SPCR

I'm a newcomer to the idea of a silent pc but I'd love to reduce the noise I have to live with every day. Normally every year I upgrade something about my computer and I've decided to go with noise reduction this year instead of a speed or memory increase. I can hear my current system from anywhere in the apartment.

My concern is that I'm not too experienced in cooling. Here is what I plan to do:

* Get a Sonata case.
* Get a decent heat sink and panoflow fan for my Athlon 1Ghz processor.

I plan on having 4 WD hard drives mounted in this case and I was wondering if I need to mount the extra 120mm fan because of that. My hard drives don't seem to have the capability to monitor their temperature via software and I haven't manually measured them yet. The manual for the case states the following:

"The front fan should be installed so that the air is being pulled into the case from the front. We recommend NOT installing the optional fan unless necessary for cooling, since it will create additional fan noise. However if you do wish toinstall the front fan, please install the fan before you install the internal drives."

I'd rather not install the fan, but I'm wanting to error on the side of saftey over absolute noise reduction. Will my 4 hard drives be creating sufficient heat to justify the extra fan?

Any opinions for a newbie just looking to quiet his system down to a resonable level would be appreciated.

simon

1) I plan on having 4 WD hard drives mounted in this case....
2) Will my 4 hard drives be creating sufficient heat to justify the extra fan?
3) Any opinions for a newbie just looking to quiet his system down to a resonable level would be appreciated.

welcome to spcr!

1) why?! WD's are among the loudest. That will be your #1 challenge. Even 4 Barracuda's would add up but 4 WDs -- that's much tougher.
2) Probably, but you can run that 12V fan (whatever you choose) at a very slow speed (the PSU fan output would probably work fine)
3) Go with fewer, larger Barracuda -- or if you want better performance -- Hitachi/IBM 180GXP drives. Also open up the Sonata bezel and cut away any unecessary plastic on the inside to enlarge the intake vents. It helps with both airflow and turbulence noise if you have significant airflow. Doesn't change noise appreciably.

simonk wrote:I plan on having 4 WD hard drives mounted in this case and I was wondering if I need to mount the extra 120mm fan because of that. My hard drives don't seem to have the capability to monitor their temperature via software and I haven't manually measured them yet.

LOL, are you planning to raid them, that's the only reason I could think of having 4 WD drives, ultimate in speed, noise and heat. WOW!

I dont think raid is really worth the trouble and money. You do get a LITTLE bit faster results, but its hard to justify the cost for the performance increase. And its going to be alot louder and alot harder to cool. I think raid is just a fad.

The reason I'm running 4WD's is that I already have them. I'll keep in mind the hard drive suggestions you made when I'm able to upgrade thouh.

I guess I'll get the extra 120 fan and run it through the PSU case fan output. Those PSU fan outputs are a great feature.

Thanks.

If I had 4 hardrives lying around then I might raid them. I just dont have that kind of money.

Best bet on WDs... (4 of them?@!)
Sell them on e-bay and get a new one with FDB from either Seagate, New maxtor, or IBM.
Unless you happen to have faster WD (JB series with high density platter... i don't think you have 4 120s around), performance gain will be almost nil to above 3 new drives (or even worse as far as CPU utilization goes).