Upgrading really old PC

[pmv]

@Blue Acolyte

But what confuses me, is looking at this:

http://www.frostytech.com/arti...?articleid=1926&page=4

_All_ the CPU heatsink fans, including quite expensive models, tested have noise in the 40-60db range, except one that hits an astonishing 71db. The stock cooler is above average noise, but isn't massively louder than the others.

Or there's this

http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=421

where they measured case fans consistently producing 40-60db instead of the 20-30db given in their specs. Albeit they measured at 10cm away.

On the other hand there's this, where some case fans do seem reasonably quiet, but most of those makes are either hard to find or very expensive, plus some are sleeve bearing which I thought was best avoided. The makes that are easy to find and more reasonably priced (e.g. akasa, hiper) don't seem to be tested, so I don't know if their '19db' figures are remotely accurate.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article695-page2.html

 

[Klinky1984]

I wouldn't worry about reading reviews too much. Just get max rated 1800 - 2000rpm fan & controller. Anything running at under 1000rpm is going to be pretty quiet. A lot of people like Yate Loons which are cheap, durable & pretty quiet. Some manufacturers do offer special bearings or "silent" fan technology, but really these probably don't help as much as running the fan at a lower rpm in the first place. So if you can get 2 regular fans for the price of 1 "silent" fan, get the cheap ones - as it's doubtful the silent fan is going to be a whole lot more silent if you compare at the same rpm.

 

[pmv]

I think I'll start a new thread in cases and cooling, as this doesn't have anything to do with vid cards any more. I'm still trying to get the noise down on the machine. I mean, it really is annoying me, I feel a great sense of relief when I turn it off and use the older machine instead.

Fitted the fan controller, but adaptor leads haven't arrived yet so only the one fan is connected to it. Turning that down hasn't really helped the noise. I'm starting to wonder if something has gone awry with the psu fans. I can't remember if this thing was always this noisy (18 months since build). The psu has a manual fan control knob on the back, its full on, but I'm not sure if its safe to turn it down - how can I tell if the psu internals get too hot? But the control must be there for a reason. It might even have previously been set lower and turned up by mistake.

Edit - well, tried turing knob down to halfway instead of full, and it does make a big difference. In fact even at 3/4 setting its a lot better. Interesting to see if it automatically goes up again when machine is under load. I would rather hope it does. I wonder if the machine got so loud because the knob got turned up by accident at some point?

I can now hear the difference with the case fan turned up or down.

Actually I can't believe how thick I am not to have noticed that knob before!

 

[Klinky1984]

If it's got a knob I doubt it has auto fan control built into it. I'd run it @ half. I doubt it's going to do anything bad to your PSU. I've got a 900rpm fan in my PSU which is darn silent. I have not had problems. I would not worry about running the fan @ 50%. It's probably running @ a overzealously high rpm in the PSU.

 

[pmv]

final update - got correct cables for molex fans, so have fan controller working now. To be honest main difference was due to turning down psu fan, but fan controller makes a small difference also and, well, it looks really cool (got ak fc pro on ebay). Stuck an extra fan in the front with the scythe bay fan adapter also just for good measure. Machine now makes an acceptable low hum. Now getting upgrade fever for cpu, plus I've decided I don't trust this psu any more.

Do like having the old machine as a separate net access machine though.