Silencing the PC

Exfoliate

Exfoliate

Geek Trainee
Hey everyone, I want my new PC to become as quiet as possible with out spending a crap load of money on water-cooling. I bought an extra low speed 120mm fan to go with the two stock 120mm fans in my NZXT Nemesis tower (I don't want to overheat here) but I'm worried that the psu that came with the case will be rather noisy (I haven't received my components yet so I don't know). When I get more money what should I work toward replacing or adding to make my PC as quiet as possible without sacrificing looks, or spending a ton of money?
 
what is the current PSU you have? I haven't come across a noisy PSU in my life. I don't think you have to worry about it. Mostly if someone posts a review that it's loud and buzzing they are whiney little babies.
 
Really? I actually heard that the psu was the noisiest part of the computer (from "The PC Builders Bible" by PC Gamer I believe). Oh, and I checked, apparently I'll have a 400 WATT PS2 ATX 12V psu. That's probably pretty standard. Do you have any idea how many decibels that would produce? I'd just like to compare that to my fans which should be something like 22dbs.
 
There are PSUs that you can get but which have a low db kinda like mine but I can't remember what it was called, if you look on www.overclockers.co.uk in their power supply section you'll be able to find 'silent' psu's, they're not totally noiseless but they come close.

About the noisiest thing, I think the CPU cooler is the noisiest fan in the PC, noise wise older hard drives go right to the top, especially when they get accessed.
 
Thanks guys, I appreciate your feedback. Oh, your right WWR, my old Celeron had the noisiest drives on the planet, it drove me nuts! I try to play Black and White and there's this horrible vibrating noise and loud spinning, it was the worst.
 
The only time your PSU would be particularly loud would be if the fans are crapping out. I've seen the silent ones, but, for the price some of them run, you could about get one of PC Power & Coolings high-end units.
 
The new thermaltake fanless is pretty kickass, if you want quiet, they dont come any quieter than this. If you don't want to spend quite that much, I think the next quietest PSU out there would have to be the Top Power, Top Silent series. You wont hear it from within 10 ft away.
 
As i've said before the loudest components or causes of noise in your computer are:
-Turbulence from fans/fan grills
-Vibration from hard drives
-Graphics Card heatsink&fan
-CPU heatsink&fan

CFM is the measurement of air that a fan can succesfully "exhaust" or "intake" at any one time. The more CFM the fan has, the louder the fan is going to be, they will be even louder if your fan has a case or fan "grill" infront or behind it - this is because the air that it's pushing out of the case or in the case will be having to go through / past the grills, these grills tend to get in the "way" of the air, therefore causing turbulence (the air flow being forced around the grills).

You can eliminate turbulence by cutting these grills out.

Buy fans that have a good CFM, since your using 120mm case fans, these tend to be the more quiet fans as they are large fans, don't have to go as "fast" due to their size, so they don't make as much noise.. due to turbulence.. :)

Now, as for vibration, i would buy Acoustic Matting or sound proof matting, this you can easily cut to your preferences and i suggest you cut matting that will fit around the edges of your fans, so the matting is placed inbetween your case fan and the actual case - this will eliminate the fans vibration vibrating onto the case - do the same for hard drives or even better buy a Vantec Silent Hard Drive Cooler see www.overclockers.co.uk

As for your graphics card, buy an Artic Cooler VGA Silencer, these are available for most graphics cards including X800 range and the 6800 range, however there is not one available yet for the 6600/GT range - These are about as good at cooling as the default stock cooler on your graphics card if not slightly better, the only reason you need 2 get one, is they are INCREDIBLY SILENT.

As for a HeatSink&Fan for your CPU/Processor i would buy an Artic Cooler Freezer 64/Ultra - Amazing cooling with very very quiet operation.

As for your powersupply, i would buy a standard PSU from the ThermalTake Silent PurePower range, these are fan controlled and are incredibly quiet - also as for your case fans, don't connect them directly to a PSU power cable, as this will make them run at their highest RPM (as fast as they will max go) - obviously this is a bad thing as it will create alot of noise). Instead connect your fans to the relevent fan controllers on the motherboard (3pin adapters) this will allow your motherboard to control the fans speed as per what is needed to cool the system.

Try and remove all your computers wires out of the way, group them together, use rounded IDE cables.. i'm selling my pc but the only non-quiet thing in the computer is the graphics card HSF on my 6600GT.

Most important thing - make sure you have good quality fans such as Vantec or Zalman - Vantec are better in my opinion in terms of noise. 21DB.

go for the PSU i suggested - when set to "low fan speed" it runs at 18DB - u cant hear it..
 
Quite alright, i've spent my life like a Marvel Comic Book hero - ridding my computers of sound whilst keeping my cool ;)

*Just watched the Punisher - lmao very funny movie - shouldn't have been an 18 tho..
 
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