HANDS ON GUIDE

Quieten Your PC

Price:

Nexus Anti Vibration Mounting Kit - £12;

Arctic Silver 5 Compound Small - £6;

Arctic Silver ArctiClean 60ml Kit - £5.01;

Mitron RH-35SE 3.5in Fan Controller - £12;

Nexus Vented PCI Plates - £1.75 for three;

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - £17.60;

Total price: £54.36

What you need: A Philips screwdriver, a plastic sandwich bag and a big paintbrush.

Supplier: www.kustompcs.co.uk

1. If your PC sounds as if it belongs in the RAF when you switch it on, updating the cooling hardware will make a big difference. Standard PC cases and CPU heatsinks are usually good enough at cooling, but often they aren't designed with acoustics in mind. Luckily, it doesn't take a lot of effort or cash to fix these issues.

Your first job is to replace the reference CPU cooler, if you haven't done so already. We know that you're probably sick to death of reading about the amazing adventures of the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro in Custom PC by now, so it's sufficient to say that it doesn't cost much, makes little noise and does a great job of keeping your CPU cool. Even if you don't opt for the Freezer 7 Pro - perhaps you already have a good heatsink - just reinstalling your cooler with a sensible application of TIM (thermal interface material) can help to lower temperatures.

2. On a microscopic level, the base of a heatsink and the top of a CPU's heatspreader are never completely flat. TIM is used to fill in the microscopic pores on both surfaces, thereby aiding the transfer of heat between them. The Freezer 7 Pro already has a half-decent application of Arctic Cooling's MX-2 TIM on its base, which you'll need to clean off if you've installed the cooler more than once. You'll also need to clean the top of your CPU before installing a new heatsink. You can remove any old TIM from the CPU (and your heatsink, if you're simply re-applying better-quality TIM) using a lint-free cloth and an ArctiClean kit.

Your next job is to apply the Arctic Silver 5 to the CPU. Drop a small quantity of TIM -roughly the size of a grain of rice will be fine - onto the chip, then cover your index finger with a plastic sandwich bag and gently work the TIM into the entire surface of your CPU. When it's finished, and has a mottled-looking finish, you can then reinstall your heatsink.

3. After that, remove the case fans, take them outside and give them a good brush with a big, clean paintbrush. Clean out all the crevices in the fan thoroughly, including the casing and blades. Once you've done that, you can then reinstall the fans in your case, but this time, add the rubber grommets you'll find in the Nexus Anti Vibration Mounting Kit. These absorb any vibrations caused by the fans before they reach the case.

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