make my dell quiet

yorkshireterr

please can anyone tell me how to make my dell dimension 1100 celeron 335 (2.80ghz, 533) really quiet? I am looking at this Zalman Super Flower ALCU
on the ccl site and wondering if it is worth the money and also will it fit? Is there a cheaper way? Any help or advise please ?

BillScarab

Zalman coolers are pretty good for quieting things down, but you need to identify the source of the nosie. If it is not the CPu fan changing that won't help. Some ways to cool a PC

Water cooling, very quiet but very expensive

Air cooling
Fit a more efficient CPU cooler (such as the one you mentioned)
Replace the cooler on the Graphics card with a more efficient one, or buy a graphics card with passive cooling (ie a heatsink but no fan)
Replace case fans with bigger ones. Bigger fans rotate more slowly to move the same volume of air as a small fan so they are quieter.

When buying fans and coolers it's worth getting decent quality ones as they tend to be queiter than cheap ones.

If your hard drive is noisy you can download software from the manufacturers to adjust the speed of the drive which can make them quieter. I once had a very nosiy Maxtor drive and after dropping the speed from 100% to 99% it was virtually silent.

Another option is to put sound deadening material in the case but that tends to insulate it as well leading to more heat so you need more or faster fans which leads to noise! :rolleyes:

One other thing to do is to open up the case and clear out any dust with a can of compressed air, that will make all of your coolers more efficient so the fans won't need to work as hard (assuming they are variable speed).

fivepound

Try this web site, you should find everything you need to know.

http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/home

John_Gray

I talked to Quiet PC last summer a year ago about my Dell Dimension 8300 which was v. noisy during the hot weather, but they said they couldn't do anything because of the proprietary nature of the Dell motherboard.

So check carefully that whatever cooling mechanism you choose will work in your Dell.

John

ColourMeHappy

Quite a few dells have got specialised cooling ducts built into the box. It may be difficult to find something that fits. Have you looked to see if there is room in the box?

I have also recently changed my graphics card from a passively cooled ATI X1300Pro to a fan cooled NVidia card. My PC has gone from near silent to is someone hoovering next door? Occasionally the graphics card goes a bit crazy and it sounds like the hoovers come into my room.

The point I'm making is, are you sure it's the CPU

ATB

CMH

fivepound

Easy way to check - use a plastic pen top etc and stop each fan in turn and listen to see what's making the most noise.

Warning - obviously you have to be sensible and careful - if you are not sure how to do this then don't try it!