Ever since I got my latest PC, it's been rather noisy. In summer, the noise increased exponentially and finally it just got too much.
The CPU fan was set to vary it's own speed based on the thermal sensors. I installed the Intel Active Monitoring software, and found that the heats were within acceptable ranges, but the fan noise sure wasn't. I also suspected there was some sort of a problem with the fan - when I put the side of the case back on, the thing just increased in speed and volume until it could be heard echoing throughout my entire house, even with doors closed when trying to sleep.
First step was to replace the CPU fan with a Spark 7+ Xaser edition heatsink + fan. Why did I choose this fan? Well it's quite simple, there's a real lack of Overclocking products for Intel chips. It makes sense, as AMD chips have always been easier to Overclock than Intels, but I was still quite surprised at the ratio of AMD:Intel products. So quite simply, I chose the Xaser as it was one of about 2-3 choices, one of which was an externally mounted water cooling unit! The fan has 3 methods of varying the speed, you can set it to sit on max speed all the time, have it vary based on temperature, or install the control knob either in a front panel using a 5 1/4 drive bay, or in the rear using the backplate of a PCI slot. I went for the PCI slot at first, figuring I'd use the intel software to get an idea of the speed and then install the temperature sensor later if required. The install was easy enough, the hardest part being removing the current fan and heatsink from the chip - the heatsink was stuck quite firmly to the chip, and prising them apart using a screwdriver felt a bit hairy. After that the thermaltake clipped into place quite nicely, and the power adapter + fan control are pretty simple to mount and use.
When installed, I could bring the temperature down quite a bit lower by using maximum speed, but that yeilded an increase in noise. At its lowest speed, the temperature was about the same as before, and a bit quieter, AND with the benifit that I could now fit the case to reduce noise even more. However, now I could hear now noisy the PSU was, and to top it off, over a weekend while I was away, the monitoring software recorded a few alerts when other zones (not CPU) exceeded their recommended temperature limits.
So finally, yesterday I bought and installed a Thermaltake 420watt Purepower Silent PSU. Instantly the temperature of all 3 zones dropped by 3-4 degrees, and the thing really is quite silent. Initially it rattled in the case a little bit, but settled down in a couple of hours and has been fine ever since. The PC is now running at the lowest temperature ever, and is finally emitting an acceptable level of noise.
As a side to this, I found that running SETI@Home was bumping my CPU temperature up anywhere between 6 and 10 degrees. Ouch. I guess it's no more SETI@Home now, and I should rename my alien finding efforts to SETI@Work. I also discovered that my theory about the hot PSU blowing heat onto the CPU was probably quite correct.
So was it worth it? Yes, indeed my computer room is now a lot more tolerable. Was it costly? None of these products are cheap - and as you're replacing existing components it's not like you're getting anything new in the process. But for peace of mind, and sanity for anyone who spends a lot of time around their computer, I can definately recommend investing the time and money in some noise reducing products.
Some links:
Overclockers NZ
Toms Hardware
Quiet PC and Quiet PC (NZ)