Computer Noise

[ses]

Who has some good ideas for a really quiet computer. I have a Thermalright heatsink with Zalman fan, but it is still too loud and a Chieftec power source. It is also noisy.
I am getting great video results, now I need to make the playback more pleasant.
Does sound deadening material really help, I wouldn't think so since you have to have ventilation holes anyway.

[dani82]

if you haven't done so, keep your computer under your desk, instead of on top; you can also purchase a psu that produces a low noise level, and a cpu fan with an adjustable fan speed.

[MfA]

Hell, if you are made of money you can get watercooled PSUs.

Personally if I was (made of money that is) I would watercool everything, and put all my HDs in a second computer somewhere far away and use gigabit ethernet to get at it.

[Sirber]

variable speed fan don't lower the noise that much... Even with CPUIdle, some fan makes more noise at low RPM. :( The best is to buy a cat :D

[Kedirekin]

There's a lot of information on the net about quieting a noisy PC.

A few seconds in Google turned this up - How To Silence A Computer (http://www.quietpcusa.com/articles/how_to_silence_a_computer.html) - has all the same suggestions I would make: get a quiet PSU, replace CPU heat sinkwith a more efficient one so you can use a quieter (lower cfm) CPU fan, get bigger, slower case fans. Only after you've done all that (if it's still too loud) look at more expensive or less effective strategies; accoustic damping, water cooling, replacing drives, etc.

Incidentally, TechTV recently had their resident expert build an ultimate quiet PC (Yoshi's Mods: Project YS-2 (http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/modtips/story/0,24330,3422228,00.html)). It was so quiet, he had to take it to a special quiet room at Dolby laboratories to measure how quiet it was - something like 24 db.


Make that 8 to 14 db.

[Sirber]

:goodpost: :thanks:

[unmei]

Does sound deadening material really help, I wouldn't think so since you have to have ventilation holes anyway.

The trick with this material is not to "lock the noise inside the box" but rather to "absorb it". Dampening the vibration does not depend on fully encose the noise source (of course it were even more effective that way ..).

I have this p3 recieved from someone how had it built to be silent. It has cork mats inside on the sides, on top and on the front in the lower half (below the 5.25" slots). It has no dampening on the back side or above the 5.25" slots ..hell it even has a huge hole where there was a removable harddrive whichs rack cannot be removed because the screws are broken and its stuck. However even with this very incomplete dampening it makes a huge difference compared to other, undamped cases or compared to when one side door is open.

But still, i would definitely go for silent fans firsts, but the cork mats yield good results if you don't want to go water cooled or other really expensive / unusual measurements.

[dani82]

my cpu fan is very quite, operating at about 2300rpm @36 degrees for an Athlon 2200+, it's loud as hell at 3500rpm, but never gets past 2450rpm, and i think it wastes less power at an lower rpm

[Sirber]

What brand?

[dani82]

http://www.coolermaster.com/index.php?LT=english&Language_s=2&url_place=product&p_serial=CP5-8J71F&other_title=CP5-8J71FAero%207%20Lite

i also got 2 case fan with heat sensors backing it up, that could be main reason why the cpu stay so cool

[Pyscrow]

Stuff this!

Its a simple fix - get yourself some bigger speakers, and a volume knob that goes further to the right!