How Do Quiet PCs Work?
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2019-05-06
·
1,116 words · ~5 min read
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thanks for watching techwiki click the subscribe button then enable
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notifications with the bell icon so you won't miss any future videos have you
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ever gotten all excited over your powerful new pc build then realized once
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you started gaming on it that it sounds like a miniature wind tunnel in your
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bedroom indeed excess computer noise has been an issue for a long time so it
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isn't surprising that these days just about every major case and cooling
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manufacturer including be quiet! who sponsored this video offers some kind of
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quiet series but what makes them quieter
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and what else can you do to cut down on noise let's start by looking at the
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cases themselves many cases marketed as low noise add some kind of dampening
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material to the inside usually foam the reason for this is pretty simple you
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know how an empty room with hardwood floors makes your voice echo
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when you say something but laying down some carpet has the opposite effect same
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principle softer surfaces have a microscopic structure that allows them
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to trap sound rather than reflecting it making foam a cost-effective and popular
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choice well-built quiet cases will also often feature vibration dampening
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features such as small rubber grommets that hold mechanical drives in place to
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keep them from transferring vibration to your case's plastic or metal frame of
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course you still need a way to push heat out of your case so oftentimes quiet
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cases will come with you guessed it quiet fans computer fans are equipped
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with a wide variety of different bearing types these are the little bits in the
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center of the fan that actually enable it to spin you can learn more about them
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here but here's a tldr common sleeve bearing fans are cheap for
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manufacturers and can be reasonably quiet when they are new the problem is
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that compared to ball bearing fans which are a bit more expensive and typically
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louder they tend to wear out much faster and any worn out fan is a loud fan
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trust me as you move up into higher end designs you can get to have your cake
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and eat some of it too rifle bearing fans share
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some design similarities with sleeves but they are better lubricated which
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increases their longevity moving further up the food chain we find fluid dynamic
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bearing fans that do a better job of keeping the lubricant between the fan
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and the seal using high pressure this cuts down on friction making them much
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quieter and finally you can even get magnetic bearings where the bearing
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doesn't even touch the body of the fan kind of like a maglev train which makes
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them insanely quiet but because those are also quite expensive you'll often
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see quiet cases designed to use fewer larger fans as they give you lots of
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airflow at lower rpms which helps them stay quieter than their smaller
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counterparts which leads us perfectly to another way to cut down on fan noise if
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a slower fan is quieter surely one that's off is even better some high
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efficiency power supplies feature a 0 RPM fan mode which means the fan won't
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spin up at all when the system is idle though it should be noted that once you
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fire up a game the fan will need to spin so zero RPM mode isn't an excuse for a
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manufacturer to cheap out on it the same is true for graphics cards which can
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have as many as three or four fans on them and be a huge source of noise under
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load so keep a lookout for gpus that are cooled well enough to not need the fans
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all the time some can even play basic games with the fans off
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crazy regardless of what kind of fan setup you have in your pc though keep an
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eye out for components that allow you to set custom fan curves some motherboards
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and cases include a fan controller so you won't be fighting a losing battle
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against a pc that thinks it knows better than you how much cooling it needs
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yeah right but what if you simply don't want to mess around with more fans than
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you absolutely have to well it is possible to buy passive heatsinks for
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your CPU and GPU that you don't strap fans to and therefore are totally silent
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but not only can they limit your overclocking potential they can also be
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really bulky and unsightly so you may want to pass on a case with a window if
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you go this route root a more popular option is to liquid cool
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your rig and simply place water blocks on your CPU and graphics card combined
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with a radiator with quiet bearing fans the only thing to watch for here is the
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quality of your pump so make sure to thoroughly check reviews as just like
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cheap fans cheap pumps can wear out quickly and get very noisy and finally
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keep in mind that even if your cooling system is quieter than a church mouse
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it's still important to pick components like power supplies and graphics cards
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that won't suffer from coil whine or electrical noise so make sure to read
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reviews and see if a certain model you're looking at is susceptible to it
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otherwise that high-pitched distraction might totally wipe out any acoustic
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benefits you got from spending your entire tax refund on an RGB nickel
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plated water block the be quiet! silent base 601 delivers
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the perfect combination of maximum silence and an excellent usability for
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remarkably quiet configurations it's got noise dampening vents providing
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excellent air permeability with maximum silence extra thick insulation mats of
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10 millimeters in the front top and sides and two pre-installed purewings
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two 140 millimeter fans there's also a three-step fan controller catering up to
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three fans a power supply shroud and smart hard drive slot covers providing a
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neat interior it's ready for radiators up to 360 millimeters and it's got a
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side panel made of tinted and tempered glass there's a three-year
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manufacturer's warranty and the product was conceived design and quality
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controlled in germany so you know it's good check it out at the link below
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