where will water cooling get me ?

crowej

if i was to water cool my pc what would it get me ?

what fans could i loose ? could i loose all the fan's except the psu ?

fan noise is really starting to piss me off.

Dman_15

crowej wrote:

what fans could i loose ? could i loose all the fan's except the psu ?

fan noise is really starting to piss me off.

I a word no. This is the problem most people run into when watercooling, they install wc on the CPU, whip out the fans and their cases basically turn into ovens.

Try replacing the fans with better quality ones or adding a fan controller. Zalaman flower CPU coolers and artic cooling GPU coolers are virtually silent. The noisest fans in a pc are generally the graphics and motherboard chipset and PSU if you have a cheap one. If you can find a passive motherboard cooler and replace the GPU cooler your noise should greatly reduce.

crowej

so i would be better off with better fans ?

i am using the cpu fan that came with the processor are there better more silent versions ?

crowej

there are 2 large fans and one smallish fan. i would like to change them for quieter fans.

are these types of fans a standard size ?

here are the fansizes

90 x 90 x 25mm, 1800rpm, 19dBA

120 x 120 x 25mm, Blue LED fan, 1300rpm, 17dBA

jjmax

This CPU fan is supposed to be the business -
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=306456&cks=PRL
Check with Zalman's website that the fan is compatible with your motherboard.

Dman_15

crowej wrote:

there are 2 large fans and one smallish fan. i would like to change them for quieter fans.

are these types of fans a standard size ?

here are the fansizes

90 x 90 x 25mm, 1800rpm, 19dBA

120 x 120 x 25mm, Blue LED fan, 1300rpm, 17dBA

there are three main fan sizes. 80 92 and 120mm. they are standard.

Before you do anything, in ite smart guardian, temporarly turn off the chipset fan, and in your case unplug all the case fans. See if this makes any difference to the noise at all. Try and isolate what fan is making all the noise.

I dont think the CPU fan will be the loudest by a long shot. The stock HSF's are pretty silent. More than likely it will be the chipset or graphics card fan

DemonOfTheFall

Methinks the majority of your noise is probably coming from your power supply.

Try to isolate which components are the noisiest. Then you'll be better able to tell which fans need replacing or whether water cooling would do you any good.

Most likely candidates for annoying noise - Thermaltake power supply, cpu fan, graphics card fan, motherboard chipset fan, thermaltake case fans. In that order.

crowej

ok it seems to be the powersupply, is there anything i can do to shut it up ?

DemonOfTheFall

Throw it in the bin where it belongs..... lol.

If you have the balls you could change the fan in it. Not something to be taken lightly though, theres a lot of juice left inside power supplies even when they're off (i think).

crowej

is there a better psu than the thermaltake one ?

how can i find out the power requirmnments of my machine

Gurgle

DemonOfTheFall wrote:

If you have the balls you could change the fan in it. Not something to be taken lightly though, theres a lot of juice left inside power supplies even when they're off (i think).

em dont
I thought my PSU was the noisiest thing in my system(it came with the case), until I blew €65 on an ultra quiet one.

No noticeable difference.

Then I changed my CPU fan from one called 'Volcano' (Thermaltake btw) to one called 'Silent Breeze'(GlacialTech). The names are suprisingly appropiate.

crowej

so you changed the cpu fan ? did it have much impact ?

Gurgle

crowej wrote:

so you changed the cpu fan ? did it have much impact ?

em yes, it sounded less like a volcano and more like a silent breeze

Canis Lupus

But if the breeze is silent how did you hear it?

duridian

If you are prepared to spend a few bob on more silent components these are what I'd be inclined to get:
Sell off the TT psu and buy this 600w Seasonic psu. It gets great reviews for power and silence eg.http://www.silentpcreview.com/article247-page4.html
For your cpu, this 120MM Zalman CNPS7700-Cu and for your 7800 this Zalman V700-Cu.
Also replace any of the stock TT fans in your case with better quality, low noise fans such as the Papst Silent models on Hitide.ie (Komplett.ei for some reason don't have a great range of case fans).
If you use some of these quieter parts it should significantly reduce the fan noise from your system without the need to resort to water cooling.
Also I would advise against attempting to change the fans in your TT PSU, as well as risking electric shocks from still charged capacitors, you'd invalidate the warranty which would totally kill its resale value. Even if it is a bit noisy, you would probably still get a fair few quid for it if you sold it as is.(€100+ anyway surely)

Dman_15

actually, i'll tell you where watercooling will get you.

Wondering why the hell hard drives are sooo loud

anyone have any suggestions?

duridian

Dman_15 wrote:

actually, i'll tell you where watercooling will get you.

Wondering why the hell hard drives are sooo loud

anyone have any suggestions?

Here's my idea. How about casing hard drives in a dual layered outer shell with a vacuum between the layers, (like in a thermos flask). The idea being that since sound needs a medium to pass through, the vacuum would deaden any noises/clacking sounds. Unfortunately I haven't thought of a way to compensate for the fact that it would also insulate the hard drive (thermally I mean, again like in a thermos flask) and therefore create the new problem of cooling the vacuum insulated drive.

Wertz

Dman_15 wrote:

actually, i'll tell you where watercooling will get you.

Wondering why the hell hard drives are sooo loud

anyone have any suggestions?

Most modern mobos and HDD support queit running modes through a BIOS setting, and it doesn't impact performance too much...

Gaillimhtaibhse

The Thermaltake Tide Water is criticised on page 72 of the March 2006 MAXIMUM PC magazine. GPU temps are now exceeding CPU temps and this unit was posed as an answer, but fell short. They conclude that: "Trouble is, the omission of RAM heatsinks means that while your GPU will be chillin', the rest of your videocard will be suitable for grillin'.":rolleyes:

DemonOfTheFall

Wertz wrote:

Most modern mobos and HDD support queit running modes through a BIOS setting, and it doesn't impact performance too much...

It also doesn't make them much quieter...

Dman_15

DemonOfTheFall wrote:

It also doesn't make them much quieter...

SMART?

what are you talking about here?

DemonOfTheFall

Yeah, the AAM (Acoustic Attenuation Mode) that you can enable through SMART. I didn't hear any noticeable difference by turning in on with my DiamondMax 9s. Going by SPCR's findings it seems pretty rare that it makes a noticeable difference.

Wertz

Makes a huge difference in mine if I turn the quiet running mode off, they're noisy as hell and it doesn't seem to make them any faster...I'd say it depends on the HDD(s)

DemonOfTheFall

Yeah just looking at SPCR again it does seem that some drives get quite a decent improvement out of it, while some don't really at all. weird.