My Comp is too noisy...

[Giants415]

What can I do to make this thing less noisy?
Here are my specs:

CASE
Chenming Model# AX-01 (Silver) w/ Side Panel Window 420W Power Supply with four TurboCool fans

CPU
Intel Pentium 4 / 2.4CGHz 512k socket 478 Hyper Threading Technology
800 MHz FSB

MOTHERBOARD
ABIT IS7,Intel 865PE chipset for Socket 478 P4 ATX motherboard

VIDEO CARD
MSI Geforce FX 5600 Model FX5600-VTDR128 VGA Card.with VIVO and Remote

RAM
GeIL Golden Dragon Dual DDR 512MB(2x256MB) 400MHz Model GD3200-512DC

HARD DRIVE
WD WESTERN DIGITAL "SPECIAL EDITION" 120GB 7200RPM EIDE HARD DRIVE
MODEL # WD1200JB

CD/DVD ROM DRIVES
1) Pacific Digital MultiMedia 16x48 Internal DVD-ROM
2) Cendyne 52x24x52 Internal CD-RW Drive

Thanks a lot!

 

[Davegod]

i've never heard of "TurboCool" fans but im going to bet money theyre a good place to start. easy way to check is have a listen where the noise is coming from, both with and without taking the pc door off. Presuming im right about those 4 case fans...

You're case is well designed for ventilation, just replace the wind farms for something more moderate, look for "quiet" fans by: NMB, Pabst, Panaflo, Vantec Stealth. Get 4 and put two as intakes in the lower-front and the other two exhausting the hot air, positioned near the psu in the upper-rear of the case. On the outside of the fan there should be two arrows moulded into the plastic, one pointing in the direction of the blades' spin and the other in the direction the air is pushed.

You dont say what heatsink+fan you use so I'll presume it is the retail Intel job, which I'm led to beleive is quite reasonable to should be ok. If you want to replace with quieter there is plenty options but start with the loudest components and after youve quietened them, something else will be loudest and you can turn your attention to that

 

[Giants415]

Thanks Davegod! I'll definately be changing those 4 fans. Any other suggestions anyone? Recommendations on brand of quiet fans?
Thanks!!!!

 

[Nebor]

Yeah, the northbridge fan on IS7s and IC7s is notoriously loud... Excaliberpc sells a replacement for $5 + $5 shipping.

 

[RanDum72]

Recommendations on brand of quiet fans?

Panaflo. LINK.

 

[Giants415]

Any other recommendations?

 

[T9D]

..

 

[neutralizer]

Panaflo L1As are a bit quiet imo. They might be even quieter than my CNPS7000Cu.

 

[sellmen]

You could:

Get an Antec Truepower or Thermaltake power supply
Replace the case fans with Panflo L1A's
Cool the northbridge passively
Get a passively cooled video card, or replace the fan on yours with a Zalman passive VGA cooler
Get a Seagate or Maxtor hard drive
Use an Thermalright/Zalman cooler on your CPU, with a quiet fan.

It really depends how much you want to spend, and how low you want the noise level to be. The first thing to do would be to replace the four fans with quiet fans such as the Panaflo L1A; if that doesn't quiet it enough, you can move on to the other options.

 

[s2kpacifist]

Cause no one said it yet:

SILENX FANS!!! I just got 2, and I can barely hear them after putting my ear 2-3 inches away from them. They are a bit expensive, but I think they're well worth the money. Plus they got temperature monitors too.

 

[Czar]

Zalman for cpu
Zalman for vpu
A Silent PSU (frostytech.com)
ditch the wd drive and get a maxtor or segate drive

 

[Giants415]

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

 

[Acts837]

I'll bet that the vid card is one of your main sources.

 

[Giants415]

The video card's noise level rated at 25 db....

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: Czar
Zalman for cpu
Zalman for vpu
A Silent PSU (frostytech.com)
ditch the wd drive and get a maxtor or segate drive

I second those choices, but add to the HD list - Hitachi 180GXP.

- M4H

 

[Cerb]

All good suggestion't, but I have an odd one:
Don't replace the HD yet. Replace the case fans, get a fan controller, maybe replace the PSU. Definitely the NB and graphics cooling.
However, the WD hard drives really aren't that loud.
IMO, get the rest and see...chances are the WD HD won't bother you.

 

[MIDIman]

silenpc.com / directron.com / pcpowercooling.com

Between these three sites, you'll find everything you need to have a completely silent system (but much raised temps!).

Replacing all your fans will drop noise immensly and is the easiest way to get rid of sound. I generally buy only panaflos and silencers.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

I'll just add one thing, I'd do this in steps, starting with the cheapest and easiest things to swap out, namely the case fans & a fan speed adjuster for your HSF. You can probably get it to a reasonable noise level without having to mess with the northbridge or video card fans or HD.