pc noise level

[Guest]

i bought a 100$ antec case, supposedly award-winning for its quietness, but i
still hear some fair amount of noise, as much as my old pc and mac make. it's
probably more quiet than my friends' pc's with a cheap plastic case, but i
kinda notice it b/c i leave it on all night. so, i was wondering if that's
because i have a powerful pc with a 2.8 cpu and a 380 watt power supply or
anything like that. or do i have a hardware problem, not that it makes a
malfunctioning noise?? is the cpu fan supposed to be spinning at all times??
anything that will make my pc more quiet. thanks

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

First, the fans make a big difference in the noise level. Generic and cheap
fans are noisy. Second, with any P4 your HSF must run all the time or your
chip would overheat. The Antec Sonata (I am assuming this is the case you
bought) is very quiet with quality components and an AMD64 processor with
Cool n' Quiet enabled. With good quality case fans designed for low noise,
isolating the HDD in the cages provided, and running the AMD64 with CnQ, it
will make almost no noise at all.

In the future, do research before assuming that all that would be need is a
case that is advertised as quiet. All the components must work together if
quietness is your goal. And above all else, if quietness is your goal, stay
away from the P4, or go water cooled if you must use a P4.

Bobby

 

[Bob Day]

i bought a 100$ antec case, supposedly award-winning for its quietness, but i
still hear some fair amount of noise, as much as my old pc and mac make. it's
probably more quiet than my friends' pc's with a cheap plastic case, but i
kinda notice it b/c i leave it on all night. so, i was wondering if that's
because i have a powerful pc with a 2.8 cpu and a 380 watt power supply or
anything like that. or do i have a hardware problem, not that it makes a
malfunctioning noise?? is the cpu fan supposed to be spinning at all times??
anything that will make my pc more quiet. thanks

1. Replace the power supply with a SeaSonic Super Tornado 400
(22 dB).

2. Replace the 120mm fan with an Antec120mm Smartcool fan.

3. Yes, the CPU fan must always be spinning. The Intel ones I've
encountered are pretty quiet. For AMD, you can probably get
a quieter one.

-- Bob Day

 

[Bill Crocker]

This might interest you, if noise is a concern:

Hush Technologies
http://www.hush-technologies.net/start.html

Bill Crocker

 

[Test User]

i bought a 100$ antec case, supposedly award-winning for its quietness, but i
still hear some fair amount of noise, as much as my old pc and mac make. it's
probably more quiet than my friends' pc's with a cheap plastic case, but i
kinda notice it b/c i leave it on all night. so, i was wondering if that's
because i have a powerful pc with a 2.8 cpu and a 380 watt power supply or
anything like that. or do i have a hardware problem, not that it makes a
malfunctioning noise?? is the cpu fan supposed to be spinning at all times??
anything that will make my pc more quiet. thanks

You should do a quick test to see if it *is* the case or power supply fans.
I noticed a dramatic reduction in noise on one of my systems, when I
replaced the Maxtor drives with Western Digital.

Shut down the system and unplug the hard drive power cables and the ribbon
cable at the board. Turn the system back on. Seem quieter? the
difference is the drive noise.

HTH
-pk