htpc very noisy, how to shut it up.

[doors666]

hi guys,

I have an htpc in which I am using a iball baby 306 cabinet with the stock PSU and fans. The CPU is AMD with the stock fan. the htpc makes a lot of noise and this is clearly audible from my listening position which is about 10 feet away from the pc. It is specially very irritating with music. Right now I am not interested in purchasing an expensive silent cabinet.

As I understand, I need to take the following steps to make it more silent.

1. Change the cpu fan
2. change the psu fan or the psu itself.
3. change the cabinet fans.
4. try to dampen the hard disk.

Anything else that needs to be done for this? Can someone suggest what kind of fans I need to purchase along with approximate cost, what should be the decibel levels required etc. How do I handle the hard disk damping.

thanx.

 

[gobble]

Use this cpu fan Scythe SCMNJ-1100 Ninja Mini Rev B 1366 Socket CPU Cooler

And replace the PSU fan with this s-flex japanese fluidbearing 2000rpm one Scythe S-FLEX? S-FDB 80mm FAN

Then undervolt and underclock your cpu to say 1.2 ghz.

Use WD Greeline HDD only for htpc

HTH

Regards

 

[doors666]

Use this cpu fan Scythe SCMNJ-1100 Ninja Mini Rev B 1366 Socket CPU Cooler

And replace the PSU fan with this s-flex japanese fluidbearing 2000rpm one Scythe S-FLEX? S-FDB 80mm FAN

Then undervolt and underclock your cpu to say 1.2 ghz.

Use WD Greeline HDD only for htpc

HTH

Regards

wow, these two items are costing like 65$, plus add the cabinet fan replacement and we're coming close to antec nsk2480 which costs about 100$ in US and is silent. any cheaper options, available on SP road?

 

[gobble]

wow, these two items are costing like 65$, plus add the cabinet fan replacement and we're coming close to antec nsk2480 which costs about 100$ in US and is silent. any cheaper options, available on SP road?

If you can get htpc cabinet for $100 in sp road go for it

Google for noise problems from antec silverstone cabinets and you will be in for a surprise. There is not guarantee you will get a quite pc by spending 6000 for a cabinet. Better get mass market stuff and improvise.

Cheers

 

[psychotropic]

how good or bad is this? Theitdepot - Glacialtech Igloo 5750 For INTEL & AMD CPU

(i am utterly clueless, so just asking)

Actually these guys have a whole ton of fans and coolers, maybe something useful in here http://www.theitdepot.com/products-Cooling-Devises_C10BRDP1.html

 

[gobble]

Hi Psycho

You need to check noise level specs and airflo cfm specs. 20dba would be whisper level at late night listening levels.

If the fan is at or below at full rpm then go for it. Then the airflow should not be too less. Hence in the previous post I recommended the 2000rpm one that gives 28cfm airflow.

If the fan or cpu heatsink is not in rated higher than 7 stars at silentpcreview.com | Everything about Silent / Quiet Computers I wouldnt buy it. Check it out.

Regards

 

[sam9s]

hi guys,

I have an htpc in which I am using a iball baby 306 cabinet with the stock PSU and fans. The CPU is AMD with the stock fan. the htpc makes a lot of noise and this is clearly audible from my listening position which is about 10 feet away from the pc. It is specially very irritating with music. Right now I am not interested in purchasing an expensive silent cabinet.

As I understand, I need to take the following steps to make it more silent.

1. Change the cpu fan
2. change the psu fan or the psu itself.
3. change the cabinet fans.
4. try to dampen the hard disk.

Anything else that needs to be done for this? Can someone suggest what kind of fans I need to purchase along with approximate cost, what should be the decibel levels required etc. How do I handle the hard disk damping.

thanx.

Trust me do nothing except to get a Decent Cabbie. iBall is not good. Get something in the lines of Coolermaster CM staker or Coolermaster 690. Noise level is not just because of the fan, its a complete cabbie and it vibrations. Coolermaster 690 comes with 3 fans <20db pplus all the HDD/Media design is made in a way to absorb all vibs. Next again is the PSU , I'd suggest coolermaster again, the PSU fan for cooler master is quality. CPU fan does not make any noise except if its damage or something so no need to change that. Apart from this if you wanna opt for extra fans get quality fans which has a lesser sound level (coolermaster again), finally if possible get a mobo that has option to control the RPM of fans (make sure the fans are connected to Mobo for this.) this way if you system is running cool you can always reduce the RPM and kill even the slightest rotation sound coming.....

 

[thevortex]

Even a non HTPC but well constructed cabinet from Antec or any other reputed brand would be something to start with.

The more fans you install within the cabinet, the more the noise. Also one thing you can do is, if you have a dedicated display card, use only those which run very cool. Avoiding overclocking is another way to lessen heat and noise.

In fact when constructing a hard core music PC, under clocking the CPU is advised.

 

[aneelr]

Hi,

One stop solution, change from Windows PC to iMac.

cheers.

 

[aneelr]

.....
And lose all ability to play FLAC, APE, avi, dts and mkv files? As well not having any mainstream soundcards with Mac drivers? Well, if that floats your boat. You could use a bunch of players, then you have to remember which player for which format. There goes user-friendliness.

Macs are good solutions for some applications (you don't want to hear my point of view on it ), for HTPC one can do a lot better with Windows or even Linux. And for much, much cheaper. And Macs are not necessarily quieter than PCs either - they are prone to similar quality issues.

Mac Forums - View Single Post - Noise level of the new iMac

......

Hi,

AFA running applications, you can have a dual boot of Mac/Win. And I'm not sure about the iMacs both old and new, but I've worked on the PowerMac G5's for about 4 years, absolute pin drop silence. A blind person cannot even tell if the machine is running or no. And I'm for the mac only the HW way, the SW as you said does have limitations.


cheers.