Make my PC Quiet

[marcus]

Having to sleep with a PC on is a nightmare. Sooo Im looking to build a totally quiet PC, and am looking for recommendations. I took a look at quietpc.com and will likely pick up something from them, but has anyone already purchased and could let me know just how quiet these things are?

Im not after total silence.... I...just...want...to....sleep....

[mid]

My PC is horribly loud, so I can't give any personal experience with this, but...

I've heard really good stuff about Zalman, so a look on Overclockers at their stuff would be worth a go.

Before you spend any money, work out where most of the noise comes from. If its the power fans, then maybe replace it with a model that claims to be quieter. If its case fans, then consider if you even need them at all (you might have acceptable temps without them).

But why is the box on all night? If its acting as a server for things, have you considered building a second, lower performance box to do that sort of stuff? An older processor with a Zalman Flower, and a more basic graphics card with just a heatsink and no fan would be far simpler to make quiet than a ninja box with a recent-model AthlonXP and a Radeon 9800XT

[oracle]

Zalman flowers are good heatsinks

although, the fan is only silent on its lowest setting rest of the time its noticable but it looks

easier way of making your pc silent: sound proofing

[marcus]

Id like the cheaper option really, I didnt want to go out and buy a new case when I already have a nice one. Ive seen soundproofing kits on quiet pc and am tempted by that. I bought a smaller barebones PC which initially was going to be used as my net pc, but even that is too loud.

[VR46]

As Mid said is it the fan(s) or hard-drive that makes most of the noise ?, will be cheaper to replace one or all of them (and buy some sound proof matting) than buy a new PC.

I have a laptop and it's nice and silent but I know what you mean about noisy PC wrecking your sleep.

[Super Stu]

I bought some Akasa soundproofing from OCuk and stuck it in my Coolermaster 210. I noticed a few things:

- As the case was no longer a natural aluminium sink, the ambient case temp went up quite a few degrees.

- The case itself isn't noisey per se (enermax silent psu, quiet cpu cooler, large case fans, silent maxtor hdds), just enough to be annoying. Adding the soundproofing didn't so much reduce the volume of the PC, but it reduced the pitch from the whine of the fans etc. As such, it's very much a low key affair which, although still noisey, is perfectly fine for sleeping with and is considerably quieter than my brother's generic P3 system.

Whilst reducing the tone may sound daft, the PC I'm working on here (really old pentium pro) is immensely quiet but the fan has an awful high pitch whine to it. If you just relax and close your eyes, I can see myself not being able to sleep to it, despite it actually being quieter than my PC.

- Be sure that you really want to put this stuff on. I had a mild panic after the ambient temp went up, because my PC was in a poorly ventilated position and we had a cracking summer. I had a quick go of trying to remove it and found it was an absolute nightmare to get rid of, leaving behind a sticky layer on the surface of the case. Although the sound proofing was removed, the sticky layer considerably reduces the heat disipation of the alu case.

My 2 cents. I'm overall happy I spent the ?12 or so.

[mt50]

it's normally the psu that is the loudest, you can get a silent(ish) one for ?60 or there abouts.

[marcus]

I have a P4 2.6GHZ box which sits there as a file server doing little else but that. I guess I could ditch two of the case fans, and still have use of the two or so remaining, as its not being used strenuoulsy.

I like the ?12 idea stu, ill look into that.

[Super Stu]

/nod

I stuck a 350W enermax in for ?50 I think it was. Variable speed dial at the back, it's utterly silent on anything up to 80% or so power.

If there's nothing mission critical in there (latest monster gfx card etc), I'd first of all try some of that soundproofing. Even if it doesn't solve the problem, it'll certainly reduce it some margin and is hardly the most expensive of upgrades.

[kazurm]

For GFX-card, pick this (if it fits in your machine): Sapphire Ultimate Radeon 9800 Pro.

Don't know if there are any other ones like that currently available though, this one's ass quiet as they come, and still fast 'enough' (probably).

For your CPU, try to find a cooling system withouth a fan, watercooling is probably too cumbersome....maybe Cooler Master KHC-V81 Hyper 6 does the job for you in that respect.

Edit:

Hmm...after re-reading your posts, Marcus, I noticed your describing your file-server, so it probably hasn't got that big a GFX-card, so scrap that from the above list.

[Darwock]

I throw a sleeping bag over mine (leaving the back open obviously).

Works a treat.

[marcus]

I do that occasionally funnily enough, although I dont own a sleeping bag, I use a large towel. It may be the cheapest alternative though, apart from Stus option that is. If I replace existing parts then I really have no use for the old ones, and it seems a waste really.

[$c8t@]

For GFX-card, pick this (if it fits in your machine): Sapphire Ultimate Radeon 9800 Pro.

Don't know if there are any other ones like that currently available though, this one's ass quiet as they come, and still fast 'enough' (probably).

For your CPU, try to find a cooling system withouth a fan, watercooling is probably too cumbersome....maybe Cooler Master KHC-V81 Hyper 6 does the job for you in that respect.

Edit:

Hmm...after re-reading your posts, Marcus, I noticed your describing your file-server, so it probably hasn't got that big a GFX-card, so scrap that from the above list.

Good Choice ?of card, ive recently changed the fan on mine to a Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer (available from overclockers.co.uk), its very very quiet, even on the high speed setting, u struggle to hear it from about a meter away, also allows for some decent overclocking too

$c8t@

[Inertia_]

I bought about ?100 worth of cooling bits and pieces from quietpc.com last year and it's been bloody brilliant. I'm using:

- a Zalman flower cooler for the CPU
- a silent PSU (also from quietpc.com)
- a winged heatsink which I had to glue onto my graphics card GPU
- a silent hard drive enclosure (which actually does very little - not worth getting)

When the Zalman CPU fan is running in 'silent mode' my PC is essentially inaudible - the first time I turned it on a year ago I was gobsmacked as it made no noise whatsoever. I wouldn't even have known it was turned on!

I'm upgrading my PC this weekend to an XP3200+, Radeon 9800 affair but I fully plan on transferring all the quietpc.com stuff over to the new box. Hopefully the flower cooler will be able to keep the thing at a stable temperature and the PSU will have enough juice. My CPU temp over the last year with the XP2000 I've been using has been between 45-60 degrees - high by many people's standards, but entirely stable in my experience.

All in all, I can't recommended getting hold of this stuff enough - it really does do as it says on the tin.

EDIT: I'll still be using the fan that comes with the Radeon 9800 - I'm hoping it doesn't undo the good work all the other components are doing.

[Ciaran]

- a silent hard drive enclosure (which actually does very little - not worth getting)

Is this the one your talking about. I've heard good reports about this and was thinking of buying one.

Does anyone recomend anything to silence my HDD without buying a new one?