Hello all,
Just a few questions about possibly make my system just slightly more silent.. It already runs pretty quiet most of the time, but sometimes under load it gets somewhat distracting. I have a high end CPU cooler, the Be quiet dark rock 3 (which I believe most noise comes from oddly enough), a GTX 780 with ACX cooling, and I'm only using the 2 Fractal Design fans that came with my case. Do you think possibly adding more fans to my system would be effective? Or possibly replacing my current fans with better ones? Lemme know what you guys think. If you are wondering, my temps are pretty goo however, usually my CPU runs at 29 degrees idle and 55-60 after some intense gaming.
Custom fan curves. I use msi afterburner for the gpu and you can normally set the cpu fan in the bios. I also run my system slightly undervolted @ stock clocks to make it run cooler so I can have the fans lower. This really makes a difference in my Node 304 itx.
Yeah, all of my fans are set to silent. Although it's weird because my heatsink seems to be the loudest thing in there. Are there any good vids on fan curves I should watch?
Here is what I would do, in teh order that I would do/prioritize it.
1. Find out what exactly is making the computer loud. You could manually turn the fans up, of just run some synthetic torture tests to find what is making it loud. Prime95 to get the cpu temp up and something like Kombuster to get the gpu temp up. Do those individually and track the speeds of the cpu and gpu fans with hwinfo or something and listen for the noise. If it is the gpu, then you are likely out of luck as far as cheaply doing this goes, though you could try adding case fans to improve airflow which might help.
2. If it is the cpu like you think it is, then the problem becomes easier to solve. The easy solution is reseating the cooler to make sure that that isn't an issue (as little thermal paste/TIM as you can feasibly get away with), then swap out the fan(s) with something quieter. You can go with Noctua, but I would likely go with Scythe Gentle Typhoon myself. The fans that were on the cpu cooler can then be moved and used as case fans (4 pin will work in a 3 pin mobo header, so find a place that will each and then adjust the speed of the fan in bios or whatever to have it set where you want).
3. Deck your case out with case fans. I personally like Scythe in general and this fan in particular:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AQNXOMW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
An efficient fan curve can help, but you might be having issues with the cpu getting too hot, and then the quieter fan curve would hurt you as far as temps goes. It is definitely something to mess around with. You might be able to solve your problem without spending any money if you get an effective fan curve going. Basically, you want it as low as possible without having your cpu get too hot. With that in mind, just start tinkering with it.
EDIT: Considering that these are your temps, you should be perfectly fine to turn the fan speed down via a lower fan curve.
https://teksyndicate.com/forum/overclocking/my-cpu-bad/189145
You could unplug it. Then it will be silent. If that's not an option please make sure there is no dust in the case, and try reapplying quality thermal paste.
keep the computer under something/further away from you. get a fan curve going, after setting ai suite's fan curve to "silent" (my temps are still just a little warmer) i can barely hear the thing anymore (5 120mm fans) and I don't even have fans that are specifically made to be quiet or a case that isn't riddled with honecomb mesh panels.