Giving up on overclocking!!

[satori]

Well, I was running the following setup for a couple months:

XP 1800+
Alpha 8045 with a YS-Tech Fan (48.5 CFM, 37dB)
Enermax 365 PS
Epox 8KHA+
Antec SX1030
2 Antec regular case fans for intake (not sure of the CFM, but I believe they're around 30 dB)
2 panaflo L1A's (24 CFM, 21 dB) for exhaust

I'm able to get the chip up to 1700-1750, but I finally got tired of the noise. I know, I know... Those fans added up are probably still better than having a Delta. But, maybe I'm just getting older, but I've replaced all the 80mm fans with Panaflo L1A's (including the one on the 8045). I also replaced both my hard-drives with Seagate Barracuda IV's...

AND IT STILL SORTA SEEMS LOUD!!!

I'm figuring my system is around 30 dB's, total. Is this how the math works?

1 panaflo - 21 dB
2 panaflo's - 24 dB
4 panaflo's - 27 dB
5 panaflo's - ~29-30 dB?

It's definitely a lot better than how it was, but compared to the Dell P4/2gigs we've got at work, this thing is still annoyingly loud. Maybe it's the turbulence of all the fans and wires.

So, who else has gotten off the overclocking bandwagon? This is the first non-overclocked system I've had since a Pentium 233 I had 4-5 years ago. I've found that with a Radeon 8500, I'm still able to play all my games at 1280x1024x32 with all the eye-candy turned on. Even overclocked, there was no way to play stuff at 1600x1200.

JFYI, with the "all-panaflo-setup" I'm getting 29/50C for system/CPU temp after letting Prime95 heat up my CPU. The CPU temp is roughly a 10C increase from my previous louder setup. Ambient temp is around 25-26C right now.

 

[ZCracken]

Yep, i see what you mean. Cant stand that house-wreckin noice either.. rather a slower cpu than all that fan-noice..

Athlon 1400@1200

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

I was running a full tower Inwin with:
120mm intake front
92mm intake side
80mm exhaust top
80mm exhaust rear
80mm exhaust psu fan
80mm intake for psu
80mm ys tech like you had
pci slot cooler
gf4 fan
northbridge fan
2 hard drive coolers (2 fans each)

It's a little noisey

Have it chained down to keep it from flying away. Run a 2nd rig in here as well. Not quite as many in there though. And I sleep in here I get scared when they are off. Can hear every little sound :Q

 

[Nate420]

4x Sunon 80MM 55cfm case fans
30mm 5000rpm thermaltake mem fan
4000rpm(i think)crytal orb on G3
2xPSU fans
Intel HSF 2700rpm

It's pretty silent without the 4 Sunons running, but gotta have atleast one of them runing at all times. I usually just run one case fan if I'm surfing/email/ect.. If I fire up a game or anything else CPU intensive, I reach back, hit a button, and here come the other 3 Sunons(and they bring the noise with em). Drops case and CPU temps about 5C each.

I'm only in this room for the PC, and I usually have headphones one while I'm sitting here so the noise isn't a big deal. I never used to shut my PC down at night, but since the addition of the sunons, I do now. You can hear them about anywhere in my apartment.

 

[tboo]

I as well have given up on serious overclocking-the fan noise was just too much.

 

[THUGSROOK]

us P4A NorthWood guys dont need any stinkin case fans

 

[Bakwetu]

You can try and change tha fan in the ps and get some sound dampening material for the box. In my system, the ps fan is actually the loudes and is responsible for most of the noise. I agree with you on the noise, Next time I'm getting a silent system.

 

[Don66]

<< So, who else has gotten off the overclocking bandwagon? >>



I have pretty much..
Running an XP1800 didn't see any real benifit to an extra few MHz on an overclock.
But, I am overclocking my Geforce3 TI200, seems a good way to get extra speed.
So I have the best of both worlds, total stability and enough speed to run everything smooth.

 

[dunkster]

I fooled around with fan placement when I first got my Inwin 1030, and found the most efficient configuration was with just the two rear case fans extracting. Removing front intake fans reduces both PS load and noise, with nearly unmeasurable difference in temps.

I replaced all Inwin fans, including PS fan, with Panaflo L1As for reduced noise. I kept the original Delta fan that came with the Alpha 8045U since it's not really that loud.

All temps went up a bit with the Panaflos installed, but max loaded cpu temps stays in the 40s even on hot days @ 148MHz FSB.

Try removing the front case intake fans. I doubt you'll really notice the difference in temps, but it will be quieter.

Hope this helps!

 

[Jwyatt]

A couple things i have noticed when trying to reduce noise.
1. Use some kind of rubber or foam gaskets around the mounting screws on each fan. On both sides of the screw if you can.
like this >--|--][--|--- {
...............^..^..^.. ^..^
...............1..2....3...4.....5
Part 1 is the screw
part 2 is the washer
part 3 is the case body
part 4 is the washer
part 5 is the fan body
Sorry for the srewed(no pun intended) up illistration.

This make a little difference.


2: Use bigger fans where you can. If you can replace the 80's with one singe 120mm your far better off. The 120's wont spin as fast, but give more airflow than you will get with 2 80's. 90mm fans will make some difference, but I have not been able to locate any decent 90mm fans that give good output with low noise.

3: Run the fans on 7v or 5v instead of 12v. This slows the fans down significantly. Some fans wont even run with lower supply voltage, but this makes a huge difference in both speed sound and airflow! This can be done by manipulating the pins on the 4 pin accessory plug from the power supply. You can use the 12v+(yeller) and the 5v+(red) to give you a 7vsupply. Use the red as negative and yellow as positive. You can also buy or build fanbus kits to do this as well.

4:This last suggestion is a bit more expensive, but seeing you already have it then its moot. The case. A good case makes a HUGE difference in the noise. I have been using cheap $40 cases for years. I just bought my first expensive case(not including my server case). I like the antec cases becasue the way they latch on the sides. There is no slots in the sides for ventilation(dust to get in) which is great!

Good luck on your quest to peace and quite!

 

[Jwyatt]

And another thing. Im considering ditching my exhaust fans. The main reason is. If you push say 50cfm of air in its going to come out!! I thnk ill do some testing and see if it hurts my case temps much. Since your not overclocking anymore i really dont see a problem with it. another thing you should consider is installing some kid of filter in the front of your case. With the antec 1030 i think you can pop the top off and then push the little thingys and pop the bottom of the front off to install some filters there. keeps dust out and muffles the sound a tid bit.

 

[mamisano]

Just put my 1700+ back to 1700+. Running 1.625v at stock speeds! Temps dropped around 6 degrees C.

Later

 

[Zap]

I've built a semi-quiet computer. Tualatin Celeron 1.1A@1.46 using a retail box HSF from a P3 coppermine 1GHz (same fan, bigger heatsink). Power supply fan is probably noisiest, but the stamped grill has been cut and replaced with a wire finger guard. Rear exhaust fan is an Enermax adjustable (from 1000-3000RPM) set somewhere in the middle. No other fans in system. Hard drives are also a bit noisy because the C: drive is a Western Digital 120GB 7200RPM "special edition" drive. I just upgraded from a Maxtor 540DX series drive, and can definately hear the whine.

 

[satori]

I'm glad I posted this message, since the replies reminded me of some other components that could be causing extra noise. I've got a fan on my Epox and a fan on the 8500. I had a GeForce2 before the 8500 and I remember its fan started rattling a month or so before I ditched it. I'll take a look at those. As for undervolting the existing fans, I'm a little worried things will get too toasty for my hard-drives and other components.

Someone mentioned using rubber grommets to stop the rattling. I'm currently just using the fan brackets in the SX1030. I've thought about ripping those out, but never got around to it.

From the "sub-$200-video card roundup" on the mainpage, it looks like there's not much point in running my CPU a lot faster. The 8500's the bottle-neck (in most cases).

As for getting a P4/Northwood, the only reason I went AMD with this recent upgrade was the cheap CPU+MOBO combos. Damn you, Frys!!!

BTW, I'm sitting here at work with 2 computers... An ancient P/200 and a P3/700, both of which just have a heatsink fan (no case fans) and unless my ears are playing tricks on me, my system at home seems quieter. But, I just walked over to the Dell P4/2.0 sitting across from my cubicle... My god, the only time I can really hear it is when the hard-drive seeks!! Must resist... can't buy a Dell...

 

[zip151]

I have a duron 700 that I am undervolting to 1.2v. It still runs fine at that voltage. I don't notice much difference from when I had it overclocked to 963. I have a swifech heatsink on it without a fan. All I have is one case fan blowing near it, and my temps are around 36ºC full load.

 

[Bingo13]

Try the new Antec TruePower power supplies. They made my Enermax whisper series seem loud. Most O.E.M. power supplies are truly whisper quiet with the Delta Electronics series being one of the best.

 

[satori]

Bingo13: Yah, I've been looking at getting one of the new 1080b's. It's weird. I live/work pretty close to Antec's HQ, but the local places here sell it for more than if I mail-ordered. I bought the Enermax Whisper a couple years ago, and it seemed pretty quiet at the time.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

<< us P4A NorthWood guys dont need any stinkin case fans >>

I'll second that

 

[Dan]

As much as I've been into overclocking during the past few years, I'm also loosing my fascination with it. The primary reason is because the performance gains are negligible compared to what you could achieve in years past.

For example, when I overclocked a P100MHz to 150MHz or 166MHz I was gettng an 50% to 66% increase -- and I could see the difference. When I overclocked a K6-2 400MHz to 550MHz I had a 37.5% increase --and could still see a difference. When I overclock an Athlon 1.4GHz to 1.5MHz or 1.6GHz I only get a 7% to 12% increase -- and I can't see any difference.

I sure can hear the difference though. So, like a lot of people, I'm beginning to study up on how to strike a balance between performance and quiet.

 

[Jwyatt]

Dan,
I hear ya about not being able to see the difference. It seems all the hardware vendors/makers are shoving all this technology at us, but the only thing they can show the everyday user is some temperature difference and tell us how good it makes it. They hardly ever show us actual real life tests. Such as how much faster will my Internet Explorer load. Will it make it load pages faster? Will my office apps do any better with a 1.5g compared to a 1.9 or 2gigger? Yea you can load MS Word in 1.5 seconds when using a 1.5gigger, but when using a 2 gigger its a whopping 1.45s!! Are we as humans that efficient that we cant wait the extra nano or milli seconds to load a word or excel doc?

Anyways......conclusion is....were all fools for upgrading past our lightening fast 286@16mhz!!![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

Face it were hooked on the stuff. there are somepeople who actally use the fast stuff, but for me....not really. Heck just tonight I spent 225 bux on a new 8500 128mb!!! gotta deal on it and it will make my games mucho faster huh?

I gotta break the habit!!!

Fingers tired now...im gonna break a bit!

 

[blackhawk]

This is a great post and I've been thinking the same way for a while now that I have a couple XP cpu's and big fans. The fan noise is getting to me as I just setup and tested a celeron 900 on a bare case with no fans and was amazed at how quiet it was with just the fan on the ps, cpu and vid card.

I'm going to try to quieten mine down with taking a few fans out and using the rubber grommets/seals around the case fans and I have already dropped my voltages back to stock.

10 to 15% on an XP isn't as good as 50% on a celeron/P3 used to be with the noise/heat issue.

 

[Jwyatt]

You can also try to put some kind of seal around where the sides contact each other. Some people go as far as using dynomat, but i have tried it and it makes no difference in my experience. The case just doesnt have that much noise.

Only a couple of these will have great benifits, but all of the thing i mentioned will quiten down a case drastically!

 

[CubicZirconia]

I decided to just wait it out. After awhile the noise stopped bothering me. Although I'm sure that solution isn't one most people are looking for.

 

[satori]

Well, I fiddled with my system Saturday afternoon to get to the source of the noise and I've come to a couple surprising conclusions.

1. Putting a fan in the Hard-drive cage of the SX1030 really makes a ton of noise. I'm guessing the fact that having on side of the fan pushed against the case and the other side pushed against 2 hard drives is makind some weird turbulance. I currently disconnected this fan. The Seagate Barracuda's seem to run fairly low in temperature, so I'm hoping this'll be alright. MBM5 temperatures for the system/CPU temp haven't shown an increase since I did this.

2. The north-bridge fan on the Epox 8KHA+ is pretty loud. Guess it's hard to make quiet fans in 40-60mm sizes.

3. The fan on my Radeon 8500 has GOT TO GO!!! Not really sure what my options are for this. The Crystal Orb has a rating of 26.4 dB, so it's dB contribution would seem to be the same as adding 4 panaflo L1A's to my case. Ug... If I do end up getting the Antec 1080b, maybe the side intake AGP fan will allow me to take the fan off the 8500.

I'm sorta satisfied with the noise after I disconnected the hard-drive cage fan, though. It's also hard to tell how much of a difference the Enermax 365 PSU is contributing. Someone mentioned the new Tru-powers being a lot quieter than the Enermax.

 

[BlvdKing]

I too was sick and tired of the noise coming from both my computers. It was the two 7000 RPM screamers in each computer that was driving me nuts.

Here's what I did to reduce the noise:

I changed out the 7000 RPM fans with stock AMD 4200 - 4800 RPM fans, removed my hard drive fans, and removed one case fan from the front of each case.

Here's what they are running at now:
TBird 1200 @ 1230 (7*175) @ 1.575 volts (CoolerMaster HHC-001 w/ 4800 RPM fan on top). 1 case fan, a fan on the GeForce 3, stock NB
Duron 750 @ 933 (7.5*124) @ 1.8 volts (stock AMD cooler/fan on top) 1 case fan (no fan on video card

It's not quiet but it's a hell of alot better than what I had. I can sleep better at night now too.

My TBird is both overclocked and under-volted.