My jet engine of a PC needs to be silenced.

[FMD]

I have a custom built PC with a custom case. I have 5 fans, 1 120mm on the front to blow cool outside air acrossed my hard drives (5) One 80mm volcano 9, under that... On the back I have a volcano 9 exhaust, above my PSU I have another one. And on top I have a 120mm exhaust. And also on the side, over the CPU I have another intake fan. They are all controled via knobs.

Nothing is over clocked. However I have found when turning the knobs down thus reducing the noise my PC gets sluggicsh as it tends to begin to overheat.

I have a Q6600 stock, an 8800GTX Stock, and 5 hard drives. the 5 hard drives is what I am most concerned with.

I also have sound proofing thruogh out the case.

My question is, what can I do to reduce the noise with out reducing performance?

Also, contrary to popular belief, my PC actually runs cooler with the side panel on.

[sharky]

stock or after market cpu heatsink?
have you cleaned the dust off the heatsink?

[cookie]

stock or after market cpu heatsink?
have you cleaned the dust off the heatsink?

That worked like a charm for me!!

[yaksplat]

Don't push air into the case, make sure all the fans are pulling hot air out. This should increase efficiency of the fans so you can run them at a lower speed.

How hot are the drives and cpu?

[HipKat]

First, I'm jealous of the machine you're running, FMD.
Second ,the case on thing makes sense, using the same philosophy as having the AC on in your house and it stays cooler with the windows and doors closed.

[FMD]

I try to keep my hard drives below 90F I have a 120mm 110CFM fan in front of the 5 hard drives, that sucks cool outside air acrossed the drives, and then over the ram, then over the cpu then out the back... its ALMOST a straight pass thruogh. the lower fan, is a volcano 9 with a max cfm output of 75. that sucks cool air off the floor (my case sits on the floor, its 28? inches tall) and pushes that cool air torward my video card.

The only other fan that I have, that would be 'easy' to reverse the direction of, is the side panel fan that blows outside air directly onto the CPU... thats also a 120mm fan at 110CFM.

Everything is on knobs so I can control the speed.

And I actually completely FORGOT about the whole 'dust' issue LOL

It definitely needs a cleaning...

HipKat, MOST store bout PCs and even Enthusiast cases *unless is similar to a Li Lian case* are NOT design for maximum air flow thruogh out the case. As surprising as that may sound, I spent weeks, doing 'trials' with my case to get maximum air flow and ended up cutting holes and adding fan mounts myself to my case to give it better air flow.

For those interested, its an Inwin Q500 server tower.

Like on most HP's those little finger gaurds around the fans, where the gaurd is actually apart of the case chassis itself, just has a bunch of holes drilled in the metal infront of the fan, that blocks 50+% of the airflow of that fan. I know, I tested this. And thus bought actual finger gaurds.

usually, my CPU sits at about 95F farenheit (screw celcious, as a reference, 28C is 82F)

GPU sits around 150F at idle, tops out around 190F under load, CPU generally tops out at about 120F. Hard drives constantly sit at 85-95F.

However as of late, CPU temps have been up around 140F, and the GPU has topped 200F on occasion... its gotta be the dust since I havent cleaned it in over 18 months LOL

By the way, heat, will KILL a hard drive. If you have more than one hard drive you should have active cooling. and Hard Drive coolers are a complete waste of money.

I am using the case on the right.

Its changed a little bit since this picture was taken 4years ago.



My drives are not actually that close together. theres a little less that 1/2 inch between each one now.


this is the basic set up... take note however that I took this picture about 4 years ago

[HipKat]

Oh, believe me, I totally hear you on the store bought cooling thing.
I've just been wanting to do a custom build for many years, and haven't had the chance.

[Riven37]

That is not a PC that is a Server....God talk about PC NUTS you sure have it bad.

[Jerry A]

I have a custom built PC with a custom case. I have 5 fans, 1 120mm on the front to blow cool outside air acrossed my hard drives (5) One 80mm volcano 9, under that... On the back I have a volcano 9 exhaust, above my PSU I have another one. And on top I have a 120mm exhaust. And also on the side, over the CPU I have another intake fan. They are all controled via knobs.

Nothing is over clocked. However I have found when turning the knobs down thus reducing the noise my PC gets sluggicsh as it tends to begin to overheat.

I have a Q6600 stock, an 8800GTX Stock, and 5 hard drives. the 5 hard drives is what I am most concerned with.

I also have sound proofing thruogh out the case.

My question is, what can I do to reduce the noise with out reducing performance?

Also, contrary to popular belief, my PC actually runs cooler with the side panel on.

I have worked on computers since the early 70's and even my car does not need 5 fans. I would take it back to the builder and have them fix it. Custom built does not save money or make it any better than something that can be purchased. Also what type of performance are you looking for?

[Jerry A]

I try to keep my hard drives below 90F I have a 120mm 110CFM fan in front of the 5 hard drives, that sucks cool outside air acrossed the drives, and then over the ram, then over the cpu then out the back... its ALMOST a straight pass thruogh. the lower fan, is a volcano 9 with a max cfm output of 75. that sucks cool air off the floor (my case sits on the floor, its 28? inches tall) and pushes that cool air torward my video card.

The only other fan that I have, that would be 'easy' to reverse the direction of, is the side panel fan that blows outside air directly onto the CPU... thats also a 120mm fan at 110CFM.

Everything is on knobs so I can control the speed.

And I actually completely FORGOT about the whole 'dust' issue LOL

It definitely needs a cleaning...

HipKat, MOST store bout PCs and even Enthusiast cases *unless is similar to a Li Lian case* are NOT design for maximum air flow thruogh out the case. As surprising as that may sound, I spent weeks, doing 'trials' with my case to get maximum air flow and ended up cutting holes and adding fan mounts myself to my case to give it better air flow.

For those interested, its an Inwin Q500 server tower.

Like on most HP's those little finger gaurds around the fans, where the gaurd is actually apart of the case chassis itself, just has a bunch of holes drilled in the metal infront of the fan, that blocks 50+% of the airflow of that fan. I know, I tested this. And thus bought actual finger gaurds.

usually, my CPU sits at about 95F farenheit (screw celcious, as a reference, 28C is 82F)

GPU sits around 150F at idle, tops out around 190F under load, CPU generally tops out at about 120F. Hard drives constantly sit at 85-95F.

However as of late, CPU temps have been up around 140F, and the GPU has topped 200F on occasion... its gotta be the dust since I havent cleaned it in over 18 months LOL

By the way, heat, will KILL a hard drive. If you have more than one hard drive you should have active cooling. and Hard Drive coolers are a complete waste of money.

I am using the case on the right.

Its changed a little bit since this picture was taken 4years ago.



My drives are not actually that close together. theres a little less that 1/2 inch between each one now.


this is the basic set up... take note however that I took this picture about 4 years ago

LOOKS LIKE THE ROOM NEEDS CLEANING DAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaa

What are you doing with the computer???????????????

[sharky]

its ALMOST a straight pass through

that's good
I've seen a few online sellers that make air filters for case fans
I was going to get some but ended up getting a whole new case (Antec 300) that has a washable filter in the front

going to make things a lot nicer going forward
I hated cleaning the cpu heatsink every few months

[HipKat]

I have worked on computers since the early 70's and even my car does not need 5 fans. I would take it back to the builder and have them fix it. Custom built does not save money or make it any better than something that can be purchased. Also what type of performance are you looking for?

Not necessarily true.
For what I'd spec, it would cheaper to build it myself.
You're not going to walk into Best Buy and buy a computer with 12 gigs of Ram, for one.