Noise on Dual Athlon System

mastahnke

mastahnke

Linux Man...
I have a dual athlon 1800+ box that I use to record, but the fans are SOOOO loud. I have replaced them twice and still they are loud. I was having cooling problems, so I needed something strong. I now have the coolmaster HSC-V62 fans for both chips. They keep the chips at about 49C but they run at about 6000 RPM, which is LOUD!!! If I run one HSC-V62 and one AMD stock fan, the noise is less, but the temp is higher.

I have looked at water cooling, but since I have a rackmount case, I have little room to work with. The case is a 4U, but is quite full with drives, other fans etc.

Any Ideas? I can't live with the noise, the mic picks it up like a freight train...

--MIKE
 
I had that problem as well, so I simply isolated my PC from my mic..as in... another room.
This was an easy solution without spending more money ! :D

If not possible for you, maybe some type of removable barrier between your mic and the PC.
 
Well the system is rackmounted in my desk, on drawer slides so I can pull it out and work on it without de-racking. I love the setup, but it's so loud! Even when I am just working on normal tasks like posting here, I am very annoyed with it. I can't really move the computer to another room either. Eventually when I get an HD-24 I will track other places sometimes, but still, I am on a quest for quiet. Perhaps Dual was not the way to go :(

--MIKE
 
get an 80mm heatsink and an 80mm fan. less RPMs for the same CFMs as a 60mm...

try adjustable fans too... turn them way down for tracking, and then up some when mixing, etc... try the adjustbales from enermax, i have em and love em...

for heatsinks look into thermalright's range. AX-7 if you can find it (now discontinued) or another heatsink from those guys that takes an 80 mm fan.

good luck.

also, you may be surprised at the noise your PSU makes.... you may only notice it after you get rid of the fan noise from the CPUs... if it is loud too look into the antec truepower series. supposedly very quiet.
 
I'll second the enermax recommendation. All of their quiet fans and power supplies have adjustable speed controls.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you're screwed. Having the computer right there without isolating it in some kind of fancy box is always going to mean that you'll have to compete with noise...even if you blow $150 on quiet fans and the like, you'll get used to your new "quiet" computer and it'll start driving you nuts too.

That's not to say that trying to quiet things down won't help....but it is to say that there is no end all solution to get rid of computer noise, other than to isolate that computer somehow (another room, a box, etc).

Slackmaster 2000
 
Slackmaster2K said:


I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you're screwed. Having the computer right there without isolating it in some kind of fancy box is always going to mean that you'll have to compete with noise...even if you blow $150 on quiet fans and the like, you'll get used to your new "quiet" computer and it'll start driving you nuts too.


Slackmaster 2000
Click to expand...

Yeah I just about went down that path but now (until I get my real studio downstairs built) I use my bathroom or hallway for isolation. Condenser mics pick up everything! Plus I like the sound I'm getting in my bathroom!
 
mastahnke,
Consider a couple of efficient Alpha Pal heatsinks and a couple of quite and slow 80 mm Panaflo fans. Some people prefer Papst fans, but Panaflo is almost as quite and cost times less. Alpha Pal heatsinks are bolted directly to the mobo - make sure your board has holes around the slots. Also, with fan ontop they are rather high, so make sure they will fit in your rackmount case.

Slackmaster2K,
you promised to share your experience with Enermax PSU. How does it do in terms of noise? In my current setup PSU is the main sourse of noise, followed by video card fan.
 
The enermax is quieter than a regular power supply, especially with the fan turned down. My CPU fan and hard drives are now much more audible...but I can still hear the enermax. It *helped*, but it's still noisy.

Slackmaster 2000
 
I have an antec PS that is very quiet. The cpu fans are the real issue. I realize that I won't be able to elimenate noise, but I am hoping to control it more. I will look over some of these suggestions.
--MIKE
 
This idea is to use effective heatsink, in which case you can use slower and less noisy fan. Alpha is probably the best heatsink out there.
I have single Athlon system and both of Panaflo fans (processor and case fan) produce less noise than PSU fan.
Now I am asking you: what is the model of Antec that you are using? Is it quiteter than Enermax?
 
The model is Antec TruePower 480 Watt with Low Noise Technology. I was going to get the enermax, but Tom's Hardware did a PSU test and the Enermaxes sucked it up. The Antecs rocked so I got one. I need reliable power and low noise, not just low noise.

--MIKE
 
yeah the enermax's have had some stability problems... 5v rail problems if i remember correctly. but the antecs are supposed to be quiet and amazingly good...
 
both maybe... no idea... but as long as it works well (what are your voltages at) and is decently quiet i wouldn't worry about it...
 
Voltages are great and the PSU isn't loud at all compared to the 6000 RPMs being turned by both my CPU fans.
--MIKE
 
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