Silent-ish PC?

[Magicthyse]

I've had a few problems with my previous PC setups when combined with my home stereo equipment. For one, the PC's are just too darned noisy! I have to crank up the volume to the max to drown out the PC's droning.

I'm just wondering what the most silent generally available combination of PSU and cooler is.

Anyone?

 

[nnnyyy]

The power supplies at pcpowercooling.com are real quite but expensive. The whisper enermax psu's are quiet too. As far as coolers, anything with an 80mm fan can be quiet and cool adequately.

 

[cockeyed]

Enermax makes some quite power supplies and the Intel, temp controlled HSF, on a retail P4 is very quite. The Silencer case fans from PC Power & Cooling are very quiet case fans.

 

[beatle]

I'd take just about any PS and replace the fan with a Panaflo L1A. Then get an Alpha 8045 and put an L1A on. Look into passive cooling for your northbridge and possibly your video card (I'm still working on the latter).

Harddrive whine is now my #1 enemy. =/

 

[Magicthyse]

Hmmm. Thanks for the replies. I forgot to say what the PC was:

- Enlight EN-7230 case with included 230W PSU
- PIII 500 (S1) with Cooler Master HSF
- QDI Brillianx mobo
- 128 x 3 sticks
- Creative 6x DVD-ROM
- Quantum LCT20 20Gb HDD
- FDD
- Sound Blaster Live! Platinum with Live! Drive IR
- Geforce 2MX 32MB AGP
- Netgear FA311 PCI

As you ca see, everything bar the processor and the PSU is already passively cooled. I have also discovered an additional cause for extra noise - an intake fan at the front (didn't spot it... doh!). However I'll take the advice for the Enermax silent PSU's - they look good. Is there a HSF or just the fan which I could use from a Cooler Master product (it's just that they are easy to get hold of) I could use in place of the current one which clatters a bit?

As coincidence would have it, the Windows on this beastie has just died (invalid page fault in explorer.exe? WTF? I didn't do anything... except install a Sidewinder Dual Strike controller. Now I even get the same error in safe mode!!! arrgh). Looks like an ideal time to overhaul the PC build and reinstall Windows!

Could a new case help matters?

 

[hmsrolst]

I have compared the Enermax 365 VE(FC) Whisper to the Zalman ST-300BLP and the PC Power and Cooling Silencer 275 and either of the latter are much quieter. I think that the Zalman is the quietest.

 

[keyeye]

I have an Enermax 365(FC) and it is pretty quiet, but a panaflo replacement in my Enhance 250 beats it by a signficant (subjective) margin. I think replacing the PS fan is the way to go.

 

[tslugmo]

If you replace the fan in the PS, how do you know it's doing an adequate job. I mean, no sensors or anything to tell you how the PS is doing. Or do the fans mainly exhaust the case air? I'm thinking about doing this in my Enermax 365P-VE (FCA).

-tslug

 

[keyeye]

hmmm... I've only used the highly accurate measurement of the back of my hand, and it didn't seem too hot. I think if you are not depending on your PS fan to vent your entire case (if you've got a lot of stuff in it), it shoudn't be a problem.

 

[Electronics4Life]

Hmm..I wonder if putting a Panflo on my volcano 7 would still cool my 1.2 tbird cpu adequately. Currently the volcano 7 is the loudest component in my system...