17 replies to this topic

[mikeb]

So I built my first pc about a year ago now, ordered off newegg. I got a AMD 64X2 3800+ based system. I always read with newer cpu's "you gotta keep it cool!" So not really knowing much about cases, and sticking to a budget, I got what looked good, had a power supply, and came with two 80mm fans. One fan is at the top blows air out, another is on the side and takes air in. They're set up how it came. Oh, one fan has lights which I HAYYYYTE, but anyway that's not why I called. The issue is they're pretty loud compared to the pc I had prior that only had a fan on the cpu. Basically, I figured "well, more fans more noise" so I live with it.

My question is how do you guys configure/place your fans? What fans do you use if they're after market? How many? Do you consider your pc quiet?

This is the case I got, different color:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage.as...pply+%2D+Retail

Those lights on the front I had to disconnect, they were ridiculously bright. Unfortunately, I couldn't do the same for the fan.

[TwistedMetal]

I went all out on my desktop. I have a heavy duty CPU fan and 4 case fans. 1 at the side, 1 at the front, 1 at the back, and 1 at the top. The fan at the side and at the top light up blue. I also have heat sinks for my RAM.

The fans are just the normal cheap-o case fans.

Noise, it's not bad at all. Barely noticeable.

[mikeb]

TwistedMetal, on Feb 10 2007, 08:29 PM, said:

I went all out on my desktop. I have a heavy duty CPU fan and 4 case fans. 1 at the side, 1 at the front, 1 at the back, and 1 at the top. The fan at the side and at the top light up blue. I also have heat sinks for my RAM.

The fans are just the normal cheap-o case fans.

Noise, it's not bad at all. Barely noticeable.

Talking about fan noise is difficult. It's subjective and dependent on where in the house you have your pc and what you do with it. I'm into audio myself. If I unhook my side fan and leave the top running, the noise level is probably what i'd prefer. I'm just afraid to do that for fear of overheating so I've never tried it extendedly. I just can't imagine what 4 fans sound like!

[Andavari]

Funny just years ago using Win98 I noticed that hard disk being too noisy, now that's a thing of the past from the hard drive acoustics setting in the BIOS, albeit at the sake of some performance.

Variable speed fans used in modern PC's are what I find to be noisy when the processor is being used more, personally I wish they didn't make any noise whatsoever. Although I'd imagine that fan placement and case design would have something to do with the noise level. My system has two main fans, and the graphics card has it's own fan (although the fan on the graphics card didn't save the last one from burning out).

[YoKenny]

Quote

What is SpeedFan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SpeedFan is a freeware program that monitors voltages, fan speeds and temperatures in computers with hardware monitor chips. SpeedFan can even access S.M.A.R.T. info for those hard disks that support this feature and show hard disk temperatures too, if supported.

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

You could use SpeedFan to monitor the CPU temperature while you have the side fan disconnected and you use the system in normal daily use.

SpeedFan has a nice Chart function that show the temperature history.

[Andavari]

YoKenny, on Feb 14 2007, 04:34 AM, said:

You could use SpeedFan to monitor the CPU temperature

It doesn't work on many Dell PC's, nor does any other CPU temp monitor, a shame.

[mikeb]

YoKenny, on Feb 14 2007, 02:34 AM, said:

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

You could use SpeedFan to monitor the CPU temperature while you have the side fan disconnected and you use the system in normal daily use.

SpeedFan has a nice Chart function that show the temperature history.

I have a gigabyte mobo and it comes with a utility called Easytune that allows me to monitor cpu temp, I just don't see how i'd be able to regulate fan speed.

Btw, what temp would be a red flag temp? my cpu temp runs about 94f.

[YoKenny]

Quote

I just don't see how i'd be able to regulate fan speed.

SpeedFan has an Automatic fan speed mode  speedfan.png   16.67K   5 downloads

Quote

Btw, what temp would be a red flag temp? my cpu temp runs about 94f.

That's the temperature my CPU is running at.

I would make sure that all air vents both intake and exhaust are unencumbered and that the system unit runs in an air conditioned space with the ambient temperature that is no higher than 75F and close to the air conditioner vent to supply the system with lots of cool air.

[mikeb]

YoKenny, on Feb 15 2007, 05:25 PM, said:

SpeedFan has an Automatic fan speed mode speedfan.png

That's the temperature my CPU is running at.

I would make sure that all air vents both intake and exhaust are unencumbered and that the system unit runs in an air conditioned space with the ambient temperature that is no higher than 75F and close to the air conditioner vent to supply the system with lots of cool air.

Ok, what you're controlling is CPU fan speed?

[YoKenny]

Quote

Ok, what you're controlling is CPU fan speed?

That's correct but if the case fans have sensors then SpeedFan can control them as well if you set it up to do so.

The program author can provide more information about the sensors that SpeedFan can monitor.

[rridgely]

Worst sounding PCs I've ever heard are at a local library.
I was looking up a book I needed, and the pc sounded like a jet powering up when the fans came on.
The computers looked like plane HP workstation things, probably the cheapest things you can get.

[New_Age]

rridgely, on Feb 19 2007, 12:57 AM, said:

Worst sounding PCs I've ever heard are at a local library.
I was looking up a book I needed, and the pc sounded like jet powering up when the fans came on.
The computers looked like plane HP workstation things, probably the cheapest things you can get.

Those HP PCs probably have a 3.0GHZ Intel or AMD Processor and 512MB DDR2 or DDR in it

[rridgely]

New_Age, on Feb 19 2007, 01:01 AM, said:

Those HP PCs probably have a 3.0GHZ Intel or AMD Processor and 512MB DDR2 or DDR in it

Which is about the lowest config you should get if you want to run xp without any slow down or instability...
(well maybe not the processor, but I wouldn't run xp without at least 512mb ram)

Still they are cheap pcs.

[New_Age]

Good for my needs though

Edit: Actually with DDR2 that's like have close to 1GB.

[rridgely]

New_Age, on Feb 19 2007, 01:08 AM, said:

Edit: Actually with DDR2 that's like have close to 1GB.

How do you figure this? DDR2 is faster.. but it doesn't magically turn into a gig. It will still fill up just like any other 512mb ram would...
I don't claim to be hardware person so maybe I'm wrong, but it doesn't make sense to me.

[New_Age]

rridgely, on Feb 19 2007, 01:14 AM, said:

How do you figure this? DDR2 is faster.. but it doesn't magically turn into a gig. It will still fill up just like any other 512mb ram would...
I don't claim to be hardware person so maybe I'm wrong, but it doesn't make sense to me.

Guess that would be right. I'm a hardware type of guy so... yeah your right I guess

Well, on topic here I once remember having a PSU fan blow out. It scared the living crap out of me. I had no idea how it happen. Good thing it was my friends

[rridgely]

I like building pcs, but I'm not one of those people that looks at the spec sheets and is instantly impressed by how many whatevers a chip does. I like when the higher chip number the better the chip is.

Its fun picking out parts and making sure they are compatible, but thats about it for me.
I usually just buy middle of the road to high end stuff. Usually with hardware you get what you pay for.(at least in my experience anyway. Make sure you research before you buy though.)

[CTskifreak]

My dad brought home from work this older work station for me that they no longer used. It was made by Siemens/Fujifilm, because my dad works in a hospital, but they only used it for video capturing. Now, this thing is loud.

Specs:
Dual P3s/Xeons at 1ghz
1GB RAM (2x 512MB PC100 DIMMS)
8 MB (!) POS Graphics card
Plextor 40/12/40 CD Burner (SCSI)
Some standard black colored CD-ROM (SCSI)
Dual HDDs - SCSI (I believe they are 20 GBs each - when I still had Win XP Pro installed, it only saw them as one drive, but there are two separate HDDs-possibly one backing up the other)
Some sound card
Some power supply

Two things about this system-

1) IT IS LOUD!!! When it starts up....man you'd have to have a sound clip to understand- it whirs up real loud (like a jet engine!), then it comes back to a more reasonable level, but it isn't great. S
2) It is extraordinarily slow.... I know it's no Core 2 Duo, but it is way slow. I blew off both HDD's with Active@ KillDisk, and tried Ubuntu, but it was realllyyyy slowwww. I don't know why. I know PC100 RAM is way old nowadays, but 1GB plus 2 processors should be decent. I have a P3 system with 384MB PC133 RAM and it's faster.... I just can't understand it. I was wondering if the BIOS were way off or something like that.

AJ