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How does Dell do it??

K

kamaboko

Senior member
how does dell get their computers to be sooooo damn quiet? anyone sat next to a dell optiplex? you can't even tell it's on it's so quiet. do you know of any company's that sell one's that quiet?

thanks,
k
 
Well, first of all, they -not only Dell, but all retail PCs- are not overclockable. In other word, most of them do not need higher performance than stock HSF for any part. I have few experience with Dell's as well as Compaq, which my roommate has. They are quiet, but the air from inside is pretty warm, which means quiet but not that efficient. But since you will never OC, that's just good enough for them to work properly.
 
Dell doesn't use a CPU HSF. They just have a heat pipe duct that goes to the intake of the rear case fan which I'm guessing is approx. 90 mm. The case fan is pretty quiet.

They also don't use a front case fan.

I'm guessing Dell also doesn't care much about heat as long as the critical specs are met.

Trying to achieve cool, quiet, and OC is tough. Dell only has to worry about one of those factors.
 
I've got a dell that is pretty loud. There's a single 120mm fan in the back (sucking air from the heatsink, as henny describes) that makes a lot of noise. I honestly don't know why I haven't replaced it yet. It's really loud for ~5 minutes after booting and never drops below a good hum. That's just my experience though, maybe I got a bad fan.
 
Originally posted by: Henny
I'm guessing Dell also doesn't care much about heat as long as the critical specs are met.

Trying to achieve cool, quiet, and OC is tough. Dell only has to worry about one of those factors.
Click to expand...


That's ^^^ pretty much the answer right there and is discussed further in this thread.
 
I have only dissected one Dell. It was a discard, Slot 1 440BX mid tower. The cpu exhaust fan was loud, but that could have the result of years of operation. It had ducting to the fan which was seperate from the powersupply.

I use a Dell Optiplex 2.4c P4 at work. It is dead silent. Since I did not choose it or can complain about it not working, it is okay by me.

At home, I have a Lian Li case with an XP processor and a SCSI 10K hard drive. When everything is quiet, the hard drive will make you think an ice pick is being pushed into your brain. As soon as anything else makes noise, it disappears. My hearing is far less than perfect. Sounds are very subjective. Dells are quiet and most desktop versions are not housing SCSI hard drives.

I think I could turn off some of the fans in the Lian Li, or at least turn them down a notch.

Lian Li cases, out of the box are not very quiet. I am still looking for some suitable sound dampening material that is easy to apply to the large flat surfaces inside the sides, bottom and top.
 
It's all in the type of components you buy. I was very impressed with the noise level of a system I build with the Antec SLK3700AMB, Athlon 64 3200+ w/ retail heatsink, and 7200 RPM Seagate HD. It is barely audible. With my other computers turned on you don't even notice when it switches off or on.
 
1. They run stock.
2. They aren't worried if it gets a bit hot, only if it gets WAY too hot.
3. They have control over every single piece of the PC and how it is built.

If you had all their resources, you could do as well. Many people do as well or better on their own, but of course at a higher cost.
 
eh, they may be quiet, but w/ 3 7200rpm drives.. i don't want no fans in front of em 😛
Click to expand...
The people buying Dell desktops are mostly not going to be using 3 hard drives of any speed...

\Dan
 
You don't need really powerful fans anyway. All you need is a good setup and low rpm fans, and it will cool down the system efficiently.

I use 5 2700rpm fans. 2 in the front blowing, 1 on the HS sucking and 2 in the back sucking. It might even be possible to actually remove some and still maintain the same temp. Got-ta try that.

Right now, Asus Probe 2 says my temps are:

CPU 109, MB 91

Heat is on - thats why its so high.

Usually it is at 100/80
 
I removed most of the fans.

All I have now is one fan in the back and on the cpu so that the hot air from the cpu goes straight out of the case. Temp right now doing general applications like IE is at 105/93 or 41/34. It's also been on for a while.

I have also figured out that all the noise is coming from my power supply. Idk which brand it is, probably generic 350W and the fan makes a sort of medium sounding hum.
 
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