My Old computer is Noisy my wife tells me

BadCharlie

Well same goes for her

This is my main computer if i remember correctly i think i built it on the 18th Jan 2009 "so just gone 6 years now". I was one of the first people to buy into the I7.

I have my computer now in my bedroom. And off late the wife is saying it makes to much noise and she cant sleep if im using it.

Spec
Case : Antec 900
CPU : i7 920,c0/c1 @ 4GHz with HT on
CPU Heatsink : Thermalright Ultra-120 (very old)
Motherboard : GIGABYTE EX58-UD5
Ram : 4Gigs DDR3
Video Card: HD5870 (bought this 6 months after my build)
Sound Card : SB X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty (bought this 6 months after my build)
Harddrives : 3.2TB Space (also added a 64gig SSD about a four years ago)
Keyboard : Some wirless keyboard i bought 8months back
Mouse : Razer Diamondback
PSU : Seasonic Modular PSU (very old still working)
Headset : Sennheiser Pc150 Headset (The oldest part of build bought in 2001-2002 i think)
Monitor : Dell ST2210 (bought this 12 months after my build)
Lighting : amBX Lighting Effect

To be honest i think its a great machine. It plays all i want to play and does all i want to do with it. The only problem i have is noise.
Im going to install speed fan tonight and see how that goes. I have no fan on my CPU & clock it to 4Ghz sometimes but mostly let it on 3.6Ghz. It might run a little hot at times but never crashes and with all the fans in my case i see no point in adding another.

If im going to build a new computer it needs to be very portable, quite, not to costly, and if possible use some of the parts above.

Johnboy1951

To be honest i think its a great machine. It plays all i want to play and does all i want to do with it. The only problem i have is noise.

In that case I would be inclined to work on the noise factor ...... PSU and case fans.

EoinHef

When was the last time you gave it a bit of a hoover/clean on the inside?

May just be dust/dirt messing with your airflow

BadCharlie

EoinHef wrote: »

When was the last time you gave it a bit of a hoover/clean on the inside?

May just be dust/dirt messing with your airflow

Ohh it be a few years now since it got a clean. I might give it a clean so

But to be honest i can see into the case from its side panel and its not bad inside. But i will go about removing what i can see.

Im also thinking if speed fan & also a clean don't do the trick i might just disconnect a fan or all 4!!! It comes with 2 fans on the front one big one at the top and one at the back. Also video card and PSU come with fans.

the_syco

Maybe look at getting rubber feet for the fans, as the vibration noise from them against the case can annoy some people.

EoinHef

You would be surprised what dust build up can do. Dust can really build up in between the fins on heatsinks!

If your happy with it i dont see the point in spending much. As was suggested above a few quiet edition fans could do the job if the cleaning doesnt work

deceit

Get a define r5 case if you can afford it.
Connect the fans to a fan controller or connect them to your motherboard to control speed.
Add dampers to the fans
Reapply thermal paste to your cpu cooler and clean out your case, including cpu cooler and gpu (Too much dust in these and they will make a hell of a racket).
Check your temperatures to ensure the pc is not overheating and maxing fans out.
Adding a fan to the cpu will probably make everything quieter as it will help get hot air away from the cpu quicker and out of the case. This will also help cool the gpu which will drop its fan a bit also.

challengemaster

BadCharlie wrote: »

The only problem i have is noise.
Im going to install speed fan tonight and see how that goes. I have no fan on my CPU & clock it to 4Ghz sometimes but mostly let it on 3.6Ghz. It might run a little hot at times but never crashes and with all the fans in my case i see no point in adding another.

Remove all the fans and add a Noctua CPU cooler and 1-2 Noctua fans in key locations. Job done.

The only fans you need are CPU, HDDs and rear exhaust. If anything having your case flooded with fans is probably just making noise and creating dodgy airflow patterns.

Serephucus

You're going about it backwards. fans should be added to components first, case second.

Some sort of fan control is a must. Any fan (aside from maybe 500RPM GTs) will be loud at 12V, regardless of it being a "quiet" fan or not.

A bigger CPU cooler wouldn't hurt. I'm running an NH-D15 in my rig, and most of the time I can leave the one fan on it at 300RPM and it cools my CPU fine.

I would suggest:

Better CPU cooler
3rd party GPU cooler
Two good intake fans
Bin all the other ones

A budget for this would also be helpful.

BadCharlie

Thanks for all the replies, always can count on good suggestions.

Well installed Speed fan last night but could only tweak my GPU speed, which made no difference at all dropping it from 1100rpm to 900 or a little under. Could not turn down the 4 case fans. So my next step when I get the time this week will be open it up and give it a good clean out.

To answer a few questions.

Budget : I would have about €600 if I had to spend on anything. But going to try and resolve noise first before having to spend "could always sell my machine & build a new also"
Video Card/CPU Heat : I don't have a heat issue problem at all going on in my machine. How I know this is.... I was big into benching and stress testing all my machines I built "over 30 gaming machines I would guess". I use software to monitor my CPU cores & video temps. I would stress test my machines up to 24hours & more.

At the moment im running all my items at stock levels CPU/GPU & temp readings are good with under 30C for my four cores & when gaming it does not go up much, as all im playing is Crusader kings 2 "not a taxing game at all". Video card fan is not speeding up either while I game but did not log temps on it last night to see how high it climbed.

Used to play all my games in a spare room, until 5 years ago when I was moved upstairs/attic space. But 6 or so months ago had to move computer into bedroom and only now do I notice the noise from the fans "always used headsets so helped in blocking it out". So she "wife" is right im keeping her awake at night.

I will do a clean this week & maybe unplug some fans. I know I have a old speed fan controller but finding it might prove difficult.

TerrorFirmer

I wouldn't bother with a 3rd party GPU cooler, seeing as the 5870 is only worth about 50 euro...what model 5870 is it? That could be causing a lot of the racket. A 150 euro passively-cooled gtx750ti would be a better card, use a ton less power, and be totally silent. But generally speaking, most decent cards these days are pretty quiet anyway.

I have 2 old 6870's myself, one is very quiet, the other is very loud.

A fan controller would go a long way towards helping. Doesn't the 900 have two fronts, one rear, and one top fan?

BadCharlie

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I wouldn't bother with a 3rd party GPU cooler, seeing as the 5870 is only worth about 50 euro...what model 5870 is it? That could be causing a lot of the racket. A 150 euro passively-cooled gtx750ti would be a better card, use a ton less power, and be totally silent. But generally speaking, most decent cards these days are pretty quiet anyway.

I have 2 old 6870's myself, one is very quiet, the other is very loud.

A fan controller would go a long way towards helping. Doesn't the 900 have two fronts, one rear, and one top fan?

The antec 900 does indeed have the fans as you say. Think its 120mm fans at front & back. And it might be 200mm on the top if i remember correctly.

My 5870 is a 1gig model but cant remember the make not an overclocked eddition. I looked at the 750ti before and getting a passive one is an idea would be also an upgrade.

SterlingArcher

You seem happy with your rig.

A new case and cooler can be got for 90.

card can be got on adverts.

Kirby

The two biggest noise contributors are the Graphics Card and the PSU. You can buy quiet versions of both so there is no need to replace your entire rig.

BadCharlie

Well opened it up on sunday. Cleaned it out as best i could. Also i noticed i had another fan connected to the side window which i had totaly forgot about it.
So took that fan out & also was able to turn the top & back fan from high speed to low. And its over all 50% or more less noise from it. Played an hour of crusader kings and wife did not say anything

Still might look into making it quiter.