P-182 Fan configuation: complete silent newbie

Spek · Post by **Spek** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 3:53 am

hello and thanks for making this great forum.

After reading some posts on this forum i bought this machine a few days ago. it came assembled by the retailer. i have been v. disappointed with noise levels of the rear fan.

i make music so wanted a quiet pc. no gaming.

Case: p-182 with only the upper and rear stock fans installed
CPU: qaud Q9450
MOBO: ASUS X38 - heat sinks
Card: GEForce 8600 GTS - passive heatsink
PSU: Corsair TX 650
2 X Sata drives.
Stock CPU cooler.

my simple question: could i get away with running both upper and rear fan on lowest settings without temperature issues? or maybe even just run the rear fan on low. no overclocking.

i ask because on anything but lowest settings the rear fan is really loud - not defective fan - just crap stock fan. must be at least 30db @ 1 metre. maybe more.

sadly this is not a v.queit pc.

thanks

spec

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 4:21 am

Stock intel cooler is joke. You need to get some good fans and good Heatsink inorder to silence your computer.

xigmatek hdt-s1283 is excellent heatsink. Get that with Xigmatek bolt-thru kit. Swap your Tricools into Scythe Slipstream 800 and you could also put Slipstream 800 on Xigmatek. Then you have quiet computer for use.

You really don't need to top exhaust. You can block that with tape or thick piece of sorthobane and get 2x 800 rpm slipstream or 1x 800 slipstream for case and 1200 rpm slipstream for heatsink with mobo controlling.

Modo · Post by **Modo** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 4:47 am

Spek wrote: my simple question: could i get away with running both upper and rear fan on lowest settings without temperature issues? or maybe even just run the rear fan on low. no overclocking.

Simple answer: Yes, though I would leave both fans on.

If you want to further silence the PC, you'd need to swap both the case fans, and the CPU heatsink. Swapping only the fans might be dangerous, because at that point silence is achieved partly with very low airflow.

Spek · Post by **Spek** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 4:59 am

thanks for the reply. much appreciated.

i planned to replace the intel cooler with a passive cooler - noctura - and run rear stock fan in the p-182 on lowest setting. this gives a noise level i could almost live with.

however i was incorrectly advised the noctura would would fit my Q9450 but when the pc arrived the noctura was not installed because it will not fit quad 9450. hence the need to run the rear fan on medium and the aweful noise levels

by what you say it looks like i need to swap out the rear p-182 stock fan and get a separate fasn controller. i was kinda hoping i would not have to get the toolbox out.

in the meantime do people think i could run a 9450 quad (no O.C) with just the rear fan on lowest? would that be unwise in terms of cpu heat?

thanks

spek

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 8:41 am

Hello,

There is a pretty good chance you'll be fine -- the BIOS can control the CPU fan if it warms up.

At the very least, you can just try it, and see how it goes?

Spek · Post by **Spek** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 4:14 pm

thanks for the advise guys.

yes there is no issues for me just running the top and rear fans on low.

the low settings on the stock fans in the p-182 generates plenty of airflow.

i will have to buy a cpu cooler and swap out the stock rear fan for sure.

one thing i have learnt through this exercise is that you cannot get the p-182 into anything like a silent or even quiet operation using the stock fans and intel cooler.

"out of the box" the p-182 is a really noisey unit. i can clearly hear the pc from 8 metres away!!! total joke. as i mentioned i had planned to swap the intel cooler with a passive heat sink but got let down by the builder.

thanks for the advise and this great site.

spek

JohnYaya · Post by **JohnYaya** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 5:12 pm

Spek wrote:
by what you say it looks like i need to swap out the rear p-182 stock fan and get a separate fasn controller. i was kinda hoping i would not have to get the toolbox out.

Changing the fans out in a p182 is just trivial, I wouldn't get hung up on that. Just four screws, no big deal. Well worth it, in my opinion. I didn't mess with the fan in the PSU compartment, just unplugged it and left it there. Replaced the other 2 with Scythe 120s and fanmates. Slowed them down to around 900, can't hear a thing. Temps are still great.

Spek · Post by **Spek** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 7:39 pm

[Changing the fans out in a p182 is just trivial, I wouldn't get hung up on that. Just four screws, no big deal. Well worth it, in my opinion. I didn't mess with the fan in the PSU compartment, just unplugged it and left it there. Replaced the other 2 with Scythe 120s and fanmates. Slowed them down to around 900, can't hear a thing. Temps are still great.[/quote]

just to get this correct.

you replaced the upper and rear fan and just disconnected the cpu compartment fan?

i did some testing with my pc this morning. the really annoying noise seems to be coming from the cpu area. i bought a corasiar tx 650 that was reviewed on this site.

maybe its the cpu fan that is making most of the noise? no problems in simply disconnecting it?

thanks once again for all the feedback.
much appreciated.

spek

Stravos · Post by **Stravos** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 8:17 pm

If it's an annoying buzzing sound, it's probably the CPU fan. Do not disconnect that, though. He was referring to the PSU compartment fan (the fan at the very bottom of the case) which is usually deemed unnecessary.

If you can determine that the CPU fan is making the noise, you would need to buy a new CPU heatsink in order to fix that.

Spek · Post by **Spek** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 8:45 pm

i pulled the antec apart this afternoon.

sure the stock antec fans are less than great but i think much of the noise comes from the fan on the corsair psu. its a lower drone noise. i can hear the fans whispering over the top of the psu but the lower noise is the annoying one right now.

do any others who use the tx 650 find it a noisey unit?

mine seems much louder than the test results posted on this site when the unit was reviewed.

only solution is to swap out the unit? v. expensive option. maybe i should have gone with a heat sink psu.

i am v. sensitive to noise as i use the pc to make music.

thanks for the helpful advice.

spek

ps the corsair noise level seems constant no matter what i am doing rather than alter with temp. maybe mine is constantly at the lowest level because i am not pushing the pc or overclocking.

JohnYaya · Post by **JohnYaya** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 7:32 am

Spek wrote:[Changing the fans out in a p182 is just trivial, I wouldn't get hung up on that. Just four screws, no big deal. Well worth it, in my opinion. I didn't mess with the fan in the PSU compartment, just unplugged it and left it there. Replaced the other 2 with Scythe 120s and fanmates. Slowed them down to around 900, can't hear a thing. Temps are still great.

just to get this correct.

you replaced the upper and rear fan and just disconnected the cpu compartment fan?

i did some testing with my pc this morning. the really annoying noise seems to be coming from the cpu area. i bought a corasiar tx 650 that was reviewed on this site.

maybe its the cpu fan that is making most of the noise? no problems in simply disconnecting it?

thanks once again for all the feedback.
much appreciated.

spek[/quote]

Correct, I just replaced the upper fan and rear fan, left the psu compartment case alone.

On your CPU fan, just unplug it for a bit, boot up, and see if the noise goes away. That stock cooler pretty much is gonna suck though.

danielG · Post by **danielG** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 7:02 am

I also have a brand new stock P182, fans running on low most of the time, and a Corsair TX-650 PSU. The TX-650 is the most silent component in my PC.

Check if the top panel of your P182 is vibrating. Mine, when the top fan is running, even on low, the top panel vibrates and make an annoying humming sound. It drives me nuts!

I need to buy new fans, probably Slipstream for rear and S-Flex for top, but I haven't figured out how to balance cooling with silence. The stock fans, on low, can't handle the job under full load.

Shadout · Post by **Shadout** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 7:46 am

Brand new P182 too, I've replaced all fans though. 2 slipstreams as top and rear. 1 S-flex on Xigmatek S1283 CPU cooler (CPU is Q9450 too btw). Right now they are all running at around 800-900 RPM, and temps are no problem at all, although I want to try some OC, so Im going to raise the speed.
Also got a slipstream in front (at the middle HD area), and an S-flex on the GPU (Accelero S1) (its a HD4870 hot bastard, so no passivle colling unfortunately).
My CPU temps are a bit higher than I would have expected, afraid my CPU heatsink isnt perfectly mounted (maybe too much or too little thermalpaste), still, its far below the limit.
My PC was preassembled by the seller too, although they did a awful job, so the CPU heatsink is pretty much the only thing I havent had out and replaced or refitted (and the only thing I dont really want to refit either).

Lacking another FanMate for slowing down the front fan unfortunately, so cant finalize the noise level yet (SpeedFan refuse to work with my motherboard :/ It controls 3 fans with 1 Speed setting for unknown reasons).

I would remove stock fans on yours really. While the scythe fans are still not close to silent for me sitting in front of it (if i walk some meters away however, its really low, and probably close to inaudible when adjusting it a bit more). I could surely hear a difference after taking out the last Antec stock fan, not just in the slightly lower db, but the actual noise was also more smooth.

seemingly.random · Post by **seemingly.random** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 6:40 pm

If some parts are already out of the case, I would take the remaining out and get it running on a piece of cardboard in a quiet room - no music, tv or people. This enables you to determine where the noise culprit is (and takes the case out of the equation). You should monitor cpu and gpu temps while doing this. Then, one at a time, start adding the case fans freestanding by the mb.

P-182 Fan configuation: complete silent newbie

P-182 Fan configuation: complete silent newbie

Re: P-182 Fan configuation: complete silent newbie

stock p-182 is a noisey unit - even with single fan low

i cannot live with the noise of the corsair