pc sounds like a vacuum cleaner

[grasshopperbe]

We just installed an extra front fan to my dads pc and its has gotten kinda loud.

the specs are
abit kd7, athlon 1800, 265mb 333ddr,
ati radeon 7000, chieftec dh-01w case
original power supply, one extra
80 mm cooler in the lower front .

it was built last week, and because the
idle temps were a little high (+- 50 cpu core, 45 cpu surface, +- 40) with the first case( and it was pretty crappy too), we ordered the chieftec case.

without the extra front fan the sound level is ok, but now its pretty disturbing
, or at least my dad finds it too loud.

There aren't any pci cards installed( all onboard) only agp card. there's one hd in it, and cdrom/cdrw in the top slots.
could this be a reason for the high sound.

Does anyone have any ideas how to get it better? these cases can only mound chieftec coolers.
many thanks in advance

[Cricket]

Originally posted by grasshopperbe
these cases can only mound chieftec coolers. Not sure what you mean by this.

How many case fans are installed currently?

How many exhaust fans are installed now? If only 1, move the one in the front to the rear (that case can hold 2 exhaust fans, right?). 2 fans in the back of the case aren't as loud as 1 fan in back and 1 fan in front.

:) Cricket

[Redo40]

Front fans are notorious for making noise. Since you have a different case why not test the temps without the front fan. I usually stay cool enough just running a fan in the back of the case blowing out.

[grasshopperbe]

thanks for the swift replies
there's only one fan extra ( except for the ps fan off course), so no backfans.
the places to fit the fans in, dont just have holes for screws, theres a plastic thingie to 'click' the fan in, so i guess only chieftec fans will fit. ( without too much trouble)

i didnt install the fan myself (wasnt home yet) my brother in law did, since he went to get it from the store.
he's a last year doctorate student IT
(dont know if thats the right name in english)
so i guessed he'd do it better than me.

Redo40, the temps with only the new case didnt seem to make much difference
i havent tested 'power hogging' games on it, so im not sure about all the temps.

[PMich]

Did you use thermal compound or the existing pad on the HSF when you installed it?

Did you clean up any existing compound and reapply when you switched cases?

It may be worth your while to remount the HSF and see if that helps get your temps down a bit.

[grasshopperbe]

no thermal compound was used.
just the (boxed) processor and cooler.
when we switched cases, we didnt take off the cpu nor hs, just unplugged everything on the mobo, put it in the new case, and reconnected everything.
btw i dont think any patches on the processor either, but im a noob on newer hardware (my own fastest pc is a duron 800, dont need nor can afford those over priced 2-3 ghz pc's at the moment:- )

[Redo40]

grasshopperbe, mount the fan in the back of the case blowing out, it will be alot quieter than a front fan. If the temps are still to high for you, do as Cricket said and put 2 in the back. Most cases that come with the fan bracket will fit any 80 mm fan.

[grasshopperbe]

wow now that was a swift response :-)
within a few seconds.
i am gonna do as you told me tomorrow morning, first time to go nighty-night (its 23:31 here) .
ill post how it works out tomorrow.
again, thanks helping me out everyone.

[Cricket]

Originally posted by grasshopperbe
thanks for the swift replies
there's only one fan extra ( except for the ps fan off course), so no backfans.Move the fan to the back...that's where it will do the most good.Originally posted by grasshopperbe
The places to fit the fans in, dont just have holes for screws, theres a plastic thingie to 'click' the fan in, so i guess only chieftec fans will fit. ( without too much trouble) Any standard 80mm x 25mm case fan will fit in those holders.Originally posted by grasshopperbe
no thermal compound was used. You must have some kind of thermal transfer material between the CPU and the heatsink...either a thermal pad or thermal compound. If there is a thermal pad on the heatsink already, then you're fine. But if there's nothing between the heatsink and the CPU, you're putting your CPU at risk of burning itself out.

:) Cricket

[RenegadeKing]

Originally posted by Redo40
grasshopperbe, mount the fan in the back of the case blowing out, it will be alot quieter than a front fan. If the temps are still to high for you, do as Cricket said and put 2 in the back. Most cases that come with the fan bracket will fit any 80 mm fan.

Just curious, why will putting the same fan in the rear make it quieter. It's the same fan, same noise level, etc.

Putting it in the rear will give better cooling results though. (Make sure it's blowing out)

[PMich]

I am by no means an expert on this but I think it has something to do with the relative position of the source of the sound (the fan) to the receptor of the sound (your ear).

[Tuf]

Some of it probably it because it's aimed at you. But they are noisier pulling air through the opening than they are pushing it out the same opening.

[grasshopperbe]

i just took out the extra fan, and ll test how it works out if i place it in the back.
first i'm going to check about that thermal compound, my brother in law did mobo and processor, i only put hd, cd's and so in.
we bought the processor 'boxed' with hs . i didnt check if there was a 'patch' on the underside of the processor. Do amd heatsinks standard have a patch or anything? or should i look into this problem further.

[Cricket]

Originally posted by RenegadeKing
Just curious, why will putting the same fan in the rear make it quieter. It's the same fan, same noise level, etc.Placing the fan on the back of the case does two things...it puts the fan farther from your ears and for some reason, if you disrupt the intake side of the fan (like with the case fan grill/perforations metalwork) it tends to generate more wind noise than if you disrupt the exhaust side. These are just my own observations, but you can try it...hold a case fan in one hand and then place your free hand by the intake side of the fan (start from a few inches away and move it slowly towards the fan until you're almost covering the side) and you'll notice the sound of the wind noise changes and gets louder the closer your hand gets to the fan. If you do the same thing to the exhaust side, the change in wind noise isn't as pronounced.

:) Cricket

[glc]

Yes, the stock AMD heatsink/fan has a thermal pad and it must be used that way or your 3 year warranty is void. If it had a protective plastic covering over it, it has to be removed before mounting the heatsink.

50C should not cause any problems.

[grasshopperbe]

its completely original parts built, no funny stuff. since my brother-in-law knows what's he's doing it should be built perfectly fine. ill ask him about it when see him.

i checked the current temps and they're around 44 cpu core, 40 cpu surface, 36-40 system. This was after about 1/2 hour of internet surfing .
Thanks Glc, ive heard from a few others too that 50c is normal, but its winter now and it gets a lot warmer here during summer (hopefully :-) and i want it to work at ok temps then too.

does anyone have an idea of what the temps will at full cpu power? I haven't got anything on it to test this (like fps games or so maybe). the current hd is from the previous pc and is only a 10 mb ibm disk (prolly ata66 or even worse, ata33) so cpu/vidcard hogging games won't be an option for now.

[i3OSS]

i think your temps are good, i keep below 40c and 100f

[RenegadeKing]

Originally posted by grasshopperbe
does anyone have an idea of what the temps will at full cpu power? I haven't got anything on it to test this (like fps games or so maybe).

Download and run seti@home (http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/download.html). This should bring the cpu temp up to the full load temp. Plus you can help find extraterrestrial life :)
HTH

[grasshopperbe]

thanks for the info and link.
is this seti@home completely safe?
i can't remember what it was but wasn't there a sort of spyware problem or something with this? i m probably confusing with something else. just wanted to check.

[RenegadeKing]

100% safe and highly recommended. No spyware that I know of.

[i3OSS]

woah, what if it overloads and kills ur computer?

[RenegadeKing]

The software itself is safe. If it breaks your computer then that's not the software's fault. It's faulty hardware or a bad heatsink installation. The only way to test your full load temp is to run software that stresses your computer, which seti@home does.

[Tuf]

Seti is not going to hurt your computer. It will use 100% of the CPU time when you are not using it. If your computer has an overheating problem you'll know soon enough.

[grasshopperbe]

ill dowload it tonight and let it run for a few hours, and check regularely. i have bios set up to shutdown at 70 so killing my hardware shouldn't be possible.
thanks for the help.