Noisy DELL

GoneShootin

My CPU Fans have become a bit on the noisy side

The pc is a Dimension 8100, with a fan of similar size to the PSU fan directing air onto the cpu setup via a "green guide"

Are there any methods of fixing/purchasing fans to make it more silent ?

BigEejit

I have a Latitude CPxJ and it is as noisy as hell also, was told its a big job to fix it by IT dept...

GoneShootin

Latidudes are the Laptop aint they ? I wouldnt like to try and sort out a laptop cpu fan either ! I had horrible trouble with my own laptop fan. Totally unbalanced, ended up shaving off bits of fin and other tinkering about.

But I would imagine the larger fan on the dimension could just be replaced by a better type ?

Matt Simis

Indeed, but you would be invalidating warranty. If that doesnt bother you grab a similar sizes fan from Maplins (Peats etc) and just replace it.

Otherwise ring Dell and tell them it was making strange noise and now it appears to have stopped working. Then they'll have to replace it..



Matt

GoneShootin

lol....ooohhh teh lies !! what kind of parts warrenty are on those fans ?

also, after more investigation (ie unpluggin hard-drives and then running system) the hdd's are quite noisy also. i am NOT goin buying quieter ones, is there any form on insulation method to help stop that ?

what are my chances on that "oh the fan has stopped working" front.

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.marx-computers.com/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi
have a look at the price list - Noise absorption mats €19.00 - I think you put them inside the PC..
there are also ball bearing fans & quiter CPU fans - not sure if any of this will help..

If all else comes to all you can get an acoustic cabinet - with big slower fans (you don't want an over ) and put the PC in it. (ie. a big box with lots of pyramid shaped foam.)

You could buy lots of RAM and send the HDD to sleep....
Or buy extenson cables for Keyb / monitor and put it further away

Also check the BIOS - sometimes there settings for the fans there - (esp. for optiplex or poweredge) !

If you want to spend lots of money you could always change the PSU for a quiter one too.

BTW: them rack mount are just unreal for noise..

RicardoSmith

A noisy PC is rarely the result of one component but a combination of a few of them. Incidentally the fans that Peats and Maplins sell aren't quiet IMO. Plus you'll get the cheaper from the web, so shopping in those places is the last thing I'd do.

I think your first stop should be here. http://www.silentpcreview.com/

BigEejit

BTW: them rack mount are just unreal for noise..

We have a few 2U Dell 2650 and the noise they made was incredible ... we nicknamed them "the aeroplanes"

But as was mentioned earlier:

Also check the BIOS - sometimes there settings for the fans there - (esp. for optiplex or poweredge) !

A bios upgrade made them MUCH quieter

netman

replacing a fan on a cpu cooler should be extremely easy.
i don't have much experience with dell, i prefer to build my own, and the ones we have in the office are donkey's years old, and back in those days they didn't have a need for noisy fans.

you can replace the fan yourself, they usually slide into a plastic holder, or are held with a set of screws. simply get a same size fan (measure it to be sure), normally the cpu fans are either 60mm x 60mm or 80mm x 80mm. in most web shops that sell computer components you can find out how loud the fan is (measured in dba). papst fans (sometimes called pabst) are renowned to be the quietest around.

if you know a bit about electronics you can hook up the fan to 7v voltage instead of 12v. there's also fan adapters that do that for you (simply a cable). this will make it spin at a slower rate, effectively reducing the noise.

also, cleaning the fan of dust and oiling it can reduce the noise significantly if it's been running for a long time. simply take it off, dust it, and then on the back of the fan, peel back the sticker, put a bit of oil in the hole, spin it a bit with your hand, and put the sticker back on. costs nothing if you have some 3-in-1 oil (or similar) at home and could solve your problem altogether.

another cheap way of silencing the hard drives:
get a shoestring, and two stoppers, like they have on jackets etc. the plastic thingies that you press down to be able to move them on the string, and when you leave them they're stuck on the string. they sell them in hickey's for something like 10c. remove the drive from the 3.5" slot, put the shoestring through the 5.25" slot, make a "mash" out of it and simply slide the drive in. put the stoppers on, and just tighten the shoestring. the drive will be suspended on the string, the noise is nearly gone, and you can still barely hear it when it's loading data, just to assure you it's still there.

i've done this with two drives in my case and i can't hear them at all until they start seeking. the case is watercooled, so apart from one fan on the power supply (run off 7v) there's no other noise.

RicardoSmith

The shoe string idea is interesting. Theres a product called no-vibes which does the same thing with rubber bands.

Incidentally I have noticed that a lot of the Dells I've seen are wired with a two pin fan plugs rather than the 3 pin normally used. So you might have to rewire a plug for 2 pin, or maybe a 3 pin will just fit over it, since the 3rd wire is just for speed sensing.

Generally the Dells don't use a CPU fan but an extractor fan (usually 92mm) that has a shroud that extends out over the cpu heatsink. So you'd have to check the width of this fan since they vary and you need one that will fit the shroud. If you can find a way to cushion the fan with some rubber grommets that would help to reduce the noise. Try to get a fan thats 20dba or lower though. You'll hear anything above this.

As an aside I'm surprised the Dell is noisy since anyones I've heard over the years and especially the newer ones are extremely quiet. Whats the spec on yours - Gone Shootin? I had one at my old job, a Dimension P4 2ghz one with a fast HD and passive gfx card and it was silent.

GoneShootin

well it seems the dimsion 8100 series use a DATECH CPU FAN, which tends to be on the noisy side. As I stated the Fan in question is the same size as the fan in the PSU, no onboard the cpu itself.

ive looked at the "shoestring" idea, but its noted on silentpcreview to increase temperature. with all of these noise prevention methods there tends to be a tradeoff between Noise and Temperature...

RicardoSmith

If you use components that are designed to be quiet and cool then you won't have any problems. But trying to silence and cool hot and noisy components is an uphill battle. It can be done but its not easy, or cheap!

If I were you "Gone Shootin", I'd replace the psu and cpu fans with papst fans of the lowest db I could find. You might have to do a bit of soldering/rewiring to do this. I've found the papst fans to be quieter then every other type of fan out there. In particular I don't find the Zalmans (sold by maplins and Peats) very quiet at all. Unfortunately I've happened to be stuck with a few of them in my current PC. Never again.

Then I'd buy a Seagate Barracuda V hard drives to replace your current ones and sell your current noisy drives. If the GFX card uses a fan then I'd replace it with a passive Zalman VGA cooler. Then monitor the temps of everything before and after the modifications to make doubly sure that nothing is overheating.

I've modded a few of my own PC's in the past and made them quiet, but in future I'm going to build the PC from the ground up with quiet components. It makes more sense.