Quieting down PC

[li_gangyi]

at 5V the fan might not even start up...maybe u could oil all of ur fan's bearings...or get those with a damped bearing...

[eRiCdWoNg]

Thats it I cant take it anymore...i'm gonna build/do something to shut the PC up. I thought about the easiest would be to get extension cords and put the computer in the fireplace or the basement. I also thought about building a case....with some sort of a slotted setup

Any thoughts on a remote computer setup in another room?

[owdi]

Originally posted by eRiCdWoNg
Thats it I cant take it anymore...i'm gonna build/do something to shut the PC up. I thought about the easiest would be to get extension cords and put the computer in the fireplace or the basement. I also thought about building a case....with some sort of a slotted setup

Any thoughts on a remote computer setup in another room?

No need.. really. First find out where the noise is coming from. Open the case and try stopping some of the fans with your finger to see what change there is. You'll probably find that you have a 5000rpm screamer on your chipset, or on your video card, that is causing most of the noise.

Remeber, all of the noise must come from either fans or the hard drive. By using low rpm fans and quiet hard drives you can make any system whipser quiet, even in a crappy case.

An easy trick for noisy fans it to run them at a lower voltage. This can be done by grounding them to the +5v line (the red wire on a 4-pin prong), so they run at 7v. Good for those 5000rpm screamers which really don't need to spin so fast (unless you have a high end video card).

Another really easy and cheap trick is to cut out the grill on the back of your PSU. This will make it noticably more quiet, and increase airflow. You can then safely undervolt the PSU fan to make it even quieter.

Dan

[lolojr1]

try water cooling do a gogle search for water cooled pc

[eRiCdWoNg]

I musta hit something wrong cause I opened up my PC's power supply to disable the fan, plugged it back in and saw a big flash and puff of smoke. Hopefully I didnt ruin anything else. Looks like a need a new power supply.

I found this vendor, seems like they got some good stuff and isnt ridiculously expensive. http://www.endpcnoise.com/

[sam9]

check www.performance-pcs.com

This is good source for things like fanless power supplies such as CoolMax, fanless CPU heatsinks, low noise fans.

If you don't have to have the fastes CPU arounf, you can probably build a completely fanless PC. If must still have a fan, such as a case fan you will want to look for the largest diameter 120mm truning relatively slowly - choice of grill and use sound absorbant materials can help as well. Also be aware that high performance video cards often need a small fan, but if you are not into games these can be avoided. Some HDD's list a noise spec so be sure to read these.

[dave1968]

big flash and puff of smoke. heh i bet theres more fried than just the power supply now.

[li_gangyi]

dun...dun take out the fan in a psu...the heatsinks on the MOSFETs are too small to handle the heat...

[eRiCdWoNg]

Well I ordered replacements for the 2 noisiest parts- the PSU and the case fan. I am using both Nexus components, the fan and the PSU. Hopefully it will restore my computer (assuming I didnt fry anything else) and will be much quieter then before. I'll report once I get the parts installed.

[eRiCdWoNg]

Well I got the stuff in last night. I also reinstalled one of the 2 hard drives this time instead of using zipties, securely mounted in drive bays.

Computer is quieter. It still isnt "dead silent" as I had hoped but I'm sure that is due to the whirring hard drives. Its much more bearable now. I still may build a case.

I dropped $80 into this project. I should have just spent the extra $500 or so and bought a new pc