Question about sound dampening materials and quiet cases

[dmoney1980]

Anyone here have experience installing sound dampening materials in their case ? Any you would recommend ? I'm anal (giggity) about PC noise. Currently have an Antec P180 which is OK, would like to have something a little more compact. I currently rock an ATI 4830, I just game on SC2, BF games so I dont need uber airflow. Maybe a small / silent case would fit ? BTW my mobo is mATX...

thanks !

 

[Zap]

Having components that make less noise is 100X better than having noisy components and then trying to block/dampen the sound.

Sound dampening is more of trying to absorb the vibrational noise of mechanical devices, such as hard drives and fans. For those you will want to soft mount them before they touch the metal of your case.

The foam sheets you see being sold don't do much to block noisy fans.

 

[Tsavo]

I only dampen noise when I want it to be a little cleaner; there's nothing wrong with air that's a little moist.

 

[WoodButcher]

Having components that make less noise is 100X better than having noisy components and then trying to block/dampen the sound.

Sound dampening is more of trying to absorb the vibrational noise of mechanical devices, such as hard drives and fans. For those you will want to soft mount them before they touch the metal of your case.

The foam sheets you see being sold don't do much to block noisy fans.

Absolutely,,,
Quality low noise parts are where you start. Fans most often are the loudest component but all drives and mechanical devices create noise. Isolate and soft mount as much as you can and avoid cases that are all mesh and blow holes. Google silent PC, you'll find lots of examples.
If you like the 180 series style stick with it, try the mini. You have a MATX board so if size is a concern this case will be a little smaller.

 

[ehume]

Good advice above. Sound dampening, aside from wetting your air, keeps your case from acting like a drum, and sometimes absorbs a bit of high pitched noise. I have a case with lots of open spaces, but I have a deadening sheet on my right panel, and some foam on my left.

More importantly, I traded my WD hard drive for a Barracuda to reduce noise. If I had read all the reviews I would have gotten a Samsung SpinPoint F3. Also, in one machine I have my HD sitting on foam supports in the 5.25 bay. In my other machine it sits on foam supports on the case floor. That second case had special mounts designed to isolate vibration. They did not do that. They transmitted vibration to the case. The current mounts + quieter HD's = no transmitted vibration.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Several thoughts:

- Buy quieter fans. Quiet and bleeding-edge performance usually don't go hand-in-hand. Lower your overclocks (if any) and buy fans in the ~1200-1400 RPM range with bearings that are known to be quiet.
- Suspend mechanical hard drives. Vibrations can echo throughout your aluminum or steel case, and can be avoided by using some sort of soft material (even rubber bands) to mount hard drive instead.
- Switch to a SSD for your OS drive. Even with a quiet case and a soft-mounted hard drive, you'll still hear a mechanical hard drive clicking away as it reads and writes. SSDs make literally no noise, and having the most accessed drive in your system completely silent can make a huge difference in overall noise level.
- Buy a different case. Older cases that use primarily 80mm fans can be replaced with a good, newer case using 120mm (or bigger) fans for less than $60. Larger fans move more air for a given amount of noise created, meaning that if things are already cooled well with 80mm fans, you can get away with even slower (and thus less noisy) 120mm fans.
- Got a tower-style CPU heatsink? Go fanless. If your case has an intake or exhaust fan right next to your Megahalems / TRUE / V8 / Hyper 212+ / Venomous X / etc. and you're not running a serious overclock, you can take the fan(s) right off of the heatsink for a bit less noise overall.
- Buy a power supply with a good, quiet fan. Something like the Antec Signature series or Seasonic X series / Corsair AX series should do well.
- Hearing annoying vibrations from inside your case? Try tightening down all of the screws you can find. If that doesn't work, try packing different areas with tissue paper or paper towels and see if you can get it to stop. If you can, you may want to add some padding material (foam / rubber) on those panel(s).

 

[dmoney1980]

thanks for all the info ! I'm currently on an AMD 790 board with Athlon x3 720, unlocked 4th core but at stock speed. My HSF is a Cooler Master Gemini "top down" style cooler. I have a fan up front, one in the back, and one on top (all 120). Two Scythes and an Antec fan. the fans are ok, not too loud but I guess what bothers me is the "drum affect" as ehume called it, along with the loud woosh of the air moving. I just ordered an SSD to replace the 10k raptor that was driving me nuts. I already have a WD blue as my media HDD. I might try what "Curse the sky" wrote, and get myself a big tower HS and go fanless on the CPU

Which fans (120) are known to mover a decent amount of air while be damn near silent ?

 

[ehume]

Which fans (120) are known to mover a decent amount of air while be damn near silent ?

Gentle Typhoon AP-14.