Quiet Down Darnit!

A

aaronpeek

Gawd
Joined
Nov 6, 2002
Messages
595
now that i have your attention.

My new pc is loud as hell with stock parts.

I have an x2 4400+ with stock fan, and a pny 7900gt, and a antec 550 trupower 2.

What are quietest fan/heatsink combo for these items that will finally go back to being quiet like my old barton 2500+

I want to stay away from water or anything crazy just a standard fan.


Oh yes i have the Lian Li 20th anniversery case to lots of room.
 
There are some nice offerings from Zalman that are popular. Then there's the XP-90 and XP-120 (along with the copper versions if you so chose). The Scythe Ninja seems to be growing in popularity too.

I have two XP-90's in my systems. Love them. Loved them more after lapping them. Keeps my 3200+ oc'd to 4100+ at max load temp of 47c and I still can't hear the cpu fan. I have no experience with the Scythe products...but they have a few out there that look promising.
 
What mobo are you using atm, some HSF are too big so read up on them. Use scythe ninja and zalman 9500 atm and can not be happier. GL man.
 
I bought a 70mm-80mm fan adapter and installed a quiet 80mm fan on my X2 to quiet it down using the stock heatsink minus stock fan. It was a $7 fix. :cool:
 
Unless you have crappy stock case fans, I'd bet your video card fan is the loudest component, so I'd look to quiet that first with a Zalman GPU cooler before attacking the CPU.

I found the stock CPU heatsink (w/heatpipies) for the 4400+ to be pretty quiet with Cool & Quiet enabled and only got around to replacing it after several months, mostly because I had already bought an aftermarket heatsink. I am now running it with a passive Ninja in a P180 with a passive Antec PSU and Nexus 120mm fans.
 
I'd say go for a vf900 or accelero for your 7900GT, and if that hasn't quieted your system down enough then go for the ninja for your CPU.

About five minutes ago I finished an 3800 x2 + 7900GT + FSP AX450-PN + Centurion 5 build for a friend of mine, and the loudest component was the 7900GT. So basically if you can tell that it isn't your PSU or stock case fans, it's most likely the 7900GT causing most of the ruckus.
 
I pinpointed the noise sources in my case by sticking my finger in fans while the system was running and "hearing" the difference. The chipset fan was by far the loudest, so that got replaced. I used Rivatuner to run my video card fan at the lowest speed in 2D mode (what I use 99% of the time). And all the loud case fans got replaced. Of course, stick your finger in moving electrical components at your own risk if you try this ;)
 
aaronpeek said:
How do i make sure i have the right HSF for the video card? some of these say "approved for 7800, but i have the 7900?

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=91
Click to expand...
Right under the picture:

Application:
NVIDIA 6800 series
NVIDIA 7800 series (just PCIe)
NVIDIA 7900 GTX
not compatible to most 7900 GT boards (passive cooler for 7900 GT will be available from 06/2006)
Please check your board with the height restriction drawing to assure compatibility.
Click to expand...
 
do you have a 7900GT or GTX?

according to their site...that will fit the GTX...but not most GT's.
Application:
NVIDIA 6800 series
NVIDIA 7800 series (just PCIe)
NVIDIA 7900 GTX
not compatible to most 7900 GT boards (passive cooler for 7900 GT will be available from 06/2006)
Please check your board with the height restriction drawing to assure compatibility
Click to expand...

lol....hehe...someone has quicker fingers :p
 
looks like the zalman will do the trick, i placed an order. Now i don't overclock i just care about noise. What else can i do to quiet the beast?
 
Scythe Ninja Plus if your next motherboard will not be AM2. Scythe Mine if your next mobo will be AM2.

What motherboard do you use? Does it have a fan on the chipset cooler?

What hard drive do you use?
 
My PC is like 3 feet from my bed and runs 24/7 so I have done a lot to quiet it down...

- Mounted the 120mm case fan using neoprene rubber washers between the fan and case and used zip ties in place of metal screws (two zip ties for each screw hole).

- Replaced the stock fan on my AIW 9800 Pro AGP with a Zalman VF700 cooler. Zalman's website says it wont fit due to interference with the TV tuner, but with help from a Dremel tool it does fit.

- Installed an Arctic Freezer 64 Pro cooler on my AMD X2 3800 CPU.

- Fan controller for all three fans. Temps are a little high but it is quiet... I don't care that my CPU is 45C and HDD is 38C if that means I can sleep at night.

- Using an Antec Phantom 300 PSU which has no fan. 300 watts might seem lame, but Antec reduced the 5 volt output (which isn't used as much anymore) and increased the 12 volt output to compensate, so 300 watts isn't as bad as it would seem. Powering an X2 3800+, two sticks of RAM, AIW 9800 Pro AGP, SATA drive and DVD burner with no problems.

- Mounted the PSU using neoprene rubber washers between the PSU and case. Why would I do this if the PSU has no fan? Because it still has transformers that caused hum noise.


Maximum PC published an article this month about mounting your hard drive with rubber bands (mount 3-1/2" drive in a 5-1/4" bay suspended by thick rubber bands). I haven't tried it yet... but that is next.
 
Frank4d said:
Because it still has transformers that caused hum noise.
Click to expand...
Neoprene washers don't do much for airborne noise. I wonder how much vibration the transformers were creating.
 
454Casull said:
Neoprene washers don't do much for airborne noise. I wonder how much vibration the transformers were creating.
Click to expand...

It is for 120Hz transformer vibration coupled to the case. Not very loud, but at 3:00 am any noise is too loud.
 
Id suggest the baddest Cooler you can get for it. Which I believe is the XP-120. And pair it with silenX fans.
 
Stupid_Newbie said:
Id suggest the baddest Cooler you can get for it. Which I believe is the XP-120. And pair it with silenX fans.
Click to expand...
Do not give your money to SilenX.
 
454Casull said:
Do not give your money to SilenX.
Click to expand...
What is your reasoning behind that comment. I havent owned any myself. But have heard them run. They are quiet. Though you could go vantec stealths.
 
InorganicMatter said:
I pinpointed the noise sources in my case by sticking my finger in fans while the system was running and "hearing" the difference. The chipset fan was by far the loudest, so that got replaced. I used Rivatuner to run my video card fan at the lowest speed in 2D mode (what I use 99% of the time). And all the loud case fans got replaced. Of course, stick your finger in moving electrical components at your own risk if you try this ;)
Click to expand...


Using this method works, I have 3 120 mm fans, with 4 80 mm fans, guess what is the noisiest, none of them (and the 120's are delta's). the chipset fan, and the cpu fan (well its a cpu fan, but have a storm) I need to replace both of them, try it. Just don't hold it there for a long period of time (du).
 
Stupid_Newbie said:
What is your reasoning behind that comment. I havent owned any myself. But have heard them run. They are quiet. Though you could go vantec stealths.
Click to expand...
Bad "marketing" practices. I guess you could call it vengeance or pettiness or whatever, but it's not like their products are superior, anyway.
 
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