building a quiet system

I'm fed up with the noise of my PC. CPU fan, power supply fans, video card
fan, case fans, hard drives (well, the hard drives I could put up
with)....it sounds like a jet taking off in my office.

Short of water cooling a system (which I'm not prepared to do), what are the
most effective steps I can take to eliminate system NOISE?

I think the biggest offenders in my current system are the retail CPU fan
(AMD XP 2000+), the fan on my ridiculously large GeForce 4600 video card,
and the power suppy (Antec 350W Smart Power).

I've disconnected all the case fans and instead aimed a big (maybe 10in
diameter) fan at the side of the open case (the big fan runs very quietly),
but the Athlon XP 2000+ seems to run quite hot and I don't think I can get
away with no cooling fan there...same goes for the video card, I think.

Money is a consideration. Are there any cases out there that offer serious
sound baffling of some kind but maintain decent airflow? Or has anyone
tried a home-made sound barrier of some kind? I know that getting rid of
all the fans is the most direct approach, but as I mentioned above, I'm not
so thrilled at the idea of water cooling (just looks too complicated and
expensive), and I'd prefer not to have to replace all my current system
components with pieces designed specifically for low sound. I know I'll
need to compromise somewhere, but I'd appreciate advice about the most cost
effective and sensible way to proceed.

Thanks

I've built a nearly silent pc cheaply and easily. I bought a Zalman Flower
Cooler kit for the cpu for about $30, a Zalman heat pipe cooler for the
GeForce for about $5 (Fry's had a sale) and then used my existing case fan
with a speed control. That cut the noise in half and my CPU runs cooler.
Then I changed my PSU fan to a quieter model and then all I could hear was
the whine of the hard drive. Let me tell you that once you get started on
this project you will accept no less than 100% silence. The whine noise
drove me nuts, so I bought a Samsung SpinPoint series drive and now I have
total silence.

"SS" wrote in message
...
I'm fed up with the noise of my PC. CPU fan, power supply fans, video
card
fan, case fans, hard drives (well, the hard drives I could put up
with)....it sounds like a jet taking off in my office.

Short of water cooling a system (which I'm not prepared to do), what are
the
most effective steps I can take to eliminate system NOISE?

I think the biggest offenders in my current system are the retail CPU fan
(AMD XP 2000+), the fan on my ridiculously large GeForce 4600 video card,
and the power suppy (Antec 350W Smart Power).

I've disconnected all the case fans and instead aimed a big (maybe 10in
diameter) fan at the side of the open case (the big fan runs very
quietly),
but the Athlon XP 2000+ seems to run quite hot and I don't think I can get
away with no cooling fan there...same goes for the video card, I think.

Money is a consideration. Are there any cases out there that offer
serious
sound baffling of some kind but maintain decent airflow? Or has anyone
tried a home-made sound barrier of some kind? I know that getting rid of
all the fans is the most direct approach, but as I mentioned above, I'm
not
so thrilled at the idea of water cooling (just looks too complicated and
expensive), and I'd prefer not to have to replace all my current system
components with pieces designed specifically for low sound. I know I'll
need to compromise somewhere, but I'd appreciate advice about the most
cost
effective and sensible way to proceed.

Thanks

I suggest you visit http://www.silentpcreview.com/
You'll find a tremendous amount of information there about quieting PCs.
Be sure to visit the forums.

"SS" wrote in message
...
I'm fed up with the noise of my PC. CPU fan, power supply fans, video
card
fan, case fans, hard drives (well, the hard drives I could put up
with)....it sounds like a jet taking off in my office.

Short of water cooling a system (which I'm not prepared to do), what
are the
most effective steps I can take to eliminate system NOISE?

I think the biggest offenders in my current system are the retail CPU
fan
(AMD XP 2000+), the fan on my ridiculously large GeForce 4600 video
card,
and the power suppy (Antec 350W Smart Power).

I've disconnected all the case fans and instead aimed a big (maybe
10in
diameter) fan at the side of the open case (the big fan runs very
quietly),
but the Athlon XP 2000+ seems to run quite hot and I don't think I can
get
away with no cooling fan there...same goes for the video card, I
think.

Money is a consideration. Are there any cases out there that offer
serious
sound baffling of some kind but maintain decent airflow? Or has
anyone
tried a home-made sound barrier of some kind? I know that getting rid
of
all the fans is the most direct approach, but as I mentioned above,
I'm not
so thrilled at the idea of water cooling (just looks too complicated
and
expensive), and I'd prefer not to have to replace all my current
system
components with pieces designed specifically for low sound. I know
I'll
need to compromise somewhere, but I'd appreciate advice about the most
cost
effective and sensible way to proceed.

Thanks

My computer is too loud also

i dont know what is the best way to tell what makes the most noise really...

but i know once i start making it quiet, as said in previous posts, i wont
be able to stop making it silent, and therefore spending more and more
money!

it prob doesnt help having two cpus and therefore two fast and noisey fans!!
"Biff" wrote in message
link.net...
I suggest you visit http://www.silentpcreview.com/
You'll find a tremendous amount of information there about quieting PCs.
Be sure to visit the forums.

"SS" wrote in message
...
I'm fed up with the noise of my PC. CPU fan, power supply fans, video
card
fan, case fans, hard drives (well, the hard drives I could put up
with)....it sounds like a jet taking off in my office.

Short of water cooling a system (which I'm not prepared to do), what
are the
most effective steps I can take to eliminate system NOISE?

I think the biggest offenders in my current system are the retail CPU
fan
(AMD XP 2000+), the fan on my ridiculously large GeForce 4600 video
card,
and the power suppy (Antec 350W Smart Power).

I've disconnected all the case fans and instead aimed a big (maybe
10in
diameter) fan at the side of the open case (the big fan runs very
quietly),
but the Athlon XP 2000+ seems to run quite hot and I don't think I can
get
away with no cooling fan there...same goes for the video card, I
think.

Money is a consideration. Are there any cases out there that offer
serious
sound baffling of some kind but maintain decent airflow? Or has
anyone
tried a home-made sound barrier of some kind? I know that getting rid
of
all the fans is the most direct approach, but as I mentioned above,
I'm not
so thrilled at the idea of water cooling (just looks too complicated
and
expensive), and I'd prefer not to have to replace all my current
system
components with pieces designed specifically for low sound. I know
I'll
need to compromise somewhere, but I'd appreciate advice about the most
cost
effective and sensible way to proceed.

Thanks

I use a sheet of paper rolled up into a cone and use it as a "stethoscope"
to pinpoint sources of noise.

Like you say, once the loudest source is eliminated, you hear the next,
source, etc.

Currently, my SONY SDM-X202 lcd monitor (has a cooling fan inside) and
WD1200JB disk idling make the most noise. The typical person can't hear
either unless being told about it.



KW_UK wrote:
My computer is too loud also

i dont know what is the best way to tell what makes the most noise
really...

but i know once i start making it quiet, as said in previous posts, i
wont be able to stop making it silent, and therefore spending more
and more money!

it prob doesnt help having two cpus and therefore two fast and noisey
fans!! "Biff" wrote in message
link.net...
I suggest you visit http://www.silentpcreview.com/
You'll find a tremendous amount of information there about quieting
PCs. Be sure to visit the forums.

"SS" wrote in message
...
I'm fed up with the noise of my PC. CPU fan, power supply fans,
video card fan, case fans, hard drives (well, the hard drives I
could put up with)....it sounds like a jet taking off in my office.

Short of water cooling a system (which I'm not prepared to do),
what are the most effective steps I can take to eliminate system
NOISE?

I think the biggest offenders in my current system are the retail
CPU fan (AMD XP 2000+), the fan on my ridiculously large GeForce
4600 video card, and the power suppy (Antec 350W Smart Power).

I've disconnected all the case fans and instead aimed a big (maybe
10in
diameter) fan at the side of the open case (the big fan runs very
quietly), but the Athlon XP 2000+ seems to run quite hot and I
don't think I can get away with no cooling fan there...same goes
for the video card, I
think.

Money is a consideration. Are there any cases out there that offer
serious sound baffling of some kind but maintain decent airflow?
Or has
anyone
tried a home-made sound barrier of some kind? I know that getting
rid of all the fans is the most direct approach, but as I mentioned
above,
I'm not
so thrilled at the idea of water cooling (just looks too
complicated and expensive), and I'd prefer not to have to replace
all my current
system
components with pieces designed specifically for low sound. I know
I'll need to compromise somewhere, but I'd appreciate advice about
the most cost effective and sensible way to proceed.

Thanks

Thanks all for the tips and links....

On Sat, 20 Dec 2003 09:40:26 -0500, "SS"
wrote:

I'm fed up with the noise of my PC. ....it sounds like a jet taking off in my office.

Short of water cooling a system (which I'm not prepared to do), what are the
most effective steps I can take to eliminate system NOISE?

lowering fans to 7V, schematics on my site under electronics...

and the power suppy (Antec 350W Smart Power).

Money is a consideration.
Or has anyone
tried a home-made sound barrier of some kind?

I did ... :-) something similar ...

I know that getting rid of
all the fans is the most direct approach,

bad idea ...

I'm not
so thrilled at the idea of water cooling

me either, I run all my fans @5V, but I do not have so hot chip like
you do!

-- Regards, MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR, SPAJKY
& visit my site @ http://www.spajky.vze.com
Celly-III OC-ed,"Tualatin on BX-Slot1-MoBo!"
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On Sat, 20 Dec 2003 08:55:48 -0600, "D. Rogers"
wrote:
The whine noise
drove me nuts,

me to, but I resolved the problem like described under comp/mods on my
site ... :-)

-- Regards, MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR, SPAJKY
& visit my site @ http://www.spajky.vze.com
Celly-III OC-ed,"Tualatin on BX-Slot1-MoBo!"
E-mail AntiSpam: remove ##

"Spajky" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 20 Dec 2003 08:55:48 -0600, "D. Rogers"
wrote:
The whine noise
drove me nuts,

me to, but I resolved the problem like described under comp/mods on my
site ... :-)

-- Regards, MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR, SPAJKY
& visit my site @ http://www.spajky.vze.com
Celly-III OC-ed,"Tualatin on BX-Slot1-MoBo!"
E-mail AntiSpam: remove ##

ATT: Spajsky
Is here a simple way to connect fans to one 4 pin molex, one 3 position
(1,0,2) switch (the kind with 6 pins) and get a choice of 12v, 7v and 5v ?
no RPM sensoring needed.

TIA

On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 09:34:06 +0200, "Erez Volach"
wrote:

Is here a simple way to connect fans to one 4 pin molex, one 3 position
(1,0,2) switch (the kind with 6 pins) and get a choice of 12v, 7v and 5v ?
no RPM sensoring needed.

yes, but you have to be a bit carefull not to accidentaly short some
PSU voltages; another way (with diodes & switch) is described on my
site under electronics/fans2, 2nd page ...

-- Regards, MERRY HOLIDAYS & HAPPY NEW YEAR, SPAJKY ®
& visit my site @ http://www.spajky.vze.com
Celly-III OC-ed,"Tualatin on BX-Slot1-MoBo!"
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