How To Quiet My System?

[Omega]

I've never really been concerned about the amount of noise generated by my system(s), but I'll soon be gaining a room-mate, who probably won't be as big a fan of it as I am (no pun intended). This means I should probably start thinking about what I should to to quiet down my system a bit.

To make the situation even better, I've never really paid much attention to cooling stuff, since I was just fine with pumping thousands of CFM through my case in the past, to get the job done.

So, I ask, what do you all suggest I do, in order to quiet down my system?


My (noise-generating components of my) system is as follows:

::3dCool.com Tornado 3000 (essentially this, but one front 80mm intake fan, two side 120mm intake fans, one rear 80mm exhaust)

::Kinwin 450W, 3-fan PSU (here)

::Two CoolerMaster CoolDrive 2 (here)

::Some copper HSF I don't even remember the model of...(pictured here)

::LeadTek GeForce 4 Ti4600 (here)

::4x Western Digital 800jb (here, click on Dimension & Environment)

::2x Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8 (here)

[Note: hard drives may be replaced soon by 4-6, 200-250 GB, 7,200 RPM, ATA/100-sATA hard drives]


I think that's all the stuff that produces noise (except optical drive, which I don't care about).

having some system specs would be helpful, so that we can have a general idea of how hot your computer is running and what components are generating the heat.

Your first line of work should be figuring out what produces the most noise. Having a bunch of slow moving fans isn't going to really make that much of a difference. However, I noticed several of those fans that are ridiculously loud. Firstly, your HSF fan looks like a 60x60 7000rpm fan. I think i have the same one, or something similar. It gives out a very loud whine. Get rid of it. If your HSF needs a fast moving fan to make it effective, get a new HSF (PM me, i've got several good ones lying around that i could get rid of . . i don't know about extra fans though).

2) your vid card fan is LOUD (right?) This is hard to fix as it is a stock cooler and the card needs that much air to keep it operating safely. THere's not much to do about this except getting a card that doesn't need a liquid nitro supply to keep it sufficiently cool.

I would go ahead and get rid of the drive coolers and attempt to put an 80-92 mm (doesn't need to be more than 3200rpm or so) fan in your HD bay as another intake fan and put your HD"s there. I've found this setup cools better than those custom coolers and is probably quieter (since a larger fan can move slower while cooling as well).

I've not used that PS before, but are any of the fans particularly loud?? I mean, it's only a 450W PS. I've seen 600+W w/ just two fans, go ahead and disconnect one (but not the exhaust one).

Do those 120fans make a lot of noise. They are probably most exposed to air and therefore more able to make noise. Thus i'd see how your system does with one or both of those unplugged. Also, those side fans, unless you have a hopeless case, can really interrupt airflow. Try to arrange your cables and fan such that you have a decent amount of pressure coming into the bottom front of the case (to cool your HD's) and exiting the upper rear of the case (to pull air over the PCI cards and then get rid of the hot air from your cpu/hsf.

The first thing i would suggest tryin is to get some sound dampining mat. you can get it at some computer stores(compusa has it) and alot of auto stores. It comes in sheets adhesive sheets that you just put on the inside of your case. This way you may be able to leave your system as you have it and kill some noise. But you will still hear most of the fan noise as you cant really cover those up.
Second id look into fan throttling software or hard ware. If you have the space get a fanbus. Then you can still have all the power but you will only use it when needed.
Thirdly and my personal fav fancy and nee Innovatek water cooling

well a rheobus should serve you very well with all those fans

id get a new fan for that heatsink
even an adaptor to use a 92mm fan on that 60mm size heatsink if such adaptor exists

btw i think you have too many intake fans for your case
PSU and 1 rear are the only exhausts fans right?
maybe unplug one of the 120mm on the side as suggested by james

is most of the noise coming from your PSU, HSF, case fans, hdd or cdrom?

watercooling is a good way to go since you have a case of that size
but a bit pricey than just some simple fixes that may make the sound level a bit better

[Omega]

System Hardware Specs:

AMD XP 1900+
512 MB PC2700 DDR
Gigabyte GA-7VRXP
LeadTek WinFast A250 GeForce 4 Ti4600 AGP 4x
HighPoint RocketRAID 404 PCI
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! 5.1
Plextor 48/24/48A
-Ribbon 24", dual drive IDE cable x 1 [in 5 1/4" cage]
Western Digital 800JB (80 GB) x 4
-Rounded 36", dual drive IDE cable x 2 [in 5 1/4" cage w/ CoolerMaster CoolDrive 2 x 2]
-Rounded 24", dual drive IDE cable x 1 [in 5 1/4" cage w/ mounting brackets]
-Ribbon 24", dual drive IDE cable x 1 [in 5 1/4" cage w/ mounting brackets]
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8 6E040L0 (40 GB) x 3
-Rounded 10", single drive IDE cable x 2 [in 3 1/2" cage]
-Ribbon 24", dual drive IDE cable x 1 [in 5 1/4" cage w/ mounting brackets]
Panasonic Floppy Disk Drive
-Ribbon 24", dual drive FDD cable x 1 [in 3 1/2" cage]


Four pictures of my case, from different angles are:
::Picture 1
::Picture 2
::Picture 3
::Picture 4

This will give you an idea of what cables are going where. The picture is slightly outdated, in that one of the optical drives has been replaced with a 40 GB Maxtor hard drive.

Remember, the CoolerMaster CoolDrives each have one, 45 mm intake fan, iirc.

I'm pretty sure most of the noise comes from the fans, although which fans, exactly, I'm not sure. I've actually run my case without the side even attached (and side 120 mm fans not plugged in) for a while, and it seems to be doing alright.

I don't have time to read all of the replies right now, since I'm at work, but I'll check later. Thanks for the input so far.

pics links dont work

thats alot of drives youve got there from the specs
is the noise high pitch?
i think the 60mm fan on your heatsink is one of the most suspicious suspect in this case (pun lol)

[Omega]

Originally Posted by eviltechie

pics links dont work

Hm, they work fine for me, and I've seen, from my logs, that some other people are getting in too... Maybe try again...the connection was down at one point.

Originally Posted by eviltechie

thats alot of drives youve got there from the specs
is the noise high pitch?

Yes...seven hard drives, one optical, one floppy. I'd have more, but I don't have physical space.

Originally Posted by eviltechie

i think the 60mm fan on your heatsink is one of the most suspicious suspect in this case (pun lol)

Any specific recommendations for a replacement fan and/or HSF?

Originally Posted by Ryon

Thirdly and my personal fav fancy and nee Innovatek water cooling

How much would a factory-made (sorry, but I don't have time to custom-make stuff) watercooling setup cost me? Link? (To cool at least CPU, perhaps also video, and/or (some) hard drive(s).) [Note: I just found the ThermalTake Aquarius II for ~$100. Any thoughts?] [While looking around ThermalTake's site, I saw the SubZero4G using a peltier...thoughts?]

peltiers are cool as hell, but there are some things to note about them. First and foremost, they take time to cooldown, meaning you want to turn them on a couple minutes before you turn on your computer. Secondly, they take up TONS of energy, watch your electric bill.

If the startup issue could be solved, i would consider peltier's THE way to go as far as quiet cooling is concerned. Small, quiet, and effective (if not efficient). If you're feeling really extravagant, you could always watercool your peltier, that way you get REAL good thermal dissipation.

as for as the 60mm fan/HSF is concerned, i really like the thermalright heatsinks. The SK-7 is probably the most cost efficient of all of the heatsinks and cools extremely well. Any low speed 80mm fan should do you well. This is the setup i use on my 2000xp overclocked to a 2500 without reaching temps over 45C ever. If you want a gigantus heatsink, the SLK-900u is the way to go. It's not too expensive and will cool like nothing else. Note, you need to make sure your mobo has the screw holes and room for this monster.

"Panasonic Floppy Disk Drive " .. . ithink that's your biggest culprit :P actually, in one case, i quite effectively used my floppy drive between two harddrives as a heatsink for them (the bay wasn't well designed, so there was lots of contact area). It was pretty effective, you could try that as well.

You really only need to worry about active cooling on your CPU and GPU here. There aren't any 10k RPM drives or 7200RPM 120+GB drives that will generate a TON of heat. With that said, i'd still stick an 80mm fan in front of them for some cooling.

I guess you'll probably end up needing 3 80mm front intake fans (don't know if you can fit that) to cool all your hd's and get some air moving in the case and one or two exhaust fans for your case. Your case looks big enough that it should keep the other stuff cool.

well if you are getting a peltier, you will need to mod your heatsink or get another one

i dont like pelts
ive seen condensation forms easily on those when temps are so extremely opposite on both sides

i would just get a watercooling setup such as Koolance EXOS
its an external kit that isnt loud and doesnt take much time to setup if that is your main concern

or try dangerden.com's MAZE4 kit
excellent performance for a very reasonable price

quality make too

or just get a heatsink from thermalright such as the SLK-800 if that fits on your mobo
and fit it with an enermax 80mm adjustable fan
thats very quiet and moves alot of air too
so the best matches in heaven is there
i dont think the SLK-900U would fit your mobo so thats not one of the options


btw i dont think you need that fan on top of the PSU
not much air is going there anyways
unless you need it to suck some air out of the case from those CDR and HDD drives you have at the top


and yeah, pics work now

edit: btw i think the main annoying noise is coming from that fan on your vantec cpu heatsink
definately needs to be changed
get a whole new heatsink fan combo or seperate is up to you
just look for fans that are less than 35 dba and you should be fine

the thermaltake is not a bad solution, but i would still go with Innovatek, the pump with the kit is rated at 79 gallons an hour where the thermaltake is rated at lesn that of half that with 23 gallons per hour. Also you can get optional peices to cool gpu,chipset,and hard disk all. Unlike many other kits this is mounted totally inside the pc so that you dont have to unhook any thing or worrying about screwing up any external hoses of tanks while working on it or in transit. The price is by no means cheap at around 250 for a standard kit. But its well worth it You can search google and find several people who sell them and the extra goodies as well..