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another heatsink/fan that blows accross the cpu into it: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article182-page1.htm l

Also, even some x86 manufacturers have been using air channels for some time now. i have a dell poweredge at home with dual xeon 500's that has a special air channel to exhaust hot air from around the cpus directly out the back of the case, and separate fans to provide cooling air for the rest of the components inside the computer. of course, those are custom cases, and i doubt they even remotely resemble an atx form factor, however, i don't see why this couldn't be done at least at a basic level without creating a whole new form factor.

Have you ever looked inside a Dell ATX box?

Dell makes some very quiet workstation/PC boxes with ATX formfactors. Key is the temperature-sensitive fans, ducting, fanless CPU heatsink and baffling on the bezel to muffle noise out the front of the machine.

Check out Silent PC's review or the Google cache. The versions we buy are slightly different than the one pictured there, but its a good article nonetheless.

My home computer is also a very quiet ATX box, using an Antec Sonata case, etc.

However, I'm very picky about noise, and I've been able to silence drives very successfully. Get a modern quiet one, turn on acoustic management, and soft-mount it. Either suspend it with bungees, rest it on sorbothane foam, or at least use rubber grommets in the drive cage. There are all sorts of discussions about this on www.silentpcreview.com.

I'm amazed by how much bungee-suspension has silenced my hard drive. You have to tackle cooling on a free-suspended drive without the heatsink-effect of a case, but that's not too hard.

Much more difficult than hard drives, I think, is eliminating fan noise while cooling a modern machine. To have quiet fans, you need low airflow (and good fans), so you've got to work hard to make the case airflow as free as possible. Difficult with small HTPC cases particularly, but not impossible.

However, I'm very picky about noise, and I've been able to silence drives very successfully. Get a modern quiet one, turn on acoustic management, and soft-mount it. Either suspend it with bungees, rest it on sorbothane foam, or at least use rubber grommets in the drive cage. There are all sorts of discussions about this on www.silentpcreview.com.

I'm amazed by how much bungee-suspension has silenced my hard drive. You have to tackle cooling on a free-suspended drive without the heatsink-effect of a case, but that's not too hard.

Much more difficult than hard drives, I think, is eliminating fan noise while cooling a modern machine. To have quiet fans, you need low airflow (and good fans), so you've got to work hard to make the case airflow as free as possible. Difficult with small HTPC cases particularly, but not impossible.

Yes, you can do it. A great resource (with forum) for these kinds of projects is http://www.silentpcreview.com What I would run is a P4 with the NCU-2000 heatsink. A p4 because if you do get the CPU too hot, it would throttle itself rather than shut down your computer.

Yes, you can do it. A great resource (with forum) for these kinds of projects is http://www.silentpcreview.com What I would run is a P4 with the NCU-2000 heatsink. A p4 because if you do get the CPU too hot, it would throttle itself rather than shut down your computer.

CPUs like the Pentium III can be underclocked and underpowered to the point that they work just fine without a fan. The VIA C3 is a Socket 370 / P-III compatable processor designed for low power and fanless operation. Check out the mini-itx motherboards for examples of these in operation.

Most video cards don't need a fan at all, although passively cooled cards can still heat up the interior of your case. It's doubtful that you really need the absolute latest and most powerfull leaf-blower video card on your home server.

Hard drives and power supplies are the other big sources of noise. Hard drives noise is noticable because it comes and goes, while power supplies need to push all the heat that those passively cooled components have been producing out of the case. A well made drive seated on noise absorbing padding, rather than bolted directly onto a steel frame, can be reduced to a low, cricket-like chirping noise while large, slower case fans can take a lot of the load off of the PSU without raising noise levels significantly. Take a look around Silent PC Review for more on this topic, or just look for a retailer in your area who carries quiet PC parts.

I have been slowly replacing all the computers around my home with silent parts over the last few years, and the difference is stunning. Just last week I needed to replace a power supply and used a spare that I had sitting on a shelf -- It sounded like a jet engine compared to everything around it. If that's the kind of noise that's coming out of your server, then I understand your frustration. You don't need to turn to rare, high tech prototypes from military labs to quiet down your PC -- All you need now is to shop around a bit.

% cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_avail able_frequencies
2000000 1800000 1000000
% echo 1000000 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_setsp eed

--
Try Nuggets , the mobile search engine. We answer your questions via SMS, across the UK.

I bought this silent computer. It's so nice to have a silent family room.

The machine has lived up to the expectations. However, here are some caveats:

• They don't take credit cards. You have to do an international bank transfer (the distributor is in Australia), which cost me 40USD.
• The computer arrived slightly damaged. Cooling fins in one corner were bent. The damage wasn't functional, though.
• Because of a design flaw (which is being corrected), the computer will barely turn on after weeks of uptime (battery oxidization). You have to keep pushing the power button dozens of times. The unit has a 24-month warranty, and the customer service is prompt. However, you have to send the computer to Germany if it needs fixing.
• To open the computer (should you want to maintain it yourself) you need a tamper-proof Torx T10 screw driver. You won't find those in the hardware store. I ordered mine over the net.
• SuSE 9.0 hangs on the machine once a month or so. I suspect the X server, but other culprit candidates include ReiserFS and the hardware.

Marko

So despite the fact that it's always on, and lives on top of a desk in my living room, I don't really hear it. Very quiet. I haven't measured the energy use, but I suspect it's not bad. My original plan was just to use it as a firewall/personal server, but since it's plenty adequate for a regular desktop, I use it for that now too--it's nice being able to just check the weather or whatever without waiting for something to boot.

So, anyway, I'm pretty happy with it. Recommended.

--Bruce Fields

The Zen case from Shuttle has an external power supply and is very quiet.

For what it's worth, here's a sloppy little mirror of the Hush ATX review from Silent PC Review (from April), in case that gets slashdotted too.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article151-page1.htm l

Not sure what the submitter was smoking, but the Hush ATX has been around for a while now, and was reviewed in April by SilentPCReview.

After "TrustedReviews" recovers from the slashdotting I will have a look though...

The site's /.-ed so I dunno how old that review is, but SilentPCReview has had a review of the Hush ATX since April now.

SilentPC Review is always THE place to go when you are concerned about PC noise.

And Sudhian had a review of the new Shuttle XPC a few weeks ago (hey, that how far ahead slashdot is :-( ). There's a noise comparison in all of their SFF tests (direct link for convinience. IMHO Sudhian is THE place to go when you're searching for SFF infos. The forums are very valuable resources on both sites.

Bye egghat.

A $150 pocket DVD player does not need a 2Ghz CPU to operate.

Maybe this is a good application for underclocking?

Perhaps you should build a system with an Athlon, but just underclock and undervolt the heck out of it. In previous Slashdot discussions of the C3, I have read claims that an Athlon running at around 600 MHz is drastically more powerful than a C3 running at full speed.

I did a quick google and found a howto from 2002:

Ultimate Underclock & Undervolt Project

Here's a really cool resource: a list of processors and their electrical and heat numbers.

http://users.erols.com/chare/elec.htm

If you want to try this, I suggest you use a Barton core Athlon. If you want to use an Intel chip, the best would be if you could get a Pentium M somehow (the laptop CPU) but maybe if you could find a 130 nm version of the Pentium 4 it would be okay. But Athlons should be better for an underclocking project because they get more done per clock cycle.

steveha

I was on a quest to quiet down the PCs I've got, and came across the Seasonic Super Tornado Review over at SilentPCReview.

I measured the before and after current draw of my PCs and found that the Seasonic Super Tornado PSUs were not only much quieter than the PSUs I replaced, but also reduced current draw out of the wall about 15%. Additionally, they have a PF that I measured at .98 to .99. I used a Kill-A-Watt meter to measure before/after power draw and PF. The PSUs replaced were 2 generic PSUs and one Antec True Power unit.

The Seasonic PSUs are the most efficient that SilentPCReview has reviewed at about 80%. It makes sense that if you are building a new PC or need to replace a failed unit to spend the money on the Seasonic units. They are even competitively priced compared to other name brand PSUs as well.

I was on a quest to quiet down the PCs I've got, and came across the Seasonic Super Tornado Review over at SilentPCReview.

I measured the before and after current draw of my PCs and found that the Seasonic Super Tornado PSUs were not only much quieter than the PSUs I replaced, but also reduced current draw out of the wall about 15%. Additionally, they have a PF that I measured at .98 to .99. I used a Kill-A-Watt meter to measure before/after power draw and PF. The PSUs replaced were 2 generic PSUs and one Antec True Power unit.

The Seasonic PSUs are the most efficient that SilentPCReview has reviewed at about 80%. It makes sense that if you are building a new PC or need to replace a failed unit to spend the money on the Seasonic units. They are even competitively priced compared to other name brand PSUs as well.

You can also check out power supply reviews on Silent PC Review. They concern themselves with efficiency since an efficient power supply can be quieter and produce less heat.

The site also has a lot of other good info.

If it was whooshing air, then I happily stand corrected, and hurrah for Apple for being better and more innovative than Dell in yet another way.

My parents have one of these and the two fans are inaudible from more than 12 inches away. They happen to have a Western Digital hard drive so you can still hear a slight idle whine and you definitely hear seeks, but I would assume most Dells today would have drives with fluid bearings. In any case, if the hard drive is the noisiest component, you can slap it in a $25 NoiseControl NoVibes frame, problem solved (though unfortunately I don't think you can fit it in a PowerMac).

I read somewhere that when Dell started selling a lot of PCs in Singapore that they began getting serious about quietness; apparently Singaporeans care a lot about office ergonomics. So Dell created an acoustics lab, and the results were so good that they started quieting all(?) their computers.

(I don't know if this applies to their Precision workstations or their top of the line Dimension XPS, as I haven't heard those. But it seems to be the case for all mainstream Dimensions.)

I personally disagree that the Mac is amazingly quiet for having any fans. But after spending considerable effort silencing my own computer, and lurking around the SilentPCReview forums, my scale of what's quiet and what's not has been recalibrated.

You just aren't looking at the right forums.

You aren't looking at the right forums.

The Dell boxes that use retail Intel processors and fans are generally very quite.

That may very well be the reason that Dell doesn't use those fans. If you've ever looked inside an optiplex, they have a big green hood that folds in over the CPU heatsink which leads to a fan mounted to the case. Looks like this. A year into their lifetime, they get pretty loud. I'm about to go purchase a second one because this one is keeping me up at night. And the air quality in my place is pretty clean, I'm a non-smoker, etc..

If you're serious about quiet (or preferably, silent) computing, the most valuable site I know of is Silent PC Review.

Ok, I'll volunteer to prove you wrong. :)
Here is a case which uses a heatpipe to replace the fan on a EPIA M motherboard. Honestly though, if I wasn't tracking the mini|nano-itx stuff I wouldn't have known.

Not trying to sounds like a know it all myself, but my understand is 10V for a "silent" fan is still considered ungodly by the purists. Consider Zalman's FANMATE-1 that adjusts down to less than 5V with 11V as a MAX.

Have you browsed, for example, a Some of the websites dedicated to silent PC's?
The one I linked has a recommended page where they give noise to performance. For hard drives, the far and ahead winner is the Seagate Barracuda IV which is apparently discontinued. Your PSU is also generally one of the largest sources of noise on your whole machine, what do you use?

Ahanix sell PSU's to go with their cases. I have the Dvine6SQ case, which has a matching "media pack" containing a VFD display, IR sensor, remote & PSU. The PSU is rated at about 400W I think, and is labelled as 14dBA (!). According to reviews it's the quietest PSU available, but in exchange you have to be careful with heat. In my main desktop I use a Nexus NX3000 which really is quiet. 18dbA at idle, 19 under load. I really can't hear it running unless my ear's up against the fan.

Check out these guys to buy and these guys for reviews.

You might want to take a look at silentpcreview.com.

Be warned, though... They are quite obsessed, and some of them have gone to extremes in their quest for silence. But their reviews are very well-written, and the forum is a great source of help and advice.

Swapping out HDs makes a big difference and is one of the less invasive upgrades towards a quieter PC. I replaced a Western Digital 60 GB drive with a Samsung (who knew they made HDs?) and the noise/whine difference is substantial. I could hear the WD spin up at startup from the next room (wwwwwwhhhhhhhEEEEEEEEE!) and it continually produced a high-pitch whine while idle. The Samsung produces imperceptible levels of noise at startup or idle and its seek chatter is very low.

Thermalright makes heatsinks. Or more accurately, "massive machined chunks of copper". There's a reason many of their models require bolts to install, they'd pull the socket right out of the motherboard without the additional support. The heatsinks are great besides the heft because they don't include an integrated fan, you can buy a quiet 92mm Panaflo or Pabst fan and quietly cool even top-end CPUs.

Installing a fan controller helps squeeze the last few decibels out of the case, but you might run into the problem of the controller producing a rapid clicking noise at low voltages (the Vantec NXP-201 suffers from this problem, but is dirt cheap). SpeedFan is a software fan controller, but I've never quite figured out its usage.

A PC with a low noise floor makes listening to music more enjoyable as the dynamic range comes through without having to crank of the volume to drown out the fans.

To hangout with the hardcore "suspending harddrives with elastic / undervolting motherboards / 0 db computer" crowd visit Silent PC Review.

see silentpc review for more info on how complex it can get. Read the forums to see how anal some quiet pc enthusiasts can be.

• THGs review of the TNN500A

case - antec sonata or slk3700bqe

PSU - antec's yet-to-be-released phantom 350W PSU, or check this list:

• SPCRs list of PSUs

using vibration absorbing grommets for everything that vibrates(HDD, Optical, fans, etc.)

quieter fans:

• SPCRs fan list

• THGs review of the TNN500A

case - antec sonata or slk3700bqe

PSU - antec's yet-to-be-released phantom 350W PSU, or check this list:

• SPCRs list of PSUs

using vibration absorbing grommets for everything that vibrates(HDD, Optical, fans, etc.)

quieter fans:

• SPCRs fan list

That's a good strategy. An efficient heatsink with a quiet fan can go a long ways. I installed a Thermalright SP-94 (all-copper with heatpipes) with a 92mm Panaflo M running at 8V. It keeps my P4 3.0C (overclocked to 3.5 GHz) pretty cool and pretty quiet. My GF Ti4200 is passively cooled with a Zalman heatsink. My current power supply is pretty quiet, but I fixed my old one up by removing the airflow-restricting punched vents with a Dremel and replacing the cheapo loud fan with a quiet Panaflo L. Also added a direct intake of airflow right about the CPU / HSF in the side of a case with an 80mm Panaflo L running at 7V.

It's amazing how quiet this system is. It's even quieter than my previous PIII system was at half the speed. Up until recently, it was much quieter than my wife's HP Celeron 800 system. (We just finished modding that together to quiet it down...)

Really, if you're willing to put in a little bit of elbow grease and research here and there, you can wind up with a high-performance system that's quieter than most OEM systems.

Oh, as for hard drive noise that was mentioned above, the trick to try is to mechanically isolate the hard drive from the case, such as by suspension. See www.silentpcreview.com and www.overclockers.com for some ideas. :) -- Paul

No Slashdot post about computer noise is complete without a link to Silent PC Review.

RocketDrive retails for $1000 with 1GB to $3000 with 4GB. Not exactly "on the cheap" though. They used to sell it without memory, but apparently they don't anymore. Here's a review.

I've never cracked open a G5, but most of the standard tricks should apply. Replace all of the fans with the hydrobearing Panaflo L1A s, adding more if necessary. If possible, run them low at 7v or so... Pay special attention to fans under 80mm, as those tend to be the loudest. Line the case with the heavy, stinky lining used by car stereo installers. This will increase your case temps but will reduce the audio significantly more than a standard computer case liner. You may need to make an audio absorbative box (with it's own fan) around your HDD, or try replacing them with hydro-bearing drives from Maxtor or Seagate mounted with rubber.

For general purpose quieting tips, check out Silent PC Review. You'll see me on the boards there sometimes.

There are P4 Mini-ITX systems available: Pentium 4

But, most mini-itx systems are very small in size, and strive for quiet or silent operation. So, there are obvious problems with the P4's heat/power requirements. Perhaps a better solution is the Pentium-M in a mini-itx form factor. It has pretty good performance, at a low power/heat level: Pentium M. But, most of the Pentium-M boards are intended for industrial or OEM use, so they are hard to find in retail, and are pretty expensive.

I've built a few of these as well. My mother loves the one I got her for Christmas, even though it took her a while to understand that it was the whole computer and not just an external cd-burner, which is what she had asked for. =) Even better yet, on the noise fron though Shuttle has finally released a new version, the Shuttle Zen, which features an external laptop-style power brick adapter. Hence, only one fan total and it has even less equipment inside to cool. Very smart! This is of course old news to folks who prefer the Mini-ITX formfactor (or the absolutely tiny Nano-ITX or other such shrinkages), where external power and no CPU fan leads to truly silent computing.

Also, there are more links and information in this thread over at SilentPCReview.com

Link

I've been searching for this for long time: software controlled undervolting. Throttle down your CPU (and lower noise and energy consumption) when you don't need full performance and let it run at full speed (hey, even at more than full speed with FSB of 150 ...) when you need it.

Found this gem in the forums at www.silentpcreview.com:
8rdavcore. Available for Windows and Linux. Works wonderful on my Epox 8RDA3+ board and on some others with a nforce chipset.

Bye egghat.

Silent PC Review does the best hardware reviews for silence. Mike uses light bulbs (60W and 100W) when load testing PSUs to test how they deal with heat.

For a quick rundown on PSU ratings see: Recommented Power Supply Units

Silent PC Review does the best hardware reviews for silence. Mike uses light bulbs (60W and 100W) when load testing PSUs to test how they deal with heat.

For a quick rundown on PSU ratings see: Recommented Power Supply Units

Mike Chin at www.silentpcreview.com writes a more credible review of a psu that has a 120 mm fan and it's cranking 22 dBa when the psu is drawing 215 watts. I find it very hard to believe that an 80 mm fan can move enough air to cool a loaded 300+ Watt psu while only generating 14dBa of noise.

Typically the most irritating noises in order are

1) CPU Fan

2) PSU Fan

3) Case Fans

4) HDD

I have a Zalman pure copper Flower on my CPU with only one 12cm fan ducted near it. (No CPU fan). With my HDD decoupled it was silent (i.e. I could not hear it at 2 AM from 1 meter) during normal operation and barely audible when seek/writing.

To overclockers 28dB may seem quiet, but whispers are about 24dB. I personally find it dificult to work with someone whispering 1 meter away. About every 3 dB doubles the acoustic energy. (e.g. if one fan is 20dB, then two of the same fans would be about 23dB) I guestimate my system at about 22 dB.

Typically the most irritating noises in order are

1) CPU Fan

2) PSU Fan

3) Case Fans

4) HDD

I have a Zalman pure copper Flower on my CPU with only one 12cm fan ducted near it. (No CPU fan). With my HDD decoupled it was silent (i.e. I could not hear it at 2 AM from 1 meter) during normal operation and barely audible when seek/writing.

To overclockers 28dB may seem quiet, but whispers are about 24dB. I personally find it dificult to work with someone whispering 1 meter away. About every 3 dB doubles the acoustic energy. (e.g. if one fan is 20dB, then two of the same fans would be about 23dB) I guestimate my system at about 22 dB.

Typically the most irritating noises in order are

1) CPU Fan

2) PSU Fan

3) Case Fans

4) HDD

I have a Zalman pure copper Flower on my CPU with only one 12cm fan ducted near it. (No CPU fan). With my HDD decoupled it was silent (i.e. I could not hear it at 2 AM from 1 meter) during normal operation and barely audible when seek/writing.

To overclockers 28dB may seem quiet, but whispers are about 24dB. I personally find it dificult to work with someone whispering 1 meter away. About every 3 dB doubles the acoustic energy. (e.g. if one fan is 20dB, then two of the same fans would be about 23dB) I guestimate my system at about 22 dB.