Building a Silent, Air-Cooled System 392
A reader:"Tired of those whining fans? Want some piece and quiet when working on your PC? Water cooling can be too expensive and too complicated to install, why not just stick to air cooling? This article describes how you can remove PC noise without turning the inside of your PC case into a small oven. Follow the road to silence while keeping an eye on the system temperature."
Seagte Barracuda Hard Drives (Score:5, Informative)
Old news (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Seagte Barracuda Hard Drives (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Seagte Barracuda Hard Drives (Score:3, Informative)
What I hate about all drives, even the Seagate's, is they every few minutes they go into some self check mode or something. I have no idea what the drive is doing, but it gets louder. This is not disk access, it's like when the drive has been mostly idle for several minutes it starts doing something (internal checks or something?). It's annoyingly loud though.
Wow, it's slow. (Score:3, Informative)
That said, what impresses me is that they pulled it off with an A64 3200.
--
Free iPod? Try a free Mac Mini [freeminimacs.com]
Or a free Nintendo DS, GC, PS2, Xbox [freegamingsystems.com]
Wired article as proof [wired.com]
Economical - Slowing Fans (Score:5, Informative)
I converted my fans to run on 7 volts. All you have to do is switch the order of the wires around on the molex power connector. It's really easy:
http://www.dslwebserver.com/main/fr_index.html?/m
I didn't experience any increase in temperature, but the noise level in my case went down specifically.
OT: VW Beetle (Score:2, Informative)
Sorry, but they stopped making them in 2003 [germancarfans.com].
Slashdotted: Bye, bye,bye,bye,buy: a mirror,mirror (Score:0, Informative)
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Case fans at half speed:
Let's start of with the easiest of manipulations: reducing the speed of the two case fans should silence the system a bit, without losing too much cooling power.
Each fan's rotation speed was cut in half using the Aerogate II fan controller:
(number between () is compared to default configuration)
Noise measurement: 37.1dBA (-2)
CPU: 56 (-1)
System: 38 (+4)
PWM: 47 (+1)
HDD: 36 (+7)
RAM: 39 (+1)
VGA: 59.5 (+2)
Top: 34.5 (+1.5)
Bottom: 35 (+4)
Reducing the airflow inside you can see some changes; the hard drive's temp raises quite a bit, the other components only become a few degrees warmer. CPU actually becomes 1°C cooler, this is within the margin of error though, and it's quite possible that the two case fans were disrupting the airflow towards the CPU's fan.
Case fans at zero speed:
Now let's see how the system does without any case fans running:
(number between () is compared to default configuration)
Noise measurement: 36.8dBA (-2.3)
CPU: 57 (0)
System: 41 (+7)
PWM: 47 (+1)
HDD: 38 (+9)
RAM: 40.1 (+2.1)
VGA: 61.5 (+4)
Top: 36.5 (+3.5)
Bottom: 38 (+7)
The noise doesn't decrease a lot when compared to the system running with the case fans running at half speed. The temperatures however increase quite a bit, closing in on +10°C for the HDD.
Conclusion: a fan controller should be near the top of your purchase list
Cost of the modification: $15-$70 depending on your needs.
Madshrimps (c)
Adding a fan controller can help reduce the noise generated the system's case fans effectively without affecting temperature a lot. Even a little bit of airflow proves to be much better then none at all. You can go all out and buy a fan controller with all the bells and whistles (memory card readers, LCD display, and allow control through software in Windows) or stick with a more modest model which features a series of knobs which control the fan's speed.
Re:Seagte Barracuda Hard Drives (Score:5, Informative)
If your computer is scanning the drives, make sure you have fast search turned OFF in XP, it will try to index your HDD everytime it 'thinks' you aren't needing to access the drive. Also check for spyware and all the usual nonsense running in the background.
Finaly, you can suspend your HDD or use sleeves to stop the drive transmitting the vibrations to the case. The case can act a little like a guitar body and amplify the grinding sounds.
Comment removed (Score:2, Informative)
Article all on one page (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.madshrimps.be/printart.php?articID=286 [madshrimps.be]
Some advice from someone who just did it (Score:4, Informative)
When I first plugged in my new machine I was impressed by the sound but not blown away. A few weeks later I plugged in my old machine and my mouth literally dropped open at how loud it was.
31.7db isn't silent (Score:5, Informative)
The only way to have a truly silent case is to have no fans and an idle hard drive. If that isn't possible fans like Pabst 8412 NGL [plycon.com] are the next best thing. They don't move much air but they're very quiet. And a better solution IMO than the hard drive enclosures which drive up heat and reduce reliability is vibration isolators [compusa.com] combined with a naturally quiet drive like Seagates. There are some fanless and semi-fanless (doesn't run unless it gets hot) power supplies out there like the SilentMaxx Semifanless [quietpcusa.com]. And replace those stupd 60mm fans that they insist on using for CPUs and GPUs with big headsinks [thermalright.com] and/or heatpipes [zalmanusa.com]. Also install neoprene or other washers and use rubber to deaden case vibrations. Home Depot is a great source for a lot of this stuff.
Re:So buy more expensive fans? (Score:3, Informative)
There are so many things that it did not cover like slow moving 120mm fans move way more air then high rpm 80mm fans. How about using cases with minimal vents located only where air is needed to be took in or pushed out of the system. Cutting away with a pair of tin snips or a Dremel those "molded" fan guards and replacing them with super thin wire fan guards.
Not a lot of content in this article.
Re:.... How? (Score:4, Informative)
Of course, the simplest thing to do is buy new fans that have close to the same cfm rating while having a lower dbA rating.
My home machine is just on the other side of silent (excluding one annoying 80mm fan that's literally custom built into the steel frame of the case at a weird angle), and I have no problems keeping my Athlon64 3000+ @ 2529 with my load temps in the mid-40s.
If you want a really good example of this, look up the Arctic Cooler Silencer series. They do a better job of cooling the outrageously hot GPUs that are out now, and they're so quiet it's hard to tell if it's running or not.
Rip out the grill (Score:5, Informative)
In a quest to silence my P166 router, I ended up doing the following:
During these experiments I discovered that the PSU fan was almost silent when the PSU was disassembled, but quite noisy when everything was put back together. I ended up removing the ring shaped grill on the PSU with a hacksaw and the noise is now imperceptible. Of course you have to be careful when you reach your hand around to the back of the computer or you'll get a playful little bite from the plastic blades.
how to tweak the diamond max to be silent (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Rip out the grill (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Seagte Barracuda Hard Drives (Score:2, Informative)
Sounds like the Sleep Time for IDE access is set too low. Hard drive access doesn't have to happen to wake up the drive, any IDE access could trigger it. Chech your BIOS.
Silly people (Score:5, Informative)
- Seagate invented this "Fluid Dyamic Bearing" technology. As I understand it, rather than standard roller/ball bearings, an oil-like fluid is used so that the rotating shaft builds up pressure within a containing sleeve, similar to what happens with various drivetrain components in cars.
- The Seagate Barracuda IV drives pioneered using this technology about 4 years ago.
- Seagate licensed this technology to Maxtor.
- Other people may use it now, not sure.
- Just about all Seagate and Maxtor drives in the past 5 years use this technology.
- Yes, Seagate drives are typically more expensive, but they have a reputation for extensive testing and high reliability. (I'm not saying it's accurate or inaccurate, just that this is the rep - substantiated by the fact that most non-IBM servers used Seagate drives, though this has changed in recent years.)
- I run a mixture of Maxtor and Seagate drives, all with this technology, and have never had an issue with them.
Re:Seagte Barracuda Hard Drives (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Seagte Barracuda Hard Drives (Score:5, Informative)
FYI, I'll soon be building a noiseless AMD A64-3500+ for our living room. Once you've read the articles at SilentPCReview, no problem.
BTW, the Seagate barracuda's are no longer the quiet drives they used to be, since their acoustic managment software has been disabled (pending a lawsuit I think)
Peter
Minimal noise, minimal cost, maximal power (Score:3, Informative)
The rig has: A64 3000+, 1 GB PC3200, 160 GB HD, 6800GT. All it needs for cooling are the PSU, case, CPU, and GPU fans. By far, the loudest component is the NV Silencer 5. When I was using a passively-cooled GeForce 2 (waiting for the 6800GT to be reasonably available), the system was almost completely silent. If I had wanted to spend more, I could've made it absolutely inaudible, but it wasn't worth it to me. Building a quiet system is actually very easy and cheap, assuming you're buying all-new parts anyway.
Re:Seagte Barracuda Hard Drives (Score:2, Informative)
Seagate deals (Score:4, Informative)
Outpost.com [outpost.com] is almost perpetually running $50 rebates on all manners of Seagate drives over the past few weeks. I'm not affiliated, but I grabbed one a while back, just thought I'd pass it on.
Re:Seagte Barracuda Hard Drives (Score:3, Informative)
As for reliability, don't know. Haven't died on me yet...
*knocks on wood*
I'm hoping the low noise and low heat implies that they won't wear out too quickly.
Re:Seagte Barracuda Hard Drives (Score:4, Informative)
It depends on the model. I have a 7100.7 (or whatever it's called) and it does not support acoustic management. It has noticeable seek noise. The versions that became famous for quietness (the IV and V) were the previous versions to mine - these did support AM.
Meanwhile, all other manufacturers have started using FDB motors just like Seagate does, so the whine is gone, and if your drive supports acoustic management (almost all do, though you may need to download a utility to access it), then it very likely can be virtually silent too. There is no inherent advantage that the Barracuda models have in acoustics.
In addition to my Barracuda, I also have two Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9's and a Western Digital Performer 40 (this came with my TiVo but has been repurposed in my PC - you can't buy this drive separately). All three of these drives are quieter than my Barracuda with acoustic management set to "quiet" - in fact, one of the Maxtors is dead silent, and the other is so quiet I have to put my ear right up next to it to hear seeks. (There is a slight variation between the two units, even though they are the same model and capacity.)
I will say that one of my Maxtors was ear-splittingly loud when I first purchased it - ironically (or maybe not), it was the retail version. My other Maxtor was OEM. The retail drive was set to "performance" out of the box, whereas the OEM drive was already set to "quiet". Maybe this is by design, as Maxtor is obviously positioning these drives for different markets, but it has obviously led to a different reputation for Maxtor than Seagate has, despite Maxtor's drives being capable (like almost everybody else) of total silence.
The loudest part of most PC's other than the hard drive (which doesn't need to be loud at all) is the power supply. I've gone through a half dozen PSU's looking for a quiet one that's also beefy enough for my systems - I finally ordered an ironically-named Seasonic Super Tornado 350 [silentpcreview.com] today. Most people don't consider the PSU as a major source of noise - or if they do, they don't think they can do anything about it - but having swapped out enough of these things for one reason or another, I can vouch for the fact that not only is there a significant variation between PSU's in the volume of noise, they also can significantly affect the quality of noise from your PC. Right now I am using an Enermax PSU in one system and an Antec in another - both highly-rated PSU's from a power and build quality standpoint - but they both sound awful. They are not particularly loud (though they're louder than any other component I have), but they both emit sort of a low-pitched "buzzing" noise (it's not case vibration - I've checked - it's just the sound of the fans they're using), which I find extremely annoying. If you're looking to silence your PC, I'd recommend starting with the PSU.
Of course, most hardcore PC users really go overboard with fans too - I admit to having six case fans in one of my PC's (mainly for show, they're LED fans), but they're almost always turned down to minimum with a fan controller. Not silent, but not loud either. In my HTPC, I have three 80mm fans, one of which is disconnected, the others turned down to minimum using built-in manual fan controls. I have no stability or temperature problems with this machine at all, and except for the PSU (that's being replaced), it's very quiet.
Re:Rip out the grill (Score:2, Informative)
It'll be playful if you just touch the blades, but if you make it through the fan, there is probably a large heatsink right behind it with lots of voltage on it. Chances are that some other part of your finger or hand will be on the grounded part, so the shock won't go through your heart, but it'll really toast the end of your finger well. [neighborhoodvalues.com]
Perhaps a thin but strong grill would be useful? Or a larger grill at a further distance?
Re:So buy more expensive fans? (Score:3, Informative)
The fans failed.
I had a stock Athlon fan fail this week. Less than 4 mos old. The chip lasted about 8 minutes. *poof*.
Note to self: no matter how cheap you get the computer for, get a good fan.
Try 0 db PC, *this* is silent (Score:3, Informative)
Neo case from lex system [lex.com.tw]
I have 1GHz via proc, 3 eth, 2 usb (but usb 1.1), up to 512MB RAM, and sound.
Storage: I've chosen a very silent hard disk: seagate momentus 40GB 2.5" and Linux is tuned to spin down the drive: it only runs 15s every 10mn.
No CD/floppy drive: OS install with PXE and another PC on LAN.
You can have a real 0db system with LAN boot or using a compact flash for storage. ;-)
Of course network boot means another PC, noisy, but in another place
Believe me, I'm currently posting on Slashdot using this system, I really apreciate deep silence.
BTW, this is old news [slashdot.org].
Re:Seagte Barracuda Hard Drives (Score:3, Informative)
http://thermaltake.com/coolers/4in1heatpipe/cl-