silencing a case with a window?

lanceuppercut · Post by **lanceuppercut** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 12:35 pm

i'm in the process of sourcing a coolermaster black widow and im going to replace the fans supplied fans with the nexus 80mm+akasa anti noise grill ones from my cm200. in the cm200, i have akasa matting pretty much everywhere. admittedly the stuff isnt rated all that well by scpr but i did do this years ago and the acousti deluxe stuff wasnt out back then..

anyhow, the black widow comes with a side window which kinda rules out sticking some acousti on the left side panel (if looking from the front).

i have no way of comparing what my equipment sounds in my current case with and then without any akasa material. i have gone for quiet components like samsung t series, ninja cooler with a 120mm fan at 5v, 80mm fans with anti noise grills, fsp blue storm psu etc so hopefully the noise wont be too unbearable but short of trying to source a windowless side panel so i can put the acousti stuff on there, tbh its very unlikely given the age/rarity of this case, what are my options?

Gojira-X · Post by **Gojira-X** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 3:23 pm

You can silence a case with a window.

I have with my Thermaltake Xaser V Wingo. What i did was concentrate on the source of the noise rather than damping down what noise was produced.
In the end, I did not need to spend money on damping material and I got a drop in cpu/system temp due to a reduction in turbulence.

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 5:10 pm

Gojira-X wrote:What i did was concentrate on the source of the noise rather than damping down what noise was produced.

Very sage advice, and some of the most commonly overlooked as well.

However, if you do decide you need some dampening, "Peel & Seal" is a heavy asphalt-based material (which stinks at first, but wears off with time) with an aluminum backing which might look pretty cool. I also use black headliner material (for a car) in my cases. It has a nice clean look and is made of a layer of black felt laminated to a thin layer of open cell foam. Has some slight dampening qualities, in that it doesn't reflect sound like a case wall does. Does not work to mass load the panels to reduce vibration, unless you sandwich it in between those panels.

lanceuppercut · Post by **lanceuppercut** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 11:26 pm

i've even gone and ordered those rubber fan mounts so all in all hopefully when i get the case i wont need any dampening.

i may get that acousti deluxe stuff and do the back/bottom/top and leave the window panel alone, depends on how thick the stuff is really, the akasa stuff i have is quite thin (and not good apparently). where would've the big thick sheet (http://www.acoustiproducts.com/images/p ... rge_v2.jpg -the one you can see here with the square blocks cut out of it) supposed to go? the "window panel" i guess?

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 3:30 am

Sound dampening material should be the LAST thing you worry about. I've never used any significant amount of sound dampening on any of my silent computers. Two of my computer cases are nothing but glass windows ($10 aquarium from Walmart).

I'm so amused whenever someone asks for a "silent case" because a case doesn't actually make any noise at all. It's the stuff inside the case which makes noise, and a case with even heavy sound dampening isn't going to reduce that noise by a whole lot.

lanceuppercut · Post by **lanceuppercut** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 3:34 am

ok heavy dampening wont necessarily reduce the noise, but for an alu case, as i understand it, will help change the tone of whatever noise is produced.

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 3:47 am

Vibration dampening can be important if your case is vibrating. However, a case won't vibrate on its own--it needs something like a hardmounted fan or hard drive to vibrate. If you softmount your fans and suspend your hard drive, you can eliminate the vibrations from the start.

lanceuppercut · Post by **lanceuppercut** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:21 am

hardmounted = with metal screws, and softmounting = with rubber screw things like the ones acousti supply, correct?

i am going to put those anti noise grills on the inside of fans, as it is only connecting to the fan and not the case, will i need to use those rubber mounts or will normal fan screws suffice?

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 5:57 am

Yes, rubber screw things are one way to softmount a fan. Unfortunately, softmounting a fan takes up extra space (which may not be available, like with a PSU fan), and leaves an air gap which may need to be filled in somehow. You'll see lots of ways to softmount fans here on SPCR, and the gap may be filled with foam or some electrical tape.

Fortunately, silent undervolted fans tend to not vibrate very much--an unbalanced fan is rarely quiet! Hard drives are another story. Samsung hard drives are traditional SPCR favorites because they're very quiet, but they tend to vibrate heavily. Little rubber gromits are not enough to tame this mighty vibration! That's why you see rather extreme hard drive suspension schemes used here on SPCR.

Hard drive suspension schemes which provide good vibration isolation tend to be very bulky and may not be compatible with a LAN party rig--which is moved around a lot. OTOH, a LAN party rig's noise will get totally swamped out by the other gaming rigs...

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:13 am

a case with even heavy sound dampening isn't going to reduce that noise by a whole lot.

I was fiddling around inside my case the other day and it actually surprised me how loud my PC is; I mean, for a non-SPCR person it wouldn't be a big deal, but my steel case actually does provide quite a bit of sound attenuation. Ultimately, as a sound enclosure, a case is flawed because it has to have openings through which exhaust air (and sound) can escape, but we mustn't underestimate how much mass damping can actually help. As long as we are stuck with 3.5" HDDs with moving parts (and 2.5" being so much more expensive per GB) we have to deal with the sound that they produce, and suspension only eliminates structure-borne vibration.

lanceuppercut · Post by **lanceuppercut** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:15 am

i'll see how i fare with softmounted fans and without any dampening. if need be i'll invest in a silentmaxx enclosure or something and unplug one of the two 80mm intake fans.

i already have unplugged the top blowhole as it causes way too much noise for not much reduction in case temps.

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:17 am

I agree with jaganath. Compared to how loud (comparatively) my system was before I added the dampening to how it runs now, and even how it loud it was with the side panel off, is a HUGE difference.

Most of that effect is due to the elimination of a direct sound path, but there are other problems for which there are no easy solution. Vibration from optical drives is a big one, and one of the hardest to solve, since choosing a "quiet component" to start with is next to impossible. Soft-mounting them is not an option for many reasons, and slowing them down via software compromises performance.

That's what I'm struggling with now. I do have my optical drives dampened somewhat via mass-loading and foam isolation of the drive bay rests, but I wish there was more that could be done.

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:16 am

I guess it depends. My experience is that while noise is reduced, my ears/brain compensate for the noise reduction quickly as long as there isn't anything else making noise. But if there's something else in the house generating noise, then it'll swamp the computer's noise either way.

For my perception, the noise reduction from a good case is maybe only 50%. To me, that's not a whole lot, because it's not enough to make a quiet machine silent, nor a loud machine quiet. Proper choice of components will have a much larger effect.

I just get annoyed that a lot of people come to SPCR expecting to just slap a typical gamer's system in a "silent case" and/or apply some sound dampening and it's going to magically turn the rig into a silent computer.

Re: optical drives

Optical drives are indeed an annoyance; one which I don't worry about since I rarely use them when I'm in the same room. There's obviously no universal solution for them. External mounting lets you put an optical drive in a full enclosure (with a lid for inserting/removing discs, of course), but this is extremely bulky and may be inconvenient. Also, if you're using an optical drive heavily enough for its noise to be a concern, a full enclosure may cook your drive.

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 1:43 pm

IsaacKuo wrote:My experience is that while noise is reduced, my ears/brain compensate for the noise reduction quickly as long as there isn't anything else making noise.

Yeah, SPCR-veterans are a lost cause...

Proper choice of components will have a much larger effect.

Like I said earlier, this is the wisest and most overlooked part of quiet computing...

I just get annoyed that a lot of people come to SPCR expecting to just slap a typical gamer's system in a "silent case" and/or apply some sound dampening and it's going to magically turn the rig into a silent computer.

I tell those people to buy a quiet Dell in beige/grey then paint it black cause black computers are faster...

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Mon Apr 16, 2007 8:48 pm

lanceuppercut wrote:hardmounted = with metal screws, and softmounting = with rubber screw things like the ones acousti supply, correct?

i am going to put those anti noise grills on the inside of fans, as it is only connecting to the fan and not the case, will i need to use those rubber mounts or will normal fan screws suffice?

Rubber screws or grommets is a decent step,suspension with something stretchy,or a soft bed-foam,gel pac, are better. Rubber screws/gaskets do help iso the fans or PSU,as does silicone goo.

lanceuppercut · Post by **lanceuppercut** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 9:57 pm

i got my black widow yesterday, got rather annoyed with the soft fan mounts as there plainly wasnt enough space to get my fingers down to mount the lower intake on it (i doubt i will be even using it anyway) so i mounted it normally. :/

also had to, for now, mount the rear exhaust fan normally as i have: screw head->akasa anti noise grill->case->fan and the grill messes things up slightly.

i need to 5v/7v the case fans. the ninja effectively makes the case's removeable mobo tray redundant.

overall i'd say it was about the same accoustically as the cm200 (the side panels feel more solid when i tap them) and i havent even got washers for the hdds which i think i'll do today or sound matting yet (i can hear the hdd more clearly than in the other case).

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Fri May 25, 2007 4:47 pm

What can i do with my Gigabyte Poseidon? it vibrates a lot. when i press the side panel the vibration noise stops.
hope you could help,
Dan.

Tephras · Post by **Tephras** » Sat May 26, 2007 10:49 am

Suspend your hard drives. If that doesn't do it, you could increase the mass of the side panels - search the forum for "mass loading" or "mass damping".