Bought recommended stuff but its still loud.

AckeDman · Post by **AckeDman** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 9:00 am

Look i dont really know what is going on since i have bought the recommended products for quiet pc components...

Recommended:
Antec P182 (removed all the tricool fans)
2xNoctua NF-12P Chassi fans
Noctua NH-12P CPU cooler (1xNF-12P included)
Corsair HX520 powersupply

Dont know about these:

1xSeagate Barracuda 250GB
1xSeagate Barracuda 320GB
1xPioneer DVR-215D SATA

Now i dont know where i went wrong since its not quiet at all.

I have tried to find the culprit here and i can say that if i stop both the chassifans and the CPUfan the comp is pretty quiet... and thats with the PSU and GPU fans still active. Shouldnt noctua be the best? They are the most expensive and have gotten great reviews and therefore i thought i should buy quality fans and have a calm home but im going crazy with this aeroplan in my fuckin livingroom.

Its both a humming noise and a whiny noise at the same time. I am just thinking in theories here but i wonder if it would help if i cut out the grills on the top and rear vent... dont really see the need for them and if the fans are pushing out alot of air the sound migh be coming from the fans pushing the air thru the small ventilations holes instead of the fan it self.

But one thing is for shure... I REFUSE TO SUBMIT TO A LOUD ENVIRONMENT! I will keep on tinkering with my rig untill its silent enough for me to be able to rest my head against if like.

This is what i have planned on doing as soon as i can find to do it as well as afford it...

1) Sounddampening
2) Having 3-4xlow rpm chassifans instead of 2xhigh rpm fans.
3) Changing to quiet HDD and suspending it or encasing in something like scythe HDD enclose thingi.
4) Maybe cutting out the ventilation grill in the rear and top.
5) Adding a PCI-rack thingi so i can have a 120mm fan blowing against the GPU and the things behind the GPU(CPU, NB,SB etc.) at low rpm.
6) Connect all the fans in the comp to a fancontroller so i can have it almost on passive when doing stuff like watching a movie and rev up the fans when doing stuff like playing games.

These are all the meassures i can think of that will make some sort of diffrence... if there is anything else i can do please do let me know as im on a mission to make this a comp that can be HTPC or gamingrig.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 10:13 am

in my view the first thing you should do is change the HDD to WD Green Power 500GB/750GB (suspended) and get some Zalman fanmates to control the fan speed. IMHO this should solve all your problems

tehfire · Post by **tehfire** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 10:28 am

First off, Barracuda hard drives don't bode well for quietness. Unless you have really old ones or really new ones, they are notorious for being loud at idle (spindle noise), loud at seeks, and running quite hot...bad combination.

As for the rest of your setup, are your fans running at full voltage? That would go a huge way in explaining why your setup seems loud. I would recommend undervolting to at least 7v. If your temps are still too high, then you could add more fans, but please realize that temps will go higher as airflow diminishes.

Most of the fans at SPCR are recommended not because of their base quietness, but how quiet they can be with undervolting (the 500RPM Slipstream perhaps being an exception, as it's quiet in its stock form). I would either do the 5v trick or the 7v trick (there are links somewhere in the forums) before going out and buying a whole new set of fans.

AckeDman · Post by **AckeDman** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 11:14 am

Thanks for the input.

Just so u guys know i wasnt planning on tossing away the noctua chassi fans.... i payed 50$ for 2 of them... what i meant was i that i was gonna add 2-3 scythe fans since there is too big of a pricegap without a big enough performancegap and have the 2-3 scythes together with the 2 noctuas running at lower rpms.

Thing is if i do the undervolting i have to open the case and put on the resistors for the noctua fans each time i wanna raise or lower the RPM... i think the best way to go for me is to increase the number of fans and use a fancontroller.

Isnt using a fancontroller same thing as undervolting? it would just mean u can control it from a interface in the front instead of opening up and taking out or putting in resistors each time right?

Also i heard somewhere that if u have 3x10db fans they will together only make the sound of 1x13db but if u have its 1x15db u will still get 15db sound... thats why its better to have 5x15db then 2x20db... since with 5x15db fans u get much better airflow at a lower noiselevel.

Was this just bullshit or is there something to this? Since if there is i might as well do the things i have planned... (increase number of fans + undervolt them using fancontroller which can be controlled using a interface)

Its funny that i really do feel like im flying when im close to this comp... it makes the same humming noise u hear during a flight.

croddie · Post by **croddie** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 4:25 pm

-You have two hard drives. Necessary for performance?
-You have three case fans including the PS fan. Easier to manage one fan than three.

ntavlas · Post by **ntavlas** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 4:37 pm

Yep, a fan controller will let you adjust the fan voltage, typically from 6 to 12 volts. Handy in my opinion.

I would start with the minimum amount of fans that can properly cool your system running at 600rpm (6volts) and add more if needed to cool hotspots.

Even at 800rpm they will be much quieter than they are now.

Keep your disk drive for now, slow down the fans and then you can judge if it`s worth investing in another one.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 6:47 pm

Hello & welcome,

There are quieter fans than the Noctuas, for sure. Are you running them at 12v? Try undervolting them to 7v or 5v.

Which Seagate generation do you have? The 7200.11 are better than their predecessors, but they are not quiet.

AckeDman · Post by **AckeDman** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:34 am

For the time being im running them at 12v, im gonna undervolt them using the resistors i got L.N.A and U.L.N.A... i have tried this already and they do work but only down to 900rpm.... Wonder if maybe a fancontroller can get them down to 600rpm. Also i guess i might as well get 1x750GB Samsung spinpoint or whatever it was called and suspend it or put it in a scythe quiet drive... that way it alone will run cooler as well as being quiet.

I wish my comp could be as quiet as it is when i stop all the 3 noctuafans i have.... when i do that it makes very little noise... its nothing i couldnt really live with for several hours and during movie time. Hopefully the sound these fans generate is only at a certain level... like 12-15db... that way i can just put them on 5v.

Only reason they are at 12v is because i became nervous when i had all three at 7v and ran prime95 and it came up to 71c... but then again i guess a Q6600 is very unlikely to ever run past 85% capacity on all four cores. I shouldnt have anything to worry about.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 3:59 am

Hello,

Maybe there is an issue with the mounting on the heatsink? I would expect it to maybe hit 60C...have you tried undervolting?

AckeDman · Post by **AckeDman** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 12:43 am

Well i have thought about if maybe i dont have the heatsink mounted good enough since i also always get the 2 first cores 5-8 degrees hotter then the other 2 cores.

Doesent matter much.... as long as the comp dont run hotter then 55C on idle its good. But usually its on 42-44 at Idle(overclocked to 3Ghz).

Anyone here who have thought about closing up the top vent on the Antec P182 case? If u have the comp below u all the sound that can eminate from it will but pushed out thru the vent along with the air right? Asuming most people have the exhaust fan at the top and the intake fan at the back since heat rises to the top.

eit412 · Post by **eit412** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:22 am

I noticed that you mentioned a GUP fan and i was wondering what GUP you have? Many stock GPU coolers are not quiet. After you undervolt your case fans that may be the next culprit.

AckeDman · Post by **AckeDman** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:46 am

I have a gainward geforce 9600GT and i bought this brand of 9600GT because it was said to have great cooling and really quiet. It is very loud if u dont have the drivers installed since it revs up so fast... in im talking really loud. So basically each time i put the comp on it revs up untill it loads into windows wich is something i cant really live with so when im done with the work on the case fans and other stuff i will definitly think about mounting a 120mm scythe slipstream onto the GPU instead of the maybe 40mm? thats installed on the GPU cooler now. But to be honest as long as im in windows where the drivers can be loaded it isnt really annoying at all.

AckeDman · Post by **AckeDman** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:40 pm

Just to give everyone thats been cool enough to give me advice a uppdate...

I tried undervolting the fans using the 2 adaptors u get with the Noctua NF-P12 case fans and none of the fans would start up(including cpufan). I have the fans connected to the motherboard so maybe it can be some weird problem with the motherboard not being able to pick up that low voltage or something? Anyways in the upcoming weekend im gonna be connecting my fans to the PSU instead as well as check if the heatsink is mounted correctly. I will also be taking pictures of my setup so that u guys can give me some better feedback on component placement and wiring etc.

Also i would like some feedback about maybe cutting out the case ventilation grills... i think they just block airflow. Anyone here knows if theres anything bad that can come of doing this?

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 5:46 am

AckeDman wrote: I tried undervolting the fans using the 2 adaptors u get with the Noctua NF-P12 case fans and none of the fans would start up(including cpufan). I have the fans connected to the motherboard so maybe it can be some weird problem with the motherboard not being able to pick up that low voltage or something?

You don't have speed control enabled on your case fans in the BIOS do you? If you mobo is using PWM to lower the voltage to you're also using the LNA and UNLA adapters the voltage might be too low for the fan to start properly.

AckeDman · Post by **AckeDman** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 6:00 am

hmm... that might be the problem. I havent really done a proper examination of my bios because of the sound of the vga cooler when its not inside windows.

Either way i think i might just use the PSU for firing up the fans instead of the mobo since it would mean i can have better cable managment.

*Update*

So i have ordered the new Zalman MFC-1 plus and 2xscythe slipstream 800rpms.

When i get the new stuff which should be in about a week since they didnt have it in stock yet i will redo my whole system from scratch and i problably will put in sounddampening material to make shure i dont get any high pitched vibrational sounds (which i do get now).

What im thinking is i will have 2 fans on my cpu cooler running on 600-800rpm as well as a fan in the middle HDD bay and place my 2 HDD in the middle bay instead. Also i might put sounddampening all around including the top and bottom (this means i problably will cover the top exhaust).

I will place on fan in rear as well as i might try and mount another fan on the middle HDD bay with a ziptie or something. This will mean i will have all in all 5 fans running on 600-800rpm and since the VGA cooler has its own very quiet fan (atleast when its in windows) and the Corsair HX520 PSU is one of the quietest PSUs out there the only noise eminating should be from the HDDs... and if thats the case i can just go and buy a Samsung F1 750GB HDD and put it in a Scythe Quiet Drive and i should be free from any sound eminating from the comp at all.

So what do u guys think?

victorhortalives · Post by **victorhortalives** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 11:55 am

Here's my 2c worth. I built 2 very very quiet PCs using this Antec case. Here's what I used :

Case : Antec P182. (take out all 3 Antec fans)
P/S : Corsair HX520
Fans : 3x Scythe S-FLEX SFF21D120 mm (800rpm) - rubber Nexus mounts
Mobo : Asrock
CPU : AMD CPU Athlon X2 BE2350 (45W)
CPU Cooler : Scythe Ninja Mini SCMNJ-1000 (No Fan)
Graphics Card : Passive nVidia 7600GS
Fan Controller : Zalman ZM-MFC1 Plus (for turning off the top fan when not playing games)
Case Noise Isolation : Acoustipack (bottom sections + inside of outer door)

Disc Drives :

1. Western Digital HD 74 GB Raptor 10K rpm SATA (16 MB)
Used as Disc #1. Mounted in Grow Up Japan SmartDrive 2002 Copper.
Location : Bottom of the case. Resting across the bottom supports

2. 2.5' HDD Seagate Momentus ST980813AS 80GB 7200RMP SATA.
Used as Disc #2. Mounted in Scythe Quiet Drive for 2.5in drives.
Location : Middle of the case.

CD/DVD Drive : TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S202N

Noise level is very very quiet. Slight fan noise from the P/S and the one back fan. Seek noise from the Raptor very slight.

Temp levels are very good.

In case you all are wondering where the rest of my data files are - they are in another room on the end of a Gigabit LAN in an Infrant ReadyNAS RAID box (4xSeagate ST3400620NS 372 GB).

AckeDman · Post by **AckeDman** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 5:21 am

So this is what i have done....

I cancelled the order for the Zalman fancontroller since it would mean i wouldnt be able to use the Scythe Kamabay.

I bought Scythe Kamabay and Be-Quiet Sounddampening.

the kamabay worked nice but the sounddampening was tricky and i was nervous about being able to fit the sounddampening on the side panels since the cpucooler might interfere on one end and the cabling in the back would definitly make it very difficult in the back.

Now im running 1xNoctua NF-P12 in the back as exhauste and i covered the top vent with sounddampening. 1x Scythe Kama bay vertical as intake at the front. 1xNF-P12 as push on the Noctua NH-P12 cpucooler. 1 x NF-P12 as push on the bottom chamber against the HDDs.

Now i dont have a silent comp but it doesent make much noise. I am now on the other hand kinda annoyed with my core temps.

Im running a Q6600 with a Noctua NH-P12 cooler on a Asus P5K-E with stock speed and idle core temps of ~38c and i am wondering if it the Motherboard that just doesent perform well or if it me that has mounted the cooler wrong because befoer the mobo i had a Gigabyte GA P35C-DSR3 and i had Idle temps of ~30. But this mobo has better cooling then the Gigabyte so i dont know why im getting these temps.

Maybe its because im running the fans at 900rpm instead of 1300rpm and i closed of the top vent. I guess u can never really be fully satisfied when it comes to computers.

victorhortalives · Post by **victorhortalives** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 10:19 am

Here's a tip.

Don't close the top vent physically from inside the case as you may need the cooling outlet.

BUT you can close off much of the noise by cutting a piece of case noise blocking material ( I see you have some Be-Quiet Sounddampening ), and mount it on the underside of the top vent cover.

That way you have limited the noise to the sides and rear of the top cover. Noise won't come out of the top.

victorhortalives · Post by **victorhortalives** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 10:22 am

AckeDman wrote:So this is what i have done....

Now i dont have a silent comp but it doesent make much noise. I am now on the other hand kinda annoyed with my core temps.

Im running a Q6600 with a Noctua NH-P12 cooler on a Asus P5K-E with stock speed and idle core temps of ~38c and i am wondering if it the Motherboard that just doesent perform well or if it me that has mounted the cooler wrong because befoer the mobo i had a Gigabyte GA P35C-DSR3 and i had Idle temps of ~30. But this mobo has better cooling then the Gigabyte so i dont know why im getting these temps.

Why are you worried ??? These modern CPUs are good for up to >60C. 40C to 50C is a normal operating range.

AckeDman · Post by **AckeDman** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 4:11 am

Hmm... thing is im now thinking its not the cpucooler but the fact that i am running all the noctuas at 900rpm instead of the stock 1300rpm and i closed of the top vent.

victorhortalives:

I already closed of the vent with sounddampening and im already regretting it a little as well as i cut off the mounting jacks that u mount the top fan on since there is only 2 screw holes. In other words if i ever decide i wanna use that top vent i need to first remove the sounddampening which is tough because of the strong gluelike material and i also need to drill 2 holes on the case and thats just way too much hassle. And since all other components seems to get enough air i think i will just be ok with the current temps.

Even thou 68-69c is a little unnerving (but not on stock, its on 3ghz).

If i had 69 on stock i would have RMA my cooler right away and went with a TRUE.

Ah i remember when i had the Gigabyte board before it broke down on me.... it gave me 28-29 idle with stock speed... beutiful temps because i would have been able to overclock it and keep it low noise.

Hopefully the bad temps is just because im running it on low(kinda) rpm fans. I am gonna try putting on the LNA adaptors instead of the ULNA and see if i see a diffrence in temps and if there isnt a noisediffrence i will go with the LNA fans. If there ever comes quality 140mm or 200mm fans i will use on on the back of the 5,25" bay tied with a ziptie... since i am not gonna be using it for cd-rom purposes anyways because of the kamabay fan.

victorhortalives · Post by **victorhortalives** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 5:45 am

AckeDman wrote:
I already closed of the vent with sounddampening and im already regretting it a little as well as i cut off the mounting jacks that u mount the top fan on since there is only 2 screw holes. In other words if i ever decide i wanna use that top vent i need to first remove the sounddampening .

I know the horse is out of the stable ! - but my meaning is to put the material on the underside of the detachable top cover, not inside the case. Maybe you realise that already.

Looks to me as you are trying to cool a much hotter system than the ones I built !

Luck

AckeDman · Post by **AckeDman** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 6:23 am

Yeah i got gready... But then again its not a loud system and im not ever likely to be able to run on 100% on all cores and thats what was needed to get the temps to 68-69... on low fan and airflow.

Meaning if i wanted to do a heavy overclock and i didnt care about noise i could but i dont mind this mild overclock and a decently low noiselevel and a decently medium temperaturlevel.

Thanks for all the input on my system guys and i will post some pictures for u guys to laugh at later... i fucked up a little with the sounddampening.

Modo · Post by **Modo** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 7:06 am

AckeDman wrote:Yeah i got gready... But then again its not a loud system and im not ever likely to be able to run on 100% on all cores and thats what was needed to get the temps to 68-69... on low fan and airflow.

Considering the CPU you are using, and the overclock, these are actually very good.

By the way, if you really need lower temperatures, try lowering the CPU speed, and undervolting the beast slightly.

jessekopelman · Post by **jessekopelman** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:14 pm

AckeDman wrote: Also i heard somewhere that if u have 3x10db fans they will together only make the sound of 1x13db but if u have its 1x15db u will still get 15db sound... thats why its better to have 5x15db then 2x20db... since with 5x15db fans u get much better airflow at a lower noiselevel.

Was this just bullshit or is there something to this?

3X = 5 dB, so 3X 10dB = 15 dB, not 13 dB. 2X = 3 dB and 5X = 7 dB. So, 5X 15 dB should be slightly quieter than 2X 20 dB. That said, the previous math is only true for fans if they are all located in exactly the same place. A fan closer to you will sound louder than the exact same fan farther from you, so it is unlikely that adding more fans is as simple as just multiplying some arbitrary noise value. Also, the way hearing works is that you are more sensitive to some frequencies than to others (which ones may vary from person to person) to a 15 dB with certain noise characteristics may be apparently louder than a 20 dB fan with different noise characteristics.

AllergicToNoise · Post by **AllergicToNoise** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:09 am

I had a similar case of noise pollution.

I started with a Nexus "Real Silent" 120 mm case fan and an Intel stock CPU cooler with an Intel E1260 processor, OC'd to 2.88 GHz on a Asus P5K board (FSB 320 MHz & Kingston 2 Gb memory running on 800 MHz) in an Antec Solo case, with an Corsair 450VX PSU. By the way; the elastic strings in the Antec Solo really eliminate noise of my HD drives (WD 80 Gb and WD 500 Gb)

Well, except from the HD's, the whole setup was initially loud!! I was in shock! Sick of it!

Then I found out that the Asus motherboard had two fan controllers: one for the CPU and one for the chassis fans. I put all the fan controllers to "silent" mode and the noise dropped immediately!

But the remaining noise was still too much for me (I'm allergic to noise) and the temps were also a bit high: CPU idle 37 Celsius, the motherboard also.

So, in an attempt to LOWER the noise and temperatures, I bought the Noctua NF-S12 case fan and the Noctua NH-U12P CPU cooler, which include the NF-P12 fan.

The result was that the temperatures dropped, but the noise remained!

By the way: Noctua states that the NF-PF12 is louder then the NF-S12.
http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=nf_s ... son&lng=en

After a lot fiddling around with various Noctua U.L.N.A. and L.N.A. adapters (the Ultra Low Noise Adapter is just a 147 Ohm resistor) and various settings of the Q-Fan controller on the Asus motherboard, I finally reached an acceptable noise state;

1) as back chassis fan, I'm using the Noctua NF-S12 fan, connected with the blue (U.L.N.A) adapter to the first chassis fan connector.

2) as CPU fan, I'm using the Nexus 120 mm fan, connected with black L.N.A. adapter to the second chassis fan connector. So I'm not using the CPU fan connector because with the three-pin connector from the Nexus fan I don't have the possibility to use the motherboard CPU PWM fan controller.

3) all motherboard fan controllers (CPU and chassis) are now disabled.

4) the original Noctua CPU fan: NF-P12 is now in effect obsolete.

The result is an acceptable level of noise. Not nearly absolute silent, but still acceptable.

And I have still the chassis fan controller of the motherboard in reserve, in case I want to reduce the rotation speed of both fans to 90, 80, 70 or 60% of the current level.

My current readings are:

1) Chassis fan - Noctua S12 with blue adapter: 825 rpm.
2) CPU fan - Nexus 120mm with black adapter: 875 rpm.

3) CPU temp - idle: 26 Celsius.
4) Motherboard temp - idle: 34 Celsius.

Conclusion:

1) When you really detest noise: use a good CPU cooler, quality fans and lower the RPM on all fan's!
2) Try to get all fans rotating around 800 rpm.
3) Heavy load on the processors (gives higher CPU temperatures; needs higher cooling ability; needs higher rotation speeds on all fans (1000+ rpm), yields more noise and thus) exclude silent operation.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 11:44 am

Welcome to SPCR!

You've just about summed up the advice from the whole SPCR forum in one post!

Plekto · Post by **Plekto** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:04 pm

Well, other than the part about mods/suspension/dampening of the case. Whole other area of fun right there...

victorhortalives · Post by **victorhortalives** » Thu May 01, 2008 10:05 am

AllergicToNoise wrote:
Conclusion:

1) When you really detest noise: use a good CPU cooler, quality fans and lower the RPM on all fan's!
2) Try to get all fans rotating around 800 rpm.

4. Use less fans
5. Insulate your case walls
6. Don't skimp on the quality of your power supply.

AllergicToNoise · Post by **AllergicToNoise** » Tue May 06, 2008 11:16 pm

I have to correct my third conclusion.
You can run silent under heavy load and overclocked.

I have runned Orthos nearly 8 hours with my E2160 overclocked from 1.8 Ghz to 3.25 Ghz and the noise was still the same and the temps acceptable.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Wed May 07, 2008 8:33 am

Hello,

Yes, doing this is certainly possible:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article672-page1.html

Bought recommended stuff but its still loud.

Bought recommended stuff but its still loud.

Quiet PC based on Antec P182

Closing the top vent - acoustically

Keep the rpm's down

Re: Keep the rpm's down

Event silent under heavy load