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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.
Someone PLEASE post a link to a reputable site that has QUIET fans (CPU fans, projector fans, powersupply fans) that can be bought in Canada! PLEASE!!!
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Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
I am currently working on a water cooled PC. However I would like to move the powersupply out to another location. Can anyone see a problem with 20 foot long extremely well shielded low resistance power supply cables? The box will be alluminum with TONS of vents, but no fans in a room with 65 degree farenheit ambient tempature. And yes, even the harddrive is water cooled, in its own airtight enclosure. (still kept cool by water)
Sigs? We don't need no stinking sigs!
Not really an issue for home musicians...
Take a simple recording app like cool edit pro.
before your recording session record 1 second of silence (you not talking,singing,farting,playing,etc...) then save that, then record your track... then simply subtract the 1 second sample from the rest of the track with the filter tool and it sounds like you recorded in a closet full of coats. (except for any room reverb.. no fan/pc/ambient room noise.)
Hell I even set the furnace in the house to run the fan all the time during recording so that It doesnt cycle on/off during the track...that way I can easily remove it's noise.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I know this article is a joke but there is a very real solution to the noise and form factor problems. It's via's mini-itx motherboards.
Check out mini-itx.com the boards are low heat, low noise and fairly powerful (500-700 mhz). They are perfectly suitable for a media box, router, or low end linux/windows workstation. All parts included they whole things comes in at under $500 usd. That's pretty reasonable, and the site has a greate many interesting links about projects (like the one I think is cool, the computer in a cigar-box, the 'Hummidor64').
Im pritty sure you can remove the fan from a power supply without causing much damage...
Line the inside of its case with small passive heatsinks, and put an ultra quiet fan in its place but use a resistor to slow it down till it makes almost no noise, and it would be okay I would imagine. My powersupply barely even gets hot - So long as you arent running like your monitor from it too I reckon a fanless powersupply would be easy... I may be wrong though.
loply.com
Just so you know, extra noise coming from fans isn't ALWAYS from the dust (however a lot tends to be). A little oil in the fan goes a long way. Some fans just don't hold up to being run all the time, and putting some oil on them helps to extend their life and make them quieter :)