Does it really work? I'm looking at ways to quieten down my pc and I have noticed some people on here have used acoustic foam. Is it any good, how much improvement have people seen and are there any side affects like increased heat. Theres plenty of room in my case but I don't have the funds to buy it and decide its a load of rubbish. Thanks.
To be honest I've never really seen the point - a good set of silent fans will do a better job being quiet than noisy fans being dampened by foam. Plus it's expensive, and it looks nasty in your case.
Acoustic foam is the last thing to put in place. Before you do any of that, you want to be buying silent fans, a huge heatsink, probably a graphics card cooler that's quieter, probably also a fan controller, perhaps a steel case to replace your aluminium one, quieter drives(or bigger and fewer) a better PSU with a good fan controller. After all that sorta stuff, thens the time to look at acoustic padding. Before that it'll do nothing. After that it'll probably improve the sound quality, although won't make a great deal of difference to the sound quantity. Am I glad I got it? Yes - but I've spent around £160-180 on silent stuff for my PC(yes it can be done cheaper, but you're looking at expense though) - acoustic padding was the last thing I added and it made way way less of a difference than the decent fans, the quiet PSU, the huge HSF with its fan running at 800RPM instead of 3000RPM, the decent hard disks etc. etc.
1) Buy silent fans (Yate Loons are a good start, get the low speed ones) 2) Buy efficient CPU heatsink (Scythe Ninja) 3) Buy efficient VGA cooler (Thermalright HR-03) 4) Buy soft fan mounts 5) Buy accoustic padding (Accoustipack is a good choice) Brendan
In some cases, just buying a sponge from a store could work... one of those big yellow ones that are very soft with small holes. They work pretty well due to the fact that they are very thick, but are by no means pretty, as effective as acoustical foam, or very good to show off..
I agree with earlier posters, acoustic foam should be the last thing you get to silence a computer, not the first. Here's my list of things to do: 1) Undervolt your case fans. If your motherboard doesn't controll your CPU fan speed, run that off lower voltage too. 2) Newer, quieter fans. (Scythe S-flex 120mm fans are fairly inexpensive and very quiet) 3) Replace CPU and GPU (and NB, if it's not passive) coolers. Arctic Cooling makes good stuff. 4) Hard drive enclosures. Good ones will make a huge difference. 5) Soft-mount fans Only after all that should you be thinking about acoustic padding, if the system is still too loud for your tastes. The best way to make a silent system is to use all silent components, rather than trying to muffle noisy ones.
Thanks for the help guys. I think I will be spending my money on a new CPU Cooler and a few extras if I can afford them.
I lined the whole of my cube in Akasa PaxMate and it definately cuts down on the high pitched noise, but doesn't cut general vibration or dull fan noise. The noise from my WD Raptor spinning is now not noticable for definate, but I'd only recommend investing it over the areas you need it.
Try Level Combo 1, 1/2 or 2 at www.coolputer.fi The site's in Finnish and doesn't allow direct linking. Just select Äänieristys from the list. Translation of the product info: Combination sheet (Heavy 1 + Medium 1/2): 2,5mm thick (5kg/m2) lead-rubber and 10mm/20mm thick (75-100kg/m3) carpet of polyether-foam pieces. Covered with black felt. Sticker on the back. And it works. It blocks lower frequencies and gives your panels enough weight to keep them from vibrating. At least the 1/2 is plenty to cover all sides of a medium case. The price is 49.70€ which doesn't sound high to me.
Used it in an old case mod. Cuts a little on the high pitched whine - which in my opinion is the annoying part. Couldn't get the dam stuff off when I replaced the system though... Evil glue.
