# sound dampening



## silentmind17 (Apr 29, 2005)

my computer is a bit on the loud side and i was wondering what i should do to quiet it down, do those sound dampender mats that go on the inside of your case really work? if so can anyone recommend a brand? also what about hard drive silencers? are they worth it? what brand and where can i get them.... i have an athlon xp 3200 and even though it is not overclocked i was not happy with the heat it was pushing off so it is a lot louder and i would like to quiet it down as much as possible as cheaply as possible

Thanks!


----------



## Sarkast (Sep 12, 2004)

I tried the Akasa Mats before and it works. I have to say though that you'll probably achieve better results by 
a) slowing down your fans with a fan controller if they are still pushing enough air at slower speeds
b) replace 80mm by 120mm and slow them down (they get nearly silent that way)
c) buy fans that are quiet from the begin with (www.silentpcreview.com has a nice list of fans that are silent)

I dont think a HDD silencer is worth it. Is your drive really that loud ? I cant even hear mine. Maybe its time to replace it anyways.


----------



## silentmind17 (Apr 29, 2005)

i am going to buy one of those sound dampener mats before i start replacing my 2 80mm case fans with 120mm fans with a controller then go from there. i have 2 300GB hard drives so yeah it is a bit on the loud side, they are new western digitals so i doubt it is time to replace them. i am going to get the sound mats and see what happens. then i will go on to the fans.


----------



## Volt-Schwibe (Jan 12, 2003)

first thing i always do is add thickness to the side panels, or slow the fans down.

i find that 9volts is a good amount.

for thickness on the case, almost anything will work.

in fact, it makes a slight difference with just one layer of clear contact paper.


----------



## silentmind17 (Apr 29, 2005)

*i need more advice*

i finally figured out that a majority of the fan noise was coming from my second power supply fan after i just spent $50 on a new heat sink/fan from xoxide.com which is fine because my computer is idleing around 48 C which I am not to happy with. My friends are extreme over clockers and have theirs up to an Athlon 3200 (which is what mine is) and their's idles around 40 C so needless to say I am hoping this new one fits in my case and works. well in any case i am looking for a new power supply and since i am spending a lot of money to keep it quiet i need a power supply that will keep it as quiet as possible. i have been researching power supplies but i just don't know much about them other that than when one breaks (since it is not a FRU, oh yeah buddy studding for my A+ exam lol ) you just get rid of it and get a new one. i personally like thermaltake stuff, i know they are more on the expensive side but i would gladly spend the extra money for something that will last a very long time andn ot give me any problems since I leave my computer on 24/7 and only restart it every other week i need something reliable. so my two questions are is it worth it to get a power supply with the removable molex connectors and what power supply would someone recommend for it being very silent. 

Thanks!


----------



## ebackhus (Apr 21, 2005)

The X-Connect is what you're looking for. They are quiet and have removable cables. In my case I installed rubber noise dampeners. They work great and also add a little more a seal on the fans so that air flow isn't "wasted" by going through the small spaces between the fans and the case.

Ultra X-Connect


----------



## v-six (Sep 12, 2004)

*An afterthought*

If you are worried about the temp you're idling at... what kind of thermal compound do you have between your athlon and heatsink? If you don't know, you might want to find out. Theres nothing like some bad thermal grease to raise yer cpu temp.


----------



## jimscreechy (Jan 7, 2005)

Another 2 points. 
1.) lapping your heatsink, I had heard a lot obout this and decided to try it after my temps got a little high, (though I was never really concerned with fan noise) it dropped my tempretures 6 degrees Celcius which I think is significant. Since then I have lapped all my heat sinks and acutally quite enjoy sitting in front of the TV whatching a film while moving my had back and forth over a pice of fine sandpaper. Admintedly it can take a while (about half an hour or so per sink) but the results are well worth it. My athlong 2800 runs at 29c lapped and doesn't even need cooling till we push it a bit. 
2.) fan rotation direction. As I said before my temps were a little high and after lapping though they were reduced they were still way too high. With 2 rear case fans and a 3 fan psu sitting directly above the processor I couldn't figure out why, since ventilation with such a setup should not be an issue. Well believe it or not a bit of dry ice solved the problem. The cpu fan was pulling air from above into the heatsink below and twowards the processor/motherboard. The case fans and psu fans are all almost directly in line with the top of the Processor fan, and were pulling air away from the processor fan. In effect these fans were working against the processor fans air flow. 
It was quite surprising to see that almost no dry ice smoke came through the heatsink. it just looked like a mass turbulance above the processor fan. Apparently by default the processor fan pulls air from above and downwards (toward the Processor), I had never even considered this could be a problem. At any rate simply taking out the screws and reversing the fan produced dramatic effects. Now my athlon 3500 is 'safe as houses.' by the way don't reverse the fan connector polarity. If you want change fan rotation direction you have to physically turn the fan over.


----------



## silentmind17 (Apr 29, 2005)

well i finally have taken care of the problem another $100 and i am using an athlon xp 2800 with a thermal take silent boost cpu fan/heat sink along with some artic silver 5 thermal grease.......... now i am going to sell my processor to a friend who doesn't care about heat or noise....


----------



## ebackhus (Apr 21, 2005)

jimscreechy said:


> Another 2 points.
> 1.) lapping your heatsink, I had heard a lot obout this and decided to try it after my temps got a little high, (though I was never really concerned with fan noise) it dropped my tempretures 6 degrees Celcius which I think is significant. Since then I have lapped all my heat sinks and acutally quite enjoy sitting in front of the TV whatching a film while moving my had back and forth over a pice of fine sandpaper. Admintedly it can take a while (about half an hour or so per sink) but the results are well worth it. My athlong 2800 runs at 29c lapped and doesn't even need cooling till we push it a bit.
> 2.) fan rotation direction. As I said before my temps were a little high and after lapping though they were reduced they were still way too high. With 2 rear case fans and a 3 fan psu sitting directly above the processor I couldn't figure out why, since ventilation with such a setup should not be an issue. Well believe it or not a bit of dry ice solved the problem. The cpu fan was pulling air from above into the heatsink below and twowards the processor/motherboard. The case fans and psu fans are all almost directly in line with the top of the Processor fan, and were pulling air away from the processor fan. In effect these fans were working against the processor fans air flow.
> It was quite surprising to see that almost no dry ice smoke came through the heatsink. it just looked like a mass turbulance above the processor fan. Apparently by default the processor fan pulls air from above and downwards (toward the Processor), I had never even considered this could be a problem. At any rate simply taking out the screws and reversing the fan produced dramatic effects. Now my athlon 3500 is 'safe as houses.' by the way don't reverse the fan connector polarity. If you want change fan rotation direction you have to physically turn the fan over.


That's a clever idea with reversing the fan. I've heard of people doing that as far back as the days of the K6-2's! I've also seen people use tape to force the air movement down at the base of the heatsink in order to more effectively cool it and it worked. Right now I'd just like to slap on a new HSF combo but I'm under warranty for a while yet...


----------



## MD_Willington (Jan 11, 2005)

A fairly cheap and effective sound dampner can be found at "Home Depot"...just look for Cork tiles...I'm not kidding, they actually do work and you can paint them and cut them quite easilly, they have adhesive backing too...

MD


----------

