Slashdot Mirror


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.

21 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. What? by salemnic · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hate it when there's no noise. Without that, and my lights burnt out, I can never tell if the wonky parts are still going!

  2. Yeah, that is quiet... by VitrosChemistryAnaly · · Score: 4, Funny

    Quiet PCs are easy. There's lots that you can do to make your PC quieter.

    Instructions on how to make a quieter mother-in-law? I'd really like to see that.

    Anyone else have a crazy Korean mother-in-law? You know what I mean!

    --
    "It's a tarp!" -- Dyslexic Admiral Ackbar
    1. Re:Yeah, that is quiet... by _ph1ux_ · · Score: 4, Funny

      doesn't their website have a return policy if you arnt happy with all of the undocumented features of your new wife?

      sorry.

    2. Re:Yeah, that is quiet... by Tim+Doran · · Score: 4, Funny

      Take advice from the article: cut any moving parts off her, then wrap her in Dynamat until she's silent.

      This isn't rocket science, people.

  3. Silent PC by itsawondertoo · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have found that my PC runs silently when I play my illegally gotten mp3's at ear crunching loud volumes. Preferrably "System of a Down" or "Tool" although I have been known to play the soundtrack from "Fiddler on a Roof" or "The Fantasticks" also.

  4. Other Hot News on Slashdot: by theonomist · · Score: 4, Funny

    10/21/2002: Netscape innaugurates Mozilla open source project!

    10/20/2002: Windows NT 4.0 released!

    10/19/2002: DEC changes name to Digital, and/or vice versa!

    10/18/2002: Altair home computer released!

    10/17/2002: New "Multics" project aims to revolutionize operating systems!

    10/16/2002: New "high level" programming language Fortran promises to revolutionize number-crunching!

    10/15/2002: This just in: Renowned mathematician Alan Turing found dead!

    10/14/2002: HITLER INVADES CZECHOSLOVAKIA!

    10/13/2002: Council of Trent adjourns!

    10/12/2002: EMPEROR DIOCLETIAN ACCEDES TO THRONE!

    10/11/2002: Orgmph discover fire! Fire good! Cook meat!

    --
    "Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive" -- hey, that's me!
  5. The quietest pc. by teamhasnoi · · Score: 5, Funny

    is the one at the store that I can't afford. All I hear is a little voice that says, "buy me, buy me". It might just be in my head.

  6. Re:Help! by Data::Dumper · · Score: 5, Informative
  7. Re:My ex boyfriend had a computer.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'll bet he couldn't even hear his computer as he was most likely hearing impaired from listening to a screeching Scottish Catholic woman bitch at him all day and night.

  8. Re:This could be very interesting for musicians by leshert · · Score: 5, Informative

    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."

  9. Re:My ex boyfriend had a computer.. by _ph1ux_ · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is this post for real?

    First of all - with that ...wicca... part of your domain - I am sure you have more issues than just the noise that his machine was making.

    Second - I dont blame him for leaving if you're constantly harping on him about things like the flipping key-stroke noise that kept you from getting all the rest you needed for your oh-so-difficult receptionist job.

    Third - your not used to a lot of noise because your from scotland? but now all of a sudden your OK with it all because you have a computer job? I assume you have a much larger paycheck now - so it would seem that you didnt really care about the noise, you jsut cared about the money that you weren't getting. Now that you have a job making a larger wage you can suddenly forget about the fact that you're "from a rural area in Scotland, [and] not used at all to roaring cars and noise and humming computers"

    Now you miss him because you could really use his computer?

    JEEEBBUUSS!!

    Give me that guys email address - I would like to congradulate him for leaving you!!

  10. Re:Dynamat doesn't work. by Lancer · · Score: 5, Funny
    Inflammatory commentary aside, Dynamat works exactly as designed.

    What you must realize, though, is that Dynamat is not designed to reduce noise. It is designed, like so many other car audio products, to separate fools from their money.

    --
    Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside a dog it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx
  11. Re:Hard Drive the only loud thing? by Jhan · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  12. Story summary by EricWright · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. Rip out fans and heat sinks
    2. Put some sound dampening dynamat over fan and heat sink holes
    3. Put back together
    4. Turn on... wait a few seconds
    5. Extinguish flames
    6. Go to store.apple.com and buy a Mac

  13. Dynamat is too expensive by fobbman · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  14. THE ARTICLE IS A JOKE. by User+956 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.
  15. Re:My Vic-20 was silent by Fastball · · Score: 5, Funny

    Until you upgraded to a C-64 and bought the floppy drive that accomodated it. You know the sound that a bum makes when he tries to clear his throat? Yeah, that's your C-64's floppy drive loading Flight Simulator for the next two minutes.

  16. Re:My ex boyfriend had a computer.. by Dr+Caleb · · Score: 5, Funny
    (I am Catholic and Scottish)

    I know a couple who are Irish. He's prodestant, she's catholic. Whenever they argue, she blows up his car.

    Anything like that?

    --
    "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
  17. Re:My ex boyfriend had a computer.. by Ryan+Amos · · Score: 5, Funny

    This, coming from slashdot... I wonder how many people who are replying to the original post have ever even had a girlfriend.. All women are like this, if you find one who's not, she's probably a lesbian.

  18. Re:This could be very interesting for musicians by Jhan · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  19. Re:My ex boyfriend had a computer.. by Paladin128 · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.