silencing a fractal design define R3
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 4:51 am
I just bought a fractal define r3 case and moved my hardware to this case (NVIDIA GTX 470 paired with a intel core2duo e8500 cooled by thermalright silver arrow with only one of the two fans installed, and a corsair ax850 psu). so far i am happy with the noise level when browsing (the cpu cooler is spinning at 650rpm, the gpu fan at ~800 rpm and the psu is virtually silent, the case fans are also running at low speed ~600-700rpm). but as soon as i turn on a game and the gtx470 cooler starts to work the case starts to vibrate and resonate and produces more noise than necessary. how can i improve the acoustics/noise dampening of this case?
i already moved the front intake fan to the bottom inlet (next to the psu) to get more fresh air directly to the gtx470. this helped a bit - but is not enough.
i was thinking about putting some bitumen mats on the side panels to make them heavier and less prone to vibrations. one problem is, the silver arrow is so high that there is almost no space left for a thick insulation. in addition i am realizing that the pre installed foam on the side panels might render any bitumen mat glued on top of the foam useless. does anybody have any experience with adding extra sound-proofing layers to the side pannels?
another idea of mine is to seal the front intake (the slits on the side) to reduce the leaking of noise. only the bottom intake fan would than provide the fresh air. any ideas on this?
i already moved the front intake fan to the bottom inlet (next to the psu) to get more fresh air directly to the gtx470. this helped a bit - but is not enough.
i was thinking about putting some bitumen mats on the side panels to make them heavier and less prone to vibrations. one problem is, the silver arrow is so high that there is almost no space left for a thick insulation. in addition i am realizing that the pre installed foam on the side panels might render any bitumen mat glued on top of the foam useless. does anybody have any experience with adding extra sound-proofing layers to the side pannels?
another idea of mine is to seal the front intake (the slits on the side) to reduce the leaking of noise. only the bottom intake fan would than provide the fresh air. any ideas on this?