Noisy PC Fans

[Dan0368]

Hello all,

I recently got a new desk, and with my PC more out in the open, I'm noticing that this beast is pretty noisy. I'm pretty sure it's mainly my power supply, 450w allied (off brand). My other case fans are okay I think, but I can't exactly cancel them out just yet.

Any suggestions? All help is appreciated.

 

[Dman877]

How many case fans do you have? what size are they? what gfx card/cooling setup do you have? is the fan on the northbridge noisy too? Need some more info.

If you want to test the psu only to see if its noisy, you can take it out of the case and short 2 of the pins (see my topic about testing a psu on this board).

 

[hytek369]

get some panaflos

 

[tracerbullet]

Panaflo's are nice, but if you get enough of them they can still be noisy. Not to mention where the air comes from, if the case isn't designed so well it can sort of add to it all - not quite a whistle, but can still have noise even if the fans are quiet.

I've spent the last week monkeying with a lot of this stuff too. Just put my machine into an Antec Sonata case, and added a fan control to one of the 5-1/4 bays. I set the whole thing up on the dining room table, and when it was done plugged it in and listened to it. I have two 120mm case fans, a fan on the chip, two on the video card, and one in the power supply. It was easy to disconnect the case fans, and I was glad to see they added no noise at all (well, I did have them turned down in RPM via the controller). I have a GF FX video card, and I just had to unplug the 4 pin that powered those fans too. Since the computer hadn't been on long, and I wasn't gaming, I figured the card could handle it a while. Ahhhh, very noisy. Last was the CPU and pwoer supply fan. I touched the CPU fan (in the middle so a not to get cut on the fanblades) and stopped it momentarily. Another big jump. And I pleasantly noted the power supply fan wasn't at fault.

Anyway my point is, it's not too tough to really narrow down which ones make noise. Don't hold them stuck for too long lest something overheats, but for a few seconds here and there it worked for me and didn't hurt anything. Once you narrow it down, start shopping. There's a myriad of stuff that can be done.

 

[HardWarrior]

If case fans being loud are the issue, you can get a Digidic and key them to turn on only when temps require it. Of the 8 case fans in my machine only 4 run constantly. A TT Smartfan 2 would help if want to tame your CPU HSF some. For 80x80x25mm fans they can REALLY generate some air if need be. They have both thermal and manual controls.