hey people..

i know similar ground has been covered recently in this thread (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=43064) but i have slightly different requirements so was hoping for some more specific recommendations..

i'm fed up of my PC sounding like it's about to take off all the time, plus a quick look at the system temp's tell me it's about time i invested in a new case with better airflow..

the primary aim here is to get a decent looking, quiet PC for very little money.. all the "guts" (mobo, cpu, drives, etc.) are coming from my existing machine, so all i need are:

a case (preferably black with front mounted USB)
psu
case intake fan
case exhaust fan
cpu heatsink & fan

i won't be overclocking or anything, just using my aging athlon xp 1700 running at factory speed (1.5ghz), so i'm hoping that there are some fairly cheap and effective solutions out there.. the psu should be able to cope with all my installed devices:

1 x oem floppy
1 x maxtor 120gb ide hdd
1 x maxtor 60gb ide hdd
1 x cd-rw drive
1 x dvd±rw drive

1 x nvidia geforce mx gfx card
1 x maudio delta 410 soundcard
1 x realtek pci nic

i am planning on slowly upgrading my machine bit by bit (mobo, cpu, new sata drives, etc.) so the new case/psu should be reasonably future proofed..

any recommendations? i've been looking at antec cases as they come with fitted psus and seem to get favourable write ups.. however, i'm wondering if it would be worth spending the extra few quid and getting a thermaltake case such as the soprano (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=6773789817&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT) and then fitting a quiet psu?

if i can keep the whole project (case, psu, all fans) to under a ton that would be a result..

thanks..

y'know, its cheaper to build a super fast pc than build a slow spec pc thats damn quiet?

anyways, things to look for:

Zalman heat sinks for the CPU and graphics card... there is (used to be?) a really sweet one called the zalman "flower" which spread out like a fan of copper and only needed very little to blow on it to keep it cool...

you can buy really quiet PSU's and also fans, but as I said they aren't cheap... check out www.microdirect.co.uk , http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ , www.ebuyer.com (dont stock that much good stuff)

Originally posted by xafier
y'know, its cheaper to build a super fast pc than build a slow spec pc thats damn quiet?

yeah i know, but my primary aim here is to get a quiet machine, so i can leave it seeding torrents at night and what not..

anyways, things to look for:

Zalman heat sinks for the CPU and graphics card... there is (used to be?) a really sweet one called the zalman "flower" which spread out like a fan of copper and only needed very little to blow on it to keep it cool...

you can buy really quiet PSU's and also fans, but as I said they aren't cheap... check out www.microdirect.co.uk , http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ , www.ebuyer.com (dont stock that much good stuff)

yeah, the zalman stuff seems to pretty much be de facto for these sort of projects.. i was just hoping for some first hand experience recommendations..

i found a site, http://www.silentpcreview.com, which has proved invaluable.. it has recommendations for every bit of hardware, and well presented analysis of all the factors contributing to noise..

i've decided to go for an antec 3700bqe case (http://www.silentpcreview.com/Sections+index-req-viewarticle-artid-116.html) as this seems to have a fairly quiet psu as standard, and the 90° drive bays (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article116-page3.html) are an interesting touch.. i can get a zalman 7000alcu hsf off ebay for less than £30, so that brings the whole solution in to well under a ton..

nice.

I've been looking into this my self as my study sounds like a helicopter is hovering in it.

Here's what i've come up with (this is a full spec, not just a case, as that's a much better solution than reusing existing parts).

okay, it's not a full spec as dabs has lost my wish list. I do have it written down, but i'm not typing it all in now.

the case is the antec sonata 380. Getting a graphics card with no fan, and a decent cpu cooler (I'm going for the gigabyte rocket cooler).

It won't be a silent pc obviously as the power supply still has a fan and the case has 1, but it will be pretty quiet as they are all temp controlled and low noise parts.

You can go for a completely silent psu, but then you have to be really careful as there will be only convection driven airflow inside the case. You'd need a low power chip and a very good passive cooling solution to be able to avoid a cpu fan, or water cooling. But that's getting a bit exotic for me and I can't be bothered with it.

I looked into water cooling at one point, the prices have dropped quite a bit lately and also there are lots of easy to install kits popping up...

but the fact remains you still need fans to cool the radiator(s), although you can just get a couple of low rpm 120mm fans that will be quite silent...

I think maybe I'll consider water cooling and going for a silent system with next computer, or major upgrade...

I'm thinking of upgrading to a 64bit system so maybe I'll shell out for silence then... because at the moment with 5 case fans, dual fan PSU and a powerful 92mm fan on my CPU my case is damn noisy!

i've seen a ready to install water kit that has a large heat radiator with no fans to shed the heat.
But I don't have room under my desk for what amounts to a large (well, tall anyway) blue radiator.

Definetly buy an Antec Sonata case. I have one sat one foot away from me and I cannot hear it at all.

Originally posted by alchresearch
Definetly buy an Antec Sonata case. I have one sat one foot away from me and I cannot hear it at all.

hmm.. i was originally going to get the sonata, but after reading this review (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article116-page1.html) i decided on the 3700bqe.. it is cheaper and has more space inside, as well as better airflow (which will hopefully translate to slower fan speeds)..

however, the sonata is definitely better looking aesthetically.. anything else to consider when choosing between the two cases? i know the sonata has a 380w psu but i'm guessing the difference between that and the 3700's 350w one isn't really that significant..

interestingly enough I was worried that 380 might not actually be enough.
AMD recommend 450 with a dual 12v rail for stability reasons.

But i decided that 380 was just good enough.

Originally posted by dirtybobby
hmm.. i was originally going to get the sonata, but after reading this review (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article116-page1.html) i decided on the 3700bqe.. it is cheaper and has more space inside, as well as better airflow (which will hopefully translate to slower fan speeds)..

however, the sonata is definitely better looking aesthetically.. anything else to consider when choosing between the two cases? i know the sonata has a 380w psu but i'm guessing the difference between that and the 3700's 350w one isn't really that significant..

it doesn't say in that article that it has better airflow than the sonata, the comparison is with the non quiet version of the same case.
It is cheaper though and includes many of the sonata's quiet functionality.
I like the idea of the glossy black piano finish though.

Interesting that they note at the end that all that's required to make it truly silent is a change of psu and fan (I presume they mean cpu cooling changed for a fanless version)... Not sure how safe that would be running a 64 bit athlon though.

Originally posted by Cyclone
it doesn't say in that article that it has better airflow than the sonata, the comparison is with the non quiet version of the same case.
It is cheaper though and includes many of the sonata's quiet functionality.
I like the idea of the glossy black piano finish though.

Interesting that they note at the end that all that's required to make it truly silent is a change of psu and fan (I presume they mean cpu cooling changed for a fanless version)... Not sure how safe that would be running a 64 bit athlon though.

it does, check out page 4 (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article116-page4.html) right before the PROs and CONs section at the bottom:

Between the 3700BQE and the Sonata, which would I choose?

The 3700BQE, no matter what. It breathes better so it'll run cooler at the same noise levels, it's roomier inside and it costs less money than the Sonata. The one thing the Sonata has going for it is the front Firewire port, but that's not much of an obstacle to work around in order to start with a better case.

all the way through the article they make reference to how the 3700bqe is all the good bits of the sonata together with all the good bits of the original 3700amb!

i won't be overclocking or running any crazy bleeding edge cpu, so i'm hoping a zalman 7000alcu running in silent mode will be plenty to keep my athlon xp 1700+ in check..

thanks for the input so far people, this has proved helpful..

i run a 3.2ghz amd athlon (cpu thats hot as fugg) solely on air, and its damn quiet. (1x 120mm noiseblocker and about 3/4 s1's/s2's)

my shuttle is kitted out with NB fans too.

i have a crappy £10 case from ebuyer, running a £40 Tagan 480w PSU kitted out with Noiseblocker fans.

With a 1700 athlon, you could get away with a NoiseBlocker S2 exhaust - same for intake. S1 twinned with a Thermalright CPU Cooler and that would do you.

The noiseblockers push loads of air when related to noise given off.

We used to stock them locally at Tekheads, but as theyve gone west youll have to order from them online :(

should you opt for a new case, why not look at the black Antec Sonata.

you're right it does, I don't know how i missed that first time around.

hmmm, is the shiny black finish enough to make me stick with the sonata or should i change my mind....

It might be worth finding out the thermal output of your chip though, just because it's older and slower doesn't mean it's cooler, it's probably fabbed on a larger size which means more heat (I think it works that way around).

Originally posted by sheff_minx
The noiseblockers push loads of air when related to noise given off.

We used to stock them locally at Tekheads, but as theyve gone west youll have to order from them online :(

i'll look into these, thanks..

should you opt for a new case, why not look at the black Antec Sonata.

lol the majority of this thread is discussion centred around sonata vs. 3700bqe! i think the 3700bqe seems to be a slightly better (if slightly more unsightly) option..

i've just ordered the zalman 7000b-aclu cpu hsf.. shall i use the thermal grease that comes with it would anyone recommend a 3rd party solution? it's only a couple of quid so if would make a difference i guess it would make sense..

arctic silver (i think that's the name) has a good reputation.

Originally posted by sheff_minx
With a 1700 athlon, you could get away with a NoiseBlocker S2 exhaust - same for intake. S1 twinned with a Thermalright CPU Cooler and that would do you.

The noiseblockers push loads of air when related to noise given off.

We used to stock them locally at Tekheads, but as theyve gone west youll have to order from them online :(

they're still listed at tekheads (http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/search?action=search&phrase=noiseblocker&department=&sortBy=1).. i like the look of the sx1 120mm fan..

Late in the day but a few things I've learned about quiet PC's..

Zalman are undoubtedly reknowned for their quiet components BUT they aren't always worth it...

You can shop around plenty on stores like ebuyer and check for reviews on fan components, cases, etc... Often, you will find that really cheap bits will cost peanuts but still have a VERY low noise output. Case in point is a bunch of 60mm fans I bought for less than a £1 a piece from ebuyer and they are so quiet I had to check they were working.

In terms of PSU's enermax provide a very useful function on many of their power supplies with a manual control that allows you to speed up or down your PSU's fan rotation. They are also rock solid in terms of power output... You pay extra but those are the ones to go for...

Beyond that, a cheap case is a waste of time as it'll vibrate and amplify the noise of any components... The hard drives mentioned in this example aren't the quietest for example...

You're better looking for something more costly but with little tweaks like rubber gromit mountings for hard drives, good circulation for cooling, etc...


One thing to bear in mind though... various "quieting" technology such as rubber gromits on mountings or sound proofing materials come at the cost of greater heat retention or removal of heat disipation routes so you need to factor in good air flow, and cooling for components without losing the whole benefit of reduced noise through loud fans...

Originally posted by Martin_s
Late in the day but a few things I've learned about quiet PC's..

Zalman are undoubtedly reknowned for their quiet components BUT they aren't always worth it...

yeah, i went for the zalman 7000alcu as it seemed to get very favourable reviews everywhere, and thought it best not to risk my cpu for the sake of a few quid (it came to less than £25 incl. vat and delivery)..

You can shop around plenty on stores like ebuyer and check for reviews on fan components, cases, etc... Often, you will find that really cheap bits will cost peanuts but still have a VERY low noise output. Case in point is a bunch of 60mm fans I bought for less than a £1 a piece from ebuyer and they are so quiet I had to check they were working.

i'll see how the system runs with the single 120mm fan for the time being, then if it looks to be too hot i'll have to think about investing in an intake fan..

Beyond that, a cheap case is a waste of time as it'll vibrate and amplify the noise of any components... The hard drives mentioned in this example aren't the quietest for example...

You're better looking for something more costly but with little tweaks like rubber gromit mountings for hard drives, good circulation for cooling, etc...

the review linked earlier in this thread addresses all these issues, and the 3700bqe seems to come out quite favourably.. they do mention some case vibration, but this was easily solved with a little rubber/silicon at the epicentre.. the case comes with rubber hard drive mounts, and is specifically designed to be quiet (which includes better airflow so as to reduce the need for noisy fans)..

right, time to take the plunge and place my order i think..

let us know how it turns out.
not sure when i'm going to make the plunge yet.

Originally posted by Cyclone
let us know how it turns out.
not sure when i'm going to make the plunge yet.

will do.. i'm expecting everything except the zalman to turn up today, but my existing hsf will do in the mean time if i get round to assembling it tonight.. which i probably won't, knowing me lol..

Originally posted by Cyclone
let us know how it turns out.
not sure when i'm going to make the plunge yet.

well, it's certainly not as quiet as i had hoped..

the zalman is great; it comes with a little potentiometer which you can mount internally or externally so you can adjust the speed of the integrated cpu fan.. at it's lowest setting it keeps my athlon xp 1700+ at around 35°c and i can't hear it at all..

i can't figure out where the main noise is coming from though.. i'm not sure whether it is the psu fan or the 120mm case exhaust fan.. if it is the latter, i'm going to try fitting an antec 120mm tricool DBB.. operates at 25dBA at it's lowest speed, apparently.. if it's the psu, i guess i'm just going to have to lump it until i can afford a quieter one..

don't get me wrong, this machine is loads quieter than my original behemoth (and looks purdier too), but i guess my expectations of antec's definition of "silent" were too high..

also, sisoft sandra (diagnostic reporting tool) reports that my mainboard temp is too high.. it's currently sitting at around 59°c.. does anyone have any ideas as to why this would be so high? i have taped down all the internal cabling so airflow should be ok in there.. i would have thought the 92mm zalman fan and the 120mm case exhaust would have kept it at a reasonable temperature?

Originally posted by dirtybobby
i can't figure out where the main noise is coming from though.. i'm not sure whether it is the psu fan or the 120mm case exhaust fan..
You may just have a bit of a poor mounting job so any vibration is being amplified through the case...

My betting though would be on the..
if it is the latter, i'm going to try fitting an antec 120mm tricool DBB.. operates at 25dBA at it's lowest speed, apparently.. if it's the psu, i guess i'm just going to have to lump it until i can afford a quieter one..
If you went with the antec sonata then you could take the sideways route and flog your PSU on ebay.. They go for a reasonable sum and should pay the bulk on a new enermax PSU..

Eating the difference would likely be a whole lot less painful... :)


don't get me wrong, this machine is loads quieter than my original behemoth (and looks purdier too), but i guess my expectations of antec's definition of "silent" were too high..
Much as I hate to say it... a little deeper research into the Sonata might turn up a few issues with regard to the noise and heat issues but it's still a good case...

also, sisoft sandra (diagnostic reporting tool) reports that my mainboard temp is too high.. it's currently sitting at around 59°c.. does anyone have any ideas as to why this would be so high? i have taped down all the internal cabling so airflow should be ok in there.. i would have thought the 92mm zalman fan and the 120mm case exhaust would have kept it at a reasonable temperature?
Hmm.. bit odd that... you may have your fans in the wrong way round or there could be some other incorrect settings like Farenheit instead of Celcius being reported... It could also be that the sensor is very close to the CPU or to hard drives... in fact hard drives could well be the issue so I'd recommend getting a utility like HD Tune to check that you're not overheating those...

Originally posted by dirtybobby

also, sisoft sandra (diagnostic reporting tool) reports that my mainboard temp is too high.. it's currently sitting at around 59°c.. does anyone have any ideas as to why this would be so high? i have taped down all the internal cabling so airflow should be ok in there.. i would have thought the 92mm zalman fan and the 120mm case exhaust would have kept it at a reasonable temperature?

That sys temp looks much too high.

I'd double check your temp readings with Speedfan or MBM [Mother board monitor] both freeware and eaily found via Google (Speedfan will also report HDD temps). It may be that the system sensor is in a daft position - eg in the wash of the exhaust from the CPU heatsink. You might also be able to check the temps in the BIOS, - lots of motherboards have this facility these days. If the noise is from the 120mm exhuast fan it could be cured by using flexible fan mountings and/or a fan gasket to decouple the fan from the case. You can also get gaskets to isolate the PSU from the case.

I'm running an XP1700+ in my system, and current temps are CPU 36C/system 27C, and it is virtually silent. CPU HS is a low profile solid copper thing intended for rack mount machines which I lapped to a mirror finish, and then fitted an 80mm fan via an adapter.

Mobo is an AOpen MATX and fans are manually controlled via their Silentek software. CPU and exhuast fans are cheap YSTech 80mm, with CPU fan @1500rpm and exhaust @1900. HDD is a Seagate Barracuda IV 80GB sitting in a foam block on the floor of the case cooled by a Panaflo 80mm fan which keeps it below 30C. PSU is a Jeantech 400W with a thermistor controlled fan I can't hear. Both case fans are mounted via rubber grommets.

I built this quite cheaply a couple of years ago in a standard Globalwin case from Tekheads.

the case he's used already comes with rubber mounts for the psu and case fan, so there shouldn't be any vibration noise from these.
also the hd's have rubber mounts to remove the vibration from that source.

Originally posted by Cyclone
the case he's used already comes with rubber mounts for the psu and case fan, so there shouldn't be any vibration noise from these.
also the hd's have rubber mounts to remove the vibration from that source.

yeah, it definitely sounds like wind turbulence rather than case reverberation.. i think it's the case exhaust being a little overzealous, so i'm going to replace it with a tricool one and see how that works out..

after looking at the sisoft report again it seems i was wrong; my mainboard temp is around 40° which is fine.. it is the PSU temp which is around 59°.. is this too high?

incidentally, it was the antec 3700bqe (http://www.silentpcreview.com/Sections+index-req-viewarticle-artid-116.html) case that i bought in the end, not the sonata.. it was a lot cheaper and seemed to offer more space and better airflow.. i have to say, i'm very happy with it so far..

Originally posted by Cyclone
[B]the case he's used already comes with rubber mounts for the psu and case fan, so there shouldn't be any vibration noise from these.
/B]


Ah yes...just read the review. My Globalwin case is very similar apart from the HDD cage and case fan sizes. I also had an initial problem with the PSU fan having to work too hard and being a little noisy.

The reason is that hot air in the case and some of the CPU exhaust is shunted into the space between the back of the PSU and top of the optical drive mounting area. This results in the PSU fan pulling in already hot air through the rear vents to cool the PSU !!, and much of the hot air never gets near the case fan.

My solution was to fit a piece of card along the PSU mounting rail and into the second optical drive bay.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/files/images/antec3700bqe/fin_int_side.jpg

This has the effect that the PSU pulls cool air from the front of the case around the top 5.25 bays and the hot air from the lower case and CPU exhaust is forced towards the rear case fan. Obviously you need to make a cut-out for the powewr cables descending into the case.

Doesn't work for double fanned PSUs but this Antec 3700BQE case doesn't seem to have that type.

Originally posted by dirtybobby
yeah, it definitely sounds like wind turbulence rather than case reverberation.. i think it's the case exhaust being a little overzealous, so i'm going to replace it with a tricool one and see how that works out..

after looking at the sisoft report again it seems i was wrong; my mainboard temp is around 40° which is fine.. it is the PSU temp which is around 59°.. is this too high?



I'd say it is too high. Most older AMD boards measure the CPU temp from a thermistor mounted underneath the CPU which reads arounf 10C less than the CPU core temp, so in your case the core temp is around 70C. Burn out for the chips is 90C I believe, - but the cooler you can run them the better.

Did you have a look at Speedfan ? - the software can control fan speed on quite a few motherboards. I think you can also set it to shut down the system if CPU temp gets too high or if a fan drops below a set rpm. MBM can also do this but I don't think it reads HDD temps so is not as useful as Speedfan.

Originally posted by Greybeard
I'd say it is too high. Most older AMD boards measure the CPU temp from a thermistor mounted underneath the CPU which reads arounf 10C less than the CPU core temp, so in your case the core temp is around 70C. Burn out for the chips is 90C I believe, - but the cooler you can run them the better.

Did you have a look at Speedfan ? - the software can control fan speed on quite a few motherboards. I think you can also set it to shut down the system if CPU temp gets too high or if a fan drops below a set rpm. MBM can also do this but I don't think it reads HDD temps so is not as useful as Speedfan.

it's the PSU temp that's at 59°c! the mainboard and CPU temp are both around 39°c, which strikes me as remarkably cool (bear in mind i'm running the cpu fan at the lowest possible speed; about 1200rpm)..

i'm wondering if my system is suffering from the problem you mentioned, whereby hot air is being recirculated to the psu intake.. that would certainly explain why the whole system seems so cool, yet the psu is struggling along at 60°c.. is there a solution to this problem, or is my only choice to botch together an airflow channel such as the cardboard method you mentioned?

Originally posted by dirtybobby
it's the PSU temp that's at 59°c! the mainboard and CPU temp are both around 39°c, which strikes me as remarkably cool (bear in mind i'm running the cpu fan at the lowest possible speed; about 1200rpm)..

i'm wondering if my system is suffering from the problem you mentioned, whereby hot air is being recirculated to the psu intake.. that would certainly explain why the whole system seems so cool, yet the psu is struggling along at 60°c.. is there a solution to this problem, or is my only choice to botch together an airflow channel such as the cardboard method you mentioned?

Sorry ....my mishtake :D

Well it doesn't have to be 'botched' - I managed quite a neat job and anyway who is going to see it ?

As a 'no cost' solution it's worth a try, - what puzzles me is that Mike Chin didn't encounter the problem in his review ??

Edit : - how are you reading the PSU temp ?

Originally posted by Greybeard
Sorry ....my mishtake :D

Well it doesn't have to be 'botched' - I managed quite a neat job and anyway who is going to see it ?

how should i best go about this then? did you just cut a piece of cardboard the width of the drive rail, and then bend it so that it channelled air from the empty drive bays under your optical drive up to the psu? i'm toying with the idea of somehow mounting an antec 92mm tricool fan in this space so it might forcibly direct air up towards the psu.. it's quoted at 14dBA at it's lowest speed, so hopefully it wouldn't contribute to the overall noise output in any significant way..


Edit : - how are you reading the PSU temp ?

you know, i'm not 100% sure.. i was just firing up sisoft sandra and going by the figures in there! i seem to remember the psu having a 3-pin connector which i connected to one of the motherboard's fan headers, but that would just measure fan rpm.. i think i'm going to have to do a bit of RTFMing tonight before i start modifying anything, it might just be falsely reporting the temperature!

In my case the rails holding the PSU are angle steel running front to back, I trimmed a piece of thick card to a tight fit and it rests on the rails like the PSU. You just need to make a suitable cut-out for the power cables. I wouldn't spend any more money until you've tried this; - check the PSU fan for heat and noise before and after with the system closed up, your hand will give a good indicatation of the heat difference.

The Sandra temp reading you're getting for the PSU must be spurious. Sandra and Speedfan etc can only read from motherboard sensors [AFAIK]. On my board I have three sensors, one of which gives a ridiculous reading of -90C !! For a better understanding of what you're seeing I'd suggest reading the helpfile that comes with Speedfan. The author has been studying motherboard sensors for years in order to develop and improve his software.

Which motherboard do you have ??

Originally posted by dirtybobby
well, it's certainly not as quiet as i had hoped..

<snip>

i can't figure out where the main noise is coming from though.. i'm not sure whether it is the psu fan or the 120mm case exhaust fan.. if it is the latter, i'm going to try fitting an antec 120mm tricool DBB.. operates at 25dBA at it's lowest speed, apparently.. if it's the psu, i guess i'm just going to have to lump it until i can afford a quieter one..

<snip>

IMHO 25dBA is not quiet at all! Personally I wouldn't buy anything quoted at over 21... I remember when I started going down the quiet route it was quite frustrating to find that whenever you silence one component, you suddenly notice just how noisy something else is! :) PSUs are the one that always used to be hard to get quiet versions of - silentpcreview is definitely the best place to look for this and other buying advice! My setup here is a *big* thermalright heatsink with a slowed Panaflo fan (and several more as case fans), a Nexus PSU and a passively cooled 9800 Pro Radeon (not cheap to buy without fans!). Oh and pick a quiet hd and try and stick to as few as possible... I found adding a second drive not only increased the noise from the drive bays, but really ramped up the noise coming from the PSU - since then I try to just stick to one drive when possible. With case fans, make sure they are intelligently placed - some of the available fans in my case make 5+ degrees difference to the temperature, some almost nothing!

Originally posted by rich951
IMHO 25dBA is not quiet at all!

see, that's the thing; i see noise levels quoted everywhere but i don't actually know how these translate into real world sound levels.. what would you suggest is a decent threshold? basically, i want my pc to be quiet enough for me to leave it on overnight without it bothering the missus (my pc is in the bedroom)..


Personally I wouldn't buy anything quoted at over 21... I remember when I started going down the quiet route it was quite frustrating to find that whenever you silence one component, you suddenly notice just how noisy something else is! :)

yeah, if i turn the zalman CPU fan all the way down (which is easy to do every night thanks to the handy fanmate controller) the case fan suddenly becomes a lot more apparent.. i think i need to get the case fan quieter before i start mucking about with anything else.. any recommendations?

Oh and pick a quiet hd and try and stick to as few as possible... I found adding a second drive not only increased the noise from the drive bays, but really ramped up the noise coming from the PSU

ah i never thought of this.. i've actually got 3 HDDs in there.. i don't mind the hard drive noise, because it is intermittant and not really intrustive (it's the overall, constant noise level i want to reduce so i can sleep with the machine turned on).. i never thought about how adding drives would increase the psu load, which i guess would translate to more fan activity..

so.. i think my first job is to replace the case fan.. i'll have a quick look on www.silentpcreview.com but does anyone have any personal recommendations?

The Zalmans are not always as good as they're supposed to be, I got the ZM-OP1 (thin allegedly quiet fan to fit in my Shuttle) which has to be turned down to lowest speed or I can hear it from downstairs!

The nice new Western Digital hard drives are nice & quiet, I swapped 2 Seagates for WD Caviars & cut out most of the system noise that was left

If you want really silent fans for case cooling, get a couple or three SilenX 120mm fans, there's 11 & 14 dBA versions here (http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/Kustom_PCs_Shop_Case_Quiet_Fans_72.html)

Originally posted by steev
The Zalmans are not always as good as they're supposed to be, I got the ZM-OP1 (thin allegedly quiet fan to fit in my Shuttle) which has to be turned down to lowest speed or I can hear it from downstairs!

yeah i was surprised at how loud the zalman can be, but it is virtually silent with the speed turned down and this still keeps the cpu nice and cool..

If you want really silent fans for case cooling, get a couple or three SilenX 120mm fans, there's 11 & 14 dBA versions here (http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/Kustom_PCs_Shop_Case_Quiet_Fans_72.html)

ah now these look interesting.. bit costly for a fan, but if they really are as effective as they sound it may be worth it.. nice tip, thanks..

i was just looking at 200gb sata drives, the quietest that dabs stock is the seagate baracuda at 25db, the others were 27db and 35db (for the quantum).

I was also looking at the gigabyte rocketcooler. That's rated at 23.7db at it's lowest speed, rising to 37.2db at it's highest.
Are there much quieter heatsink/fan combo's available? I'd rather not go for a fanless solution.

Originally posted by dirtybobby
...bit costly for a fan, but if they really are as effective as they sound it may be worth it...

Silenx are the only fans worth more than a fiver IMHO, there has been the odd report of a duff one but apart from that they're golden.


Originally posted by Cyclone
i was just looking at 200gb sata drives, the quietest that dabs stock is the seagate baracuda at 25db, the others were 27db and 35db (for the quantum).

I was also looking at the gigabyte rocketcooler. That's rated at 23.7db at it's lowest speed, rising to 37.2db at it's highest.
Are there much quieter heatsink/fan combo's available? I'd rather not go for a fanless solution.

I had 2 SATA barracudas, which sounded like they're about to take off in one of these (http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/product.php?productid=17775). Swap for 2 Caviars, whisper quiet. As it's a small space I suppose it could've been vibration noise?

If you want a proper CPU cooler check these out... (http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20050607/index.html)

the caviars are rated at 34dba, louder by quite a lot than the baracudas... how far these values are trustworthy I don't know.
The caviars as far as I can see don't even have fluid dynamic bearings, which are staple components of reduced noise drives.

Had a quick look at the article, every single one of those produces more noise than the rocketcooler (the quietest being 31.8db), although i expect that they also achieve a lower temperature.
I'm not going to be running a dual core monster though, the winchester (i think) athlon 64 3200+ is one of the more cool running modern chips.

edit to add
I missed the sonic tower on the noise graph, it's passive, so it's noise output is 0db. Quite impressive. What's more impressive is that tomsHD specificaly says that a winchester athlon 64 in a case with reasonable airflow will work fine with the passive cooling (it has optional fan mounts if more cooling is required)... i'm tempted to add this to my list, although it's large!

Hmm, not sure about the reviews. Can't comment but my Caviars are definitely quieter than the barracudas I had. I would put it down to a one-off if it wasn't both barracudas. The barracudas got relegated to my server after about 6 months.

Originally posted by Cyclone
...I missed the sonic tower on the noise graph, it's passive, so it's noise output is 0db. Quite impressive. What's more impressive is that tomsHD specificaly says that a winchester athlon 64 in a case with reasonable airflow will work fine with the passive cooling...

That one was the main reason I posted the link. If passive gets you a bit paranoid (& it would me with a 3200+) you can add one of the aforementioned Silenx 120mm fans to it, the fan mounting bracket comes with the cooler.

Originally posted by steev
That one was the main reason I posted the link. If passive gets you a bit paranoid (& it would me with a 3200+) you can add one of the aforementioned Silenx 120mm fans to it, the fan mounting bracket comes with the cooler.

i'd rather get everything from dabs, then i only have to pay postage once. They've got a temp controlled antec 120mm fan for £12.41, so that should do the job if a fan is required.

http://www.dabs.com/uk/ProductView?quicklinx=2RWK

Originally posted by dirtybobby
so.. i think my first job is to replace the case fan.. i'll have a quick look on www.silentpcreview.com but does anyone have any personal recommendations?

As far as fans go, 21 dBA is my usual threshold for something nice and quiet. I've had a lot of success with Panaflo 80mm fans, and I've bought a few from Dorothy Bradbury (http://www.dorothybradbury.co.uk/) (an old ebay seller) - make sure you get the quieter versions, they make several. Putting one of those on a Zalman CPU cooler made a huge difference - when you compare their fans side by side to something like a Panaflo, there's a big difference!

Forgot to mention in my previous post, I have a couple of old Socket A Zalman Flower coolers sitting in a box if anyone's interested (otherwise I might as well stick 'em on ebay).

Current setup in this pc: big Thermalright cooler with Panaflo fan, Nexus 300W psu (forget what people say, that's plenty for me with my single HD :)), Radeon 9800 Pro with silent heatpipe cooler, Hitachi hd and a fair few Panaflo case fans. 4 or 5 maybe, I forget ;) All slowed down of course...