Any tried sound dampening spray

M

musicman_ace

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 30, 2003
Messages
205
Looks to me like standard car undercoating.
Definately not worth 15.00 a can.
 
Just get the dynamat material. should be easy to apply since the cases are usually flat on the inside.
 
From what I've seen, the dynomat type stuff is somewhere in the range of 30 to 70 dollars depending on where and who makes it. I was hoping this would work the same and be more cost effective. I'm sure one can would be more than plenty for one computer case.

Fairly certain I'm going to order one Monday morning.
 
Well I never would have thought of our sound dampening products being used for computers so this is kind of interesting. Please let us know how it works out.

David Wagner
Webmaster - LightAudio
 
ya, well I've tried some stuff the local rice shack had, and meh... I actually measured sound levels, and it dropped them by 1.5 db. Whoop-dee-do.
 
I was, at one point, thinking of putting my machines in the closet with extension cables for the kb, mouse, and video.
 
I'm gonna second just getting a can of rubberized asphalt undercoating sound dampener spray. I paid like $6 for a 550g can(about 20oz), and that's $6 canadian :p One can is definately not enough for an entire computer case though. One can is probably enough to do both side panels of your average sized case, and then you'd probably need another can for the back/top/bottom/front(if you want to go that far). The stuff works well, apply it fairly thick, let it dry for a day or so, and then apply another thick coating. If you have your computer on your desk such that one case panel faces the wall, you can probably get away without doing that case panel. I did my gf's pc with the stuff and it's quite noticeable, and I've only done the one case panel. I find now *most* of the sound just comes out the back through the PSU, so I'm thinking of fabricating up some kind of sound dampening/deflecting shield. Probably just bent sheet metal treated on either side with sound dampening spray, angled so that it points any sound that does bounce off towards the wall(the computer is positioned so that the motherboard side of the case is close up against the wall).
 
Could you use all of that sound dampening material Yoshi did and still have, say, a p4 2.8 @ 3.4 or so cooled successfully? Seems like it would be creating a lot of heat with all that stuff, and he never really mentioned what his hardware was set at. I watched the video and saw 38 and 42 with the side panel off and a video playing.
 
IMG_0123.JPG


I didn't use those two... for five bucks I found Rust-Oleum Specialty Grip&Guard Textured Rubber Coating. I sprayed the entire inside of the case down after removing the face and taping a few things, including the inside of the side panels. I then applied AcoustiProducts acousti-padding to all flat surfaces... taped off the holes in front too, etc.

I am right now installing a new PSU that should be silent and I installed that ArticCooling CPU. Hardware is a FX-51, 2x74gb raptors, CDRW/DVD combo drive, floppy w/ 6in1 compact media reader, SB Audigy 2 Platinum with Livedrive, Abit Radeon 9800XT 256MB, 2 x 512mb Corsair PC3200 TwinX ECC. With the previous, and less efficient PSU and the stock cooler I had near complete silence at boot and the CPU never got above 57C under load. The new PSU is more efficient and the new HSF should be approximately the same for cooling only more silent... all I need now is the Rev3 ArticCooling VGA silencer for 9800Xts (out this month) and I am set.

An added bonus to this paint, besides a small factor of noise deadening, is that if applied right it can actually promote better air seal along the case and door edges. It's easy to apply and dries pretty quick, looks good, and it does help (I ran the same hardware without padding first and it's definately quieter with just that... sealing up the holes in the front (sans grill) helped more, the padding finished it off. The fans and PSU are mounted on rubber gasgets. The only thing left, and I am not convinced yet I need too, is to remove the front/rear fan grills for the 120mm fans.

The case is a BlackKnight X195 from Ahanix, a relatively affordable, front and back 120mm case with a built in fan controller and temp monitoring that works. The only other mod I made so far was to enlarge the bottom vent area in the front bezel that lest the front 120mm fan breath... doing that shaved 2C off the ambient easy. Case temps have not gotten above 30C (room ambient is about 75F, so that's only a 11 degree rise under load, not bad if you ask me).

Edit

Okay, it's up and running... wiring isn't perfect yet. After 15 minutes in the bios the CPU has settled on 57.5C idle with the artic cooling HSF... higher than I really want, but it's quiet... a good 14 buck experiment, may go back to stock or something. The new PSU, a SuperTornado 400W with APFC is much quieter and providing much voltage to the 12V rail... I am a bit shocked as this one is only producing 11.43V on the +12V rail... the silverstone SST350W was hitting 11.136V or so, yet it ran an all night loop of 3DMark03 with audio at high res without a hiccup. I am wondering if the onboard V sensor for the SK8N is off a smidge, that shouldn't have been stable and this new SuperTornado PSU should be more than enough to hit 11.8V or so on the 12V rail I would think.

Going to let it sit ad idle all night for some break in on the new ArticSilver5 application to see if it improves. If not, may have to find something else... the stock cooler is not bad, but for the noise it isn't doing a good job either.

Maybe someone knows... The PSU fan, a 120 with pretty good thermal control from what I am seeing... would it perhaps be more efficient if I had it setup to draw outside air from the back and blow into the case versus using case air to cool itself? I would think it would run cooler and provide more air in the case.
 
If you set up your PSU to blow air into your case, it may be more efficient for the PSU, but you'll be blowing hot air directly into your case. My suggestions: More padding on the case panels, a bigger cpu fan with a funnel to funnel it down, you can get a 120mm->80mm funnel, and use a quiet 120mm fan. Make baffle-boxes for your case fans. For the PSU, if you can, try to duct it so it's drawing in fresh air from outside of the case, baffle the duct for sound reduction. This will allow the PSU fan to run at a lower speed, because it will be more efficient with the cooler air. 57'C at idle is unacceptable in my books :/ lol I'll probably be trying to go silent with my case somewhat soon(it sounds pretty loud right now, but nothing like what the vantec tornado fans are like), so I'll probably start a worklog once I start on that.
 
it seems to me like a spray won't do crap for deadening sound. if that was the case recording studios wouldn't need the insane amounts of padding on the walls to deaden sound.

this topic has inspired me to acheieve a completely silent and dark computer.
 
I agree that the idle is way to high... it has peaked now after quite a bit of running at 60C... way too high.

Not sure about adding any padding... every flat and semi-flat surface is covered already.

The case fans are silent essentially... may replace them with Panaflos or Pabst fans later, but the only noise they make is mechancial.

Since this PSU is a 120mm bottom fan there really is now efficient way to duct air into it from outside except from the back.

I may just go ahead and get a fan duct adapter for the stock cooler and mount a 92mm fan... directon has a 70mm to 92mm adapter that will work with the stock cooler, and I can put a Zalman fanmate on it.
 
that sounds spray stuff sounds like its for deading rattle in cars or something
 
I just love that case............

but the guy used AcustiPack....which is 85$!!!!

I think that`s a bit too much for foam.....
 
Did any one try it yet?

If it does im gonna buy 20 cans and spray all the walls in my room :D
 
I am loving the AcoustiPak (which is what I used). Dense, cell foam over a thick rubber backing with good adhesive that lets you reapply it (take off and put back on) at least three or four times. It does a great job at sound dampening if you ask me, and if your goal is a quiet case this is a good solution. Much better than the thin rubberized pads that sell cheap, they don't seem to do much at all. except raise case temps.
 
I have done this, and it was the worst thing I have ever done to a case! After you put it on its kinda rubbery and it collects dust and crap and is hard to clean. Other then that it makes it really really hard to take side panels off and back on. And when it starts to come off it comes off in strips of rubbery crap… I say don’t do it man, its not worth it!
 
Originally posted by designedforhell
I have done this, and it was the worst thing I have ever done to a case! After you put it on its kinda rubbery and it collects dust and crap and is hard to clean. Other then that it makes it really really hard to take side panels off and back on. And when it starts to come off it comes off in strips of rubbery crap… I say don’t do it man, its not worth it!
Click to expand...

If you give it sufficient time to dry in a dust-free(or mostly dust-free, as long as it's not IN your computer case with dust flying by from the fans), it will dry to a tack-free finish. I've done a TON of side-panels with the rubberized asphalt sound deadening spray, and it helps.

Why? Two reasons.

Reason the first: A more massive object requires more energy to accelerate, or in this case, vibrate. Spraying on this foam will add mass to your case panel, making it more difficult for the sound waves and vibrations from fans/drives to cause the panel itself to vibrate, thus lowering noise caused from reverberation.

Reason the second: Sound waves don't travel as well through rubberized asphalt as well as they do through say, a thin sheet of aluminum or steel. Spraying this on in several coats, to achieve a thickness of about 4-5mm, will provide significant sound insulation.

Agreed, however, that the spray is much more useful for curved/uneven surfaces. You can buy sound deadening material for cars, asphalt based, from various places. This would be more efficient for a side panel because the side panel is big and flat, and the asphalt sound deadening comes in thick sheets.
 
GNNR |AVault| how thick did you spray on the Bondo stuff? I bough a can the other day to spray the inside of my case with (front, back, top, bottom, and sides) but wasn't going to spray any of the drives bays or anything. Did you dis-assemble your case first or just spray it on with everything in place? I was thinking I could spray the rest of the inside of my case with some flat black Rustoleum so the inside of my case wouldn't look all funky being part black and part gray steel.
 
I didn't dissasemble the case... I took the sides off, taped up the grills and holes, cleaned the metal with strong alcohol, and went to town. Three coats in total, a full can. It dried perfectly tact free (though there are a couple of minor runs where I got carried away, but they aren't very visible) and it doesn't collect dust at all. The spray alone really helped seal up the case side panel edges and did indeed deaden the sound by a small factor. It also looks good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top