Help me quiet down a dual opteron system

[Steve01S4]

I've got a dual opteron system that I barely use anymore, since I moved and it has to be in a main area of the house. It's just too loud to leave on all the time. The system has the following components:

Iwill DK8N
Opteron 246 x 2 with XP-90c heatsinks (not sure what fans anymore)
Gainward 6800GT golden sample
PC Power and Cooling 510XE
Raptor 74GB
2x Fujitsu 15krpm MAS drives
Coolermaster Stacker (original)

I'd like to bring it up to date a bit with dual core Opterons, and maybe switch to a K8WE and a pair of PCI-e cards (probably a 7950GT and a 7600GT... don't need SLI, just more monitors), and replace the raptor with something SCSI. The problem is that the system is so loud, I don't want to drop any more money on it unless I can quiet it down enough to leave it on all the time and use it in place of my A64 3000+ system, which is nice and quiet. I'd be willing to spend $200-$300 on cooling stuff, but less is better... probably air, but if water is my best option I'd consider it. I realize the hard drives are going to make some noise, but right now I can't even hear them over the fans. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[belmicah]

I've got a dual opteron system that I barely use anymore, since I moved and it has to be in a main area of the house. It's just too loud to leave on all the time.

Got an idea, turn the muthaphucka OFF!!

 

[Bbq]

Iwill DK8N
Opteron 246 x 2 with XP-90c heatsinks (not sure what fans anymore)
Gainward 6800GT golden sample
PC Power and Cooling 510XE
Raptor 74GB
2x Fujitsu 15krpm MAS drives
Coolermaster Stacker (original)

My suggestions:

Quiet 92mm fans for the xp90c's (these are a good choice, with a fan controller) : $4
A quieter power supply (Try the OCZ GXS) : $110
A Zalman VF700 : $25
2 or 3 yate loon d12sl12's : $8 - $12 (great for replacing the case fans)
Some Stretch-magic : $2-3 or so (suspend hard drives, spcr style. Then put a fan in front of it or something like that

Total cost: $154

 

[Steve01S4]

Thanks for the suggestions. I really like the PC P&C psu, and spent a bit of money on it... would replacing the fan in it be a bad idea? I guess I could always keep it around for a planned server build.

The hard drive cages in the Stacker already have some rubber to suspend them. Maybe that's why I don't notice the noise. Would suspending the hard drives be significantly better?

 

[Bbq]

Thanks for the suggestions. I really like the PC P&C psu, and spent a bit of money on it... would replacing the fan in it be a bad idea? I guess I could always keep it around for a planned server build.

The hard drive cages in the Stacker already have some rubber to suspend them. Maybe that's why I don't notice the noise. Would suspending the hard drives be significantly better?

Maybe drill a 120mm hole in the psu case, have an external quieter 120mm fan, scrap the 80mm inside and replace it with a quieter 80, and you'd still have a lot of airflow. It uses a friggin delta, so that's probubly the cause of a lot of noise.

As for suspension, the rubber might be good enough as is. Do something about the PSU first, then see.