Computer (user) Idiocy........ Back in January, I replaced my ageing laptop with a spanking new desktop I've built meself.....the case was an Antec Sonata, and was billed as 'silent'.... When I first set it up, it was clearly not silent, it was more like a vacuum cleaner, but I assumed this was necessary to keep my slightly overclocked CPU cool......tonight, while replacing the graphics fan in the hope of quietening it a bit, I discovered a little power cable marked 'FAN ONLY' Plugged the case fan into that badboy = Silent PC - turns out I've been runnin it on 12v unecessarily all this time. I should be delighted, but I'm too fucking angry at myself! :doh:
on a similar note... ive got the standard rear fan and an optional front fan hooked up in my machine.. is the front one really needed or can i hush it up a bit?
MBM lets you do it, although the interface ain't that good. You can grab it from here. Some BIOS versions allow you to do it too, mine has a cutoff temp which is set to 80 degrees by default but is alterable to about 60. My BIOS also has a clever management system built in which allows it to control the speed of the fans within the PSU and on top of the CPU based on the temperatures on the CPU die, the HDD, and the case.... you can set the fan speeds to reach preset levels at certain temperatures or just set it to the lowest speed....
