Jun 15, 2012
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Hello everyone. I recently built a PC and it has been working great. The single downside has been that it is louder than expected, though quieter than friends' builds. What could I do (Other than buying foam) to make my system more silent? Are there any components you would add/replace? I do not OC and have no intention to. Oh, and I plan to buy a next gen Haswell CPU and mobo. Thanks in advance. 
Case: Antec P183 V3
CPU: i5 3570K (Don't know why I got the unlocked edition)
Cooler: Hyper 212 Evo with 2x Corsair SP120 Quiet Edition fans in push/pull
PSU: Corsair HX750
GPU: Evga GTX 670 FTW 2gb 
Mobo: AsRock Extreme6 
RAM: Mushkin Blackline Enhanced 2133 MHz 16gb
Boot: OCZ Vertex 4 SSD 128 gb 
Games/Programs: WD Caviar Black 64 mb cache, 1tb
Photos/Music: WD Caviar Green 64 mb cache, 1tb
Blu-ray Burner: LG Electronics WH12LS39K
 
Solution
Do you really need all those fans? if you just drop some out, you may find that your temps really don't rise that much, so you are getting noise for no benefit.
Even on my case (NZXT h2) it came with 3fans but for quiet, I just unplugged 1 of the front fans and didn't need it.

If you want, you can just get a very inexpensive dumb fan "controller" that hardwires some of your fans just to a constant low speed (fixed voltage).
Then hopefully you can control the rest of the fans based on temp with the mobo.

otherwise, i don't have any specific recommendations, I suggest you read at silentpcreview or post to their forums for expert quieting advice.
If you're willing to spend $150, that puts you almost in the range of getting a new...

proton007

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Aug 20, 2012
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What kind of noise? Primarily there's HDD noise and Fan noise.
The caviar black is noisier compared to the green, but in a silent casing, is no issue. That leaves your cooler and other fans. Get a silent cooler.
 

raytseng

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May 15, 2012
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The P183 is a case designed for quiet, so you should be able to get a quiet build with that.

What's causing the noise?

If it's the fans, likely you have more than enough cooling, and you need to just tune the fans.

In my build, I found the single default 212evo fan was quiet and provided enough cooling enough.

If you replaced those with the corsair aftermarket designed for quiet, I'd guess it should be even quieter.
But just do some fan tuning on all your cpu and case fans to get them quiet.

I happen to have an asus with fanexpert2 which lets me set a fan profile, but i think there is software that allows you to accomplish the same (speedfan).

You will need to connect all your fans to the mobo, and the mobo needs to be able to allow modification on all those headers.
(On my mobo, the cpu-aux header always runs at full speed and is not controllable, perhaps your cpu-aux header is the same)


Otherwise, there are aftermarket fan controllers...

You may find that when you turn up the fans to max, you add a lot of noise, but it may not reduce your temps thaaat much compared to a quieter setting. So set a profile so when you're surfing the web it's pretty much silent, when you're gaming you find a happy medium of still pretty quiet for just a few degrees extra.


PSU i think any higher end one these days are pretty much silent.

So then what's left? maybe gpu? if you didn't pick a gpu for quiet, you're somewhat stuck. I;m not sure if you want to go to the effort to use an aftermarket heatsink.
if quiet is your goal, you got to read reviews and pick components for quiet...(The Asus directCU cards tend to score well on quiet)
 
Jun 15, 2012
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10,530
It is fan noise, I am afraid. HDD is barely audible. My GPU, which I set up a fan curve for, is not the problem. The fans are silent at 40% and the GPU easily stays cool in any non-gaming situation. Case fans are another problem. Having 5 120mm Corsair "Quiet Edition" fans in my case is a bit loud, but the fans, individually at least, are pretty quiet. Speed fan had issues with my computer, the bios controls don't do jack, so I guess a front panel fan controller is in order. What would you guys recommend? I guess I would spend a max of $150 on a fan controller. Any suggestions?
 

raytseng

Honorable
May 15, 2012
666
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11,060
Do you really need all those fans? if you just drop some out, you may find that your temps really don't rise that much, so you are getting noise for no benefit.
Even on my case (NZXT h2) it came with 3fans but for quiet, I just unplugged 1 of the front fans and didn't need it.

If you want, you can just get a very inexpensive dumb fan "controller" that hardwires some of your fans just to a constant low speed (fixed voltage).
Then hopefully you can control the rest of the fans based on temp with the mobo.

otherwise, i don't have any specific recommendations, I suggest you read at silentpcreview or post to their forums for expert quieting advice.
If you're willing to spend $150, that puts you almost in the range of getting a new mobo that does do a proper job of controlling fans.... sorry that your mobo couldn't do this for you out of the box
 
Solution