On a mission...

[DFX]

To make my PC silent. I have checked out the Quiet PC site, and it just looks as simple as buying pads for my case, psu, cpu fan and case fans... (i dont have a fancy graphics card which needs a fan)...

Has anyone got a cool and quiet PC? What stuff have you got? Anyone got any tips?

Thanks, D

 

[jumpy]

Buy some quiet fans for your case, cpu and psu, panaflo's are the best apparently (make them 120mm, move more air for less dB). I've got a very cool PC but I don't really care about how noisy my PC is, the music is nearly always louder, and when it's not, the sounds of fans are soothing after a while
And its not in the room where i sleep - which always helps

Your hard drive will cause a bit of noise - so putting rubber washers between your hdd and your case helps.

This is just from what I've read though: my mission for a cool and quiet pc has only been half fulfilled

 

[Nick M]

Well, my PC sounds like bat out of hell when it boots up, more then 12 fans.

Fans, quiet fans. Thermaltake makes nice quiet fans. A rubber something to go with the hard drive, so it does not vibrate, is nice.

Also, perhaps temperature regulated speed on the fans may help.

The utlimate quiet : water cooling. However, personally, that is something I am never, ever going to do. I like my fans.

 

[Zedric]

Papst make nice silent fans as well. How about a 12dBA 80mm fan?

Oh, and when you take advice on silence, remember that "silent" means very different things to different people. No offence to you other guys but people with roaring computers usually call something silent when I call it loud. If you want it quiet don't buy fans over 20 dBA. Also fans running at 4000 RPM or more are not silent. Even if they are called "super silent" or whatever. Just so you know. I hope I didn't step on too many toes.

Sure silent fans push less air and make for a bit higher temps, but I for one can live with that for the sake of silence.

I have a slow PSU-fan, a casefan (80mm), an 80mm @ 6V for the hdd:s, stock Intel cooler @ 2400 RPM and a GF4 fan. It's too loud. If I had more money, I'd slap Papst fans in there instead. Or maybe some really quiet water cooling...

 

[jkipk]

On a related front: I did a cursory search the other day for a software db meter. I was thinking to hook a microphone to the computer, stick it outside my case, run the software, and get a db level for my system. Seems like you could play around with fan configurations, to see what was quietest (hooboy, now THAT sounds like fun!). I didn't find anything simple and affordable (read FREE), but I didn't look very hard. Anybody seen/using anything like this?

kip

 

[Hipster Doofus]

If the case rattles & rolls use blue tack.

 

[Zedric]

Originally posted by jkipk
On a related front: I did a cursory search the other day for a software db meter. I was thinking to hook a microphone to the computer, stick it outside my case, run the software, and get a db level for my system. Seems like you could play around with fan configurations, to see what was quietest (hooboy, now THAT sounds like fun!). I didn't find anything simple and affordable (read FREE), but I didn't look very hard. Anybody seen/using anything like this?

That's going to be hard to get accurate. You'll have to calibrate it everytime you change the input volume in the mixer for instance. And then you'll need a few constant-volume sound sources. It's probably messy.

 

[chaos945]

My case has some strategically placed metal washers in it

 

[Taurus]

get the best heatsink for your cpu that you can. i'm not talking about the fan on it, just the heatsink. then you can get a silent (maybe 80mm, if applicable) fan and the cpu temps will stay down.

point is, if you gotta mediocre heatsink, you'll need a faster (and noisier) fan to keep the temps down.

 

[XP Abuser]

my pc is in my room and its loud i wake up with ringing in my ears

try some sound proofing

 

[Waldo]

My homebuilt has 5 case fans, 2 power supply fans, CPU fan, and 2 SCSI drives, sounds like liftoff will be any minute.