How to make my custom build silent?

[vaio-fx]

My custom built PC is very nice to use, except for one problem, noise it makes is incredible - its so noisy! I have been able to put up with it for the last few months but now its really starting to annoy me. Prebuilt PC's from manufatures are generally silent, such as most Dells, so it must be possible to make my desktop PC silent. I don't think that its a particular component giving off all the noise, I think its a combination of them all. Currently the PC has (fan wise):

700W Jeantech Storm PSU (120mm? fan on bottom of it)
XFX nVidia Geforce GTX 260 XXX Edition 896MB (I can't see this being the cause, its dual slot so should be faily quiet)
4x 80mm case fans
1x 120mm case fan
Zalman CPU Cooler
2 motherboard fans (XFX nForce 680i LT SLI)

Would it be possible to replace all those case fans with silent ones? There is no way I can passively cool that graphics card so that will have to remain as it is and I don't want to go into water cooling, I don't have much money to be spending on this. The fans need to light up blue still though, I have a side windows on my case and the fans ligh up the inside of it. Also the noise it gives off is not a whining sound, more just a loud airflow noise. Thanks for any help with this.

 

[Max25591]

I'd first look at your PSU.

Download speedfan and turn the fan speeds down.... way down. If you still hear the noise it's your PSU. . . as you won't be able to regulate that with speedfan.

I say check this first because if it is noisy, then replacing all the system fans will get you no where. You will still hear that PSU fan and it will annoy you. So... If your PSU is noisy sell it (if it's new you should get most of it back). Get a really quiet one like Enermax Modu 82+. . . Or perhaps a phantom.

If your PSU is silent then just use speedfan to control the speed of the fans. Saves money and allows your PC to self regulate it's fan speeds to keep your parts cool. So - you might have slightly more noise in Summer as the PC has to shift more air for the same cooling... but hey... thats better than frying them!
Make sure you have unobstucted airflow in your case too before turning the fans down.

Hope this helps.

 

[NEED WOW NOW]

Most gaming Computers ARE loud. I could bet 20 bucks that my computer is 2 times louder than yours and I still use it as a desktop. If you want a quite computer, watercooling would be the way to go. You would have to invest in a decent Radiator, some Radiators are louder than a whole case fan set.

But because you want something to quiet down you PC, get one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...escription=fan control&name=Controller Panels

Fan controllers are great ways to turn down the speed of the fans while your not in heavy gaming situations and such. I have 3 random unknown brand 80mm fans, 2 120mm fans(One is quite silent a S-Flex fan, other is loud) a 140mm PSU fan, a nice 92mm CPU fan, and a 4870 which everyone knows has a monster fan. 100% on that fan it almost hits 6K RPM.

I would recommend one of the following:
This one has 6 control nods, but build quality sometimes lacks in some of the reviews.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999171
This controller has 4 control nods, but build quality is better in some reviews.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811998038

If you want to buy new fans, I would have to say, get ones without LED. I found that good fans with good air flow don't have LED's. You could also just pick up a Cold Cathode lights:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...escription=Cold Cathode&name=Case Accessories

Here's some fans that I would recommend to get:
The whole family of S-Flex fans by Scythe are amazing! I have one in the front of my case, I turned it on, didn't hear it at all. It has a fluid baring so its quite as a pin dropping. I highly recommend any of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...110573 50002108 1372826143&name=Fluid Dynamic
The Kama's are the 80mm and 92mm, the S-Flex are the 120mm but there all amazingly quite and offer great air flow.

 

[J03]

Water Cooling!


Maybe?

Or not. I've heard that hard drives make a lot of noise [no pun intended]
As do certain (normally the cheaper) fans. Try looking on newegg for uber-quiet fans!

 

[Teny]

i use to have 7 120mm fans in my case, and it was really loud, i had to turn my tv up with captions to understand what they said.

Prebuild computers usually have 2 really cheap fans, one exhaust and one for the CPU.
While the custom built ones, we get high quality which gives us better airflow, which in the downside makes it more loud.
Even if you took out most of the fans out, the graphics card will be the loudest.

 

[LambOfGod]

Small Chipset fans can really make alot of noise.

To help you find fans making the noise you can stop the fan with your finger, and depending upon how much noise is eliminated you will find your culprit.

Hope that helps Bro

 

[99nasha]

Check out this website if you do need to buy anything else

http://www.quietpc.com/

 

[Teny]

Small Chipset fans can really make alot of noise.

To help you find fans making the noise you can stop the fan with your finger, and depending upon how much noise is eliminated you will find your culprit.

Hope that helps Bro

isnt that kind of bad when the system is running and have a chance of overheating?

 

[LambOfGod]

isnt that kind of bad when the system is running and have a chance of overheating?

Nothing wrong with doing it for a few seconds to see if its the cause of the problem.