Quiter Fan PLEASE!!!!!

[TamerHan]

Hello everyone.

I currently own a custom built P4 3.00GHz PC, and recenlty brought a RADEON 9600 Series Graphics card. However, all the plus became a minus when the PC started giving me sleepless nights. It's TOO NOISY! Any ideas on a quiter fan system? I'm willing to change the fans on both the PC and the Graphics card, but would prefer not to spend more than 15GBPs. I tried looking for fans on ebay, but started getting confused with the details.

I just want a quiter PC. please help!!!

 

[Grenage]

larger fans usually help, your GFX and CPU will most likely not take them though. Have you tried.. turning your machine off when you try to sleep?


Carlsberg don't run I.T departments, but if they did they'd probably be more fun.

 

[paparazi]

TamerHan
First establish which fan is the loudest then second/third etc.
The problem you have is that the two fans you mention, CPU and graphics card, don't have standard replacable fans and the only option is to fit aftermarket replacement coolers, thats the whole bang shaboodle.
The best and quitest would both be from Zalman
For the CPU: CNPS9500 LED
And for the graphics card: VF900-Cu LED

But forget £15.00 these two are going to set you back well over £60.00.

Then there is the power supply, often the loadest noise polluter in the system, big fan (120mm units) tend to be the quietest, those with thermal control, see this Enermax for a good example:

http://www.enermax.com.tw/english/product_Display1.asp?PrID=7

Fanless PSU's onviously make know noise at all be cost a fortune.
Case fans can be dealt with fairly easily: go for the biggest the mounting point will allow, there are several quite options: Vantec Stealth/ Arctic Cooling TC range and Acasa's quite Amber range.

Like I said, first establish, IN ORDER, what is loadest, deal with that first, work your way down until a happy medium is reached because remember, generally speaking the quieter a PC the hotter the PC unless you spend a fortune on very trick coolers.
Martin


We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[paparazi]

I forgot the link to Zalman:

http://www.zalman.co.kr/

The CNPS9500 LED and VF900-Cu LED


Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[IslandCustom]

I just replaced a noisy 80mm fan with a 12db Pabst fan. It's the quietest fan I've ever heard -- albeit less airflow. I bought it from

http://www.endpcnoise.com.

Really made a difference for me.

 

[Frank4d]

I replaced the fan on my ATI AIW 9800 Pro with a Zalman VF700 and use a fan speed controller with it. It is nearly silent, about £20 GBP.

 

[BionicJohn]

I replaced a noisy fan on my graphics card with a giant (fanless) copper heatsink from Zalman. Wonderful!

Check out QuietPC.com/GB for a full range of products.

LIVERPOOL FC - FA Cup Winners 2006.
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[jaxx75]

check SilenX's products, best airflow/noise ratio that I've seen. they do seem to be a little louder than thier ratings, but they are still extremely quiet.

iirc there is a company that makes a silent heat pipe/heatsink alternative for GPUs, getting rid of a fan on the GPU all together.

In my experience, component loudness is usually attributed from virbration. eliminate vibration and lot of the sound will go away. Tricks include rubber bands on hard drives, rubber grommets around screws, zip ties, cutting fan grills for less restrictive ones, using better thermal paste, push/pull fan setup, etc.

if you have your fans hooked up to the motherboard, then try a program called Speedfan, you can adjust the fan speed within windows. it also delivers temperature and voltages.

A few(lots) words on loudness/CFM:

dBa/db is decibels, this is a measure of sound.

for each 3 dbs the LOUDNESS of the sound DOUBLES. for example: fan of 13db is 4 TIMES as quiet as a 19db fan. Some manufacturers don't have "correct" db values,

more CFM means more airflow, but airflow is nothing if you don't have pressure. This is also where loudness comes in, turbulance, which makes noise (kinda). If you've ever been to a large, open area such as a football(american or the rest of the world) field or a beach, you know that wind isn't exactly "quiet", it bangs up against things and creates that "woosh" sound. This is part of what you hear from fans.

now, back to pressure. If your fan has lots of CFM and not much static pressure this basically means that it will move lots of air, but not "through" things. for large watercooling/radiator/heatsink applications you want something with lots of pressure to push/pull air though the heat source. This is why it is good to remove grills, less for the fan to push air though, and more area for it to push it through.

Many people to get lower temperatures with less noise they run two fans, in tandem, sometimes at different speeds, one pushing air, and another pulling air. sometimes they will make an adaptor for the standard 80mm size to a 120mm fan, which usually pulls the air from the regular, 80mm fan on the other side of the heatsource or fan grill.

lowering temperatures esentially lowers the need for fans.

there are many ways to go about doing this: better heatsink design, as mentioned, Zalman makes great products, extremely large and heavy though, most are made out of copper, sometimes aluminum since its lighter, but not as good to conduct/release heat.

An easy way is to get some nice thermal compound or thermal paste. look for the expensive stuff that has silver in it.

Another way, more extreme and sacreficing slight speed is to "underclock" the processor and graphics card. I'm sure you've heard of overclocking, to get MORE speed out of something, but this is just the opposite, lower speeds and lower voltage to use less power and in turn, produce less heat. This means you don't need to use an overpowered/loud fan.

I guess thats about it, I hope I didn't lose you in any of that, I know it was a lot, my fingers are tired

Good luck!

-Jackson

 

[IslandCustom]

jaxx75, the "noisy fan" that I replaced with a Pabst was, in fact a SilenX. I agree with you...the SilenX has a good airflow and is quite quiet. But, if you can live with the reduced airflow of the Pabst, it's nearly inaudible.

 

[Kemisco]

Hi everyone,

Interesting thread! So much so that I went looking into my parts boxes of old printing equipment. I found an old case fan stamped July 29, 1980. It's from a Compugraphic photopaper processor.

I held it up to the mounting holes in the back of my tower, and they lined up! This particular computer tower is from the latter part of 1999--lots of room.

The old fan is 110 volts, and slightly thicker than a normal case fan. For now I ran a cord from the case to an outlet. My computer now sounds like one of those 8 foot tall servers you see in espionage movies.

Nineteen years difference in part manufacturing. I think I definitely knocked it onto the green here. I don't save everything, just the important stuff.

Kemisco

-----


Take your computer outdoors when blowing out the dust; it's mostly skin dust. A clean computer is a cool computer.

 

[torandson]

Hi,
For what it's worth, I once solved a noisy computer fan problem (out of balance blades or shaft irregularity that sounded like an outboard motor) by going to a used and salvage electronics parts store. By chance they had a 12v fan of about the right size which spun noiselessly to my finger push. I bought it, fastened to a heatsink, for about $5 USD, unscrewed it from the heatsink, and mounted it in a, shall we say, slightly unorthodox way. It worked. Works. Is Q-U-I-E-T (by the way, everyone, the "e" comes before the "t" in this word. Yes, quite so. You may wish to pass this bit of news along to those many who apparently haven't yet heard.). Oh, the second part was using the speed control from another fan to slow it way down (since this AMD Geode processor only uses 6 watts). Any decent rheostat of the right wattage and resistance should do as well for this. An even cheaper solution, assuming one can discover the correct resistance value, is to put a simple resistor in series with the fan power. A 12v fan drawing 1 amp uses 12 watts, and a resistor soaking up half the power would need to be a 6 watt resistor. A 10 watt resistor would work. Maybe a 5 watt or a 2 watt resistor would work, depending on the fan and the amount of speed reduction.

I once bought a new $50 power supply when the fan in my current one began to scream, but the new one didn't have the right voltage to reliably activate the power switch sensing, so I returned it. A $1 case fan from an out-of-the way computer store and grinding away on it with a bastard file till it fit into place inside the old power supply case solved the problem.

In other words, if you absolutely need "inexpensive," there may be an inexpensive solution in a used/salvage store somewhere. Be prepared to get creative. Unplug the fan you've got and mount a new 'wrong' one directly on its back, for example. But if you get your PC so quiet that it belches smoke, don't blame me.

--torandson

 

[JimInKS]

For case fans I have been very happy with Arctic Cooling.
Very economical, especially if you buy a small quantity.
You can do a search by manufacturer at newegg.com

Here is one example:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186121

 

[funk45]

My friend, I too have an ATI 9600 Now it sounds like you have either a 9600 Pro or XT card, because the 9600 didn't come with a fan. I am planning on buying an Artic Cooling "ATI Silencer 2". I have had other beefier ATI cards that I used the ATI Silencer on and I have been very happy. Another thing to check is the fan speed. Try downloading "ATI Tool", it gives you the ability to see how fast your fan is running. It should only run at 100% under full load, then drop to 13% (I think) at idle, if it isn't- the program gives you the ability to change it. But definitly check out the Silencer!

 

[funk45]

Ok, if you haven't solved your problem, let me know. I have an ATI 9600. If you have an XT or PRO then I have the "Silencer" for you. I bought the wrong one, and it dosen't fit. Shoot me an email if you are interested. funk45@juno.com