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Noise reduction material

K

KuJaX

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jan 8, 2001
Messages
15,783
I think it is time to join the quiet crowd. My current system hums and hums and after doing a recent upgrade (and the new heatsink is a bit quieter) I would like to experiment with reducing the noise further with the case.

I have found several places online that sell noise reducing material in a foam type looking form with double sided tape. The prices range from $20 to $60 and wanted to clue in to the [H] crowd as to their experiences with such measures. Post what material you used, where you got it and your overall experience and opinion.

If you could also list your case, so that we know the size of material you used would be great!
 
KuJaX said:
I think it is time to join the quiet crowd. My current system hums and hums and after doing a recent upgrade (and the new heatsink is a bit quieter) I would like to experiment with reducing the noise further with the case.

I have found several places online that sell noise reducing material in a foam type looking form with double sided tape. The prices range from $20 to $60 and wanted to clue in to the [H] crowd as to their experiences with such measures. Post what material you used, where you got it and your overall experience and opinion.

If you could also list your case, so that we know the size of material you used would be great!
Click to expand...

No personal experience with the foam, but if you are really interested you may want to hit up SPCR (www.silentpcreview.com) and the forums/articles located there. They are a site and crowd that kind of specializes in that kind of stuff.
 
Putting material like AcoustiPack at reflection nodes in the case can help eliminate some of the higher frequency noise from certain components, but it's never a huge effect. More importantly is the selection of fans and fan speeds. Quality fans at an RPM at just under audible noise levels, making sure that they don't create any harmonics or hums.
 
MisterSparkle said:
Putting material like AcoustiPack at reflection nodes in the case can help eliminate some of the higher frequency noise from certain components, but it's never a huge effect. More importantly is the selection of fans and fan speeds. Quality fans at an RPM at just under audible noise levels, making sure that they don't create any harmonics or hums.
Click to expand...

Don't forget fan mounting - rubber grommets, velcro, or even pieces of expandable foam. That way you aren't transmitting vibration from the fan through the steel screw to the chassis itself.

Oh, and OP, if you want more helpful tips like these, redirect yourself to SilentPCReview's forums. Much more useful stuff there.
 
Probably reason for humming is vibration.

With thickness/volume possible in PC you can't absorpt much noise (especially lower frequency humming) and preventing noise in first place is much more effective than "always baling water out from boat because of holes in bottom".
But they're not entirely useless.
Akasa Sh*tmat is just too light and thin to neither dampen vibrations or to really absorb any noise but heavier combination mats can lower noise by something like 2-5 dB depending on listening direction and amount of mat coverage. Also frequency of vibration generally decreases lot making noise harder to hear (ear's response curve isn't flat) and less disturbing.
But still as rule using damping mat should be considered as that last finishing touch and it doesn't make noisy PC quiet, only quiet PC more quieter... and already heavy steel case just becames still heavier!

With aluminum situation is different. I have about ready Lian Li A71 and when taking it out from box panels kept bad loose rattling noise when tapping case with finger and I thought I would have to modify loose attachment in top edge of side panels. Now ~3kg of combination mat later there isn't anything left from that rattling and I've dampened also pretty much every part inside case and probably it wouldn't loose much to similarly treated identical steel case.
Even better it's still 2kg lighter (~12kg) than undamped CM Stacker (already had aluminum side panels for keeping weight down) which weighted well above 16kg after damping... and because of superior design it's no doubt lot quieter while also having better cooling performance. (partly because of BS-03 drawing out heat from graphic/other cards)


Also if you have overhyped thousand and one holes/frame holding holes in their places case there isn't anything to do except preventing noise in first place meaning silent components.
So good case design is one of the most important factors in making really quiet PC. (direct noise escape paths are very bad)
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article75-page1.html


Considering components any hard mounted HDD leaves awfully strong acoustic fingerprint and that should be minimized by both slecting low vibration HDDs and avoiding cases with metal to metal/plastic HDD mounting.
Also any fan which keeps clearly more noise when lowered from hand to hard (table) surface should be considered unacceptable... notable steps in motor when turning blades with finger is very good hint about potential to heavy vibration. (fan should turn smoothly)
SPRC has good noise reviews of these components, also they test performance of CPU heatsinks using standard quiet fan for consistent results. (measurements with original often noisy fans included)
 
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