Antec 3700 BQE silencing

[Subhuman25]

I just bought an Antec 3700 BQE and would like to slince it before assembling everything in it.
One thing I will be doing is replacing the PSU with the Antec NeoPower 480,so PSU will be quiet(I hope)
I was looking around at Acousticase and saw they modify the 3700 with that padding inside.Is it worthwhile?
Should I replace the stock fans?
Should I cut out the case fan grilles?

 

[BW86]

the bqe is quiet already, the psu in it is quiet also. Yes replace the stock fans and yes cut out the fan grills

 

[Tiamat]

I have found that in my Superlan boy, most of the noise from my computer leaks through the rear exhaust. I dont think padding is worth the cost.

 

[Subhuman25]

OK so I'll cut out the fan grilles and replace the stock fans with ???
Does anybody know what the spec's on the 3700's stock fans are.I know they're 120mmx25,that's about it.
Are the Nexus fans a good replacement?
What CFM should I be looking for?
As I said,I'm replacing the stock PSU already with a NeoPower 480.Review says it's pretty quiet.
Ditching the interior padding thought.I really didn't think it would silence things much either,especially at a cost of $90 for the 3700 kit from Acousticase(insane they are)

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: Subhuman25
I just bought an Antec 3700 BQE and would like to slince it before assembling everything in it.
One thing I will be doing is replacing the PSU with the Antec NeoPower 480,so PSU will be quiet(I hope)
I was looking around at Acousticase and saw they modify the 3700 with that padding inside.Is it worthwhile?
Should I replace the stock fans?
Should I cut out the case fan grilles?

Okay, you've come to the right place for the answers.

#1. The stock fan is excellent, but, like all fans, you'll need to undervolt it to quiet it down.
#2. The fan grills are the nearyl perfect honeycomb mesh which inhibits hardly any airlfow while still keeping the fan blades safe. So, no, leave them alone.
#3 . The PSU is fine, but the fan in the PSU is too loud. This will be the case with any PSU, except, obviously, expensive fanless PSUs like the Antec Phantom. Seasonic and Ahanix Silenx are a little better, but still not silent. Depending on your modding skills, you may want to replace the 80mm fan in the PSU with an 80mm Nexus or Papst fan, or you may want to add a voltage regulator to the stock fan and turn it down a bit. Advice for such modding can be found at silentpcreview, but should only be tried if you follow all safety guidelines and accept the risk. The best thing you can do for a noisy PSU is to keep your case cool by exhausting the heat from the GPU.
#4. Acoustic sound dampening material yields limited results. Still, it's probably worthwhile to add some for whatever good it does do. The fact is, however, that quieting the components will give you far greater actual results.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: Subhuman25
What CFM should I be looking for?

All 120mm fans produce enough CFM. You just need to regulate them and turn them down as quiet as possible while monitoring your case and CPU temps.

$90 for the 3700 kit from Acousticase(insane they are)

Not worth it. Get some cheap Power Snooze from quietpcamerica or some Nexus Damptek or make your own out of melamine foam and some kind of barrier material.

 

[Subhuman25]

Thanks for the replies guys.

 

[Tiamat]

Also, probably if you use foam, the most important area is the left side panel. Get some foam that has non-uniform terrain so as to trap noise. Your best bet would be some sort of anechoic chamber-esk material.

For 120mm fans, the stock ones are decent. If you want more quiet, www.silentpcreview.com has some recommendations. Globe 120s can be found for 9$ at www.mnpctech.com.
For quiet, you will want some sort of fan controller. Most normal 120mm fans (non super cfm) are pretty quiet at 7V.

Personally, Im looking at the Seasonic Super Tornado 400 that can be found on Newegg for 90$. It is supposed to be very efficient and very quiet. Only drawback, it doesnt have the modular cables.

 

[AntecCSR]

From: http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=93703
Fan Specs:
- RPM: 1200
- CFM: 38.94
- dB(A): 24.86

AntecRep

 

[Subhuman25]

Wow!
I've always thought highly of Antec's cases & power supplies.Have been using them for years in builds.But I never had an actual Antec representative pop onto a forum in person without having been prompted and offer information.That's just like the frosting on the cake.
Thank you very much for listing the spec's for me.
According to those specs I'd say I'd be very hard pressed to find better spec's that target a good compromise of air flow vs. noise level.I think I'll just stick with the stock fans afterall.
Kudo's to Antec for participating here on AT.

 

[KifArU]

After getting this case, I found the exhaust fan to be the loudest part in the system.
I measured it to use about 0.1 A at 12V. So I added some resistors: 24 Ohm brings the fan back to about 10.2 volt, 47 Ohm brings it to about 8.8 volt. This is quiet enough for me.

But when my overclocked AMD 3500+ is heavily loaded, the case temp goes up to 43 degrees celsius in a 20 deg. room. With the fan running full-speed, it won't reach 40.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: KifArU
After getting this case, I found the exhaust fan to be the loudest part in the system.
I measured it to use about 0.1 A at 12V. So I added some resistors: 24 Ohm brings the fan back to about 10.2 volt, 47 Ohm brings it to about 8.8 volt. This is quiet enough for me.

But when my overclocked AMD 3500+ is heavily loaded, the case temp goes up to 43 degrees celsius in a 20 deg. room. With the fan running full-speed, it won't reach 40.

What video card do you have? That will make a huge difference too. Are you using an intake fan to make sure it's not recycling or pulling in warmer air?

I just got the Lanparty 350GB and those freaking geniuses seem to have almost built that with the XP-120 and BQE in mind. The heatsink fan lines up almost perfectly at a right angle with the exhaust fan, so all you need to do is turn the fan on the XP-120 to suck and you'll practically have a duct for the heat to the outside.

 

[Subhuman25]

Update:
I replaced the stock Antec case fan with an Antec Pro 120mm dualBB fan and also added same fan as intake fan.I replaced the stock eVGA cooler with an Arctic Cooling NV Silencer5 and replaced the stock AMD64 3500 HSF with a Zalman 7000a AlCu and my case is much cooler as are the components.
And it's quieter on top of it!!!
It's whisper quiet now.I can barely hear it.I'm sure the 120mm NeoPower PSU fan helps some too at cooling & silencing.
Thanks for all the input guys.
I don't think adding internal sidewall,ceiling and floor matting would really make much of a difference at this point.Maybe I'll give it a try anyways.But let it be said that my current set-up is very very quiet indeed.
Oh,also my Seagate HD benefits from the cooling effects of the front intake fan now too.
I'm very happy with this set-up an would recommend my set-up for anybody interested in building a S939 system.All my components work very well together and I didn't have any problems at all installing anything,hardware or software.Smooth as silk.


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