I need help to make my computer silent. For free that is. I have no money right now so... At the moment I have some pillows and blankets over the computer. But thats not good for the heat I guess So I need some kind of "ghetto silence mod" here Would be great if you had any tips and tricks. Note that I only use fans in my computer. And the CPU Fan is a Tt Volcano 7 with some thermal control on it. Spins at 5000rpm nonstop.. :/ PLEASE HELP!! I have instant e-mail notification so I will reply as quick as I can!
An idea I had was to get some v cheap mousemats and use the foamy base as a sound absorbtion material.
I was given a pc for free once but it had a very noisy hardrive that was bolted to the case, the whole case was shaking along happily with the drive. so I tried foam mounting it on the bottom of the case. It's free, and helped A LOT for me. for fan's id suggest rubber grommets but i've never tested it.
Grommets on the fans are great. I had a really cool 400W PSU from a server a while back, the only drawback being it was REALLY loud! Solved this by removing the bulky built in fan grill (as in stamped out of the metal... makes an annoying wind noise) and also by "insulating" the fan using rubber grommets. Result was it was quiet and it cooled better (the fan grill was a proper fan grill, not a restricting set of holes in the casing)
I can only move 2 of HDDs, have to try that. And I've been thinking of rubber stuff for the fans. the last problem is the CPU cooling. It makes a really loud wind noice. It can make evey man crazy I think. Any suggestions?
I have a 500w server psu that is freaking awesome...but loud as all. If you really want to go ghetto soundproofing...carpet tiles(or just some carpet padding might work). They're terrible on heat...but awesome sound insulators.
Richard guide to Ghetto sound silencing ok youve come to the right person UNDERVOLTING thats your biggest key to free sound silencing its simple a molex has two ground lines a 12+ and a 5+ line so you have two options a) Undervolt to 7v using the 12+ and the 5+ as your ground ( though ive heard that this can cause havoc on a crappy psu) b) undervolt to 5V ( just rotate the molex 180 prety simple) This is actually ok for your PSU but undervoltin important fans can sometimes lead to overheating. SO those are your options ( oh yeah assuming your using 4 pin fans ) If I didnt have a rheobus I would probably go with the 5v for a while and if nothing is overheating then I would keep it that way. VIBRATION ABSORBTION ok next use rubber wherever you suspect there to be any unwanted vibration. The rubber doesnt matter just use whatever you got. Before I invested in silicon fan silencers I used rubber bands that were cut in strips, worked really good. I would recommend also using rubberbands whenever two moving parts touch ( ie on the power supply and on the hard drives) NOISE ABSORBTION Look around town for some High density foam. Regular foam doesnt work, and real sound proofing foam is expensive ( I could only afford a few feet of knockoff material). Dense foam is perfect for sound absorbtion and it does a pretty good job if placed well. IF you dont have a window on your case your in luck. The best place to put a piece of foam is on the side panel in front of the cpu fan. What your trying to do is absorb high frequency sounds ( whines) and convert them into translational energy ( movement) IF you used rubber band than you can convert a high picthed sound into a sound vibration ( well not that good). Along with foam try to "seal" your case up ( tape up any holes not meant to have air going through them) THe reason this works is that high picthed sounds travel in very tight straight lines so any smalll hole can allow an annoying whine to come out. HDD silencing ( do at your own risk) Ah HDD silencing quiet possibly the most taboo thing about having a silent computer. My comp is quiet but my HDD are at a constant 50 C ( withing operating specs) but they are dead silent http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~epyon/smaller.jpg Its really up to you, there are ways of silencing a hard drive while not increasing the temperatures but the results achieve pale in comparison to a HDD that has been sandwiched in composite vynil sound absortion material Replace Fan grills IF you cant afford wire fan grills ( best for silence not for looks) then you can simply cut off the existing fan grill with a wire cutter. The only advice I give you is to watch your fingers hapy modding !
the wire things are not always best for silence.... i have a titan 80 mm aluminum exhaust fan in my case and a wire grill with it... but now it vibrates... it stops vibrating if i block enough of the opening behind the fan... it probably needs pressure to keep balanced... but with just a wire fangrill it is louder than with the standard punched holes ... this is the only fan i have this problem with as it is a factory painted one... so it is probably unbalanced... but the wire grill doesn't always help
DONT USE CARPET, youll get static and youll fry everything! BAH! you could get a heatsink like that http://www.xoxide.com/tower112.html Its gunna cost you to make your CPU silent.
2nd's that My cpu fan was super loud because of the dual fans resonating untill I got these for 11$ now its incredibly quiet You could probably make a ghetto mod out of a rubberband or something. good luck **EDIT OMG!!11!!!1 Thats mine! /me slaps Chester around a bit with a large trout heres that thing sitting by my stock amd sync. It cools as well as a low-end watercooling system
yup thats an undeniable fact, sweet jebus that giant tower if HUGE ( its actually a really good performer too even with low rpms fans) I think most people are gonna have to agree with me on this one. You probably need to screw down the fan grill a bit tighter. Theres No way a stamped out fan grill is gonna be quieter than a wire fan grill. The absolute best thing to do is not to have any fan grills, but you might accidently injure a finger ( any "stealth fans" have reallly sharp edges to them so I would seriously recommend adding a fan grill )
Gonna have to disagree with Krunk a little bit here. The getto no-cash way of making your fans quieter is cut off all the grills, to hell with your fingers! Move anything that's in the way of the air flow, then fill the case with as much soft foam as you can (try the stuff that came in your motherboard box if you have it), else try egg cartons (or espcially the foam that *looks* like egg cartons), if neccersary go dumpster diveing for the stuff. Even try covering the inside of the sides with glue, then dipping them in packing peanuts (you know, those small bits of polystyrene they pack stuff in)
I concurr with phuzz's idea...but carpet works better (and lookes less funny than packing peanuts glued to the side of your case. IF you know someone who is recarpeting or something, go see if you can smag a piece.
this just popped in my head but it might work. At home depot, or b&q for you guys in the Uk, you can buy rolls of this stuff called weather stripping. Basically its just a light rubbery foam with 1 sticky side. You could put 4 strips behind a fan and it would make a shroud and insulate it from the air inside the case so your not just recirculating hot air, plus it would absorb probably all of the vibrations because its pretty thick stuff(you can but it in different densities however.. Just a thought, it might work. You may also be abler to get foam backer rod and cut little circles out of that and place it over the screw holes, but then it wouldnt be sealed from the case. Thres also this stuff which absorbs ~95 precent of impact energy. Kind of expensive, and not free, but its worth mentioning, its called sorbothane: http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_3037000 Something free... Lets see... How about suspending it in the air so its not even attached to the case with rubberbands or nylons (they make good aquarium filter bads also). Whipped this up quick with flash:
As long as you don't rub the carpet, you won't get static electricity. The only reason carpet generates static is because of the rubbing of two pieces of cloth together. You have to have motion of two materials against each other to transfer free radical electrons to build up charge, to generate static...GET IT??? Never try to argue with me about science...I'll win!
