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How do you reduce fan noise?

G

galbicake

Senior member
I see this PC noise Killer gasket kit from Antec.

Does it help?

Is there any McGyver thing I can do to save costs?
 
Yes you can easily MacGuyver something up. The real issue is your fan speeds. Your fans are running full blast even though they likely don't need to be.

So lets take a look at the different options:

Speedfan - a free program that allows you to vary your fan speeds with temperature, however you need a motherboard that has built in pulse width modulation. I use this and I think it is perfect. When I game, my fans go up in speed proportional to the temperatures (CPU fan based on CPU, case fans based on chipset). To use this your fans have to be connected to the Mobo headers.

Fan speed controllers - these allow fine adjustment of several fans. They cost money though, however they allow a nice interface to changing your fan speeds.

Rewire the fans to 7V or 5V - the fans plug into a connector that delivers 12VDC. You can easily swap the wires to deliver 5 or 7VDC to the fans. Here is an article - SlientPCReview.com

Of the three methods, I prefer speedfan. It's free, and it allows your fans to ramp up if the load gets high. Also, even though some fans will run at 5V or 7V, they won't necessarily start at that voltage. Speedfan overcomes being software based, it doesn't start until the O/S is loaded. This means that the fans start at full speed, but once the software is running it tones them down.

Good luck!
 
First you have to have a case that is designed to have good air flow.

A computer case is a big metal box. It can actually amplify noise like a Guitar. Does your case have soft rubber insulators to keep drives from making vibration noise?
 
I would start looking on replacing the said fans with designed low db's before looking on insulation and matting. Anything below 28db is considered silent. Of course, the lower the db the better but then with lower db also the lower fan speed thus lower air movement and cooling. Just need to find the right balance.
 
Fan noise is affected by:
- Motor speed.
- Bearing design (sleeve, ball and viscous).
- Blade turbulence.
- Air-stream flow turbulence.
- Fan, motor and bearing vibrations mechanically passed to case.
- Number of fans installed (more fans = more noise).
- Position - fans nearest you are most audible (side-vent or front intake fan).

'Quiet' fans differ in some characteristics, but all generally use low-RPM and low air-flow - resulting in warmer temps. I have a famous Akasa 'quiet' case fan that I don't use, simply because I don't like the warmer case temps due to low air-flow.

There is a middle road, using a high flow-rate fan that's 'pretty quiet' and adjusting voltage for best combination of air-flow vs. audible noise. For example, some Panaflo models offer higher flow rate at 'fairly quiet' audibility and offer a lot of head room for adjusting for acceptable combination of noise vs. cooling via controlling fan voltage.

For noise-isolation, sites like Jab-Tech offer soft rubber pull-through bolt-substitutes that work fairly well (set of 4 for $1.29). Gaskets are not really that effective.

Some home-built 'tinkerer' fan-noise-isolations solutions work very well, such as cutting out a kitchen sponge to friction-fit a fan in it and fastening the sponge to the case.

Hope this helps!
 
I use fan mounts as shown in this pic http://emcsolutionsltd.com/images/vib1.gif

Look at the blue & black items in the second from bottom image.

You can get them from http://www.mcmaster.com/ for $10 for a pack of 20. Search for item 5801K4 at mcmaster.com.

Also show below the fan mounts in the pic are vibration grommets. McMaster has them too - type 1245 in search to get to that catalog page for a full listing. I've used the ribbed grommets with good results.

 
Any noise reduction project must identify the biggest source of noise, and tackle them first -- these are going to mask quieter noise sources, and make tweaking them pointless until the noisier ones are dealt with.

Is it your PSU? [Replace]

Is it your old drives whining? (Probably not, but mentioning for the sake of analysis) [Replace]

Is it a side opening that gives a direct path for a fast CPU fan's noise to your ears? [Cover up vent / downvolt / replace CPU fan]

Etc.

http://www.cpemma.co.uk/index.html
 
Well,

It is definately the new PSU I installed.

550W Enhance.

I do not think I can nor it would be wise for me to figure out a way to reduce the fan noise on it, would it???

That is why I was wondering about that Antec noise killer because it had a gasket for the PSU.

Thoughts?
 
About a year ago I switched to cases and PSU's that all used 120mm fans. After a year of peace and quiet, I'll never go back.
 
sometimes power supply companies have oversized fan kits when an oversized fan is mounted on the bottom of the power supply on the outside.
 
The tips on SPCR are nice but it more about reducing a two fan PSU to a one fan without any issues.

Here are the specs to my PSU.

Enhance 550W

It is really loud with just one 80mm fan. It sounds like a turbine engine. I guess I should open this up since there is no seal on it that can be broken.

What is a good 80mm fan to replace it with? Maybe it is loud because it is not ball bearing.

But I honestly think it is the vibration to amplifies it as well. Thoughts?

 
Vibration is one of the major noise issues, isolation is great.

Panaflos are good fans, as are yateloon and akasa aren't bad, i mostly look @ 120mm fans though so i'm not all that much help.
 
Modding a PSU is not something I'd do without consideration and care, while also considering the alternative of replacement. These things can fail badly all by themselves, without the help of amateurs such as myself.

It's very easy to quiet a fan by slowing it down, and this is the primary technique. Of course, this means less airflow, and hence less cooling. In a PSU, this means greater risk and lower efficiency. A PSU is also typically crowded, which means that it's resistive to airflow, and benefits from a stronger fan.

If you look at Arctic Cooling cases for example, you'll see that they use a version of their thermally sensitive 80mm fans for cooling the custom PSU, and that even then, the biggest complaint / source of noise identified by some reviewers is the noise coming from the PSU fan. I'd conclude that AC has deliberately played it safe with cooling for the PSU, at the expense of some noise.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article216-page1.html
 
Personally Yates loon and Panaflo`s are very excellent fans.
I use the CoolerMaster 120 mm fans on everything except for one 90mm Zalman slim fan that runs inside my case to cool the memory!!

Also there are many things you can do to reduce the rpm`s of your fans thus reducing the airflow and the noise..

A fan speed controller would work nicely.
I have nevr useed those rubber gaskets and such.
I would just as soon go out and buy a diffferent fan.

Good Luck!
 
Originally posted by: Zepper
The rubber pin type isolators work better than the gasket type.

.bh.
Click to expand...

Where would I put the rubber pin?

I want to reduce the vibration originating from the PSU?

Thoughts?

Anyone used that Antec Noise Killer???

Btw, I would not dare reduce the airflow of it, however I would consider changing the PSU fan to something better and more well known. I have no clue what type of fan the manufacturer uses.

I'll look into panaflo 80mm. Where is a good place to buy them cheap?
 
To do PSU fans, you'd have to open the PSU up and replace the fan screws with the pins. May void the warranty and be careful messing about inside the case. In that case you could use a "belt and suspenders" approach - both psu chassis gasket and rubber pins on the fan.

.bh.
 
I put towels over my computer, and behind it. I rolled up 2 wife beaters and put them underneath it, so noise isn't xferred to the floor and everywhere else. Also I took some cheezits boxes, cut off the very top, made a hole in side, and put that hole over my fans. All in all this about halved my computer noise.
 
Originally posted by: soccerballtux
I put towels over my computer, and behind it. I rolled up 2 wife beaters and put them underneath it, so noise isn't xferred to the floor and everywhere else. Also I took some cheezits boxes, cut off the very top, made a hole in side, and put that hole over my fans. All in all this about halved my computer noise.
Click to expand...


Alright, you win the MacGuyver award Soccerballtux. ROFL.

That is about as ghetto an answer I have heard. haha
 
Originally posted by: GroundedSailor
I use fan mounts as shown in this pic http://emcsolutionsltd.com/images/vib1.gif

Look at the blue & black items in the second from bottom image.

You can get them from http://www.mcmaster.com/ for $10 for a pack of 20. Search for item 5801K4 at mcmaster.com.

Also show below the fan mounts in the pic are vibration grommets. McMaster has them too - type 1245 in search to get to that catalog page for a full listing. I've used the ribbed grommets with good results.
Click to expand...

What is the model # & the size of the hole diameter you use for those 2.5 pins?
 
Looking at your system spec it seems as if you have a fairly low power PC, so your 550W PS is way more than you need. The main keys to quiet computing are to buy low power & power efficient parts, under-volt where possible and to use the largest fans that your system can support and to dynamically control them depending on temperature.
As someone else mentioned Speedfan is a great program, but if you buy power hungry parts then it?s not going to help that much.
It sounds as if your P/S is a dog when it comes to noise even though they claim that is low noise. That doesn?t inspire confidence in me and since the P/S is the last thing that you want to tinker with for obvious reasons, I seriously suggest that you ditch it. You really want a P/S that is designed for low noise AND is also efficient. I say that because P/Ss will ramp up their fan speeds depending on their internal temperature and a more efficient P/S will run cooler for a given load and therefore potentially quieter. If you can keep the whole system power load below a certain threshold, your P/S internal temp is not going to get high enough so that the fan becomes noisy.

Look at a program like CrystalCPUID as that will undervolt your CPU dynamically, and that keeps your CPU temps lower which allows you to run your CPU fan slower and also stresses your P/S less.
If your Athlon 64 is not a 90 nm version, then moving to one of those will make a big difference also.

If you?re seriously looking to reduce the noise of your PC then the SilentPCreview site that someone else mentioned is a phenomenal source of info. It does take quite a bit of time to understand the basics of building a quiet PC, but once you?ve done that it becomes fairly straightforward. SilentPCreview has a recommended components section as well as very detailed articles on how they come to their decisions. It?s highly recommended.
 
Originally posted by: smilingcrow
Looking at your system spec it seems as if you have a fairly low power PC, so your 550W PS is way more than you need. The main keys to quiet computing are to buy low power & power efficient parts, under-volt where possible and to use the largest fans that your system can support and to dynamically control them depending on temperature.
As someone else mentioned Speedfan is a great program, but if you buy power hungry parts then it?s not going to help that much.
It sounds as if your P/S is a dog when it comes to noise even though they claim that is low noise. That doesn?t inspire confidence in me and since the P/S is the last thing that you want to tinker with for obvious reasons, I seriously suggest that you ditch it. You really want a P/S that is designed for low noise AND is also efficient. I say that because P/Ss will ramp up their fan speeds depending on their internal temperature and a more efficient P/S will run cooler for a given load and therefore potentially quieter. If you can keep the whole system power load below a certain threshold, your P/S internal temp is not going to get high enough so that the fan becomes noisy.

Look at a program like CrystalCPUID as that will undervolt your CPU dynamically, and that keeps your CPU temps lower which allows you to run your CPU fan slower and also stresses your P/S less.
If your Athlon 64 is not a 90 nm version, then moving to one of those will make a big difference also.

If you?re seriously looking to reduce the noise of your PC then the SilentPCreview site that someone else mentioned is a phenomenal source of info. It does take quite a bit of time to understand the basics of building a quiet PC, but once you?ve done that it becomes fairly straightforward. SilentPCreview has a recommended components section as well as very detailed articles on how they come to their decisions. It?s highly recommended.
Click to expand...

As usual we need to post a disclaimer against using just one site to obtain the info that you need!!
 
Originally posted by: JEDIYodaAs usual we need to post a disclaimer against using just one site to obtain the info that you need!!
Click to expand...
Or else, post a link to another site that also lists useful information on this topic and helps us all enlighten ourselves.
 
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