Silencing my case further, any help?

Noni · 4 Mar 2006 at 18:13

Hi there, my rig is quiet, but I would like it to be a tad quieter.

Heres the specs and what makes noise

MESH generic steel and plastic case.

AMD 3800+ Venice under a Zalman 9500 on MINIMUM setting

120mm Yate Loon D12 SM 12 on MINIMUM setting

92mm Zalman Intake on Minimum setting

78000GTX with stock cooling

Asus A8N SLI DELUX with Zalman NB cooler

Tagan 530W EasyCon PSU

This is what I think is the main culprit-

MAXTOR 250GB HD

What can you guys reccomend?

Yewen · 4 Mar 2006 at 18:35

You seem to have identified the main culprit, the Hdd, could put it into a Silenmaxx enclosure, they work quite well.

You could also just straight out replace it.

How much money you got, as the case will not be one of the best for low noise, you would have to look into acousti padding it or something similar to make it slightly better on the noise front.

The 7800gtx's stock cooling can be pretty noisey.

alexakasloth · 4 Mar 2006 at 18:37

Although the main culprit is probably the hard drive, try seeing if the graphics card is making much noise.

ajgoodfellow · 4 Mar 2006 at 19:16

I agree with the above

Get a Zalman VF700Cu for your graphics card - I've got one and it's very quiet on 5V (the stock coolers can be a little noisy)

I'd also look at getting a Silentmaxx enclosure for the hard drive - you're right about Maxtor hard drives being rather noisy

Noni · 4 Mar 2006 at 20:42

Hi there,

Im bidding on a silentmaxx at the moment to see whether I will get it. Ill check out my graphic card for noise but I think GTX coolers are some of the most silent?

Im also hesistant to change the cooler on the card, and to be perfectly honest, I'd rather I would not mess with it.

The case IMO is almost like a P180 (in some ways), it has a thick, plastic outershell, followed by a air grap, and then a another layer of thick steel. It does have ventalation holes on the side but the side is facing away from me.

Yewen, austic padding IMO is pretty useless unless you have the right system, I have plently of places for sound to escape on my computer (mainly the front) so I think the padding will have little effect.

If it helps, i can post pics?

Thanks!

ajgoodfellow · 4 Mar 2006 at 20:47

The 7800GTX coolers are said to be quiet but never having owned one I couldn't give a subjective opinion

My X800Pro had a cooler that was pretty quiet when idling - it screamed when you turned on the PC but it quickly slowed down. Even then I noticed an improvement with the Zalman - it just got rid of the slight high pitched noise that you hear

It isn't on the same scale as screaming chipset coolers though!

Yewen · 4 Mar 2006 at 21:44

The 7800gtx would benefit from a new cooler, either way if it is as quiet as they used to be, a huge improvement can be had by moving to a Zalman solution.

lozza · 4 Mar 2006 at 22:06

Noise from the drive it's self or resonating - resonating, suspend with shock cord, or if it's the drive noise then the silentmaxx yewen suggested

Yewen · 5 Mar 2006 at 00:20

The drive enclosure will also help prevent / cure resonation, although not as well as the bungee method, and it costs a lot more.

Noni · 5 Mar 2006 at 10:46

No space for the bungee method unfortunatly.

Any other alternatives to the silentmaxx hd enclousure?

Yewen · 5 Mar 2006 at 12:58

Not really, if its the hard drive unless you fully enclose it there is not much more you can do, have you thought of the alternative bungee method in the sticky?

InQ · 5 Mar 2006 at 20:48

For stopping resonation try a Noise Control Hard Drive 3, fits in a 5 1/4" bay and is suspended on rubber mounts :- http://www.silentpcreview.com/article39-page1.html

Yewen · 5 Mar 2006 at 20:55

Not as good as the Silentmaxx enclosure though, as it only stops resonation, or partly stops it. The Silentmaxx also stops the disk access noise.

InQ · 5 Mar 2006 at 21:52

Yewen said:
Not as good as the Silentmaxx enclosure though, as it only stops resonation, or partly stops it. The Silentmaxx also stops the disk access noise.

Its better than the silentmaxx for stopping vibration noise as its completely de-coupled from the case, of course it wont stop whining noises etc

lozza · 5 Mar 2006 at 21:55

Noni said:
No space for the bungee method unfortunatly.

Any other alternatives to the silentmaxx hd enclousure?

How have you space for the silentmaxx but no space for the bungee method :confused:

Yewen · 5 Mar 2006 at 23:24

InQ said:
Its better than the silentmaxx for stopping vibration noise as its completely de-coupled from the case, of course it wont stop whining noises etc

Maxtors make all of there noise through there operation, also his case is a generic one, not aluminium and probably not prone to resonation

There are better ways of stopping resonation aswell, tackle the source of the noise, or the part thats making it.

One is usually much cheaper than the other, but everyone is different with resonation.

gib786 · 6 Mar 2006 at 09:29

I agree with everyone who has said get a new cooler for the graphics card, I have a 7800gtx as well and the stock cooler is very very noisy, so I bought the Zalman VF700Cu after it was reccomended by people on this forum, it works great, a simple 2 second install and it takes away so much noise when on 5v, and has better temps than stock

InQ · 6 Mar 2006 at 12:23

I've just ordered a VF700-Cu as well for my 7800GT EE...5v should do me fine then!

ACPCUP · 7 Mar 2006 at 10:30

Definitely get the Zalman V700 CU for the graphics card. It will make a vast improvment.

As for the hard drive, suspend it in the Cdrom bay with sewing elastic. Very cheap and very effective.