Airflow and Noise Reduction

[Cool1Net6]

Hey. I just recieved the case I planned to mod, and after a quick look-over, I have a couple questions to ask.

I want this PC to be silent, without going crazy (no liquid cooling). My idea is to foam some of the interior. Is this a good idea? What kind of foam should I use, and where can I get it? Are there better sound-reduction methods?

The front bezel of the case has a serious cooling problem. It has practically no vents. The one vent it has on the bottom is blocked completely by the front USB and Audio circuit board. Anyone have any ideas for improvement?

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/5779/blockedbezel13jd.jpg
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/2980/blockedbezel21qe.jpg

Thats all for now...

-Cool-

[CanaBalistic]

There are sound dampening mats you can get and cut to fit. As for foam... One of the better foams to use is the egg carton shaped bed foamies. A regular bed foamie would work aswell but not as good.

For the bezel... Some pictures from the front would be nice. Cut some vent holes in it. You could drill holes or cut notches besides the usb board.

Edit:
Incase you were talking about foam in a can. Get maximum expanding mono (insulating) foam.

[Aero]

Insulation foam is terrible for sound reduction. I would spend the extra money on sound dampening mats.

Also for the air flow. Heres a REALLY BAD image of your case I drew up in paint. Sorry I didn't photoshop it. WAY to tired for that right now. ButI would say get some 40mm fans, maybe 80mm if theres room, and place them in the red areas because they look like you can mod those without messing with the wiring.

http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/5198/untitled13wr.jpg

[Omega]

Go get some Sonex Wiltec foam from MNPCtech.

http://www.mnpctech.com/SonexWilltec.html

Then, get PSU and fan dampers, and low speed/high CFM fans if you can find them. Use as many 120mm and 92mm fans as you can in place of 80mm's. Also, fan speed controllers are good cause you can turn up the speed when you're more concerned about cooling.

You can also look at fan-less GPU and CPU coolers, but I wouldn't use one unless it's going to be in a cool enviroment and not a gaming rig.

[dgrmkrp]

after reading a lot about silent cooling, there are a few things i learned:

*deaden your side panels, like antec did.. by laminating plastic and aluminum.. try something similar.. this removes resonance and reduces noise by a small amount

*use acoustic foam to further reduce noise.. this tries to turn the case in an anechoic chamber, but severely diminishes cooling.. that's why u must carefully plan airflow..

*never have fans showing directly from your case.. if you can see them, u can hear them.. by making indirect air paths u might loose some cooling, but hiding fans reduces noise.. and if u use quiet ones :)

*use the most efficient heatsink u have at your disposal: heatpipes and lots of them.. something from scythe, thermaltake or thermalright.. ideally, a 6mm high quality heatpipe should move about 50W of heat.. 8mm ones move 70+W.. more of them, better.. placing these efficient heatsinks in a windtunnel will increase the cooling power because air will have to pass, no matter at what air flow rate(i hope..).

*no 80mm fans or smaller.. unless you really have to.. that means you have to do some tinkering with the front panel.. i saw some brilliant designs from dell, where they place the fan very behind the faceplate, but leave a space in the side panel and use a low-restriction grill or no grill for air to enter..
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hope this helps :)