sound insulation?

[tpt]

Anybody ever put sound insulation inside a case? Melamine? Poleurethane? Polyesther? I'm doing some research for my company, thought maybe someone would have experience with it. We're trying to reduce the sound that makes it to a user by 3-5 dB. Also, if we add this stuff (.5" or so), how much will it hurt our cooling efforts. Thanks,

~Zack

 

[zuffy]

I got my Inwin tower covered with Dynamat Super vibration damper... didn't quieter the case but it sure did make my case more solid and heavier

 

[tpt]

I've been hearing widely dissenting views on the effectiveness of Dynamat, all the way from "It's useless garbage." to "It's completely silent." How completely did you install the stuff? The main areas of concern would be very close to the fans themselves and on the front panel (closest to user). Also, is there a front or top blowhole? That would allow easy noise propagation. Thanks,

~Zack

 

[mechBgon]

I installed the Dynamat-type sheeting you can get from McMaster-Carr, and unfortunately it didn't help my case run quieter. tpt, if you want to reduce the noise level, first thing I'd recommend is to look into two things: low-RPM case, heatsink, and power-supply fans like the Panaflo L1A series, and hard-drive silencers. I kinda missed the boat on the HDD silencers, some folks in this forum specialize in ultra-quiet, hopefully they can chime in with guidance on those. What is your product specifically, or in general if you are not allowed to spill the details?

 

[GiZzO]

Heres one of them folk...

Dynamat cuts vibration in a case, which might be good inside a HD or CDrom cage, not enough vibration in the first place to make that much of a difference. What you might wanna use is some eggcrate material, its really cheap its just soft foam in a eggcrate shape. Something with a cleaner look that won't disturb airflow as much would be Dynaliner this is used under hoods of cars near the engine. More expensive stuff i think theres like 3 different models one of polyether urethane with aluminim sheeting and one without and another made of thick neoprene.

As mechbgon mentioned HD enclosers, and low Rpm fans help, try and get rid of all small fans and replace them with bigger low Rpm fans, all small fans spin really fast and whine to make up for there small size.

 

[mechBgon]

GiZz0, where to get the SilentDrive HDD enclosure? Any especially good source? I've never seen one at the usual cooling stores...

 

[Bry]

I think nedcomp.com sells them, or some such url (that's off memory). In the end it'll cost you something like $50 which isn't really worth it if you ask me. The Chenbro Genie solved my problems, because the hard drive is stored in the rear of the case so you can't hear it, and has a 92mm fan right behind it so it is well cooled. With dynamat vibration mounts near the hard drive cage, you can barely hear the hd seeks.

 

[GiZzO]

I think i got mine from nedcomp got it for around $35 definatly worth it..

Heres some older pics of it in my case:
http://subspace.ds98.com/witch/pic/pic.html

 

[GiZzO]

The encloser inside is padded all around with a thick layer of soft rubbery material and the casing itself is made of ABS platic to even further reduce sound/vibrations. The casing is air tight with those metal cold plates that sandwich the drive and stick out from the casing to release heat.

When you first get a 7200rpm drive you'll notce this very high pitched whine, and eventully you get used to it, this encloser totally gets rid of that and the high pitch clicking when your access, you can barely hear it now if its late at night and you put your ear up to it with the case off. Brings it down to a very low rumble. Friends admire my comp on how quiet it is and occasionly turning it off when its already on cause ya can't hear its on, and still getting away with a highly overclocked comp. I owe it to my HD encloser, the loudest thing in your case is the HD, elimating fans which are lower db won't really help much cause your HD is still gonna shout over everything else and thats what your gonna hear. HD's are about 45+db so if ya wanna cut down sound tackle the loudest thing first.

 

[zuffy]

I got Dynamat on the 2 side panels, top panel, bottom panel, front panel and on the top of the power supply... absolutely no changes other than wasted $50 bucks and an hour of work. The best way to quiet the case is get quieter fans... still thinking it over if it's an investment worth taking.

 

[pyr]

Once again:

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Dont use Dynamat or anything like it! It uses a tarlike substance to stick and it will slowly ooze down the inside of your case leaving a thin film of the crap and it does no good whatsoever for sound insulation.

 

[Detoyminador_]

THAT'S BULLSHYT ABOUT DYNAMAT STARTS TOO OOZE TAR, how hot is your system pyr, 200+ degrees? i've got dynamat SUPER fitted and it's fine, i do admit it didn't help all that much with sound reduction though.

 

[Pete]

I've heard carpet helps.

 

[videotips]

You have to remember that any type of sound insulation will also add heat to the inside of your case. I tried dynamat with no luck about 2 years ago. Its also very important to understand how Dynmat works... it converts sound to heat! You can probably read that on their web site.

 

[pyr]

Detoyminador_: Bullsh!t it most certainly is not. within about 2 months of putting the crap it began to looked a bit 'saggy' and by month 8 had actually oozed over 2inches down the inside of my case everywhere it was applied. This in a system that did not go over 100F and even on the case enclosure which was NOT EVEN ON THE DAMN CASE for half of those 8 months. I finally just sold the case for about the worth of the powersupply in it cause it was pretty much ruined. How long did you have it in your case for it to not ooze? The stuff is worthless for use in a computer case.

 

[StanFL]

I've had Dynamat on the inside side panels of a mid tower for well over a year. Didn't do diddly squat to reduce sound and was a waste of $30. It didn't ooze or melt or anything though.

 

[Jhhnn]

I think that maybe some expect too much from a material like dynamat. I have only ever used dynamat super, it has foil on the exposed surface. For me, it helped, but only a little. Fan selection appears to be the biggest issue. For my Antec sx1030, I used 4 pcp&c silencers, then ducted the alpha PAL6035 from the msi6309 to one of the rear fans. I may switch to a little more powerful fan here in the future. No more screaming 60mm YSTech! I noticed that when I touched the case, the sound changed. That is when I started in with the dynamat super, and kinda went nuts. Cleaned all surfaces with electro140. Covered the whole interior, didn't make much difference. Then I wrapped the outside perimeter of the fans with the little bit that was left, and voila, a noticeable difference. Not that it is much quieter, but the pitch is much lower, making it less annoying, to me, anyway. Dynamat does convert sound to heat, the actual temp rise is insignificant, and it does reduce heat transmission thru the case, not much of a problem for fan freaks. For anyone who has a 75db howling hoover of a cooling system, a few db isn't really noticeable. If anyone wants to knock a few db off of an already quiet system, using this stuff on the fan housings and panels that seem to vibrate might help, if only a little.

 

[pyr]

yep I have to agree with you Jhhnn, I did expect too much from it, and found that it did nothing but ruin my case (which isnt too bad since my new case is so much better) and it did nothing at all for sound reduction. fan selection is indeed the way to go