[Poll] What's your system's noisiest parts ?

The forum for non-component-related silent pc discussions.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

What's your system's noisiest parts ?

Power supply
10
10%
Graphic card
19
19%
Cpu cooler
11
11%
Hard drives
46
46%
Case fans
14
14%
 
Total votes: 100

sub
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Location: Belgium

[Poll] What's your system's noisiest parts ?

Post by sub » Thu Feb 11, 2010 9:01 am

Feel free to comment :wink:


For me it's HDD's in my Antec solo

xan_user
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Post by xan_user » Thu Feb 11, 2010 9:24 am

the keys as I type this out...and the mouse click when I hit 'submit'.

m1st
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Post by m1st » Thu Feb 11, 2010 10:06 am

Hard drive definitely. Can't wait until SSDs become more affordable...

AuraAllan
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Post by AuraAllan » Thu Feb 11, 2010 10:40 am

xan_user wrote:the keys as I type this out...and the mouse click when I hit 'submit'.
+1

lm
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Post by lm » Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:10 am

Case fans. System is a bit too hot for the closet so case fans are running on full speed. Still the door blocks most of the noise so doesn't matter much.

Air vents for the forced air circulation in this building make the most noise.

Trav1s
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Post by Trav1s » Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:41 am

Where's the option for "user" ?!?!?!

Ralf Hutter
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Post by Ralf Hutter » Thu Feb 11, 2010 12:45 pm

You need more options in your poll.

For me it's my mouse clicks, followed by the keyboard.

colm
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Post by colm » Sat Feb 13, 2010 9:53 pm

Trav1s wrote:Where's the option for "user" ?!?!?!
That is where I am too..

EddyKilowatt
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Location: California

Post by EddyKilowatt » Thu Feb 25, 2010 11:36 am

Disk drives are noisiest in my low-powered server, but I was lazy and did not come up with vibration isolation for them... even so, they are commendably quiet and I don't obsess (yet) about the few dB elevation of the noise floor in my room.

cmthomson
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Post by cmthomson » Thu Feb 25, 2010 6:10 pm

DVD drive by far. Keyboard second. Mouse third.

None of which are in the poll...

sakraycore
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Location: canada

Post by sakraycore » Sun May 02, 2010 7:25 pm

hard drive for me.

Maelwys
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Post by Maelwys » Sun May 02, 2010 8:19 pm

Even suspended, the hard drives make the most audible noise. Still, my rig is sitting a little over a foot from my head, and the drives make a very faint whoosh that isn't at all distracting.

The same is true of my HTPC - the only noise that system makes comes from the drive. Even then, I sometimes have to put my ear right on it to see if it's even running.

wouterr5
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Post by wouterr5 » Mon May 03, 2010 2:08 am

Well, obviously the HDD - even though these 1 TB samsungs are supposed to be quiet, they make more noise than my nexus fans at 7v and my bequiet powersupply fan @ 5v. I just ordered my intel 40 GB SSD, so the noise should be lowered and the performance should be higher real soon :D

greenfrank
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Post by greenfrank » Mon May 03, 2010 8:11 am

1. DVD-RW drive (booting the pc and when used)
2. HDD (very quiet)
3. mouse (not too noisy)
4. keyboard (tolerable)
5. case exhaust fan and cpu fan (barely audibles only of the room is totally silent)

Of the 5, I hate only the dvd-rw drive noise. The others are tolerables or not audibles at all.

Finraziel
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Location: the Netherlands

Post by Finraziel » Tue May 11, 2010 6:38 am

Aside from the obvious DVD drive and my speakers... at the moment my case fans because they're just coolermaster ones running at max (I'm kind of new to the silencing thing, mostly looking to silence the new PC I'm planning to build).
For a while though, my hard drives were really driving me nuts. I had an old 320GB WD next to my samsung F1 1TB and the frequencies from the two drives spinning werent exactly the same but close enough to interfere with eachother, amplifying eachother for one second, than cancelling eachother out the next second (at about a 2 second loop), which causes an immensely annoying constantly shifting noiselevel. For some reason the WD wouldn't spin down either and the F1 is my systemdrive so it's always active... I ended up just copying the data I wanted from the WD and kicking it out of my system again, at least until I can get some elastic to try and suspend my drives.

BlackWhizz
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Post by BlackWhizz » Tue May 11, 2010 6:56 am

Power supply. CX400w is getting a bit noisy. I hope to replace it with a OCZ Modular 500w PSU.

Tho bad SPCR didnt review it.

Potenza
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Post by Potenza » Tue May 11, 2010 11:11 am

My GPU, although my HDD is louder on load. A passive GPU would solve this issue easily (the Powercolor HD5750 passive is at the moment even cheaper than my Sapphire HD5750 Vapor-X!) but I don't feel the need to replace my GPU. Haven't got the money either, to be honnest. At 25% the fan is still audible and has a bit of a rattle, but al together still very quiet.

Perhaps I should try to add some case insulation, might lower the noise a bit!

davepermen
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Location: Switzerland

Post by davepermen » Tue May 18, 2010 1:45 am

my main systems are silent, so what should i say? hm.. the workstation.. the screen. it has a tiny fan in. the media center.. the projector, it has a fan in.. the server, the hdds, 4tb ssd is a bit expensive. the laptop, the fan, when it turns on.

so most of all, fans and hdds. but most of all, not the actual pc's :)

maxextz
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Location: ireland

Post by maxextz » Thu May 27, 2010 2:27 pm

hi all. :) i am surprised that the hdd"s seem to be making so much noise i have 2 sata drives and they don't make any noise.

the worst is the dvd drive when its working its like a jet engine :roll:
at the moment my psu is driving me nuts i need to change its fan.
:wink:

Strid
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Post by Strid » Thu May 27, 2010 11:30 pm

the slight buzzing from the amplifier on the shelves above my desk. My PC is inaudible. :lol: However, the noisiest part is the hard drive - i can faintly hear it, if I take off the sides of the case.

Vibrator
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Post by Vibrator » Mon Jun 07, 2010 4:20 pm

My 8800GT is the most audible component at load.

frostedflakes
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Post by frostedflakes » Mon Jun 07, 2010 7:00 pm

Definitely the hard drive, the fans spin very slow and don't make much noise.

NoiseFreeGuy
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Post by NoiseFreeGuy » Wed Jun 09, 2010 11:14 am

Ralf Hutter wrote:You need more options in your poll.

For me it's my mouse clicks, followed by the keyboard.
+1


My system is in the next room and so is completely silent where I sit at the monitor (apart from the keyboard and mouse clicks).

widdlecat
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Contact:

Post by widdlecat » Fri Jun 11, 2010 5:42 pm

While my HDD is the main source of very slight noise in my PC, the optical drive, when active, is an order of magnitude louder than the HDD. It's still not particularly loud since I've massed damped it.

sea2stars
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Post by sea2stars » Sat Jun 12, 2010 7:37 pm

Wife should be an option.

Tenoq
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Post by Tenoq » Mon Jun 21, 2010 8:52 pm

And water pump. My just-retired system had a "silent" pump that was not silent at all. :S

pope_face
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Post by pope_face » Thu Jul 01, 2010 10:13 am

Mouse and keyboard definately, although I'm considering switching to smaller keyboard... I'm used to a ~90% laptop keyboard, so a full size is a bit awkward. A silicon one might be quieter and smaller.

From the actual computer (~5' away), mostly HDD noise, with a bit of air turbulence and some hum that seems to be case vibration (probably due to the CPU fan)... all three of which I'm going to attempt to minimize before next week.

Actually, having said that, if I ignore the computer noise, I can hear a bit of hiss from my speakers (~6' away), and possibly a very light electrical hum from my power amplifier (~8.5' away), which means I now have to silence those as well...

And to the above: I was considering watercooling myself, until I realized how loud the pumps are... I wonder if there's some way of building a "passive" watercooling system...

Das_Saunamies
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Post by Das_Saunamies » Wed Sep 01, 2010 6:48 am

sea2stars wrote:Wife should be an option.
lol :lol:

For me, mouse and keyboard. I don't know why mice especially have to be so loud, but I do like the sound rapid typing makes on a quality keyboard. It makes me feel like I'm actually getting some work done even when I'm just writing posts on forums!

kater
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Post by kater » Wed Sep 01, 2010 7:40 am

SS 400W ET with stock fan is simply too loud. It's barely OK when in idle (100W) but as soon as I put some gaming load on it (<170W) it seems to gain some unholy speed. Could be that the sensor/speed control unit is OOO, but I guess it's just that this is a budget SS, not a hi end. Had S12 430W previously - a different league than this one. I temporarily ran out of good fans but am going to swap it soonish. Now, in summer, when all windows are open around the house, it's ok. But I guess the moment I close them it will get tough. Oh, the SS 400W ET has no warranty stickers, which is a plus.
Next are the 2 HDDs.
And then the fans.

I guess I was much more hardcore some time ago, and just stopped caring about it :/ Gone are the times when I had a single HDD and only 2 fans in the case...

impaire
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Post by impaire » Wed Sep 01, 2010 3:13 pm

xan_user wrote:the keys as I type this out...and the mouse click when I hit 'submit'.
My switches, below my touchpad, I think that those are my noisiest parts, after space bar which I sometime hit to fast.

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