Sticky: How To Make Your Computer Quiet

I hate how loud my computer is. I dread when I turn on my machine first thing in the morning and all I hear are my 8 fans start spinning up just because I want to use my computer to check my email.

there are so many things that you can do to make your computer run near silence,
here are a few things that I did to try and "shut up" my computer.

Quiet Heatsinks
Artic cooling has a great line of quiet cpu coolers... and they are extremely affective cheap soultions to quiet cpu cooling... although sometimes you may want to overclock your cpu... the Artic cooling heatsinks will limit you a little bit... if your overclocking and want quiet air cooling i suggest picking up the new thermalright heatsinks... the SI-97 and XP120 heatsinks.. check motherboard compatibility first... and pick up a high CFM, low dBa fan to go ontop of it... this should give you the best possible quiet cooling... if you want completly passive cooling... Scythe has a completly passive cooler... again check compatibility... other heatsinks can be quiet aswell... replacing chipset heatsinks with larger passive coolers do make a difference... but expect your system to run much hotter!

Quiet Fans...
A simple way to quiet things down is to buy quiet fans... this is definetly not picking up a tornado... a stealth is more your option... when looking for quiet fans you want do check the dBA rating... and CFM... you want the highest possible CFM with the lowest dBA... 20dba is quiet... and the more fans the more this adds up... so you need to figure out what is necessary to have a fan... i like to get rid of northbridge heatsinks and fans and put on passive coolers... and for videocards i usually install a larger quieter fan, or go passive depending ofcouse on how hot the cards are (nvidias tend to run cooler than ATI's)

1. Larger fans...
Originally my CPU had a loud 60mm cooler on it I put on an 80mm cooler.

The 80mm fan also helps keep temperatures down. you can also install a 92mm fan on some Heatsinks the problem with larger fans is that they usually create more noise here comes tip number 2.

2. The 7v trick...
Most fans out there run off of 12v's and spin very fast. By changing the 12v ground wire with the 5v positive wire the fan will only receive 7v's and will spin at a slower speed usually a lot quieter. To do this you need a needle...


Here is the fans normal 12v setting

Here I am using the pin to push small hooks to allow the pin to be pulled out from the opposite side... (It will take a while to do but afterwards you will be a master at this)

Here is the finished 7v fan... simple... it is a really good idea to change the pins on the other connector as well... because if you plug the other end into say a hard drive it could possibly fry it, so make sure you change all the wires around just incase

i usually do the 7v trick inside powersupplys aswell... depending on how loud the box is... and if it's not a temputure controlled fan... i guess it's all up to you

3. Switches
Everybody likes to be in control in some way or form. I like to only turn on my fans when I need it or I have music playing... I went to radio shack and picked up 2 switches for $1.50 which I think is crazy...

I took the 12v positive wire... connected it to the switch and ran the other end to a Molex connector

I have a 12v wire going to the first switch, and crosses over to the second switch on the same side... so that I can control both switches independently. All those other wires are fans wired up. You can do this many ways; I did it this way for my own reasons, and could have done them differently.

4. Rehobus or fan controllers
Some people like to get these things so that they can just slow their fans down a little bit, which is a great idea but some of them are expensive but still if you don’t feel like doing the work yourself it's a great investment and usually they do more than control your fans

you just plug your fan right into them and can adjust to your liking.

Anyway, I just felt like sharing some info with you guys on how to make things quiet, what I did to make things quiet, and what you could do to make things quiet

I love my 45Db computer, but I will do the fan bus, just cuz it looks cool.

First off: Good job just putting Stickey in the tread title. I actually thought it was a stickey. lol

Now sorry that I have to do this.


Please people DO NOT do the 7V trick. The reason is because that almost shorts out the 5V and 12V lines, with only an unreliable load inbetween (fans really aren't reliable devices if you think about it. I have seen many melted and burned beyond recognition.). Can you imagine if that fan's plastic body melts and the coils touch each other and short out the fan causing a direct path from positive to negative? Thats right, 12V running through your 5V line blowing up EVERYTHING in your case. (Everything uses 5V somewhere or another.)

A much safer way is to use a resestor to slow the Fan's RPMs down. There is a thread about it in the local pub.

ANd yes I have seen fans shorted out. Computer wont power on or nothing. Change the fan and away you go.

Also...



Thats a pretty dangerous setup you have there man. If you accedentally plug that other molex into a cd-rom or something thas shorting out the 5V wire to ground. I know that's an idiot mistake, but we all have our moments...

Just thought I had to comment. Plz don't kill me.

I cant say how much I love these Power supplies... A must have for ultra quite case cooling...
Whats even more beautiful is that you can get it 40% off from 9 to 10 Oclock every sunday at http://www.xoxide.com/ultra.html

Yea, it's best not to mess with the wiring. On moment's lapse and poof.

It is best to look at the cause of the noise-fans. Going to bigger fans running at lower rpms helps. Improving case airflow by tucking away cables allows the fans to be run at a lower rpm and less noise. Of course, there is always my way...

The bottom case only has one 120mm fan and the 92mm on the HS. The other 2 computers (both on the rack on the two middle shelves) only have the cpu and psu fans. Yea, the lighting sucks, but I have only just started and plan on finishing that next weekend. Everything running at once, with me sitting between them, and I can still hear myself think!

Lois

hey mike... the way that is setup on the molex in the pin... the fan would be reciving the 7v... but the lines are still in the correct order man... the cdrom would recive 12v in the 12v line.. and 5v in the 5v line... there are no ground wires because i didn't have them on that connector... but it would still power up correctly...

thats why in the guide i said to make sure to change your wires orders on both side of the molex connector

i've been running my fans 7v for 8 months now man... no problems what so ever... i've never had a fan burn out... and my psu is still kickin...

I read about the 7v trick somewhere this fall and applied it to all my case and HD fans and it definitely made a difference in noise. I am not much of tech geek, i did though marked and isolated those modified molex extensions for fan use only and have nowhere connected the 5v ends. about 2 months now havent had any fan melt problem or pc not booting up.

Am i on the safe side ?

What you mean by "both sides" of the molex?

Reading this article now gets me in thoughts of opening the PSU and 7volt its fans as well ... IF i understood right whats said here ... How is this done?

And something else i wanted to ask.
My cpu HSF has a small installation helping lever (cant be removed, its part of the mounting clip) . The HSF though is too close to the PSU , is it dangerous having this (metal ofcourse) lever touching on the psu ?

you should definetly be ok... i've been running 7v on my fans for over a year now with out any problems at all...

i have put the 7v mod to my psu with out any problems...
some PSU's run off a thermal controlled fan... where it spins up faster when it gets warmer... and i doubt these fans break 5v... so doing the 7v trick to the fan would make it louder lol... but that is newer PSU's... older psu's do run off the 12v line... and the 7v trick will work and should make it a little bit warmer... but not nearly enough to cause any damage i dont thing (im asuming this because mine is 7v and theres no problems with it and it's 350W using up full 350W!)

the heatsink touching the psu is not ideal... but really... it shouldn't cause any problems...

Is there info maybe anywhere on how to perform that? I have never opened a PSU before ... Thanks

And what about the hoter air tha this mod will cause the PSU to emit in the case ? ( i think my PSU inhales external air and blows warm air right on the DVD drives and also blows some colder air down on the CPU area )

there are no guides for performing this mod... opening your box is simple depending on your box... 4 screws... lift it off... then remove the screws holding in your fan... and detach your wires from the main board...

how to hook it up to 7v is tricky... there are no molex connectors in there... so you could run a wire out of your PSU and down to a molex and plug it in that way...

if you know how to use a soldering iron... you could take a spare molex... cut off all the unnessary wires... and get your black and yellow wire... and solder your yellow wire to the 12v lines.. and your black wire to your 5v lines...

this is extremely risky... and i dont advice any beginers do to it... get some long wires and run it out of your box... and hook it up like normal

you want all your fans to blow air out...
this will also lower your case temperature... by removing used air...

my computer's case rate 21 dba 120 mm fans...it was praised for it's scielence, but now i plug it in, and i find my computer extremely loud. In fact, i've been in a quieter ROOM of servers...give you an idea? Something's obveously not right. I can hear this beast in the basement. I'd turn down their speed, but they don't plug into the mobo's chasis fan controll, but right into the 4 pin molex 12v outputs...any ideas that don't involve buying a fan controller? I'd just unplug the bitches, but I don't know just how important mobo cooling is. FYI, i've never considered OCing.

go on www.ebuyer.co.uk and buy a fan controller i have teh fan master its very good