Support
Looper's Delight
|
Support |
|
|
got this from another list i'm on, hope it helps... > Yeah there is a lot of information out there... water cooling, as someone > mentioned previously, is the ultimate for peace and quiet. If that's too > expensive for you or you just don't want to go there, I can share some > experiences with you, in order of what generally makes the most >difference > in noise levels: > > Power Supply > -------------- > Two basic choices: > > Replace completely. The most popular choices are Q Technologies from > http://www.quietpc.com or Zalman available at http://www.chillblast.com. >The > Enermax 'whisper quiet' PSUs are popular too but in my experience aren't > really that quiet - they are available in higher wattages (350W+) though >for > dual rigs / power hungry systems. > > - OR - > > Swap the fan(s) in the PSU for something quieter. Never been tempted to >do > this myself but it is possible. Most PSUs run either an 80mm or 92mm fan. > Make sure you know what you are doing before attempting as danger lurks > within a PSU ! > > > CPU Cooler > ------------- > Fan: > > Go for a heatsink that can take an 80mm fan. Why ? Bigger fan = can run >at > lower rpm = lower noise with same air flow (usually) as more traditional > 60mm heatsink fans. Papst fans are acknowledged to be the best and I > personally run the 12db and 19db models in the systems i have built. Very > quiet. You can get these from http://www.overclockers.co.uk or > http://www.overclockingstore.co.uk . Panaflos are also recommended. > > Heatsink: > > The highest regarded manufacturers are Alpha and Swiftech, with >Thermalright > also coming up with some good designs too now. Recommended Heatsinks: > > P3: Radial Fin cooler from QuietPC > P4: Alpha 8492, Swiftech MCX478 > Athlon XP: Alpha 8045, Swiftech MCX462 > > You can get most of these from Overclockers UK > > Beware - these heatsinks are performance-oriented, and as such are quite > often sold with very high rpm, high-noise fans. Buy without the fan and >add > one of your choice - easy to fit, usually just screws on. > > The Zalman 'Flower Cooler' is touted as a great silent CPU cooler. it >*is* > quiet, no doubt, but is nowhere near as effective as any of the Athlon/P4 > coolers mentioned above and also not as quiet if you run them with a < >20db > fan. > > > Hard Drive > ----------- > Two choices: > > Get a quiet hard drive. The quietest performance (7200rpm) ide drive is >the > Seagate Barracuda ATA IV. The 40GB model is a little quieter than the >higher > capacity ones. You can find these almost anywhere. > > - OR - > > Use a Silent Drive sleeve. I used a few of these with IBM 7200rpm drives, > and they definitely made a big difference. However, I then got a couple >of > Seagate Barracudas when they came out and they were *as* quiet as the IBM > drive in the sleeve. You can get the sleeve from QuietPC. > > > Graphics Card > --------------- > Try and get one without a fan. If you are not into gaming on your PC that > isnt a problem as you can get the Matrox cards which are great for 2D and > fanless. > > Unfortunately, if you are into gaming - going fanless means ruling out >the > most high performance models, but you can get a low-end GeForce 4 with > passive cooling which still has relatively decent 3d performance. Zalman >do > a large heatsink that can supposedly replace a fan/heatsink on a graphics > card - from what I have seen it works sometimes but doesn't offer enough > cooling for the really high end Geforce 3 / Geforce 4 / Radeon 8500 >models. > Zalman themselves recommend you use an additional fan/bracket if you are > replacing the fan on one of these cards. > > > Case > ----- > Try and get an aluminum case like a Coolermaster or Lian-Li. The case >will > actually conduct some heat and help keep things cool, but it can also >help > reduce noise as these have great build quality compared to a cheapo case > which can rattle and resonate more raising the overall noise level. Plus > they look cool :) You can but damping materials to line your case with >but > these can raise the temps a lil bit so it's really suck it and see im > afraid. > > > Here are a few links that are good sources for some more info: > > http://www.silentpcreview.com/ > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Silent-PC/ > http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/intro.htm > http://forums.overclockers.co.uk