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Underclocking for a Quiet Machine?

Posted by Cliff on from the one-of-the-holy-grails-of-home-computing dept.

The Fun Guy writes "I'm running a PIII 600MHz, which I'm thinking of upgrading. If I could get rid of the fan and run more quietly, I'd love to. I run office-type apps, so I don't need the fastest processor around, but I also run d.net, so I'm constantly pegged at 100% usage. Aside from the obvious fact that your CPU is running slower than the listed speed, is there any downside to buying, say, a 1.8GHz chip and running it at 900MHz without the fan? Any experience or FAQ's to share on this?" We've covered this topic several times before, with some good feedback, however most of the approaches don't discuss the use of underclocking to accomplish this, although one common suggestion from the comments is to use a non-Intel processor, if you can. Have any of you tried underclocking your CPU to allow it to run silently? How far do you need to underclock a processor in order to enable it to run without a fan?

1 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. easier way... by Polo · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Here are the things you'll have to deal with when trying to quiet your system:
    • cpu fan
    • disk drive
    • case fan
    • video card fan
    • power supply fan
    • cd spinning
    Ok, so my way of solving the problem doesn't involve underclocking, but it works better:

    I put the computer in another room.

    Get a good monitor cable (one with ferrite cores) and a keyboard extension cable and run them through a wall to the computer in another room. Now *that* is quiet. And it costs maybe $50.

    Now to be honest, that's not exactly my setup. I actually have a KVM switch and hook to several computers in the next room. I have a nice quiet bedroom with a keyboard, monitor, speakers and a usb KVM switch. If you look at http://www.belkin.com you'll find kvm switches that switch audio too.