help me deliever the final blow to noise

joethemole · Post by **joethemole** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 8:22 am

i want to make something clear first: i'm not going to spend any more money

i have my 2500xpm @ 3200+ on 1.600vcore right now, idling at about high 40s low 50c.

i have my cpu fan, and both psu fans hooked up to my sunbeam rheobus, which are then all below 7v. (in fact i don't think they ARE making any noise, and those are the only fans i got). the side of my case is off right now, and the entire thing is in a walk-in closet. my 9600xt is hooked to an arctic siliencer rev 3 on silent mode

noise level right now is nearly inaudible, but with a little (very tiny) whining/buzzing noise comming from the mobo. yeah, either the mobo or psu's inductors/capacitators are making the only noise. of course the hdd is still audible, but thats only when its in use.

so help me find a solution to this thing. ghetto methods welcome! i've tried putting the thing in a cardboard box... but that didn't work out very well. If i try to put the case side back on, the noise is still there more or less, but the temps rise like 5c.

help

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 8:36 am

Are you sure it's the mobo/PSU capacitors? Are you sure it's not the hard drive? Do you still hear the same whine when the hard drive and all of the fans are unplugged?

My first guess is that the whine you're hearing is from the hard drive, and that's the reason why you think your fans are inaudible. After you unplug your hard drive, you'll notice that the fans are actually making noise.

joethemole · Post by **joethemole** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 8:38 am

IsaacKuo wrote:Are you sure it's the mobo/PSU capacitors? Are you sure it's not the hard drive? Do you still hear the same whine when the hard drive and all of the fans are unplugged?

My first guess is that the whine you're hearing is from the hard drive, and that's the reason why you think your fans are inaudible. After you unplug your hard drive, you'll notice that the fans are actually making noise.

urr ok leme try that

joethemole · Post by **joethemole** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 8:59 am

well i found that the buzz was comming from the vid card, and the whine was comming from the hdd. i think i fixed the buzz by taping the blue thing on the arctic silencer down (you know it if you have it). so the only thing left really is the whine from hdd, which i doubt i can do anything about. oh yeah, the mobo wasn't making the buzz noise, but either it or the psu made a high pitched whine when i turned EVERYthing off.

anyone got any clever system wide silencing technique? like not focusing on the single thing. ie putting it in box

scotty6435 · Post by **scotty6435** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 9:58 am

If you have some sheet metal and acoustic material you can make your own HDD silencer. Combined with suspension should make it pretty damn quiet.

dvsOasis · Post by **dvsOasis** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 10:02 am

joethemole wrote:so the only thing left really is the whine from hdd, which i doubt i can do anything about.

I remember the hard drive on one of my pc's had an option of either performance or silence. I could go in and toggle it (I guess it goes slightly slower to quiet itself down a little). The default was performance, which was already quiet for me

scotty6435 · Post by **scotty6435** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 10:05 am

Indeed, that's AAM and can be set by most HDD utility programs (hitachi is my fav) however that only reduced seek noise. The whine from this drive is spin-based so it won't really help I'm afraid

The only thing really is to either replace it (not really an option) or silence with material.

joethemole · Post by **joethemole** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 10:27 am

i might try the suspension later, and i just found out that the damn arctic silencer is making a slight buzz, tho inaudible over the fan noise.

oh well the suspension is gonna be my final bid. its all or nothing now.

Post by **Rusty075** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 10:33 am

What's your HDD, and how is it mounted?

Try one of the HDD mounting techniques stickied atop the Storage forum. If your HDD is hard mounted now, suspending it is a great free (or nearly) way to reduce HDD noise, including whine.

joethemole · Post by **joethemole** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 11:11 am

yeah ok i have my hdd suspended, and theres no more vibrations in the hdd cage

. well thats one good thing, but still, theres the problem with the arctic siliencer rev 3 buzzing.... but i guess i can't really solve this one now.

my pc is more or less silent now

Post by **Rusty075** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 11:21 am

Actually, there may be a free way to fix that too.

Many VGA cards (including 9600XT's) use PWM to modulate their fan speed. When the bigger, heavier, slower turning AC-Silencer fan is plugged into the card's fan header, the pulses often produce a buzzing or ticking noise.

Try plugging the Silencer directly into a molex power source, or your Rheobus, and I'll bet that most of that buzz goes away. You'll have to do a little ghetto wiring to get the plugs to work, but that sounds ilke something you can handle.

joethemole · Post by **joethemole** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 12:21 pm

Rusty075 wrote:Actually, there may be a free way to fix that too.

Many VGA cards (including 9600XT's) use PWM to modulate their fan speed. When the bigger, heavier, slower turning AC-Silencer fan is plugged into the card's fan header, the pulses often produce a buzzing or ticking noise.

Try plugging the Silencer directly into a molex power source, or your Rheobus, and I'll bet that most of that buzz goes away. You'll have to do a little ghetto wiring to get the plugs to work, but that sounds ilke something you can handle.

I can definately do that, i think, i mean after all, i did do the samething to mod my psu fans... but, that was with regular wires, the AS rev 3's wires are those tinnie tinny ones that may require some real skillz. Also, i really hate to risk my 1 week old silencer on a mod... arrg at least its good to know i didn't get a defective product. Oh and ghetto wiring rocks!

Update: I stuffed the case deeper into my closet; now its more or less at the very corner. It definitely made a difference, as it got reduced the whine noise even furthur, to the point where you have to stop and try to hear for it before you can catch a whisper. Oh and i've found that the whine noise is caused by the noise trying to escape the gaps in the closet, because there is no whine at all if i listen in the closet.