# How Loud is your Computer



## diduknowthat (Mar 3, 2008)

I'm pretty sure Praetor made this poll a long time ago, but I think it's been long enough to make a new one.

The question is simple, how loud is your PC?
Along with your vote, please list your cooling solutions, 

ie: 3 120mm Antec Smart Cool fans, 1 120mm Arctic Cooling PWM fan, 120mm PSU fan, 80mm CPU fan


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## Motoxrdude (Mar 3, 2008)

Dead quite, no noise at all, but not fanless either.


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## El DJ (Mar 3, 2008)

I don't even remember Heatsink and fan's in my computer.
But you ever heard a space shuttle launch? My computer is louder than that.


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## Kesava (Mar 3, 2008)

diduknowthat said:


> I'm pretty sure Praetor made a *pole* a long time ago, but I think it's been long enough to make a new one.



yes i have never doubted his pole making skills myself 

anyway i have 2 120mm fans (front and back)
80mm psu
not sure about the cpu.


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## diduknowthat (Mar 3, 2008)

Kuzba said:


> yes i have never doubted his pole making skills myself
> 
> anyway i have 2 120mm fans (front and back)
> 80mm psu
> not sure about the cpu.



Oops, typo .


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## pc-tech (Mar 3, 2008)

loud,
1: 80mmfan, and heatsink fan


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## fortyways (Mar 3, 2008)

"I can barely hear it from 2 feet away"

I voted this, but I'm not really sure of the difference betwen that and "very quiet."

1200RPM 120mm Scythe Ninja fan (12V) at 5V, ~600 RPM

CNPS8000 Zalman 92mm fan at ~4V, 800 RPM

Stock Antec EarthWatts 380 fan

and a 5400RPM 2.5" HDD


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## kchinger (Mar 3, 2008)

LOUD!

1 80 mm front intake, 1 80 mm side intake (NB cooling ghetto solution), 92 mm Hurricane 8800 VGA cooler, 92 mm Rosewill CPU cooler, 90 mm top exhaust, 120 mm rear exhaust, 120 mm power supply exhaust. I haven't worked out any kind of controller yet either, so they all run at 100% all the time, even the VGA.


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## DirtyD86 (Mar 3, 2008)

very loud. i can literally hear it when im downstairs in the kitchen, if my bedroom door is open

but i like it that way  plus my temps are amazing for being such a big OC


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## Verve (Mar 3, 2008)

"I can barely hear it from 2 feet away" quiet. I've got a decent HP system, they make good ones IMO.


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## voyagerfan99 (Mar 3, 2008)

My personal computer is a calming kinda noise.

The CD-R is all thats annoying.


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## diduknowthat (Mar 3, 2008)

fortyways said:


> "I can barely hear it from 2 feet away"
> 
> I voted this, but I'm not really sure of the difference betwen that and "very quiet."



Very quiet would be that you cannot hear it or you have to put your ears against the case to hear it.

"I can barely hear it from 2 feet away" would be that you can barely hear it sitting in the your seat.


Also, any suggestions to make a computer REALLY quiet? I'm thinking of getting a passive heat sink for my 8800gt and buying some rubber fan mounts.


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## SirKenin (Mar 3, 2008)

I took my good computer to the office..  That one is wickedly loud.  I have an HP with Intel Viiv here at home now and it's uber-quiet.. as in, you can't hear it even putting your ear up to it.


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## JLV2k5 (Mar 3, 2008)

Mine is really loud do to the addition of a 80mm side vent fan (intake) . I also have the psu fan, a HSF, and another 80mm exhaust fan.


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## fortyways (Mar 3, 2008)

diduknowthat said:


> Also, any suggestions to make a computer REALLY quiet? I'm thinking of getting a passive heat sink for my 8800gt and buying some rubber fan mounts.



I'd get an Accelero S2 (or S1? I forget, whichever one is the largest) for the 8800 GT. Before you worry about fan vibrations, I'd also suspend the hard drive with elastic. I know the P180 comes with rubber grommets, but those really don't do enough.

I could make some better suggestions if you'd like to show me the inside of your case.


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## OvenMaster (Mar 3, 2008)

An 80mm intake on the side, an 80 exhaust on the rear, a 70 on the PSU, a 60 inside on the GPU and a 60 direct-ducted to the room all add up to what sounds like a muffled vacuum cleaner. I hate the racket, but if I don't have all of them running, I'll overheat because I run F@H 15-18 hrs a day.


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## The_Other_One (Mar 3, 2008)

I've considered investing in better fans(IE quiet ones) and other such things, but my computer's really not THAT bad.  And I'm referring to my desktop here.  My laptop is silent (I can go a full day without the fan kicking in) and my Mini has only a slight buzz to it.  Actually the LCD I'm using on my mac mini has a louder electrical buzz than the mac's fan 

Oh, and I almost forgot, my desktop has that 7600GT in it.  That fan gets annoying when it kicks in...


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## ExtremeAlien (Mar 3, 2008)

Very loud, I use 2 ultra kaze 3000rpm 120mm scythes.


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## Shane (Mar 3, 2008)

i voted for "I can hear it, but it's not annoying"

i have 2x 120Mm fans one on the front and one on the back for exhaust.

i also have my cpu fan,gfx card fan and my psu has 2 fans,I think the psus fan is bigger than 120Mm at the bottom.

considering all the fans my system is not loud at all.


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## PHATSPEED7x (Mar 3, 2008)

Mine is pretty loud. Running hot doesn't help either.


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## Vipernitrox (Mar 3, 2008)

3 Nexus Real Silent 120mm Fans ( front and top intake, back outtake)
scythe slip stream 500u ( on the scythe infinity heatsink)
vga card has stock cooler (passive)
120mm psu fan (i know it's papst but not which model)

it's very very silent


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## Kornowski (Mar 3, 2008)

"I can hear it, and it's kind of annoying"

Three x 120mm Antec Tricool fans on Medium
One x 200mm Antec fan on High
Tuniq Tower on High

I can live with it


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## brian (Mar 3, 2008)

wooooooh my laptop beets all yours.... i wat the only Literally Silent one!!!! and well it is. i cant here it. i would say my typing right now it more annoying


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## diduknowthat (Mar 3, 2008)

fortyways said:


> I'd get an Accelero S2 (or S1? I forget, whichever one is the largest) for the 8800 GT. Before you worry about fan vibrations, I'd also suspend the hard drive with elastic. I know the P180 comes with rubber grommets, but those really don't do enough.
> 
> I could make some better suggestions if you'd like to show me the inside of your case.



Hm okay. I'll post some pictures this afternoon. I'm also thinking about moving my only hard drive up to the 5.25" bay with a vibration dampener, and then removing the bottom hard drive bay and the wind tunnel fan.


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## smiggy (Mar 3, 2008)

extremely loud, i use ice


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## TheBOSS (Mar 3, 2008)

I Voted loud, tho usually I would say that it's not too loud at all actually, I have a stock cooler from an X2 6000+, 1x120mm, 2x80mm, and an AOpen 530Watt, which has three 80mm fans, none of which make the largest of noises. The thing is I have an ATi HD2900XT with stock cooler(I have to change this soon!!!), and when you get to playing games, and the card needs to cool down, I sometimes mistake it for an airplane flying overhead. lol, I plan on getting a Coolermaster Duo Viva, for my CPU and GPU, and adding the Cooler Master Glacier 600, to my GPU, instead of the stock Connector from the Duo Viva.


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## Rothzael (Mar 3, 2008)

It's like a goddamn server. I don't care, though. Good performance out of an E6750.


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## hermeslyre (Mar 4, 2008)

The_Other_One said:


> my desktop has that 7600GT in it.  That fan gets annoying when it kicks in...



I can attest to that..

I can hear it and it's annoying. It's not loud unless all the fans kick in at the same time, I.E when gaming. But I have the sound cranked so I don't notice anything obviously.


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## shenry (Mar 5, 2008)

I voted for "I can barely hear it from 2 feet away" quiet.

I have 2x 120mm Zalman fans with silent mode on(one exhaust one intake), the 120 mm fan on my PSU, the stock cooler on my e8400 and the stock cooler on my xfx 8800GT. The only time I can really hear it is when I am playing crysis and I am sneaking up on someone or when i'm in a quiet part.


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## Darkserge (Mar 5, 2008)

I can hear Processor Fan spinning 4,623RPM. It's not annoying when I playing games.


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## mep916 (Mar 5, 2008)

Kornowski said:


> "I can hear it, and it's kind of annoying"
> 
> Three x 120mm Antec Tricool fans on Medium
> One x 200mm Antec fan on High
> ...



Same here, except my 20cm is on medium. Like Danny, I can live with the noise but it's pretty loud.


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## Justin (Mar 5, 2008)

very quiet.  1x20cm side fan.

but then, when i load up a game, my disc drive sounds like JET!


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## retexan599 (Mar 5, 2008)

Starwarsman said:


> "I can barely hear it from 2 feet away" quiet. I've got a decent HP system, they make good ones IMO.



Yes, I have a standard HP Pavilion is very quiet.  This machine replaced my five year old HP Pavilion 760n and the first thing that struck me was how much quieter the new machine is versus the old one; and that in spite of four fans versus two.


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## Kill Bill (Mar 5, 2008)

Very loud. It has 2 120mm fans. The 2nd fan isnt even running.


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## taylormsj (Mar 5, 2008)

I have 8 120mm fans, 2 60mm, one graphics cooler and one 80mm fan. With the settings i run them on my pc is virtually silent, (apart form my bloody HDD) 

 hurrah for water


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## Boomer (Mar 5, 2008)

i just ordered this fan controller  so my system should be a lot better sound wise after i get it all set up. cause my 3 80mm fans run at 100% all the time right now!


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## The_Beast (Mar 5, 2008)

Mine is pretty quite

The PSU is the loudest thing in the computer


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## Gogey (Mar 5, 2008)

Its loud, but I really dont get bothered by this.

Antec 900 with all fans on medium, big one on low; A Zerotherm Nirvana running at full speed;  8800GTS's fan running at about 70%; PSU fan.


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## Langers2k7 (Mar 5, 2008)

2 intake fans, 2 exhaust fans, 1 AC Freezer 7 Pro and reference 8600GT cooler. 
Pretty quiet, got all my in/out fans under control with a nice Aerogate fan controller


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## Vizy (Mar 6, 2008)

Boomer said:


> i just ordered this fan controller  so my system should be a lot better sound wise after i get it all set up. cause my 3 80mm fans run at 100% all the time right now!



cool, boomer, Post back or PM me on how well the controller works! 

imm going to vote as soon as i get the new case setup


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## diduknowthat (Mar 7, 2008)

Vizy93 said:


> cool, boomer, Post back or PM me on how well the controller works!
> 
> imm going to vote as soon as i get the new case setup



Is it the system in your signature?


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## Ramodkk (Mar 7, 2008)

I forgot to mention that whenever I read/burn a CD, it literally sounds like theres somebody inside the case chainsawing a tree or something!!


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## Vizy (Mar 7, 2008)

diduknowthat said:


> Is it the system in your signature?



is what the system? yea it is


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## thebigdintx (Mar 7, 2008)

mine's not too bad. can hear the fans, but it's not loud enough to be annoying...well, maybe it is just a little annoying when it's real quiet in here.  ok, now that i'm paying attention to it, it's starting to bug the hell out of me....ok, now i'm ready to throw this loud pos out the window!


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## MBGraphics (Mar 7, 2008)

"I can hear it, but it's not annoying"
this is at idle..but when it "revs up" it sounds like a pensil sharpener, vibrates my whole desk, and i have found if you kick it, it wont be quite as loud during the "rev-up"


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## just a noob (Mar 8, 2008)

mine only gets the fans going if it does something really intensive on its integrated graphics and the pentium 4 @ 3ghz


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## diduknowthat (Mar 8, 2008)

Well after further tweaking, my computer is no longer audible from 4 feet away unless it is absolutely silent in my basement.

1) I have a 120mm PWM fan on the top, a 120mm Tricool Fan on the back
2) My hard drive is now suspended between elastics in the top 5.25" bay
3) I removed the front and bottom 120mm fans
4) I tuned my CPU cooler down to 1200 rpm

I now idle at about 37º and max at about 55º while intense gaming.


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## royalmarine (Mar 11, 2008)

i had 22 fans in my system until last week.

it sounded like a jet engine.....

now i cant hear nothing.


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## TFT (Mar 11, 2008)

royalmarine said:


> i had 22 fans in my system until last week.
> 
> it sounded like a jet engine.....
> 
> now i cant hear nothing.



Why, did it take off


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## royalmarine (Mar 11, 2008)

TFT said:


> Why, did it take off



no... it overheated 
lol. i built my own case. lined it with rubber soundproof/fire proof lagging.
and bought a nice watercooling rig.
still got a fans to move dead air, but cant hear nothing.


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## Datalyss (Mar 11, 2008)

My current Dell is a lot quieter than my previous Dell.


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## Michael (Mar 11, 2008)

I have a 250cm fan on the side panel, as well as dual 120mm fans (exhaust + intake) and my computer is dead silent 

I use dual fanmate2's to control the 120mm fans, and a built-in pot controls the 250cm.. I have the 120mm fans around 30% right now, and the 250cm at 50%. My PC idles around 27c - 29c.

-mak


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## diduknowthat (Mar 11, 2008)

Datalyss said:


> My current Dell is a lot quieter than my previous Dell.



That's cause Dells use like one fan .


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## TFT (Mar 11, 2008)

diduknowthat said:


> That's cause Dell's use like one fan .



and that's probably not working


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## Kornowski (Mar 11, 2008)

royalmarine said:


> i had 22 fans in my system until last week.
> 
> it sounded like a jet engine.....
> 
> now i cant hear nothing.



I'd like to see a picture of that! 

I have;

Tuniq Tower 120mm - Full
250mm top exhaust - Max
120mm front intake - Med
120mm front intake - Med
120mm rear exhuast - Med


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## Ramodkk (Mar 12, 2008)

I only have:

120mm side intake - Med
120mm rear exhaust - Med
92mm Rosewill CPU Cooler - Med

thinking on getting a 120mm front intake


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## Kornowski (Mar 12, 2008)

ramodkk said:


> I only have:
> 
> 120mm side intake - Med
> 120mm rear exhaust - Med
> ...



MOD, MOD, MOD!


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## G25r8cer (Mar 12, 2008)

Mine is fairly loud because of all the fans on high b/c of a stock hp case being so tight. I have 1 cpu fan, 2 psu fans, 1 gpu fan, and 2 case fans (1 sucking air in the side and 1 pushing air out through the back). The case fans are led antec's. Plus there is a built in fan in my stereo that is connected to my pc. But, the 460watts powers over the sound of my pc.


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