Hi guys,
I just spent a lot of money on a new pc, with a focus on silent components. Here are the components that matter:

Athlon64 3000+
Zalman 7000B-AlCu (using min. fan speed)
GeForce 6800GT (reference hsf)
Seasonic Super Tornado 400W

Now, I was expecting this to be pretty damn quiet. Like, you have to be a metre away to hear it. But no, I can hear this from outside my room and down the hallway! Were my expectations too great? Or perhaps my graphics card is especially loud? Or possibly the PSU is to blame (it's a rev A2 you see)?


I'm new to all this so any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

It's almost certainly your graphics card. The rest of your fans should be very quiet. My buddy recently bought a Dell system (which are usually pretty quiet) with a Radeon 9800Pro, and that thing sounds like a friggin' vacuum cleaner.

Also, a whiny hard drive (less than recent WDs can be pretty loud) can also create significant noise.

To test if it's the graphics card, open the case and briefly stop the card's fan from spinning with your finger. This should immediately tell you if this is the noise source.

You have an A2? RMA that sucker.

I agree with Pauli, your video card is makin' all that noise, though you didn't say what else was in your system. Some hard drives trump videocards in terms of noise

I;m certain it isn't my hard drive, it's a new Western Digital and very quiet. Funny thing is, I can hear it accessing now. With my old jet engine of a pc I couldn't

Also, why RMA it immediately? I haven't noticed any problem with the fan ramping up or down at odd times. In fact I've never heard it ramp that I know of, unless it's constantly at full speed. Noise does drop when entering Windows from boot though.

WD drives are notorious for being loud (and I haven't heard of any huge improvements in the new versions to qualify them as quiet).

It may just seem quiet because you are not used to what it sounds like having been using an old noisy system.

Try disconnecting the drive's power and boot the machine. Of course it would fully boot, but you'll have a better idea where the noise is comming from.

You need to isolate the noise sources and figure out who the culprit is. You can even disconnect the case and CPU fan (but the CPU fan should only be disconnected for a short time or you'll burn out the CPU).

My guess is that the problem is with the HD, GPU fan, or case fan.

It seems to be the graphics card. The PSU doesn't exhibit any odd ramping up problems, the hard drive isn't audible except on access and the cpu fan is pretty much silent on lowest setting. I jammed a pen in the gpu fan for a sec and it was much much quieter.

Thanks for the suggestions.

if you got the money

grab one of these
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... =0vvvvvvvv

should solve your problem and make your case cooling

~RaNDoM

The hdd and the PSU aren't your problems. UNTIL you take care of the 6800. Randommai's suggestion is excellent. Probably the only way to go.

After you take care of the 6800?

Well, once you start down the silent path, forever will it dominate your destiny.......

Yeah, I was going to get one of those when I find them in the UK. I hope the price comes down though, the older ones are more like £15, not the approximately £30 newegg want for that.

You are SO right, burcakb. As soon as you get the other parts quieted down, that constant droning oscillation of the PSU will make you bonkers.