How loud is my Computer going to be?

[Chronic321]

When I originally planned my computer I wanted it to be quiet. Now, after I've ordered everything, I'm not sure I have attained this. My Thoroughbred will finally after a long delay, arive on Friday. I have an Aluminum Antec 660plus equivelent, three 80mm 34 CFM/30 db fans (Instake, Exhaust, CPU). My Abit Siluro is the quietiest Geforce 4 4400 (28 db fan) and I have a liquid ball bearing hard drive. I am going to run my Geforce at 4600 levels and have my Athlon at a 166 mHZ bus with a dropped multiplier (effective 26 mhz overclock). Will my computer be loud and one the other hand is it being cooled enough. Thanks-


Chronic321
Gamers-Tech.com

 

[Nefrodite]

u should replace all cr@ppy 60-80mm fans with low rpm 92mm ones. even if you have to super glue em in place for the cpu and stuff... or slice blow holes in your case. its not hard really most any online cooling site sells fans/fan grates etc

 

[TimeKeeper]

I found most of noise actually come from the CPU fan...then you add case fan..yada..yada..yada..

Recently I discover the "CHEAP" way to run a quiet pc is to go w/ P4 w/ retail 3800 rpm HSF.

And even w/ 2 7200rpm HD in the same case, I don't even need any case fan besides the fan of PS.

P4 1.6a@2.1 may not be as powerful as XP, but it really give me a "peace" of mind.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

P4 1.6a@2.1 may not be as powerful as XP, but it really give me a "peace" of mind.

This is all nonsense.

Just slap a Thermalright AX-7 on there and an adjustable fan. Drop one or two 80mm quiet, low CFM fans and be done with it. You won't be running hot and you won't have to worry about noise.

 

[Utterman]

Originally posted by: ST4RCUTTER
P4 1.6a@2.1 may not be as powerful as XP, but it really give me a "peace" of mind.

This is all nonsense.

Just slap a Thermalright AX-7 on there and an adjustable fan. Drop one or two 80mm quiet, low CFM fans and be done with it. You won't be running hot and you won't have to worry about noise.

Those Enermax adjustable fans are great. I have 5 of them in my case at the lowest setting and they keep everythings cool.

 

[TimeKeeper]

P4 1.6a@2.1 may not be as powerful as XP, but it really give me a "peace" of mind.

This is all nonsense.

Just slap a Thermalright AX-7 on there and an adjustable fan. Drop one or two 80mm quiet, low CFM fans and be done with it. You won't be running hot and you won't have to worry about noise.

Why do you think it is nonsense? Care to explain a bit more?

 

[paralazarguer]

Okay, I have owned a duron, a tbird, and an athlon XP all with stock cooling. I've done everything I can to quiet the POSes down. I've gone so far as buying crazy exotic stealth fans and even using an adapter to mount an 80 mm fan and use ASUS qfan to lower its speed to 1600rpm. Still, the CPU fan was WAYYYYY too loud. Since I got my 1.6a and run it at the 133 bus (2.1) my problems are over. The intel stock fan only runs at 3000rpm and is the quietest thing EVER! Unlike AMD, there is absolutely no reason to use a case fan. I'm using an enermax whisper power supply and the fan on my GeForce 3 Ti200 is louder than both the power supply and processor combined. I've since unhooked the video card fan because it made the ssytem audible. If you want quiet, intel is the only way to go. Click here for view of it all. No AMD system has ever satisfied my noise requirements like this inaudible beast. When working in a home office or, say, a call centre, you need absolute silence and AMD can't do it. Switch to intel, man. There's a reason that Intel owns the corporate market and it has nothing to do with performance or price.

 

[paralazarguer]

sorry, you can't go directly to that link. You'll have to paste it into your address bar.
http://www27.brinkster.com/hwsource/temp.jpg

 

[kly1222]

I've since unhooked the video card fan because it made the ssytem audible.

Ummm...is that a good idea??? :Q

 

[Lucky]

Originally posted by: kly1222

I've since unhooked the video card fan because it made the ssytem audible.

Ummm...is that a good idea??? :Q

If you use a big heatsink its OK. I wouldnt do it without one.

 

[paralazarguer]

Why not? If dell can do it so can I. There's already a little heatsink under the fan. It's been running smooth for over three months. Cool to the touch. The Ti200 can run no prob with passive cooling. Companies only inlude that kind of cooling for people who put it in their athlon 2100+ rigs with no case fan and a case temp of like 33. I run my case at 25-26 though so it's not prob.

 

[Chronic321]

Again, I've already ordered everything so I can't go Intel at this point. The question is how loud is this configuration is going to be, again three 30 db/34 CFM 80mm fans, a fan on my Abit Siluro, and a liquid ball bearing 80gb Maxtor Drive. Thanks

 

[ubersam]

EDIT: Nevermind.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

Why do you think it is nonsense? Care to explain a bit more?

I think it's a fallacy that AMD systems have to run loud. I was running water cooled until recently and of course that was quiet, but now I'm back to air cooled and I think the dB level is even lower than before. An XP 1800+ with AX-7 runs about the same as a retail P4 1.6Ghz and consistently performs around the level of a 1.9Ghz P4 @400Mhz FSB. I give the nod to the 1.6@ 2.2Ghz+ due to the faster FSB and high clockspeeds but I still think the two are extremely competitive and quiet.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

Again, I've already ordered everything so I can't go Intel at this point. The question is how loud is this configuration is going to be, again three 30 db/34 CFM 80mm fans, a fan on my Abit Siluro, and a liquid ball bearing 80gb Maxtor Drive. Thanks


Thirty dB is pretty loud IMO. I try to stick below 22-24dB. Especially since you have three 30dB fans and the HSF. I would replace all those 80mm screamers with PC Power and Cooling fans. They're not the highest CFM rated 80mm out there, but they have the best dB/CFM ration IMO.

 

[TimeKeeper]

I still think the two are extremely competitive and quiet.

Compare retail vs retail, AMD's 5400rpm fan does produce more noise than Intel's 3000rpm fan, don't you think?

Perhaps, it is more of personal preference not so much of "nonsense", don't you agree?

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

AMD doesn't equal loud. Whoever said it's impossible to get an AMD system quiet has apparantly never heard of Panaflos.

PAL8045 + low speed Panaflo + 2 low speed Panaflos for the case.. just as quiet or quieter than a retail P4 heatsink. I'm running my XP1700+ @ 1.65ghz using a Volcano 7+ on the low setting with 2 Panaflos in my case and it's just about the same as my P4 was, sound wise.. and my temps are well within spec for an Athlon.

But whatever, to each his own. If you want quiet, go 80mm Panaflos all the way.

 

[subhuman]

I think the point was, you have to buy extra equipment to get an AMD quiet. An Intel is quiet out of the box, you don't have to track down a yadda yadda overclocker heatsync blah blah.

But yeah, with some effort you can absolutely quiet down that AMD...

 

[SWScorch]

Heh this is funny. AMD systems do not have to be loud. As has been said, simply ditch the stock cooler, buy an AX-7, and place a low-speed 80mm fan on that, then have another low-speed 80 or 92mm exhaust fan. Unless you're seriously overclocking it, that's all you need.

 

[paralazarguer]

Exactly, if you are going to go out and buy all this extra equipment just to catch up with intel why don't you just go intel right out of the box? As you said, overclocking will be a problem with an athlon if you spend all this money to quiet it whereas with intel it won't be a problem at all. The 1.6a I have here will go all the way up to 2.53 although I only run it on the 133 bus (2.1ghz) and that's with the stock quiet cooler.

 

[paralazarguer]

"Unlike AMD, there is absolutely no reason to use a case fan. "

-This is true. If you're going to use a low rpm cooler on your athlon that means higher temps. Using a whisper power supply will also make case cooling harder. This will force AMD users to get a case fan and even the antec smartfans are too loud. The whipser power supply also gets louder with higer temps. An Athlon will cause this to happen.

"No AMD system has ever satisfied my noise requirements like this inaudible beast. When working in a home office or, say, a call centre, you need absolute silence and AMD can't do it. Switch to intel, man. There's a reason that Intel owns the corporate market and it has nothing to do with performance or price. "

-That's right. The Intel system is drown out by a video card fan and even using the most exotic cooling you simply can't get an AMD system that quiet. They just run too hot. When you decrease cooling in one area it has to be picked up in another. Be it a case fan, the whisper power supply picking up RPMs or whatever. AMD just can't do the job.

 

[SWScorch]

You guys do realize of course than an Intel Pentium 4 2.2 outputs as many watts of heat as an AMD AthlonXP 2100+, right? Link to Intel heat output here is a link for AMD CPUs 55 to 62, which can be considered a pretty big jump, but when you figure it out, thats a difference of 11%. Yes, that is more, but not a whole lot more. It is not that hard to cool an extra 7 watts of heat.

So, yes, it is indisputable that AMD CPUs pump out more heat at lower clock speeds than their Intel counterparts (which is part of the reason why Intel is still the choice for most big OEM companies), but it is not such a big difference that it is impossible to get Athlons to safe levels with the same noise level as Intels. It might require a better heatsink than the stock one, but no more.