Looking for quiet computer fans.

[Sub_Umbra]

[ QUOTE ]
koala said:
I run my Intel P4 Prescott 2.8E at 1.8Ghz. The voltage to the CPU is 1.125v instead of 1.4v. That brings down a total of 19c(~67F). The current room temperature is 27c(~80F) and the CPU temp is at 43c(~110F) max. At these levels the stock Intel fan run quietly at 1739rpm minimum setting. All I can hear is the power supply fan and LCD monitor humming.

I know this is massive underclock, undervoltage might not suit some gamers and heavy cpu users but for creating word docs, email, surfing you can have a perfectly quiet machine if you can 'select' your cpu power.

[/ QUOTE ]

That is a really interesting approach. Neat.

 

[eluminator]

[ QUOTE ]
yuandrew said:

One thing I can also note is that cases can amplify the sound produced by the fans.


Putting the fan on a rehostat or some other speed control is also good but why do it manually ? I'd prefer something like this:
Pyramid Fan Controller


[/ QUOTE ]

I looked for something like this fan controller two years ago but found nothing. I now make my own. Mine cost more but I like them better. Mine show the fan speed by a series of LEDs on the front of the case. This allows me to see the CPU utilization from across the room, or if the CPU is idling, it will tell me when I need to clean the dust from the air filter.

I mount my case fan using vinyl grommets to isolate any vibration. Silicone may be better, but vinyl is cheaper and my slow turning 120mm fan doesn't make much noise anyway.

 

[Sub_Umbra]

eluminator,

Wow, that's pretty cool! That could be really good for my box. How complex/hard was it to build? Did you make a schematic and parts list? I'm not very good at electronics but that project sounds like it would be worth doing...and, hey, it has blinking LEDs, right? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[fuelblender]

I'm a computer fan and my wife says I'm quiet.

OK, go ahead and shoot me.../ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/xyxgun.gif

 

[Gary1274]

Most fans are quiet compaired to my thermaltake, 6600 RPMS! I don't mind it though because my CPU is only 34C and is overclocked 900MHZ...

 

[Tree]

Thanks for all the advice, but...

I was wrong!

The noise is not coming from the fan on the CPU, the noise is a combination of the fan on my NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 Ultra video card and my hard drives. The vid card fan has a loud whir and the hard drives (I'm going to experiment to see if it's just one or all of them) creates a somewhat high pitch sound.

I think there are fans you can get for the PCI slots that may be quieter but, other than blocking the sound can you quiet a hard drive?

 

[John N]

Regarding the video card. First make sure it isn't clogged up with dust. Blow it off with canned air. The fan may also be on it's way out. This seems to happen a lot with fans that get clogged with dust. I've seen 3rd party replacement fans and options, but haven't looked into them in any detail.

You can get sound isoliation devices (see the link earlier in the thread about silentpcs) and you can get quieter drives. My friend at work swears by the Seagate drives with their new fluid bearing drives. In any case, look for a drive that advertises it is quiet, or look for the sound rating on the spec sheet.

-john

 

[eluminator]

Most disk drives seem to be quiet these days. I think most have those fluid bearings also.

I make sure I don't have any of those small heatsink fans in my computers. You can get video cards that don't require fans. Probably not good enough for gamers but for the sane among us, they work fine. Here's one:
http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/quiet_video_card.html

You might be able to remove the fan from the one you have and use another means to cool it. Maybe you could get this to work:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-118-204&depa=0

 

[Sub_Umbra]

Also look at the Western Digital Special Edition drives w/8MB(!) cache. These drives are very cheap AND fast. These 7200 rpm drives run both cooler and quieter than the 5400 rpm drives we were using a few years ago.

 

[koala]

Stock hsf on video cards are too weeny, small and noisy... hdd stores precious data so better keep them cool... you don't need alot of money to do this..



In case you are wondering, yes they all work! The 7200rpm harddisk took 35mins to heat up the huge heatsink and stabilize it's temperature. 6c drop with a passive heatsink.

The heatsink on the graphic card looks small but it's huge.

All below are quiet and passive heatsink you can find at your local electronics store at a cheap price

 

[lhz]

I use an Antec Super Lanboy casing, Tagan PSU, and replaced the stock cpu cooler on my P4 with a Coolermaster Hyper 48. The computer is now practically dead silent. I have nightmares of the Hyper 48(800+grams of copper) crashing down and taking my 3D card with it though. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

 

[Lynx_Arc]

I have seen water cooling kits that protect both the CPU and GPU. This would be part of the ultimate silence part if you got one with a large quiet fan on the radiator coil.