exhaust).
3. I think the overall noise of this system is actually being caused by three things:

A. The air hissing out the restrictive fan cover. Any good links on modding the fan covers in a professional way?
B. The general decibal level of the Volcano 5. The ambient noise of this HSF is quite high. So, any additiona noise from exhaust hiss and case resonance just adds to the irritation.
C. Mild Case Resonance

I'm going to replace the Volcano 5 with something quiet. If you make an item suggestion, please give me a comparison to the Volcano 5 (CFM and Decibal), the price (including shipping) and a link to where to get it for that price.

After I replace the HSF (due to thermal reasons as well). I will make a reassesment of the noise issue.

For spec purposes, I am O/C'ing a Palomino 1600+ to 1.75Ghz @ 333Mhz FSB.

Thanks for all the help guys!

P-X
 
What about the Arctic Cooling ACSSP-TC?

Very quiet operation at full voltage and decent cooling for $17.25 shipped from SVC.

Thoughts?

P-X
 
A couple of changes will make your 3700amb or Bqe a lot quieter.

1. The stock fans are noisy(2200rpm, 72cfm, 39db), Coolerguys sells 120mm Vantec Stealth (1500rpm, 53cfm,28db) fans for $9.99 plus s/h. Or get a fan controller and slow down the stock fan (s). You will lose some air flow but it is still a lot more than any 80mm fan (30cfm,typical).

2. The power supply fans generate a lot of noise, a lot of much quieter choices are available (Thermaltake A011, Nexus, Zalman,etc) A lot more juice than the stock Amb's SL350 as well.

FYI, the AMB drive cage holds 5 drives, the BQE, 4 drives. There is no extra sound dampening (on bqe), and both have rubber drive grommets.

Free upgrade ---- Take some very fine sandpaper and get the fan fins as smooth as possible. If you compared a Stealth to a stock Antec fan you would be amazed at how smooth the stealth's fins are. A rough fin means noise
 
Current Specs:

Volcano 5
CFM: 32
dBA: 31
Size: 60x60x25

(This is according to thermaltake. I can't find one single 60mm fan which can generate ~30 CFM @ 30 dBA

Stock 120mm Exhaust
CFM: 105
dBA: 44
Size: 120x120x36

Antec SL350
CFM: ?
dBA: ?
Size: ?

So, barring just a fan purchase...here's what I'm looking at.

Short Term:

1. 120mm Vantec Stealth for $9.99 + shipping
2. Arctic Cooling ACSSP-TC for $17.25 shipped (virtually silent at 12v). On a side note. What's a good quiet HSF in the same price range WITHOUT a temperature control?

Medium Term:
Replace the Smart Power 350Watt with a quieter PSU

Long Term:
Mod the fan grills for increased airflow.

It should be noted, I'm not looking for silent...just significantly quieter than it is now.

P-X
 
Originally posted by: tallman45
Is this the 60mm (32cfm,31db) that you needed ?

[L=http://www.thermaltake.com/products/heatsink/v5.html][/L]
Click to expand...

That's where I got the information. In looking through catalogs of specs for 60x25mm fans, I can find none that equals the CFM of this fan at that dBA level. That seems a little odd to me. It leads me to beleive tha the Thermaltake information is incorrect. Even high CFM 60mm are coming in at ~ 30CFM @ 40+ dBA. It makes me think the 31 dBA is a typo for 41dBA.

Anyway, after looking at it all. I need to get a newer HSF combo so I can fit a larger and quieter fan on and keep the same CFM (particulary since my exhaust CFM will be being halved with the Vantec Stealth).

P-X

 
For a Hsf the Zalman CNPS7000-AlCu is tough to beat @ around $30.

I think you are correct about the 60mm fan, it must be spinning like a son of a gun to get 31cfm and that would be much more than 30db.
 
Originally posted by: tallman45
For a Hsf the Zalman CNPS7000-AlCu is tough to beat @ around $30.

I think you are correct about the 60mm fan, it must be spinning like a son of a gun to get 31cfm and that would be much more than 30db.
Click to expand...

Really don't want to spend $30 on a HSF combo (it doesn't have to be super silent).

silentpcreview seemed to like the Arctic Cooling ACSSP-TC and its only $17.25 shipped from SVC. Anybody use this combo? Where are the veteran cooling experts with their opinions? 80mm fan ~ 11-36CFM @ 10dB(1KRPM) - 32dB(3.5KRPM).

And you O/C'ing experts. Will a thermally controlled 80mm HSF and a 120mm Vantec Stealth exhaust provide enough cooling for overclocking my Palomino 1600+ to 1.75Ghz @ 333Mhz FSB?

P-X
 
Maybe you silent PC addict's already know about this...but all I could say was WOW! This is from tweaknews.net which I assume is a reputable source of this type of review.

CONCLUSIONS & AFTERTHOUGHTS

I simply cannot praise the SilenX 400W PSU enough. I mean, I beat the hell out of this little unit, and it laughed at me. It never faltered once, and held true to all of its claims. It is stable and amazingly quiet.

Power supplies are, in my opinion, the most important part of a system. They provide the juice which powers the entire computer and a generic p.o.s. can harm your precious devices and hinder your box's performance.

The SilenX 400W is a very wise investment.

Pros

- Amazingly silent
- 14dBA under full load
- Stable. Fantastic voltage results
- Excellent cooling
- good design
- Reputable manufacturer

Cons

- No bling-bling for the modders (plain design)
Click to expand...

This is the SilenX 400W PSU....anyone familiar with this PSU?

P-X
 
Perhaps you need to read a little bit better 😉

The SilenX website claims that their Fortron based ultra quiet PSU?s are the rivals of such top names as Antec, Enermax, Vantec, Zalman, and Nexus.
Click to expand...

Another tester that got virtually the same voltage readings on the rails. Quite impressive. Is their a "THE" site for PSU benchmarking? I'd love to see them get ahold of this puppy. In fact I'm putting out the cybercall to the AT staff to pull in this bad boy (maybe a silent PSU round-up) with the SilenX, and other noice reduced power supplies.

P-X
 
Your right I did need to read it a little better, this looks like the Forton part

Fortron - FSP400PFN 400W

A review of quiet supplies (or those claiming so) is a great suggestion
 
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