noise/heatsink ratio

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mikesong

New member
Do heatsink fans cause any appreciable amount of noise compare to power supply and case fans?

I'm finally building my first PC for DAW use this afternoon, and this is the last bit of info I need before I start. I have 2 heatsinks and I am trying to decide which one to use with my AMD XP 1700 (1.47 ghz) processor w/ an Asus A7M266 Mobo. They are both Thermaltake volcano 6's which are recommended by AMD, so I know they'll both work. Here's the difference:

6Cu : Noise - 30 dBA, Fan Speed - 4550 RPM, Airflow - 32 CFM
6Cu+ : Noise - 39 dBA, Fan Speed - 7000 RPM, Airflow - 38 CFM

I would be inclined to go with the quieter one since it would obviously interfere with the recording environment less. However, would other fans in my computer be noisier than the heatsink anyway? If so, then acoustics dictates that the 39 dBA wouldn't really contribute much noise. And I could certainly use the extra cooling power because these Athlons tend to run hot. My power supply is an Enermax EG365P - VE(FC). I've looked in the manual and on their website, but I can't get any noise specs. It is supposed to be a "whisper quiet version", fwiw. My case also has a little fan, though I doubt it would be louder than the power supply fan. Anyone got any experience with these issues or used any of these products who can help me out? Thanks...
 
I'm assuming you're talking about acoustic noise, not electrical interference, right? If you've got a good quality, well-sheilded sound card, I don't imagine it's going to make too much difference, so long as you're recording far enough away from it. Besides, unless you've got an incredibly quiet power supply fan, then your initial assumption is probably correct -- the heatsink fan isn't going to contribute much noise. Generally, the power supply fans are much louder.

Keep in mind, I don't have any specs to back this up with, but I've built & repaired enough PC's to have a fairly educated guess.
:cool:
 
Thanks...
The reason I'm concerned about the noise (yes, acoustical) is worries that my mic would pick it up. Your advice makes me think that I don't have to worry about that, a 350 W power supply is probably going to be much louder. As far as electrical interfertence, I'm assuming that my Delta 66 soundcard would be shielded from the noise (although I'm not so confident about it and the rest of my recording chain being shielded from my radio frequency wireless mouse, so I'm switching to a regular mouse). Is that one a more valid concern?
 
If you were using an el-cheap-o sound card, then I'd say yes. But you've got a Delta 66, so I don't think you'll have a problem. I'd stick with the regular mouse for now until you've got everything working the way you want it to. After that, give it a try and see what happens.

Best o' luck with the project.
:D
 
CPU heatsink fans definitely can and do cause acoustical noise problems. I had my DAW built in a rackmount case, and used the quietPC power supply. The case fans were quiet in any case, but I put a few diodes in series with them and dropped their voltage down to about 10v, and that significantly quieted them.

That left just the CPu fan, which produced a whine that was right at about 2kHz: just drove me _nuts_. I put 8 diodes in series with it, droppiing the fan voltage down to about 7v: pretty much the minimum needed to get it to start up reliably. That quieted things down a great deal, and still keeps the CPU temp under adequate control.

The CPU fan was not that noisy, in absolute terms: but the _character_ of the noise was very annoying. When i doubt, go for a larger fan and spin it slower, rather than a small fand that must be spun at very high speeds to move any air...
 
Skippy, so this 2 khz whine drove you nuts or actually messed with your recording? If so, was it picked up by a mic or actually induced through your soundcard or something? I know that my 39 dBA heatsink will be a lot louder than the 30 dBA one, but I don't mind if it's bothersome, I just don't want it leaking into my music. I will try to gate out my pc sound so it may not be an issue.
 
Both. The computer is in the room, so that whine would print on anything I'd track in there. But worse yet: when mixing, is that vague whine coming form the track, or is it just from the computer in the room? And on and on.

For the type of music I do (a lot of acoustic music, and a capella vocal material), trying to mix and get everything the way I want it with that quiet little whine in the background was just annoying: the presence of that *pitched* noise colored my judgement on eq, mic placement, and made me a very irritable camper. I want the control room to be _quiet_- that's been a mission of mine all along. I can handle pinkish broadband noise: but in the worst case, pitched noise can beat against the program material, make me think of tuning problems where there are none (a real problem for a capella close harmony, no?), and just generally drive me apeshit wildman bugfuck _nuts_.

So I fixed it. Most fans can easily be quieted _dramatically_ with just a minor adjustment of their operating voltage. They'l be less efficent, but the key in all this is to move the absolute minimum necessary air... The CPU fan was less of an issue than the drive cooling fan in my Fostex D1624, but I fiexd them both. In general, if something pisses me off, I rip it apart and correct the situation muy pronto!
 
Just to show how much of a fanatic I am about that: I scrapped my Audiophile 2496 sound card and went instead to a Midiman Flying Cow external converter box for DAW monitoring. In that case, the noise floor was dominated by pitched digital noise artifacts that couple in electronically: the electrical environment inside a computer case is pretty bad. I couldn't stand to listen to reverb tails with that pitched wheeze going on down there... The Cow has a very clean, very white noise floor, with no pitched artifacts at all. When you get your machine built, see what your noise floor is like...

Most people probably don't pay much attention to the noise floor, either acoustically or electrically. I do: I want to make sure that everything I hear in the control room while monitoring is stuff I put there. My auditory mechanism doesn't like extraneous stuff getting in the way! Your mileage may vary...
 
I'll just say this: if you can hear it, your mic can hear it better :)

I never had problems using just an SM57 because heck, you just turn it away from the computer. But sensitive condensor mics...man what a pain in the ass. Right now I have to record in a seperate room which means a lot of running back & forth.

I still have yet to find a real good solution. I mean I can quiet things down quite a bit...but the noise is still there...and a sensitive mic makes a quiet little computer sound like a damn frieght train.

Slackmaster 2000
 
I went with the louder heatsink, although I do have a condensor mic, a Studio Projects C1 which may be pretty sensitive. Once I get it working I will investigate the noise floor and post my findings.
 
yea i've got a noisey 7200rpm hsf. i cannot record close to my pooter without picking it up. i originally got it for gaming as Unreal Tournament really heats my processor up. i can put my other 4500 rpm fan back in but no gaming,or no fast gaming anyway. i definitely need a seperate recording pooter.saving up as we speak.
 
That has to be one of the most important reasons for building a dedicated DAW. You can get rid of all the unnecessary stuff, and build for the absolute minimum power needed- the less cooling you need, the more amenable to studio life the machine will be.
 
Shhh.

I got around the noise problem by locking my 'puter in a weather-stripped, sound-proofed closet. I only let it out for air once a week:) .

Add $40 for all the extension cables, and viola!
 
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