making my box more quiet?

  • Thread starter Thread starter B Young
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B

B Young

Okay, now this is an odd one you'll think from a guy who has been in
IT for several years and worked around my my share of corporate data
centers and hardware in general.

But, my most recent Linux box at home started life as a $200 box from
WalMart.com. You know, the Microtels. This thing runs Linux really
well but I have one problem... it has to be the absolute loudest box I
have ever heard in my life. With it on in my home office, it
literally sounds like an entire data center. Pretty sure the biggest
culprit is the 300w power supply they threw in to power the Duron
chip. The noise is giving me a headache and having a problem like
this is a new one to me. I was hoping someone cost-effective ideas on
a power supply to replace it with or what to look for in regards to
what might be more quiet than what I have now.
 
Okay, now this is an odd one you'll think from a guy who has been in
IT for several years and worked around my my share of corporate data
centers and hardware in general.

But, my most recent Linux box at home started life as a $200 box from
WalMart.com. You know, the Microtels. This thing runs Linux really
well but I have one problem... it has to be the absolute loudest box I
have ever heard in my life. With it on in my home office, it
literally sounds like an entire data center. Pretty sure the biggest
culprit is the 300w power supply they threw in to power the Duron
chip. The noise is giving me a headache and having a problem like
this is a new one to me. I was hoping someone cost-effective ideas on
a power supply to replace it with or what to look for in regards to
what might be more quiet than what I have now.
Click to expand...

I have replaced fans in a PS. It's easy and almost any over the
counter fan will be better than what you describe. But, I don't know
how careless you need to be to get zapped. If that would happen, you'd
wish you had just bought a better PS. BTW, putting rubber between the
bottom of the PC and the desk can deaden sound a lot.
 
B said:
Okay, now this is an odd one you'll think from a guy who has been in
IT for several years and worked around my my share of corporate data
centers and hardware in general.

But, my most recent Linux box at home started life as a $200 box from
WalMart.com. You know, the Microtels. This thing runs Linux really
well but I have one problem... it has to be the absolute loudest box I
have ever heard in my life. With it on in my home office, it
literally sounds like an entire data center. Pretty sure the biggest
culprit is the 300w power supply they threw in to power the Duron
chip. The noise is giving me a headache and having a problem like
this is a new one to me. I was hoping someone cost-effective ideas on
a power supply to replace it with or what to look for in regards to
what might be more quiet than what I have now.
Click to expand...

An excellent power supply, not to mention extremely quiet, would be the
Antec TruePower 380. This will be well more than you need, and you may
wish to purchase the next model down, the TruePower 330. I have the
Truepower 380 myself and it will be coming with me through my
foreseeable future upgrades. The TruePower 330 PSU can be had for
around $55USD in the States. There are other quiet inexpensive power
supplies available, too, that may be less expensive. This is the sort
of power supply that you hang onto when you upgrade, as it's a very nice
piece of hardware.

Ari

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supplies available, too, that may be less expensive. This is the sort
of power supply that you hang onto when you upgrade, as it's a very nice
piece of hardware.
Click to expand...


Good point. Makes spending a little bit of cash on a nice power
supply easier if I know that it is something that should be pretty
solid and reused when I upgrade machines the next time.

I wonder, how does the various wattages affect a person's power bill?
For example, if a 200 watt PS running 24x7 costs me 5 bucks (wild
guess) on my electric bill, will a 300 or 400 do considerably more
damage, or about the same?

Thanks,
Brian
 
Good point. Makes spending a little bit of cash on a nice power
supply easier if I know that it is something that should be pretty
solid and reused when I upgrade machines the next time.

I wonder, how does the various wattages affect a person's power bill?
For example, if a 200 watt PS running 24x7 costs me 5 bucks (wild
guess) on my electric bill, will a 300 or 400 do considerably more
damage, or about the same?

Thanks,
Brian
Click to expand...

That's the MAX capacity of the supply. Unless you change the
components, if your box is sucking down say 150W from the supply, then
that's how much the power supply will er... supply.

Many people think the way you're suggesting, because they think the
wattage rating on a power supply is akin to the wattage rating on a
lightbulb. It isn't that way really. The wattage rating for a power
supply is its maximum capacity. The wattage rating for a light bulb
is its consumption. If that doesn't make sense, this will really
confuse you. A system with a good quality 300W power supply will
often consume less energy than a poor quality 200W power supply, as
the supply itself will be more efficient. Of course, I'm not sure if
that still holds for the 400+Watt power supplies, most of those seem
to come standard with more fans than the lower capacity ones.
 
This might be risky, but I wired up the power supply's fan to a toggle
switch .. one side, the regular 12 Volts, and the other, 7 Volts. I have a
Zalmans 7000 CU on the CPU and three 80 mm case fans running at 5 Volts.
It's a 350 watt supply in a mid sized tower by Antec. Everything is quiet
and cool. The power supply stays switched to the 7 Volt setting. I pretty
much just use it for internet. I guess if I were to run a game or whatever,
I would be wise to click it over to the 12 Volt setting. Anywhooooo ...
works for me, and has for several months.
 
literally sounds like an entire data center. Pretty sure the biggest
culprit is the 300w power supply they threw in to power the Duron
Click to expand...

After taking things apart, I realized I was wrong here. The CPU fan
is definately making more noise than the PS fan. Its a Speeze and it
is even loud on its own, removed from the heatsink. Mounted in
position, I'm thinking it is even louder. It is poor case design, but
the CPU is right underneath the power supply with only 1/2 inch gap
meaning it is trying to suck air from a place where there isn't much
air available.

Not sure how much success I'll have due to the case design, but
certainly a higher quality CPU fan has to help? Has also seen some
case insulation that can be purchased... i'd bet adding that would
help too.
 
Steve Evans said:
I got a Zalman cooler, and after some experimentation replaced the
zalman fan with a ys-tech. It's quieter with more airflow. You might
want to try one of those.
Reducing PC noise can be an endless hobby - there's always one thing
that's louder than the rest! :)
Click to expand...


One thing you may want to keep in mind: Turbulent airflow cools
better than laminar ("smooth") airflow. And that means that the noisy
CPU fans may be cooling the chip better that the quiet ones.

The reason is that the turbulence scrubs down into the boundary
layer of air that is attached to the surface of the heatsink's cooling
fins. Air in this layer moves slower the closer it is to the surface, and
it acts as a blanket to insulate the surface from cooler moving air that
would otherwise remove heat. So all the turbulence that produces the
wooshing a swishing and hissing and whirring may also be better at
getting cool air down to the actual metal surface of the heatsink than
the nice smooth flow that is so quiet.

For this reason, it's probably better for PC modders to build a
sound absorption box around part of the equipment case than to
invest in quiet fan/heatsink combos. In the case of my Dell tower,
just hanging a pillow on the wall behind the PC does wonders to
absorb the sound that comes out the back of the tower from the
cooling fans. Someday - when I have ambition :-) - I plan to build
a simple 3-sided plywood box that is open at the top and bottom
and front and stick self-adhesive carpeting to the inside surfaces.
That would absorb most of the sound without impeding airflow,
and it would be very cheap and low tech and easy to make, and I
believe it would be a better use of my time and money than anything
on the market.


*TimDaniels*
 
I don't know. I replaced the HS/F on both my processor, and 9700np with
Zalmans. And my case temps dropped about 4C, idle. My processor temp
dropped about the same amount, idle. I'm, now, maxing out my processor temp
at 45C. Before, it was maxing at about 51C, full throttle. But, as well, I
have a server tower with 5x 80mm fans + 2x 80mm fans in the PSU. So, my
temps were already tolerable. However, I'm sure glad to be rid of that
noisy stock fan on the retail Intel heatsink. Processor fan is only running
at 1300 rpm. And, with the side fan on the case blowing directly on the
Zalman GPU sink (as well as the second front intake fan), I'm getting way
better cooling for my GPU due to the sheer surface area of the Zalman. Less
noise, better cooling. I guess my mileage varied :) Now, if I can just
figure out how to move all that intake and exhaust air without case
fans...I'd be set hehe.

I do like your idea, about the 3-sided box, though. However, that is not
practical for me. I spend too much time inside my box. That would be more
of a headache, than the noise of these case fans :)


-
Timothy Daniels stood up at show-n-tell, in
(e-mail address removed), and said:
 
Strontium said:
I don't know. I replaced the HS/F on both my processor,
and 9700np with Zalmans. And my case temps dropped
about 4C, idle. My processor temp dropped about the
same amount, idle. I'm, now, maxing out my processor temp
at 45C. Before, it was maxing at about 51C, full throttle.
But, as well, I have a server tower with 5x 80mm fans +
2x 80mm fans in the PSU. So, my temps were already
tolerable. However, I'm sure glad to be rid of that noisy
stock fan on the retail Intel heatsink. Processor fan is only
running at 1300 rpm. And, with the side fan on the case
blowing directly on the Zalman GPU sink (as well as the
second front intake fan), I'm getting way better cooling for
my GPU due to the sheer surface area of the Zalman. Less
noise, better cooling. I guess my mileage varied :) Now,
if I can just figure out how to move all that intake and
exhaust air without case fans...I'd be set hehe.
Click to expand...


In my opinion, the Zalman units are 1st class design and
construction... AND they are an expensive approach to
subduing the noise - throwing gobs of surface area at the
problem. A cheaper appoach is to blow harder on a
smaller heatsink and absorb the noise with an acoustic
enclosure (ugly but cheap and effective). It also makes
vacuuming out the heatsink fins a less critical maintenance
procedure. (Have you ever thought that all those closely
spaced heat dissipation fins might act as really good dust
filters?)

For case ventilation, big fans would be very effective.
For those noisy behemoths, a surrounding acoustic box
would be ideal. You could get as complex as your
electric saw would allow, even to making labyrinthine
air entrances and exits that were lined with carpeting or
heavy weight sheet foam rubber (not plastic foam),
and you wouldn't have to worry about the sound of
turbulent air.

I do like your idea, about the 3-sided box, though. However,
that is not practical for me. I spend too much time inside my
box.
Click to expand...


Would your first name happen to be "Jack"? :-)



*TimDaniels*
 
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