Lets face it - as great as overclocks are, 95% of us have to sit very close to our computers. As much fun as it is to boast about our speeds/benchmarks - firing up a rig with 3 Deltas or more can fatigue any geek sooner or later. Heck, it'll annoy your dog even... that lives outside... 30 yards away. Luckily the market is flooded with gadgets that promise to make your computer more quiet than a crypt. But I'm not going to get into specific products - just a general overview.

The best way to get quieter is to ditch your 80mm case fans like a bad habit. 120mm = teh new hawtness. CFM to dBA ratio to drool over, and even the tone it produces are more acceptable to most ears. Cut anything, everything, just make room for the big boys in your case. You'll probably never want to go back.
Another handy trick is using caulking on everything you can without it being visable - works just as well as those Vantec fan silencers and for the same price you can do 30 fans with caulking.

Next step IMO would be internal fan managment, undervolt what you don't need screaming! There are countless solutions. But in the end there are two main choices - automatic based on part temps or full manual control. If you overclock I'd advise the manual control route - otherwise automatic has several things going in it's favor.

If you want to make another huge dent in the noise output - sound deadening mat is next on your agenda I hope. This stuff doesn't stop low frequency sounds very well in my experience - but it takes care of those small N. Bridge fans well. Here's the catch - if you have a window, it is throwing money down the drain normally, but does help a little. So the choice is yours.

Then there are the other standard ways - fanless VGA/N. Bridge coolers, Seagate hard drives, and fanless PSUs. Anways just some things to think about. I know I do every time I switch from my mid tower to my Aria.

Iateronmly

Submerging it would probably help too I would imagine, if you are into that sort of thing.
A 15 pound sledge would probably make it quiet too.

Great write up lateronmly! Oh and don't forget water cooling! Great idea about caulk, never even thought about that, and yes I have those silicone Vantec silencers they're pretty good. I'll try your way next time!

Sage advice, my man (never even thought of caulk)
Every little bit does help, i've also found that screen cuts a bit of the whine off of the fans as well catching a ton of dust (ghetto modders unite).
Personally, i avoid "smart fan" control as if it were the plague....then again, that just could be the control freak in me

EDIT: You're on the "Bling List" for the advice about using silicone (can't put "caulk" into that sentence with a straight face)....burned my last blingage for the night giving neg. rep to that asshat spammer in anything goes

You forgot to mention there is a new craze in some Forums on the net...."UnderClocking!"

Since you don't need more than around 1-1.5ghz for most apps and web surfing, people turn down the Voltage and the CPU speed..some even drop it under 1GHZ and don't use a fan at all!

Quote: Originally Posted by $SOLID$ Necro You forgot to mention there is a new craze in some Forums on the net...."UnderClocking!" Since you don't need more than around 1-1.5ghz for most apps and web surfing, people turn down the Voltage and the CPU speed..some even drop it under 1GHZ and don't use a fan at all!

...Perish the thought!
I don't understand that.....if you're gonna underclock, then why not just buy a slower proc and save some $$$?

An older slow CPU will still need a fan to run properly, the whole point is to have a dead silent PC.

You can take a fairly inexpensive CPU designed to run at 2GHZ with 1.6v, and run it at 800MHZ with 1.2v
(With a decent copper heat sink and no fan)

Or, you allready have the hardware, and just desire the sound of silence...

Ahhh...i see (understand -no, but now the methodology makes sense). Thanks $SOLID$

Nice write up Iat.

Suggestion: Someone write on the effects of a window on other electrical equipment and how it can possibly negatively impact the system. I'd like to see something about that if it hasn't been done before.

Quote: Originally Posted by Ryj Nice write up Iat. Suggestion: Someone write on the effects of a window on other electrical equipment and how it can possibly negatively impact the system. I'd like to see something about that if it hasn't been done before.

Most of it all revolves around "it could" - it's hard to get the EMI to cause a fault at will coming from modern computers. It's a given enough electro magnetic interferance can cause some interesting things to happen - but the rhyme and reason feels almost elusive because of variables that could take pages to list.

You forgot the greatest PC noise silencer of all...

A good game and a decent set of headphones.

I'm definetly interested in this subject and have been doing some major research here lately, since I sleep so close to my comp. I think an 18" rad is next on the chopping block, but it'll mean putting my case mod off again.

It used to be all about performance with me, but now that I mostly use it for school and entertainment the temps for noise tradeoff is well worth it IMO.

Personaly i like the noise my fans make. I sleep less than two foot from my comp and the constant drone of the fans helps me fall asleep. Evan the glow my the fans put off i like because it softly lights the room, like a night light. i do have a fan controler and can make my comp more quiet but the there is always a little noise.

All preference i guess

Good write up Lat.

Quote: Originally Posted by incarnate3108 Personaly i like the noise my fans make. I sleep less than two foot from my comp and the constant drone of the fans helps me fall asleep. Evan the glow my the fans put off i like because it softly lights the room, like a night light. i do have a fan controler and can make my comp more quiet but the there is always a little noise. All preference i guess Good write up Lat.

I like a little sound from my machine, along with indicators, it kind of confirms that everything is working as it should, it's only psychological, but what the hell. The fans in my very large former point of sale server cabnet consist of a 120V AC 5 inch medium speed muffin fan, used to be two, for the system and drive bays and a 120V AC 3 inch muffin in the power supply that runs half speed when the machine is off and full while on. The sound they make is very audible but actually pleasing, no whining and only a slight wind noise. The highest my CPU temps have gotten is 113 F, it was 125 in my old "conventional" box.

Hasta...

Get rid of all 80mm fans, you say. How about the one in the PSU? Is there a good solution for that, like removing the internal fan and puttin a 120mm fan outside on the back of the case where the PSU is? Other than that, it looks like you are stuck with at least one screamer, two if your PSU has that second 80mm fan I've seen on some.

Quote: Originally Posted by stormshaman Get rid of all 80mm fans, you say. How about the one in the PSU? Is there a good solution for that, like removing the internal fan and puttin a 120mm fan outside on the back of the case where the PSU is? Other than that, it looks like you are stuck with at least one screamer, two if your PSU has that second 80mm fan I've seen on some.

Well Stormy, look around a bit more and you'll find that there are many choices in power supplies with 120mm fans, at least one with a 140mm fan, and several with no fan at all. The concept of a silent computer has been around for quite some time now, and there are as many ways to accomplish that task as imagination allows.

When I started water cooling, I began with the CPU (of course) and moved to the north bridge. Everyone here seems to go for the big three (CPU/NB/GPU) so I took a look at the GPU fan (an easy upgrade).

Curious as to how loud the GPU fan was, I rubbed my finger against the blades until the fan stopped... WOW! That darn fan puts out a lot of noise for the size. I'm looking forward to replacing it with a modest water block :-).

Quote: Originally Posted by hmspain When I started water cooling, I began with the CPU (of course) and moved to the north bridge. Everyone here seems to go for the big three (CPU/NB/GPU) so I took a look at the GPU fan (an easy upgrade). Curious as to how loud the GPU fan was, I rubbed my finger against the blades until the fan stopped... WOW! That darn fan puts out a lot of noise for the size. I'm looking forward to replacing it with a modest water block :-).

I don't get it, do Northbridges even get hot? I have heard that they only get a bit warm. The GPU I can understand, though, they get hot, otherwise the nVidias wouldn't have such large HSFs, and they do get noisy, since you can't fit a large fan on, only a screaming small one.

Quote: Originally Posted by stormshaman I don't get it, do Northbridges even get hot? I have heard that they only get a bit warm. The GPU I can understand, though, they get hot, otherwise the nVidias wouldn't have such large HSFs, and they do get noisy, since you can't fit a large fan on, only a screaming small one.

nForce 2 n. bridges can hit 70c during a good overclock with a passive cooler..