Somehow my topic got eaten up....so i guess i'm starting over

So been reading spcr for about a month now
bit by the silent bug, oh no!

Here's my system ranked noise wise (highest to lowest)

Antec SL350 PSU (dual fan edition)
noisiest component, fan grills removed (not opened yet)
92mm fan has slight clicking, and the 80mm seems like mostly air noise
manually stopped 92mm with paperclip and electrical tape , but taken off for now because of no exhaust fan/high temps (more on that)

have been thinking about the mod with a Panaflo 80 L
not sure if i want to open my PSU:? , but cheapest solution
have constructed a duct out of NEON orange posterboard
only problem is i have a case door, so i'm trying to figure that out



Seagate 120gb drive, not sure if it's barracuda
suspended with glow in the dark string
similar to stretch magic, but was lying around
only hear seeks now, but still audible



Zalman 7700 AlCu Stock
fanmate @ 5-6 volts
slight clicking, but normally inaudible or not yet


ATI9800 pro128
fan disconnected, but stock heatsink still on
have my former exhaust 120mm stock Antec blowing up at it
on a nice lego stand
running at 5v for normal, switch to 12v via Mike's DDPT switch


Antec 3700AMB
it's really quiet , put random foam on door to "dampen" it, not much

Questions, comments, Concerns?
or suggestions?

my biggest concern is the PSU

EDIT-
since the aerocool vm101 was on sale for 18.99 at compusa
i broke down and got one
well now my stock antec at 5 volts has taken it's former exhaust place again.

now it's all "air" noise...
pics


the plastic is seperating the vm101 from the zalman cooler
in theory the rear fan should exhaust the heat

You can definatly mod the PSU, but there are some potential downfalls, not the least of which is the possibility of electrocuting yourself.

Of course, once you open the PSU, your warranty is shot, and putting in lower flow fans, may or may not harm the PSU, or screw with your voltages.

That being said, I took a no name, $20 PSU, stuck a nexus fan in it, and its been happily motoring along for over a year now.

You can also try other PSU mods, like moving the temp sensor/resistor.

Have you tried seeing if you can enable AAM on your hard drive? I dont know the specifics of the hard drive you have, but AAM made a signficant difference on my maxtor. the IBM feature tool might help you out with enabling AAM, if at all possible for your HD.

not sure about AAM, tried the seagate CD didn't work(, maybe have to boot off cd?)
looking at it rite now:
Barracuda 7200.7
120 g Bytes

it's actually not too bad, but any way to quiet it is appreciated

EDIT AAM no go tried Seagate CD and Feature Tool http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

says not featured....o well seeks aren't that bad

If it's a 7200.7, you definitely can't set AAM. It's simply not an option, and IIRC the company took some flak for that.

darn....o well

I forgot one thing about the PSU
The SL350's rear 80mm fan can be "dampened" with a piece of paper!

if I put a piece about 3/4 inch away from the exhuast, the 80mm's noise will drop significantly! I cut a piece of paper and taped the bottom below the PSU exhuast and covered the fan, leaving the top slightly open, thus forcing air up.
I discovered this totally by accident while experimenting.

I'm guessing the air is blocked by the paper and somehow quiets the whoosh sound, now it's very unobtrusive. It might disrupt the airflow, but it should allow the air to escape (I would rather have maybe [not even] a 1C temp rise, than a louder computer). Of course the other 92mm fan is still the loudest, but slightly dampened with the case door on.

I think back pressure causes that. Ball bearing fans might benefit from some back pressure, that's my guess.

i was thinking that...but who knows?

-UPDATED-
see above