Loud Computer

[Sternhund]

My desktop computer of roughly four years in age is awesome, except it's obnoxiously loud which interferes with my amazing musical experience of the intarwebs. I'm somewhat a noob at this sort of thing, so can anyone recommend steps I can take to dampen the noise? I've already dusted it. I imagine I'll be buying fans. Any fan recommendations? Any other thoughts?

Thanks.

[ExileStrife]

I am self-declared silent PC enthusiast.  >_>

And there luckily happens to be a well named website for people like you and I!  //www.silentpcreview.com

Without knowing anything about your situation, I can give a few blind recommendations.  If you have an active fan on your chipset, that's probably the loudest thing in your system right now, and it can be replaced with a passive heatsink.  The next loudest is likely your graphics card fan, and that can be replaced with a passive cooler, or a specially built cooler with a quieter fan.  After that, it's usually a tie across your CPU fan, your case fans, and your PSU fan.  There's basically nothing stopping you from replacing those with quieter models, and that site will have all the information you'll need.

Usually, just moving to quieter fans is enough, but if you are really serious about it, that site will also have further suggestions on how to do things like dampen the case, quiet your harddrives and their vibrations, run items in low power, etc.

[IxTheSpeedy]

I have had great luck with fans from the following company.

http://www.silenx.com/index.asp

You do need to be aware of introducing lower rpm fans though as they obviously move less air and the system temp can get a bit higher.  I swapped a few of these in though and had no negative affects.

[Semli]

While I'm sure you would have checked this for your own rig by now, I once had a problem where a PC I had just purchased had a loose wire near the fan, so they would tap everytime they went by and made a god awful noise.  It was a quick fix once I opened the box.

[Kotenku]

Get headphones.

[Cruzel]

It depends on WHAT is making hte noise.

Is it a whirring, a humming, a clicking?

If you can see the fans, try placing your finger on the center of them (Don't keep it stopped for long, that is BAD) You should notice right away if that is the source!

You can easily replace that fan with another one, they are cheap and you can get a nice, silent fan for like 10-35$.


If it's the hard drives or disc drives, Some models can be obnoxiously loud. The only real option for these is to replace them, or get a really nice case that can drown out the sound.

[Sternhund]

It's a combination of several sounds. Sometimes it's a whirring or vibration, and sometimes it's a humming. Never a clicking. Earlier I did stick my finger in some fans and found some that were loud, but it turns out there are several of those.

Oddly enough, my desktop only gets loud when playing NWN. It's quiet during most other activities.

Anyway, this isn't an immediate project, but I really appreciate the links! I've bookmarked them, will check them out later, and when the time comes I'll let you guys know how it went.

Thanks again.

[Monkey Magic]

If it only gets loud while doing a graphically intensive task, then it's probably the GPU's fan! Try check out what speed and temperature everything is running at with a program like this Speed Fan. You might even be able to lower the speeds, though they are loud for a reason.

Dab some good quality thermal paste between the chip and fan, that helps lower temps (and thus fan RPM) a little, otherwise you need to invest in some more expensive stuff.

[Kotenku]

I've bookmarked them, will check them out later, and when the time comes I'll let you guys know how it went.

Pure fiction. It'll never happen.

[Sternhund]

Pure fiction. It'll never happen.

You shall be shown incorrect, sir!
(I'll read it after my exam this Thursday, gawd! Procrastination ftw?)

[Sternhund]

I just downloaded that Speed Fan program, Monkey! It couldn't tell me the RPMs of my fan, but it did show that my GPU has the highest temperature in my computer, reaching 120 C when running NWN while everything else is around 60! Wow!

When I get around to it, I'll replace that fan first. Great insight, thanks.

[Sternhund]

Hey guys, I was looking at fans and video cards. I figured a good quality fan from Zalman would cost me roughly $40 + shipping, so I started to look instead to new graphic cards. I stumbled upon the NVIDIA 8600 GT going for $50 w/ free shipping. Link is here:

http://www.ascendtech.us/itemdesc.asp?ic=VC512PNYG8600GT

The picture depicts what appears to be both a fan and heatsink on the card, which suggests it may be quieter than my current 6800 GT.

What do you guys think? Good deal? Any thoughts on whether it will be quieter than what I have now?

[adharmas]

I've got an 8600 GT, made by XFX. The loudest thing in my PC is the new power supply I had to get to run it, which is still pretty quiet, but I've gotten used to it.

[Kotenku]

Sternhund: Not a big enough upgrade for the price. I think you'd be getting fleeced. Shop newegg, for goodness sake.

Superior 9 series graphics cards are going for the same price, or less (or only slightly more).

[Sternhund]

Kotenku, I did some more searching. Couldn't find anything on NewEgg, but I found a NVIDIA 9500 GT going for $31.88 after rebate.

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=MSI-95G512&c=pw

What're your thoughts on this?

Also, I'm a complete noob at power supplies. How do I know if I'll need to purchase a new power supply unit to support this? Also again, it says it supports DirectX 10, but I use Windows XP, which has DirectX 9. Will it be compatible?

Thanks guys.