Making Quiet Silent

BenW · Post by **BenW** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 3:34 am

My system's fairly quiet at the moment but just wondering what the next steps are to make it quieter. Looking at spending little money, about £50/$85

Current specs

Silverstone TJ-04 with fan grills removed

Stock Case fan at 7V (Everflow 120mm rear with cable tie mounting)

Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 Pro-G with stock passive northbridge

P4 2.26Ghz at 1.4V

Thermalright XP-120 fanless and standard thermal paste

Samsung Spinpoint 160GB 8MB (Suspended)

Radeon 9800Pro with ATI1 cooler

SilentX 300W PSU

Normal Bits

CPU Duct from cardboard

I think the noisiest component is the ATI1 cooler on the gpu and then the rear case fan.

Open to all suggestions
Thanks
Ben

Bad ConNecTioN · Post by **Bad ConNecTioN** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 8:24 am

Wow, and its still to loud for you

Well the only thing left to do would be to replace the rear fan for something quieter, and to go passive on the VGA. You may also want to consider an actual hard drive enclosure and then suspend that. Heat may be an issue, especially if you cut back on your exhaust fan.

You could also consider some sound proof foam and case damping. Other than that, I don't know what else you could do.

jamesm · Post by **jamesm** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 8:44 am

get a nexus 120mm real silent case fan, and replace your psu with a seasonic s12

BenW · Post by **BenW** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 2:34 pm

Its hard to tell how much noise my PSU makes but its the quietest activly cooled component (I think)

Why is it that you're suggesting case fans when i know the GPU cooler is the noisiest part. I'm thinking get a zalman VF700 or the thermaltake shooner if anyone knows a UK source

hugekebab · Post by **hugekebab** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 4:22 pm

why go to all the trouble you have and keep running a stock case fan? youre better off having no case fan and outting a nexus on the thermalright imo. but to be honest two nexus 120's are not at all loud.

hugekebab · Post by **hugekebab** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 4:23 pm

whoops oh yeah and the gpu cooler has to go.

stick an artic silencer on it.

even better get out ya credit card and buy a passively cooled gigabyte x800xl (they sell them at eclipse computers in agp.)

jamesm · Post by **jamesm** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 5:03 pm

the arctic cooling silencers have the potential to be quieter than the zalman vf700

warriorpoet · Post by **warriorpoet** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 5:42 pm

I've heard some good things about this VGA cooler, but I have no personal experience.
I second the vote for Nexus fans. They put the hurt on heat (and noise) in my current machine. Here's to hoping they do it as effectively in my next rig...

BenW · Post by **BenW** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 5:38 am

BenW wrote:Radeon 9800Pro with ATI1 cooler

Already got anarctic cooler on there.

The reason for getting a quieter gpu cooler before a quieter case fan is simple, gpu cooler is louder.

jamesm wrote:the arctic cooling silencers have the potential to be quieter than the zalman vf700

You say potential, how can i do this? I would guess you mean stick a zalman fanmate on it?

jamesm · Post by **jamesm** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 8:58 am

My NV silencer 6 runs at the same RPM's (1500 RPM) as the ATI silencer 1, so they should be fairly similar With my 6600 GT, I can set the fan speed to 50% for 2D, and 75% for 3D, and it's much quieter than my Zalman VF700AlCu at 5V. You can use a fanmate if you want, or the GPU's onboard fan controller.

Of course, the other option would be to get a Zalman VF700AlCu and swap the fans. IMHO, without a fan swap, the zalman isn't that quiet, even with a fan swap.

BenW · Post by **BenW** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 12:35 pm

I've tried changing the fan speed in ATI Tool, doesn't seem to work.

Is it possible that the arctic cooler controls the fan speed through a temp sensor instead of the actual board monitoring fan speed?

If not can someone help me set the fan speed lower?

BenW · Post by **BenW** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 2:16 am

Got a new sound source now!

Sometimes theres now a high pitched whine, not all the time though.

I don't think its the arctic silencer and don't think its the case fan but its coming from around the case fan area (I think)

Any ideas? Its a sound that seems to be coming from everywhere, really hard to pinpoint

jamesm · Post by **jamesm** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 8:50 am

BenW,
Try using a zalman fanmate 2 to control the silencer. The high pitched whine sounds like it might be coming from your power supply.

BenW · Post by **BenW** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 9:00 am

I've only noticed the whine in the last 2 days though

Have found something out about the whine though

When i turned off the pc it was still whining. I then turned it off on the wall socket and thw whine got higher and higher pitched, cut then began getting higher again before finally cutting.

It could be my speedtouch modem but im not totally sure

jamesm · Post by **jamesm** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 9:10 am

try removing the modem. if it still happens, put your ear up the psu.

BenW · Post by **BenW** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 9:12 am

Just tried unplugging the modem from the USB port and the whine is still there.

I've tried putting my ear to the PSU and didn't really know if that was the problem or not, really hard to pinpoint

Might have to disconnect everything from the PSU tomorrow and see what happens

Making Quiet Silent

Making Quiet Silent

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