Cooling vs Noise

[Wombat]

A lot of laptops are built that way, but it wouldn't help a home PC very much. The case and processor are fairly far away from each other. The thermal gradient across any kind of connector wouldn't make it worth very much, and thermal conduction requires really good connection between surfaces, something that would be very hard with the flex of a case. You're better off just running air over a standard heatsink.

[az]

You could also think about water cooling... ask greebe

And don't forget your power supply also generates noise - if your CPU fan happens to be quiet, you can really hear the difference between different PSU's (or different PSU fans).

For your CD/DVD Drive you can use CD-Bremse (german, but if you need help, some of us will gladly help you - the program is easy enough once you've got it translated). It slows down your CD/DVD Drive (to an extent YOU specify), thus making it much more quiet. You only need a fast CD drive so often, so I think this is a great utility.

AZ

[woel]

Cooling vs Noise

Hi!

I would like to hear your opinion on the subject cooling vs noise.

My computer makes a lot of noise and I want to make it sound less without sacrificing cooling efficiency. My cpu is a athlon xp 1700+ and I don't want to change it..

Will an aluminum case make a difference? Since it will probably make the system cooler it will make my volcano 7 slow down... plus that I won't need a lot of extra high rpm fans...

Please give me some ideas!

Anyway the fan that sounds the most in my computer is my cpu fan which runs about 4000 rpm.

/Leo

[VJ]

Aluminum cases do have better heat conductivity (a point always indicated by the manufacturers), but whether this has a great impact on cooling efficiency... I doubt it...
As aluminum is more flexible, it is a bit harder to find/seal a case which does not rattle due to vibrations from hardware (cd-rom, ...). This rattle is perhaps even more disturbing than just a fan-noise.

I have read about modifications where sound-isolating material is put on the inside of the case, but I don't know to what extent that works, and how it impacts cooling. Perhaps other people can comment ?

My LianLi PC70 (aluminum tower) still makes a lot of noise, although my main soundsource is two 10K harddisks, and the 4 80mm casefans (2 mounted in front of the disks, and 2 at the rear of the case).

Jörg

[Greebe]

an aluminum case may drop your temps by 1c but that's about it.

Using larger fans slowed down will move =/> smaller fan with alot less noise (ie 120's@7vdc vs 80's@12vdc)

Also placement and mounting of said fans make a huge difference

Dampening material added to the case side panels will also help but not as much as the above stated

[thop]

Zalman: GOOD
Cooling: GOOD
Noise: BAD

[Taz]

Zalman produce a nice range of products which give good cooling with minimum noise

Their webpage can be found here :- www.zalman.co.kr

[borat]

anybody ever thought of somehow connecting the processor heatsink to an alluminium case? i thought about buying a copper zalman and attatching it to an alluminium case with some alumunium or copper strips which i fixed to the base of the heatsink to conduct heat straight away from the processor to the case thus making the case into a huge heatsink and helping to keep the air temp in the case lower due to the heat being transfered directly to the outside of the case through the case. has anybody attempted such a mod and do you think it would work?