the sound of silence

[Paddy]

In a desperate temporary bid to silence my PC, I need to replace the stock 80mm fans on my LianLi PC75 (server tower with window) and replace the stock AMD HSF from my Barton 3200+.

Anyone got good recommendations?

Water cooling is something that i have been promising myself for years, but to get a quiet setup, its gonna cost....

[edit]
Anyone recommend a good water cooling place in the UK so i can price some parts?
[/edit]

[Chris B]

Well first thing, if you are running your case fans at 12 volts, i'd try and take them down to 7 or 5 volts. It's an easy mod and it's free. Unless your machine is an overclocked monster chances are you really don't need THAT much airflow to keep an acceptable case temperature.

I did the same thing to my Thermaltake/Chieftec Dragon case. The fans were incredibly loud for my taste. So I am running them at 5 volts, and actually only running the two exhaust fans in the back. I can't hear them at all and they get the hot air out just fine.

For a HSF I haven't really kept up that much. If you just need a new fan then Pabst or Panaflo's are a good bet. If you want a new heatsink then I recommend looking at Silent PC Review. Check the "Recommended" page.

[az]

The second cooler on this page (if you can find it) with an ultra-quiet fan.

AZ

[DukeP]

I installed a switch to my casefans.

Its usually off (I dont need the cooling for basic word/browsing etc). I flip it to on/7V whenever I start to play games. If its REALLY REALLY hot insinde, I switch it to on/12V.

Basically my system is silent, unless I play. When I play, I have enough sound to still not hear the fans.

Its cheap, and its a win/win.


~~DukeP~~

Oh. Dont mess the wrong way around, that could send 17V to someplace on your motherboard expecting 5V. not a good thing.

[DukeP]

Thats a nice cooler, AZ.

Beats the 748grams copper monster I have from Zahlman.
But Zahlmans is quiter, and attached by a far better mechanism.

But I really think Heat Pipes is the way to go.

~~DukeP~~

[GNEP]

I would say that first, try putting a switch for the fans in to take them to either 5V, 7V or 12V. I run my case fans at 5V so they are near silent.

If you do that, though, your power supply will seem very noisy. Check Silent PC Review for recommendations. (BTW they don't like aluminium cases there)

I have gone the watercooling route myself, and am very happy with it - although probably not the first step I'd take in going "silent" it allows performance

You can have any 2 of performance, quietness, and cheapness. I have gone for the 1st 2 and am v. happy...

For watercooling, Carl at http://www.wetandchillychips.co.uk/ is about to get in some new kits which will allow for passive (ie no fan) running using a combined reservoir/radiator design which looks pretty nice. Once he has sorted his suppliers out, it might be worth a shot.

George

[Paddy]

Cheers George.

This case comes with a variable resistor so that you can alter the voltage/fan speed.

The problem if have is two fold.

1) The computer is on 24/7
2) as the case is large, air circulation is not the best.

I am going for quietness primarily, but if I can get a performance boost through overclock then that will be a bonus. Cost, within reason, is not an issue.

If I watercool the CPU is it worth also doing the north bridge and graphics card????

How interchangable are graphics card waterblocks?

I would prefer to have as few fans in this case as possible, however I do have a lot of hard drives so I do need a constant airflow over them.... Changing the 2x80mm fans at the font of the case to a single 120mm fan and then running it at 5 or 7v should solve the noise there...

I am just weighing up my options..... scompracer has the same case and hs done a rather nice watercooling mod.

I just need to take the whole box into account... there is no point watercooling the CPU and then needing big ass fans to cool the rad and HDs.

Just some post cocktail ramblings

[Wombat]

You could go with one of the control boxes like Technoid has. One push of a button ups the fan speeds, so that you can crank them up only when you need to, or when temperature sensors trip.

[KvHagedorn]

Yep.. I got the Enermax fan controller.. pretty cool looking. If you dont have good circulation in there, why not cut a blowhole and put a 120mm Silenx fan up there? 14db and they move 58cfm.

[UtwigMU]

- Get Zalman Fanmates or something like Rheobus and tweak case fans. With 80mm fans at 5V or 2000 RPM the rig should be near silent and even with wattercooling, there's the pump and you still have large slow fans on radiator.

- Get big copper heatsink like Thermalright SLK900 or better and slow 92mm fan
- Get northbridge passive cooler if you have a northbridge fan
- Get Zalman heatpipe or Arctic Cooling VGA cooler for videocard
- Get quiet PSU

The only benefit of watercooling is that you can overclock and overvolt and still be quiet, like Gnep said.

[Paddy]

Cheers guys!

I'm gonna look into it over the weekend.
There is a real lack of UK distributers that sell watercooling kits.

[GNEP]

http://www.koolnquiet.co.uk/ might be a good place to look - I have bought a seasonic PSU from him in the past - quick and efficient service. Also might provide some pointers for you, and he stocks Innovatek watercooling stuff - not used this myself (am a WACC user) but might be interesting.

[spadnos]

http://www.watercoolingshop.com/catalog/ has a pretty good selection.

(too bad I haven't gotten any machine tools yet )

- Steve

[Taz]

Originally posted by Paddy
There is a real lack of UK distributers that sell watercooling kits.

Well there's these

Wet'n'Chilly chips (already mentioned)

Over-Clock

Extreme Cooling

Kustom PC's

Cooler Cases

Overclock

Will that do

[Paddy]

woot!

Can you recommend any?