Ideas for silencing my PC

Unregistered.

Without water cooling...

Antec 300
Samsung F3 (500GB)
i5-750 (@ stock)
Passive 4670
Corsair cx400.

As quick summer upgrade, I'm considering getting the cooler master hyper 212 and a silent fan to replace the 120mm TriCool at the back of the case. But I think I'll have to do something with the HDD. It's position at the front of the case where there is an opening for 2x120mm fans is a door way for it's hum which i think is being amplified by the case. Any thoughts/experience?

Solitaire

It hums via passing vibration down into the chassis. If you mount anti-viration rubber/silicone pads/grommets between the HDD and the drive bay you'll kill much of the noise stone dead

As for the rest of it? HDDs always make some noise when operating, and if you have a modern open-plan case up at eye level you'll cop a bit of noise from the innards of your PC no matter what you do.

Spacedog

try plugging stuff out until you find the noisy parts, then add noise dampening or replace the parts. MY old PC had 2 big old loud disks, used to drive me mad. drives tend to get louder with age as the spindle bearings wear.

you can suspend the drive or mount using rubber fittings or in a 5.25 inch bay

you can also get noise dampening material to line your case, I don't know it it's any good.

you could also underclock your cpu and install passive cooling components, but that's a little over the top and not realistic if you want to play a game or anything.

I can also recoment a nice pair of USB earphones with earcups, improved sound quality, no external noise, screw everyone else.

Unregistered.

Solitaire wrote: »

It hums via passing vibration down into the chassis. If you mount anti-viration rubber/silicone pads/grommets between the HDD and the drive bay you'll kill much of the noise stone dead

Thanks! Might hit maplins tomorrow and pick up a pack of rubber screws for the fans as well.

I have 2 5.25 inch drives free under the DVD drive, i might trial a suspension solution with dampening material underneath & keep an eye on temps for a while. Depends how much the material is, don't want spend €€€s for minimal difference!

Does anyone use the cooler master here themselves? It's regarded as one of the best bang/buck coolers if you're not over-clocking big time.

Solitaire

Heck, the cheapest HDD silencing solutions just involve cutting out some small foam/squidgy-stuff pads to seperate the drive from the metal surfaces (including wee grommets to fit around the screws between the HDD and the drivebay sides). You could pay lots for the service, but if you're creative you should be spending less than a fiver on this activity!

As for the Hyper 212 Plus? I'm afraid those who use that cooler are too busy gaming on their shiny new monster rigs to comment! :pac:

zappb

1. leave it switched off

(this method also saves power)

2. Listen to Rammstein

BigEejit

Its very fiddly setting it up, but if you get some 5 or 7mm bungee cord you can suspend your disk in a 5.25" slot that isolates the disk from the case. Those little rubber screw replacement things work very well too.

hare05

As BigEejit said, suspend the HDD in a 5.25" bay. You can do this with any type of string or cord, but elastic ones work best. Simply tie two equal lengths of cord to the sides of a 5.25" bay but leave them hanging a bit slack in the middle. Put the drive on top of them and then tie it to the two lines of cord with another bit of cord. It should hang without touching the sides of the bay. You'll get a huge reduction of noise and vibration from the drive. It won't be completely silent, but it will be close.

Just remember not to run around with the computer too much if the drive is suspended as it can swing and cause damage to other parts if you tip the case over for any reason.