How can I make my HDDs quieter without impacting their performance?

[Tomek20225]

Hi

I want to make my PC quieter. I have found replacement for my fans, rubber pins for them, a fan controller and a soud dumpening foam. I don't know how can I make my PSU, GPU and HDDs quiet yet.

The PSU is a different story and I think it will be left as it is. I have a Gigabyte GTX 970, so without changes in it's BIOS I can't turn it to fanless mode anyhow (it's few months old PC, I really don't want to brick anything).

So it leaves us with HDDs.

I have two of them and an SSD. One is Samsung 1TB and it's almost 5 years old, but it turns on to loud mode only when it's used , which is not that often. The second one is Western Digital Purple 2TB. It's usually not that loud, but it's variable RPMs (from 5400 to 7200) make it really noticeable when it starts working, just like the first one.

My question is - what can I do to make them quiet without losing performance? I mean, should I buy somewhat rubber pins, wrap it with a sound dumpening foam...? The replacement or changing something in HDTune or stuff like that is not an option.

Thanks in advance!

If you have advices about GPU and PSU too then feel free to share them with me

[PlayStation 2]

That power supply is cringeworthy.

Get something like an EVGA Supernova G2/GS 550. Both have ECO modes that shut off the fans at lower loads.

[AnonymousGuy]

Put rubber bands around them and then install them in the cage without screws.  Very old school.  Rubber should create enough friction to hold them in.

[vanished]

By default windows will spin down HDDs that are not in use after 2 (?) hours (I think it is).  When you go to access a file on one of those drives, it has to be spun back up.  This, though temporary, can be much louder, or at least more noticeable than if you just leave them on all the time.  You might want to look into changing that setting in power options.

[Tomek20225]

That power supply is cringeworthy.

Get something like an EVGA Supernova G2/GS 550. Both have ECO modes that shut off the fans at lower loads.

I told you that replacement is not an option, especially because that PC literally is few months old - that would be the stupidest thing ever. I personally think that my PSU is really high quality and it will easily let me to power an SLI setup in the future, so that's the second argument why downgrading is not a good option.

I'm looking for very cheap solutions to make everything quieter, because I didn't consider it in building process.

I'm not even sure how much does it even make noise - I'm certain that the GPU is what makes the most, then there are fans that I can't control anyhow and HDDs. I don't know if it's a problem, I just think cautiusly.

Do you have any other ideas?

[PlayStation 2]

I told you that replacement is not an option, especially because that PC literally is few months old - that would be the stupidest thing ever. I personally think that my PSU is really high quality and it will easily let me to power an SLI setup in the future, so that's the second argument why downgrading is not a good option.

I'm looking for very cheap solutions to make everything quieter, because I didn't consider it in building process.

I'm not even sure how much does it even make noise - I'm certain that the GPU is what makes the most, then there are fans that I can't control anyhow and HDDs. I don't know if it's a problem, I just think cautiusly.

Do you have any other ideas?

Short answer: no.

Long answer: you're gonna need a better PSU for SLI.

[Tomek20225]

By default windows will spin down HDDs that are not in use after 2 (?) hours (I think it is). When you go to access a file on one of those drives, it has to be spun back up. This, though temporary, can be much louder, or at least more noticeable than if you just leave them on all the time. You might want to look into changing that setting in power options.

I didn't know about it - thanks man! If there is a way to turn them off after few minutes it might help a lot, but it would make a lot of noise to turn them back on - people notice changes in noise more than noise itself.

In case it doesn't work, do you have ideas about what can I do physically to make them quieter? Like putting rubber or foam around them or something?

[vanished]

I didn't know about it - thanks man! If there is a way to turn them off after few minutes it might help a lot, but it would make a lot of noise to turn them back on - people notice changes in noise more than noise itself.

In case it doesn't work, do you have ideas about what can I do physically to make them quieter? Like putting rubber or foam around them or something?

Yeah I suppose if you hear them running the other option would be to spin them down more often, but remember there is a trade off - running more than they need to will wear them out, but turning on and off a lot more than normal will wear them out faster too.

 

As for physical means, dampening pads are a good idea, but as for wrapping them in anything, just make sure they still have airflow.  You can always check temperatures using hwmonitor or the like and make sure they don't get too hot.  If the case already has dampening foam, not sure there is much more than that you can do.

 

And I'm pretty sure that (at least while gaming) the GPU will be the loudest thing in the case by far.  Keep that in mind

[Tomek20225]

Short answer: no.

Long answer: you're gonna need a better PSU for SLI.

Somehow people do this with even worse PSUs and mine is considered by me and a lot of other people as pretty decent in terms of quality and redundancy, but you sound like you know thing or two about this. Let me guess, you had a Chieftec PSU and it broke quite fast?

Also Linus even showed that his 4 way SLI drained around 650W from the wall in full load, so I'm not that worried.

[PlayStation 2]

Somehow people do this with even worse PSUs and mine is considered by me and a lot of other people as pretty decent in terms of quality and redundancy, but you sound like you know thing or two about this. Let me guess, you had a Chieftec PSU and it broke quite fast?

Also Linus even showed that his 4 way SLI drained around 650W from the wall in full load, so I'm not that worried.

Power =/= quality

Chieftec is pretty garbage.

[Tomek20225]

Yeah I suppose if you hear them running the other option would be to spin them down more often, but remember there is a trade off - running more than they need to will wear them out, but turning on and off a lot more than normal will wear them out faster too.

As for physical means, dampening pads are a good idea, but as for wrapping them in anything, just make sure they still have airflow. You can always check temperatures using hwmonitor or the like and make sure they don't get too hot. If the case already has dampening foam, not sure there is much more than that you can do.

And I'm pretty sure that (at least while gaming) the GPU will be the loudest thing in the case by far. Keep that in mind

And again - thanks! I've just learned something useful.

I know that GPU is the loudest thing, especially because of Windforce cooler, but I cannot change it's fan curve below minimum (around 34%) without a BIOS flash, which I'm extremaly worried about. That PC costed me an arm and a leg :\ I will think about it, but at least in idle it's not that bad in terms of noise.

[vanished]

Power =/= quality

Chieftec is pretty garbage.

 

Yes.  Low end PSUs can die more often than good ones, and can even kill other components when they do die.  They can also start fires, and are often not able to deliver the amount of power they promise.  Please checkout the PSU whitelist to see which brands and models are typically trusted here

[Shakaza]

Somehow people do this with even worse PSUs and mine is considered by me and a lot of other people as pretty decent in terms of quality and redundancy, but you sound like you know thing or two about this. Let me guess, you had a Chieftec PSU and it broke quite fast?

Also Linus even showed that his 4 way SLI drained around 650W from the wall in full load, so I'm not that worried.

If people do use SLI in a PSU worse than that, they're pretty stupid. And what is this garbage about this PSU being "considered" good by a few random people on the internet? Have any of you done extensive testing on it to see if it's up to the standards of the PSU whitelist on this forum? The two (main) people who curate it, @STRMfrmXMN and @Aniallation, know a lot about PSUs, and if they didn't put it on the whitelist, it's probably not that good. Ask them if you have any questions about it or PSUs in general. It's entirely possible that your PSU is a timebomb, just waiting for the right moment to bring down your computer and its components with it.

 

And, tell me, which graphics cards did Linus use that allowed a system with 4 of them to consume only 650 watts? Even 4 GTX 970s would consume more than that on their own, and that's at stock!

[STRMfrmXMN]

Somehow people do this with even worse PSUs and mine is considered by me and a lot of other people as pretty decent in terms of quality and redundancy, but you sound like you know thing or two about this. Let me guess, you had a Chieftec PSU and it broke quite fast?

Also Linus even showed that his 4 way SLI drained around 650W from the wall in full load, so I'm not that worried.

I'm looking at the list on RealhardX about details regarding Chieftec PSUs and "nope"ing my way through the options.... The Corsair RMx and EVGA GS are very, very quiet PSUs that could help you out a lot.