• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Black foam

R

rverhas

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
102
I have seen quite a few cases where people have installed a thin black foam like stuff in the case. Is this used for insulation? or is it used to collect dust? or maybe just look? I would like to know the purpose of it and where I could find it.

Thanks.
 
all it does is dampen the sound coming from HDD's, fans and other compnents (especially pumps). you can buy it cheaply at loads of online stores and quite often, you can get kits that include the material and extra's such as rubber fan and HDD screws and sometimes even a PSU silencer (peice of rubber that is designed to fit between the PSU and the case to stop vibrations).
 
i was considering the foam thing. i've got a box that roar like a beast. is it worth the effort if i know the box is gonna kick the bucket soon? can i reuse it?
 
DorkKnight27 said:
i was considering the foam thing. i've got a box that roar like a beast. is it worth the effort if i know the box is gonna kick the bucket soon? can i reuse it?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't put the effort into it if you know you are going to build a new rig soon. I believe this stuff isn't reusable unless you don't use the adheisive backing.
 
How does this stuff affect the temps in the case? I would think it would cause temperature to rise.
 
Adding sound dampening foam to your pc doesn't do squat, its a big gimmick, as I have it in my rig and the thing is as loud as it was without the foam, all it does is make the inside prettier, but provides no sound dampening whatsoever.
 
That's the only reason why I wanted it in the first place, I think it makes the case look better.
 
rverhas said:
That's the only reason why I wanted it in the first place, I think it makes the case look better.
Click to expand...

Many times, at least with this cheap thin foam, is that once it is on it is a complete bitch to remove. And yes, it basically does nothing in terms of actual dampening.
 
EVIL-SCOTSMAN it sounds like your case is just vibrating a lot, you have 5 hard drives and a 8800GTX in there, so i expect the hard drives are making the case vibrate a hell of a lot. what case do you have? again, dj_2004 what case do you have, The noise in my server, when i had 9 HDD's in it was huge, because i had a large number of cheap 3.5 to 5 1/4 inch bay adaptors that didn't take up the whole width of the drive bay area, so they moved around a lot and easily transferred the vibrations into the all metal housing of huge case i have, but now that i have some decent drive adaptors, on only 3 drives that i have in there, it is a hell of a lot quieter. I would say that if you want quiet try other things such as speed controlling your fans and silencing your PSU and HDD's before using foam to silence it. This can be achieved by rubber screws, a PSU silencer, and a fan controller and/or rivatuner and speedfan.
 
From what i've heard the cheaper stuff will do some noise dampening but it depends on what type of noise your trying to get rid of. If your computer is already at >40db I don't think it is very effective but if you able to get around 20-25db then the dampening is actually effective. Again this is just what i've heard i've never actually used the stuff, but i was thinking about giving it a try. check out Silentpcreview for more discussion about the effectiveness of the foam.
 
It really doesn't do anything, unless you pick up the very high density, expensive foams, and even then, the difference is a few decibels at maximum.
 
If you're just trying to make the inside look better, I'd think you'd be better off just painting the inside flat black or whatever rather than buying all the foam and doing it that way.
 
CLock3 said:
If you're just trying to make the inside look better, I'd think you'd be better off just painting the inside flat black or whatever rather than buying all the foam and doing it that way.
Click to expand...

I have thought about that, only a glossy black. There is a place that does powder coating in my area and I have been told they are fairly inexpensive when compared to other places. I may look into that.
 
From what I read on SPCR you need to pick to the right foam. Cheap ones are too thin to do anything.

The main purpose is to absorb the high pitch noises. Motor whine mainly. With a decent coverage even if you don't get it to sound less loud it will at least make the sound easier on the ears.

Case itself matters a lot whether it will work or not. If you got a thin case where every movement/vibration gets amplified you need to deal with those first. Personally with the Antec P182 case I found just closing the front panel cover make a huge difference.
 
dj_2004 said:
Many times, at least with this cheap thin foam, is that once it is on it is a complete bitch to remove. And yes, it basically does nothing in terms of actual dampening.
Click to expand...

QFT... That crap is NEVER coming off my case without an arsenal of goo-gone.
 
Noise dampening material is the last thing you do to make your case quieter. If it's not quiet to begin with, the foam won't do much.
 
soundguy said:
EVIL-SCOTSMAN it sounds like your case is just vibrating a lot
Click to expand...

Nope, the hard rives are about the quietest things in my rig, its the fans that are the loudest part, exhaust and intakes, the hard drive cage is pretty solid and their is very little if any vibration, well if their is any, I certainly cant hear it.

The foam does zip in my case, although, I s'pose heavy duty foam that is like 2+ inches thick would mute the fucker.

I personally think its a gimmick after knowing that the foam I have which is the same as 99% of the pc case foam out there, does absolutely jack shizzat for me, if ppl want to build a pc that is quiet, they would be far better picking components that are known for their silent properties instead of buying foam, if they want to make the inside of their case nice, then yea add some foam, but don't add it on the hope of cutting down noise, as if ppl do that then they will be disappointed with the results.

Thats what I think about it anyway.
 
I have an Antec Sonata II. There are always strange rattling noises coming from the HD cage/3.5 bays. I'm not exactly sure where its from but when I dampen the case with my hand it usually stops. I'll try to pick up some foam and will report back.
 
yes, exactly verymagicalguy, i have recently noticed that at random intervals the space where the 400GB HDD is in my server, occasionally vibrates and when you push against it the cage stops vibrating. I think this is because of the 3.5 to 5 1/4 inch brackets.

EVIL-SCOTSMAN, as i said, get riva tuner for your 8800GTX and speedfan for your fans, if they are plugged into your motherboard, but if they are plugged into the PSU, you will need to get a fan controller
 
uhhhh... u know that foam isnt supposed to absorb sound right??? its just supposed to stop parts from moving around and causing vibration noise.... if u have the thermaltake fan that i do that pushes 97.8 cfm, then ur SOL.... its basically just supposed to be like a shim to take out the small extra space and firmly secure ur hardware... thats all....
 
theproject said:
uhhhh... u know that foam isnt supposed to absorb sound right??? its just supposed to stop parts from moving around and causing vibration noise.... if u have the thermaltake fan that i do that pushes 97.8 cfm, then ur SOL.... its basically just supposed to be like a shim to take out the small extra space and firmly secure ur hardware... thats all....
Click to expand...

Not entirely true...

Many of the very high-density multilayer foams can effectively reduce high frequency noises by an appreciable degree...
 
by how much? i guess tahts the question tho... too me its not enough to go sticking it all in my case... i will be using it on my drive bays to decrease un-necissary movement but other than that its not enough to make it seem practical
 
yeh, what Arcygenical said...

if anything, the metal side panels of my server actually do more sound proofing than anything else, they are about 3mm thick, so there is a huge difference in sound when you have them off instead of on...
 
rverhas said:
I have seen quite a few cases where people have installed a thin black foam like stuff in the case. Is this used for insulation? or is it used to collect dust? or maybe just look? I would like to know the purpose of it and where I could find it.

Thanks.
Click to expand...


not likely to kill much sound at all, try using better fans with fluid dynamic bearings, makes things alot quieter, also foam is going to act as an insulator raising temps
 
Rule of thumb:
-Thick spongy foam to absorb whines.
-Thin dense sheets to dampen vibrations. Not needed with cases with dense heavy panels
-Use front door panels to cover up intake fan noise and make sure your head is not facing the exhaust or intake. If you can see the fan, you can hear the fan.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top