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There is one problem inherent in a case with a good number of fans. That is NOISE. While the amount of noise will vary depending on the number of fans, the size and the speed, the system will be noisier than a stock system. For many people the added noise isnt noticable except for at night when the rest of the house is quite and all the is left is the whirring of computer. First choice is of course to pick fans with lower noise ratings. Not all fans are created equal. Some are much noisier than others. Also whenever possible try to go with the largest size fan you can. The deeper noise produced by the "big" fans seems to bother people less than the annoying high pitched noise produced by the smaller fans. Another trick that is increasing in popularity is using dual voltages on the fans. Run them at 12V (the standard voltage) during times of high load (produces lots of heat) and switch over to 7V which slows the fans down (make them quieter) when under low load. An excellent site to see how this works is Cliff's Notes. Another up and coming way to quite the system is to do away with the fans entirely (well mostly). How's this possible? Well its a simple technique really, we remove the heat from the CPU the same way heat is removed from your car engine. That's right water-cooling. Install a water jacket onto the CPU, a pump, a radiator, and hoses to connect it all. Not only does this work. In virtually all cases it works better and quieter than air-cooling. Water is a much better conductor of heat and can move the heat away from the CPU much more effectively than a heat-sink fan combo can. But that's fodder for a future article on water cooling, which will feature my first attempt at this (the parts are on order). Last but not least some people use any and all types of sound-proofing material on their system to quiet it. Just remember that many of these techniques serve only to trap heat inside the case and thus shorten the lifespan of the components. ****** Stay tuned for Water Cooling ***** |