Built a new rig, quiet but not silent

Raxxath · Post by **Raxxath** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 10:31 am

I recently set out to build a silent, fairly low-power rig for browsing, light gaming, and storage. I'll list the relevant parts:

E2180
Cooler Master GeminII
Intel Bad Axe 2
2gb Crucial Ballistix Tracers
MSI 2600 Pro with fanless heatsink
Western Digital GP 750gb
Samsung SH-203b
Corsair VX450
Lian Li PC-A05B
3 Scythe Slipstream 800 RPM fans undervolted to 350 RPM

The hard drive seeking is the loudest component at the moment(and it seeks all the time). I'm going to remove the hard drive cage and use that space to suspend it, along with a WD1200BEVS I just ordered. If that doesn't get rid of the noise, I'll get a Scythe Quiet Drive or two. I'm surprised how loud the GP drive is on the Lian Li rubber grommets- I was expecting it to be much quieter.

There is one other source of noise, and I'm assuming its the PSU. I unplugged the hard drive and turned off all the fans, and there was still a very noticeable "wooshing." The only moving part would be the fan in the PSU. I've never changed a PSU fan before, so I'm looking into that. I'm also trying to find the best suited fan for the job. I would think I want something that starts at very low voltage, like the Noctuas at 3.8-3.9v. Also, probably a fan with a bearing other than sleeve, since it will be in a horizontal position.

If anyone has recommendations on fans, or advice for further quieting this system, I'm listening.

I didn't bother with cable management this time around, because I'll be taking it apart again shortly.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:52 am

The "whooshing" noise you hear might not be the PSU directly.

I am not sure of the layout of your case, but it looks like there is a vent in the case next to the PSU fan, this whoosh might be caused by turbulance caused by the grill, I would suggest taking the PSU outside of the case and put it onto something that wont amplify or change the noise the PSU makes - such as carpet. The grill on the back next to the card slots looks ideal for creating pressure prblems and lots of turbulance, if it is like that next to the PSU that would be a likely cause.

If you want to turn the PSU on without it being in your PC, you can use a paperclip to start the PSU, connect the green pin and any black pin on the PSU's 24 pin main power connector, dont run it for more than a few minutes as the PSU wont have any load (they dont like that), you can the of course attach your HDD etc etc until you find out the cause of the noise.

Andy

Immortals · Post by **Immortals** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 2:47 pm

I was in the exact same situation as you a month ago. I had gotten my system so quiet the only things that were making any noise were the PSU and GP HDD.

Firstly, the easiest thing (although warranty voiding) to do is to do the PSU fan mod. What's the point of having sub 500rpm fans when the fan in your PSU runs at 800rpm? It's not difficult but just remember to observe all the safety measures. As long as it's not plugged into the mains it'll be fine

. You should also attempt to discharge the caps as well. I chose the Sflex Scythes because as you said they're ball bearing based and should last longer.

With the GP HDD, i tried both suspension and the silent drive. FOr this drive IMO the silent drive does more because it's quite a low vibration drive anyway. I guess you could try both

... if it's then not quiet enough for you then laptop drives or ssd are the only solutions for you

widowmaker · Post by **widowmaker** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 5:14 pm

I have an HX520 and recently did a fan switch as well. I didn't get much of a wooshing noise from it, but more of a clicking noise. I went with a 12cm Scythe Kama pwm and so far it's doing wonders. When at idle, the fan actually stops. Since the fan is temperature controlled it naturally spun up to less than approximately 500rpm while gaming with an 8800gt.

When you crack open your psu you'll see a 2 pin fan in there. Take note of which pin is powered and which is one is ground. For me it was black and red wires. When you plug in your new fan you'll need to match this up. It even works with a 4 pin fan plug. The last thing you'll need to do after unplugging the old fan is also remove the plastic retention plug. It's friction fitted in so you can just pry the thing off. In the end you basically want 2 bare pins sticking out of the pcb before you plug in the new fan.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 5:26 pm

Hello,

The aluminum case is not helping with the HD noise -- suspending it may be the ticket. (Remember aluminum is not nearly as stiff or as strong as steel...)

Also, what sis you do with the fan grills -- what are the fan grills?

Raxxath · Post by **Raxxath** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 5:53 am

Thank you for the replies everyone.

andyb wrote:I would suggest taking the PSU outside of the case and put it onto something that wont amplify or change the noise the PSU makes

Yep, I'll be taking it apart and setting everything up outside the case soon, so I can be sure as to what exactly is making noise.

Immortals wrote:I was in the exact same situation as you a month ago. I had gotten my system so quiet the only things that were making any noise were the PSU and GP HDD.

Firstly, the easiest thing (although warranty voiding) to do is to do the PSU fan mod. What's the point of having sub 500rpm fans when the fan in your PSU runs at 800rpm? It's not difficult but just remember to observe all the safety measures. As long as it's not plugged into the mains it'll be fine . You should also attempt to discharge the caps as well. I chose the Sflex Scythes because as you said they're ball bearing based and should last longer.

With the GP HDD, i tried both suspension and the silent drive. FOr this drive IMO the silent drive does more because it's quite a low vibration drive anyway. I guess you could try both ... if it's then not quiet enough for you then laptop drives or ssd are the only solutions for you

Which S-Flex model did you go with? The 800RPM "D" model starts at 8.9v according to SPCR, so I didn't think that would be a very good choice. My 800RPM Slipstreams start a bit lower, but I'm not sure exactly what voltage.

The 800RPM Noctua starts at 3v, but will the SSO bearing be okay for horizontal orientation?

And did you manage to completely silence your rig?

NeilBlanchard wrote:Hello,

The aluminum case is not helping with the HD noise -- suspending it may be the ticket. (Remember aluminum is not nearly as stiff or as strong as steel...)

Also, what sis you do with the fan grills -- what are the fan grills?

Yeah, I knew aluminum wouldn't be the best choice for silence, but it was a great deal, and I love Lian Li.

Here's a picture of the only grill:

Raxxath · Post by **Raxxath** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:14 am

I took everything out of the case, and confirmed that it was the power supply making the noise. So I replaced the fan with another 800RPM Slipstream, not the best choice, but I didn't want to wait for a new fan to arrive. It doesn't start up right away with the power supply, but takes a little while for the temperature to increase enough.

Now that things are much quieter, I'm finding that two of the three Slipstreams in my case are making rapid ticking noises. One is quite loud, the other isn't too bad, and the last is perfectly silent. The fourth in the PSU now doesn't sound bad, either. There isn't much I can do about the ticking, is there?

Now I'm trying to rig up a suspension system for my drives. The WD1200BEVS is very quiet, definitely better than the 750gb GP. I'll be dual booting on them, with only one plugged in at a time, so I'm no longer worried about HDD noise.

If I were to turn the HDD cage upside down, so that the top of the PSU is no longer blocked, would you guys reccomend flipping the PSU so the fan faces upward, instead of downward like it is now? I'm wondering if two exhaust fans so close to eachother would be redundant.

ntavlas · Post by **ntavlas** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 12:34 pm

You should monitor the temperatures, while your components are not producing a lot of heat, make sure the cooling works effectively before slowing down the fans so much.

For me 600rpm was enough to make my system inaudible but everyone`s ears are different.

You might want to try suspending the disk drives or placing them on foam. That should take care of vibrations. Some noise insulation might be able to handle the higher frequency spinning noise. Others had success by using drive enclosures like skythe`s quiet drive..

As for the layout.. it`s a challenging case and I don`t know if I can come up with a better solution. I would like some more airflow in the upper half of the case. Maybe you could move the rear fan where the pci brackets are and use it as an exhaust. Or you could try a positive pressure layout like Ryboto`s.

viewtopic.php?t=36172

Raxxath · Post by **Raxxath** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 10:28 am

I suspended the hard drives and all that, and while its very quiet now, my PSU fan won't start. When I was testing it outside of the case, it didn't start when I had just two fans on for load. I added a third fan of higher power and it did start, so I figured it either needed enough load, or just needed to get warm enough to give the PSU fan enough voltage.

But now the entire system is on the PSU, and the fan still won't start, even if I put it under load for a little while. I don't want to try anything to drastic, for fear of hurting the PSU. Does anyone know for sure if the Corsair PSUs increase fan voltage based on temperature?

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:25 pm

If fan doesn't start = Stress is not enough to activate fan. Meaning starting voltage is not low enough or then the fan swap is not correctly made, some wire is wrong way or there is no contact.

I did fan swap with my BeQuiet! I used 1600 RPM Scythe S-Flex because of special bearings and the very low starting voltage ( Thanks for Neil for recomending it )

Raxxath · Post by **Raxxath** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 1:34 pm

thejamppa wrote:If fan doesn't start = Stress is not enough to activate fan. Meaning starting voltage is not low enough or then the fan swap is not correctly made, some wire is wrong way or there is no contact.

I did fan swap with my BeQuiet! I used 1600 RPM Scythe S-Flex because of special bearings and the very low starting voltage ( Thanks for Neil for recomending it )

I'm aware of all that. But I was under the impression that even if the fan didn't start right away with the power supply, eventually the temperature would increase enough that the PSU would give the fan more voltage, making it run. The fan DID start once when I was testing outside of the case, so I figured it would be fine. Now it won't start, even with much more load on the PSU.

Also, the only non-sleeve bearing fans that start at a low enough voltage and won't be too loud for my system are the $25 Noctuas.

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 2:49 pm

my Scythe S-Flex F has less than 4v starting voltage. Since be-Quiet starting voltage is about 3,8v or something. I'd recomend you to see the S-flex F.

Raxxath · Post by **Raxxath** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 3:29 pm

thejamppa wrote:my Scythe S-Flex F has less than 4v starting voltage. Since be-Quiet starting voltage is about 3,8v or something. I'd recomend you to see the S-flex F.

1600RPM is too loud for me, even at 4-5v. The 1200 RPM version would be fine, but according to http://www.silentpcreview.com/article695-page5.html, it starts at 4.8v. The VX450 supplies 4.06v to fans at my load, also according to SPCR.

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 12:55 am

Raxxath wrote:
thejamppa wrote:my Scythe S-Flex F has less than 4v starting voltage. Since be-Quiet starting voltage is about 3,8v or something. I'd recomend you to see the S-flex F.
1600RPM is too loud for me, even at 4-5v. The 1200 RPM version would be fine, but according to http://www.silentpcreview.com/article695-page5.html, it starts at 4.8v. The VX450 supplies 4.06v to fans at my load, also according to SPCR.

1600 RPM fan RPM's current in my rig arounf 450 to 520 RPM's... Is that too much?

Raxxath · Post by **Raxxath** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 1:03 pm

I need it to run at 400RPM or lower.

Will I damage my PSU if I continue to run it without a spinning fan? Its been going strong for hours...

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 5:20 pm

Hello,

If it warms up more, then the voltage will get high enough to start the fan.

Raxxath · Post by **Raxxath** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 10:03 pm

NeilBlanchard wrote:Hello,

If it warms up more, then the voltage will get high enough to start the fan.

That's what I thought, but the computer has been on all day, and the fan has yet to start.

Raxxath · Post by **Raxxath** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 8:57 pm

I finally have all the fan noise and HDD noise down to an acceptable level, and now there's this extremely high pitched ringing noise coming from the PC. Its most noticeable when scrolling in a web page, or opening a new page(like clicking a link of any sort), but it seems to "waver" the rest of the time(its not a straight tone). My 8800 Ultra in my other rig makes a noise when scrolling sometimes, but its not nearly as high pitched. I can't seem to pinpoint it either... this is driving me insane! Is this the sort of thing sound-damping foam is meant for?

lethul · Post by **lethul** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 1:53 am

i just wanna ask, what type of Noctua where you considering for your PSU? I'm in the same position

Raxxath · Post by **Raxxath** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 11:38 am

lethul wrote:i just wanna ask, what type of Noctua where you considering for your PSU? I'm in the same position

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article69 ... tml#noctua

The 800RPM version in particular.

seraphyn · Post by **seraphyn** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 4:41 am

Raxxath wrote:Is this the sort of thing sound-damping foam is meant for?

It's meant to muffle/distort the sounds to make them easier on the ears, yes. (well some people will say it'll make it less noisy, but i've yet to hear that happen in reality).
I have a similar noise as well, when i'm torrenting, so i assume it comes from the harddrive. My 8800GT also gives off a little high pitched whine though (which i can't do anything about except replacing the thing).