Old PC to make [quieter]

Stany · Post by **Stany** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 11:19 am

Hello,(my first topic on SPCR)
This Summer my dad is buying a new PC , so the old one is for me upstairs in my room.
The system itself is still powerfull enough for me.

-athlon xp2500
-1gig ddr ram
-160gig hd
-nvidia fx5200

The only problem is , it is really audible.From more than 4 meters I can tell u clearly that the pc is on or off .
Now today I started with applying some rubber mats in the inside.
I'm going to show some pic's here.

In the beginning.

Shot with DSC-P93 at 2007-07-06

Shot with DSC-P93 at 2007-07-06

The rubber mats.Not really rubber but don't kow how to call it

Shot with DSC-P93 at 2007-07-06

The upper panel.

Shot with DSC-P93 at 2007-07-06

The side panels.

Shot with DSC-P93 at 2007-07-06

Again the sides.Both of them are like this now.

Shot with DSC-P93 at 2007-07-06

The front. Took the crap out of it.

Shot with DSC-P93 at 2007-07-06

So I did this and really it's like I did nothing.Almost I hear a little bit difference but real nihil.
So I think it really depends on the PSU fan an Case Fan
These are both 80mm
My wish is to try to make it inaudible at 1.5 m ?
If I replace the fans could this make the big difference.
This is a cheapass case so the fans are cheaper than cheap.
Nexus here I come?The cables are better now also and I took the vacuumcleaner on it

Greetings Stany

murtoz · Post by **murtoz** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:59 pm

Stany wrote:So I think it really depends on the PSU fan an Case Fan
These are both 80mm
My wish is to try to make it inaudible at 1.5 m ?
If I replace the fans could this make the big difference.

I would think so. Don't forget the CPU fan as well. It's easy to find out though... one by one, disconnect the fans. Start with CPU, then chassis. PSU fan you might have to stop manually.

See what gives the biggest reduction in noise, and swap that part out for something quiet.

It looks like you won't be able to fit a 120mm fan in the chassis, which is a shame (as a general rule, the bigger the fan, the slower it has to spin to move the same amount of air, the less noisy it is). You might find that running two 80mm fans at low rpm's gives equal or better cooling, but is quieter, than 1 80mm at a higher rpm. Is there room in the front of the chassis for another fan?

Another source of noise is case panels vibrating, due to the hard drives mostly, but due to the fans as well. If you replace the chassis fan, soft mount the replacement. If fixing your fans does not make your system quiet enough, look at a way of suspending your hard drives

cloneman · Post by **cloneman** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 1:38 pm

I agree with what was just said. 2 hard drives screwed on to a case makes some bad vibrations.

You might also want to consider cutting out any obtrusive grill on the exhaust fan & the PSU fan, so that you can run your fans slower and keep good cooling performance.

Stany · Post by **Stany** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 2:19 pm

thanks for the replies.I will buy the fans and maybe a harddisk silencer when my dad buys his new pc(after 22july)

When you say stop the PSU fan manually do you mean sticking a pensil in it??

Or??

The casefan hangs on a constant voltage of the psu so it's not regulated I think. It may be that there is somewhere on the mainboard the plug for this fan but didn't check that out yet.Like the plug for the CPU fan

I have seen at the frontpanel inside there are some holes in the shape of a fan BUT don't think that you can hang one there.Must check this out.

But all of this wil be checked again before the 22 july, so that I know what to do....and buy.

Meato · Post by **Meato** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 3:30 pm

First off, its skt A, there is no real aftermarket CPU coolers worth a darn for them. They run hot and the tiny heatsinks require tiny high spinning fans to keep cool. The case looks cheap and made of thin metal. The PSU looks almost as bad. Don't sink too much work into it. You'll be disappointed ultimately IMO. For the price of quiet components, to fit that old of a computer, you could just build yourself an inexpensive modern system. Donate the old one or pass it down to a sibling.

rjhythloday · Post by **rjhythloday** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 3:40 pm

Meato wrote:First off, its skt A, there is no real aftermarket CPU coolers worth a darn for them. They run hot and the tiny heatsinks require tiny high spinning fans to keep cool. The case looks cheap and made of thin metal. The PSU looks almost as bad. Don't sink too much work into it. You'll be disappointed ultimately IMO. For the price of quiet components, to fit that old of a computer, you could just build yourself an inexpensive modern system. Donate the old one or pass it down to a sibling.

not true! I have a 2500 barton oc'd to 2.1 ghz, w/ a SI97A it runs 38-40c idle and 45-46c load, w/ a 120 mm scythe mnb strapped to it. Runs pretty quiet and much cooler compared to my old glass lapped after market that had a 80mm reporting temps at 50idle 56load.

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/thsiforamdat.html

You also have alot of cable clean up to do.

quiet yl 120mm fans on the cheap.

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 5:44 pm

SI-97A is really good, if you get Scythe Katana Cu, you still get it somewhere even its already dead product, they're real top notch coolers.

Also Aerocool GT-1000 and Aercool HT-102 heatpipes are socket-a compatible.

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 5:45 pm

Sorry for the double post. I meant to hit edit and not quote.

bonestonne · Post by **bonestonne** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 6:21 pm

dust galore!

clean it up, change the HSF to a SI-97, and change the fans, and rubber mount the HDDS for silence.

what are the two drives for anyway? i'd suggest leaving the SATA internally, making that the master HDD, and putting the IDE drive in an external enclosure.

fan filters, maybe even only keep the DVD burner, and loose the other thing, a Scythe Kama Bay could give you quite nice air intake, includes a filter and everything.

is the rear fan limted to 80mm? if so that really bites...a nexus or yate loon could help that situation, but few 80mm fans are truly quiet.

only other suggestion would be to not leave the subwoofer on the case like that, it generates heat, and is sitting on top of the PSU, which generally doesn't do any good.

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 11:39 pm

There's nothing wrong with cooling a system with 80mm fans! When underfolted, two 80mm fans can provide about as much airflow for as little noise as a single 120mm fan--which is plenty for your system.

Rather than try and buy some fancy fans, you could start with just modifying what you've already got. Most 80mm fans will spin at 5v. If you undervolt your PSU and case fan to 5v, then you'll pretty much eliminate them as a major source of noise--and they will still be providing your case with plenty of overall airflow. Note that you need to make sure you have adequate intake airflow. Don't cover up the front intakes, and if the front intakes are too restrictive (they are on most cases), remove some PCI slot covers as necessary.

Once you slow down the PSU and case fans, your major sources of noise will be the CPU fan and hard drives. These noise sources will be more difficult to deal with. You can't really undervolt the CPU fan too greatly without replacing the CPU cooler. The hard drives, you can quiet down with a soft suspension--but this will still leave audible high pitched whine and seek noises.

jaldridge6 · Post by **jaldridge6** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 11:42 pm

sigh, just replace the heatsink with a thermalright xp90, and get nexus fans all around plus resistor cables. itll cost like $70 total and youll have a quiet system. also replace the psu fans. no brainer really. unless of course youre like unemployed and have no money.

Stany · Post by **Stany** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 3:06 am

bonestonne wrote:dust galore!

clean it up, change the HSF to a SI-97, and change the fans, and rubber mount the HDDS for silence....

It's cleaned up now ,
-That SI-97 is too expensive for a system that's not worth 200 euros anymore.
-The scythe Kama bay also to expensive for this system

+Rubbermount the hd's is a good idea...
+and the ide hd goes bye bye

IsaacKuo wrote:Rather than try and buy some fancy fans, you could start with just modifying what you've already got. Most 80mm fans will spin at 5v. If you undervolt your PSU and case fan to 5v...
quote]

+I will undervolt if I know how this must happen, BIOS??

Basic line is I'm not gonna spent alot of money on something that's not worth a lot of money.
Two 80mm nexus fans cost +- 10 euro here in Belgium

So I will do this I think

-A couple of new fans.Undervolt them as soon as I know how?
-Rubbermount the hd
-remove ide hd

PS: I am a student but have the money.But I am carefull with money and what I do with it.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 3:15 am

Hello,

Reducing the air flow restrictions (like cutting out the fan grills), will help a lot! Then, the slower reduced voltage fans can still move more air than they did at 12v with the restrictions.

Suspending the hard drives will also (probably) help a lot.

Putting a quiet 80mm fan on the CPU heatsink would help.

How is the PSU for noise? Twisting the intake grill "bars" sideways to the air flow (on the PSU) can help a lot, too. If the fan is rattling/droning, then replacing it can do wonders.

rjhythloday · Post by **rjhythloday** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 4:33 am

folding your flat ide cables will help airflow alot.

If you're going to get new fans the 3.99 yl 120mm I already linked can't be beat. Undervolted 80mm will never be as quiet as undervolted 120mm. Search for fanbus, you'll need a double pole double throw switch.

miahallen · Post by **miahallen** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 5:13 am

Stany wrote:
bonestonne wrote:dust galore!

clean it up, change the HSF to a SI-97, and change the fans, and rubber mount the HDDS for silence....
-That SI-97 is too expensive for a system that's not worth 200 euros anymore.
-The scythe Kama bay also to expensive for this system

+I will undervolt if I know how this must happen, BIOS??

Get 12V, 7V or 5V for your Fans

Just a thought on purchasing new stuff for your system. If you want to purchase items, but don't want to spend to much on a "system that's not worth 200 euros anymore" you're looking at it the wrong way IMHO. Instead, look at the purchases as a way to plan ahead. For instance, do yourself a favor and buy a new case, and/or PSU. If you purchase items with future upgrades in mind, you will be able to use them in you next system as well. In the meantime, you'll bennefit from the superior products you get.

A few socket A coolers that will be future-proofed for LGA775 & AM2 systems

Stany · Post by **Stany** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 5:36 am

miahallen wrote:Just a thought on purchasing new stuff for your system. If you want to purchase items, but don't want to spend to much on a "system that's not worth 200 euros anymore" you're looking at it the wrong way IMHO. Instead, look at the purchases as a way to plan ahead. For instance, do yourself a favor and buy a new case, and/or PSU. If you purchase items with future upgrades in mind, you will be able to use them in you next system as well. In the meantime, you'll bennefit from the superior products you get.

Thanks for this piece of text it is like u say, but when I would buy a new case it just would itch to buy a complete new system.

All of you thanks for the advice.If there will be some changes ill let you know.

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 8:17 am

I perfectly understand the desire to not spend any money on an old computer. I work mostly with old "junk" computers, so I've gotten skilled with extreme budget modding.

The basic tools you need to undervolt fans to 80mm are some electrical wire, electrical tape or shrinkwrapping, and something to strip insulation off of existing wires. A "pro" will also use solder to do a good quality job. I'm not a "pro"--I just twist wires together and wrap them in electrical tape.

The main thing I've learned since I first started undervolting fans is how to do it without seriously mangling up some of the PSU's precious power connectors. I first did them by sacrificing floppy connectors, not anticipating that I would ever later need them (which I ended up needing, for floppy net-boot discs and CF card adapters).

Instead of permanently modifying one of the PSU's connectors, you can do a non-permanent mod simply by jamming the twisted end of a stripped wire into a 4pin molex--using some electrical tape to secure it in place. You want to connect up a black wire and a red wire to the connectors on the "red" side of a 4pin molex connector. Red is 5v; yellow is 12v. Practically all stock 80mm fans are designed to run at 12v, so connecting up 5v of power will undervolt them.

For the case fan, you can simply jam the other end of the wires in the case fan's connector. If it has a 3pin connector, use trial and error to figure out which two wires are the power wires (usually, red/black).

For the PSU fan, there are two possibilities. One is that the PSU fan has an internal connector. In that case, you just need to unplug it and jam wires into the connector. The other is that the PSU fan is directly connected to a circuit board. In that case, you can remove the wires by tugging them taut and swaying the wires from side to side. Eventually, they'll fail at the connection point.

Undervolting the CPU fan may be more complex. If you're lucky, your motherboard's BIOS already offers some good speed control options for the CPU fan (it's connected to the motherboard and certainly has a speed sensor wire--unlike the PSU and case fans). You should try looking around the BIOS for CPU temperature control options.

Stany · Post by **Stany** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 1:23 pm

+well I openend the pc again , and I tried the undervolting this is marvellous.
Really.

+I checked now and I can put a 80mm on the front also.But also 92mm I think because there are 4 points on 7cm of each other for 80mm fans
and 4 point of 8cm of each other for 92mm fans I think

+The psu fan is directly soldered this is also no prob.
So I'm gonna by some switches to undervolt the 3 fans what i'm gonna buy.
+And I'm gonna softsuspens the HDD

-There's only one thing left thats noisy then and that's the cpu fan.
I'm gonna think about that....

CPU options...
Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu LED Socket A, 478, 754, 939, 940 â‚¬22,63
Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu Socket A, 478, 754, 939, 940 â‚¬24,09
Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu Socket A, 478, 754, 939, 940 â‚¬27,50
Nexus AXP-3200 SkiveTek Socket A, 370 â‚¬17,91
Thermalright SI-97 Socket A â‚¬44,13
Spire WhisperRock V Socket A â‚¬6,57
Arctic Copper Silent 3 Socket A Koper â‚¬10,45

I see that the SI 97 is totally passive is this possible??

rjhythloday · Post by **rjhythloday** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 4:00 pm

no you won't want to run the SI97A passive, I've got a 120mm strapped to it, but it's made to take a 80 or 92.

Don't add an 80mm to the front if it's silence you're looking for. If it's just plain cooling you're after a 92 would be a little quieter.

Stany · Post by **Stany** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:44 am

CPU options... help me is there any of these SECOND best

Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu LED Socket A, 478, 754, 939, 940 â‚¬22,63
Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu Socket A, 478, 754, 939, 940 â‚¬24,09
Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu Socket A, 478, 754, 939, 940 â‚¬27,50
Nexus AXP-3200 SkiveTek Socket A, 370 â‚¬17,91
Thermalright SI-97 Socket A â‚¬44,13 a little bit expensive

Spire WhisperRock V Socket A â‚¬6,57
Arctic Copper Silent 3 Socket A Koper â‚¬10,45

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:50 am

You will not be able to use the 7000B because your motherboard does not have mounting holes.

kernel32 · Post by **kernel32** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:01 pm

hello, i have a PC similar to yours, a little weaker - athlon xp 2200+

so, i read all the posts, the most laughable was the guy that said socket A CPUs run hot and are not worth investing in. so, here goes..
i managed to silence my PC with pretty much what was on hand at my home, this included the CPU cooler which i bought along time ago. the cooler is now modded, originally it was a GlacialTech Igloo 2520 (Al extrusion with a somewhat thick copper plate). it's cooled by an 8cm fan, which i replaced with an Arctic Cooling Fan 8, it has an ingenious suspension system and is really really quiet. second, i hung my harddrive in a homemade suspension system consisting of round underwear type elastics tied in the bottom 5" slot of my case. the case is a cheap codegen 6066 case, but proved sturdy and quite moddable. it has a nice grille-like sides of the front panel, from where the back case fan sucks in air and cools my harddrive, which runs around 35-37 degrees, and this is in a fairly hot room (24-25 degrees centigrade). okay now about the back case fan, it is also an Arctic Cooling Fan, but is 92mm in size. originally the hole and the grille on the back of the case were made for an 8cm fan, but when cutting the grille i noticed a 9cm fan will fit quite nicely. i drilled four more holes in the fan's frame and everything was set! both fans, the back fan and the CPU fan are undervolted with the 7V trick. the CPU hovers now in the summer around 42-45 degrees, under load it rarely reaches 47-49. my videocard is an old radeon 9550 overclocked to 9600Pro frequencies modded with a Zalman heatpipe cooler, ZM80C-HP, fanless. runs, checked via the finger method around.. well, my finger temperature

last comes the PSU, it happened to be a surprisingly good generic codegen PSU, 300W, with passive PFC. it has a nice fan controller and at idle is pretty much silent. i modded it too, with an Arctic Cooling 8025 Fan. this one, as are the others, have fluid dynamic bearings. also i bought some round IDE cables, and that's about it...

planned are maybe some foam on the side panels of the case, but as it is now, it's pretty quiet and comfortable to work with

other components include the mobo, an AsRock K7S8X, 1GB of ram running in sync with the CPU FSB @ 266MHz DDR, the onboard sound, a floppy drive, a surprisingly quiet Maxtor Diamond Max 9, 80GB, 7200rpm with 8MB cache and a Pioneer DVR-112D DVD burner, which again surprisingly happened to have a very benign noise character.
the total cost of all this modding was not more than 30 euros at most, including all three fans, the zalman cooler and the round IDE and floppy cables. i already had around a meter of the elastic at home, and a friend of mine helped me with the grille cutting

i can post some photos tomorrow if anyone's interested.
PS: as i understand you live in Europe, which is good; all the components are readily available here - the AC fans, i think you can find the glacial tech cooler also, it's a very cheap but very nice cooler, the copper base has a mirror finish!
edit: well, i forgot to mention that if you can't find the glacial tech cooler, the arctic cooling one is a fine choice too

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:19 am

Meato wrote:First off, its skt A, there is no real aftermarket CPU coolers worth a darn for them. They run hot and the tiny heatsinks require tiny high spinning fans to keep cool.

Really? Zalman must have had their heads up their asses when they designed the CNPS-7000B's. With a fan mod these are more than capable of cooling the hottest SocketA CPU quietly. Even without a fan mod, it will cool a 2500+ without problems @ minimum speed. And the Thermalright's socketA coolers were recommended for a long time here.

I have two socketA systems, one gaming machine and one HTPC. While they won't set any speed records, they are still fast enough for 99% of what I do. With only 512MB of RAM at that.

You can do a lot with cheap hardware, if you're willing to be brave. An old noisy cheap PSU can be opened up and a quieter fan put in. Yate Loon sells a lot of quiet fans at most sizes. Scythe's Kaze-Jyu fans are pretty quiet and will fit 92mm holes. Drive suspension is almost free, if you get cheap elastic. Even optical drives can be dampened to help with noise.

Stany, are those rubber mats you have lined the case with heavy at all? If not, then they will not really do anything except mute the whooshing sound of air moving around inside the case. What you may look into is self-adhesive vinyl floor tiles (the heavier, the better) from you're local hardware store. Most are pretty ugly but you can always cover them with low-profile foam (I use black auto headliner material) if you don't like it. But it is the inside of the case after all and if you don't have a window, who cares how it looks. The heavy mass will absorb the vibrations and also lower the resonance frequency of the panels, which has the effect of lowering the perceived noise to someone's ear. You could also use Dynamat (Extreme) or any of the other sound dampeners use in the car audio milieu. Peel & Seal would be the cheapest equivalent, but the tiles are by far the best and don't smell either.

kernel32 · Post by **kernel32** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:57 am

here are the promised pictures, shot half an hour ago.

Stany · Post by **Stany** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 7:38 am

kernel32 thanks for the great advice,really..
I will use your advice this two months , and update whenever something good or bad has happened

jhhoffma I don't know what to call those mats but its not rubber it's more open than rubber shall i say.More a mousse if you understand this. It's from Nitto , it's a company here in Belgium.And yes I think I'm going to place a new fan in the psu.
First I'm gonna check if undervolting is not enough....

edit:Another question I'd like to have wheels under it , good or bad idea?

kernel32 · Post by **kernel32** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 11:16 am

i'll be delighted if i helped in any way

Gojira-X · Post by **Gojira-X** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 2:03 pm

hey Stany, I have quietened an Athlon XP2600 (T-Bred B) without resorting to using foam,
I have some pics at http://s165.photobucket.com/albums/u57/ ... er%20Pics/
I have not updated it to match my current configuration as I havent opned my comp up to clean it in a while.

Stany · Post by **Stany** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 2:35 am

I ordered some items now.

Two 92 mm fans NEXUS
-one cpu fan
-one case fan
One 80 mm fan NEXUS
-PSU fan
One Thermalright SI-97

This items would arrive with in 2 weeks ....
I'm planning to plug the two 92mm fans in the mainboard.
And planning to put the 80 mm fan in the psu at 7V.
When they arrive and I have installed these I put up some pics...

This is what I did meanwhile , a little bit cleaned up and switches to undervolt to 5v but I actually don't use them , I think I have not enough cooling then.

Shot with DSC-P93 at 2007-08-17

Wilhelm-Tell · Post by **Wilhelm-Tell** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 5:43 am

I'm using a 12cm fan at 3-4 volts in my setup, and thats more than enough.

viewtopic.php?t=42537

Stany · Post by **Stany** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 7:49 am

Well I installed the components that I ordered.
It's more quiet know,but not the way I want it.
So I got some further plans with future upgrades in mind.

Shoplist:

-Antec P182
-New samsung dvd-r drive
-one 12 cm nexus fan
-scythe quiet drive?
-new samsung or western digital 320gb drive?

Plans:

Maybe the cpu cooler fanless and the 12cm nexus fan at 7v in the antec p182.
And that will be the only fan in the case besides the power supply fan?

Questions:

Can I make it as quiet as an average notebook with these things and not cutting the case because this is something I won't do.
comments please...

All fans are running on 7v.Temps are oke.It is more quiet but I can still tell from 3meters if he is on or not.

Old PC to make [quieter]

Old PC to make [quieter]

Re: Old PC to make more Inaudible

I ordered..