I have a Dell Dimension with a pentium III processor (800 Mhz). It's about to turn 3 years old. Anyway it's loud! Actually it's been loud since the day I got it but I guess I just tried to never really let it bother me. Recently I had the chance to play with a new Dell pentium IV (8100 series I think) and it is almost as quiet as a mouse.... Will changing the fan in mine make it quieter? Also I think it may have two fans (one for the CPU and a case fan). Which fan is normally the loudest. I think it's the case fan but I don't know that for sure.... Anyone have any insight into it? Also it looks like they have a 60MM and an 80MM fan. Anyone know which one I need??? Any help would be great, -Guru
I have had a 3 year old ( actually 3.25 ) old Pentium III - 750 XPS which I believe is very similar to yours. I never really thought that it was very loud, so you might try changing your fan to a new one. Although there are 2 fans in your PC, there is no "case" fan. Only a fan for the CPU, and a fan that is built into the power supply unit. Check out the following weblink for a good replacement fan: http://pcpowerandcooling.com/products/alarmandaccesories/silencerfan/index.htm I just recently bought a Dell Dimension 8300, P-4 at 2.60 and it is SUPER quiet as well, that is until I added a PCI slot graphics card to run a third monitor ( 64 mb Mad Dog Nvidia Mx-440 ) and it comes with a fan on the card to cool down the chipset. My 8300 is whisper quiet no more, cause that fan on the chipset is LOUD!
Thank you for the reply Waggie. So is installing a new fan a pretty simple task? Anything I should watch out for? -Guru
after 3 years, there's probably a good amount of dust gunk on those fans. You'll need to dust it off cloth and canister blower. Try that first before replacing fans. A good source for quiet/quieting parts, but not cheap: www.sharkacorp.com
your power supply fan may be the cause. I actually use specially made quiet power supplies. also your cpu heatsink may be loud, try Zalman fans.
I just happen to have a dell 4100 also and when I got it it was pretty quiet. Lately it was getting rather noisy also. I was going to add some memory to it so I opened it up and vacuumed it out. Well there are only 2 memory slots and I thought there were 3 so no memory upgrade. Since I put the cover back on and after the dust was vacuumed off it seems to be running a lot quieter. try to keep the vacuum far away from the computer when doing this.