Sound Dampening Foam for Antec Case

Enclosures and acoustic damping to help quiet them.

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twilysparklez
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2014 6:48 am
Location: Over the Rainbow

Sound Dampening Foam for Antec Case

Post by twilysparklez » Tue Mar 18, 2014 6:07 pm

Hi,

I have an Antec P180 Mini(discontinued D:) and I am wondering if there is a foam that I can add to lower the DBA.

The case is a MicroATX, which has an Aluminum/Plastic/Aluminum construction(doesn't nothing).

Dave

flemeister
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Location: Australia

Re: Sound Dampening Foam for Antec Case

Post by flemeister » Wed Mar 19, 2014 12:45 am

* Acoustipack
* Peel and stick vinyl tiles (mass damping)

You should really deal with the components one by one though. The P180 Mini won't magically make a noisy PC silent, or even quiet. It should be seen as a final step to making a very quiet rig silent, or a noisy rig just a little bit quieter. Like a vacuum cleaner running in the next room, then you close your room door. The door will muffle the noise a bit, but it'll still be annoying to listen to.

* Replace the stock CPU cooler with a quiet aftermarket one.
* If that HD6570 has a tiny-whiney fan, get rid of the fan and replace it with a small but quiet case fan zip-tied to the heatsink. Or replace the graphics card with a quieter one.
* Replace the Antec TriCool (870RPM on the low setting) with a quieter 120mm fan, same goes for the other case fans if they buzz/tick/squeak/drone etc.
* PSU fan? If it's noisy, do a fan swap, or replace the PSU with a quieter one.

quest_for_silence
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Re: Sound Dampening Foam for Antec Case

Post by quest_for_silence » Wed Mar 19, 2014 3:26 am

flemeister wrote:You should really deal with the components one by one though. The P180 Mini won't magically make a noisy PC silent, or even quiet. It should be seen as a final step to making a very quiet rig silent, or a noisy rig just a little bit quieter. Like a vacuum cleaner running in the next room, then you close your room door. The door will muffle the noise a bit, but it'll still be annoying to listen to.

* Replace the stock CPU cooler with a quiet aftermarket one.
* If that HD6570 has a tiny-whiney fan, get rid of the fan and replace it with a small but quiet case fan zip-tied to the heatsink. Or replace the graphics card with a quieter one.
* Replace the Antec TriCool (870RPM on the low setting) with a quieter 120mm fan, same goes for the other case fans if they buzz/tick/squeak/drone etc.
* PSU fan? If it's noisy, do a fan swap, or replace the PSU with a quieter one.


+1: I own a P180 Mini, and IME it shouldn't deserve any mass damping/noise muffling.

As noted by flemeister, none of the moving part you have in your current main build seems enough quiet (I mean the three case fans, the PSUs, the CPU cooler, the GPU cooler, but even the HDD if it were a 7200rpm one), so the money you will throw in any foam will be much well spent for some better component (it look obvious to me that you will probably spend more on parts, in case), as IMHO you won't get any substantial improvement by adding those sound dampening panels (not to mention you will note a general increase in temps, and so maybe a further increase in fans speed).

twilysparklez
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2014 6:48 am
Location: Over the Rainbow

Re: Sound Dampening Foam for Antec Case

Post by twilysparklez » Wed Mar 19, 2014 4:32 pm

flemeister wrote:
You should really deal with the components one by one though. The P180 Mini won't magically make a noisy PC silent, or even quiet. It should be seen as a final step to making a very quiet rig silent, or a noisy rig just a little bit quieter. Like a vacuum cleaner running in the next room, then you close your room door. The door will muffle the noise a bit, but it'll still be annoying to listen to.
I already have the P180 Mini, thanks though
flemeister wrote: * Replace the stock CPU cooler with a quiet aftermarket one.
* If that HD6570 has a tiny-whiney fan, get rid of the fan and replace it with a small but quiet case fan zip-tied to the heatsink. Or replace the graphics card with a quieter one.
* Replace the Antec TriCool (870RPM on the low setting) with a quieter 120mm fan, same goes for the other case fans if they buzz/tick/squeak/drone etc.
* PSU fan? If it's noisy, do a fan swap, or replace the PSU with a quieter one.
1: Going to buy One :D

2&4: Its ok for now

3: I will buy a new one, once I go to the store

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Thanks For the Info guys, I have decided against the foam, but going to buy a new heatsink, and intake fan

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