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You can get as close to silent as you need for a lot less than $1400, with an ordinary case, a Zalman fan, a quiet power supply, and a hard drive noise dampener. I did it for under $300. (Not counting the case, motherboard, and hard drive, which I recycled from my previous system.)

Unless you get under the desk and put your head next to the case, the only thing you can hear is the CD-RW drive when it's running. (Which makes it arguably quieter than the Zalman -- the Tom's Hardware reviewers stated they could still hear the Hard Drive.) My desktop is still a PIII, which made it easy, but it's also feasible for P4s. Look at the Silent PC Review site.

Man those guys aren't kidding when it comes to wanting silent components! Even fanless PSUs only get 9/10 for noise..

SilentPCreview.com has reviews for "silent" PC parts(cases, CPU fans, power supplies, etc), and you can probably get some idea from them if you want to build a quiet system. I don't live in recording studio, so I don't think I would ever need this one to create 0db environment. My neighbors are obnoxiously noisy already, so what's the point?

Besides I've been using a laptop primarily and it's quiet enough (...duh) even without water cooling thingy. Laptop these days are not so expensive, you can get a good one for $1400 and less. Of course if you need to build a server, laptop won't work, but for 'home' use, laptop works good enough and is quiet.

Well my work desktop runs at around 60 decibels from ~2 feet away. Yes, that's loud. And it's an Intel P3 system from IBM. I want a new desktop PC purely because it's so damn loud... I don't actually need more CPU, memory, or disk.

My home PCs are all AMD, all with the stock fan/hs. The stock AMD fan/hs isn't incredibly noisy, but it certainly isn't the quietest thing out there. The loudest system is really quite bad -- but it's because of a very loud PS fan and several case fans. I'll eventually take some steps to quiet it down, because it is ungodly loud (at least to me).

If you really want to reduce system noise, then check out Silent PC Review. They do some real testing of sound levels and give some pretty solid advice on how to quiet PCs.

When I say _silent_ (not just almost silent), I mean that it won't need a CPU fan, no power source fan and that it would be based around a 1GB compact flash card. I would quite like a decent (not great) graphics card. And a 1 gig ethernet port.

You can get by without a CPU fan (see Via as others state). Good luck on the no PSU fan. And basing it on a CF card? With a 1 Gb ethernet port? Why? The card can't possibly keep up to the port (particularly for writes, which is another issue -- if you put any kind of swap space on the card it'll be destroyed in no time).

If you want a good site for quiet PC stuff, check out Silent PC Review. There's a wide variety of posters there, from aiming at truely silent, low-end computing to quiet, high-end systems.

As for speed/money, read AnandTech's review. It's either the Athlon64 3000+ or P4 2.8C, depending on task.

I personally think Rusty's In-desk PC is the slickest I've seen. Optimised for silence too.

This is WAY cool!!!

But if you're stuck with an old CPU a very good place to look is SilentPCReview.com. There is a thread in their forums with a list of undervoltable mainboards (can't post the direct link, cause the site is down at the moment).

Most Athlons undervolt quite nicely (mine goes from 1,5 Volts down to 1,35; wattages should be reduced by 12-15 watts). Remember that you don't sacrifice performance by undervolting. When you combine undervolting AND underclocking you can get Athlons that do consume less than 30 watts. With a really big heatsink you can cool such a modified CPU passively.

Bye egghat.

I recently purchased Seasonic's 300 watt Super Tornado (they should have called it "Silent Tornado") power supply, and it's *very* quiet. It uses a 120mm fan mounted on the interior surface of the power supply instead of the traditional 80mm fan mounted at the back of the PC. That alone helps to slash the amount of noise the fan makes, but the power supply is also the most efficient you can buy, which means it generates less waste heat than any other power supply its size. So not only will it cut the noise, it'll also cut your power bill.

The power supply also comes with a nifty set of cable-management goodies - wire wraps and ties. Cost about $60, should pay for itself with a couple of years of use. A few people reported problems with an early run of this unit - the fan received so little voltage when the case temp and power requirements were low it would sometimes squeal or chatter - but Seasonic quickly fixed it. Shouldn't be an issue now - mine doesn't suffer from the problem, but then I've got two hard drives, two CD ROMs, 512mb of RAM and an Athlon, so the system is probably always drawing enough power to keep the fan spinning faster than the minimum speed.

The PSU fan isn't the only culprit in system noise, though. Although it's traditionally been parked right at the edge of the case, where the sound can most easily bleed into the room, the CPU fan is probably the #1 offender. I picked up one of these Cooler Master squirrel cage fan coolers recently from newegg.com and I'm pretty happy with it. It makes a LOT less noise than a traditional fan, given the amount of air it moves, and it's not outrageously heavy like some of the giant heat-sink coolers out there. Makes about half as much noise as my old CPU cooler and keeps the chip just as cool with the fan cranked to about half speed. Curiously, running it full blast doesn't make the chip substantially cooler, but it does generate a lot more noise - I think the limiting factor is the relatively small aluminum heat sink (the copper model they sell might be a better option for hotter chips, but my Athlon XP 1800 isn't that bad). Another benefit is that the noise generated by this cooler is lower in frequency than the noise generated by other coolers - less a whine than a whirr, with a bit of rumble too (the cooler does cause a bit of low-pitched vibration in the case).

I also purchased Samsung's new 160GB SpinPoint drives, and they're effectively pretty damn silent. No whine, no noticeable spin noise, no seek noise audible from where I sit (at least, not over the other sounds emanating from the case). About the only issue I have with them - or had with them - is a bit of vibration that setup a buzzing in a removable drive bay I've got in my system. I pretty much solved that by putting vinyl grommets in the mounting holes of the drive bay.

The silentpcreview website is the best one I've found on the web for reviewing quiet hardware and practical modding ideas. You may want to read through some of their articles and the forums. Interesting stuff.

Sandwiching and Suspensions is a later article by the same guy using elastic to suspend the drives to reduce noise transmission.

Let me also be an advocate of Silent PC Review; if anything, quieting your computer through equipment modifications or replacements suggested on the site could benefit your health through a reduction in background noise.

Manufactures have now addressed the noise issue and 7200rpm 120+ gig drives can be purchased that are quieter than a whisper @ 10 feet; whisper = 3 bels, or 30db (decibels = tenths of a bel). Sure it does nothing for the heat, but I think hard drive enclosures are a thing of the past, unless you're holding on to that old 6.4gig drive.

The author of that article now is editor for Silent PC Review. It's also not the first time I've mentioned this site.

Whatever case you get, you want to get something suited to your needs and those of your hardware. If you've got a hot machine, you want to make sure you get a case with plenty of good airflow over the areas that get hot -- and it's no good if it keeps your motherboard cool if it's letting your HD's cook because they're in deadzones without even enough space for convection cooling.

Cheaper cases usually come with cheapo PSU's with poor specifications and build quality, which can easily lead to annoying (and even painful) setup, instability, and annoying vibrations you can't get rid of.

I paid 70 UKP for my case -- an Antex SLK3700 (review), based on a cheaper OEM case. It has good construction (aside from the plasticy facade), a beefy high quality PSU, and excellent airflow, especially over the generous number of drive bays (both requirements for me.. I lub my storage!).

I *could* have spent 20 UKP on a cheapo case, but it would have come with a nasty 5-quid PSU which might not last six months (hopefully not taking my hardware with it, assuming it's powerful enough to run it at all), no removable drive bays, poor stamped fan-bays which block 90% of airflow, no dust-guards, and no nice shiny finish.

Plus, if I need a decent case, I *know* I can just get another SLK3700 - I don't need to hunt through a load of generic OEM cases which will have changed by next week just to find something near what I want every time.

That's not to say I don't buy cheaper cases for people with modest requirements, but computer weenies like us typically appreciate a bit of quality -- it's just like getting a 90 UKP Epox motherboard instead of a 35 UKP PC Chips one; they both do pretty much the same job, but I know which I'd prefer to work with. Cases just have the benefit of not being *quite* so vital.

Undervolting is the biggest problem. There are a lot of boards that don't allow *under*volting (like all newer Asus MB, which *over*volt only).

Check this thread at SilentPCReview for a long list of boards that allow for undervolting. And add you board, if it is missing. Thanks.

And yes, it works. I have a Mobile Athlon running in an Epox 8RDA+. But sadly my core voltage only goes down to 1,4 volt and I guess that a Mobile Athlon can go far lower ...

Bye egghat.

Undervolting is the biggest problem. There are a lot of boards that don't allow *under*volting (like all newer Asus MB, which *over*volt only).

Check this thread at SilentPCReview for a long list of boards that allow for undervolting. And add you board, if it is missing. Thanks.

And yes, it works. I have a Mobile Athlon running in an Epox 8RDA+. But sadly my core voltage only goes down to 1,4 volt and I guess that a Mobile Athlon can go far lower ...

Bye egghat.

Just go over to silentpcreview for the scoop on the rest of your components. Apparently the Seasonic SS-300FS is the best power supply at the moment. The papst fan is a good choice. I just bought several of those strange and expensive ring fans that Panasonic makes. Some air escapes through the slots in the side, but it is pretty quiet. You can get those at Digikey and the 80mm fans are less than $9. I'd recommend the "medium" speed.

I went with an Intel Pentium III-S 1.13 Ghz. I plan to under-volt it down to near 1V and underclock it down to whatever its 66Mhz motherboard speed is. Even at its full voltage and clock speed it only uses 29 watts, so I figure I can get down to less than half of that.

Also, don't buy two hard drives. Each drive will double the noise and power consumption and heat. I just bought a 160GB Samsung with a very quiet idle and seek to replace my 80GB Seagate 7200.7.

Another tip is that the airflow of the low speed fan models are not very impressive. Where you actually want some airflow, you might want to get a higher "medium" rated fan and wire it for 7V (red to yellow, black to red) if it's too noisy at full speed. Their specs allow for 7v operation and it gives you the option of moving more air should you want/need to. Obviously you'll have to stick with Papst, Pana, or NoiseBlocker

You can achieve a quiet PC for much less cash. I bought:
A Big HSF with 80mm temp controlled fan (normally runs at 200rpm).
A Fortron PSU with 120mm fan.
2 temp controlled case fans which run at 1300rpm

For about $100 you can make your machine so quiet you can barely tell it's on.

More info

more informative

For anyone looking for quiet parts, the Silenx PSUs are rumored to perform very well both voltage- and noise-wise. Google found reviews here and here.

maybe you should look into quieter CPU fans in the future? Personally, the Zalman flower fans look very attractive to me

As with anything concerning the noise computers produce, you should check out SPCR - it is totally hardcore :D Zalman's fans don't rate very highly on their scale. Popular opinion leans towards a Thermalright heatsink and an undervolted Panaflo fan.

It is unfortunate Seasonic was not included in this comparison. This review explains how the Seasonic Super Silencer 400 is cool and quiet, a true 78% efficient PSU with Active PF.

I bought an Artic Cooling temperature controlled HSF that achieves the same performance running at 2000 rpm. I also bought a Forton PSU with 120mm fan. I now have trouble telling whether my computer is switched on.

If computer noise annoys you, take a look as this site.

There are some good drives these days that are very quiet. Seagate Barracuda series drives are legendary among the Quiet PC crowd. Although other manufacturers are also bringing out quiet drives.

If you really want a silent computer you might as well get some information:

How to Quiet the Thing
Silent PC Review

--
Simon

There are some good drives these days that are very quiet. Seagate Barracuda series drives are legendary among the Quiet PC crowd. Although other manufacturers are also bringing out quiet drives.

If you really want a silent computer you might as well get some information:

How to Quiet the Thing
Silent PC Review

--
Simon

I hope you didn't miss the: "This product is suitable not only for use in notebook PCs, but also in servers and desktop computers."
I am already dreaming about a silent PC in my bedroom (check out silentpcreview)

There are easier, more effective ways to quiet a pc: - suspend the hard drive in elastic material. - run the fans at 5v - buy quiet fans silent pc review.com. RSS

There are easier, more effective ways to quiet a pc: - suspend the hard drive in elastic material. - run the fans at 5v - buy quiet fans silent pc review.com. RSS

I have a one year old Maxtor hard drive (40gb@7200 rpm) here and its making as much noise as my 4-5 year old fujitsu 8gb@7200 rpm. So I guess that hard drives is another major noise source.

If you have the ressources to do it, heres an ingenious way to silent an hard drive.

Soundproofing your case produces results, but the biggest bang for the buck is definitely replacing the PSU.

I built a TV PC and I was annoyed by the hovercraft-like PSU, so I invested in a silent PSU. There are lots of custom quiet PSUs recommended here, but you pay for the styling and mods.

For me, the most economical approach was to pay $50 for a standard Fortron/Sparkle PSU with inside-case 120mm fan intake. There's a review of it at Tom's.

After the PSU replacement and replacement of the PC case, the PSU is literally inaudible. The loudest ambient noise in the apartment now comes from the fridge compressor in the kitchen one room over.

It's a minimal system though, an underclocked XP2400, a single hard drive. If and when I put in some more drives, I may line the case with soundproofing...

Soundproofing your case produces results, but the biggest bang for the buck is definitely replacing the PSU.

I built a TV PC and I was annoyed by the hovercraft-like PSU, so I invested in a silent PSU. There are lots of custom quiet PSUs recommended here, but you pay for the styling and mods.

For me, the most economical approach was to pay $50 for a standard Fortron/Sparkle PSU with inside-case 120mm fan intake. There's a review of it at Tom's.

After the PSU replacement and replacement of the PC case, the PSU is literally inaudible. The loudest ambient noise in the apartment now comes from the fridge compressor in the kitchen one room over.

It's a minimal system though, an underclocked XP2400, a single hard drive. If and when I put in some more drives, I may line the case with soundproofing...

I'd rather say, taht we're in the stone age regarding effective energy consumption. There are Mobile CPUs that take less than a half of normal energy. From the technical point it's possible to build a very fast PC that uses less than half of what a normal computer needs. There are mobile CPU, high efficiency PSU, etc.

Look at Silent PC Review to get an idea.

Bye egghat

But if anyone is interested in the topic, your first port of call should be here...

Stay away from the shuttles, they're pricey. You can pick up a compatible P3 LAN motherboard, a cheap PSU, some PC133 RAM, and an 800 mhz Socket 370 C3 for around 100 dollars. Put it in a box with a pre-existing HDD and a fan, and you have a server for 1/8th the cost of a new Laptop.

After setting it up, you won't interact with it via the screen / keyboard anyway, so don't bother.

And if your C3 costs are getting too high, pick up a $200 lindows box at walmart.com. Just remember to upgrade the fans to Panaflos, as the walmart box is tremendously, tremendously loud.

BTW, for more silencing tips, visit SilentPCReview.com. That's Silent PC Review dot C-O-M.

I'm not so sure that cat5 is perfect for balanced audio signals (although balanced itself is definitely a good thing!). For one thing, a real audio cable is going to have signal conductors entire inside of a shield that's connected to ground. Cat5 isn't shielded at all. It does have twisted pairs, which as I understand it are great a keeping down the capacitance, but that doesn't really help you at all with analog audio, which is already a very limited bandwidth. (For those who didn't follow that, running wires parallel to each other over a long distance creates the same effect as a capacitor, and putting a capacitor in parallel with a circuit carrying an AC signal in effect puts a low-pass filter on the signal. That limits the bandwidth, but the bandwidth requirements of an analog audio signal are quite small. Possibly so small that capacitance through cables just isn't an issue?)

Having said that, I think Cat5 is a good thing, because the surest way to avoid picking up interference over long cable runs is to go digital. If the signal is already digital, then IMHO the most logical thing to do is convert it to analog after it has gone through any long cable runs.

If you're going to take that approach, I personally recommend building a silent PC. See Silent PC Review for some tips on that.

My only other comment is that there are actually some really nice USB A-to-D and D-to-A convertors available, ones that are suitable for professional recording. I'm not sure of the max cable length of USB, but perhaps you could handle remote rooms by stringing long USB cables. Then another theory is to just run S/PDIF from room to room. Hopefully it can handle the distance. I guess my point here in this last parapraph is that maybe you don't have to install a computer in every room just to keep the signal digital as long as possible.

here

The VIA EPIA-M10000 looks pretty sweet.

Check out this site for information about quieting your system.

I'm tired of noisy machines too. That's one big reason I'm concentrating in the future on building quiet machines. Most manufacturers and hobbyists just pay a lot of attention to the level of noise coming from a machine, but you really can cut noise by a lot without sacrificing much performance or $$$.

For lots of good info on making your PC quiet (or building a new PC that's quiet), see the Silent PC Review web site. I personally have purchased a "Super Silent PRO" CPU fan they recommended, and I'm very happy with it. I did my own little bench test (read: "kitchen counter test") on it with a 12V power source and a hair dryer, and the fan was really pretty darned quiet -- waaaaay quieter than the generic fan it will replace. When my new motherboard arrives and I can actually use it, it'll be inside a new Antec Sonata ("hear the silence") case, and I'll hear even less of it.

Various 350 EX. Only problem: Only sold in Japan and extremly expensive to deliver to the US or Europe.

There are some other *very* quiet internal PSUs on the market. Fortron has some new models available with 120 mm fans (a 120 mm fan moves nearly three times more air than a fan with 80mm running at the same speed, so the fans can run really slow). Engelking has a PSU, that only uses a fan, if it get's too hot (45 degrees celsius). With a moderate PC the fan will be off most of the time.

And like some others have already pointed out: Check out the forums at silentpcreview.com. Most of my knowledge regarding quiet PCs does come from these forums.

Bye egghat.

I've built a couple of these. Great info and project ideas at www.mini-itx.com (creative name, eh?) and SPCR keeps up with much of this hardware.
I'm using a passive cooling model, a seagate barracuda, and a case with an fanless external power supply (blister pack) for my entertainment server, less than whisper, almost silent. Great server for an audiotron.

1. buy components which make less or no noise. the less noise you have to start with, the less you have to get rid off. eg. get a video card that doesn't require a fan rather than one that has one or choose a hard disk based on its quietness. seagate barracudas are a good choice.

2. replace noisy case fans with quiet ones. this makes a huge difference. the most popular quiet fans are Panaflo L1As. even quiet fans can be made even quieter by running them at lower voltages. do a search for "5 volt trick" or "7 volt trick".

3. use less fans. monitor your motherboard, processor, power supply and chip temperature. run a system intensive program like 3dmark. use the minimum no of fans that keeps the temperature within acceptable limits even at 100% CPU usage.

The number one concern when doing this is overheating. slower fans + less fans = less airflow so you gotta keep a close eye on that.

some other things i did which helped:
replaced the intel fan on my P4 with a quiet one. didn't get an expensive heatsink. just replaced the fan.

replaced the fan in the power supply with a quiet one. a quiet, slower fan = more heat. to reduce the chance of overheating, i removed the case on the power supply (not the computer case). DO NOT open the power supply and do any of this unless you are technically competent. you might get a nasty electrical shock! you've been warned.

as always, be sure to ground yourself and unplug everything before making any changes.

some sites which are useful:
Silent PC Review
Yahoo Groups- Silent PC

The forums at Silent PC Review would be a great place to pose this question. I go by seishino there, but anyone will be able to help.

External? The asus in front of me shipped with a 3 foot cable... that's definitely long enough to take outside of the case, but that wouldn't quiet the problem. There are some amazingly expensive fanless solutions available if you look (200$+), but for most people replacing the fan is good enough. There are also water-cooled psus, but they are also too expensive realistically for college use. Pick up a low-flo panaflos (L1A) from one of the places listed in the "hot deals" section (if you are near boston, I can get one to you), and put that in place of your fan. That is enough to cut sound down noticably.

www.silentpcreview.com

I've been obsessing over computer noise for a while... both so I can sleep with out turning my computers off... and because I use my computer for studio work (audio recording)

Currently I'm using zalmann flower heat sinks and zalman 70mm fans turned way down. As for power supplies... the Nexus is a good bet (around $75) or the zalman quiet power supply (around $40)

I wouldn't bother out-boarding your powersupply, a waste of money and effort... but just in case you still want to try SilentPCReview has a few power supplies that might work for that... to the tune of $200-$300 they also have some completely fanless power supplies.

~foooo PS. Mod me up... before you go go...

... in my desktop PC.

Transmeta is impossible, cause there are no boards available. VIA is too slow.

One way ist too underclock und undervolt your CPU. Some guys at www.silentpcreview.com have their Athlons running fanless(!) at 850 MHz and 1,1 Volt core voltage. The CPU doesn't consume more than 15 watts then.

I've done some experiments with Mobile Athlon in normal desktop boards. But not with that great results. Check out the forums of silentpcreview.

Bye egghat.

... in my desktop PC.

Transmeta is impossible, cause there are no boards available. VIA is too slow.

One way ist too underclock und undervolt your CPU. Some guys at www.silentpcreview.com have their Athlons running fanless(!) at 850 MHz and 1,1 Volt core voltage. The CPU doesn't consume more than 15 watts then.

I've done some experiments with Mobile Athlon in normal desktop boards. But not with that great results. Check out the forums of silentpcreview.

Bye egghat.

You can't buy the CPU, cause you can't buy a board, where it fits. No standard socket, no bios support, ...

Try to find a board, that supports AMD Mobile Athlon. This is much easier for the board manufacturer, it has the same socket and it only has to set core voltage, multiplier and FSB correctly.

You can see the results of my experiments in the forums on www.silentpcreview.com. Search for Mobile Athlon.

Bye egghat.

Check out the www.silentpcreview.com and especially their undervolting page and the forums. There are guys running Athlon at 800 MHz and 1,1 volt completely fanless. And an 800 MHz Athlon is faster than everything from VIA or Transmeta.

Bye egghat.

1) Create cool (literally) CPU.

Most of the time I just use a browser, email client and xmms. I also ssh into school to run Mathematica. I don't need a CPU capable of frying eggs thank you very much. An Astro desktop system would be perfect for me.

2) Refuse to sell to someone wanting to build their own desktop system based on your CPU.

I just wan't a CPU and mobo damn it. Why is this so hard to understand. I already have all the other components. I'd be willing to pay $400 for the privilege of having no fans. For the love of god please take my money.

Hmm, mabey they are having problems fabbing enough chips?

3) Fire more employees

I don't understand why they are ignoring the silent desktop market. Check out www.silentpcreview.com and www.hushterchnologies.net The market is there and it is growing. How much would you pay to get rid of the noise your computer makes?

4) Profit!!!

Using water-cooling to cool a power supply is just plain stupid. This review proves you could run a power supply without any fan at all:
SilentPCReview.com

Sure it got a little hot, but it is possible, even with a 350w power supply like used in that review.

Many people have modified the fans in the power supply to run at 5v instead of 12v, which cuts noise down almost 60%. A 80mm fan running at 5v is noiseless from more than 1 foot away, so unless this guy has his PC laying next to him as he sleeps it's simply a waste to water-cool a PSU.

For a review on the fanless heatsinks (including the zalman stuff), check this out. Otherwise, just go to this review which was referred to a few days ago in this slashdot post