Here is how I got my psu so quiet. By a random action

frosty · Post by **frosty** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 8:57 am

Some people say those funny rubber washers you can buy with fan screws are worthless.
I beg to differ. I had this qwest like most of us, to just reduce sound in my pc, never dreaming it could be so silent. In this qwest I read many posts and many attributing the main source of noise the cpu fan and psu fan area. So I mounted all my panaflo’s with high quality ear plug foam and also decided to place rubber washers behind the part of the case where the psu screwed onto the case. So thus the rubber washers came between the case and psu and this was in addition to replacing the psu fan with a panaflo at 12v.

I of course was astounded that all the remaining sound was the whiny 60 mm cpu fan. and I gave full credit to the panaflo for the psu reduction. In the meantime later, in my qwest I remounted the fans with better placed foam, us PC Silencers, are never happy eh, and in this step; I forgot to replace the rubber washers on the psu mounting screws, and oh my did I get a surprise, my psu fan sound like a whining bearing going out in an automotive waterpump or a whining automotive fan belt. I went berserk and of course discovered my error, quickly I remounted the psu with the rubber washers and the sound now is almost silent even with the panaflo at 12v. Now the panaflo has really, really helped, the old psu fan just whizzed along like a professional racing bike and now the panaflo is barely audible to me, but without the washers it was a pointless mod.

Just thought someone might want to try this before buying and exspensive psu.
Mine is a cheapo premier for Pentiums. But here it is pretty silent for a us 8.00 fan mod.

axle · Post by **axle** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 9:34 am

Ear plugs!! Now that is smart!!

I'm going to try mounting my fans with ear plugs.

frosty · Post by **frosty** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 11:17 am

Axle I am glad to be of help - I like ear plugs cos you can flatten them out, I cut them in half, and compress them before putting in the screw then the foam expands as you gentlely screw them in! Voila!

starsky · Post by **starsky** » Mon Aug 04, 2003 9:48 pm

Now that is pure Genius frosty.

"Hail to the king"

frosty · Post by **frosty** » Tue Aug 05, 2003 7:17 am

Thanks Starsky for the compliment, actually was pure luck. :}

BTW if anyone is browsing this and for the sake of not starting another string, please tell me:

My current psu fan, a panaflo 80l is wired from the same wires that my old fan was, does this mean my psu will start out at 12v then speed down to 7 or 8 until I demand more energy or my room gets to hot then it will speed up to 12v?

I know this seems like a stupid question but hey I am still a NOOB here ya know?

Post by **MikeC** » Tue Aug 05, 2003 7:39 am

frosty wrote:My current psu fan, a panaflo 80l is wired from the same wires that my old fan was, does this mean my psu will start out at 12v then speed down to 7 or 8 until I demand more energy or my room gets to hot then it will speed up to 12v?

Only if that's what you PSU did before you swapped the fan. If it's a generic PSU, I doubt it. Probably flat 12V.

frosty · Post by **frosty** » Tue Aug 05, 2003 2:23 pm

Thanks Mike - gonna try n wire the psu fan with the identical case panaflo fan in 6v and see if the low hum will go to silent land.

HadroLepton · Post by **HadroLepton** » Tue Aug 12, 2003 8:26 pm

i have tried getting some grommets in the screwholes for the psu, but then the screws where too short to reach the psu. i had to apply a substantial amount of force to compress the grommet to allow the screw to reach the psu, even then the screw couldn't go in far enough to hold the psu safely. the grommets were 5 mm thick.

i never tried putting washers just on one side because i thought the vibration would crawl through the screw back to the case. as i see it you put the washers only between case and psu, but not between screw and case, true? how thick where the washers?

frosty · Post by **frosty** » Thu Aug 14, 2003 2:17 pm

Actually they were the std thin type goosh I duno maybe no thicker than 2 to 3 mmm or 3/16 ot 1/4 us inches, they are the std neoprene tha most hardware stores stock, I got them the same time I bought my panaflos from frozenpc.com.

I did have the same prob too trying to use earplug foam, crazy thing was I read all over after I ordered the rubber washers they were worthless, so when I first got my fans installed and added the washers as a last afterthought because I used earpluug foam on the fan mounts.

Later after installing the psu on another mod work session I accidentally forgot the washers and wow what a racket it caused, back they went on, mine are probably too lose to but I just snugged them up tight, and will check for loosening in a few months time.

Good luck and if you need any more help contact me. :}

DryFire · Post by **DryFire** » Thu Aug 14, 2003 3:45 pm

Frosty i must try that! thanks allot.

murmur2k · Post by **murmur2k** » Thu Aug 14, 2003 4:35 pm

Earplugs are great!
I mounted my really noisey CPU fan with them and careful use of superglue - it stopped about 80% of the noise - i highly recommend it!

frosty · Post by **frosty** » Fri Aug 15, 2003 6:31 am

Your welcome dryfire

Murmur hey superglue is a great idea!

CoolColJ · Post by **CoolColJ** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 6:30 pm

So you put the screw through the ear plug?

some ear plugs are gel-like rather than foam, maybe better?