Quieter PS/Case fan ?

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stealth

I have several computers running in a room that I use for financial trading,
and I would like to address the noise level. Could someone recommend good
power supplies and case fans that would quiet things down? I am not running
super systems for avid gaming, just run of the mill units with multiple
monitor setups for a trading platform. No need for "cool" factor either! :)
Just the best bang for the buck.

Specs for various systems are as follows:

2.2 - 3.0 GHz Pentium 4
1 Gig Ram
2 - 3 video cards
1 IDE hard drive
1 CD/DVD drive
1 FDD
1 PCI Sound card
Enlight 7200 series cases with stock power supplies.


TIA

s
 
stealth said:
I have several computers running in a room that I use for financial trading,
and I would like to address the noise level. Could someone recommend good
power supplies and case fans that would quiet things down? I am not running
super systems for avid gaming, just run of the mill units with multiple
monitor setups for a trading platform. No need for "cool" factor either! :)
Just the best bang for the buck.
Click to expand...

I use PC Power & Cooling Silencer fans in my systems:
http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/cooling/silencerfan/index.htm

Very quiet. And depending on the design of the PSU, you may be able to
replace the fan in that too.
 
I have several computers running in a room that I use for financial trading,
and I would like to address the noise level. Could someone recommend good
power supplies and case fans that would quiet things down? I am not running
super systems for avid gaming, just run of the mill units with multiple
monitor setups for a trading platform. No need for "cool" factor either! :)
Just the best bang for the buck.
Click to expand...

It's all fans. Get rid of the fans, and you get rid of the noise.
Hard drives are almost silent nowadays. I've read that they sell a
fanless power supply. There is a midrange video card that doesn't
have a fan. The stumbling block is the CPU. If you could get a
decent CPU that didn't need a fan but would work with only a
heatsink, you'd have the problem beat. A single super-silent case
fan would be enough to cool the motherboard and draw some air over
the heatsinks of the video card and the CPU. You might even be
able to get away with convection currents alone if the case was
well-ventilated. I'm really tempted to try to build such a system,
just for the fun of it. I'm going to look into what parts are
available that would result in the fastest system with no fan
cooling whatsoever.
 
Al said:
It's all fans. Get rid of the fans, and you get rid of the noise.
Hard drives are almost silent nowadays. I've read that they sell a
fanless power supply. There is a midrange video card that doesn't
have a fan. The stumbling block is the CPU. If you could get a
decent CPU that didn't need a fan but would work with only a
heatsink, you'd have the problem beat. A single super-silent case
fan would be enough to cool the motherboard and draw some air over
the heatsinks of the video card and the CPU. You might even be
able to get away with convection currents alone if the case was
well-ventilated. I'm really tempted to try to build such a system,
just for the fun of it. I'm going to look into what parts are
available that would result in the fastest system with no fan
cooling whatsoever.
Click to expand...

Did you see IssacKuo's posts in my "400MHz dual-processor" thread, about
putting a Zalman VGA heatsink on a Slot-1 PIII in order to passively
cool it? That seems like a promising start, at least.

Alternately, when I was researching what that was, I came across the
Zalman "Reserator 1" passive-convection watercooling setup [1] , which
would let you do a standard P4 with no fan.

Speaking of which, I also came across the fanless power supply you
mentioned (or one of them, anyhow); the Antec Phantom 350 [2]. Between
that and the Reserator, it looks like for a bit over $400 you could have
a completely fanless system that's the equal of most other modern
computers.

- Brooks

[1] http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/reserator.html
[2] http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/fanless_phantom.html
(I have no knowledge of this retailer; they just came up on Google.)
 
stealth said:
I have several computers running in a room that I use for financial trading,
and I would like to address the noise level. Could someone recommend good
power supplies and case fans that would quiet things down? I am not running
super systems for avid gaming, just run of the mill units with multiple
monitor setups for a trading platform. No need for "cool" factor either! :)
Just the best bang for the buck.

Specs for various systems are as follows:

2.2 - 3.0 GHz Pentium 4
1 Gig Ram
2 - 3 video cards
1 IDE hard drive
1 CD/DVD drive
1 FDD
1 PCI Sound card
Enlight 7200 series cases with stock power supplies.


TIA

s
Click to expand...

In my search for quiet computing I've found, and made use of, Antec
TruePower PSUs and Vantec Stealth 80mm case fans. I'm very happy with
the results on all of my systems. I even replaced a CPU fan with a
Vantec Stealth 80mm and an 80 to 60 adapter. Not only was it quieter, it
was the same temperature under load!

Cheers,

Ari


--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. To jump to the end
of the story, as a result of this I need a bone marrow transplant. Many
people around the world are waiting for a marrow transplant, too. Please
volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/
 
Alternately, when I was researching what that was, I came across the
Zalman "Reserator 1" passive-convection watercooling setup [1] , which
would let you do a standard P4 with no fan.
Click to expand...

This sounds like a good approach. Putting a fan on a water-cooling
system has always struck me as contrary to the whole purpose of
the thing. Sort of like putting a cooling fan in a water-cooled
system for an automobile engine... hmmmm. Anyway, if I buy a
water-cooler, I'm going to get one without a fan.
 
Al Smith said:
This sounds like a good approach. Putting a fan on a water-cooling
system has always struck me as contrary to the whole purpose of
the thing. Sort of like putting a cooling fan in a water-cooled
system for an automobile engine... hmmmm. Anyway, if I buy a
water-cooler, I'm going to get one without a fan.
Click to expand...

I don't know what sort of cars you have been seeing lately, but almost
every car on the road today except older VW bugs are water cooled and
have a cooling fan. The fan normally blows air through the heat
exchanger which is usually called the radiator.
 
The fan normally blows air through the heat
exchanger which is usually called the radiator.

pulls the air not blows


Rich Greenberg said:
I don't know what sort of cars you have been seeing lately, but almost
every car on the road today except older VW bugs are water cooled and
have a cooling fan. The fan normally blows air through the heat
exchanger which is usually called the radiator.

--
Rich Greenberg Marietta, GA, USA richgr atsign panix.com + 1 770 321 6507
Eastern time. N6LRT I speak for myself & my dogs only. VM'er since CP-67
Canines:Val, Red & Shasta (RIP),Red, husky Owner:Chinook-L
Atlanta Siberian Husky Rescue. www.panix.com/~richgr/ Asst
Click to expand...
Owner:Sibernet-L
 
Did you see IssacKuo's posts in my "400MHz dual-processor" thread,
about putting a Zalman VGA heatsink on a Slot-1 PIII in order to
passively cool it? That seems like a promising start, at least.
Click to expand...
Alternately, when I was researching what that was, I came across the
Zalman "Reserator 1" passive-convection watercooling setup [1] , which
would let you do a standard P4 with no fan.
Click to expand...
Speaking of which, I also came across the fanless power supply you
mentioned (or one of them, anyhow); the Antec Phantom 350 [2].
Between that and the Reserator, it looks like for a bit over $400 you
could have a completely fanless system that's the equal of most other
modern computers.
Click to expand...

Here's my experience with some Zalman gear. I shut up an ATI Redeon 9600
completely with this one:
http://www.zalmanusa.com/usa/product/view.asp?idx=46&code=013

Not for the fat-fingered hobbyist, it took some care and patience to get it
on properly and the nuts and bolts didn't quite fit my XFX card the way it
was portrayed in the (very good) instructions but I got it seated properly
and it works. I payed 23 Euros for it and I am happy with the results. The
heat seems to spread nicely over the two plates which only get moderately
warm and some serious Max Payning didn't cause the GPU any trouble. There's
also a heavier model for hotter GPUs that I found too expensive for my
purpose, the ZM-80D-HP which goes for 39 Euros where I live.


What I am quite disappointed about though is this baby:
http://www.zalmanusa.com/usa/product/view.asp?idx=142&code=005009

It is advertised as a silent product. Well, it's a lie, there is nothing
silent about this monster. When connected directly to the board, the noise
is just horrible. In so called silent mode (with the fan-mate turned all the
way down) it is still quite noisy. I added additional resistance to slow
down the fan to a reasonable speed and now it is sort of bearable. It would
have been nice if the fan mate would have provided the extra range needed to
get the noise down to an acceptable level. The bearing seems poor quality
too (which may be just my luck), apart from the wind noise the vibrations
are pretty bad at higher fan speeds. I payed 39 Euros for this and I am not
happy with it at all.

Martin.
 
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