PC tower designs

Not that I can afford a new PC right now, but one day...

My current PC is starting to annoy me. It has lots of fans, but I don't mind those. I'm completely used to their whirring and am able to ignore it. However, it's recently started to make a new noise that I can't solve. It's like when a bug forgets how to fly and is just buzzing around on the ground not going anywhere. I tried using a squeeze duster to blow at the video card fan, which worked for a minute or so, but then the noise came back. More dusting was to no avail, wherever I aimed the duster. I can't really pinpoint the location of the noise, either. It's driving me batty, because it's not fading out of my awareness. I'm thinking of getting one of those mechanic's stethoscopes to see if it'll help me find it.

So, I'm wondering about new designs for my future tower. I'd like something completely sealed to avoid dust, and fanless to avoid clicking, whirring, buzzing, and so on. I just took a quick look at liquid-cooled towers, but they just had fans elsewhere to cool off the liquid. :thinking: I'd be happy with something liquid-cooled but airtight, with hoses running to an external fanless heatsink with easy-to-clean surfaces.

It'd also be nice to have a tower with everything (drive bays, mobo ports, everything) on the front, so I don't have to crawl around under my desk every time I want to plug something in. I haven't seen anything like that before, but it'd be nice.

probably just a cheap fan bearing going flakey. I have had them do the buzz thing and had to finally replace them. video card fans are notoriously victims of cheapness at times. Sometimes you can touch the fan or tap it in the center of it while running and the sound will go away it could be a bad or sloppy bearing then. Watercooling is quiet except you still have a fan on the radiator. I have mostly 120mm fans in my case with an 80mm fan on my core 2 duo by Zalman. My system isn't the quietest but low tone fan noise is more acceptable than high tones and quieter and .... cooler which is what i wanted.

Going completely fanless on a performance system would be very difficult. I highly recommend sticking to 120mm fans for the tower itself. Only a couple should be needed and they're so much quieter than 80mm fans.
I remember a couple years back Zallman has a completely fanless liquid cooling system. The reservator cooling tower. Looks like they have a new version now.
Thing is with watercooling you have a pump now instead of a fan. A good one should be pretty quiet.

As for having everything up front, most mobos and cases do have headers and front ports for some up front USB, firewire and headphone jacks. But if you're wanting everything up front why not just turn the case around? I havent seen a case that has the mobo go i/o panel out, forward or upward yet.

noisy pc`s are an issue for quite a lot of people, myself included!!
http://www.quietpc.com/forums/index.php
http://www.silentpcreview.com/
..... etc, etc
lots of stuff/info out there ...
and dont put up with that old/slow/noisy pc, get a new one! :thumbsup:

TigerhawkT3 said:

It'd also be nice to have a tower with everything (drive bays, mobo ports, everything) on the front, so I don't have to crawl around under my desk every time I want to plug something in. I haven't seen anything like that before, but it'd be nice.

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FrontX has configurable kits that allow you to have the ports on the front, mounted in an adapter chassis in a 5 1/4" bay.

I like big file server towers with lots of 5.25" bays. Even when I have to put hdds in adjacent 5.25" bays the adaptor brackets still leave lots more room for cooling air than 3.5" bays do. Positive air pressure designs with filtered intake air will keep everything in the case much cleaner year after year. I also use excess fan capacity (Paniflo 120s) tied into a Reobus. With the extra capacity I can throttle them down to a quieter rpm while still having all of the cooling I need.

I think special consideration of your tower may be worth the effort as they may be rebuilt almost indefinately.

I also use a big 'Silencer' psu that is oversized enough that it's cooling fan never kicks into it's louder, high speed level.

You have to lubricate the bearings.

It's not the fan noise itself that bothers me. It's the extra buzzings that can get added that bother me. Also, fans are a place for dust to get in. I just wanted to avoid those factors.

:laughing: Oh, Hendo, how I wish I could just "get a new one."

BTW, those mechanic's stethoscopes require you to touch whatever you want to hear. I had discharged my static electricity beforehand, so I didn't think I'd have to insulate the steel (i.e. electrically conductive) probe. Long story short, reducing the noise of my current tower is probably a moot point. Hopefully, I'll only need to replace the video card, but I don't know.

TigerhawkT3 said:

...Also, fans are a place for dust to get in...

Click to expand...

I would never recommend more fans for off the shelf partial vacuum cases. With my positive pressure case I can use as many fans as I like and because all of the intake air is filtered. The case stays nice and clean running 24/7 year after year.

I agree, well filtered positve pressure is the way to go. I'm using a very high airflow fan in a custom rig with a K&N air filter, and a well sealed Antec P182(one of the first, it was shipped by mistake in a P180 box ) Case. I run 24x7 and I've only had to clean my case once. To find the noise maker, very carefully stop the fan by pressing on the solid spot in the middle. The blades can sting, so be sure to keep away from them. Stop the fans one by one until you've found the one making the noise. :thumbsup:

Update:

After I replaced the video card I fried with a new one, my computer worked, but the computer was still making the noise. I installed the drivers and all, and then had to restart to uninstall the old video card drivers. When it was restarting, at the point where the fans are still running but the computer is "off," there was no buzzing noise, so it wasn't the fans making the noise. The only things left to make the noise (that I could think of) were the hard drives. I wanted to find out which one was the culprit, so I powered off, unplugged, powered on, etc. After unplugging the second one and powering on, it didn't boot, and I got a long-short beep code. I looked it up online, and it's apparently a RAM issue. Well, I hadn't touched the RAM, but I took both sticks out, squeeze dusted the sticks and slots, replaced them, switched them around, everything I could think of, but no dice. I get the same long-short beep error every time.

So, my plan is to return the new video card and then wait until I have money so I can start fresh. I might try buying a 1TB drive and backing up the old drives onto it, but most likely I'll just let the thing sit there and only do it when I buy a completely new machine.

Sounds like something is resonating. My cpu heatsink likes to do that sometimes when it gets dusty. Oddly enough it hasn't been doing that lately. Maybe even more dust means no resonance.

As someone said just turn things off until you find it. If you unplug your boot drive nothing much is going to happen. Try booting from a floppy, e.g. knoppix or memtest.

Turning things off until I found the noise was what I was trying to do, but I don't think it was the boot drive that I unplugged. In any case, unplugging that second drive (out of three) made the mobo think there was a RAM issue. I plugged it back in and the "RAM issue" remained. Now, when I try turning on the computer, I get a long beep and then a short one, and since my computer has to be unplugged for a few seconds and then plugged in again to actually stay off, the long-short repeats every few seconds as the computer tries to boot, gives the error beep, turns off, turns right back on, tries to boot, etc.

I returned the new video card, seeing as how I no longer have a functional computer to use it in. It's going to be a pain to not have my own computer for several months.

TigerhawkT3 said:

It's going to be a pain to not have my own computer for several months.

Click to expand...

In hindsight maybe the noise wasn't so bad.

I now have a laptop with a solid state drive and this puppy is absolutely quiet; that is until the fan kicks in from time to time.

TigerhawkT3 said:

In any case, unplugging that second drive (out of three) made the mobo think there was a RAM issue. I plugged it back in and the "RAM issue" remained. Now, when I try turning on the computer, I get a long beep and then a short one, and since my computer has to be unplugged for a few seconds and then plugged in again to actually stay off, the long-short repeats every few seconds as the computer tries to boot, gives the error beep, turns off, turns right back on, tries to boot, etc.

Click to expand...

You may have an option in your computer bios to "igonore all errors" when booting instead of "reboot on error". That might get it booted up. Things like the video card not being fully seated, or power supply voltages too low can cause those error beep codes. If you think the code is for the ram, pull the ram and reseat it. If you have more than one stick, try just one at a time. Use a memtest boot CD just in case the memory is bad. You don't want bad ram fouling up your windows install. I suspect your computer can work again if you're lucky. It's not uncommon for something to get loose when you're in there unplugging and replugging something else.

could be it detected your memory improperly and needs to be manually set right causing it to not be stable.

A good "stethoscope" for locating noises is a vinyl or rubber hose of suitable diameter and length. I've used radiator hose to locate noises in the car engine compartment. For my computers I have a 3 foot length of 5/8" OD vinyl hose.

I am a quiet freak and I use the 120 mm fans in my computers. You need a case that can take them. Even the 92 mm fans are considerably quieter then the ubiquitous 80 mm fans.

If I suspected memory problems I would run a DOS memory diagnostic program.
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp
http://www.memtest86.com/download.html

Also if you have more than one stick of memory, remove one at a time and see if your machine runs.