looking for a very quiet case

[substance12]

title says it all. I'm sick of my PC being so noisy. Mostly from hdd whine. I'm already running my fans at 7V.

 

[CaptnKirk]

The case on it's own, is not a generator of sound, but the internal components can be quite bothersome,
If you're only annoyed by disc whirring you're lucky, most can't hear that whine because of the roar of their fans.

Noise from internal fans - in order of offenders - are:

1) Power supply exhaust (Unless a Delta on the CPU).
2) CPU cooler.
3) Case Exhaust (Especially if restricted vent holes).
4) Ports/Blowholes.
5) Intakes.

Recomend an adjustable fan like a Y.S. Tech for the CPU fan, a Panaflo 24CFM for the case exhaust, and if you need an intake fan (a higher airflow at the intake)
like a Sunnon with 39CFM to keep case pressurized should be a quiet and efficient combination.

 

[Cerb]

E-Bay!
Get a Dell Dimension case.

 

[Pothead]

Panaflo on heatsink
quietpc.com PSU
Papst 12Dba fans exhaust + intake fans
leave the pci slot below the agp empty

=as quiet as Dells.

 

[mjquilly]

E-Bay!
Get a Dell Dimension case.

Will these accept a full size ATX board? How many drive bays?

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: substance12
title says it all. I'm sick of my PC being so noisy. Mostly from hdd whine. I'm already running my fans at 7V.

-Sell your HD and get a baracuda 4 or 5 from seagate. They are near silent even when reading/writing.

-Case get the new antec which has the 120mm exhaust fan.
The 120mm allows more airflow at a lower RPM and less noise than traditional 80mm used in most cases. This case was nearly silent on arrival but after switcing the a enermax whisper series PS and 7 volting the 120mm fan it is.
Antec 120mm fan case Notice the rubber mounting spacers in this case too.

-Get a video card like the ATI9000 which uses no fan and still scores 6500 3dmarks.

-Get the highest end HS like the alpha and run a pabst low 2900 rpm fan on it. This will cool very well at low to no noise.

-CD/DVD they are all loud while spinning up and running but the Toshibas and Plextors are quieter. My suggestion is to download all NOCD hacks for apps which require to cd to run (like games).

-Motherboard- thier are plenty which don't have a fan on the north bridge. Go for one of those.

This will be quieter than anything but watercooling.

 

[T2T III]

-Sell your HD and get a baracuda 4 or 5 from seagate. They are near silent even when reading/writing.

Actually, the WD "SE" drives are pretty quite also.

-Case get the new antec which has the 120mm exhaust fan.
The 120mm allows more airflow at a lower RPM and less noise than traditional 80mm used in most cases. This case was nearly silent on arrival but after switcing the a enermax whisper series PS and 7 volting the 120mm fan it is.

Yes, that case is nice. I'm ordering one, so it better be quiet. I can't spring for the Enermax PS at this time, though.

-Get a video card like the ATI9000 which uses no fan and still scores 6500 3dmarks.

Got it, well, actually the 9000 Pro - and it has a fan.

-Get the highest end HS like the alpha and run a pabst low 2900 rpm fan on it. This will cool very well at low to no noise.

I'll need to look into this. My current h/s fan is the noisiest component in my whole case.

-CD/DVD they are all loud while spinning up and running but the Toshibas and Plextors are quieter. My suggestion is to download all NOCD hacks for apps which require to cd to run (like games).

Actually, with the Antec case that you pointed out, the door could be closed to cut down on some of the noise from the drives.

This will be quieter than anything but watercooling.

Actually, the quietest method might be to just put your computer in a closet.

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: wje

-Sell your HD and get a baracuda 4 or 5 from seagate. They are near silent even when reading/writing.

Actually, the WD "SE" drives are pretty quite also.
Seagate is really silent unless it's reading then it's nearly impossible to hear. They have fluid dynamic bearings which make them the quietest in the industry According to Storagereview.com the Seagate is a whole 10dB quieter. Not sure on the "SE" drives from WD, but the two WD400BB I had a very audible high pitched whine while running and they were new.

-Get the highest end HS like the alpha and run a pabst low 2900 rpm fan on it. This will cool very well at low to no noise.

I'll need to look into this. My current h/s fan is the noisiest component in my whole case.

Directron.com sells the fan and newegg.com has the HS. I run this setup on a OC athlon xp 1.4 to 1.73 GHz and it's very quiet and runs 46C after hours of gaming. So it should work in almost any setup. The Alpha allows for a 80mm fan which much better than 60mm on most HS as far as low noise and higher CFM.

-CD/DVD they are all loud while spinning up and running but the Toshibas and Plextors are quieter. My suggestion is to download all NOCD hacks for apps which require to cd to run (like games).

Actually, with the Antec case that you pointed out, the door could be closed to cut down on some of the noise from the drives.

If you think a little plastic face is enough to act as a sound barrier of the modern high speed airplane engine CD/DVD sounds its not. As you indicated the closet is a good idea or even the garage which has a fire door to act as a barrier load

 

[substance12]

The biggest noise contributer was my IBM deathstar 60gb. I replaced it with a WD SE 80gb. Much nicer now. I thought about the new case route but I decided not to go that way.

My new project is replacing the intake and outtake fans with panaflows and rubber grommets. I'll most likely run them at 7V. Also I am considering doing a mod with my Enermax PS. Possibly removing and/or replacing a fan. I just need to do some reading up at silentpcreview.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Look into the Y.S. Tech for the CPU fan. It's the most capabile out there.
It's adjustable, give high air flow when you need it, and you can dial it down to where you don't hear it. It perfroms almost as well
as the DELTA 'Snow Blower' fan that I took off one of my systems.

 

[SupermanCK]

get a pentium...
diamond 4mb pci video card...
single fan 200w psu...switch to a panoflow or vantec stealth fan
passive heatsink...

 

[chinnboy]

I probably don't belong in the same room with you guys, but.... I've been working on a 1.2ghz t-bird box, retail with the stock cpu fan, in an Antec desktop style case. This is not recommended by AMD no doubt because of heat. Not overclocking, but I want to reduce the noise. I just put in a True Power PS and its great. To my ears nearly all the noise comes from the cpu fan.

I'm looking for a cpu fan with adequate (=to stock AMD retail fan) that is quiet. I looked at a Coolermaster HSC-V62 , but I read user reviews and some say its quiet and others say its not.

Any help out there for an old dog who started out with an 8086 and 20 mb?

 

[T2T III]

Originally posted by: chinnboy
I probably don't belong in the same room with you guys, but.... I've been working on a 1.2ghz t-bird box, retail with the stock cpu fan, in an Antec desktop style case. This is not recommended by AMD no doubt because of heat. Not overclocking, but I want to reduce the noise. I just put in a True Power PS and its great. To my ears nearly all the noise comes from the cpu fan.

I'm looking for a cpu fan with adequate (=to stock AMD retail fan) that is quiet. I looked at a Coolermaster HSC-V62 , but I read user reviews and some say its quiet and others say its not.

Any help out there for an old dog who started out with an 8086 and 20 mb?

How about this one? - Cooler-Master 24.2 db Heatsink/fan