Topic: Noise!

[Miskat]

Hello everyone!  =)  I have been building these wrteched machines (nono, I love them, honest!) for a few years now.  All in all im a newbie at actually modding them though.  Up until now it's been the standard slap it together with choice chips and throw the OS onto the drive with the drivers, hand it over and have fun.  Well, I've finally gotten sick of my own machine the way it is and would love to change it.

Now, much as I love looks, practicality comes first in my book.  ~_^  And considering I can't even keep my machine on at night since it's so -loud- I guess that means that the most practical thing for me to do is quiet it down a bit.  =)  Question is: how?

I'm cash tight so I'm afraid to go out and buy a bunch of new fans and other bunk just to find out they aren't much quieter then what I already have.

Speaking of already having here are my system specs:

Medium-size ATX case
733mhz P3
nVidia GeForce 2 MX400
SB Live! X-Gamer
Old crappy 10 base-t ethernet card
DXR-3 Hardware DVD Decoder
Zip 100 drive
Creative 12x DVD (24x CD-Rom read)
Generic 48x12x50 CD-RW
30.1GB Maxtor HD
Generic floppy (yay!)
2-fan HD fan in front of my HD (in a 5.25 bay)

I would love to get rid of my bay fan (it is really loud... yuck) but my bays are all taken up (top bay is my DVD drive, one below that is the HD, below that is the CD-RW, below that is the Zip) so I'm pretty sure I need it.

I don't even know what temperature I am running at, never really payed much attention to it since I don;t overclock my CPU.  Besides, the temperature device was more money that I couldn't afford.  =P  Only other fans in this hunk-a-junk is the fan/Heatsink on top of my CPU, and it was just a generic one that -seems- to work.  Also, I have the one on the power supply of course.  =)  Nothing else.  Not sure exactly how to go about doing this.  Anyone know of any good ideas?  Maybe recommendations on good fans that wont be so loud.  (I'm guessing it's the fans making the noise, I mean... that makes sense. =P)

-Robert

[Sandra]

Hi Miskat and welcome to our forum  
There is a post somehwere in here about something called a Peltier Element.I dont know if you have come across them but basically they are a bi-metal electrical device that if a voltage is applied one side gets hot and the other gets cold depending on which way you have the polarity.There are no fans involved so that would be your cheapest option for the ultimate in quitening your PC.They are thin enough to fit between the CPU and the heatsink.
I did see a review for a firm that was making them specifically for CPU  cooling.If I can find it or the previous post on her I will post a link to it.
If you do a search in the meantime for Peltier Element I think you will find out quite a bit about them ( they are really quite inexpensive too )

[Simon]

Hi Miskat, and welcome to Pals.

Our resident cooling expert, Bat69, should be able to help you here, but in the meantime, why don't you check out some of the other threads in this part of the forum?  You might find some useful info.  

We hope you also find time to check out the rest of the forum, and join in with some of the fun.  Everyone is very friendly!  

[Rodders]

Welcome Miskat!

Actually, my box makes more noise than the Spice Girls confronted with a spider, but I've grown to love the racket it makes.

Having said that, I'm safe and secure in the knowledge that, despite being unable to speak, or hear the TV above the din created by a box containing more fans than the Spice girls ever had, I do know my precious bits are keeping cool.

I therefore recommend a 'Bat chat', since Bat is our Connoisseur of Cooling.  Stick around, ok!

[Sandra]

Cant find the previous thread in Pals about Peltiers but I found this which will give you an idea of what they are capable of.
It gets a bit carried away with water cooling as well but wouldnt think that was necessary for your 733mhz P3.
As long as you have a temperature monitor for the CPU and some way of shutting it down if it failed they sound quite good  

http://www.dansdata.com/pelt.htm

[Adept]

Cant find the previous thread in Pals about Peltiers

I couldn't find it either

Miskat. I hope you have fun here.

[Sandra]

Sorry Miskat,I am getting as bad as the guys on here for not reading peoples posts fully  
I just re read yours and see that it seems to be the twin fan in the drive bay that you have identified as being the main culprit for the noise.
As you only have the one hard drive ( a relatively modest size too ) is it absolutely necessary to have it installed?
The other bits occupying the bays arent constantly in use so I wouldnt have thought that the fan was essential.
If you were worried about the hard drive overheating somehow then you could always stick a peltier on that  

[Miskat]

Actually, I had contemplated taking the bay cooler off for some time.  I bought out of the "Better safe than sorry" rule.  I have heard form some people that it is necassary (my computer teacher at school, actually.) and from others that it may not be (a techie at my moms job. ^^)  So it was kind-of a toss up what to do.

I have also found that while the bay cooler is loud, it isn't supposed to be!  *chuckles* I'm not entirely sure why but i found that the fans (they alternate =P) are hitting something, my guess is a wire, but when i looked inside, I couldn't see one in the way.

What I think I really need to do is take and stop each fan for a second or two to see which (of the bay cooler, CPU, and power supply fans) ones are the loudest.  Perhaps once I know I can find solutions to either replace or help the noise level of the part.  Looks like this weekend is going to be fun!  Think I'll take a run to Fry's and see what they say about the Peltiers as well (if they have any, etc....)

Thank you all!  =D

(P.S.  Just out of curiousity, do any of you remember, or even participate in, a tech-support website called "NoWonder!"?  I'm just curious.  =D)

[Sandra]

Never heard of that one Miskat,but this one usually covers most stuff either from inside knowledge or members finding stuff out on other sites/forums  

[bat69]

Hi Miskat


I'm a little worse the wear for a good night out,
but I will get back to you ... I have a couple of good ideas that might help, but at the moment I wouldn't like to suggest anything serious  

[Adept]

Tut tut Bat! You wouldn't catch me getting like that

[RGraves]

Miskat, I had the same trouble awhile back.  You may want to take a look at whatever fans you have, when it happened to me, it turned out that the berrings inthe fans were completely SHOT.  Might be worthwhile to take a look at.  I don't know what brand fans you bought, but there are several companies out there that make really good ones.  (My case is loaded with ones from Thermaltake lol, there quiet as a mouse.)  Or, as Sandra said, go for the Peltier solution.  This one got me somewhat confused when I read about it though.  And from what I understand, it's only good for contact cooling (HDD, CPU) meaning case fans are still a must for airflow.

Good Luck!

-Robert

[Robotochan]

I'm not sure what you mean by bay cooler but I'm guessing it's that 2 wee fans in a 5 1/2 inch drive thinggy. If it is I don't think you need it, the fans that are on them are not really worth having, do you not have any 80mm fan spots on your case?

EDIT: Doh! Just read some more of your post   Have you tried getting a 3 1/4 inch HDD cooler? I have one on my HDD and it runs at a cool 28C  

[agua-moose]

seeing as i've been taking advice off people, i thought i'd have a go at giving some back.

i've been doing a lot of research into quiet cases, fans, etc.. because i use my pc for audio work and this year have decided to expand it into a full blown studio with the pc as the central recording/producing/editing medium.

from my investigation i have discovered this case manufacturer:
http://www.acoustiproducts.com/en/acousticase.asp

i shall be buying their C6606 case very soon.

also this fan/psu manufacturer:
http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/intro.htm

the research and development which goes into both these products to make them as noisless as possible seems very impressive.

hope that helps.

[Adept]

Let us know how you get on Agua-Moose.

I'd be very interested to know if they are as good as they ar cracked up to be