Brett
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Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
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Can you get ultra silent fans? I bought ones in the past that are silent, but when they're really going for it they're not.
My PC I leave on all the time doing things and normally you can't hear it at all, but when it's being hammered it sounds like it's about to take off 
It doesn't need the paste doing or anything like that before anyone suggests it.
Just curious if there's replacement fans I could use that'd still be quiet at full pelt?
Many thanks
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Whittie
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Registered: 11th Aug 06
Location: North Wales Drives: BMW, Corsa & Fiat
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What fan is it? CPU? Water Cool it, mentally big heat sink even?
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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Big (120mm+), slow fans is what you're after and you can volt-mod them if you need to run them slower. Would personally recommend Noctua, not cheap but performance vs audible-levels are extremely good.
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Simon_16v
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Registered: 14th Aug 06
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Get yourself something from here
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=2330&subid=2262
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Brett
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Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
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It's an old machine, doesn't even have a fan on the CPU. Just has a case one at the front and one in the PSU.
Water-cooling isn't an option since that'd stop it being a cheap and cheerful PC that sits there serving the house.
The machine basically supplies media around the house, but I've recently set it up recording my cameras and have AirVideo on there too now so that converts videos as they're streaming. All that along with burning/converting DVDs at the same time makes it loud as fuck
Either fans, or any suggestion of an older PC people know of that'd be cheapish I could buy that's known for silent running. Not really interested in spending £500-1000 on a PC that isn't actually used itself as such.
With Dom mentioning the volt-mod thing, I can actually set the fans to go whatever speed I want in the BIOS but wasn't sure if slowing them right down would cause any issues.
[Edited on 14-01-2013 by Brett]
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Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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I'd seriously consider just removing the front case fan if it's causing the noise, you're probably gaining very little from it anyway.
If it's your PSU, you're probably better off replacing the whole unit - they reckon opening them up can be quite dangerous!
If you've got an appropriate case, a single big/slow fan at the rear of the case extracting air is more effective than a fan at the front of the case sucking it air in.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Kyle T
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Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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If you install something like SpeedFan it will pickup any thermometer sensors on your motherboard, CPU, gfx card, etc and report them for you. Just unplug the front fan, see if temps raise significantly (I bet they don't) and then you know you're not taking any risks.
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Brett
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Registered: 16th Dec 02
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I might just do that then.
What's the worst case scenario of an overheating machine? I guess it has a thermal cutout and would just shutdown anyway?
As far as I can see on the PSU, you can undo a couple of screws that'll slide out the fan rather than having to open the whole unit up.
[Edited on 14-01-2013 by Brett]
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Dom
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Assuming the CPU is heatsinked though? What are the temperatures like (cpu, case, gpu etc)?
Either way it sounds like it's getting hot hence the fans spinning up and you want to be creating more airflow (either more fans or fewer larger fans pushing more air) not reducing it which is what would happen if you volt-mod your current fans.
Replace the case fan (if you can go larger then the only option is one that pushes more air but small high-flow fans tend to be noisy) and if possible add another so you have one pushing air in, the other pulling the hot air out.
Edit - Is this a shuttle system?
[Edited on 14-01-2013 by Dom]
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Dom
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quote:
Originally posted by Brett
What's the worst case scenario of an overheating machine? I guess it has a thermal cutout and would just shutdown anyway?
Depends on the processor and then it'll either shutdown or newer processors tend to underclock when it reaches unsafe temperatures. Either way, you attempt to keep it as cool as possible or at least stick to recommended working temperate range.
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Brett
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Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
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Yeah, heatsink on the CPU.
I'll check what the temps are tonight.
Other thing which might be a problem (and also the reason why I like the machine) is that it's a small one. It's not an average sized tank of a machine, it's a nice little thing that just fits into my unit perfectly So, I probably couldn't go larger fan, certainly not on the front one anyway, think it's just a little 50mm one sat spinning it's tits off.
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Brett
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Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
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quote:
Originally posted by Dom
Edit - Is this a shuttle system?
I bought a shuttle to replace this (think i posted a thread) but I ran into problems and now that's just sat in the garage gathering dust. Was just a case of "why did I fucking bother when the other machine works fine?"
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Daveskater
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Registered: 29th Apr 08
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I've used a few Sharkoon Silent Eagle fans which have golf ball-style dimples on the blades so they generate as much airflow as a normal one, but make a lot less noise. They come in 80 and 120mm so you could see if an 80mm one will fit. Depending on the case you might need to do a bit of modding.
I also run a couple of Zalman Fanmate 2s on my current PC's case fans - you can set it to whatever speed you want with these, but obviously if it's getting hot you might not want to go turning them down a lot. What CPU is it? You might be able to fit a good hsf on it like these, which work really well and aren't too big - http://www.quietpc.com/cnps8900-series
[Edited on 14-01-2013 by Daveskater]
Numberwang!
Originally posted by AlunJ
I like you Dave, you are a man of men
Originally Whatapp'd by Neo
Dave's maybe capable of a drive-by cuddle
Look at my pictures
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Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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If there's no fan on your CPU - then changing speeds is not going to have a major impact on your CPU temp anyway.
Your PC will shut itself down hours before your CPU is anywhere close to taking any damage - so you don't need to worry about that!
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Brett
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Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
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Ok, thanks for all the advice.
I think for starters, I'm going to suss out which fan is the loud one. I suspect it's the front one. I'm then gonna log the temps with it in then again with it out and look at the difference. May as well try and log the temps with the fans slowed right down too, since I assume it's better to have one in there going slow than nothing at all. Like I said, when it's chilled out it's barely audible.
If it's a major difference in temps i'll take a butchers on how much space I've got to play with and consider my options with regard to getting a better fan in the front.
I'm not well up on normal operating temps etc, so expect an update tonight
Thanks again.
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Kyle T
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Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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What formfactor is the PC? A Tower or horizontal desktop thingy?
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Brett
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Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
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Horizontal desktop thingy 
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Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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Ah yeah you'll probably struggle to get a 120mm fan in one of those I guess.
Just rip em' all out, and open your window
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Brett
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Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
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Yeah, think i'd struggle tbh.
In an ideal world i'd stick the thing in the attic out of the way, but it's connected to the TV to very occassionally play movies that are a funny codec my TV won't stream for one reason or another.
[Edited on 14-01-2013 by Brett]
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Daveskater
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Registered: 29th Apr 08
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I managed to get an 80mm fan in one of those with a bit of modding. I use a program called Open Hardware Monitor to check temps etc, it shows you a lot of stuff and you can control fan speeds with it too. The fan speed controls in Speedfan never seemed to work for me, plus it's not always clear wich temperature refers to what hardware. You can have a little widget thing to watch temps with as well - like so:
Numberwang!
Originally posted by AlunJ
I like you Dave, you are a man of men
Originally Whatapp'd by Neo
Dave's maybe capable of a drive-by cuddle
Look at my pictures
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Brett
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Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
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Think i've got coretemp currently installed from when I was trying to figure out why the shuttle kept shitting itself, but i'll try the above if it's better.
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Brett
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Registered: 16th Dec 02
Location: Manchester
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Tried Open Hardware, didn't really do much for me. Wouldn't show fan stuff or even tell me CPU temp  Had to use Core Temp.
Came home and it was idling away nice and quiet and it was at 55C. Put the CPU under 100% load for half hour and it went up to 67C with the fans being loudest beyond 65C.
I'm gonna try setting the fans to the slowest in the BIOS and do a similar test to see the difference.
UPDATE: With the fans set on lowest, even just idling is 68C, then when under load it's going up to 80C. Quite a bit of difference. Guess there's no point removing the fans to see 
I'm also questioning if my memory serves me right and there's no CPU fan 
[Edited on 14-01-2013 by Brett]
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Daveskater
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Registered: 29th Apr 08
Location: Oxford, UK Drives: Jap wagon
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I'm surprised it didn't shut down at 80C
Idling at 55C is already fairly high, so it does sound like there's no fan. I reckon whack a Zalman on the CPU and it will help loads I've Ben using them for years and they're really decent coolers.
Numberwang!
Originally posted by AlunJ
I like you Dave, you are a man of men
Originally Whatapp'd by Neo
Dave's maybe capable of a drive-by cuddle
Look at my pictures
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Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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pfff 80 is nothing...
Lotus Elise 111R
Impreza WRX STi
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Daveskater
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Registered: 29th Apr 08
Location: Oxford, UK Drives: Jap wagon
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Really? Depending on the processor I'd start to get nervous at 70. Used to run a laptop processor in the Socket A days as it could handle higher temperatures. Nowadays I'm used to it being nice and low, such as in the above pic
Numberwang!
Originally posted by AlunJ
I like you Dave, you are a man of men
Originally Whatapp'd by Neo
Dave's maybe capable of a drive-by cuddle
Look at my pictures
|
