Need help silencing my Comp - No overclocking

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Blitzin

n00b
Joined
May 25, 2009
Messages
6
My computer is very noisy, and I would like make it in-audioble, or as close to that as possible.
I have no intention of overclocking, at least so far.
I use my computer as HTPC as well.

Here's what I got:

Case: Cooler Master Mystique 631
PSU: fortron/Source Epsilon 700 W
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0GHz 1333Mhz
Graphics: XFX GeForce 8800GTS 500M 640MB

So now lies the question, what should I do?
I've heard that the CPU cooler is loud, so I'd want to get a new one, right?
Can I use a software to lower the noise when it's idle, and is playing movies (blu-ray)?
It won't matter if it makes a lot of noise when I game, cuz I'll be wearing headphones anyway.
About budget, I don't really know. It'll depend on what needs to be changed.
Btw, I live in Denmark.

Thanks
 
i would look at replacing any fans on the case first.. for lower rpm fans.. something like yate loons or since you are in europe, take a look at the noctua's.. they are the quietest fans you can pretty much buy.. but the costs shows why.. they also come with adapters to make them even more quiet.. see how that goes.. if its still to loud then id agree that the HSF needs to be changed.. which there are a lot of choices out there..
 
Thanks for your quick reply sirmonkey1985.
An excellent piece of advice you gave me, so I checked out the noctua fans. I stumbled upon NF-S12B ULN, which I just bought 2 of. They seems to be exactly what I'm looking for.
Their price point was no problem.
I'll post back when I get the fans mounted, or if I have any problems :p
 
Today I received the case fans, and got them installed successfully.
It virtually didn't make any difference. It's still very noisy! :(
I went straight to using the adaptor, so I'm running on 500 rpm.
I guess the biggest problem was the CPU cooler.
So now I the next step is to buy a CPU cooler, right?
My motherboard is: XFX nForce 680i SLI, nForce-680i SLI. It's Socket-775.
I've been looking at this cooler: Noctua NH-U9B
At 1000 rpm, which is the lowest setting, do you think that it would be enough to keep the CPU cool?

Are there a CPU cooler you think I should choose instead of the noctua?
My goal is to achive a PC that produces noise that's in-audioble or as close to that as possible, while maintaining my pc at stable temperatures, so that it won't crash.
Remember, no overclocking :)
 
Xigmatek S1283 or Thermalright Ultima-90 or Ultra 120 Extreme... Etc. Keep in mind you can slap any fan on most of those coolers, they're all very efficient but you can make them as quiet/loud as you want, even with the quietest 800 RPM fan they'll still be better than a stock Intel cooler if that's what you're currently using. Are you sure the CPU cooler is the loudest part in there though? The PSU or video card could be just as loud...

If you wanna figure out what's producing the most noise, a very simple method is to take an empty roll of paper towels (or any other cylinder-like object) and point it at teh different noise sources with the side panel off... Sort of like a ghetto stethoscope.
 
Blitzin said:
Today I received the case fans, and got them installed successfully.
It virtually didn't make any difference. It's still very noisy! :(
I went straight to using the adaptor, so I'm running on 500 rpm.
I guess the biggest problem was the CPU cooler.
So now I the next step is to buy a CPU cooler, right?
My motherboard is: XFX nForce 680i SLI, nForce-680i SLI. It's Socket-775.
I've been looking at this cooler: Noctua NH-U9B
At 1000 rpm, which is the lowest setting, do you think that it would be enough to keep the CPU cool?
Click to expand...

I currently have the NH-U9B in my HTPC on an E5200 and I have both the U.L.N.A. and L.N.A. connected to the fan. I did it to reduce the fan speed as much as possible and so that the fan power cable could wrap around the perimeter of the fan to keep the wire out of the way. My temperatures stay low but I don't really do many processor intensive things on it. If your case is large enough, I would go with the NH-U12P instead. I think you will be fine with either cooler and using one of the adapters and you will be pleasantly surprised with the improvement. The other suggested coolers are all very good too, and arguably better than the equivalent Noctuas, depending on price and needs.

My main rig has the NH-U12P with 4 additional (5 total) NF-P12 fans.
My HTPC has the NH-U9B and the NC-U6 northbridge cooler.
Needless to say, I am very happy with my Noctua components.:D
 
Other sources of noise could be your motherboard if it has a small northbridge fan on it, your video card, hard drives, and the power supply. Without knowing the main source of the noise, that would be the order I went in determining it. If you have a northbridge fan and unplugging it greatly reduces the noise, then I would suggest getting a cooler like the Noctua NC-U6. If it is the video card, I would first try to change the fan profile settings with Rivatuner and if that doesn't help enough, I would look at replacing the heatsink and fan or possibly even a new video card with better cooling. A newer video card may not be very much more than just a heatsink, I don't know. The hard drives you can try to mount elastically or using rubber spacers if your case does not already do it that way. If it is the power supply, there isn't much you can do outside of replacing it.
 
Impulse said:
Xigmatek S1283 or Thermalright Ultima-90 or Ultra 120 Extreme... Etc. Keep in mind you can slap any fan on most of those coolers, they're all very efficient but you can make them as quiet/loud as you want, even with the quietest 800 RPM fan they'll still be better than a stock Intel cooler if that's what you're currently using. Are you sure the CPU cooler is the loudest part in there though? The PSU or video card could be just as loud...

If you wanna figure out what's producing the most noise, a very simple method is to take an empty roll of paper towels (or any other cylinder-like object) and point it at teh different noise sources with the side panel off... Sort of like a ghetto stethoscope.
Click to expand...

Buying any thermalright heatsink is nothing short of throwing money in the trash when you aren't overclocking.

I'd recommend a Scythe Ninja 2, mainly because it's huge, you don't even need to run a fan on it if you're overclocking, and it's also only $30.
 
Thanks everyone for replying :)

I tried to use the cylindrial lisening thing, but I was still unable to detect where the noise came from.
Then I wrote the name of the CPU cooler down (Foxconn D60188-001) and after some research I found it is running @ 5300 RPM, with 36 dBA!
So that's good news :)
I checked if I had that pesky northbridge fan, but I didn't have it.

Now I need to find out which CPU cooler to buy.
Since I live in Denmark, the prices varies a lot from the states.
To put it in perspective, here's the prices in danish kroner:
Xigmatek HDT-S1283 - 341 kr
Scythe NINJA 2 SCNJ-2000 - 407 kr
NOCTUA NH-U12P CPU - 445 kr
Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme - 451 kr


It'll be running fanless. Future may vary.
I read that the PSU I got, adjusts its rpm based on the temperature it measured.
My case is medium sized.

Which CPU cooler should I choose?


Thanks
 
I suggest get the Xigmatek S1283, as tests show compared to the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme its only a 2 degrees off and its cheaper by a lot. Instead of having it fanless (your computer will thank you if you had even a very slow moving fan). Toss a Noctua fan on there and connect it to a fan controller and you can decide when you want to spin it up.
 
The stock cooler is almost silent. Any case fans or video card fans would be equal or greater in loudness.
 
BTW you might look in to passively cooled video cards. Usually the small high-rpm fans on video cards are the loudest ones.
 
I received the Xigmatek S1283 today and installed it.
It turned out that it wasn't the CPU cooler that made a lot of noise, but the NVIDIA SRP with passive heat sink, which also goes under the name "chipset fan", as they call it in the manuel.
I tried to turn on the computer just after I installed it, and then I blocked the different fans, until I found the noise maker.
I took a picture of my Computer interior, and, to point it out, it is the black thing with radiator that says NVIDIA, between the CPU cooler and graphics card.


[img=http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/746/p1030116e.th.jpg]

Actually, I don't really know what it is. What should I do about it? Remove the fan and leave it? (The manual says, and I qoute: "This fan is recommended for use if overclocking using a liquid/passive cooling solution."
Buy a new fan? Buy a new cooler of that kind?

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Something else to try: I just spent some time with a vacuum and a can of air cleaning my Antec 900, it is much, much quieter now. I think something got stuck in a fan causing it to rattle for the last few years.
 
Since you're not overclocking you can probably just dial down the speed on that fan. All 680i mobos should have fan voltage control in the BIOS.
 
The power supply and graphics card are typically the noise makers these days.


For the graphics card you can simply buy a new 3rd party cooler designed to be quiet or even truly silent and you're done there with minimal expense.


For the power supply, however, all you can do is throw money at it, as in, buy a new expensive PSU that is quiet. There's no way to quieten a noisy PSU without getting your hands dirty so to speak. I've ripped mine apart and superglued a massive heatsink to the exisiting heatsink so that it now sticks out of the PSU cage, but it's dangerous since the heatsinks in a PSU are live at mains voltage so it's not for the faint hearted.


If you can't be doing with that hassle then you'll have to just buy a new quality PSU, preferrably nothing but a Seasonic PSU since few others are genuinely what I'd call 'quiet'. Enermax 82+ PSUs I've heard (no pun intended) are also good. Some people seem satisfied with Corsair's PSUs but they're too noisy for my liking. And it'll cost ya; Seasonic's high end PSUs sell for about £150 over here in the UK. Silence costs money in the PC world unfortunately, cheap is noisy.
 
I agree with everything spine said above, except for the PSU thing.

Chances are you can equip your PSU with an externally controlled 140mm fan, if you widen the air hole... A nice slow yate loon 140mm will be good enough for any PSU, and should do a lot to silence it.
 
Actually, I did vacuum clean my comp when I was down there, can't you tell from the pic?(offeded :p)
Please take a look at the 13th post, is it just something that's good to have for OC'ing?
Can I unplug the fan, without worrying?
If not, dialing the fan speed down will be my next move.
I appreciate your answers (those alround answers), and maybe they will be to good use, if my comp isn't silent enough, when I have taken care of the (southbridge/northbridge?:S)
And I ofc appreciate those answers who related to my 13th post :p

What program are you guys using to check your comp temperatures?

Thanks
 
I would try first to dial it down in the bios. Then if that doesn't work, take note of the temps reported on the NB and SB. Unplug the fan and take note of what temps you have again. If they aren't significantly higher you can keep it unplugged. I had the EVGA 680i but never had a problem with the fan being too loud. Use Speedfan for temp and fanspeed. You can also use Real temp.
 
I use a combination of Noctua and Sythe SlipStream fans on a fan controller. I've got 4 case fans, in addition to 2 GPU, 1 CPU and of course the PSU and I can't even hear my PC over my ceiling fan in my room. Fan controller is the best thing you can do to silence fans.
 
most of noise comes from the from PSU and system fan. some high rpm hdd also noisy. thats only thing you can do
 
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