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This shouldn't be dealt with at the rack level. It should be dealt with at the disk drive mounting bracket level, where it's far easier. There are brackets for that, from several suppliers. There are also rubber grommet kits for fans, to damp vibration from that source.

If you buy servers in bulk, it's something to take up with your supplier. It's the sort of thing that costs only a few dollars per unit at the factory.

I too have an SCSI hard drive (Seagate Cheetah ST336607LW). Revved up like a harley while running binaries. I reduced the noise substantially by using this cooler:

http://www.quietpcusa.com/Zalman-Hard-Disk-Drive-Heatpipe-Cooler-ZM-2HC2-P27C45.aspx

The rubber washers help in damping out the noise. Plus, the primary reason why it's noisy is because the metal conducts and amplifies the vibrations through resonance. So I put some thermocol pads under the cooler to remove any metal-metal contact (except for a ground wire) and the noise reduced dramatically. Now I don't have to shut down my pc while sleeping.

I got a pic here:

http://img186.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1000564no7.jpg

(the hdd/cooler system is circled in red, ground wire in purple). IT works fine

Found one:

Silentmaxx Watercooled 450W PSU

http://www.quietpcusa.com/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=8& Product_ID=243&CATID=2

It's by the same people. I've got some Zalman fans and heatsinks in my machine and they are really nicely done.

Don't go out and buy a new power supply just because someone said it would make your PC quiet.

Approach this like any performance problem:

1. Stick your head in the case, and figure out the noisiest component in YOUR system.
2. Solve that noise problem.
3. Lather, rinse, repeat until you have a quiet computer.

For my computer, my video card fan was by far the noisiest component. It was also the most irritating sound. I think this might be typical for power systems, as it's ok to have a noisy video card so long as it is blazing fast. They're competing on speed, not sound. Take heart though, there are solutions out there to remove their cheap fans. For my card I used a zalman heat pipe solution to remove the fan from my card. I found info at http://www.quietpcusa.com/ and then found a better price elsewhere.

I also replaced my CPU fan with a zalman unit. I am very happy with it. After you do this, you may find that it isn't necessary to swap out your power supply.

I would not recommend Antec. I bought a Antec SmartCool 120mm case fan that was temperature controlled, and it produced an irritating clicking sound and was louder than my stock case fan. I may have had a bad unit, but it soured me on Antec. At 10 bucks I was too lazy to do a mail order return.

- Darkhog

If you've got $1250 to spend, there's the Zalman Totally No Noise Computer Case. It's reportedly "the world's first absolutely noiseless and fanless computer case," using heatpipes for passive cooling. It basically uses the entire case as a giant heatsink.

Not sure what you'd do about the hard drives, though.

While I'm impressed that they actually bothered to measure the sound coming from their case, their final measurement of 31.7db hardly counts as silent. In fact I personally regard that as fairly noisy, though I'm perhaps pickier than most. Realistically how much noise one can tolerate is a personal thing. If it bothers you it's too loud no matter what the acoustic measurements might tell you. And what bothers me might not bother you. I have just listened carefully to my machine and whichever component made the most noise got replaced.

The only way to have a truly silent case is to have no fans and an idle hard drive. If that isn't possible fans like Pabst 8412 NGL are the next best thing. They don't move much air but they're very quiet. And a better solution IMO than the hard drive enclosures which drive up heat and reduce reliability is vibration isolators combined with a naturally quiet drive like Seagates. There are some fanless and semi-fanless (doesn't run unless it gets hot) power supplies out there like the SilentMaxx Semifanless. And replace those stupd 60mm fans that they insist on using for CPUs and GPUs with big headsinks and/or heatpipes. Also install neoprene or other washers and use rubber to deaden case vibrations. Home Depot is a great source for a lot of this stuff.

• A Zalman Silent 400W Power Supply helped a lot and only emits about 20db of noise. Still not silent enough for me so I'm going to get something like a SilentMaxx Semi-Fanless 450W soon.
  
• I replaced my case fans with Papst 8412 NGL fans which only emit 12db; basically silent. I tried one of the PC Power and Cooling Silencer units and it's a fine power supply but still pretty noisy.
  
• I put some new rubber feet I picked up from Home Dept (about $3 each) which are normally used for door stops to help dampen case vibrations.
  
• I switched over the 7200 RPM Seagate hard drives from the 10000RPM Maxtor/IBMs I was using. The old drives were fine but rather noisy.
  
• I replaced my graphics card fan with a Zalman Heat Pipe system which emits no noise at all.
  
• I picked up these hard drive coolers with rubber shock absorbers from CompUSA which further helps dampen case vibration, and helps keepd the drive quieter. My case uses drive rails and I had to drill an extra hole in the drive rails to make them compatible.
  
• I also installed this Anti Noise Kit from CompUSA. One caution is keep at least one screw from the case touching both the power supply and the case with no padding. Helps keep a ground between the power supply and the case.
  
• I also bought some rounded cables (yes I'm aware of the crosstalk issues but they haven't been a problem) which helps cooling. I got some cable wraps and zip ties to keep the cables bundled and out of the air flow as much as possible.
  
• Installed a HUGE Thermalright SLK800 heat sink with a Pabst fan (above) to keep the processor cool and silent. This actually dropped by processor temp by several degrees in addition to being quiter.
  
• I installed Melamine foam from Home Depot throughout the case to dampen noise.
  

Why do the solutions have to come from the chip manufacturers? There's plenty of great third-party solutions, just check Quiet PC. I already have one of their power supplies, and just ordered a couple of their SilentDrive enclosures and a low-noise heatsink/fan combo.

Another option is to just order one of their AcoustiCases.

Why do the solutions have to come from the chip manufacturers? There's plenty of great third-party solutions, just check Quiet PC. I already have one of their power supplies, and just ordered a couple of their SilentDrive enclosures and a low-noise heatsink/fan combo.

Another option is to just order one of their AcoustiCases.

Why do the solutions have to come from the chip manufacturers? There's plenty of great third-party solutions, just check Quiet PC. I already have one of their power supplies, and just ordered a couple of their SilentDrive enclosures and a low-noise heatsink/fan combo.

Another option is to just order one of their AcoustiCases.

Why do the solutions have to come from the chip manufacturers? There's plenty of great third-party solutions, just check Quiet PC. I already have one of their power supplies, and just ordered a couple of their SilentDrive enclosures and a low-noise heatsink/fan combo.

Another option is to just order one of their AcoustiCases.

This case looks like one of those power distributors outside some office buildings. I wonder where I could buy some surplus power transformers and build my own case simmilar to this. The Zalman TNN 500A is $1,195.95 - not on any of my buy lists.

Sheesh - you'd think active noise cancellation hardware would be cheaper... (Not to mention way, way, cooler!) Er - as in "gadget-like cool", not temperature cool.

A shade over 120 Sterling. I'm afraid I don't know how much this sort of thing costs in the US, but I would suggest Quiet PC USA as an excellent place to buy this sort of thing (they started out in the UK and is where I bought my bits). I will recoup around 20-40 selling the PSU and HSF on eBay, hopefully.

There are ways to cut down noise without relying solely on passive or liquid cooling. Lots of low noise PSs and fans are available (and not that expensive). Even replacing a worn/cheap cpu fan can make a lot of difference. Unfortunately, case and system vendors mostly don't pay much attention to these details, so you pretty much have to retrofit.

I think the point is the idle noise. All your examples with VCRs involve actions (hit stop. hit eject. hit rewind). With computers/hard drives, there is noise on a constant basis due to fans and drives spinning. The western digital special editions are probably the worst offenders noise wise - they are fast, but they are loud and run hot.

Other people have mentioned it, but the seagate barracuda IV's and (just over the past month or two) V's are the quietest drives available, come in large capacities, and in the case of the V's perform fairly well in benchmarks (although still slower than the WD drives).

I've recently built a HTPC for my living room using a cooler master 610 case, zalman 5100-cu low noise cpu fan, a baraccuda IV mentioned above, and an athlon xp 1700+. it runs about as loud as my PS2 (which has a dinky low rpm 50mm fan).

I went to QuietPC and got a power suppply, a pair of Zalman CNPS 5100-Cu CPU coolers, and some quiet case fans. I also replaced the Northbridge fan with a heatsink. I'm not a gamer, so I don't have a a fancy 3-D video card with a cooling fan, but they also sell heatsinks to replace those, too. The stuff is not OEM-cheap - it cost me about 200 bucks altogether - but I'm going to have this system for a long time, and I sit in front of it a lot, so this was worth it to me. The thing is so quiet I can hardly tell that it's on.

You may not want to invest that kind of money in something you only paid less than a grand for, but if you're pissed off every time you use the thing, it'll be worth it. It's a tool, right? And isn't it better to spend a few extra bucks and get something good that's not going to annoy the living shit out of you all the time? Look at it this way - you can take all of these parts and move them over to the next system you build. The CPU cooler is rated for AMDs over 1.73GHz, so it's not going to be obsolete anytime soon.

I've ordered several times from QuietPC and they just rock. Delivery is within a couple of days and customer service is good. You might think they're just a Zalman reseller, but they have a whole line of stuff - hard drive enclosures, acoustic insulation, yada yada, and their prices are reasonable. No, I'm not a shill, just a satisfied customer.

I went to QuietPC and got a power suppply, a pair of Zalman CNPS 5100-Cu CPU coolers, and some quiet case fans. I also replaced the Northbridge fan with a heatsink. I'm not a gamer, so I don't have a a fancy 3-D video card with a cooling fan, but they also sell heatsinks to replace those, too. The stuff is not OEM-cheap - it cost me about 200 bucks altogether - but I'm going to have this system for a long time, and I sit in front of it a lot, so this was worth it to me. The thing is so quiet I can hardly tell that it's on.

You may not want to invest that kind of money in something you only paid less than a grand for, but if you're pissed off every time you use the thing, it'll be worth it. It's a tool, right? And isn't it better to spend a few extra bucks and get something good that's not going to annoy the living shit out of you all the time? Look at it this way - you can take all of these parts and move them over to the next system you build. The CPU cooler is rated for AMDs over 1.73GHz, so it's not going to be obsolete anytime soon.

I've ordered several times from QuietPC and they just rock. Delivery is within a couple of days and customer service is good. You might think they're just a Zalman reseller, but they have a whole line of stuff - hard drive enclosures, acoustic insulation, yada yada, and their prices are reasonable. No, I'm not a shill, just a satisfied customer.

I bought this power supply about a year ago. Not only is it as quiet as they tout, it's been a real work horse for me. I have a Lian-Li case, all drive bays filled (from time to time, not constanly ALL hooked up, but...), this thing keeps on running.

I highly recomend checking these folks out.

I've had pretty good luck with this place. Quiet and effective. I'm not affiliated with them.

I think the main problem with your plan is the amount of airflow required to properly cool a CPU with just a heatsync. Unless it is a Celeron300A or C3 or something of that nature, if you use a just a heatsync you'll need an 80mm fan running at least 2000 RPM. At that speed, the noise the air makes is quite noticeable, even if you choose to get one of the ultra-quiet brands.

I finally decided to just get a new heatsync/cpu fan combo for around $30 from QuietPC and I have to say that not only is it almost silent, it keeps my system cooler than the stock Intel CPU fan. The PSU is another source of noise, and I upgraded my 300W Antec to a 370W TTGI-350SS for around $40. TTGI isn't as well known a name as Enermax or Zalman, but I've found my PSU to be just as noiselss as advertised.

I don't want to discourage you, but I don't really consider heatsync/case fan combos viable for a silent PC with an Athlon XP or P4. It might be expensive to experiment, but then again having such a quiet machine is worth it. I take great pleasure in surprising my friends by turning my monitor on the show them that my computer is already on.

Note that Quantum no longer manufacturers HD's.

There's a bunch of quieting gear on Quiet PC, including HD case enclosures. I'd really like to know how well their fan-less CPU and GPU coolers work.

You're very right about HD's though -- my older PC had 3 7200 rpm SCSI drives in it. I finally cannabalized it, removing the SCSI drives and replacing them with a single IDE drive (with twice the capacity). It's much quieter and much faster now (yes, they were old SCSI drives).

If you have a Maxtor drive you can download a utility that will put the drive into "quiet" mode. It reduces performance somewhat by slowing down and re-optimizing seeks to reduce head movement. Did this for the 80 GB drive I put in my TiVo.

Seagate drives are currently considered the "quietest" though, so take that into consideration if buying a new drive. I believe they're even quieter than the Maxtor liquid bearing drives.