are you satisfied with the noise level of your system?

psiu · Post by **psiu** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 7:02 pm

Have to say I'm pretty content. Have within 5 feet of me right now--

my Athlon 64 FX-55, X850XT in P180 gaming rig
wifes Athlon XP 2600, X800XT in uATX Inwin case
the firewall router, a P3-450

pretty quiet, all things considered.

still in progress is the living room PVR with one 250mm fan providing all cooling...finally getting a chance to work on it again after a summer of constant guests (and thus bowling, concerts, dinners, and beeeeeer) as well starting an apprentice program (tele-comm/VDV through the local JATC).

pretty happy--are any of them dead silent? no. quiet enough for me? yes.

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 10:22 am

All things considered, yes I'm satisfied because my pc is as quiet as it can be. The only two ways to make it quieter is either downgrade it using less power hungry and less powerful components, something I'm not willing to do, or go high end and buy Zalman TNN case, something I'm also not willing to do.

So all in all I'm content with what I have because it's as quiet as it can be and it's so quiet I only hear it at night anyway when ambient noise is low.

BTW i think this thread is more suited for "offtopic"

disphenoidal · Post by **disphenoidal** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 1:05 pm

I thought I was, briefly, but then I realized the power had cut out for a minute and my computer was off.

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:59 am

disphenoidal wrote:I thought I was, briefly, but then I realized the power had cut out for a minute and my computer was off.

Hehehee. That could describe my situation now ^^. Although my primary computer is by ear estimation below 23 dB/A's and next thing for quieting my computer would be fan swap the adda dual ball bearing into Scythe S-flex F-model.

Wibla · Post by **Wibla** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 8:52 am

I'm satisfied with mine, except for the harddrives... seagate drives are really noisy compared to samsung o.O

merlin · Post by **merlin** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:21 pm

Wibla wrote:I'm satisfied with mine, except for the harddrives... seagate drives are really noisy compared to samsung o.O

Same here, everything is perfect except for the Seagate hd's...sadly I do like them...if only they could use acoustic controls...that convolve lawsuit killed any aam they do

lm · Post by lm » Wed Aug 29, 2007 2:44 pm

Kind of.

The system runs 24/7 and the sound it makes is very constant level and quality low frequency hum/whoosh.

That kind of noise is pretty easy to mask away from your head, when you hear it all the time.

Then again, I can definitely hear it, if you make me think of it. Even from the opposite corner of the room.

Having shut down our freezer for good, the next most noisy thing around here is the fridge. I've found some really good info on turning a high quality chest freezer into a fridge by using a modified thermostat. It would mean running for about 2min/hour compared to a typical fridge that runs pretty much 30min/hour, however just having a door to the kitchen instead of this pretty open layout of our rooms would probably help more. These things are just not so easy to change, so the computer noise is pretty much a moot point until the fridge situation improves. Not to mention the heating pipes making noise during the winter, or what ever noises come from outside or from neighbours.

mimwdv · Post by **mimwdv** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 8:28 pm

I'm almost satisfied - noisewise at least. My server is getting a pico-psu in the next few days to replace the s12 (for efficiency as much as noise issues), and I'm on a longer term plan to replace my 2 remaining 3.5" external hard drives with 2.5" models.

After that I'm into upgrade-itis and lowering power consumption - replacing the continually troublesome mobo in my server and moving it into an Antec NSK1300 case, and then the HTPC will get an overhaul to make it properly HD capable - both will get onboard graphics to reduce power/heat issues... Once you've got the bug it never ends!

Shades of Grey · Post by **Shades of Grey** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 10:51 am

I'm not particularly happy with my new system so far. p182 case, eVGA 8600GTS is especially annoying, even at the lowest fan speed nTune seems to be able to get to (43% or 675rpm).
It's noisier than my old 6600GT OT in a 3700BQE.

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 8:23 pm

Shades of Grey wrote:I'm not particularly happy with my new system so far. p182 case, eVGA 8600GTS is especially annoying, even at the lowest fan speed nTune seems to be able to get to (43% or 675rpm).
It's noisier than my old 6600GT OT in a 3700BQE.

675 rpm is annoying? My friend, you've got some issues.

s_xero · Post by **s_xero** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 11:45 pm

In my peaceful village (why not war? I should be quite good with weapons after years of "shooting") hangs a pretty low ambient noise.

That is why 4 years back I decided to do something about my noise computer.
After many HS- and fanswaps and actually a new system, I have got a PC which even at night doesn't break ambient noise at ~50cm (20 inch for the metric-rejectors

)

So after all I'm very pleased. The only thing now which is getting a bit annoying is my graphics card...a 6800GT, yes I'm a gamer.

Thanks to SPCR

-----------------------------------
P180 || top- Nexus 6v / back- Noctua-1200 4.9v
AMD X2 4400+
1GB OCZ BH5
ASRock 939Dual SATA2
XFX 6800GT *AGP* || AC Silencer NV5(modded) 5v
Hitachi T7K250 AAM || Scythe QuietDrive
Seasonic S12-430 rev.2

potsy · Post by **potsy** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 2:29 am

Good on you color, I've enjoyed reading the responses. I'm almost satisfied. I have a system that runs cool enough for about 3 hours with no case or CPU fan: viewtopic.php?t=43136

I use mine in a recording studio so I want super silence for periods of about half an hour while I record. The PSU is the last remaining noise source and I can't turn that off! I'm tossing up whether to try a PICO to keep the heat out or an ST30NF. I'll probably try the PICO because I just love the idea of moving the heat out of the case.

Sandwiched notebook drives are inaudible above the stock PSU in the Antec Fusion case: viewtopic.php?t=41854

Cheers
Potsy

Potsy

Solid Snake · Post by **Solid Snake** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 2:08 pm

I'm thrilled with my setup.

I've got a dual core 4200+, a dualhead GF7600GS and dual 120GB momentus hard drives in a RAID1. The system is positive pressure filtered by a single thermally controlled (non-PWM) 120mm fan @~600 rpm idle which sits in a recessed airbox. CPU cooling is done purely by positive pressure through a Thermalright 120 extreme. Power supply is a custom job, purely convective cooling with a large external heatsink to get rid of heat. All this is self-contained and can be moved around as easily as any Dell

Elixer · Post by **Elixer** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 7:09 pm

NEVER!!!!!

Even when I have a completely silent computer I'll be holding my ear to it and imaging sound coming from it. Then I'll complain about the noise it makes and go on a wild spree trying to fix it, calling it "coil wine" or electronic noise, before finally figuring out that the noise is the lights, outside, speakers, or other item. Then I'll still think my computer is too loud and that the only reason I can't hear it is because "ambient noise is too high." Then I'll move to a cabin in the middle of the woods never to be seen again.....

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 3:12 am

With 2 of my PC's yes, my main PC (in my sig) is so quiet its basically not there, especially as my pine wood desk is nearly 2 inches thick and the PC is below that. My living room PC is very quiet as well and totally inaudible from my sofa even in the dead of night. My next quest is to make my server quieter, but with 5-HDD's thats not quite so easy. Although my server is quiet by many peoples standards it is plain LOUD when its next to my main rig.

wwenze · Post by **wwenze** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 3:45 am

So close, yet so far.

With only the S12-430's fan in the system the loudest thing is a WD3200KS (which beat and replaced a P120 both in idle & seek).

With an inch of sponge, seeks are almost gone. BUT still there. And this KS has a softer seek and a louder seek (like with AAM disabled, except this happens occasionally with AAM enabled), the latter being the one that's irritating more. But, much better than the P120, and Barracuda IV already.

Then as I listen to other PC I've "silenced" in the past, I realized they're not silent at all.

So far only 4 cases of virtual silence for me:
C7-M laptop with fan off and Fujitsu 4200rpm -> stick my ears to the laptop to hear the seek
"TV" rig placed far away and sandwiched between inches of wood -> cheating I know
Undervolted Athlon XP rig with undervolted slow 120mm fan (~700rpm at most) on stock heatsink, massively dampened DiamondMax 8 single platter/Barracuda IV with hybrid PSU -> could not heat HDD at all, idle or seek. Peace for 5-10min before PSU fan spins
Current rig (as above) -> only hear idle sound when I wake up when the ears are most sensitive, some seek noise

And the interesting thing is, if I stuff a (passive) 40-50W gfx card in it, the PSU will ramp up and it won't be silent anymore. With so many HDD and fans and PSUs and their noise/rpm/temp data courtesy of SPCR, I can probably estimate my rig sound level and hearing threshold. Probably ~21-22dbA from where I'm sitting.

But from where I'm sleeping, now, except for the louder seeks, I can't hear it. That's important, because it's on 24/7.

But the wierdness is, if I plug in the DM8 or Barracuda IV which I was using in the previous rig, they're so loud compared to P120 and WD3200KS, so the rig wasn't silent at all?

Conclusion: PC silencing improves your hearing

One sad thing: I can actually hear my bro's Acer laptop hdd seek. I thought 2.5" are supposed to be quieter.

c3lica · Post by **c3lica** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 7:51 am

I hate how loud my comp is... have wd caviar that is so loud... louder than anything else in the case. think ill get a scorpio to replace it. other than that the only fan (minus the 0dba psu which i cant hear unless the hd and cpu fan are off) is the cpu fan. it seems a little noisy for my taste.

stock e6750 cooling. anyone who has any suggestions on quiet/silent cooling on a lga775 should send me a PM.

Torajirou · Post by **Torajirou** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 3:01 am

I guess I am, if I take into account the considerable amount of heat my system dissipates. My rig is very quiet, though not silent. If I don't specifically pay attention, it never bothers me. Plus, HDDs are inaudible and the noise is constant, whatever I do, which are a nice feature for a quiet system.

I think I'll change my CPU/Mobo/GPU in about one year, when DX10 hardware/software is mature, and this time I'll carefully choose energy-efficient components, in order to reach the holy grail : an inaudible rig

croddie · Post by **croddie** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 7:38 am

color wrote:are you actually satisfied with the noise level of your system?

if you are OK, what system do you have? which component you think played the most important role to decrease the noise?

Yes. Putting it in another room made it silent. That is by far the most important thing.
As for components, the LCD is most important as it is near me when I work at the computer, so getting a silent one was important. An Apple Cinema display seems to have done the job. (Power brick and inverter are external.)

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 8:44 am

I'm completely satisfied with the noise level. It is inaudible from any distance outside the case. A little dissapointed with framerate performance though, but i will rectify that issue on the next go round. Really the only things i want to do different are a dual core cpu and a faster graphics card. I'm happy with the performance of everything else.

I'll probably end up putting the guts of this system in an antec aria/nsk1300 using a pico psu and an external brick to power it, and then build a new system in this case. I love this little case.

Antec NSK3300 w/ stock psu (removed psu fan grill on fan), 120mm nexus on exhaust at 5v
Viewsonic VX922
MSI 945GT Speedster-A4R
Intel Pentium M 1.73 ghz, Thermalright XP-90 w/ 92mm nexus at 5v
2x 1gb patriot ddr2 667
XFX 7600gs (passive)
Samsung 2.5" 40gb single platter sata
Panasonic Slim Slot load DVD-RW

zoob wrote:I won't be happy until I don't hear a difference with my computer on or off.

I dont hear a difference when my computer is on or off, and my ambient noise is very low. I knew i had finally reached the pinicle of silencing when the guys to hook up the cable internet came over, and i hadnt had time to hook up my computer yet, so they helped me with that. They pushed the power button, scratched their head, and almost hit the power button again, when i had to stop them and tell them "no, its already on". Sure enough, 5 seconds later the windows logo came up. Ahhh.... perfection. It is achievable.

ntavlas · Post by **ntavlas** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 10:26 am

I am satisfied and happy but I can`t say the same for my northbrigde...

lor77 · Post by **lor77** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 2:23 pm

Greetings to everyone!
I'm also happy with my current noise levels/
But the sound from the hd inside the enclosures is still audible.
So i cant wait for SSD's to arrive,was thinking about this sandisk 32gb version.Haven't found any retailers yet.Does anyone know any in europe?
My next step will be a fan swap in the psu but really i dont think it will not create much of a difference anyway and lastly trying some dampening material inside the case.
But overall did a fine job with ideas i got from the Mighty SPCR.

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 5:04 pm

Greetings.

I am discontent with both of my current systems noisewise.

My wife's computer has a hard drive that makes an inexplicably loud idle noise (drowns out the seeks!) that sounds like.. well, a metal platter rotating at 7200 rpm. It only goes away when the power shuts down. I've tried damping it with a 2" blanket of closed-cell foam and it cuts right through it. I fear the only solution is a new hard drive. Also in that computer the passive HS on the NB is smoking hot, and the passive 7100GS also runs quite warm, so I've got an 80mm tricool @ medium, which is super loud, trying to combat it. I'm convinced a Thermalright IFX/SLI HR-05 heatsink mounted with a low speed 80mm fan would solve that issue. So it would cost me $100 to quiet that one down.

My gaming PC is quiet, however the rear fan, which probably isn't even needed is a coolermaster 120mm @1200 rpm, it is the loudest fan by far. I would need to swap that out. After that, the front tri-cool @ low would probably be audible, the hard drive seeks are audible but muffled, and at that point I could probably hear the hard drive.

Every single noise I can hear, even if it isn't loud. I feel like the guy in "the Telltale Heart". I fear I'll be tweaking these systems every month for the next year lol. I can't really afford another $100 of silencing gear :/

ajemm · Post by **ajemm** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 6:28 pm

I'm mostly satisfied with my noise levels. It is fairly inaudible outside of 5 ft. and I've gotten comments on how quiet it is from other people. My CPU fan is by far the loudest thing. But with my Opteron @2.5GHz, 1600 rpm is about as slow as I can run it. I'm planning on moving up to a a new CPU cooler. One that can take a 120mm fan. I booted my old XP-Mobile system up about a week ago. It has 3 undervolted 80mm Panaflos, a 450W SmartPower PSU and a suspended Samsung Spinpoint HDD. All in a foam lined case. Now that is damn near silent. It reminded me that my current system still needs work.

ntavlas · Post by **ntavlas** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:49 pm

It seems a lot of us are limited by the hard disk. I don`t know if you need the performance of a 7200 rpm drive but if you can live with 5400 rpm it will be much easier to run it quietly. Especially since it produces so little heat, you can use much more drastic measures to dampen it without risking overheating.

I hope I`m not hijacking the thread, but I thought I would touch on the hdd issue since it is often the device making the difference between "satisfied" and "not satisfied".

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 3:47 pm

I don't think there is a way to manually slow down the speed of your hard drive, is there?

Fayd · Post by **Fayd** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 4:11 pm

no, but if you use hitachi harddrives, they have a method to make them quieter without sacrificing *too* much performance.

i'd do it if the harddrives were the loudest thing in my system. but they arent.

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 4:22 pm

I'm seriously considering buying a laptop hard drive. Ideally I'd run all my computers off of 2.5" drives, and just have a fileserver with some big 3.5" drives. So much more quiet and efficient.

micmic · Post by **micmic** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 1:31 pm

Mine is very quiet. There's a Reserator 1+ cooling CPU, GPU and PSU. No fans at all. There's a slight whine from my suspended HD but I got a reportedly very quiet Samsung and I think I will have reached the final quiet frontier as soon as I install it.

are you satisfied with the noise level of your system?

Re: are you satisfied with the noise level of your system?