Fans too loud
 

I believe I have 5 fans in my current pc case, and even with some of them being fairly quiet, the ambient noise level is extremely high. At one point I had tried a ridiculous volcano fan, but it sounded like a vacuum cleaner was running 24x7.

My question is, is there a way to significantly lower the overall fan noise, but still maintain a high level of cooling. I am not overclocking, but I am in a room with a relatively high ambient temperature.

What types of fans are in your case?

In my computer, the power supply is the loudest fan... maybe get a fanless PSU?

If it is a very big problem, you may also look at alternative cooling methods such as water cooling or others. They will normally cost more, but the results are normally better and...calm

yeah... until it leaks and your system is toast.... something to think about.. ;)

shht, that was supposed to be the secret :rolleyes:

Yes, obviously don't forget to look at the price tags for water cooling, if it's too cheap to be true, it probably isn't. You DO want quality on that ;)

"If it's too cheap to be true, it probably isn't".
You mean it probably is?

Erm...did I mess that one up?

No, seems fine :rolleyes:

In generic term, if you buy a uber-cheap cooling system, don't come whining that it exploded in your hands, destroyed your computer, burned down the house and ruined your life.

If you buy a good one, then don't worry about any of that.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Just use distilled water.

I wish I could tell you at this point. I have one antec fan in the front that I think is fairly quiet. It is what I replaced the volcano or tornado or whatever it was with. The two on the back are relatively inexpensive fans. I think they are all 80mm or whatever the standard size is.

It could possibly be my PSU fan, but I don't see how I could run my system without a PSU fan.

You can get PSU's with no fan, or a VERY quiet fan. Also try and use 120mm low rpm fans in your case if you can, like a panaflo low flo. That right there will bring down your noise a lot. Then you can go with third party fans for your video card/cpu and northbridge even.

Currently my primary comp is pretty quiet, I use a Zalman 9500 for my CPU, a Zalman VF900 for the video card, and a Silverstone PSU which is very quiet.

:lol: :rofl: :lol: :rofl: :rofl:

Easiest way is just to volt mod the fans to run at either 7 or 5v instead of 12v. Take a molex splitter and switch the yellow and red wires on the ends. Make sure you mark the connector so that you don't accidently try to plug anything else into them.

Then take heat measurements, if it stays within range, your good.

I'd replace the PS fan with a panaflo low speed, or just replace the whole PS with a silent model.

If you have spaces for 120mm fans, use them instead of 80mm ones. If not, you may still be able to replace them with use of fan adaptors.

If your cpu get two hot, look into ducting the air onto it. If it's your video card fan, there's a few good silent replacement cooling solutions out there for video cards. I believe I bought one for my old 9800 pro over at either SVC or Directron.

I've been in your position before.

Also, if your case has decent airflow, you may be able to do without some of those fans simply by upgrading your heatsink and using thermal paste correctly. A good heatsink, installed correctly, beats additional case fans. It may even be possible to go completely fanless!

the EASIEST thing to do (or at least try) is to go to Advance Discount Auto Parts and pick up about 5' of small air hose. Use an Xacto knife and cut it straight down the middle. Use this as molding for the fans, it will reduce any vibrations, and probably cost you around 89 cents a foot. Also, try using grommets in the fan screw holes. This may help..... Xoxide.com also has as Quiet PC section... http://www.xoxide.com/quietpc.html this may help.

My comp is loud as hell I just turn the music up and keep playing crysis.

Several good solutions but some you may not have heard of:

Small rubber mounts for your fans instead of screws, available at newegg and several stores, I believe I saw them at OfficeMax as well but Best Buy will carry them, they are cheap and offer a vibration free mounting for your fans.

You may not need that many fans in the first place, fan psoitinong is more improtant thatn quantity. If you have more than one slot ofr video card and fans try rearranging things inside your case. I found just getting things in the right position could reduce heat by five degrees.

A really good suggestion is the side fan and pushing or pulling air directly to the CPU cooler. If the CPU cooler has a fan on the top try pulling air out and directly through a tube to the outside. This will reduce oiverall temps inside your computer case considerably.

I find that just getting things in the right place and thinking logically about where air is coming and going inside the case as well as what is generating heat makes a big difference. Keep things neat and tidy inside for better airflow and use the natural design of whateveer case you have help the airflow go past the things you need to have cooled.

Good luck.

Jeff

If you're looking for replacements there some good, silent fans by Yate Loon, Scythe and Noctua.

Either Water cool or get some silent fans that are 140mm if you have space there very quiet

Few ideas, thoughts, and suggestions that I have:

• The first way you could improve your cooling is by lowering the temperature of your room you could run your fans slower or even disable some. Thing is thermodynamically the hotter your room the less efficient ANY cooling scheme is. Think carnot efficiency here: ((temperature hot) - (temperature cold))/ (temperature hot) if the two temperatures are close together you get a small number over a big number, and low efficiency, thus more fans to do the same amount of work that could be done with a lower room temperature.

• Use 120mm fans, where possible, they are bigger and move more air with less RPMs and in turn less noise.
• Invest in a fan controller, if you have 5 fans I'll bet most of the time you don't need all that air moving power, when you're not pushing your computer to the max you can run the fans at about half speed, which should cut the noise by more than half. I personally do this and with my fans at 50% I notice 2-4 degrees more on average. This is a small price to pay for my sanity from the dreaded fans.

Ok , Well i didnt read through ALL the idea's , one thing I didnt see mentioned was to grease/oil the fans you allready have ( if possible ). If they have a sticker on the center, peel it back and if underneath the sticker you see an open hole with the fan blade pole in there, put in a drop or two of sewing machine ( 5 in 1 ) oil . This way if its the bearings that are causing the noise, it'll stop.

I agree with the other posts but the quietest fans with the most airflow I have found are the Noctua 120 mms if you can afford them. I spent a good chunk of money on a few of the 80mm for my sff job and they were worth every penny. They are practically silent but blow a good bit of air.

Undervolting! A few of my fans are running undervolted, and are SILENT. They still push enough air for my liking, so it's win-win.

If this has been suggested before, sorry for repeating :)

If your fan guards are the kind with tiny holes or even the kind with small slots, you can make the fans quieter by cutting them out and replacing them with the kind that look like barbecue grills.
http://www.svc.com/finguargril.html
Front fans don't need any guards.
This will do 2 things increase airflow, and slow the fan down 1 or 2 hundred RPMs.
I know this sounds counter intuitive, but although not true DC fans, the speed is still effected by load, the more airflow the more load. hence slower speed and quieter.

Edit: the little holes are a source of noise also