Hi all,

Been lurking for a while and finally decided to join up. I am about to upgrade my computer to a hopefully silent (well at least more silent) rig. Right now I am getting so much noise I have to turn the computer off every night to sleep.

I plan on buying this case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811129018
Antec Solo

And, I was planning to buy a seasonic S12 PSU -- will I be okay with the 380W one or am I better off going for a 430W?

Here is my current rig:
Antec case (7 years old) w/ 350W PSU (antec PSU that came with case)
AMD opteron overclocked from 1.8ghz to 2.3ghz
DVD writer
3 hard drives (2 sata, 1 IDE)
ATI x800 (PCI-E)
normal sound card, mouse and keyboard.

I think that since I have a 350W PSU now I should be okay with just buying a 380W (although sometimes I have to press the on switch about 50 times for the computer to turn on). Are there any other cheaper alternatives for PSU's or should I just bite the bullet and get the seasonic?
Also, do I need to buy any fans or anything? Or should I be set with the stuff that comes with the Solo case (which is worth it, right?).

Last question...is there anything else I should buy to help silence my system before I place my order on newegg?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks a lot.

380W seasonic will be fine. And I will definetely recommend getting a Seasonic, the power supply isn't a good place to save money.

The solo is one of the best cases you could get. Personally I have an Antec SLK3000B, which has the same tricool fan that comes with the solo, and I haven't bothered to replace it since my harddisk, samsung HD401LJ (which is reputed to be possibly the high capacity 7200rpm disk with the best idle sound, and which is even in a scythe quiet drive enclosure) is still louder than that fan on 5volt.

What cpu cooler do you have? What cooler on the graphics card? What hard drives? Those will be the things to deal with after you get the case and psu.

If you want it really quiet, you could get a ninja for the cpu, a zalman vf-900 or one of the passive coolers - for instance thermalright hr-03 - for the graphics card. And depending on your hard disk needs, an upgrade here would probably also be necessary to achieve a good level of quietness.

Since your PSU is that old and your system appears to be fairly recent, it may not have enough amperage available on the 12V rail to handle the surge at startup.

If you want to silence your system, you have to find out what's making noise.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/vi ... hp?t=18564

Welcome to SPCR

i'd be more concerned about why the power button isn't working properly before worrying about noise. sounds like an iffy capacitor either in the psu or on the mainboard. replacing the psu is probably a good start.

be careful using the word 'silent' around here quiet or inaudible are usually better.

Thanks guys.

The solo and new PSU should be coming on Friday. I'm hoping that they will both fix a lot of my problems.

I tried stopping each fan in my case and it seems like the fan atop my processor is making a lot of noise...we'll see how much is cut out when everything is in the solo.

Thanks again.

Greetings,

If the CPU fan is the noisiest, then you will probably still have to replace it with a better heatsink and/or quieter fan. A "quiet" case helps, but it cannot on it's own, eliminate noise and make a noisy system into a quiet one.

Thanks for the continued help.

I finally got the Solo and Seasonic S12 up and running. Things are quieter but still at a level too loud to sleep next to. I tried locating the noisiest things:

1) The Motherboard fan (I'm not sure what this is called but its the small fan just south of the CPU) is by far the biggest noise maker.

2) The fan on my AMD opteron

Is it possible to replace that motherboard part or will I have to buy a new motherboard? Also, will I need a new heatsink and fan for the processor?

Thanks a lot!

It is possible to replace the chipset heatsink with a better one, it's usually the first thing that is done around here if one can't find a suitable mobo with passive chipset cooling to begin with. Zalman has some cheap(under 10$) chipset heatsinks, but something löike the Thermalright HR-05 is much more effective but costs 25$.

You should aslo replace the CPU heatsink, or at least slow down the fan. You didn't say what mobo you have so i dont know exactly where the chipset is, and if a big heatsink will interfere with a larger chipset heatsink or not. The opteron stock cooler is pretty nice(for a stock part), so it might be good enough just to slow down the fan and keep an eye on temperatures.

The Scythe Ninja is the preferred heatsink for the CPU, it's reasonably priced and works very well. There are cheaper and still pretty good heatsinks though. Knowing what mobo you have would make recommending stuff a lot easier

Thanks for the response.

I have an Epox 9NPA+ Ultra.
Here is a link with a picture of the board: http://www.epox.com/USA/showimage.asp?I ... AplusULTRA

So the chipset heatsink is easy to remove? I'm paranoid that I'm going to kill this motherboard especially after having so many problems getting it fit into the Solo (its a bit snug).

Hello,

Removing the NB heatsink is generally very easy to do: from the back of the board, you push the center bit of the plastic pins through, which then allows the barbs to be pinched together, so they can be backed out of the hole. If the TIM is really sticky, then you have to twist and pull it a bit, and the HSF then comes off. Clean of the residual TIM/goop and apply some good stuff [thermal paste], and mount the new, passive HS.

You just have to use your fingernails, or be careful and use blunt tools, to avoid scratching the motherboard. Changing out the NB HS is just about the easiest HS job you can do.

"TIM/goop and apply some good stuff"

Thanks again.

What is this TIM/goop that I need? Is that thermal paste?

Thanks a bunch.

Yes, thermal paste Arctic Silver 5 is probably the best, but pretty much any silicone paste will do. Most likely the new heatsink comes with some regular white stuff.

That mobo can fit either one of the heatsinks i mentioned, and there should still be plenty of room for a better CPU cooler. The 24-pin atx connector could be hard to install after the cou heatsink though, its pretty close to the socket.

Wow.

I just changed the northbridge fan to a zalman heatsink (the thermalright was sold out) and it made a HUGE difference. I never realized how noisy those things were.

It's strange though -- now that things are quite I want them to get even quieter. I'm debating on whether to get the heatsink for the cpu...when I put a pencil in the fan it doesn't seem to make that big of a difference, are there any cheaper options besides the scythe ninja? Also, it seems like the only other things I can try to change are the CPU and fan or the graphics card (ATI x800) -- is that possible to change at all?

Thanks a lot for the continued help.

it's only natural around here, you're no exception - it just happens to 99% of us. but hey, it's a good thing!

your gpu - i've never had an ati card but i guess there is a program called "atitool" - sth that lets you control the fan on your card, either manually or automatically

you may also get an aftermarket cooler like e.g. zalman vf700 (either all copper or semi copper) to keep thiings quiet and cool

edit:
cpu - i'm not sure where you live (usa?) and if its possible to get Arctic Cooler Freezer Pro there, but it would make a good solution - half the price of ninja (or so), somehow smaller, but still a good & efficient cooler

i'd first give a try your regular cooler - you should be able to bring it down somehow, try "speedfan" - a popular program to manage fan speed

I definitely recommend silencing your graphics card. It made more of a difference in my system than doing the northbridge chipset and the power supply. I used a Zalman heatpipe/fan and it worked astoundingly well. It was a little tricky to fit everything into the case but well worth the effort.

Yep, ATITool is a godsend for ATI vidcards--even the stock cooler can be toned down from it's usual "dustbuster" noiselevel. Turn the stock fan down to 20% and it will be a LOT quieter. This will give you time to save your pennies while researching video card coolers

You can actually go into the fan control settings and have it use different fan speed % based on the temps it is getting. You can also have it underclock itself when you're just messing around on the desktop, internet etc--the X800 series is pretty much overkill for anything shy of 3D gaming. Mine is actually underclocked to 120/240 (core/memory) on the desktop, and I have actually played entire games of Call of Duty 2 and Company of Heroes with that setting active! The underclcoking usually saves a few degrees (C).