Trying to quieten a Lian Li PC65

w00dy · Post by **w00dy** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 3:18 am

My first post here - please be gentle !!

I have a Lian Li PC65 which I am very happy with though the noise level is something I just had to do something about.

So far I have removed the rear fan and replaced with a Panaflo at 7v with rubber fan mounts which is nice and quiet. I have also replaced the top Adda Fan with a Akasa Amber Quiet fan and added some ducting down from the fan to sit in the middle of the case - this should have the effect of pulling warm air up and out of the case.

I am now moving to the various holes in the Lian Li Case - the rear of the case, next to PCI and AGP slots has an arrangement of small holes which are supposed to allow the case to breathe - unfortunately they also let out a lot of noise.

Could I tape over these holes to reduce the noise without hurting the case temp too much?

Also the front has a number of holes to allow airflow into the case - this area of holes is larger than the 2x80mm fans that sit behind it. Would it be worth taping over some of these holes to allow more focused airflow, and reduce noise a bit?

Sorry for the rambling post

Cheers

Tiamat · Post by **Tiamat** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 5:51 am

When trying to have a quiet system, it is far more effective to attack the chief problem rather than trying to soften the problem.

In other words, check out the noise level of your psu, system fans, cpu fan, Northbridge fan, GPU Fan by stopping each with your finger pressing onto the central hub. If your noise goes down significiantly with one of those fans stopped, you know what you need to do.

No amount of "covering holes" will amount to the effect of $$ spent on quiet components. I would start with the GPU and Northbridge and CPU HSF. Then the PSU. Then your harddrives, and finally your front fans.

After you have a quiet psu like seasonic super tornado, quiet harddrive like seagate, quiet NB like the Zalman NB (xx47J)cooler, panaflo L1A for all system fans (with fan controller down to 7V), quiet cpu HSF, then you can start thinking about acoustic proofing of your case.

w00dy · Post by **w00dy** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 3:22 pm

OK quick update.

Changed the stock AMD Retail HSF for a Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 - and what a difference - very quiet HSF and dropped my CPU temps by 6c.

Have ordered a couple of Nexus 80mm fans for the front, and then I think the machine will be acceptable noisewise - I understand as an aluminium case the PC65 will never be as good as one of the Antec Quiet Cases, but I am happy to forego some slight noise for great looks !

teejay · Post by **teejay** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:24 pm

My previous Lian Li - a 6089A which is quite similar to your 65 - also benefitted a lot from soft-mounting the fans. As for your original questions: I did cover up all the excess holes in the case, but since the 6089 only has a small air intake in the bottom of the front that raised case temps a bit. With the 65 I'd definitely cover them all up since there is enough "breathing room" through the front. That way you'll force all incoming air to go through the front and over the harddisks.

I'd also try to find out if you need the top fan at all... in my case it added nothing, cooling-wise. IMO a case with the same amount of in- and outtake fans works best with balanced pressure, so I'd try to match the rpms and/or cfm of the 2 intake fans to the fans blowing out. The fans efficiency at moving air in or out will only be as good as the slowest fans anyway (the rest of their energy is used to maintain a pressure difference with the outside world) so matching those will give you the lowest possible noise signature.

If you find the case resonance the most prevailing noise source after your fan swaps and such, you might want to try suspending the harddrives. In all alu cases I've built this has consistently been the biggest noise reducer after the noisy fans had been replaced.

-EDIT: oops, almost forgot: w00dy, welcome to SPCR!