Dunno if anyone here has tried any of that foam soundproofing, but i've read mixed reviews about it. One says, all it does is build up heat, and another says, it drops a few decibels. What are your opinions please?

Move your case farther away! Its the easiest way.

I have a pretty limited amount of space, all i can do is turn my fan speed down. So other than WC im looking at anything else to find a nice balance between fan speed and noise

Quote: [ Move your case farther away! Its the easiest way. ]
LOL!!
Homer, if you want to drop case noise, you can do so partially by putting sound-absorbing foam in key locations in the case. Just remember that foam or cloth can act as an insulator/airflow restrictor, so use it away from any active (hot) components and in places away from your airflow patterns. Some good places may be: adjacent to vents/ports, in corners, a patch on the top/bottom inside the case, and in patches in front of your board around window supports if you have one. The idea is to reduce ambient/reflected noise in your case which will help to reduce the noise escaping the case.
Good luck.

i think he knows where to put it in his case, but he's asking if it works and if it cause heat problems

what i have heard (no personal experience with it) is that it does both of those things but not to a very dramatic degree.. yes it cuts some noise but it's slight.. and it may raise case temp a bit but not much.

I have not had good results..... heat went way up....

I found the best way is to deal with the source......


water was the first big step.... I am running 1.9 vCore and a probe installed on the CPU reads 34.4c right now...
OK.. water can be expensive... IMHO it is worth EVERY penny....
tis fun, cools well, and is QUIET!


next are case fans
I use 120mm fans whenever possible (modding may be needed) the fans spins lower to push same CFM as high rpm smaller fans... slower fan = quieter fan.
I like and use the Panaflo L1A's
there are several others too...
Papst, Nexus, etc.etc

use a fan controller...unless absolutely necessary..most of my fans run at 5v very quiet


quiet componenets is the best way... sound absorbtion is OK, but found the money spent to sound controller is not worth it...


I spend time at http://forums.silentpcreview.com/

Good info on Silent computing

Cheers

yeah, if you're gonna spend any money on sound-reductive materials, get some of those rubber grommets/washers/gaskets for your case fans and hard-drives... so insulate the vibrations from your case... a lot of noise comes from air turbulence around the fan grills so if your case has those stupid punched squares at the fan mounts then get some power tools on the case! try and make it as much as a proper free hole as you can... then put a wire fan guard on so you don't stick your finger in by accident (or on purpose?! )

The Silent PC
swedes are infamous for there obsession with noise... i think they invented all the noise, magnetic emissions, and all those kinda restriction policies... dunno, either them or the germans...

oh yeah, vibration reduction using rubber/silicone and blowhole modding should all be done after what exeter_acres just said... you'd be surprised how much you can reduce noise by choosing the right cooling... even if you choose air.

Good points, hard....


I cut out all fan grills....

I ended up using small diameter rubber tubing from the hardware store...cut it into little sections and used those as grommets for mounting everything

excellent points

haha, believe it or not, that tube-grommet technique came into play to get the industrial strength duct-vent fan to stfu in my house...

you wouldn't believe how loud it was, it literally could wake you up, a massive 240V fan that looked like it was straight out of ww1...

now it's whisper quiet!!! (it's in a kind of metal box vent that runs from the toilet-room and bathroom thru the kitchen to outside... so it used to resonate like some sort of diesel engine!)

mod the house, AHAHAHAHAHA!

pc modding pays off in all sorts of ways!

I've used DynoMat and have seen some drops in noise.
Rob

Hmmmm, thanx for the replies guys. I think ill try the grommets and the suondproof material. But i think it's mainly my PSU which is making the most noise. I may go for WC in the future when i build a backup rig (im a pu$$y ) but ill try some of those dampening kits along with the soundproof material and see how that goes

hmm, if its a vibrational noise Antec do a psu gasket thing... its probably just the psu is noisy itself, i notice you didn't include it in yer sig... if your thinking about an additional rig then buying a better psu (that is also quieter) is a sound investment... haha i didn't even mean to make that pun!

my purepower isnt even the silent version and its quieter than most of the other fans in my case (which are mostly all hand-picked to be as quiet as possible with decent airflow - yeah the panaflo, akasa and smart fans are a little bit loud at 12V but whatever)

Yeah i was/am thinking of getting one of those PSU's with a heatsink instead of fans, but they're expensive as hell! My PSU is an Antec 400w, i forget which kind, but those fans are quite noisy