[JimJ]

All my FLAC stuff is on a Dell Poweredge 600SC right now...works fine, but it's too damn loud. No surprise I guess, because it has a power supply fan, a 120mm rear case fan, and an 80mm fan in front cooling the hard drives.

Those three sources of noise are going to be what I attack first...does anyone have any suggestions on very quiet fans (both 120 and 80mm)?

[BradJudy]

There are lots of quiet fans out there.  I have a Scythe in mine.  They come in different noise/airflow levels.  For a server that isn't cranking the CPU or have a hot video card, I would expect the lowest noise ones to be fine.

Here's the 120mm: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185004

They don't seem to make an 80mm (at least I don't see one on Newegg), but there are other good quiet ones like this Vantec: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999602

[Bob in St. Louis]

A fella could spend a lot of time and money at a place like this: http://www.quietpc.com/

Bob

[bpape]

For not a lot more than replacing fans with good ones, you could buy an Antec Sontata case and replant all the guts in it.  It has quiet fans built in, has isolated (rubber standoffs) for the hard drives, etc.  That also offers a lot of options for adding drives later with lots of internal space.

Just a thought more toward the long term.

Bryan

[JoshK]

I built the medium priced AVS rec'd PC, for HTPC and it is so quiet I sometimes think it isn't on when sitting next to it.

Its the Antec case too.

[NewBuyer]

All my FLAC stuff is on a Dell Poweredge 600SC right now...works fine, but it's too damn loud. No surprise I guess, because it has a power supply fan, a 120mm rear case fan, and an 80mm fan in front cooling the hard drives.

Those three sources of noise are going to be what I attack first...does anyone have any suggestions on very quiet fans (both 120 and 80mm)?

When you say you are going to attack these first, what is your longer-term goal - would you possibly be replacing more loud parts with quieter versions? If so, it's all going to be about what you use your computer for generally - is is mostly for low-power needs like business applications and serving your music files, etc? (A file server can be completely small, silent and fanless these days).

[JimJ]

would you possibly be replacing more loud parts with quieter versions?

Exactly.

I'm on a pretty limited budget, so buying something else completely isn't really what I'm looking to do right now. Unless it's under $100 or so

[ecramer]

  Im two fans and a liquid cooling pump up on you and not to mention the clear case and the fans all change colors as they run what a mess my solution is going to have to be a networked drive hooked up to a wireless router when i finally get around to a duet

All my FLAC stuff is on a Dell Poweredge 600SC right now...works fine, but it's too damn loud. No surprise I guess, because it has a power supply fan, a 120mm rear case fan, and an 80mm fan in front cooling the hard drives.

Those three sources of noise are going to be what I attack first...does anyone have any suggestions on very quiet fans (both 120 and 80mm)?

[JEaton]

All my FLAC stuff is on a Dell Poweredge 600SC right now...works fine, but it's too damn loud. No surprise I guess, because it has a power supply fan, a 120mm rear case fan, and an 80mm fan in front cooling the hard drives.

Those three sources of noise are going to be what I attack first...does anyone have any suggestions on very quiet fans (both 120 and 80mm)?

Does it also has a CPU fan?  Often it's the noisiest.  How many hard drives and what's the CPU?

I'd start by replacing the 120mm fan with a slower one, or possibly one that has temperature coupled speed control.

Then see if you can replace the CPU fan.  I'm not familiar with the Dell case, but they use CPU shrouds a lot of the time, so you might no have any control over the CPU fan to use.

If the case has good airflow and you have, say, two or less hard drives, you can probably dispense with the 80mm front fan.  Hopefully you have good temperature sensors on the motherboard and in the case, so you can see the results of changing any fans.

The power supply fan is probably the toughest.  If the Dell case and PSU aren't too proprietary you may be able to replace the PSU with a more efficient one with a quieter fan.  That's going to be the most costly item, though.

You can also add some sound damping within the case that will help with the internal fan and hard drive noise.  Doesn't do much for case and PSU fan noise, though.

[NewBuyer]

would you possibly be replacing more loud parts with quieter versions?

Exactly.

I'm on a pretty limited budget, so buying something else completely isn't really what I'm looking to do right now. Unless it's under $100 or so

You can try wiring the fans (including the PS fan) to operate at 5V instead of the stock 12V and see if this still allows adequate cooling. I'm sure you probably know this, but make very sure that you do thorough temp and stability tests after any cooling or fan swaps - as temperature creep can be very slow and with damaging results. Also, if you open and mod your PS fan, make sure the supply is fully discharged, as the caps in there can sometimes hold a dangerous charge for some time after unplugging from the wall.

Sorry to be redundant, but what do you use your computer for mainly - is it mostly music / file-serving / business apps?

[JimJ]

Sorry to be redundant, but what do you use your computer for mainly - is it mostly music / file-serving / business apps?

100% music related stuff, basically the only programs installed are Firefox, Foobar and uTorrent for torrent seeding

Does it also has a CPU fan?  Often it's the noisiest.  How many hard drives and what's the CPU?

I can't remember if it has a CPU fan. Just a single 250GB right now, probably going to a 1TB this fall though. Processor is a 2.4gig P4.

[JEaton]

I can't remember if it has a CPU fan. Just a single 250GB right now, probably going to a 1TB this fall though. Processor is a 2.4gig P4.

The CPU fan is often the most obnoxious - usually a little fan whining away at supersonic speed.  P4s are notoriously hot, so their fans are usually high speed.  I'd look into that one.  You just have to open the case and hold you ear next to each fan to tell which is the loudest or most annoying.

With just one drive, I'd say you could probably get rid of the front fan.  Often front fans actually impede airflow.  Just make sure cables are pulled out of the way and that any unnecessary drive trays or other structures in the case are removed so that you get decent airflow from front to back within the case.  The PSU and a single 120mm fan are often enough to cool most cases.  Also make sure the case itself is somewhere that gets good air - not stuffed into some kind of cabinet.  If I'm not mistaken, you have onboard video, so except for the CPU and the single hard drive, there shouldn't be a lot of heat in that case.