How can I silence my PC ?

[swayzak]

hi

Having recently installed my new x800 xt pe I realise just how noisy my pc is !

I use it predominantly for music production so I'm prepared to spend a bit of cash getting things as quiet as possible.

At the moment I have:

3 x WD 8MB cache ide caviars
1 x case fan (papst)
1 x turbo bloody fan on x800 xt
crappy old "quiet" coolermaster copper cpu cooler
front intake fans in HD bay (not always on)

Could I go completely fanless or at least mostly fanless ?

There is not much room between the x800 and the 2nd pci slot (which has a card installed). Also this has a half size daughter card over pci slot 1.

Suggestions welcome.

thanks

swayzak-

 

[Varun]

Silent PC Review is the place to go. Just be warned that when you go down the path of silencing your computer, it gets out of hand in a hurry!

Every time I fix or replace a part to make it quiet, I instantly know what the next loudest piece in my computer is.

I'd start with the Antec P180 case, get a nice quiet PSU, maybe a Zalman 7700-Cu HSF, throw in some Nexus 120mm fans, and replace the HSF on the video card with either the Zalman or the artic cooling one.

The other option is water cooling with a nice big radiator and large slow moving fan to push air through it. This gets quite expensive and involved though.

One other thing you can do is this:
I have a server that I put in the basement under my upstairs office. I ran 25' extension cables for the monitor, keyboard, and mouse. That's about as silent as you can get. You could even put a DVD burner in an external USB enclosure and run the extension to the main case if you use a lot of optical media (I don't).

I'm not sure how well the long extension cable would work for high resolutions on the monitor though, I just have a small 15" that I use for my server.

 

[S Random]

make sure that everything isnt viabrating, and passively watercool

 

[Elcs]

I find that vibration is the biggest problem I face so Ive been working on using rubber washers for fans and vibration dampening kits.

The front panel seems to be the biggest problem with my Antec SLK3000B.

 

[Operandi]

First, what case, MB and PSU do you have?, those are important factors.

If you don't mind spending the money the Zalman Reserator 1 can take care of a lot of your noise sources at once.

Going fanless is not a good idea. The number of fans is not important, eliminating the loudest components in order is. If you have 5 20dBA components in your system you'll still end up with a 20-23 dBA system.

 

[Unkno]

if you have a loud NB fan, get the zalman NB47J

 

[IdaGno]

start over

http://www.nvnews.net/articles/quietsli/index.shtml

 

[mechBgon]

I use it predominantly for music production so I'm prepared to spend a bit of cash getting things as quiet as possible.

A new system with as much passively-cooled equipment as practical, and fluid-bearing hard drives, is one option.

Asus A8N SLI Premium
A64 with some sort of super-quiet heatsink/fan like the Zalman
Antec SLK3000-B with Antec Phantom 350 fanless PSU (whee, I love spending someone else's money )
Seagate ATA/100 hard drive(s)
Some sort of fanless video card
Some rubber fan-screw things from jab-tech.com (props to Zepper for these, just got mine today)
Yate Loon 120mm fan at 7 volts in the rear exhaust port, mounted with the rubber fan-screw things (some Dremeling required since they're solid-corner fans)

That ought to be reasonably quiet if the amount of money isn't an obstacle.

 

[vtohthree]

Very interesting topic, I never considered silencing my old desktop before. It certainly was annoying, the case was all plastic and it was all tooless so everything hummed and vibrated. I figure if I could find some kind of hardening gel or rubber boots to wedge between my optical drives and HD it would've helped, and also by the fan so it wouldn't move as much or clatter against its surrounding. Another possible consideration is sound proofing the interior with sound deadening insulation on all the walls of the PC, kindof like the Antec super p180's. They sell similar stuff for car's but I don't know how well it would work for a pc, especially with controlling the temperature.

 

[OritionX]

could get one of these puppies

http://www.zalmanusa.com/usa/product/view.asp?idx=64&code=020

hefty price tag though

 

[OritionX]

http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000287041976/

interesting

 

[vtohthree]

http://www.zalmanusa.com/usa/product/view.asp?idx=64&code=020

Impressive, I'll have to consider one of those some day.

 

[JBDan]

Originally posted by: mechBgon

I use it predominantly for music production so I'm prepared to spend a bit of cash getting things as quiet as possible.

A new system with as much passively-cooled equipment as practical, and fluid-bearing hard drives, is one option.

Asus A8N SLI Premium
A64 with some sort of super-quiet heatsink/fan like the Zalman
Antec SLK3000-B with Antec Phantom 350 fanless PSU (whee, I love spending someone else's money )
Seagate ATA/100 hard drive(s)
Some sort of fanless video card
Some rubber fan-screw things from jab-tech.com (props to Zepper for these, just got mine today)
Yate Loon 120mm fan at 7 volts in the rear exhaust port, mounted with the rubber fan-screw things (some Dremeling required since they're solid-corner fans)

That ought to be reasonably quiet if the amount of money isn't an obstacle.

Or you could use these-->http://www.nexustek.nl/mountingkit.htm
(the longer thingies) and bypass the dremel.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: JBDan

Originally posted by: mechBgon

I use it predominantly for music production so I'm prepared to spend a bit of cash getting things as quiet as possible.

A new system with as much passively-cooled equipment as practical, and fluid-bearing hard drives, is one option.

Asus A8N SLI Premium
A64 with some sort of super-quiet heatsink/fan like the Zalman
Antec SLK3000-B with Antec Phantom 350 fanless PSU (whee, I love spending someone else's money )
Seagate ATA/100 hard drive(s)
Some sort of fanless video card
Some rubber fan-screw things from jab-tech.com (props to Zepper for these, just got mine today)
Yate Loon 120mm fan at 7 volts in the rear exhaust port, mounted with the rubber fan-screw things (some Dremeling required since they're solid-corner fans)

That ought to be reasonably quiet if the amount of money isn't an obstacle.

Or you could use these-->http://www.nexustek.nl/mountingkit.htm
(the longer thingies) and bypass the dremel.

Nice!

 

[glorygunk]

All about the fans:

1. Buy an ATI silencer for your x800
2. Replace the CPU fan.
3. At least have 1 exhaust case fan (go buy one in the ~21dBa range: lower is better)

Come back and report
NOT a good idea to go completely fanless.

 

[bay]

I had resounding success with the silencing of my pc-60 plus
replaced front 120mm w/ a Nexus 120mm @19dba
replaced the top and rear 80mm w/ panaflo 80
and threw in an xp-90 w/ 92mm panaflo. all of this hooked upt to my vantec nexus fan controller.
at full speed it's barely audiable, at reduced speeds it is silent.