Give Me Tranquility! Please Help Me Silence This Computer!

[Janus]

I have a P4/1600 system that desparately needs to be quieted down. Right now it sounds like a small jet with all its fans, which would be fine if it were a jet and not a desktop computer in my bedroom. Here's what I have in terms of fans:

Enermax EG465P-VE (FC) 431w Power Supply (I think the main culprit of my noise)
ThermalTake 80mm Case Fan on rear
Intel P4 Retail HSF

Any suggestions? Money isn't an object but silence would be golden If you have suggestions for which components to replace, I would greatly appreciate a link where to find the item too.

Thanks a bunch....

 

[passign]

my pc is 2 quite


koolance super liquid cooling system.

think the addy is koolance.com

 

[oldfart]

<< Enermax EG465P-VE (FC) 431w Power Supply (I think the main culprit of my noise) >>


That is one of those dual fan PS right? A single fan PS would be a better bet.


<< ThermalTake 80mm Case Fan on rear >>


What is the RPM? Use can use Speedfan to slow down the RPM of any fan in your system connected to a fan header. Another idea is to use Panaflow L1A 80 mm fans.


<< Intel P4 Retail HSF >>


That should be fine

 

[usual_suspect]

http://fredrik.hubbe.net/silence/fans.html

http://pmitros.mit.edu/silence.html

http://www.pcsilent.de/en/products/index.asp

http://www.quietpc.com/

 

[Jen]

i went to water cooling on my computer 2 yrs ago. biggest reason was to take care of this noise added bonus was it runs cooler and can take the summer heat



Jen

 

[lorlabnew]

I have Antec PP-303XP 300W in my SX1030 case; I found interesting thing.
When I plug the PS's 3pin connector (new monitoring feature) to the motherboard, the PS fan will run like crazy. If I'll leave it unplugged, fan is perfectly quiet......

 

[joohang]

<< koolance super liquid cooling system.

think the addy is koolance.com >>


I'll give that one a try when I attempt to build a water-cooled dual Athlon w/SCSI HD

I'm hoping to get something like SilentDrive or NoiseControl Silverado and watercool them. Shove that cooler "panel" somehow inside and seal the drive.

 

[oldfart]

The Antec fan when connected to the normal location is thermal controlled. Direct to the mobo, it's not.

 

[KenAF]

I wonder...if the Antec can is connected directly to the mainboard, can you slow it down (reducing its noise) with Speedfan?

 

[lorlabnew]

I have total 4 fan connectors (3 usable actually, since 1st is for CPU fan) on my Intel MVL motherboard (1 out of these 3 remaining is monitoring-capable; that's where I connected the Antec PS and got high RPM). Should it try to plug it to the non-monitored motherboard 3-pin connector? Or just leave it unplugged since I'm not overheating at all?

Thx.


Regarding SpeedFan; I tried this utility and it conflicted with IntelActiveMonitor. Out of these 2, I keep Intel's monitoring utility, and purchased Enermax quiet fans (2 low-rpm thermal and 1 controllable). My system is very quiet now overall....



<< Then Antec fan when connected to the normal location is thermal controlled. Direct to the mobo, it's not. >>

 

[oldfart]

<< wonder...if the Antec can is connected directly to the mainboard, can you slow it down (reducing its noise) with Speedfan? >>


Yes, that would work.

 

[Janus]

Wow, thanks for all of the useful information and links!!

In investigating this problem (opening the case, plugging/unplugging fans, and using the Speedfan app, I discovered the following:

1.) My ThermalTake 80x80x25 (39 CFM) rear case fan was the worst offended & I temporarily replaced it with an older, but slower, case fan.
2.) The Enermax PS is a dual fan model, and yes, it also makes quite a bit of noise in its own right.
3.) The Intel Retail HSF for the P4 is basically silent, so probably not a problem
4.) My Maxtor DiamondMax D740x HDD is also VERY noisy (not sure if its a bunko drive but most folks don't seem to say this drive is all that noisy); I turned on their "Accoustic Management" to the quiet setting, although I will lose a little performance. It helps a bit, but nothing too profound.

Here's my proposed solutions:
1.) Replace the case fan with PC Power & Cooling Silencer 80mm case fan
2.) Replace the Maxtor D740x with a Seagate Barracuda IV since it seems to be the quietest of the higher-end HDDs currently available.

If those solutions don't make a big enough difference, then I will also replace the Enermax PS with PC Power & Cooling Silencer 400w PS. I want to wait on this last step though because that PS is very expensive at $169.15!

Anything else I'm missing?