I bought a lot of silent crap so why is my machine still noisy??

[Lorteungen]

I just upgraded my old P2 333 to an Athlon XP 1600+, ECS K7S5A, Thermal Take Silent Viking cooler, Q_Silent systems 300 W PSU, Palit GF3 ti200 and a Papst 80 mm Case fan.

I have major problems though. The system runs ok but its gets very warm. 35 Celsius in the case and 55-60 Celsius on the CPU (I dont have the Fahrenheit right here but I'll edit and post them when i get them. These temperatures I've read in the BIO btw not from some program. I used some cooling paste and I just dont know whats wrong. I have a feeling its the ventilation in the case thats not good enough. The case wasnt build for such warm processors so maybe the air intake isnt good enough???

Another thing is that despite all the "silent technology" its not quiet at all! Only thing thats not a silent piece of hardware is the cooler on the Video card but can that really make that big a difference can it? Whan can I do to both increase the cooling (does the cooling affect the performance of the machine btw?) and reduce the noise??? More fans in the case?? How do I do that?? Drill holes? I never tried building a PC before and all this cooling kinda caught me by surprise.

Help I'm lost!

Lort

 

[MoFunk]

OK if you are not getting any crashing with your system, dont worry too much about the CPU temp. Plus going into the BIOS to read the temp runs the CPU at full load. But if you are worried about the temps, your on the right track with the case ventilation. I have no experience with the HS so I can make no comment. For fans though, you may want to look into the enermax adjustable fans. I would make sure to have one intake and one exhaust. You can get these guys pretty quiet and still push some air. Another issue is the case itself. You may want to get some kind of deadening material for the inner sides of the case. That will help a little. Keep in mind that the way this stuff runs hot, you will not be able to acheive a silent PC with air cooling. You can get it tolerable though. I have 2 92mm fans, 2 80mm fans, the chipset fan, the video card fan, and 2 PSU fans and with the enrmax fans I am able to sleep with the computer on now.

 

[Lorteungen]

But how would I go about installing these fans in the case?? I only have one intake and no exhaust other than the CPU. Is that wrong?? I dont see where all these fans go either. I heard of people with up to 7 fans in their system. Do you guys make new holes in the case for these fans or what??

 

[MoFunk]

I made mine. I cut an opening in the front and 1 in the top. I had a grill in the back that I cut open for better airflow. Here are some pics here and here. Have you tried running with the side of your case off for a while to see if your temps lower? If they don't lower at all, it may be your HS. Also you said that you applied cooling paste, was is Arctic Silver? Either way did you put on a super this layer? I had a friend that gooped it on and it made his CPU hotter than before.

 

[Lorteungen]

The temperatures in fahrenheit are 129 F for the CPU and 93 for the System. This is idle though.

 

[MoFunk]

Try to reseat your HS. An reapply the thermal paste like this.

 

[Lorteungen]

Cool. Thanks for the pics. I might try that though my case is not as big as yours. I doubt theres room for a fan on the back but i should be able to make one on top. At first I used the black stuff that was already on the cooler but as it go warm I tried with some cooling paste. No I didnt use arctic silver as my dad had some stuff he uses. Its also cooling paste and its used for the same purposes but is more for general electronics. It didnt really work though.

As for opening the case it did indeed help some. So maybe thats the way to go.

Its still very loud though and I dont understand why since I used all these fancy components. I'll try the deadening material on the case and see how that works. Theres a werid plastic in front of the system fan, I thought maybe that causes some noise as well, sorta like a siren.

Thanks for helping, I appreciate it.

 

[BA]

What kind of HD do you have? They can be pretty noisy.

 

[Lorteungen]

Its an IBM Deskstar 30 GB. I dont remember the exact name but its a very common one. I also have an older secondary 5 GB drive though. Maybe thats the noisy one. But dont they usually only make noise when theyre working? Can you hear them in idle too?

 

[mlchang]

Old hard drives can be shockingly noisy. They often make this annoying whining noise, which I think is the motor and the drive platters spinning. Anyway, you'd be surprised at how loud a hard drive can be. I think mine is now the loudest thing in my computer.

Michael

 

[skriefal]

<< What kind of HD do you have? They can be pretty noisy. >>



Bingo! You've already replaced your CPU cooler ("Viking"???), power supply, and case fans with quiet models -- so the hard drive is the next most likely culprit. Try disconnecting both hard drives and powering on the system; is it noticeably quieter? If so, you'll need to identify which drive is causing most of the noise.

I just replaced a 30GB Maxtor with a 100GB Western Digital, and the difference in noise level is very obvious. Much less of the annoyingly high-pitched whine, and quieter too.

 

[HurtMe]

Shouldn't it be easy to identify the source of the loudest component with your cover off? Maybe with smaller cases is more difficult, as all the components are pretty stacked close together. Perhaps your ears are more sensitive than others? Maybe it's considered loud by other people but it is to you. Perhaps not having enough ventilation can make the fans louder as they try so hard to spin their motors against compressed air(This would not be a problem with the lid off). Also, about the heat, you should also know that the temperature reading on today's boards aren't exactly accurate. If you still can't figure out the problem, you might want to get a better case. A good case can ease your temperature problem and probably the last case you'll ever need to buy Just some thoughts.

 

[kamel]

When you put the paste on the CPU, did you remove all traces of the black stuff (thermal pad) that was present on the heatsink? If you didn't completely remove it, it can act as an insulator, rather than dissipate the heat. This is the same reason it is recommended that you use only a very thin layer of any thermal paste.

 

[Bentrold]

I know how you feel about the noise from your PC. I have the same problem with my computer and I found ( took of the lid and set it on standby)out that the most noisy component is the fan on my graphics card( Riva TNT2, it is whinnig and humming like a giant bumblebee) second to that is my harddrive 15 GB quantum fireball Plus which rumbles a lot, I tried a silent-drive but that didn't do much about the rumbling, but removed the whinning sound.
I am going to build a new case w/ low noise fans, new harddrive and a new fan on my videocard.

Nice nickname by the way!!!

-Bentrold

 

[zerocoolbeans]

the fan on the video card maybe culprit. i replace my heatsink/fan combo on my card with a huge heatsink for passive cooling. makes a lot of difference noisewise

 

[ShinSa]

<< I just upgraded my old P2 333 to an Athlon XP 1600+, ECS K7S5A, Thermal Take Silent Viking cooler, Q_Silent systems 300 W PSU, Palit GF3 ti200 and a Papst 80 mm Case fan.

I have major problems though. The system runs ok but its gets very warm. 35 Celsius in the case and 55-60 Celsius on the CPU (I dont have the Fahrenheit right here but I'll edit and post them when i get them. These temperatures I've read in the BIO btw not from some program. I used some cooling paste and I just dont know whats wrong. I have a feeling its the ventilation in the case thats not good enough. The case wasnt build for such warm processors so maybe the air intake isnt good enough???

Another thing is that despite all the "silent technology" its not quiet at all! Only thing thats not a silent piece of hardware is the cooler on the Video card but can that really make that big a difference can it? Whan can I do to both increase the cooling (does the cooling affect the performance of the machine btw?) and reduce the noise??? More fans in the case?? How do I do that?? Drill holes? I never tried building a PC before and all this cooling kinda caught me by surprise.

Help I'm lost!
Lort >>




My 1700+ CPU temp on Abit Kr7a is also at 60C. I;m beginning to think that such high temp is native for XPs. can anyone confirm??
Heres where i stand so far
tempereature problem

 

[Lorteungen]

Thanks for all the replies. As it is a rather small case its kinda hard to figure out which part is the #1 culprit. I figured out which one is behind all this noise however. Like I said earlier I have replaced an old system fan that was noisy with a new Papst 80 mm. When I tested it it was indeed very quiet so I didnt think this was the problem. However right in front of the fan is a weird grid in the case and I found out that this must be causing some turbulence. If I remove the fan about 3 or 4 cm from the grid the noise is significantly reduced! I guess I should have guessed this before posting here.

The fan on the video card is also a little bit noisy but its a more high frequent (sp?) sound. I might replace this later. The harddrives arent really that noisy but it will be easier to hear once I get thatfan fixed.

The CPU cooler isnt as quiet as I had thought either but its really very hard to tell whether its the PSU or the cooler thats making the noise as they are rather close to eachother.

Thanks for the help guys! I appreciate it.

 

[MoFunk]

Well it looks like it is time to fine tune your case. Let us know what you do and how it works out for you! Good luck!

 

[skriefal]

<< However right in front of the fan is a weird grid in the case and I found out that this must be causing some turbulence >>



Pick up a set of metal snippers at Radio Shack and cut out the grill. That should greatly lower the turbelence and decrease the noise.