Further Silencing tips, if you please.

seraphyn · Post by **seraphyn** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 2:05 am

Allright so i became obsessed over my PC's noise output shortly after installing my first SPCR approved gear for my PC. It started off with a small budget and little tweaks here and there and since then spiraled into total madness and gave me an obsessive compulsive disorder concerning silencing all loud things that surround me.

So step by step, things i did to improve my PC:

1. Bought a new case, the Antec P180.
2. Proceeded to cut up the case a bit (fan grill thingies) (search forum for Oscar3d's posts and you'll see what).
3. Sealed off parts of case with ducttape to direct airflow / noise output.
4. Replaced Tricool fans for Nexus.
5. Replaced stock cpu cooler with Andy Samurai Master.
6. Replaced old WD HDD's with Samsung spinpoints.
7. Bought a fan controller to undervolt / control fans.
8. Lined the case with foam.
9. Replaced Andy Samurai with Thermalright 120 UE.
10. Replaced PSU for a Corsair HX520.
11. Replaced Samsung Spinpoints for 2,5 versions of the same.
12. Placed above drives into Scythe Quiet Drives.
13. Replaced stock 8800GT cooling for Accelero S1.
14. ...

At 14, this is where you guys come in.

Right now my system is on the verge of being completely inaudible, it is already at 1 meter away, but i can still hear it ever so slightly when sitting in my room at night in complete silence and not using the mouse, keyboard or moving at all.

So... suggestions on further improvements?

Suspending my HDD's is not something i will be doing, since i move the case around a bit.

LBadvance · Post by **LBadvance** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 5:16 am

Exhaust shroud. Since the back is open, all the noise escapes thru it.

mexell · Post by **mexell** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 6:53 am

Yeah. I know this problem. Right now, the transformer for the halogen light in the corridor maybe 6 meters away from my desk is louder than my computer. But what do I do? Replace fairly quiet HDDs by Samsung HD250HJ

. I'm simply too lazy to get out the ladder and silence the transformer.

Your computer looks pretty quiet and pretty fast on the paper. You could maybe start doing some ducting and further turning down your fans. Look at the articles cmthomson has written for some reference material.

seraphyn · Post by **seraphyn** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 6:54 am

LBadvance wrote:Exhaust shroud. Since the back is open, all the noise escapes thru it.

I tried that, but i have too little space to mod something onto the case, it already sticks out from next to my desk. Thanks for the tip though.

mexell wrote:Yeah. I know this problem. Right now, the transformer for the halogen light in the corridor maybe 6 meters away from my desk is louder than my computer. But what do I do? Replace fairly quiet HDDs by Samsung HD250HJ . I'm simply too lazy to get out the ladder and silence the transformer.

I replaced a few lights because of buzzing sounds, which i only started to notice after silencing my PC

The article you linked looks interesting, thanks

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:29 am

at this point, only thing u can do quieter is fanless psu and change case fans to Scythe Slipstream.

seraphyn · Post by **seraphyn** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:04 am

Slipstreams really much of a difference vs Nexus? From what i understood it marginally more airflow at the same noise, which is of course nice, but doesn't really give that last bit of noise reduction.

Not a big fan of fanless PSU's, especially on a gaming rig such as this. Anyone have experience with a gamingrig + fanless PSU?

nutball · Post by **nutball** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:14 am

What's the dominant source of noise at the moment? Fans? Hard drives? The crowd want to know(*)...

(*) because we're interested, dammit!!!

seraphyn · Post by **seraphyn** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:29 am

A small hint of fan, mostly my intake, and under load my HDD's give a bit of seek humm.

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 1:53 pm

seraphyn wrote:Slipstreams really much of a difference vs Nexus? From what i understood it marginally more airflow at the same noise...

At equal airflow, the "whoosh" noise is the same but all the other fan noise contributors (motor noise, blade noise, bearing noise, blade end-fan case turbulence etc) are much quieter on the slipstream because, at equal airflow, the slipstream will be turning a lot fewer RPMs. I think you might find the slipstreams a worthwhile improvement, once you quieten that &#@! halogen transformer...

mexell · Post by **mexell** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 2:08 am

That was me with the &#@! halogen transformer...

But I would suggest to tweak your rpm first, with some clever ducting you can archieve a lot here (at least that's what I read out of cmthomson's article). You can always buy a better fan, but your fans are already very good. Every fan can spin so slow that you can't hear it anymore...

seraphyn · Post by **seraphyn** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 4:42 am

Nexus are at 600 RPM, can't really put them much lower i think, without risking them not starting up at all.

Perhaps i'll look into the 800RPM versions of the slipstream, should be able to put them at a lower RPM more safely. The 500 RPM's aren't an option though, i don't want my case to get too heated when i'm stressing it.

Ducting the intake fan won't do much good, but the outtake should be a nice project, though having a TRUE, it will be a tad harder then with the Ninja.

Perhaps i should buy me a ninja...

mexell · Post by **mexell** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 4:58 am

Oh, yeah. That's the real silencing virus in action. Is that your wife I hear argueing in the background? Or is it mine?

ACook · Post by **ACook** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 5:08 am

for $29,99 I'll play some loud music for a day in your ears, so you won't be able to hear the sound of 1 hand clapping anymore...

seraphyn · Post by **seraphyn** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 5:25 am

Atmosper · Post by **Atmosper** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 6:28 am

I went the Water cooling with Reserator-route. With the heat from the cpu+gpu+nb out of the case, one undervolted Nexus (soon to be 500 rpm Slipstream) is enough for case ventilation. PSU is a fanless FSP ZEN.

Only noise is a slight hum from the pump in the reserator and some seek noise from my HDD (soon to be in a 2.5" quiet drive). I only hear it when my head is less than 0.5 m from the case.

I have decided that the HDD enclosure and Slipstream will be the end of this silencing virus. I doubt I will get a computer this quiet in the future, it's just not sane!

seraphyn · Post by **seraphyn** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 7:08 am

From what i noticed after seeing (and hearing) a few water cooled builds, is that they really arent that much more silent, if any more at all. They do look awesome though.

I think i'll end my streak on this main rig with a bit of trial and error ducting and those slipstreams. Then onto my new build though

Atmosper · Post by **Atmosper** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 7:10 am

I agree that water cooling isn't necessarily quiter than air cooling. They do enable quieting powerful gaming rigs better.