Looking towards water cooling, but i have some problems

[trOver]

I want to maybe go ahead and watercool my system. I just think that its wayyyy to loud. I have a fan controller, but the pc sits 18" away from me, so its still really loud.

My problem is, i think that if i water cool the parts i want to, it wont really make a big difference. I was planning on watercooling my CPU and GPU, but both of those have nice zalman heatsinks on them that are already really quiet. I think that most of the noise comming from my pc are the casefans and harddrives, because my chipset has a heat pipe on it w/o a fan, and like i said the cpu and gpu have zalmans on them, and my psu has a 120mm fan in it.

I have 3 harddrives right now, a 36 raptor, a 250gb cavair, and an 80gb cavair.

My case fans are 2x120's, and 2x80's.


What can I do? will watercooling help the noise?

 

[WoodButcher]

Try a fan controller first, if you still want more replace the fans w/quiet fans.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: trOver
I want to maybe go ahead and watercool my system. I just think that its wayyyy to loud. I have a fan controller, but the pc sits 18" away from me, so its still really loud.

My problem is, i think that if i water cool the parts i want to, it wont really make a big difference. I was planning on watercooling my CPU and GPU, but both of those have nice zalman heatsinks on them that are already really quiet. I think that most of the noise comming from my pc are the casefans and harddrives, because my chipset has a heat pipe on it w/o a fan, and like i said the cpu and gpu have zalmans on them, and my psu has a 120mm fan in it.

I have 3 harddrives right now, a 36 raptor, a 250gb cavair, and an 80gb cavair.

My case fans are 2x120's, and 2x80's.


What can I do? will watercooling help the noise?

uhhhhhh.....

Your hard drives arent the best drives in the world for silence. The raptor is a 10k high pitch drive. You honestly cant tell me you didnt know this before buying it. Everyone knows the raptor is loud, you get it for speed not silence.

Also if your fans are loud then replace them first. Unless you want improvement in your computer's cooling, dont change. It wont silence your system that greatly from what you have already.

Also i might recomend you upgrading your PSU to something silent. It seems you failed to list it so im assuming its not in the silent catigory.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

NVM... I was going to suggest GPU, but after re-reading, it seems you have that covered. I'd definitely try swapping fans out before spending money on a H20 setup.

 

[trOver]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
NVM... I was going to suggest GPU, but after re-reading, it seems you have that covered. I'd definitely try swapping fans out before spending money on a H20 setup.

problem is, i ALREADY switched the stock fans out w/ some led apevia's. I have a fan controller, but even on low, they're still spinnin pretty fast. (stupid thing should turn them OFF when its on low, not 1/2 speed...)

So it looks like im stuck for awhile

and yes i did know what i was getting into w/ the raptor. But, loading first in every game..., its worth it!

 

[Zap]

You'll want to actually find out what is making the most noise by just unplugging things. Start with unplugging power to all the hard drives and all case fans. Then you'll have your noise "floor" so to speak with just the Zalmans on your CPU/GPU and your PSU fan. Once you've determined that it is indeed fine that way, then check on your 120mm case fans, and then the 80mm case fans. If either are noisy, replace the 120mm with Yate Loons and the 80mm with Panaflo low speeds - depending on which ones you need to replace.

As for hard drives, consider replacing the two Caviars with one new and larger Caviar. Not only will you get better performance and higher capacity, the new large ones are really quiet. Additionally you'll be pulling ~10W less from your power supply, and be producing a bit less heat in your case. For the Raptor, besides replacing it with a latest version 74GB or one of the 150GB, you can suspend it to lower noise levels a bit. The newer model Raptors are fairly quiet - indeed near silent compared to the older Raptors.

What case do you have? Some cases have quieter designs than others, plus cases with good airflow characteristics don't need as much airflow to keep your stuff cool, and less airflow means less noise.

 

[trOver]

My case is a LIAN LI PC-60BPLUSII

I just put my fan controller back in (after an hour of wire management.... dang fan controllers are a pain!) and i put my zalman fan controller for the cpu in

With all 4 case fans and the cpu fan on low, its really pretty quiet. I think I am fine for now. I dont really hear the raptor too much, idky.

Thanks for the suggestions though!