Shut up, shut up, shut up!

[Favu]

I have a p4 rig, around 1.7Ghz, some ram, a HDD, umm... a trashy old PSU...

AND IT IS DRIVING ME NUTS!

I want to be able to leave it on 24/7 to fold and to download my stuffs, however the hard drive is vibrato tastic and the PSU fans sound like a jump-jet at takeoff.

I am also skint.

Does anyone have any cheap ideas for me to make my life a little more bearable?

TIA.

Favu.

[Lazgoat]

Put it in another room or the loft?

[Favu]

Heh, I tried that one I had it in the cupboard that the boiler is in (the boiler is in my room) it wasn't much of an improovement and got very toasty but it sort of worked.... till the gas man came and said it was a bad idea anyways...

[madcatmk3]

try replace them with quiter fans.

[fearless joe]

he is skint, if its out of the way and you dont care what it looks like bodge a desk fan onto the side of the case, with fabric or something, cheap quiet and lottttts of air, looks crap, but who cares

[bradmax57]

you can swap the wiring of the fans to run them on 7v i think?

[Favu]

Those are some neat ideas... I have a deskfan.. but its still quite loud

Would I still get enough air to my components if I ran the fans at 7v ? Sounds nifty!

Thanks for the replies!

[danrok]

Be sure the fans are clean from dust. Dust on the blades makes them noisey.

[Bart]

Fan quieting:
1. Slightly sharpen the leading edges of the fan blades with medium emery cloth.
2. Cut out/remove all fan guards including in the ps that are in the flow path.
3. Slow the fans down to an acceptable noise level with add-on speed contols like from Zalman and others. Watch the CPU and MB temps to avoid high temps from reduced flow.
4. Put a 120 mm fan (40 - 50 cfm) in the intake spot (cut a bigger hole). Or use two low flow (~25 cfm) 80 mm fans if two intake holes. Use an exhaust fan that has no more flow than the intake fans. Adjust if needed to get slightly positive case pressure to increase mixing inside the case and get better cooling at lower flows.
5. Use fans with low decibel ratings (20 - 25 dB) but medium flow (25-35 cfm). Check out Vantec Stealth, Aerocool Turbine, Evercool Aluminum. (Yours are probably loud OEM type)
6. Mount all fans with elastic fan rivets or with foam rubber pads to isolate vibrations.
7. Clear the flow path of wiring clumps as much as possible to accomodate low flow.

[Kaitain]

Find a photocopier repair shop and pick up as many centrifugal blowers as they'll let you carry out of the door - they might charge you a little for them, but they may regard them as simple junk.

How you fit them is up to you, but a low-speed 120mm blower puts out as much air as a high-speed 80mm fan and is almost silent. The second advantage is that blowers work against higher pressure drops, so if fitted well will actually force air into hard-to-reach parts of the case.

[aghastpumpkin]

Quiet PC have a nifty gadget that you wire up between a fan and its connector to reduce the voltage.
It's basically a resistor.

[madcatmk3]

smash them with a hammer till thier quit

[Favu]

Those are some nifty ideas guys, thanks! I think I'm gonna try fiddling around with that spare PSU I have, and see if I can rig up and anti-vibration HDD caddy. Should be fun

oh, and madcat, can you demonstrate your theory for me?

[Azriel]

For 7v operation, connect the fan to the yellow and red wires. The difference between +12v and +5v is 7v. It's really easy to bend the locking tabs back in on the pins of a power connector and switch them.

[Favu]

Thanks Azriel!