Need Suggestions - Watercooling

[Jacelyn]

I leave my computer on during my sleeping hours in my bedroom and the noise has become untolerable. I will be recieving a full watercooling kit this friday to install on the following setup:

1gig athlon on k7s5a
enlight case with enlight 300watt powersupply.

Since my main concern is noise, I'd like to know what you guys recommend in order to try to eliminate as much of the noise as possible. I plan on removing all the system fans and just having the fan on the watercooler's radiator and the one in the power supply. My main concern is the noise of those 2 fans. The fan in my enlight power supply is pretty loud. I can not afford one of those 75 dollar "quiet" power supplys. I hear the easier solution would be to just change the fan. I have no experience modding power supplies and I'd like to know the dangers and maybe someone can give me a little step by step on changing it. Also, what fan would you recommend for the enlight 300watt (must be silent or as close to it as possible). My other concern is the watercooling radiator fan. I dont have my kit yet so i dont know how loud it is, but assumming that it IS loud, what would be another quiet fan that i can replace it with? My last question is, do you think just the watercooling kit with the power supply exhaust will be good enough to keep my system stable? I imagine the temperature inside the case may be a bit overwhelming for the other parts that are not watercooled. Any knowledge or responses would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[BeauJangles]

The size of the radiator is a big factor in it's ability to cool. Heatercores need a lot of air pushed through them to cool well, other radiators need much less air to cool them down.

My setup was done for under $80 and uses a Maze2 nockoff waterblock, a radiator just like the one i recommend from becooling, 2 120 mm NMB fans (which I run at 7 volts which makes the fan on my northbridge the loudest thing in my case), a rio 200 pump. i get temps (with the fans barely audible) of 31 c idle, 34 c under full load. Pretty godamn good if you ask me Oh and that's without AS2 (using Radioshack stuff) and water whetter (which I will add when I get home today). I run my case with 2 "turbocool" fans. They push almost no air and make absolutely no noise. There is a small amount of airlfow through my case because of these fans and it keeps everythign else cool enough.

 

[Jacelyn]

Thanks for the info blinderbomber, it was very helpful.

 

[Jacelyn]

bump for more help

 

[Jacelyn]

bump

 

[FenrisUlf]

I've done the watercooling and power supply modding thing several times, so here's my $.02. Here's a good link to a page with alot of quieting ideas. For the power supply, I recommend replacing the current fan with an 80mm Panaflow fan. IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING WITH ELECTRICITY DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT THIS. A power supply can hold a significant charge for a long time. If you feel comfortable with this then proceed. Open the power supply case. If the fan is soldered in you will either have to de-solder it or cut the wires and splice the new fan wires in. If it is plugged in you can remove the plug, cut the wires and splice the new fan on. Some power supplies require you to remove the circuit board before the fan can be removed. This process isn't difficult, but you're probably going to need a soldering iron and some heat shrink tubing to do it right.
The fan for the radiator should be a 120mm fan. Big fans at low RPM move more air than small fans at high RPM and they are quieter too. You can put a rheostat on it or do the 7 volt mod to it to cut back on the speed and noise. I've used Panasonic low noise 120mm fans in the past, but I can't find them anymore. I would not run with just the power supply fan - that's not enough airflow. I have run with the radiator and fan mounted in the front bottom of the case pulling air in and giving the radiator the coolest air possible. This helps to balance the airflow being pulled in with the air being sucked out by the power supply. You might also think about adding some sound absorbing material to the case. To make sure that everything stays cool, make sure that the airflow path through the case is fairly unrestricted and flows past all the important bits.