Any good practice tips?

I'd like to hear from some of the modders out there some tips on keeping systems cool, in general.

My machines (P4 and AMD Duron) don't get too hot, but I have three fans on each. (Proccessor, front of case, power converter). The P4 machine also has a fan on the video card (32 meg nVidia). The room is _loud_ and I'd like to eliminate some of the fans. What can I do to quietly keep the machines cool?

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience.

You havent mentioned what size/type of fans you have installed already but i'll assume they are 80mm.

First off change the noisy 80mm front to a 120mm intake (i use akasa amber series which spin at 1400, kick out 44.8 cfm and only produce 18dba).

Next you can replace the fan on your cpu to a more stealthy option.

Then as an extra option you can replace the fan on the gpu for a quieter version or a heatsink.

Here is a link to a very good site that should give you some ideas.

Standard stuff- if standard is 80mm than that's what they are. They do look about 8cm in diameter, I guess.

I didn't know that 120mm fans are quieter. I'm not sure that I can fit them in the back of the boxes, but in the front I don't see a problem. Might just one (front or back) be adequate? Which one should it be? Or is it different case to case?

Thanks.

120mm fans are quieter because they spin at a slower speed to get the same if not more air movement.

Replacing the 80mm front intake with a 120mm will always be a good option. If a 120mm wont fit directly to the back then you could try using an 80mm to 120mm converter (cost is very cheap at around a buck).

When I switched cases (case mod over on dev H) I removed my side intake, front dual intake, and blowhole. I then cut a large (roughly 6.5 x 5.5") hole for cool air intake. I changed the fan on my CPU from the uber-high amerage 70mm p.o.s. AMD fan to a 92mm laser printer fan. throttle them both to CPu load and I have a just as cool system, but with just about no change in temp (idle is higher but load is the same) and silent. You *can* have front intake if you like, but IMO it's not needed unless you have really high ambient temps.

Is there really a big difference between brands? I can only get generic fans here. If I want something brand name than I must ebay it (and pay 100% import tax). Anything that I can do without fans? I'm creative (and not scared of cutting!). I was considering moving the power supply outside of the case. Any thoughts of that?

up to you, the cheap fans that I have are silent at half speed. get a fan controller or rig yourself up one with some pots.

indeed, I have generic 80mm and 120mm fans, but hand picked for slower rpm, but higher cfm, so they're quieter.

but always you can do the 7v trick, if a fan spins too fast