Reducing Overall System Noise

[Bing Crosby]

I previously posted a similar topic but it seems to have been deleted in part.

I have an Antec P183, Core i7 870, Gigabyte GTX 460, Corsair HX750, two Western Digital Caviar Black 1 Gb with a Noctua NH-U9B SE2 92 mm CPU fan and two NF-S12B FLX 120 mm fans to replace the Tricools. I have both the CPU fans attached with LNA (1300 RPM, 13.1 dBA), and the two new case fans running with the LNA (900 RPM). Based on previous suggestions, I turned the top case fan off and it improved the noise level.

I am looking at other solutions to reduce noise. I could upgrade to the NH-U12B 120 mm CPU fan and run it at 1100 RPM with 12.6 dBA, but as the 1300 RPM speed on my current cooler is only 0.5 dBa louder, would this make any difference? I would have thought it would only change the character of the noise output, not the overall amount.

Also, I am trying to find out how to set up AAM on my hard drives. I have heard that Windows 7 automatically sets performance mode to the OS hard disk, and low noise mode to other hard disks, but as my OS disk is partioned with my documents drive, I believe I will have to change this myself. Is there some sort of software to do this?

Are there any other suggestions as to how I could lower the overall noise of my system? I am not going to change hard drives.

Thanks for your help,
Peter.

[datapappan]

Welcome to SPCR!

Now, always pick low hanging fruits first (read the primer in this forum).

In short, find your noisiest parts - shut off all but one fans, in turn, compare noise between them. Also, compare to HHD noise.

This will guide you to what needs to be changed.

/d

[quest_for_silence]

Are there any other suggestions as to how I could lower the overall noise of my system?

Do you use any fan control system, hardware or software?

[Bing Crosby]

Luca, I don't have any hardware fan speed controllers.

I did try the asus fan changing software that came with the MB but it didn't work.

If you could recommend me something else that would be great.

Bare in mind that the Noctua fans are not PMW though.

[Bing Crosby]

Hey, I used speedfan and I was able to reduce my case fan by about 300 rpm to make it almost inaudible and make the system a lot quieter. Sadly, I couldn't get it to control the CPU fan.

Any other tools out there and/or AAM management tools?

Cheers,

Peter.

[quest_for_silence]

Hey, I used speedfan and I was able to reduce my case fan by about 300 rpm to make it almost inaudible and make the system a lot quieter. Sadly, I couldn't get it to control the CPU fan.

If you'd have any spare (I mean free, unused) 3-pin fan header on the motherboard, you might easily use it to control your cpu fan, and usually with better results with reference to the mobo's dedicated cpu fan header (as not-PWM 3-pin fan headers often may dial more down the fan).

However, I guess you can't actually control that fan because you'd have not properly set SpeedFan: under the Configure window, you should hit the Advanced tab, then select your I/O chip, and eventually the cpu fan controller (I don't know which is its name, maybe you could post some screenshots) in order to verify if it's currently controlled by the mobo or by SpeedFan (iirc manually or software controlled is the right option to set, usually).

For your noisy Caviar Black, I mean the only worthy option is a rather costly one: buy a couple of Scythe Quiet Drive (60-70 USD total, I guess) and enclose drives in them.

[Bing Crosby]

I attached a screenshot.

You can also select Geforce Video Card and INTEL CORE as chip.

Thanks for your help!

[Bing Crosby]

Also, Speed01 = 80 % is what I used to reduce one of the case fans.

[quest_for_silence]

And "Speed02" is the CPU0fan? However, for testing fan control purposes, disable the Automatic fan speed checkbox, and use manual Speed0N boxes instead (also check your BIOS for any setting about cpu fan).

[Bing Crosby]

I think Speed02 is the CPU fan but like I said it doesn't change the CPU fan speed.

I'm not sure where the manual SpeedOn box is. I know there is a "Silent" fan option enabled in the BIOS somewhere.

Btw, I set Speed01 to 80 myself, it defaulted at 100.

[quest_for_silence]

Your Advanced Tab (the screenshot) seems a bit odd to me (especially the fan divisor numbers, have you touched them?), but maybe as I don't know your motherboard.

However, if my conjecture is somewhat exact, you should change the "PWM 2 mode" from "Thermal Cruise" to "Manual PWM Control", then save che Configure window (click "OK"), and eventually try to vary the cpu fan speed manually (I've not typed SpeedON but SpeedZERO"N", where "N" goes from 1 to 3, the numbers of your fans, so the boxes I was referring to are those little ones in the lower left corner of SpeedFan main window).

If it works, then you have to go through the "Temperatures" and "Speeds" tabs in order to properly automate the fan control.

On the contrary, if you can't change straightforwardly that "PWM 2 mode", more probably that not you have to do something in the BIOS to let SpeedFan change it, maybe disabling any motherboard control over the cpu fan.

It might be a bit annoying trial and error process to troubleshoot the right settings, the very first time.