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Check out QuietPC. I've just set up a quiet machine using their "flower" heatsink and it works very well. Still need to add a bit of cushioning around the case fans, but even then its amazing how much better the whooshing sound of air flow is compared to the phasing in and out of cheap whining fans you get on most kit.

I have a 7200 RPM maxtor drive - not very noisy... But now that I put it in a Silent Drive Enclosure anything is noisy..
At first I thought I had forgotten to plug the power back in my HD!

Next time you could check out Quiet PC Canada instead of the buying from the UK website? That might save you a bit on the shipping...

Their order page says that they gladly process US orders by telephone even though the online ordering system is not set up for US customers.

I don't know if it would actually be cheaper in the end, but it's probably worth checking out.

Christopher

Here is a place to start that researching...

quietpc.com

Nice power supplies...

I recently replaced a power supply with an Enermax EG365P-VE and was quite impressed with the low noise level.

Another quiet power supply to consider is Ultra Quiet Power Supply from quietpc.com

Yeah, I've been on a quest to quiet down my PC for some time now... I am a bit of an audiophile, and I use high-bitrate MP3s in addition to my CD player, so I would like my PC to be silent. The straw that broke the camel's back on this one was the 40GB Maxtor drive that I bought, which was audible through the telephone.
So I ordered a power supply, heatsink, and drive enclosure from Quiet PC. That fixed things to about 90% of what I would like... big improvement. But it is still an aftermarket fix for something that is admittedly broken w.r.t. sound emission.
It's great to see sound finally being considered by the industry... for example, the current trend in hard drives is FDB (Fluid Dynamic Bearings), which allows idle noise from the drive to be in the ~30dB range... and I seem to recall a post here recently about Dell P4 systems being very quiet.

Wow, it just happened to me. Got it's own power-supply wires stuck between the fins (sp?). It was a radial fan.

I ordered a new one from www.quietpc.com. Let's see how that one works. I'm not sure if my CPU got fried or not. Sigh.

you may want to check out this power supply or the enermax whisper series.

alternatively, i understand it is fairly easy to disassemble a power supply and get really nice quiet sanyo denki or panaflow fan to replace the (most likely) lower quality noisy sleeve bearing fan in there now. check out plycon for fans if taking this route.

hope this helps.

complex

Me too!

My Yamaha CRW-8424 has a horrible little 25mm fan in it that makes more noise than the rest of my PC together (partly thanks to QuietPC). I'm just waiting for Papst to actually have stock of their funky temperature sensitive quiet fans in 25mm... Apart from that, and no CD-TEXT support, it's a great little drive though.

A very long and informative site on quiet PC's: home.swipnet.se/tr/silence.html

I have been trying to make my computer silent for about two years now. It is still not quiet enought to keep on at night in my bedroom. I'll keep trying though.

Is a lownoise 300w powersupply + fan to use with a Athlon thunderbird, and were rolling..

Why do you want this thing to do DVD? Honestly. I'm looking into doing something very similar, and all I can say is components, components, components.

You probably don't want to have a system switch duty between mp3 and video capture, and DVD playback from a PC will be inferior to a DVD component most of the time as well (not to mention vastly inferior sound quality on a system with onboard sound). Don't use the DVD drive, get a DVD player. Consider getting a separate PC to do mp3 playback (maybe a used laptop; low heat, low noise, small footprint, and anything over 150MHz can handle mp3 without a sweat), but don't necessarily restrict yourself to mp3s on a local hard drive - NFS isn't a bottleneck when you're playing mp3s.

NFS probably is a bottleneck on video capture; stick with a local hard drive, or consider cacheing data to local disk and copying it over to a file server at your leisure (I would guess that video playback would not be restrained by NFS).

Do you really want a network cable (or two, if you follow my suggestion) running from your stereo/TV to a hub? Consider wireless. Have you already considered and/or dealt with the amount of noise a PC makes? Take a look at Quiet PC to silence your hard drive, power supply, CPU fans, and case fans.

This would result in a setup something like:

• TV
• stereo (preferably surround-sound capable :)
• VCR
• DVD player
• computer audio player/recorder system (say... P200 laptop with wireless card)
• computer video player/recorder system (basically the system you describe - with silenced or silent moving parts, and a wireless card)
• file server, with lots of reasonably capable storage (SCSI-2 would probably do fine, if we're otherwise talking about a 10-11Mb/s network and no performance-sensitive writing like video feeds)
• wireless access point

In addition, you've got a lot of components that you can upgrade independantly, tune for their own purpose, or sell (if that dot.com you're working for goes under).

Well, it seem these days, most of the power user just care to get something like 200fps in Quake III. Why ? Beat's me ! I'm not on a quest to get the ultimate frame rate, I just want my box to be quiet as possibly can be.

To help you understand my take on the subject, here is the background :
My PC has the following components :

• A OEM case
• A 235W OEM power supply
• ASUS P3B-F
• Intel Pentium II rated 400Mhz @ 400Mhz
• A cheap OEM SECC2 Heat-Sink made of aluminum
• A 128MB CAS2 no-name DIMM
• Two 32MB CAS3 Samsung DIMM slowing down my memory timing, but preventing the appearance of the all mighty evil SwaP
• A ATI All-In-Wonder Rage128 16MB
• A Creative SoundBlaster Live! Value
• A Realtek 8139 Ethernet NIC
• My beloved USR 56Kbps ISA Real Modem. Sorry but to me a component that uses CPU power to do it's processing instead of taking the load off is not worthy of being in my computer. Not to mention the M$ Win part...
• A Creative 48x CD-ROM drive. It's the loudest damned thing in my computer when it's spinning
• A Quantum Fireball AS PLUS 40GB (7200RPM) in a removable tray
• A Quantum Fireball CX1 10GB (5400RPM) mounted inside the case
• Of course the stupid old 1.44 MB floppy drive only used for booting Tomsbrt in case of emergency

Soon to be :

• A Adaptec 2940UW
• A Diamond Monster 3D II for Glide games

It turn out that the Quantum Fireball AS makes less noise than the Quantum Fireball CX1. I still have to figure it out ...

I use my PC for :

• Running Linux and learning as much as time allows me (Jez I had so much time when I was a student... Think of all the time I wasted in High-School running the evil W monster)
• Doing some gaming i.e. : Diablo II, Unreal, UT, Undying (Although that thing is going to cost me a new box)
• Spending numerous nights filling my brain @ Slashdot, Tomshardware, Anandtech, Arstechnica, StorageReview, Developper.Intel.com, and most importantly, hounding the web for all the case manufacturers and their take at a quiet box.

As I'm writing this post, that is probably going to be the base documentation for my Silent Case Project, you're guessing that my sleepless night of browsing have not yielded the desired result.

I've check out many options such as water cooling, moving the PC to the closet, returning to the forest where a PC is pretty far from your everyday quest for survival. None of them suits me.

The objective of my project is to build a case that meets the following criteria :

• A silent as possible
• Accessible
• Provides sufficient ventilation to maintain all the components running within thermal specs
• Be light enough to be easily transportable (Let's not forget the Lan parties ;-)

To attain those goals I have to :

• Read all I can about noise, sound, aerodynamics, PC specs
• Find suitable materials : A case is not just a protection against unwanted fingers and dust ; it must provide EMI shielding, proper grounding, resist to impacts, and fit into my conception of the king of object you want in your bedroom (If you were thinking about plywood and a box of rusted leftover nails, forget it)
• Find the tools or the companies or individuals with the means to work the materials I choose to build the casing

For the sound isolation I was thinking about some kind of foam. Mineral lint would be affective but that takes too much space and it's not the kind of thing I want beside my bed. Form the casing itself, metal is almost inevitable if you want EMI shielding and grounding. And as for you who wonder why I have not mentioned water cooling yet, the greatest source of noise is not my CPU cooler and your just moving the problem out of the case (Nice ; you have water heating up but unless your reservoir is like a bathtub or something you will have to transfer the heat for the water to the air).

That about as far as I am. If you have any idea that might help me, please fell free to send me some bits forming ASCII characters at Prozzaks@operamail.com

To finish up, here is a list of thing that might help people wanting to achieve similar goals :

• http://www.formfactors.org/ You should be able to find all the documents regarding the ATX form factor and thermal design guides. A must if you want to build a quiet PC.
• http://developer.intel.com/ Intel has contributed a great deal to the ATX definition ; here you will find many relevant documents including thermal design guides for all Intel processors.
• Etract from my favorite's :
  
  

  Hardware\cases PC CASE
  Fong Kai
  PowerOn
  Enlight Corporation
  dir.yahoo Enclosures Manufacturers
  procase
  YY Computer
  Psi
  IN WIN
  Amtrade
  American Suntek
  Addtronics
  A-Top Technology, Inc
  Nikao
  Palo Alto Products
  Antec
  Lian-Li
  amaquest
  Koolance
  Quietpc
  PC Power & Cooling
  
  
  

  Hardware\Heat Sinks ALPHA
  Cooler Master
  AVC
  ekl
  GlobalWIN
  globefan
  RDJD
  Foxconn
  Spring Spread
  Sanyo Denki
  TITAN
  TaiSol
  ChipCoolers
  Orb a
  ElanVital
  
  
  

  Hardware\Info\Form Factor Platform Development Support
  SSI
  WTX
  
  
  

  Hardware\Info\Standards Fibre Channel Industry Association
  PCI SIG
  RAB
  serialata
  SPEC
  
  
  

  Hardware\Info\Storage RAID.edu
  
  
  

  Hardware\Info\Cours CS 252 - Graduate Computer Architecture
  
  
  

  Hardware\Info The PC Guide!
  Hardware Bible
  FullOn3D
  developer.intel.com
  HwB The Hardware Book
  United Overclockers
  Ars Technica
  Tech-Junkie
  HardwarePub
  Webopedia
  Illustrated Guide to the PC Hardware
  SysOpt
  2CPU
  Ace's Hardware
  Technical Support - RaidHelp v1.0 - Free RAID Technology Guide
  Computer Architecture
  OPENCORES.ORG
  TechFest
  MidWest Micro Support
  
  
  

  Hardware\Resalers GeekTek!
  Micro-Bytes
  ALCO
  ABC Micro
  2CoolTek
  Plycon Computers
  TCWO
  ABC Micro - Lprix
  Case Outlet
  The Chip Merchant, Inc
  Cimsys
  OrdiGros
  ALIENWARE
  SHENTECH
  FireStorm
  Hyper Microsystems
  TWEAKBOX
  
  
  

  Hardware\Reviews Tom's Hardware Guide
  Sharky Extreme
  StorageReview
  HardOCP
  AnandTech
  SystemLogic
  x-bit labs
  Active-Hardware
  FiringSquad
  SocketA
  Overclockers Australia
  HEXUS
  dansdata
  SysReview
  
  
  

  Hardware\Manufacturers AMD
  ASUS
  Belkin
  MassMultiples
  Promise
  StarTech
  VIA Technologies, Inc
  ABIT Computer Corp
  Comcase
  Micron Semiconductor
  ECS
  
  
  

  Hardware Freeboxen
  

They offer replacement fans, power supplies (with fans that can turn themselves off), and little sound enclosures for hard drives.

I'm reasonably happy with their products (not sure what the enclosure will do to my hard drive's life, but I've had no problems yet). While my two computer apartment hasn't become perfectly quiet, virtually any noise source renders the computer's inaudible. Before I could always hear the hum of the computers, now I can actually watch TV without the background noise.

try quietpc.com. They've got lots of good stuff, including hard drive cooling blankets. Worth a look.

Well try this www.quietpc.com/psu.html.

Will

Laptops are also good. I needed to put a firewall in my living room for wireing reasons. I built it from an old laptop. Given no fans and the fact that for most of the time it doesn't touch it's disk, I only really hear it when it does it's overnight system checks (and I'm thinking of moving them to mid morning).

I've ordered some kit from quietpc and I'm going to try silencing my old PC which I keep as a guinea pig. They shipped it this morning, so I can't rally say if it works yet:-).
_O_

--
Steven Murdoch.

This sounds like what you're looking for.

This sounds like what you're looking for.

This sounds like what you're looking for.

This sounds like what you're looking for.

http://www.quietpc.com

A friend of mine just got this and he's incredibly please -> quiet case fan

From the site: There is no other cooler on earth designed like this. The Molex Silent Systems Radial Fin(TM) design offers superb cooling performance but at the same time runs almost silently! The product employs an advanced fin design which gives a vastly superior surface area to that offered by traditional extrusion-based products. Different versions are available to suit a variety of processors, and because of their unique design, the coolers are not only incredibly efficient at removing heat but are also very easy to install.

Have a look at quietpc.com. I've just finished sorting out my 1Ghz Tbird to get it down to an acceptable temperature and noise level. They do silent/quiet PSUs approved by AMD, fans, drive enclosures and other bits. The noisiest thing in my PC now is the 25mm fan in the back of my CDR, which sounds like it's about to fail - Papst have just announced a quiet 25mm fan, but it's not actually available yet.

Also try http://home.swipnet.se/tr/silence.html for more lots of info regarding 'Silent PCs', TCO99, and what manufacturers can help you.

I use a muffler type device for my desktop. Get them from quietpc.com. Works great

Tim

Yes, it's never going to be silent. IBM may claim it's the quietest drive around, but I'll bet the Quantum lct15 is actually the quietest.

I built one computer using an lct10 (the predecessor of the lct15) and then put the drive in a SilentDrive acoustical jacket. That computer uses a K6-III with an extra-quiet cooling fan, and an extra-quiet power supply fan, and a video card with no cooling fan at all. It is pretty darn close to a silent computer.

P.S. While searching for the URL that goes with SilentDrive, I stumbled across a pretty good page about really quiet PCs.

steveha

I'm not so sure about silencing -- if you need to put 1000 of them they might became to be quite noisy. Here is what I came up recently looking for a silent computer solution:

Molex Thermal Acoustic Products
Directron: silent components
The Silent PC
Quiet PC (UK)
Shut that damn thing up!

http://www.quietpc.com

There was a typo in the URL. The site (which is a British company) is QuietPC

The power supplies in the cases from Antec are pretty quiet - their cheap bondi-blue, red, orange, etc. cases are great - unplug the fan over the CPU if you don't need the extra cooling, and the power supply fan itself is VERY quiet. Plus the plastic over metal seems to help eliminate any kind of the familiar resonant vibrations.

I stuck to the Matrox MG400 card as it was a good performer and didn't need a fan - the newer NV cards all have very audible fans.

Link should be QuietPC.com

I think I'll order a new power supply now...

rm

I concluded that the CPU fan and the hard drive produce next to no sound. This is great, because otherwise silencing the drive would not be easy. There are some commercial hard drive enclosures that claim to quiet down the drive, but at the expense of overheating.

The noisiest component was the fan in the power supply. I stopped the fan by sticking a screwdriver into the vent, and found that the PC was very close to silent. Of course, this is not a long term solution.

One possible attack is to drill vent holes in the power supply enclosure, and unplug the built-in fan. I wonder if the air flow enabled by the holes would suffice to prevent the power supply from burning up.

Another possibility is to grab a quiet power supply from quietpc.com. Has anyone tried those?

--ac

This is a good site for a listing of processor power dissipation figures:
http://users.erols.com/chare/elec.htm

Regards
Glenn Garrett
http://www.quietpc.com/

Amen, brother.

PC Power and Cooling sells quiet fans, power supplies, etc. QuietPC is another place to look. Elan Vital specializes in quiet cases, also.

In my case (pun) "fan noise" is really turbulence caused by the fan trying to blow or suck air through inadequate openings. My stupid case had very small perforations where the case fans were attached that were quite noisy. Imagine blowing through a window screen. The solution I used was to cut those perforations away, which left 3" holes for the fans to blow through. I coved them with standard wire grills. This worked quite well, though it's a lot of work.

john