[Discuss] noise

[David Bronaugh]

Adam Parkin wrote:
> Daniel M. German wrote:
>> In my experience the source of noise in a typical PC is:
>>
>> * CPU fan
>> * Power supply fans
>> * Video card fans
>> * Hard disks (the newer ones are way quieter than the old ones).
>
> Actually if one is a gamer then I'd put Video card at the top of the 
> list.  I bought an ATI Radeon x850 a couple months ago and ended up 
> returning it because the fan on it was louder than my entire (noisy) 
> P4 3GHz desktop machine.  Sure I could've sprung for the extra $50 and 
> bought a Zalman cooler, but it just wasn't worth the grief/hassle (I 
> was unhappy with the card for other reasons as well).
>
> One other thing to add to the list of noisy parts is case fans, my 
> desktop machine has two case fans in addition to the one on the CPU & 
> those in the power supply.  Nice thing about the case is that I have a 
> variable speed control for the case fans, so when I'm gaming I can 
> crank the fans up, and when I'm sleeping I can turn them down.  My 
> fiance still complains about the noise though. =8-p
>
> I very much want to get a better cooling solution for the CPU 
> (currently the stock Intel fan/hs) and a quieter power supply, but 
> both are a little too pricey for my tastes.
May I recommend the Fortron power supplies - they're cheap ($30-40), 
have 120mm fan, and are quiet. Plus they're built pretty well.

As to cooling.... well, first fix the thermal compound. I've found that 
even vegetable oil (!) will work better than what's included with many 
coolers. And since many systems include PWM fan control on the 
motherboard to keep the fan speed under control while also keeping 
thermals within spec.. this can help with the noise issue.

Following that, the most important thing is that you not buy any more 
P4s. They're the crappiest solution around as far as CPUs go.

David