Best material for sound dampening server case.

[Sir_Zeke]

Hi guys, can you recommend what to buy to reduce sound coming from my new case? Is a 4U that will be water cooled in next few months. For now I wan to put foam on side and top panel. I will not be putting anything on blue zone as I will be installing radiator there. What thickness do I need to make a good improvement? Egg shell shape or flat?

Here are two I found Egg Shape or Flat Shape

 

My case now:

Thanks for help.

[Bombastinator]

Best is hard because there are many definitions of best.  Does it matter how much the machine weighs?  There are some good cheap sound deadening materials but they are heavy.  Exploring automotive sound deadening materials may be useful.  The cheapest most effective I know of is rubber backed stair tred silencing tiles.  They’re short pile fire resistant carpeting with a backing made of recycled tires.  They’re a good 1/4” thick though and extremely heavy. For sound absorption you want a material with a lot of density changes and general “movable but takes effort to moveness” foam works because of its air-plastic-air-plastic structure. Recycled rubbers are well liked because they have internal layers and are often chopped up making more layers.

 

Foams are popular not because they’re especially effective, but because they’re cheap to ship mail order because they’re light.

 

Looking at your case there seems to be oodles of empty space.  One thought is a material called “blu-fil” it’s recycled blue jeans turned into insulation.  I’ve seen it used to make wildly effective home made anechoic chambers. It likes to sit with the layers sideways so the edges of the layers face the sound producing object.  It’s thick though. 

[Sir_Zeke]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

Best is hard because there are many definitions of best.  Does it matter how much the machine weighs?  There are some good cheap sound deadening materials but they are heavy.  Exploring automotive sound deadening materials may be useful.  The cheapest most effective I know of is rubber backed stair tred silencing tiles.  They’re short pile fire resistant carpeting with a backing made of recycled tires.  They’re a good 1/4” thick though and extremely heavy. For sound absorption you want a material with a lot of density changes and general “movable but takes effort to moveness” foam works because of its air-plastic-air-plastic structure. Recycled rubbers are well liked because they have internal layers and are often chopped up making more layers.

 

Foams are popular not because they’re especially effective, but because they’re cheap to ship mail order because they’re light.

 

Looking at your case there seems to be oodles of empty space.  One thought is a material called “blu-fil” it’s recycled blue jeans turned into insulation.  I’ve seen it used to make wildly effective home made anechoic chambers. It likes to sit with the layers sideways so the edges of the layers face the sound producing object.  It’s thick though. 

Thank you for help, I don't mind for the case to gain weight. I did notice that car isolation is cheaper and looks like is better quality. After few minutes of browsing is this a good choice? Link? 

[Bombastinator]

12 minutes ago, Sir_Zeke said:

Thank you for help, I don't mind for the case to gain weight. I did notice that car isolation is cheaper and looks like is better quality. After few minutes of browsing is this a good choice? Link? 

Looks like two layers of foam with a layer of rubber on the inside.  I’ve never used it. Looks very similar to standard case sound deadening material.  Looks relatively light weight. The sound deadening material I see used most often in car restoration is a soft gooey rubber that has a metal sheet (aluminum foil?) over it.  I also see recycled cotton and foam. 
 

Just looking at that case again.  So you really have 6 fans to cool a single mini atx board?  
 

What I might try:

remove the front 3 fans entirely.  Leave the holes open. Remove the far middle fan and put it behind the cpu cooler as exaust, fill the entire far section on the other side of the motherboard mount where the fan was with some space taker-upper like blu-fil.  Line the rest of theinterior cas  metal surfaces throughout with some sort of vibration dampener/sound absorber.

Edited September 20, 2020 by Bombastinator

[Sir_Zeke]

10 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Looks like two layers of foam with a layer of rubber on the inside.  I’ve never used it. Looks very similar to standard case sound deadening material.  Looks relatively light weight. The sound deadening material I see used most often in car restoration is a soft gooey rubber that has a metal sheet (aluminum foil?) over it.  I also see recycled cotton and foam.

To cover sides and top panel I need more or less 600mm square. This is 540mm square so with PSU taking a bit of space it should be enough. Can you show me a example of good sound dampening material?

 

10 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Just looking at that case again.  So you really have 6 fans to cool a single mini atx board?

Next month I will be replacing motherboard, CPU and RAM for 12+ core ryzen. I have 2080 ti too so I do need good air flow while running fans on very low speeds.

 

[Bombastinator]

Big box home stores can get cheaper yet. And heavier.  Houses need sound insulation too.  This is where rubber backed carpeting and blu-fil come from. 

 

Heres a guy doing sound insulation in a car

 

19 minutes ago, Sir_Zeke said:

To cover sides and top panel I need more or less 600mm square. This is 540mm square so with PSU taking a bit of space it should be enough. Can you show me a example of good sound dampening material?

 

Next month I will be replacing motherboard, CPU and RAM for 12+ core ryzen. I have 2080 ti too so I do need good air flow while running fans on very low speeds.

 

None of the stuff in the forward portion of the case need much in the way of cooling.  If you stuffed that stuff in the back portion you might be able to still remove the front three fans and get away with it. 

[Sir_Zeke]

As for the video there is barely any information about materials used or any information that are useful to me. I will not be removing fans from this case. 3 front fans are for 360mm radiator that will be install in front. 3 fans in a middle run at 9dB so you can't hear them. Thank you for help but I'm looking for best material for my case and the way I will be using it. 

[Bombastinator]

3 minutes ago, Sir_Zeke said:

As for the video there is barely any information about materials used or any information that are useful to me. I will not be removing fans from this case. 3 front fans are for 360mm radiator that will be install in front. 3 fans in a middle run at 9dB so you can't hear them. Thank you for help but I'm looking for best material for my case and the way I will be using it. 

Ah.  There’s a radiator as well.  That does change things.

[Sir_Zeke]

2 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Ah.  There’s a radiator as well.  That does change things.

I did mention in my original post that this server will be water cooled and radiator will be in front aka blue zone from original post.

[Bombastinator]

Failure may be definition of “blue zone” which I take from your statement to mean the forward section between the two layers of fans.  There would possibly be not enough room for all the hardware in the other section of a radiator/pump/etc.. which by process of elimination and standard trope systems is probably termed the “red” zone.  Might not even be room for the hardware pictured in pic #2 even.  This stuff must be for the GPU only as the cpu has an air cooler on it.  Or is that temporary? Most gpu AIOs are 1 fan or 2 fan radiators only.  Could be an issue with a 360 length to fill.

 

You seem to want specifics for links and things you can simply click.  I don’t have them. All I’ve got is conceptual rather than specific. The concept isn’t complicated:

A lot of sound isolation stuff is dealt with on a shipping weight basis more that a price/performance basis. As such heavier but cheaper materials can often be found in other than computing solutions.  Automobiles have a specific interest in vibrating metal which is also a cpu case issue.

[Sir_Zeke]

I'm not here to discuss my water cooling loop or fan placement. I was not expecting anything from you. If you don't know how to help, don't. I did ask for examples of material used as you did look like you had done this before. I was wrong. 

 

At the moment this looks like that best option price, size and quality. If you guys have any other suggestions please me know.