- Joined
- Jul 15, 2005
I've had an Antec 3000B for a while now, and I love it. It's quite quiet in general, and the fan that came with it cools my system (largely-unnecessary details below) while on the 5v setting.
I've recently upgraded to an Enermax Liberty 500W power supply for general power consumption needs. My old 300W Antec unit wasn't loud by any means...in fact, it was quieter than the Liberty as my system is at this moment (I now turn it off at night, so less folding...sorry my beloved proteins!). A large portion of that noise is not due to the fan (the fan is actually rather muffled because it is a standard 120mm design, but there is a distinct buzz if I stick my ear up by the exhaust, although I can't hear that under ordinary circumstances), but rather due to increased vibration and reverberation throughout the case itself.
I've read the stickies and articles about quiet cooling at here, as well as articles from SPCR, and I now have a decent resolve as to what I'm going to do. These plans include:
- Insulating PSU from case
- Decoupling/dampening case panel vibration
- Insulating DVD drive from case
- Building a simple muffler for the PSU and rear exhaust
I have other plans specific to CPU and GPU cooling, but they aren't relevant for discussion, as I have that under control.
I don't, however, have those four points under control. First the PSU insulation. I'd think that some sort of thin rubber or silicone mat and some soft, thin washers would do the trick for the steel bars and screws respectively. Hopefully that would decouple a lot of PSU vibrations from the rest of the case. I'm not sure what effective (and economical) material to use---mousepad seems too cardboardy and thick. Suggestions on methodology and material would be really nice for this.
Now the case panel vibrations. Having taken Physics I this year, I found out that apparently sound comes from vibrations (imagine that!). So I feel my case panels, and they're all vibrating. Top, left, right, bottom, and hell even my bezel is vibrating. I've seen people use mouse pads and tar and "Computer Case Panel Dampeners," but those all look clumsy, smelly, and expensive, respectively. Again, I'm not really sure what I can do here, but I've seen people glue stuff to the sides of their panels and get good results on decreasing vibration. Therefore, further methodological and material suggestions would rock.
At this point I direct you towards my optical drive. When it's in full operation, this is by far the noisiest componant in my computer (again, specs below---and I don't recommend this drive honestly). A lot of that noise comes from the drive motor itself, accelerating and whatnot, but it also sort of rattles the drive cage, further vibrating the case. It's mounted via tightly-screwed-on drive rails; there isn't much room for any sort of decoupling washer in there. I can still see some partial decoupling between the drive and the rails, and again between the rails and the drive cage itself. It appears to be a fairly standard drive rail arrangement, and I'd be thankful for any suggestions about quieting this thing down.
Finally the muffler. I got this idea from a review of a commercial muffler from an old article here. A rather-simple foam core box with sound dampening material inside which goes over the PSU and rear fan exhaust, redirecting their airflow and noise down a few inches as the sound bounces around, decreasing in volume, seems like a great idea to me. Does anyone here have experience with fashioning their own mufflers? What sort of (again, inexpensive) dampening materials should I look out for? Any ideas on how to mount something like this onto the back of my case (other than twist ties
)? Of course any other suggestions on this matter (including flat out telling me that it's not worth it!) are welcome.
PC Specs
Case: stock Antec 3000B
Casefans: one included with case (120mm at rear)
PSU: Enermax Liberty 500
Optical drives: Samsung DVD-ROM/CD-RW
HDDs: Western Digital 120GB IDE (mounted with rubber washers from case)
Motherboard: MSI 915P Combo Fr LGA775
Memory: Corsair Value 2x512MB DDR2-533
CPU: Intel 3GHz Prescott 530J with Zalman 7700AlCu (850rpm idle, 1400rpm load)
Video: MSI 6600GT PCI-E
Thanks guys, and sorry if this is incoherent!
I've recently upgraded to an Enermax Liberty 500W power supply for general power consumption needs. My old 300W Antec unit wasn't loud by any means...in fact, it was quieter than the Liberty as my system is at this moment (I now turn it off at night, so less folding...sorry my beloved proteins!). A large portion of that noise is not due to the fan (the fan is actually rather muffled because it is a standard 120mm design, but there is a distinct buzz if I stick my ear up by the exhaust, although I can't hear that under ordinary circumstances), but rather due to increased vibration and reverberation throughout the case itself.
I've read the stickies and articles about quiet cooling at here, as well as articles from SPCR, and I now have a decent resolve as to what I'm going to do. These plans include:
- Insulating PSU from case
- Decoupling/dampening case panel vibration
- Insulating DVD drive from case
- Building a simple muffler for the PSU and rear exhaust
I have other plans specific to CPU and GPU cooling, but they aren't relevant for discussion, as I have that under control.
I don't, however, have those four points under control. First the PSU insulation. I'd think that some sort of thin rubber or silicone mat and some soft, thin washers would do the trick for the steel bars and screws respectively. Hopefully that would decouple a lot of PSU vibrations from the rest of the case. I'm not sure what effective (and economical) material to use---mousepad seems too cardboardy and thick. Suggestions on methodology and material would be really nice for this.
Now the case panel vibrations. Having taken Physics I this year, I found out that apparently sound comes from vibrations (imagine that!). So I feel my case panels, and they're all vibrating. Top, left, right, bottom, and hell even my bezel is vibrating. I've seen people use mouse pads and tar and "Computer Case Panel Dampeners," but those all look clumsy, smelly, and expensive, respectively. Again, I'm not really sure what I can do here, but I've seen people glue stuff to the sides of their panels and get good results on decreasing vibration. Therefore, further methodological and material suggestions would rock.
At this point I direct you towards my optical drive. When it's in full operation, this is by far the noisiest componant in my computer (again, specs below---and I don't recommend this drive honestly). A lot of that noise comes from the drive motor itself, accelerating and whatnot, but it also sort of rattles the drive cage, further vibrating the case. It's mounted via tightly-screwed-on drive rails; there isn't much room for any sort of decoupling washer in there. I can still see some partial decoupling between the drive and the rails, and again between the rails and the drive cage itself. It appears to be a fairly standard drive rail arrangement, and I'd be thankful for any suggestions about quieting this thing down.
Finally the muffler. I got this idea from a review of a commercial muffler from an old article here. A rather-simple foam core box with sound dampening material inside which goes over the PSU and rear fan exhaust, redirecting their airflow and noise down a few inches as the sound bounces around, decreasing in volume, seems like a great idea to me. Does anyone here have experience with fashioning their own mufflers? What sort of (again, inexpensive) dampening materials should I look out for? Any ideas on how to mount something like this onto the back of my case (other than twist ties
)? Of course any other suggestions on this matter (including flat out telling me that it's not worth it!) are welcome.PC Specs
Case: stock Antec 3000B
Casefans: one included with case (120mm at rear)
PSU: Enermax Liberty 500
Optical drives: Samsung DVD-ROM/CD-RW
HDDs: Western Digital 120GB IDE (mounted with rubber washers from case)
Motherboard: MSI 915P Combo Fr LGA775
Memory: Corsair Value 2x512MB DDR2-533
CPU: Intel 3GHz Prescott 530J with Zalman 7700AlCu (850rpm idle, 1400rpm load)
Video: MSI 6600GT PCI-E
Thanks guys, and sorry if this is incoherent!
