I am a bit of a newbie to the silence pc computing and I need some advice with the final steps to make my htpc completely silent.
The components I have in my htpc are the following:
Case: Q-Tec tc-micro 300w http://www.qtec.info/products/productpi ... rtnr=13917
psu: included q-tec psu modified with a SilenX 80mm exhaust fan on the bottom
Mobo: Msi-k7n2gm-v
cpu cooler: Thermaltake silentboost, fan running on 7v
gpu: Sapphire Ati Radeon 9600xt with Zalman VGA Cooler VF700-AlCu, fan running in silent mode at around 6-7v.
hdd: Seagate and WD hdd both 160gb sata
Case fans: 2x60mm Vantec Stealth fans exhausting air at the back, cut out the case grills so there is no blocking the fans. 1x120mm 11db SilenX fan for intake on the side of the case.
I have modified the case and cut a 120mm blowhole on the side of it right above the cpu (there is no other source of air intake). This has a Silenx 120mm 11db fan in it which blows cool air onto the cpu, the fan is about 1-2 cm above the cpu heatsink fan. I have a fan filter installed on the SilenX fan to eliminate dust in the case (is this a good idea?) I have the case mounted horizontally in my tv cabinet so the side of the case is actually the top part.
Now my problem is that I still have some fan noise, mostly air noise though but also some sort of turbulence noise. I also have some vibration occuring in the case. If I press on the side (top) of the case the vibration noise is reduced a bit. If I remove the side of the case the noise seems to drop quite a bit.
Would I be better of reversing the air flow i.e. having the 2 60mm vantec exhaust fans blowing in air and the SilenX case fan above the cpu exhausting air? Would I benefit in removing the SilentBoost stock fan and placing an 80mm SilenX fan on the heatsink, if so would it be better to let the 80mm SilenX fan blow onto the cpu heatsink or exhausting the hot air from the heatsink. Am I creating a turbulence noise with the SilenX intake fan situated so close to the cpu heatsink fan?
Would I benefit from adding some sort of a sound damping material to the case, this is rather expensive here in Iceland so I´m not willing to go that way unless I really have to.
All the fans in the case are hard mounted but with rubber rings installed between the screw and the fans.
BTW. My temps at idle are around 55°c cpu and 35-40°c for the case.
Need help with vibration noises
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Re: Need help with vibration noises
Could this noise have something to do with the way the 120mm fan is mounted to the side (top) of the case? The fan could be causing the entire side panel to vibrate. What happens if you unplug the 120mm fan? Does the vibration noise go away?orto wrote:Now my problem is that I still have some fan noise, mostly air noise though but also some sort of turbulence noise. I also have some vibration occuring in the case. If I press on the side (top) of the case the vibration noise is reduced a bit. If I remove the side of the case the noise seems to drop quite a bit.
By the way, some people here do use dust filters on their intake fans, so you are probably OK as far as that goes.
You are right on the money with the side vibration, I actually fixed the problem yesterday with the vibration noises. I went to a hardwood seller here in Iceland and got some Eurobatex insulation mats, I cut these down to the shape of the side of my case and glued it on the inside half (very easy to do as the glue is already on the material). Because of the thickness of the mat this completely tightens the side on the case. I also got some of this material gluefree and I cut a mat that´s the same size as the case and put it under the case to eliminate vibration. Now I can´t even hear my hard disks working unless I put my ear next to the case. The loudest sound coming from the computer is air movement. I would like to eliminate that as well so I´m open to any suggestions.
I tried yesterday with the dust filter on and off. Didn´t seem to have any effect on sound but it did have an effect on the cooling. My processor runs about 3°c lower when not using the filter so I´m going to skip the filter untill I find a way to underclock the processor a bit with my motherboard.By the way, some people here do use dust filters on their intake fans, so you are probably OK as far as that goes.
It´s definetly not the two exhaust fans. I have those two, the gpu cooler fan and the 120mm fan hooked up to an akasa jr fan control. If I turn them all down to the lowest setting approx. 6v each I still hear the windy noise of air movement and this setting basically turns off the 2 60mm fans. So I´m guessing it´s either the panaflo stock fan on the silentboost or the 80 mm SilenX fan I have in the psu. Guess I need to stop each one to find out. Problem is though that I don´t think I´ll hear the same results with the side off as I´m sure this could be because of the 120mm and the cpu fan working together. Could this noise have something to do with the airflow in the case as all the fans are situated rather close to each other. Sidefan on top blowing down on the cpu fan, cpu fan blowing down on the heatsink. PSU fan and the 2 60 mm fans exhausting air on the back. The psu fan is just about 1 cm away from the cpu fan and the 60mm fans are about 3 cm away from the cpu fan. I think that the noise could be because all the fans are so close to each other, but I can´t say for sure. Do hdd´s emit any noise other than vibration noises, after damping the case with the insulation mats I can hardly hear the hdd´s working. The noise level of the air movement is still very low though, I can only hear it when I turn the sound off on my tv during ambient noise hours. I guess it´s just when you get this close to total silent you want to go all the way 
I also discovered last night that my temps have dropped to 50°c cpu and 30°c case, the htpc had been on for 34 hours. Before I added the 120 mm blowhole my case temps were around 40-45 and the cpu temps around 65°c.
I also discovered last night that my temps have dropped to 50°c cpu and 30°c case, the htpc had been on for 34 hours. Before I added the 120 mm blowhole my case temps were around 40-45 and the cpu temps around 65°c.A sidemount 120 would be neat for a passive cpu cooler-you never mentin what cpu or anything on fan rpm. Most 60mm fans run at least 3000 rpm,so even turned down-that's over 2000 rpm. The GPU fan will likely be a screamin' 40 mm louder than that 120. Total it up Psu-fan,side fan 2 rear fans,vid card fan,cpu fan....too many. Go passive in the Vid,replace the 2 60's with 1 low rpm 80 or 92 and you'll improve. Check the HD threads-consider the coolpak method or elastic suspension. That mobo is an Athlon XP type right?
Oops forgot to mention the cpu. My cpu is an amd athlon Barton 2500. The 60 mm fans are running at around 2000 rpms. The cpu fan on the Silentboost hsf is running at 2200 rpms. The 120mm SilenX fan is running at 17-1800 rpms. I don´t know the rpm of the psu. The vid fan is dead silent so I don´t think that matters so much whether I go passive with it or not. I think my biggest problem with cooling is that I can´t lower the vcore of the cpu, the mobo bios doesn´t allow me to change the vcore and it´s running at around 1.73-1.77, the barton is specified to run at 1.65. If I would be able to lower the vcore of the processor I could run the cpu fan at an even lower rpm right?
The most irritating noise that most hard drives make is "hard drive whine"--a constant high pitched sound just from the platters spinning. However, it's possible that you can't hear that whine over the cacaphony of fans you've got there.
The only way you're going to get a handle on which fans are causing what noise is to turn OFF fans. You want to reduce the number of powered fans to at most 3--perhaps the PSU fan, CPU fan, and GPU fan for starters. You should be able to run your system with the case side removed indefinitely with those three fans running.
Once you reduce the number of fans to 3 or less, you can physically use pencil erasers or your fingers or pieces of cardboard to temporarily stop all but one fan at a time. You won't overheat anything by temporarily stopping its fan for a couple seconds. This is the ONLY way you can reliably guage how loud/quiet each fan is--including fan noise, turbulence noise, and vibration noise.
Oh, while you do this, you will suddenly notice that your hard drives make a lot of noise. Too bad--you'd have learned about that sooner or later. Remove the power from all of your hard drives, and try the experiment again. The noise and vibrations from the hard drives will otherwise spoil your attempts to guage fan noise.
With as many fans as you have, it will be a complex task identifying which ones are causing the most irritating noise.
The only way you're going to get a handle on which fans are causing what noise is to turn OFF fans. You want to reduce the number of powered fans to at most 3--perhaps the PSU fan, CPU fan, and GPU fan for starters. You should be able to run your system with the case side removed indefinitely with those three fans running.
Once you reduce the number of fans to 3 or less, you can physically use pencil erasers or your fingers or pieces of cardboard to temporarily stop all but one fan at a time. You won't overheat anything by temporarily stopping its fan for a couple seconds. This is the ONLY way you can reliably guage how loud/quiet each fan is--including fan noise, turbulence noise, and vibration noise.
Oh, while you do this, you will suddenly notice that your hard drives make a lot of noise. Too bad--you'd have learned about that sooner or later. Remove the power from all of your hard drives, and try the experiment again. The noise and vibrations from the hard drives will otherwise spoil your attempts to guage fan noise.
With as many fans as you have, it will be a complex task identifying which ones are causing the most irritating noise.