D5 - Loudest thing in my system.

[Justintoxicated]

After chanigng my loop around to a tripple radiator and moving around the components the D5 pump is clearly the loudest part of my system.

Its suspended by tubing and velcroed to the bottom of my HD bay. It's not a vibrating noise, but more of an electrical whine. I don't think I ever noticed it before because the pump was not in the front of my case, but behind my radiator and fans. I also now have double the noise from my raptor drives now that they are in front of the case in the hard drive bay (Rubber gromit mounted bay in Stacker STK-01).

Before I had a PA120.2 in the front of my stacker mounted with dense weather stripping foam around it, and the Hard Drives on the floor of the case behind the radiator with the pump on top of those. But I also had a MB fan that may have been covering up some of the noise (DFI Lanparty Fan).

Anyways, would the next step be getting a new pump or do most of you just deal with the noisy D5? I almost liked the fan noise better, electrical hum is kinda annoying...Would it be ok to wrap the pump with closed cell foam or would that cause it to overheat? (I'm using the Closed cell foam from RAAMAUDIO, left over from my car stereo intall).

And now I know what everyone is saying about raptors being loud (never evennoticed mine when it was behind the radiator with closed cell foam on the case floor). Also FYI the new WD 1TB drives run very cool and are very silent, even compared to my 400GB and 500GB WD drives the difference is astounding.

[WoZZeR999]

My D5 is not noisy at all. Take it apart and make sure there isn't something stuck behind the impeller. The D5 is really only noisy when it hasn't been properly bled and still has some air in it.

[Justintoxicated]

well I'm pretty sure theres nothing in it...Like I said its just electrical whine, turning it down to 1 does quiet it quite a bit, I might just do that and crank the fans up a little more.

edit:spelling

[gigabit]

My D5 is so quite you cant even tell if its running. Seriously. maybe you need to rebuild it.

[Justintoxicated]

Well this isn't my frist one (my second actualy), the other had the same hum, but now that it is in the front of my stacker and I have quieted all other sources of noise it is the most audiable thing in the system (My Yates are runing at 7v etc)...

The pump is getting close to 3 years old, should I fork out $100 for a new one? I'm not sure it will be any quieter. Almsot sounds like whining caps but not quite that high pitched.

[ladderman]

You say it’s “Its suspended by tubing and velcroed to the bottom of my HD bay”

You will still get some noise through Velcro. Try to seat some foam between the pump and the bottom of your HD bay. That will help stop the noise.

What setting did you have the pump on?

When I first got my Raptor it was making that much noise I thought it was faulty. So I complained to the retailer and all they told me was that unfortunately that’s the way they are. So we are all stuck with them. Very annoying.:mad:

[Justintoxicated]

yea finny thing is I could not hear the pump or rappy where they were located origionaly, I thoguht everyone was crazy saying the rappys are loud :P. hard drive noise does not bug me as much as electrical whine from the pump though. Changing to foam isn't going to do much, there velcro is actualy attached to a foam pad already it's actualy mostly supported by the tubing, velcro just keeps it hanging in place.

heres a moc up before I switch to metal barbs.
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc277/justintoxicated1981/IMG_2032.jpg

[Erasmus354]

I would definitely fiddle with the vario on the back. You might find that 1 isn't even the quietest setting. The sound from the D5 changes in quality/pitch/tone quite a bit across the range of speeds. I found that halfway between 3 and 5 seemed to be the least noticeable through my P180.

Also, the EK barbs from PTS for the PA series are amazing. I got some for my PA160 the other day as well as for my 8800GT full cover block, I love the design of the barbs. Easy to put on and remove 7/16" Masterkleer, all other barbs I have used are hard to put on and impossible to take off.

[Snyxxx]

You will find everyone has a different opinion of "quiet". My D5 had a whine to it as well. As mentioned above, dial it down a little to your preferred noise threshold. I saw no temperature difference between 1 and 5, so I left it at 1.

This whine is why I eventually went with the DDC-2 18W (red impeller) version. It is quieter, smaller and has more pumping power than the D5.

Please, no comments from anyone on reliability of DDC-2s. I have three and not had any failures. It gets old seeing threads on this issue.

[Justintoxicated]

I got the NCIX barbs now, once I finish up ill post real pics in a differnet thread. Scrached up the case a bit though while working on it.. :(

[rogard]

I have 2 with purchased 1 year apart - one whines the other doesnt.
Seeing as they are both in the same loop I dialed them both down to 3 and they are fine.

[ripken204]

mine also has the same problem, very annoying. and my loop is perfectly bled.

[Raxxath]

I bought a D-Tek dB-1 because my DDC 3.2 was too loud for my tastes. The dB-1 was far quieter, and very close to truly silent from a couple feet away. It started rattling loudly after a few hours however, so I'm going to return it. Assuming that was just a fluke, I would reccomend the pump if you have a low restriction setup- its probably as quiet as you can get.

As for quieting down a Raptor, my Raptor made a loud hissing noise when idle, and of course the very loud rumbling whenever it was seeking. I put it in a Scythe Quiet Drive enclosure, which reduced both idle and seek noise, and then suspended it with rubber, reducing seek noise even more. Its still not silent when seeking, but if you have the space, I think that's the best method for quieting it.

This is from someone with extremely sensitive hearing- I can often hear lightbulbs from across the room. :p:

[CedricFP]

Wait, I thought the outlet should never face down?

My D5 is the loudest thing in my system. It's kind of a low hum. It sounds like a fan on 12v really.

[Justintoxicated]

Wait, I thought the outlet should never face down?

My D5 is the loudest thing in my system. It's kind of a low hum. It sounds like a fan on 12v really.

Why not? I thgouht it was the inlet that should never face down...I don't see how this could cause any problems. I had the input sideways and the output facing up before, I dont really see what difference it would bake so long as there isn't air trapped in it?...

[Sunin]

Mine is also dead silent. I mean I have to put my ear next to it in order to hear the pump. Did you run it while dry for too long and damage the pump? Also mine is set to 5, Max.

[serialk11r]

Its all perception...the chance that your ears are sensitive (like mine) are higher than your pump being dead.

[CedricFP]

Why not? I thgouht it was the inlet that should never face down...I don't see how this could cause any problems. I had the input sideways and the output facing up before, I dont really see what difference it would bake so long as there isn't air trapped in it?...
Actually I believe you are correct - I was mistaken.

[Justintoxicated]

I ended up wrapping it inn ensulite (closed cell foam) last night, now it makes less noise on level 5 than it did on level 1. Ideling Hard drives are now the loudset part of my system I would foam them but then there would not be enough cooling. Perhaps I will put a piece of foam in the drive bays in front of them to absob the sound waves, but leave the drive bays below them open so the fan will strill draw in air from below. Pople have used similar tricks to quite PSU fans so I don't see why this would not work :) Man I'm tempted to foam my entire case!


Now will running the D5 on level 5 drasticaly shorten it's life compared to 3 or so? I'm not seeing much difference in temps....I'm starting to think flowrate is over rated.

I'll get some pictures of my ghetto wrapping this weekend, the pump will be hidden anyways so no big deal :)

[Mech0z]

Would you get a D5 Vario or DDC with Petra top for the best performance / noise ratio?

[Justintoxicated]

Would you get a D5 Vario or DDC with Petra top for the best performance / noise ratio?

Never owned a DDC do I'm not sure but the foam really made quite a difference!

I don't think you can put foam around a DDC though, or maybe you just can't set it on top of foam, I'm not sure...

[Snyxxx]

Would you get a D5 Vario or DDC with Petra top for the best performance / noise ratio?

DDC of course. Slightly better performance, smaller, changeable barbs and quieter. What is there not too love.

No one better spew a word about reliability.

[Meatpuppet]

DDC of course. Slightly better performance, smaller, changeable barbs and quieter. What is there not too love.

No one better spew a word about reliability.

Well, there is a bit of a price differential that is on the D5s side, aside from that my D5s are both whisper quiet so I wouldn't dream of changing them out. Lastly, DDCs are top inlet. I don't know how well that would jive with the pictured setup. Another note, the DDC pumps don't dump as much heat into the loop so the pump itself gets quite hot. As such, it is generally reccomended that they be attached directly to metal for thermal conductivity or actively cooled.

[Sparky]

FWIW my DDC-1 and my DDC3.2 both run only lukewarm. Neither is in direct airflow, they both sat on rubber feet so the bottom had a little less than 1/4" airspace underneath. DDC-1 died tho :( but I got the 3.2 in return :up: and it is quieter too :D

[Meatpuppet]

My point of reference was the DDC 2, that thing got down right spicy on a glob of PT gel stuff.

[Justintoxicated]

Well here you go I finaly got some pics of what I did. The foam dropped the noise at least 3+ DB the loudest thing is now my Hard drives or Fans when I crank them up.


http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc277/justintoxicated1981/front.jpg

and all sealed up.

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc277/justintoxicated1981/Workstation3.jpg

[lior307]

Justintoxicated - Did you just Sealed your pump or what -
I see in the Pics between the 120mm Fan and the Radiator ,
is it the pump with the Coating ??
I belive it's not good to Seal the pmp since it's getting a little hot .

[Justintoxicated]

Justintoxicated - Did you just Sealed your pump or what -
I see in the Pics between the 120mm Fan and the Radiator ,
is it the pump with the Coating ??
I belive it's not good to Seal the pmp since it's getting a little hot .

I just wrapped it in foam, It never really got warm that I can recall, and from what others were saying it should be fine (D5 not DDC). I would like to get more opinions on this. The pump body is plastic anyways which I don't think is very good at dissipating heat to begin with. I have had it this way for a few weeks now. it looks really ghetto with just foam pad stuck over it with rubber bands lol, but it really does work well as far as noise is concerned.

[Justintoxicated]

bump to verify wrapping the D5 should not cause problems.

[Waterlogged]

bump to verify wrapping the D5 should not cause problems.

50/50 chance there may be problems down the road. One thing I do know for sure is, your now dumping more pump heat into the loop than without the wrapping.

[eXa]

Placement of the pump in the case aint ideal noisewise. back of the pump up front so the noise goes straight out and into ur ear.

Is that a full HD screen? and where did u get that blue matrix screen saver?

[robf]

Justintoxicated, awesome setup! Very, very nice.
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc277/justintoxicated1981/Workstation3.jpg
Are you on RC by any chance?

[phelan1777]

Justintoxicated, awesome setup! Very, very nice.
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc277/justintoxicated1981/Workstation3.jpg
Are you on RC by any chance?

Same screen saver +1:up:

If you have not already, can you add a few pics of your Stacker to the Stacker Slacker thread?

[Justintoxicated]

Same screen saver +1:up:

If you have not already, can you add a few pics of your Stacker to the Stacker Slacker thread?

Trying to get some good pictures first, my camera gets screwed up by the Royal Blue LED's. I can't get the white balance to work correctly. These were taken on tungsten setting so colors are not correct for walls etc, but it was the closest I could use.

Monitor is a 37" Westinghouse 1080p TV. So it serves as TV/HTPC screen/Monitor. Highly recommend it. Any larger and I would have to sit back a bit, but it works awesome for games like crysis etc.

Got the screen saver here
http://www.kellysoftware.com/ssaver/Matrix_ks.asp

The foam took care of the noise, and I Can't really flip the pump the other direction Tube coming in from the front... Might be able to build a mount for it in the back of the case later though. I didn't really notice any heat increase from wrapping the pump, the plastic body of it does not really dissipate much heat I guess. Which is why I figured I could wrap it to reduce volume without any problems, but now I'm a little worried... I did notice temps went up when I put the cover of the case on, but not from wrapping the pump, I believe the D5 dumps most of it's heat into the loop already.

[vwfix]

My d-5 is completely silent and I just mounted it to the bottom of the case with some Velcro.

[hearseguy_1965]

Have you checked your input volts and amps?

[Justintoxicated]

Have you checked your input volts and amps?

For why?