Hi all,
For the last three years I've never paid much attention to the noise level from my PC. Last year I started dabbling in audio recording and found I needed to use the laptop because of noise level. More recently, I had it in the apartment for a couple'a weeks, and my wife complained that it's loud. It's actually quiet compared to my previous machine, but in fact it is loud, and now I hear it all the time.
It's the fans, the SATA drives are quiet enough. I installed SpeedFan 4.40 and did some research on my motherboard, an MSI P6N SLI Platinum, and found out that it doesn't control the fan speeds very well, except the CPU. (MSI's Dual Core Center utility is, as an interface... well, my grandma tells me, "If you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all.") So the best approach is to use a fan controller; in fact, with a good controller this is possibly the better approach even if the mobo did vary fan speeds.
The case is a Lian-Li PC 60A Plus II, which has fans on the front, rear, side, and top. The PSU is an Enermax 600W Noisetaker II, with two fans. The CPU heat-sink fan is a Coolermaster HyperTX, and seems to do its job well and quietly. The graphics card is an eVGA e-GeForce 8800GTS. That's eight noisemakers, five of which are easily regulable. Rivatuner could control the GPU. I've lots of room to work with the CPU, system, and case—the temps of both CPU cores read at or below room temperature, and only go up to 30°C when doing some light gaming. System temp sits around 37/38°C.
I haven't been able to do much without hardware. I spent some time with the case open listening, then systematically shut down, unplugged fans and listened again. It seems the graphics-card and case fans are the noisiest—one, I think the rear fan, turns at 2500rpm. The CPU and PSU fans are fairly quiet. Nevertheless, I used the BIOS to enable reducing the CPU fan speed. It allows a min speed setting (now set at 25%) and regulates based on the max allowed temp (provisionally set to 50°C). I also replaced the 120mm front fan with a SilenX 14dBa that's been lying around. I wanted it to replace the noisier side-panel fan, but it's too thick. The result: hardly noticeable difference in the noise level when the CPU fan reduces from 1600 rpm (100%) to 567 rpm (on the 25% setting), it's of course still loud. This brings the core temp at idle up by only 6°C. According to Rivatuner, the GPU fan is set at 60% and keeps the GPU temp around 54–60°C. Probably can't do much with it when playing games, but it might be reducible for low loads.
For the time being I am not overclocking, but this will follow within the year.
The point of this post is that a fan controller could go a long way to making my PC quieter, and although I've looked at several (one, two, three), I'd love some recommendations. Here are the basic wants and needs:
■Must allow for smooth regulation of at least four fan speeds; six a plus
■Need not regulate the CPU fan, the mobo seems to do this well
■Automatic regulation based on temperatures is big plus, as would a robust, functioning temp alarm. Because I can be forgetful.
■Manual regulation could be acceptable, though it's obviously more effort, and I almost forgot—I can be forgetful. Of course, I don't mind full fan speeds during heavy gaming at all, but if the unit can take care of that for me, great.
■The less light it puts out, the better. I neither need nor want bling, but accept it as collateral damage. In other words, a display is only desirable if there really is no other way for me to react to alarms. Otherwise, it should do its job without intruding on my consciousness.
■Reporting of 2–3 fan speeds to the motherboard or wherever needed for an application to read it is a plus
If you can set me straight on any of these points, please do. And hard-earned tips on fan control are very welcome!
Whenever I upgrade my system, this one will probably come into the apartment, though probably not the case; if, that is, I can master the noise level. And maybe I can even record with it.
For the last three years I've never paid much attention to the noise level from my PC. Last year I started dabbling in audio recording and found I needed to use the laptop because of noise level. More recently, I had it in the apartment for a couple'a weeks, and my wife complained that it's loud. It's actually quiet compared to my previous machine, but in fact it is loud, and now I hear it all the time.
It's the fans, the SATA drives are quiet enough. I installed SpeedFan 4.40 and did some research on my motherboard, an MSI P6N SLI Platinum, and found out that it doesn't control the fan speeds very well, except the CPU. (MSI's Dual Core Center utility is, as an interface... well, my grandma tells me, "If you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all.") So the best approach is to use a fan controller; in fact, with a good controller this is possibly the better approach even if the mobo did vary fan speeds.
The case is a Lian-Li PC 60A Plus II, which has fans on the front, rear, side, and top. The PSU is an Enermax 600W Noisetaker II, with two fans. The CPU heat-sink fan is a Coolermaster HyperTX, and seems to do its job well and quietly. The graphics card is an eVGA e-GeForce 8800GTS. That's eight noisemakers, five of which are easily regulable. Rivatuner could control the GPU. I've lots of room to work with the CPU, system, and case—the temps of both CPU cores read at or below room temperature, and only go up to 30°C when doing some light gaming. System temp sits around 37/38°C.
I haven't been able to do much without hardware. I spent some time with the case open listening, then systematically shut down, unplugged fans and listened again. It seems the graphics-card and case fans are the noisiest—one, I think the rear fan, turns at 2500rpm. The CPU and PSU fans are fairly quiet. Nevertheless, I used the BIOS to enable reducing the CPU fan speed. It allows a min speed setting (now set at 25%) and regulates based on the max allowed temp (provisionally set to 50°C). I also replaced the 120mm front fan with a SilenX 14dBa that's been lying around. I wanted it to replace the noisier side-panel fan, but it's too thick. The result: hardly noticeable difference in the noise level when the CPU fan reduces from 1600 rpm (100%) to 567 rpm (on the 25% setting), it's of course still loud. This brings the core temp at idle up by only 6°C. According to Rivatuner, the GPU fan is set at 60% and keeps the GPU temp around 54–60°C. Probably can't do much with it when playing games, but it might be reducible for low loads.
For the time being I am not overclocking, but this will follow within the year.
The point of this post is that a fan controller could go a long way to making my PC quieter, and although I've looked at several (one, two, three), I'd love some recommendations. Here are the basic wants and needs:
■Must allow for smooth regulation of at least four fan speeds; six a plus
■Need not regulate the CPU fan, the mobo seems to do this well
■Automatic regulation based on temperatures is big plus, as would a robust, functioning temp alarm. Because I can be forgetful.
■Manual regulation could be acceptable, though it's obviously more effort, and I almost forgot—I can be forgetful. Of course, I don't mind full fan speeds during heavy gaming at all, but if the unit can take care of that for me, great.
■The less light it puts out, the better. I neither need nor want bling, but accept it as collateral damage. In other words, a display is only desirable if there really is no other way for me to react to alarms. Otherwise, it should do its job without intruding on my consciousness.
■Reporting of 2–3 fan speeds to the motherboard or wherever needed for an application to read it is a plus
If you can set me straight on any of these points, please do. And hard-earned tips on fan control are very welcome!
Whenever I upgrade my system, this one will probably come into the apartment, though probably not the case; if, that is, I can master the noise level. And maybe I can even record with it.
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