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Building a Quiet PC

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Carol Haynes:
My new 'Cool & Quiet' system sounds like an aircraft waiting to take off ....


Trouble is temperatures are high so I bought a new case for it with extra 'cooling features'. This has reduced the temperatures a bit but only by introfucing yet more fans ...

Now my case has:

1 x 25cm case fan (on the side)
1 x 12cm in the back
1 x 9cm in the back
1 x 9cm fian in the top
1 x 12cm intake fan in the front

not to mention PSU fan, CPU heatsink fan, 2 GPU fans and 3 hard discs whirring.

I get the feeling ear defenders or a loud sound system is going to be required.

Even with all this I have these temperatures:

CPU 44C
Motherboard/Chipset 48C
GPU 51C / 71C

The higher GPU is because I have a PCI card in the slot next to the PCIe slot so there isn't much clearance.

Anyone any suggestions (apart from putting the whole thing in the freezer!)

I have considered liquid cooling but that adds even more to the price ...

brotherS:
My new 'Cool & Quiet' system sounds like an aircraft waiting to take off ....

25cm case fan (on the side)
2 x 12cm in the back
1 x 12cm fan in the top
1 x 12cm intake fan in the front
not to mention PSU fan, CPU heatsink fan, 2 GPU fans and 3 hard discs whirring.
-Carol Haynes (November 30, 2006, 05:12 AM)
--- End quote ---

9 fans!? :o :o :o :o :o

Your PC is suffering from the 'way too many fans' syndrome!

My P-IV 2.4 GHz (I heard new duo-core Pentiums don't get as hot) tower has a temp-controlled CPU fan, the power supply has a temp-controlled fan and there's a huge (and therefor slow/quiet) additional temp-controlled fan, covering the back blowhole to suck the air out/through the case. That's all!

* Before *
You see the RAID HDs in light-silencing, vibration-reducing containers and the power-supply in its original position; the holes in the back aren't closed yet:
Building a Quiet PC

* After *
You see the power-supply now in a horizontal position, making place for the huge blowhole and silent-controlled fan; the HDs are now directly in the airflow, *perfect* for cooling:
Building a Quiet PC

You see how it looks from the back; note the special fan mounting to avoid vibrations:
Building a Quiet PC

f0dder:
My CPU usually idles around 35C, under max load goes to 55C. The GPU varies between 50-65C depending on load (though 60+ seems to happen very rarely, even when stressing the system with 3dmark). Motherboard temperature seems relatively constant around 40C.

Not having clearance for GPU airflow is a bad thing...

Seems ridiculous that you need so many fans :-s. I've got a front intake 120mm fan, and a rear exhaust, and that's it. Stock AMD cooler, too.

dk70:
9 fans should force a visit to Silentpcreview http://www.silentpcreview.com/  8) Search forum for undervolting.

Was it a 3500 cpu? Well, any in the series run very cool and you can get f0dders numbers easy. Stock cooler is more than enough even with overclocking - Ive had a 3500 at 2700mhz and 1.55v, dont remember more than 55 as max. No special cooling. So activate whatever Asus call cpu fan control in bios and you will get perhaps 2000rpm instead of default 3500rpm. Only in games and such will fan speed up. You can set levels of heat vs. rpm in procentage or something. Same can be done for video cards Im sure. Try Rivatuner if not supported by Nvidia drivers. Normal desktop work mostly requires very little power so should be quiet. At least cpu, video.

I dont remember if there were some special settings for AMD cool&quiet feature in Asus bios. Not that you have to use it, not much benefit with so cool cpu. Can be quiet when running at fixed/normal speed and letting bios deal with rpm. Stock fan cant go lower than 1500rpm or so anyway.

Also remember sensors can be inaugurate and the "Motherboard/Chipset" one can only measure 1 spot. If placed near area of motherboard which is just hot by design you get "alarming" number no matter what. Does not mean much. If you want 30 degrees find where sensor is then point fan directly at it - only way. Close to useless sensor I think. Also look out for Asus updates, happens they "recalibrate" through either bios or monitor tool.

Byte:
Hmmm, interresting concept - silent PCs.

It's when I can't hear my pc that I know there's a problem.  If a fan stops spinning, I'll notice it if it's normally loud.

Being a smoker who smokes in front of his multple pc's, hearing the fans at work is a good thing.  When I can't hear them, or when smoke dust has worked its way into the bearings and they begin to whine on startup, that's when I know it's time to bust out with a tooth brush and some oil to clean them up and "refurbish" them.

Granted, I do run motherboard monitoring software (Asus Probe, MotherBoard Monitor, etc) which helps me keep track of fan speeds and temps.  However, I'm not in a nuclear sub, monitoring the former Soviet Republic's naval activities - silence doesn't matter much to me.  Effective cooling does.

One of the nifty features of my Plextor DVD burner is the option to slow the drive's opening mechanism to one of a small number of preset speeds, to silence it even more for "when silence is golden" or something.  I say, let that drive open at full speed, because it's not that loud to begin with.  However, for those looking for silence in components like a DVD burner, I'd have to suggest looking at the Plextor line-up of drives.  Mine's a bit old (it's a PX-716A), but it acts just like new.

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