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Building the Ultimate Silent PC
TRH writes "You had a post not long ago about building a totally quiet PC, I came across this article on Rabid Hardware where the author had another approach for quieting down a PC, through ripping out fans, motors and replacing heat sinks with sound deadener material. Funny read, especially from a site that's known in the modding world for being a little off-the-wall to begin with." Finally, the silent PC you crave, and for a change, this one won't cost you a fortune.
http://www.quietpc.ca/
Doncha hate it when respondents don't read the article first? Even more so, when it's posted in the wrong section.
It's a joke, and should have been posted in the humor section.
An excerpt:
"CD-ROMs are relatively easy to secure. Once we remove the motors (3! Tray, spinny motor and the wee one that moves the optics back and forth), the rest is child's play. I doubt this Lite-On drive will make much electronic vibration afterwards, but I'm also removing any chips that have the potential to create noise, just to be safe."
Actually, it's more about sound level variations
I sleep about 1 meter from my home server. Every time the general level of sound changes sharply (even if at low volume), I wake up. Momentarily. Let me tell you, 10+ "Micro-wakenings" per night will do you no good!
Possible fix: REMOVE all ability to vary fan speed! And to park disks! And perhaps even to slow processor.
I choose to remain celibate, like my father and his father before him.
You can either spend ~USD120.00 for 39ft2 of Dynamat or you can get the same effect with materials like B-Quiet Extreme and get 50ft2 for USD85.00.
I'm not affiliated with them, I just hate seeing people spend a ton of money on something that has an equal quality, lesser-priced alternative.
Maybe this is the solution that many musicians have been waiting for.
Did you even read the article? It's a joke:
"I cut a piece of Dynamat the size of the CPU, and stuck it on the CPU. Not only can dynamat run at peak performance without any fan whatsoever, but also it insulates to prevent nasty CPU vibration."
And if you weren't sharp enough to catch that, it says "humour" in the fscking URL, for christ's sake.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Not true! This is valid information on how to improve your computer!
For other great advice, check out Datadocktorn (approx. "The Computer Docktor"). They have great guides on how to make your computer plenty better. Especially check out the disk defraggle section. The minimizing tutorial is also very helpful. I never realized that I cut just saw off those wasteful parts of my motherboard and fit the whole thing in a much smaller case!
I choose to remain celibate, like my father and his father before him.
Absolutely not! TomsHardware.com had an article about PSU's the other day... There was one unit that was basically a modded Enermax with an ultra-quiet fan... it couldn't handle the power it was rated for. It died at its rated power output.
Buy an Antec TruePower power supply. It has a thermal senser and slows down the fan when it can. My friend got one and it's pretty damn silent.
Lex orandi, lex credendi.