New member needs soem help :)

New member needs some help

Man, I hate subject lines like that...it just sounds whiny.

On to the problem. I am in the middle of what has turned into a massive case-modding / watercooling project. It started off innocently enough...purchase case, add radiator to the top, vent a couple of fans to the top, enjoy life in a watercooled world. Did I mention that I've never done anything with case modding or watercooling before?

What it has turned into is a lot of cutting, measuring, planning, and worrying. Don't get me wrong, I'm having fun, but I'm starting to think that I may be in over my head.

The problem of the day: noise.

I am using a Black Ice Extreme dual 120 radiator, with 2 Panaflo 120's. The fans are attached to the radiator with nylon screws passing through a 1/2 inch nylon standoff secured into a j-type washer (looks like a clip with a hole in the center). I'm using foil tape wrapped around the assembly to act as an air shroud. Here's the pic:



The fans alone are not hatefully loud, and when I add them to the radiator I get a satisfying whooshing sound from air passage. I also get an annoyingly high pitched drone. This is intensified when I add the assembly to the case. I've taken the assembly back out of the case, and am trying to quiet it down. If I hold my ear to the radiator, I can hear the whine quite clearly.

What I'm thinking about right now is adding a 120mm fan silencer kit (actually, 4, since I'd place the silencers on the front and back of each fan.

Does anyone have any experience with this application? Will it work? Does anyone have any better suggestions? I also tried mounting the assembly to the case with O rings between the assembly and the fans, but it did not help. Or am I worrying about something that will dampen itself when I actually have water running through the radiator? I really can't live with that whine.

Thanks for listening. If anyone is interested, I'll post some pics of the work in progress, or you can check out my full web work log here

Well, I can kick in a little help. The 'added' noise when the assembly is mounted to the case is most probably vibration transmitted from the metal of the radiator to the metal of the case. I would make some sort of a gasket from an old mouse pad, rubber mat, etc to absorb the vibration. That should help somewhat.

Does the radiator have your cooling mix flowing through it yet? If not that fluid will also help dampen some of the vibration.

That pretty much covers my $0.02

I would be interested to see how well that foil tape works. Depending on how good the seal is (which I sort of doubt) it could act almost like a reed in musical instruments adding to the problem. A rigid shrould might be a better bet but I am just guessing here having never used that sort of shroud assembly.

***EDIT***
Oops, read a bit more carefully and it seems you do not have your fluid in the loop yet- that should help a bit at least.

I still am somewhat doubtful on the foil tape shroud idea however. Just for giggles try making a cardboard one and using tape to hold it in place temporarily. See how that effects your overall noise level once you have fluid running through the radiator.

I have to say that, as someone new here, that's a pretty impressive project you're working on. I like the worklog idea.

@vsalt - Thanks. As I said, I think I'm in over my head, but I'm way too stubborn to quit.

@Bugsmasher - I'm hopeful that the fluid will attenuate the vibration, but you're dead on with the cause being vibration passing from fans to radiator. I took the assembly out and did a low-tech (Yeah, I held my ear to the side of the radiator) check...the radiator is humming.

Interestingly enough, I did the same thing with the foil shroud removed and the vibration hum was still there, and at the same level as with the shroud attached. I'll try to fabricate something out of cardboard to test with once I get the asembly quieted down without the shroud. I'm going to take this one step at a time and reduce the noise at each step in the build process. Less noise at each step will hopefully yeild less noise with the finshed product.

At this point, I think that the problem is caused by the fact that the fans are hard bolted to the radiator, even though they are connected via nylon standoffs. I need to figure that one out while I wait on the radiator barbs to arrive.

i`m new to this to ,on my w/c pump .I sandwitch the mounting tab with rubber groumentes [ the ones you use for wire chafing] and bolt pump to botten of case

I'd just go to Home Depot and find some rubber washers(maybe o-rings?) or rubber carpet siding and cut your own vibration dampeners..... it'd cost you quite a bit less than any vibration dampener you could buy online.

Can you just leave the radiator flat on the floor and fill it with water? That way you could test if the water will eliminate the noise. Also, check the fins on the radiator for rough edges...... small metal pieces (burrs if you will) will hum when air moves by them, so if necessary you could take a file and smooth the fins down.

Once again just guessing but...

The hum you are hearing (with or without shroud/foil tape) is most probably the thin fins of the radiator vibrating as air passes through them. Once water is in the vibrations will be largely dampened by the coolant once it fills the radiator. Without needing to completely setup your system I think you could probably simply fill the rad with water and fire up the fans...then check it out.

Keep in mind that the fans will vibrate to a certain amount as will the radiator fins once air is passing through them. Finally that vibration will be transfered to the case if you have a metal to metal connection. I would place some sort of baffling item like a gasket or rubber grommets between the radiator assembly and the case when its mounted.

Progress report:

Purchased the kits I mentioned today at Microcenter and have just assembled them. Hooked up the pump and reservoir and fired it up. Quite a test...that's the first time I've ever activated a watercooling system other than my car.

The kit itself is composed of 2 formed gel gaskets which perfectly fit my fans. The hum of the radiator does indeed lessen when there's something filling the tubes. I'd rough guess it at about 20% less sound, and not nearly as high pitched. When I mount the fans to the case, I'll add another gasket between the case and the fan, and mount the whole assembly with fan screws that have rubber washers. We'll fire up the system dry and see how that works out.

My side panel w/ window, Thermal monitor, and DangerDen fillport arrive tomorrow

I think I'm pretty well on the way to having this done. All that remains is routing the hydro lines through the case, and final hookup. I'll do a quick setup with the system in normal HSF cooling and benchmark temps just so I have a comparison for the water cooling.

One more question though...

I've read in several places that in the absence of a push/pull configuration, it's best to have the fans sucking air through the radiator. My physical case layout only leaves about an inch of clearance above one of the fans, so I'm concerned that it will be air-hungry. I've got everything set up currently so that my fans pull from outside the case and push the air through the radiator, creating an airflow to outside the case (it's a LianLi V1000 - all of the case except the side panels is a perforated aluminum, similar to a Mac G6). Does that sound like a good scenario, or should I try to gain a little more clearance and go with a pull setup?