Please help me get my PC quiet

[Yitz]

For a long time I am trying to get my PC quiet, unsuccesfully. I am
running a good ol' AMD Athlon 1.4 (Thunderbird). The temps were too
high (65+ even in idle)with the original no-name HSF that came with it
so I asked for a better HSF. The guy who sold me the machine gave a
another no-name HSF which made a lot of noise but got the system less
hot (around 56 on idle - the temps were according to the bios on a
Gigabyte 7dxr mobo).

Then I read in Tom's Hardware about how a quiet PC is in and you just
have to get the right parts. So I replaced my previous no-name power
supply with an Enermax 350 watts. The Enermax was sure much quieter
than the original PSU. I also did something else. Tom's Hardware
totally hyped up the very expensive "Noise Control Silverado" HSF. I
bought it. I thought, well, since it costs so much, it probably has
execllent preformance. Well, I made a mistake, sometimes reaching 80c
degrees (even with Arctic Silver). I used the Silverado at 8 volts as
recommended in the instructions for an Athlon 1.4. After some time,
the Silverado started sporadically making noises wich would stop when
moving the case a bit.

I can continue more, but I'll get to the punch. I bow have an ABIT
NF7-S2 mobo (yes I know, the one with the locked multipliers), a
Thunderbird 1.4 currently cooled with a Thermaltake Volcano 7 (idle is
now at 47C) which makes a hell of a lot of noise. Also, in the
background, I have two Qunatom Fireball 7200RPM 40 GB hard drives. All
the fans in my Full-tower chieftec case are turned off, except for the
two fans in the Enremax PSU.

My questions:
1. Which quiet HSF would you recommend that would fit the ABIT NF7-S2
mobo? The zalman 7000 apparantly doesn't fit. I would like one that I
would be able to use later with a socket 939.

2. Is there a way to quiet down the hard drives (after I replace the
Volcano)?

3. It seems the thunderbird gets very hot. Might it be worth it to
replcace the CPU with a newer one which is not as hot? I don't need a
very fast CPU or to do any overclocking

4. The fans that came with the chieftec case make a lot of noise. Is
it o.k. that I turned them off, and are there quiet fans which are
recommended to replace those?

Thanks for reading,
Yitzchak

 

[Dave C.]

My questions:

1. Which quiet HSF would you recommend that would fit the ABIT NF7-S2
mobo? The zalman 7000 apparantly doesn't fit. I would like one that I
would be able to use later with a socket 939.

2. Is there a way to quiet down the hard drives (after I replace the
Volcano)?

3. It seems the thunderbird gets very hot. Might it be worth it to
replcace the CPU with a newer one which is not as hot? I don't need a
very fast CPU or to do any overclocking

4. The fans that came with the chieftec case make a lot of noise. Is
it o.k. that I turned them off, and are there quiet fans which are
recommended to replace those?

Thanks for reading,
Yitzchak

1)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-150-010&depa=0
I doubt if you'll find one for socket A and socket 939, but this one is
quiet . . . and cheap enough that you won't mind replacing it when you go to
socket 939.

2) Not really. You can get some rubber washers to isolate the vibration a
bit. Anything else you try to do will likely cause heat build-up.

3) Newer CPUs are even hotter.

4)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-999-125&depa=0

 

[Matt]

4. The fans that came with the chieftec case make a lot of noise. Is
it o.k. that I turned them off, and are there quiet fans which are
recommended to replace those?

Do you think it might be useful to mention the model and/or ventilation
characteristics of the case?

 

[Adam M]

My questions:

1. Which quiet HSF would you recommend that would fit the ABIT NF7-S2
mobo? The zalman 7000 apparantly doesn't fit. I would like one that I
would be able to use later with a socket 939.
3. It seems the thunderbird gets very hot. Might it be worth it to
replcace the CPU with a newer one which is not as hot? I don't need a
very fast CPU or to do any overclocking

If you can, get a new mobo and CPU. The T-bird 1.4 (I used to have
one) was always famous for the heat it generated and a quiet cooler
will be difficult to find. New mobos also support extended features to
reduce fan noise when the system is idle.

2. Is there a way to quiet down the hard drives (after I replace the
Volcano)?

You can get elastic hammock type things to hang them in but I think
the design of those hard drives is inherently noisy. The new Fluid
bearing designs are MUCH quieter (I have 2 seagate baracuda drives
with them - silent!) and you could easily pick up a single 80Gb model
for very little cash. I have an 80Gb I'm selling in a week or so,
will probably be asking for about £30 - guesing you're in the US
though.

4. The fans that came with the chieftec case make a lot of noise. Is
it o.k. that I turned them off, and are there quiet fans which are
recommended to replace those?

7volt them? Some fans are quieter than others so maybe try some
alternatives.

Thanks for reading,
Yitzchak

No probs
A

 

[Yitz]

Do you think it might be useful to mention the model and/or ventilation
characteristics of the case?

I have the Chieftec Dragon Full Tower. There is one fan on the front,
installed into the hard disk cage. One fan on the side. Two in the
back. All fans are 80mm. On top there is an Enermax with a fan on the
bottom of the PSU being used for exhaut (not sure of the size).

Thanks,
Yitzchak

 

[Yitz]

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-150-010&depa=0
I doubt if you'll find one for socket A and socket 939, but this one is
quiet . . . and cheap enough that you won't mind replacing it when you go to
socket 939.

I don't live in the U.S. So no newegg shipping But where I live I
can find the "Spire WhisperRock IV". It looks pretty similiar with a
different color for the fan. Would you recommend it?

 

[David Maynard]

I have the Chieftec Dragon Full Tower. There is one fan on the front,
installed into the hard disk cage. One fan on the side. Two in the
back. All fans are 80mm. On top there is an Enermax with a fan on the
bottom of the PSU being used for exhaut (not sure of the size).

Thanks,
Yitzchak

Are they variable speed fans or fixed? If variable you could probably put
them on the lowest settings and still have plenty of airflow. If they're
fixed speed you could make a 7 volt adapter to slow them down.

 

[Guest]

Hello Yitz

I have the Chieftec Dragon Full Tower. There is one fan on the front,
installed into the hard disk cage. One fan on the side. Two in the
back. All fans are 80mm. On top there is an Enermax with a fan on the
bottom of the PSU being used for exhaut (not sure of the size).

I can't comment on improved HSF assemblies but I thought I would pass on
some help I was given in this NG (and an overclocking NG) regarding general
airflow.

1) Ideally you should draw cold air in at the front bottom of the case.

2) The two fans in the back want to extract warmer air out of the rear top
of the case.

3)The fan on the bottom of the PSU should blow air straight out of the case.

4) You can improvise some ducting (I used cardboard boxes) to make sure that
hot air gets blown out of the case directly, rather than washing across
other components first.

5) Similarly, you can duct cold fresh air straight into the HSF so that the
CPU sees room temperature air only.

6) You case temperature should be similar to your room temperature, maybe
upto 5 deg C higher. If the case temperature is significantly higher, it is
an indication of poor airflow.

Sorry if this is teaching you to suck eggs but I thought it might be of some
help - clearly, if the air temperature feeding the HSF is lower, CPU cooling
should be improved.

Cheers

RMC

 

[Guest]

I can't comment on improved HSF assemblies but I thought I would pass on
some help I was given in this NG (and an overclocking NG) regarding general
airflow.

The advice from Dorothy Bradbury, in alt.comp.hardware.overclocking:

o If your CPU exceeds 60oC - then it is too high
o If your case temp is way above ambient (eg, 40oC v 22oC) - then it is
"overly warm"
o If your HD temp is over 50oC on a desktop computer - then it is too hot

PCs can run hot - but don't let your HDs run hot.

A simple checklist of basics:
o Don't short-circuit your airflow path
---- air is in at the front-bottom & out at the top-rear
---- empty top-rear fan ports short-circuit your airflow path
o Verify CPU heatsinks are seated correctly
---- S478 skt receptable is good, but heatsinks can be canted
---- LGA775, Skt 939 etc require a little more care in assembly
o More heatsink compound is not better than less
---- you only need a thin film to fill in microscopic air voids
---- it is not butter and you are not making toast
o Baseline a system before change
---- be it noise, temperature, even performance
o Prioritise change & change one item at a time
---- then re-baseline the system accordingly

If worried about system temperature:
o Start with the HD
---- identify from the maker the max operating spec (52-55oC)
---- then identify what it is operating at (S.M.A.R.T. tools)
---- then identify change, if any, required
o Move to case temperatures
---- if overly high (40oC in 22oC ambient) then address that
---- 1) improve the exhaust airflow re fan-#, fan-size, fan-grills
---- 2) improve the intake airflow re improving the 3"x1" intake slot
o Move to CPU temperatures
---- a case exhaust fan behind the CPU is optimal
---- CPU heatsinks recirculate 40-70% of their own air
-------- more air a cooler recirculates = lower efficiency = hotter chip
---- removing that hot-air before it can be recirculated helps
-------- CPU temps drop, a quieter CPU fan can be used etc

 

[Toshi1873]

If you can, get a new mobo and CPU. The T-bird 1.4 (I used to have
one) was always famous for the heat it generated and a quiet cooler
will be difficult to find. New mobos also support extended features to
reduce fan noise when the system is idle.

Yep, the Opterons run pretty quiet and cool, even with
the stock HSF that comes with them.

Best bet for an older CPU, if you have the room is to
build your own HSF combo. On my AthlonXP 2600+, I have
a good copper heatsink, hooked to a 60mm to 80mm adapter
collar (or was it a 80mm to 120mm adapter... /shrug),
and then a 80mm or 120mm fan on top of that. Since it's
a larger fan, it needs less RPMs to move the same
quantity of air.

Also remember the rule of heatsink paste... "a little
dab will do ya".

You can get elastic hammock type things to hang them in but I think
the design of those hard drives is inherently noisy. The new Fluid
bearing designs are MUCH quieter (I have 2 seagate baracuda drives
with them - silent!) and you could easily pick up a single 80Gb model
for very little cash. I have an 80Gb I'm selling in a week or so,
will probably be asking for about £30 - guesing you're in the US
though.

Yep, the FDB or FBD drives are much quieter simply
because if their design. (I have 6 older 75GB drives in
a system that put up a large amount of whine-noise...
need to replace them with newer drives.)

Newer cases also come with rubber mount points for the
hard drives, making even older drives less noisy.

7volt them? Some fans are quieter than others so maybe try some
alternatives.

Switch to a newer case design. Look for a case that has
120mm exhaust and 120mm intake fans (Antec Sonata, Antec
p160, and a few others from other manufs). A 120mm fan
only needs to spin at 1500-4000 rpm to move the same
amount of air as a 80mm fan. Lower RPMs mean less noise
(in general).

There are also quiet versions of 120mm fan. I usually
put the power-supply controlled fan on the intake port
at the front of the case. Then I add a thermistor
controlled (Antec SmartCool) as the exhaust fan as it
will auto-adjust based on the air temp of the exhaust
flow.

 

[Al Smith]

Best bet for an older CPU, if you have the room is to

build your own HSF combo. On my AthlonXP 2600+, I have
a good copper heatsink, hooked to a 60mm to 80mm adapter
collar (or was it a 80mm to 120mm adapter... /shrug),
and then a 80mm or 120mm fan on top of that. Since it's
a larger fan, it needs less RPMs to move the same
quantity of air.

You know what I was thinking to myself? If you took a length of
clothes drier exhaust tubing and ran it from a fan on the front or
back of the box, so that it completely covered the heatsink of the
CPU, you could force cool air directly into the fins of the
heatsink, using a large diameter case fan. A fan on the heatsink
itself would probably be optional, but would increasing the
cooling still further.

I suppose this has already been done. Everything's been done
before, which is why I've given up trying to invent a better
mousetrap. They are all patented.

 

[Gianmaria Fontana di Sacculmino]

Il giorno 5 Oct 2004 14:51:26 -0700, (e-mail address removed) (Yitz) ha
scritto:

For a long time I am trying to get my PC quiet,

For a longtime I have a noisy PC and discovered a nice website:
http://www.silentpcreviews.com

They have plenty of suggestions, reccomendations and a forum.
My present project is as follows:

Quiet components: the main culprits are:
CPU's fan
PSU
GPU's fan if present
Hard disk
Chipset's fan if present
Case's fans

For the CPU I bought a Zalman passive dissipator
PSU an Enermax Noisetaker
my GPU is an old matrox millennium 550 without fan
HD: I bought seagate barracuda 7200.7 and will sandwich them between
aluminum sheets and suspend them with thick elastic. Decoupling the HD
from the chassis reduces a lot noisy vibrations.
Case fan: Only one 12 cm panaflo with voltage control.

 

[Dave C.]

I don't live in the U.S. So no newegg shipping But where I live I
can find the "Spire WhisperRock IV". It looks pretty similiar with a
different color for the fan. Would you recommend it?

Yeah, I just checked the specs. Looks good. I'd try it. -Dave

 

[Yitz]

1) Ideally you should draw cold air in at the front bottom of the case.

The fan in the front is in the middle of the case blowing on the
hardrives. Is it still recommended to move it to the bottom?

2) The two fans in the back want to extract warmer air out of the rear top
of the case.

In the Full tower Chieftec Dragon case that I have there is a place to
install a 92mm fan at the back of the case all the way at the top
(even on top of the PSU). Is it recommended to put one there besides
the two fans at the back near the CPU?
Also, what about the fan on the side door?

Are they variable speed fans or fixed? If variable you could probably put
them on the lowest settings and still have plenty of airflow. If they're
fixed speed you could make a 7 volt adapter to slow them down.

How do I make the adapter?

Thanks,
Yitzchak

 

[David Maynard]

The fan in the front is in the middle of the case blowing on the
hardrives. Is it still recommended to move it to the bottom?

You're going to have air coming in the 'front bottom' as well.

The purpose of that fan is to insure enough comes in through the vent in
front of the disk drives. It doesn't need to move a lot of air and it's
likely unneeded if you're running just one drive as the natural case
airflow would be enough (hard drive is only 7 to 10 watts).

In the Full tower Chieftec Dragon case that I have there is a place to
install a 92mm fan at the back of the case all the way at the top (even
on top of the PSU). Is it recommended to put one there besides the two
fans at the back near the CPU?

If the case was full up with power guzzlers and you were overclocking then
you might want to use it but its not needed for a 'typical' PC. Plug it.

Also, what about the fan on the side door?

Same thing. Plug it.

Now, the reason for plugging them is you want the incoming air, naturally
drawn in to replenish the air forcibly exhausted by the rear case and PSU
fans, to come into the case via the front air vents so it goes across the
entire case, and not the unused side and top vents.

If you have a low end heatsink then you might want to open the side vent,
with no fan, to let some air in there directly. In which case having the
hard drive fan insures enough air comes in that specific front vent (I.E.
if you open up the side vent then a significant amount of the air being
drawn by the rear fans will 'short circuit' the case through that side
vent, lowering the amount being pulled from the front, so the HD fan
becomes a nice bit of 'insurance' that enough of it comes in the vent next
to the HD)

How do I make the adapter?

I'll assume your fans have the 'pass through' wiring with 'hard drive'
style connectors with the fan leads tapped in and coming separately off.

Cut the fan's black wire, leaving about 3 inches of it still on the
connector (in case you want to put it back and for the switch option
mentioned below). Take the FAN end of the black wire and splice it into the
red wire running between the two connectors.

That connects what was fan ground to the +5 volts. With the fan + (red)
still connected to +12V (yellow), that means the voltage across the fan is
12 - 5 = 7 volts.

Now, to make a simple, 'two speed' adjustable fan use a single pole, double
throw, switch (nice small one from Radio Shack) to select which power lead
the fan's -, black wire, is connected to. I.E. center pole (the one that
gets switched) on the switch to the fan's black, -, wire. Then one end pole
of the switch to +5v, the red wire between the connectors, and the other
end pole of the switch to the original black ground wire we cut and left 3
inches long. One position of the switch connects fan - to gnd, as it
originally was, and the fan runs full speed. The other position connects
the fan's - to +5 volts and the fan runs at 'quiet' speed.

Make sure any exposed wire, from making the connections, is tapped up and
insulated so it can't short out to anything. Also, tie up the switch so it
doesn't dangle around and perhaps short out against something.

Soldering the connections is best but you could get by with appropriately
sized wire nuts if necessary.

 

[John Doe]

For a long time I am trying to get my PC quiet, unsuccesfully. I am
running a good ol' AMD Athlon 1.4 (Thunderbird). The temps were too
high (65+ even in idle)with the original no-name HSF that came with it
so I asked for a better HSF. The guy who sold me the machine gave a
another no-name HSF which made a lot of noise but got the system less
hot (around 56 on idle - the temps were according to the bios on a
Gigabyte 7dxr mobo).

About the subject in general.
I like the Zalman FB123 NP 92mm Fan w/Bracket, especially installed in my
new mainboard. The bracket places the large fan out over the CPU and a
little over the chipset. It has three wires and cools the CPU better than
the small AMD stock CPU fan. The mainboard controls the fan speed so that
it keeps the CPU at a specified temperature. So when it is cool in here,
the inner case fan wont make much noise. Neither will the power supply fan
since it is temperature controlled also.