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Asvice Needed on Hornet Noise Problem

R

Rail Baron

n00b
Joined
Dec 21, 2005
Messages
4
HI, I just received my first BTO system. Sorry for the lengthy description that follows. It is the Monarch Hornet Pro and it seems loud to me. It has an Athlon 3800X2 processor, dual 150GB raid 1 HDs and an Gigabyte passive cooled 6600GT. For now I am using onboard audio which doesn't sound too bad. M/B is an ASUS A8N-VM CSM. I measured the sound around the case using a Radio Shack analog sound meter and here is what I got.

case front 69dB at intake fan
case left 57dB
case right 89 dB at fan port
case rear 91 at small fan exhaust

This unit has dual temperature guages on the front measuring the temp at the hard drives and on the ram. Max temp after running on idle after 6 hours was 106.8 degrees F at the H/D and about 106.0 degrees at the memory. CPU temp is running about 58 degrees C according to the BIOS.

The unit has the following fans:
80mm case fan in front
CPU fan
40 mm right side vent fan
40 mm optional fan in rear
plus power supply fans

I need to place this computer on a desktop within 2-3 feet from where I sit and use it and there is no real option to place it anywhere else (nor would you want to since it is attractive).

So I have the following questions:

1. Is it reasonable to expect a SFF computer to be quieter than this?

2. I have disconnected the side fan and after about 3 hours of use, the temperature on the RAM and H/Ds is up to about 115 degrees F. What is the maximum temperature that I should aim for that won't significantly shorten the lifespan of the parts? I was told by Monarch that up to 70 degrees C is OK. I checked in the BIOS just now and the CPU temperature is 68.5degreesC/155F so this isn't the answer and I have reconnected the right side fan.

3. What steps could I take that might quieten the system? I have heard about adhesive padding for the insides but I imagine that would retain heat. I added an optional 40 mm fan in the back that is contributing to the noise and I think I could disable it without adding too much heat but it is wired in with the temperature guages so I don't want to cut wires if I am not going to keep this unit. I also tried to spec a Zalman silent CPU fan but it wouldn't fit so we had to substitute a ball bearing fan.


I'm afraid I know the answer to this. I don't see anything that can significantly quieten the system without overheating it. I had read about the tradeoffs with a SFF system but I never thought it would be so loud. I am surprised more hasn't been written about this issue. I had hoped that some tradeoffs when I specced the system such as a cooler running video card, no audio card, upgraded fans would be enough. I would welcome any comments or ideas. I guess I will call Monarch tomorrow and see if I can return it for a fee.
 
My friend, SFF computers can be very quiet when they want to. Ask (almost) any Shuttle owner: their babies are nice and quiet (most of the time). The Hornet is a good gaming rig, but the definition of "gaming rig" normally includes "hot" and "loud." It's going to be really tough for you to get that Hornet down to "silent" levels. The two 40mm fans are your worst enemy: small fan diameters mean the fans have to spin faster to move more air. Your 40mm fans have to spin 1.5x (average) faster than your one 80mm to move the same amount of air. If you can't mount a 80mm where the 40s are, try to find a really high-quality 40mm fan and install that. If you can't replace your 80mm fan with a 120mm, go buy a "silent" 80 (they're all over the place). And if your PSU has two 80mm fans, toss it and buy a PSU with one 120mm or a 120 & 80, or one 80mm (Neo HE comes to mind, although they don't work well with some ASUS and DFI boards).

I'm sorry man, that's all I've got. The only thing Hornets are good for is their mATX SLi mobo.
 
That's one of the drawbacks of buying a pre-built system. Unless the rig is specifically sold as a "quiet" system, it most likely won't be. Dell (shrug) is pretty good at keeping noise levels down in their low-end rigs, but other than that it's a gamble and you'll need to read reviews or seek opinions if you want to know the noise characteristics of a BTO system.
 
Sorry man, but I've got two Hornet Pros, and I can tell you from experience, if you don't like the volume, there isn't much that can be done. I removed the extra 40mm mounted to the back of the case, near the I/O ports. That one was only a 3-pin connector, so I don't understand why you said yours was permanently attached to the temp gauges. If your side fan was built with it sucking air in, I found that if you turn it to blow out, it quiets down some. If you've got a custom CPU cooler, like the ThermalTake Venus 7 I've got, you have to realize its louder than the stock cooler and you'll hear it coming out of the side vent.

Otherwise, chuck the front 80mm fan - it rides on ball bearings, always louder than a cheaper sleeve bearing fan. You can always replace it later.

Its too bad that the Hornet has disappointed you. The Hornet's construction quality is one of the best, and the ergonomics is second-to-none. Its true what the previous poster said: this one is advertised as a good gaming rig, so to cool these suckers down, it's gonna get loud. With a little tuning, though, I've gotten mine down to levels I can live with.

As an aside, for those who have SFF rigs with top of the line video cards in them, I can't sing the praises of Arctic Cooling Silencers enough. I have an NV Silencer 5 in my Hornet to cool my BFG 7800 GT OC. My temps dropped 5 degrees C on average and also dropped my CPU temps by nearly the same amount! The 70mm fan is whisper quiet and makes a big difference from the dustbuster fans that come with the stock heastink.
 
I live only about 125 miles from Monarch in Tennessee so I took my unit down there yesterday. They were very friendly and had offered before I took it down there to swap the contents to another case for a fixed fee and even credit me for the hornet case which seemed very reasonable. They thought they could help the sound so I let them try.

They agreed that the fan in the front of the case seemed unusually loud so they switched it for another fan in the back. After the switch the front fan was much quieter. They agreed that the 40 mm fan I had added in the back as an option was probably not helpful so they took it out. Finally they tried to switch the fan in the side but nothing seemed to help it. They said that the plexiglass grill the the fan pulled the air through added some sound to the problem. Then the service manager suggested slowing the fan down by rewiring it to a 5 volt rail. Bingo, it is now whisper quiet. I know it won't move as much air but maybe it'll be enough. I decided to bring it back and try it while monitoring the temperature.

They explained more about the cool n quiet option through the BIOS. They said when activated through Windows, it would throttle the CPU down as low as 100 mhz when doing less CPU intensive stuff like surfing and ramp up whenever starting a game or something that uses the resources. I know that won't help if I am playing some game for several hours but actually, I mostly use it for web surfing and other stuff. I decided to bring it back and try it like it is. At worst, they said they'd work with me if I couldn't live with it after trying it back home.

I appreciate they effort they took at their storefront yesterday. They did have a brushed silver Hornet case only for $85 if anyone is interested in just the case.
 
An automatic or programmable fan controller may help you out. If would keep the fans at a lower level when you're simply surfing the net and bring them up to speed when needed (i.e. gaming, etc). Maybe the people at Monarch will help you research and try out an automatic fan controller?

If your BIOS doesn't allow automatic fan control, then maybe a fan controller 'might' help? mCubed makes a fan controller called the T-Banalncer that does Not use any slots and it's fully programmable. It simply connects to one of your extra internal USB headers, but it also provides a USB connector that you can plug into if you don't have an extra USB port available. It looks very interesting, but I don't have any experience with it other than reading a little bit about it. The price I've seen for this kit is ~$80. Here's a search link to google if you want to read some reviews on it, but I'd also suggest searching various forums to get some real world opinions from owners incase they vary from the reviews.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=t-balancer

There's also a program called SpeedFan that can work as a fan controller if your hardware supports it. Here's the link to it if you want to read more about it.

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
 
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