I'm about 2 months into using my new custom build and it's all wonderful and brilliant, everything I wanted, but the noise is a little bit much. I've got an ATCS 840 with the stock big ass fans, and the rest of the fans are all Enermax Magma's. That's 3 intakes at the front, 1 exhaust at the back and I also replaced the Fenrir's fan with a Magma. http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/120m...)-Batwing-Blades-15k-RPM-inc-Rubber-A-V-Plugs If I changed the 4 case fans too: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/120mm-Noctua-NF-S12B-ULN-Ultra-Low-Noise-Cooling-Fan-500-700-RPM and the Fenrir too a: http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductID=787802 How much quieter could I expect it to be? What I can't suss is if the noise in the case is actually from the fans, or just such a massive amount of air moving around? I mean even if I buy silent fans, 'cus there's such a great deal of air being moved (especially on the intakes) would it still be just as noisy? Then there's the price too, I don't mind splashing out that much, but I'm hoping someone would reassure me first x Oh and I'm not keen on W/Cing, this PC moves to and from uni every summer, Christmas and easter, and I'm not sure the fittings will appreciate being banged around every few months on the long drive.
According to the blurb on your case at scan, you have 2 fans that run at 2,700rpm which is quite quick (read loud). If you went for noctuas all round it should make a whole load of difference seeing that they run at 500/700/1300rpm. You'll lose some airflow though, so check your temps. And why the enermax? it runs at 1500rpm which'll be a weak point regaurding noise levels, just get another noctua I reckons.
Dont forget the your dual 275's though. Im guessing that these are just the stock fans. Replacing these with something else, however it appears that it isnt too easy to get anything to actaully fit them (this is all i found) Furthermore i recommend getting some anti vibration mounts. The noctua's come with some but some on your hard drives and graphics cards should help.
If a case is really noisy, then you're probably getting some vibration issues that are causing case walls to reverberate. Things that dampen or even decouple vibration from things like the case can help a lot, if you are experiencing a problem like that. Another thing to consider is the nature of the airflow and thermal buildup in your case. Pushing more air through is generally helpful, but it's possible that you're in a situation where an area is just going to stay really hot until you put in some sort of air guide, hole, etc., depending on the situation. An improved thermal system will allow the fans to run at lower speeds (both making less noise and being prone to vibrating the case less). If you're not sure how to judge if this is happening, you could check by getting temperature readings from various parts within your system and case. If there are some disproportionately higher temperatures compared to other spots than you expected, then you probably can benefit from adjusting the airflow. You might try stressing specific components of your system to see if a particular area and its components are causing either the fans to need to spin faster, and/or the case to vibrate.
Vibration dampening will help reduce it somewhat. The fan choices are good, if somewhat expensive. I have 3 NF-P12s on my rad and they are very quiet when running at 7v via the fan controller. Have you considered a a fan controller e.g. Scythe Kaze Master? I had the same problem with uni and moving the computer, which put me off watercooling, once the computer doesn't have to move much its a good option to consider the only thing I can now hear is the HDDs.
@ Mikenoss The enermax was a choice based on the stats. I was gonna buy a bog standard 4 quid fan, but I looked at the enermax and it was like a 1db increase for twice the CFM, being a statistician by nature it seemed to good to resist. What I didn't consider though was the RPM as you pointed out :S @ Frederics The HDD's are on the anti vibration mounts pre supplied with the case, and the graphics card I have tried to tame somewhat using RivaTuner. As for using that Accelerato cooler, my mobo is fully loaded so I can't space things out anymore to make room for it, but thanks for looking anyway! @dylAndroid It's not a vibrationy noise, its a whoosh sorta lol. Its definiatley airflow or fans not vibration. I know what you mean about thermal build up, cus the ATCS has a dead zone of air if you only use the stock cooling, prompting to me to add the extra intakes on the front after the hard drives. @NoPrisoners Good to hear a review of the fans! It seems like an in ordinate amount for such a simple component though, but if their as good as everyone says i'll bite the bullet. I never really considered a fan controller so I'll look into it. Will the 500-700RPM ones I'm considering for the case have enough grunt, they seem so well....puny. I was reading on nocuta's website and apparently their the ones for case ventilation and the P12's for tight fin ventilation so that'll go on my Fenrir. http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=which_fan&lng=en Thanks for so much help people!
I would go for the slightly faster ones I've got the NF-S12B FLX that run at 1200rpm, just slowed them to 800-1000rpm which seems like the best balance between noise and airflow.
the case fans dont go any louder than 19dBA so it will be the fans on the gfx, so dont get any new case fans get new gfx coolers as the sound difference will noticable. go for this as i've heard it's very good cooling then get this fan. then you should be sorted.
Yeah, I didn't think about the cards, good one =) Oh, and if you wanna get a good round up of the temps in your case try this PC wizard 2009 Click the Voltage, Temperature and Fans button in the Hardware tab. ...oh, and carefully lift your PC off the ground (or desk etc) and see if the noise dies down, if so get some of those cool jelly feet to stand your PC on.
And this is why I always allow for a £100-200 silencing budget in any new high end build I do... I would recommend nexus fans, I'm running them in my case and they're all but inaudible at 7v. Thermalright used to make a good cooler for 8800 cards which I am running on my Ultra, but it's kind of massive and I dunno if it would be suitable in an SLI setup (you can fit it reversed, but it's just the pure amount of space it takes up would probably foul against other components). The ACTS 840 isn't a particularly quiet-friendly case, so make sure you can damp vibrations wherever you can. Put HDDs into vibration damping enclosures, decouple fans with silicone mounts, undervolt all fans to 7 volts (except for your CPU fan, leave that to be thermally controlled). The good news is the case is mahoosive, so you can probably get away with buying and fitting some very, very big heatsinks. If you're not averse to covering the inside of your case with foam, look into the acoustifoam stuff. I lined my HTPC with the stuff and it worked wonders.
120mm/140mm Fan Roundup on Xbit 35x 120mm Fan Roundup on Madshrimps 30x 120mm Fan Roundup, Tested on Watercooling Radiator on Madshrimps - Diosjenin -
Cheers bud, if I can't make an informed decision now with all those reviews, I never will Step 1 I feel is enabling Q-Fan for my mobo fans, and undervolting my other fans to 7 volts using some cheapo adapters from a local computer shops. Then I'm gonna look into getting some of that foam stuff, seems simple and effective.
er you don't need adapters! just hack your molex plugs to swap the 5v and ground around. It's what everyone does! Just be sure to label the plug or remember, and be very careful when repurposing plugs for other hardware!
