Does anyone have a self built computer as quiet as a Dell?

[randomlinh]

yep, my power supply is my problem.. i can adjust the speed, but it's gotten louder over the past months.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Originally posted by: Carbo
Some good info on quieting your rig here, by Fred Langa.

++

I see a Seasonic Tornado PS in my future, I want to swap out the one in my PC.

I also need to find a quieter CDR for #1 kid's Shuttle SFF, seems like it's always spun up & making noise

 

[DingDingDao]

Depending on which mobo you have, the noise could be coming from your northbridge. I have an Abit IC7-G, and the original NB fan was pretty loud. I replaced it with a passive heatsink from Zalman, and it took away a significant amount of noise.

If you're not overclocking, sound dampening material (like dynamat or something cheaper) works really well if you line your case (esp. the seams) with it.

 

[Fenixgoon]

athlon 1700+, aopen ak75 mobo.... my computer isnt very loud at all, just a slight hum. im always listening to music, so i cant hear it anyway

 

[fw3308]

I do. I have an Antec Sonata case with 2 120 mm fans. They push a lot of air at slower rpm's so they are very very quiet. I highly recommend this case if you are looking for a quiet pc.

 

[DotheDamnTHing]

my dell 400sc is dead quiet except for the fan on my 9600xt..even my wd 120 non-fluid bearing drive cant be heard

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: DingDingDao
Depending on which mobo you have, the noise could be coming from your northbridge. I have an Abit IC7-G, and the original NB fan was pretty loud. I replaced it with a passive heatsink from Zalman, and it took away a significant amount of noise.

If you're not overclocking, sound dampening material (like dynamat or something cheaper) works really well if you line your case (esp. the seams) with it.

Really? Because I have acoustimat all over the inside of my case, and my FSB can still be changed...

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: DingDingDao
Depending on which mobo you have, the noise could be coming from your northbridge. I have an Abit IC7-G, and the original NB fan was pretty loud. I replaced it with a passive heatsink from Zalman, and it took away a significant amount of noise.

If you're not overclocking, sound dampening material (like dynamat or something cheaper) works really well if you line your case (esp. the seams) with it.

Really? Because I have acoustimat all over the inside of my case, and my FSB can still be changed...

Your FSB can still be changed, but Acoustimat/dynamat, etc are heat insulators. If you start padding your case with it, your temps go up and that can lead to instability especially if your system is overclocked

Here's a good link for quieting your computer

I didn't want to spend money on changing cases, so I've kept my mods low key so far. Disconnected the fan on my chipset's northbridge (the heatsink is pretty big anyhow). I stuck an Arctic Cooling VGA silencer on my Radeon 9700 Pro, and a 7-volted Zalman CNPS-7000 on the CPU. Finally, I voltmodded my already quiet Panaflo L1A fans to 5V. I'm very happy with the computer noise levels, choosing the right components also helps: I use a PSU with thermally controlled fans and my hard drive is a Seagate Barracuda, one of the quietest hard drives around.

 

[DingDingDao]

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: DingDingDao
Depending on which mobo you have, the noise could be coming from your northbridge. I have an Abit IC7-G, and the original NB fan was pretty loud. I replaced it with a passive heatsink from Zalman, and it took away a significant amount of noise.

If you're not overclocking, sound dampening material (like dynamat or something cheaper) works really well if you line your case (esp. the seams) with it.

Really? Because I have acoustimat all over the inside of my case, and my FSB can still be changed...

Your FSB can still be changed, but Acoustimat/dynamat, etc are heat insulators. If you start padding your case with it, your temps go up and that can lead to instability especially if your system is overclocked

What he said.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: DingDingDao

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: DingDingDao
Depending on which mobo you have, the noise could be coming from your northbridge. I have an Abit IC7-G, and the original NB fan was pretty loud. I replaced it with a passive heatsink from Zalman, and it took away a significant amount of noise.

If you're not overclocking, sound dampening material (like dynamat or something cheaper) works really well if you line your case (esp. the seams) with it.

Really? Because I have acoustimat all over the inside of my case, and my FSB can still be changed...

Your FSB can still be changed, but Acoustimat/dynamat, etc are heat insulators. If you start padding your case with it, your temps go up and that can lead to instability especially if your system is overclocked

What he said.

My processor has been stable up to 84C before... I think people overexaggerate the importance of temperature.

 

[moonshinemadness]

I think mine runs fairly close when my seconday case fans are off. All i have then is vid card (9700 pro) cpu (2400 xp with an arctic cooling copper silent fan and a blow hole in the top of the case.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: DingDingDao

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: DingDingDao
Depending on which mobo you have, the noise could be coming from your northbridge. I have an Abit IC7-G, and the original NB fan was pretty loud. I replaced it with a passive heatsink from Zalman, and it took away a significant amount of noise.

If you're not overclocking, sound dampening material (like dynamat or something cheaper) works really well if you line your case (esp. the seams) with it.

Really? Because I have acoustimat all over the inside of my case, and my FSB can still be changed...

Your FSB can still be changed, but Acoustimat/dynamat, etc are heat insulators. If you start padding your case with it, your temps go up and that can lead to instability especially if your system is overclocked

What he said.

My processor has been stable up to 84C before... I think people overexaggerate the importance of temperature.

Now I am no chem major or anything but:

An increase in temperature reduces conductivity.

***Apparently*** during a high increase in temperature, the atomic radii of attoms get larger as temperature increases, requiring more energy for electron transfer between atoms(farther distance). At lower temperatures, the radii are smaller, requiring less ionization energy to pull electrons up the energy levels and off to other atoms.


Basically it reduces conductivity....which inturn means they pump more energy into it. Because all the chips and components of Pc's are now so small, they are susceptible to

A) high voltages
and
b) thermal interference.

That heat that is being disapated is a LOT of energy, and can mess with signals on the silicon.

You are right

It isn't that big of a deal right now in terms of interference, but it stresses your PC as it reduces conductivity, and th PC has to increase the voltage to compensate.


EDIT: IF this is BS..CALL ME ON IT...no sense in havining me believe my own jibberish.

 

[PanzerIV]

Actually I was working on a customer's Dell side by side with mine Tuesday and mine was just as quiet, if not more so than his. Among other measures I have a Fortron PSU with a 120mm PSU fan which helps a lot plus my Radeon 9600 uses a passive heatsink.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Carbo
Some good info on quieting your rig here, by Fred Langa.

wow that guy can actually spell 'heat sink'!

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: PanzerIV my Radeon 9600 uses a passive heatsink.

most of them do, from the factory. and you misspelled heat sink.

 

[AmitPatel]

Use a program called SpeedFan (search in google). It slows down your fans when the Cpu/case temp is low and speeds them up based on temp. Keeps my computer quiet...

 

[Kelvrick]

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: DingDingDao

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: DingDingDao
Depending on which mobo you have, the noise could be coming from your northbridge. I have an Abit IC7-G, and the original NB fan was pretty loud. I replaced it with a passive heatsink from Zalman, and it took away a significant amount of noise.

If you're not overclocking, sound dampening material (like dynamat or something cheaper) works really well if you line your case (esp. the seams) with it.

Really? Because I have acoustimat all over the inside of my case, and my FSB can still be changed...

Your FSB can still be changed, but Acoustimat/dynamat, etc are heat insulators. If you start padding your case with it, your temps go up and that can lead to instability especially if your system is overclocked

What he said.

My processor has been stable up to 84C before... I think people overexaggerate the importance of temperature.

Maybe its because that is probably still acceptable operating temperature, at least for athlon xp's. 90 or 85 is the limit depending on which one you have according to amd.

EDIT: link

 

[amcdonald]

It's easy to quiet down a PC.

- replace all fans (including the PSU fan) with quality fans and use a rheostat cluster to slow them down to an inaudible speed.
- buy a seagate HD and use rubber grommets to secure it. (for even less vibration noise, suspend the drive in elastic wires)
- buy an LG cdrw/dvd drive. These drives tend to sound the smoothest when spinning up. You can also limit the speeds if you are unhappy with the drivespin noise.
- nothing else should make any noise. the computer should be almost silent.

 

[PanzerIV]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: PanzerIV my Radeon 9600 uses a passive heatsink.

most of them do, from the factory. and you misspelled heat sink.

Yes, they sure do and that is why I bought it. No modding necessary and acceptable gaming performance for me since I am not a die hard enthusiast like some video card fans.

As for typing heat sink wrong I am sure we'll all get through it with little harm done.

 

[Tom]

Not all Dell are equally quite. I had a 4550 that was completely impossible to tell if it was turned on or not, and an 8300 that is quiet but definitely makes a little noise.

 

[fyleow]

..

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: fyleow
Actually even with a water cooling rig it will not be silent. I still have my water cooling gear that I'm not using anymore because it's too much of a hassle when you want to take something out of the computer. I've tried running my water cooled computer without fans (except PSU) and it lasted 4 hours before freezing from overheating

Will it be enough if I replace all the case fans with panaflos? There are still 5 of them...I'm not sure if my Zalman cooler's fan can be replaced easily. I've got it on a rheostat right now with it turned all the way down. I'd replace the fans in the PSU but I'm afraid of getting shocked.

You have to have a large passively cooled radiator. If you run a normal radiator with no fan, then it will eventually overheat, as you described. The Zalman reserator can run with no fans, and a noiseless pump. It's a revolution in water cooling technology.

As far as the temperature, I don't care what AMD says is safe, my 84C is out of a P4C.

 

[dpopiz]

I have a system only 1 fan: a 92mm Silencer. and I mean only one fan: cut a hole in the bottom of the psu and mounted it so it blows on the cpu hs.

and it has a 20gb barracudaIV which is MUCH louder than the fan

 

[SWScorch]

My server is nearly silent; no fan on the heatsink, only a 92mm Panaflo L1A with a shroud drawing air away (Alpha PAL8045 btw) and then I replaced the stock PSU fan with an ultra-quiet NMB fan, and that's all. I can't hear either of the fans, so the only thing making noise loud enough for me to hear is the har drive. This is a 1GHz Athlon system.

 

[sharkeeper]

Two words: diskless workstation and citrix metaframe server. Ok, it's really six words. Blame my faultering mathematical abilities on being 22000% over my gamma exposure allowance this week!

Cheers!