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[Jose]

Well, if I move it to the kitchen I could put it in the fridge :-) With the added benefit of beer being closer...
I think I'm going to try to get a better CPU fan... There seem to be some quiet PSU's around too.

[Jose]

@Waccoon

Good tips, I can't believe you had the patience to writte that :-o 8-)

[Argo]

Could make a case out of Copper. Then again I suppose wood would dampen the sound more. Of course, Titanium is much cooler! :-D :-P

[Argo]

And HEAVY is the whole point! HEAVY is nice. HEAVY has always ment QUIET.

I wonder if I could fit a motherboard inside an anvil... :-?

[Argo]

Could just put it in the other room. :-D

[adz]

iamaboringperson wrote:

Buy an iMac.

From what I have seen all new Macs have fans now.

[Ilwrath]

I wonder if I could fit a motherboard inside an anvil...

Or, you could just drop the anvil on the computer. I don't think it would make much sound after that. :-D

Of course, for serious advice... I see people mentioning small fans. Avoid those. Go with larger fans at less RPMs. Smallest fan in my computer (except for the malfunctioning chipset fan) is an 80mm case fan. I run a Thermaltake copper CPU heatsink with an Enermax UltraCool 80mm case fan on it. Better cooling and quieter than any other HSF I've seen. And, if I want to overclock, I just turn up the fan on it, and suddenly I've got one of the highest rated heatsinks on the market. At 3500 RPM, it managed to keep a severely overclocked AMD below 45C. At 2500 RPM it has no problems with my P4 3ghz. haha!!

[Argo]

Here I was thinking I was nuts having a Jet Turbine on my CPU.

[adz]

Argo wrote:
Here I was thinking I was nuts having a Jet Turbine on my CPU.

What...a Coolermaster Aero 7+???

[GadgetMaster]

A good way of eliminating resonance I once read about was to suspend the case fans from rubber bands. I don't know how you would do that the PSU fan though.

Vibration is greatly reduced when there is no direct contact with the metal parts. Even the Cpu can have a fan suspended over the CPU rather than fixed to the heatsink directly. It won't affect the cooling much if you get it close enough.

Read up on defferent mods and hacks that people have done to make their PCs silent. Some quite good advice out there especially about insulation and fan noise reduction.

[Argo]

Quote: Argo wrote: Here I was thinking I was nuts having a Jet Turbine on my CPU. What...a Coolermaster Aero 7+???

Close, I have the lite version.

[Casper]

My PC is very silent, almost unhearable. I got some cheap engine soundinsulation mats, which are made of a kind of foam with aluminium foil on one side and sticky stuff on the other. I put that all over the inside of my case leaving as few holes as possible (otherwise sound will escape through the holes) and it worked very well.

The only thing to watch out for is that the mats are heat insulating so you need to make sure that you have good airflow through the case or your cpu and other things will overheat. You need at least one case fan. I bought a near silent Pabst one.

In my case cooling was actually improved since all the air is now sucked in through the front of the case where I left a hole in the sound insulation, which causes all the air to travel from the front, over the cpu, and out the back. Before I put in the sound insulation there were holes all over the place in the case where air was sucked in.

[Karlos]

GadgetMaster wrote:
A good way of eliminating resonance I once read about was to suspend the case fans from rubber bands. I don't know how you would do that the PSU fan though.

Vibration is greatly reduced when there is no direct contact with the metal parts. Even the Cpu can have a fan suspended over the CPU rather than fixed to the heatsink directly. It won't affect the cooling much if you get it close enough.

Read up on defferent mods and hacks that people have done to make their PCs silent. Some quite good advice out there especially about insulation and fan noise reduction.

I can't think of anybody who uses suspended fans...

/me peers over at GadgetMaster's 1200T... Yes, suspended fans are pretty quiet ;-)

Which reminds me, I need to get a speed limiter for that new fan on the BPPC - it's a little noisy at the full 12V.
It sure draws the heat out of the thing though, its actually 20C presently ;-)

[JaXanim]

If the problem genuinely is resonance, then the offending part of the case has a natural vibration frequency which is the same, or similar to, one or more of the internal motors.

Vibration frequency depends on the mass/inertia of the panel concerned, so adding some mass to it will change its natural vibration frequency. This can be done by adding a few pieces of thin sheet lead. Attach them to the centre of the panels with those double-sided sticky pads.

If your problem is simply excessive noise from within the case, then sound insulation is the way to go.

Cheers,

JaX

[whabang]

I'm using self-adhesive foam rubber to keep my drives in place. It keeps the resonance away. Dunno how well that would work on fans, tho'. :-)