As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options
Silence of the Fans
PhantomBuddha
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Ok so I'm rebuilding my entire computer area, and in a fit of OCD organization-ing, I've decided to move my PC up on top of my desktop surface. It's been below one of the sections of the desk....since forever...and I've never had a PC on top of the desk before. The reason I moved it, is the freaking dust this thing collects is horrible at ground level, and the monthly cleaning with compressed air is getting a bit old.
So anyway, the vibration on the desktop surface and the noise are nearly unbearable. I hardly noticed the thing when it was below the surface, but now it is overpowering. It is a very well cooled case, and I put decent fans in it from a noise control perspective, but I'm wondering if it needs to go back to the floor.
It seems that PC silencing and vibration dampening is more art than science, and since I will be rebuilding this box in the next few weeks/months, I wanted to get a head start on what I should be looking at for tried and true silencing and vibration control options.
The other option of course is moving it back to the floor, but I would need to really figure out how to control the dusty nastiness that invades the poor thing. It has the basic filters on the fan intake areas, but those usually fill up within a week or so. And to stave off the wolves, I vacuum regularly, and change my furnace filters 2x per year =p
Thanks in advance for any silencing and vibration control ideas, I ran a quick search here but didn't find anything comprehensive for products or solutions.
So anyway, the vibration on the desktop surface and the noise are nearly unbearable. I hardly noticed the thing when it was below the surface, but now it is overpowering. It is a very well cooled case, and I put decent fans in it from a noise control perspective, but I'm wondering if it needs to go back to the floor.
It seems that PC silencing and vibration dampening is more art than science, and since I will be rebuilding this box in the next few weeks/months, I wanted to get a head start on what I should be looking at for tried and true silencing and vibration control options.
The other option of course is moving it back to the floor, but I would need to really figure out how to control the dusty nastiness that invades the poor thing. It has the basic filters on the fan intake areas, but those usually fill up within a week or so. And to stave off the wolves, I vacuum regularly, and change my furnace filters 2x per year =p
Thanks in advance for any silencing and vibration control ideas, I ran a quick search here but didn't find anything comprehensive for products or solutions.
PhantomBuddha on
0
Posts
For the vibration? Try getting a sheet of thin cork and placing it under the case. The kind of cork you'd find on a noteboard. I think you can find this stuff at stationary stores or an office supply store. I remember I bought some to place under an aquarium once so a pet/fish store might also be able to help.
You may, however, feel really stupid while doing it.
My biggest problem with computer case cooling was this: I was over-doing it. I had about 20 fans in my fucking case to cool the thing. Even with these 7v mods it was noisy.
So one day I just unhooked one of my 5 side case fans. The noise went down a little, but the CPU/case temp remained the same. The next day I took off another.. then another.. etc. I realized that, at least in my case, I really only needed my big front/lower fan and my rear fan and nothing else. Most of these modern cpus seem to keep pretty cool these days..
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
You could also look at getting a passive heat-sink for your CPU - instead of using a fan these have metal (copper, often) vanes to create a really large surface area to allow the heat to dissipate. It has been a few years since I looked at these, though, so I don't know how common they are or how well they work. I know some the higher-end ones used to occasionally cause people heartburn because they were so big, and could require other things in the case to be moved around. Still, if you pick one up you can get rid of the CPU fan entirely, which I think would be a noticeable improvement to your situation.
No? Treated well they'll last ages, multiple pc builds as well. However obviously it's a huge undertaking, and in many cases not needed to get a pc down to an acceptable noise level.
Try reducing the number of fans you have if possible. Any you can't remove try to get bigger ones, and 7v them.
Lots of handy tips here: http://www.silentpcreview.com/
Thanks for the tips though, I don't really have any rattles, I worked those kinks out a while ago. It's mainly air noise from what I can tell. I'm going to try reducing the number of fans first, and then move on to the 7v mod.
Does anyone have a suggestion for a good temperature monitoring program that runs inside of windows? All I have right now is one inside the bios. I'm running an old Asus MB(A7N8X-Deluxe, to be exact).
Thanks again for the good ideas
I sound like kind of a shill there, but I'm not exaggerating.
"Read twice, post once. It's almost like 'measure twice, cut once' only with reading." - MetaverseNomad
The number of fans blowing in should = number of fans blowing out. Cuts down on noise dramatically. Also, if you're like me and you change out PCI cards a lot, make sure you have extra pci slot covers to cover up the holes for those extra cards if they're empty. Also goes for drive bays and so on.
Interesting, I had been wondering about that, but I haven't tried changing it yet. I have 2 going in, and it appears to be 3 going out, if I count the fan inside the PSU. I'll try dropping off one of the outbound and see how she plays.
What are the specs on your rig? 5 fans is a lot.
In terms of other recommendations, you can find a cheap(er) bay fan controller. I am using a four knib unit (three 120 mm fans), and it took me all of five minutes to figure out ideal fan speeds (i.e. lowest) to keep temps acceptable.
All of the above suggestions are great as well... a little cork/mousepad/sound proofing on the inside is a little helpful, particularly with fan noise... but it sounds like it's the air noise that is your concerns. All I can recommend is making sure that your fan pathways are realtively unobstructed. Remember, anything in the path of an air current can cause turbulence, therefore noise. So, if you are using a lot of filters, they may be the cause of much of your noise. Reducing fan speed or removing the filters would help. If you can go to the 120mm fans with some modding/jury-rigging, I'd recommend it: moves more air at lower speeds (therefore less noise).
And what exactly does treating a pump well mean, if letting it sit inside a computer pumping water isn't somehow treating it well enough.
I was ready to pull the trigger on water cooling for my next build that I'm planning, but I kept hearing stories about how people's pump die and fry all their hardware. Although it doesn't happen often, I imagine it happens way more often than a CPU fan death.
What is the lifetime of a pump anyway? Can there be backup pumps?
Other than that, if you are using a cheap and nasty PSU it could be the cause of a lot of the noise.