PC Silencing

I have just bought a new fan and pot speed control kit and it has really quitened down my PC a hell of a lot. Now there is just a faint noise from the PSU and CPU fan.

I already have a very quiet PSU fan and my CPU fan is probably one of thw queitest ones on the market at 19.22db.

I just wondered if anybody knew anything else I could do get the noise down further? Do anti vibration mats work? What difference to rounded IDE cables make?

My CPU is only an XP 2000 so it means I can run the CPU fan at 2000rpm.

 

The zalman stuff is good but expensive. And don't bother with the PSU, £80 and the test I read recorded something like a 1dB level difference, and they were making out like that was significant?! Are they having a laugh or what? The flower cooler things are nice though.
The only way you'll really quieten it down is to go passive, take all the fans out. Damping the side panels may help.

 

I have got a £30 PSU which has a large fan, I will keep that, it did make quite a big difference compared to the cheap £5 thing that came with my case.

I will look into damping the panals. I am not sure how loud my PC is now but I reckon its about 22-25db. It was probably 35db before I changed the CPU fan today.

 

The db you have now does seem rather good the only thing better is something like this kit that weighs in at 26kg and costs usd1350.
Good job it is a rollover this weekend

 

I will probably just leave it like it is, its just easy to get obsessed like the HIFI habbit, I have never been into over locking so silencing seems a good way to customise my PC.

It barely sounds louder than transformer buzz from where I am sitting, its quieter than most laptops. Its certainly the quiest PC I have ever used. The CPU hasn't over heated yet either at with the CPU fan only spinning at 2000rpm.

 

I always thought those XP2000 ran hot, mine hovered around the mid 60's at low RPM, needed a big noisy barsteward to get below 60, I'd monitor the temps closely, try Motherboard monitor.

 

My CPU and fan is huge, its an absolute beast it seems to be running fine at 2000rpm.

However if I restart my PC won't boot up I have to wait a few minutes to get the damn thing to boot, but it runs fine and is running at 59c, this is actualy lower than it was running before.

I don't get it.

 

I am running Motherboard Monitor, I have messed about with photoshop and the highest the temperature has got to is 57c. Overheating is not the problem, but the fan only has one wire going to the motherboard FAN socket to measure the RPM speed, the motor power comes from the PSU. Maybe the BIOS is detecting there is no power going to the fan?

The temperature has risen to 58 now as I was typing this.

Edit its risen to 60c now, should I be concerned? I may need to put some more paste on the core or somthing as I suspect it may have come off slightly when I was putting the fan on as I had trouble with it. The temperature is now 61 so its rising quite fast.

Its been at 62c for the last ten minutes and I have been using solidly without any problems.

 

It would certainly be worth trying to decouple the PC from the surface that supports it. You could certainly try anti-vibration mats or alternatively the doorstop-superball combos that I use on my bass speakers.

I'd start by placing the PC on a rolled up blanket to determine whether it makes any difference.

 

AT as long as it's stable it should be OK, whatever you do, don't put anymore paste on the core, this is the biggest mistake people make, you should put hardly any on, too much can cause overheating problems, just keep an eyeon temps, if it sits consistently in the 60's then it should be fine.

 

There both handy tips thanks. Analoguekid I remember reading that once, I completly forgot about it yesterday though woops

After several houses of heavy use last night the highest I got the temperature to was 63c, the higest I got the system temperature to was 30c.

 

Something not quite right there AT, CPU temp 33 degrees above sys temp seems a bit much, are you sure MBM has correct settings for your MB?, My Sysy temp is usually about 10 degrees below CPU, how many intake output fans do you have in your case, you may have neg pressure, too much taken out perhaps, not enough to keep CPU cool, are you running with case sides removed, by any chance? If so put them back on. I'm running P4 HT 3 gig, with lotsa hgardware inside case, temps currently 47 proc 40 sys room about 24 degrees case ambient around 28 degrees,

 

The BIOS reports the same statistics. The problem might be due to airflow as I am not using rounded IDE cables and I need to tidy up the wiring a bit.

I only have two fans one for my CPU and one for my motherboard.

Also my sides are on.

 

I'd look ata acouple of intake outlet fans then, may improve things, keep intake down low at front, and put out let up high, if you use 120mm then could be very quiet.

I have a total of seven fans, four 80mm case fans, 80mm cpu and small northbridge fan and small fan on gfx card, still pretty low noise, I also use and have used a fan rheostat, currently only using a rheostat on cpu fan, but in the past have used fan controllers on all fans, I have a Marix orbital lcd display that can run fans but this is expensive, consider one of the floppy bay mounted fan controllers. If using ribbon cable you can split it every 8 or 10 conductors and wrap these up with quick ties, saves on rounded IDE cables and is just as effective.

For ideas on cooling and such take a look at

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/

http://forums.kustompcs.co.uk/

 

I don't understand why you don't plug the CPU fan into the CPU fan header on the Motherboard. The BIOS should be happy with 2000 rpm so presumably it isn't detecting it because it isn't wired right.
To my mind 63 degC is a bit hot. 53 would be a better target. I found I got much better cooling of my Zalman flower by making a cardboard ducting between fan and heatsink to force all the air through the heatsink.

 

You aren't meant to plug bigger fans into the motherboard header as they're only designed for small ones.
Also its plugged into a speed controller kit.

 

Yep thats right, there is only one wire going into the fan header whcih measures the RPM speed.

I assume the motherboard cannot provide enough power for larger fans.

I've checked the maximum temperature for my CPU and its 90c, so I think 63c should be safe. I will need to upgrade my motherboard and CPU within the next year anyway, as soon as a 64-bit version of Windows is launched I am getting an Althlon 64.

Still somthing possibly isn't right, the heatsink is massive, I would have expected to run a bit cooler than it is doing.

 

http://www.quietpc.com/uk/

 

I'd assume that not having an intake fan could be causing the problem,you PS will be taking heat out, but nothing to bring it in, Causing a negative pressure either ft an intake fan or duct the heatsink fan to outside.

 

So in simple terms the CPU fan is blowing hot air around the case?

I quite like the ducting idea but it sounds a bit complex. A case fan would be failrly simple but I am bit concerned about the noise it would make. Are they extremely quiet?

My CPU is running at 64c so I am slightly concerned the CPU cooler is not working as well as it should.