SPCR

Like the title says, I bought a Praetorian and I love the air flow, it's keeping my Prescott running extremely cool. With some minor mods I chopped the noise in half...

-Silicone gaskets on rear exhaust and top blow hole

-Replaced 2 front intakes with SilenX 14dba 80MM fans mounted on silicone grommets

-Silcone washers on PSU

Now I have one last issue, I get a little vibration resonance across the top panel, I know it's my trouble spot because if I lay anything on it the sound deadens instantly. So my question is, would a strip on Pax in this area do the trick or does someone have another recomendation? I think if I can deaden this area I will be pretty happy, any suggestions?

If you're referring to Akasa Paxmate, my experience is that it does nothing to dampen panels. It just doesn't have enough mass.

Some people here use roofing tape. Search the forums. I couldn't find it in the local Lowes / Home Depot, so I ordered a sheet of polymeric mastic from McMaster-Carr. It works very well in dampening panels (when you hit it, it goes "thud" rather than "gong") but it costs an arm and a leg to ship.

Alternatively, wrap a brick or two in something soft and lay it on the top panel

PaxMate may help. It's much maligned around here and TBH, its nowhere near as effective as AcoustiPack as a sound dampening material.

However, in one of my old steel cases, a couple of large sheets of paxmate did take away some of that metallic tinny vibration sound particular if you wedge it between where the panels meet (Paxmate is pretty thin). [/i]

I've used Paxmate in situations where I require some spongy material with an adhesive backing. You're right, in those situations, it does help, as it will eliminate rattling.

The other situation where I found Paxmate useful is as a mat to place below my keyboard. It prevents the keyboard from rattling on the wooden table, and probably cuts down typing noise by half.

bob670 wrote:Now I have one last issue, I get a little vibration resonance across the top panel, I know it's my trouble spot because if I lay anything on it the sound deadens instantly. So my question is, would a strip on Pax in this area do the trick or does someone have another recomendation? I think if I can deaden this area I will be pretty happy, any suggestions?

Yes, aluminum cases tend to vibrate more than steel ones, that's a common issue, but you can fix it by applying some Dynamat. I bought mine from directron, but I think CC sells it too (if you live in US). Just make sure to buy the second version which does not smell and buy a "car" version, not precut "PC" one - that will give you better value for the money.

See, I know Paxmate has a bad rap around here, but we need to remember that all this stuff is relative. Of course it's not as good as other acoustic dampening materials out there, but it still has it's uses.
I have paxmate throughout my computer, and it does it's job well as far as I can tell. I've found it at least a little bit useful for panel dampening.

It's a YMMV situation. Paxmate is quite cheap, so even if you do try it and it doesn't work, you won't be out that much money if you decide to scrap it.

Thanks for the replies guys, I ended up disconnecting the fan on the top blow hole (which I am not a big believer in anyway) and literally dropped the remaining noise by half and having no impact on temps (the dust filter and mounting on this fan was so restrictive I didn't think it was doing much and this proves it).

This case has gone from loud and almost unbearable to pretty quiet in a few days time. I am going to get some PaxMate to use around the upper edge of the panel (the last place I can find any real vibration coming from) and also to insulate the unused 5" bay inserts. The silicone gaskets on the fans, the 14dba Silenx replacements and isolating the PSU have made a really nice impact. Thanks for everyones input. Any other suggestions welcome.