SPJ

I have recently become aware as to how noisy my PC seems to be.

The PC in question is a Fujitsu Siemens Euroline 1400.

When the machine powers up, there is a noise which could either be fans, or simply the power supply which 'hums' ,and doesn't go away until the machine is switched off.

My PC at work is silent by comparison.(HP Vectra)

Any ideas as to whether this is normal or not? Should the fans be constantly on the go, or are they nomally thermostatically controlled? (assuming that this is what the noise is, of course)

Any opinions greatly received.

Steve

Rob Walker

If its an Athlon processor it'll probably be the CPU fan.
Mine sound like a bloody jumbo jet but I'm too scared to change it cos I broke the CPU last time I tried

SPJ

It's a Pentium P4 (I think) definitely not Athlon, anyway.

dsmith

you'd be surprised how much backgound noise there is in an office whcih masks the noise of a single PC. All PCs make some noise - it can be just very marked at home.

ozzy

We've got 200 pc's in our office (2 floors). They're on 24/7, but when I need to power them all off the difference is mindblowing.

They're all Dells and the majority of the noise is from the P3 CPU fan. The hard disk comes a close second, but nothing like the CPU fan.

It's so bad, I'm considering replacing all the CPU fans. You get used to it, but you don't realise the annoying hum until you switch them off. Place turns into a budist temple when they're off

Stefan

Doc

Has the pc become more noisy recently?

Open the case and see where the noise is coming from.

Common culprits are
1) CPU fan
2) Case Fans
3) Graphics card fans (if fitted)
4) Northbridge fans (if fitted)
5) Power supply fans
6) Hard disks

Quieter fans are available or your existing fans could be run on a lower voltage but this would reduce cooling. What are your temperatures like?

Doc

Have a look at the forums on
www.overclock.co.uk
www.overclockers.co.uk
www.theoverclockingstore.co.uk

Also try www.quietpc.com

Should be enough to get you started!

SPJ

Thanks for the repsonses.

In reply to DOC, I am certain the unit has become more noisy rather than it always having been that way.I wouldn't swear to it though.

I'll check out those sites when I get home.

Thanks again.

Steve

MarkO

Very true. My office is a very quiet room, but I never realised how much ambient noise there was until we had a powercut. The UPS failed too and all the lights/PCs/screens went off.

You could hear a pin drop!

Doc

Clean out any dust and then check the fans individually. I had two fans which developed an annoying noise. One was the graphics card fan which I replaced with a better quality fan and the other was the northbridge fan. I replaced this with a passive heatsink.