I am not sure how noisy they are, but I have seen new computer power supplies with high quality ball bearing fans that are supposed to be much quieter. A good high quality power supply usually runs about thirty to fifty bucks and is relatively easy to install. No need to replace the entire case. You may also think about buying some of the dynamat? sound absorbtion material and line the computer case. As for the cooling fan on the actual cpu, they tend not to be made to very tight tolerances so it might be beneficial to replace that one with a newer one to see if it is more quiet. That would be a under ten dollar experiment. The power compact lighting hood on my fish tank uses a standard computer fan, which I took apart and clipped the blades (a lot of the noise was from the blades scraping the outer edges) and lubricated with a teflon based oil. Worked okay for a couple of months. I just did a computer power supply switch out, so let me know if you have any questions on how to do it. Good Luck and Regards, nathan |
Check out this website: http://www.vantecusa.com/product.html They specialize in fans and other computer cooling devices. Whatever you do, make sure you provide adequate airflow thru the case. Overheating is a major cause of computer failure. |
PC Power and Cooling makes excellent power supplies with adjustable fans (albeit expensive.) I suggest checking out the ultimate PC gadget/hardware "this and that" site out there: www.cyberguys.com They have dozens of temperature-control devices, case fans, chip fans, heat sinks, fans with speed controls, speed controls for internal fans that mount extenally to your CPU case for easy access, etc. It's a real hot rod site for PCs, kinda like Jerry Raskin's for your PC. They seem to have every "if only there were such and such" gizmo. I've bought all sorts of stuff there that's also useful for audio -- heatsink compound, nice multicolor velcro ties for your cables, little parts boxes for RCA and speaker wire ends etc. Great prices, and super people to deal with as well. They put out a print catalog that's a real hoot if you're into parts, I recommend it highly. |
Do not forget that after getting rid of the power supply noise, you will probably hear the other fans in the case that were previously "covered" by the louder one : CPU fan, case fans, if you have them, maybe video card fan (this last one was the loudest in my PC). The best solution is just to shut it off, as Maxgain said. Cleaning all the fans on a regular basis helps; internal dampening is also a good idea. |
