Noise of watercooled setups?

[BSOD]

Right now I've got an Athlon 1800+ cooled by a low CFM 16dB fan on a decent copper heatsink. Under load (seti), the motherboard reads ~60C for CPU temps. I'd like to lower the temp but *not* raise the noise. This setup has been stable for 6 months like this, so no real worries there.

Does anybody have any solid numbers on how loud water pumps are? Usually Eheim pumps are used, but there are lots of brands out there (Rio?). I don't want to go out and blow my money on a setup that ends up being louder than what I have now...

 

[Lord Evermore]

Look around for reviews of various setups. They often specify the level of sound they output. Generally they're supposed to be pretty quiet. I'd consider one myself if I wanted to put the money into it for an OEM setup; I haven't got the inclination to set one up myself from parts.

You're lucky to have stability at 60C. My roommate's brother's computers get terribly unstable when they get warm like that, even when it's cold in the house. Are you using at least something better than the stock thermal pad on the heatsink, maybe even Arctic Silver 3? I was stunned at the 7 degree temperature drop it brought to one computer that was idling at 55C using the stock thermal pad.

You sure you have the heatsink oriented right?

I would suggest moving up to a fan that's slightly louder, but can move more air. A 21dB rated 80mm Panaflo is essentially soundless really and is rated about 24CFM. Of course if you need a 60mm fan, it's hard to find one that's quiet and still moves enough air, but I assume with a 16dB fan, you're not using 60mm.

 

[bfonnes]

water coolers loud????

Whenever I hear of someone using a water cooled system, they always mention how quiet it is...

Bfonnes

 

[RaiderJ]

I have a full-blown Innovatek setup, with blocks on my processor, video card, and mobo. The only noise it generates is the 120mm fan blowing air across the radiator. The fan is very quiet, runs at 7.5V, and is less noisy than my hard drives, or even the clicking of my keyboard.

 

[BSOD]

I'm assuming that my motherboard is just reporting the temps wrong. It is a 60mm fan, and I'm not worried about wether its keeping hte CPU cool enough or not, because I've yet to have any stability problems.

I haven't looked around too much for watercooling reviews, but from what I've seen, they all just say 'its really quiet'. Well ya.. but what else do you have making noise in the same room? According to people on this board, I shouldn't be able to hear any of my Seagate HDs (only one in this computer), but the whine from them is noticable.