Melamine Ceiling Tiles and the Quiet PC

Delta Screemer writes "What good are ceiling tiles when it comes to making a computer quieter? Well, Max Page of FrostyTech has found a use for 'Melamine Foam Sound Absorbing Ceiling Tiles' as a cheap way of lowering the noise a computer produces. By lining the insides of a computer with these $3 24"x24" industrial office panels he was able to quiet a computer by several dBA. That may not sound like much (pun intended), but when you compare the price of these melamine foam panel to products like Dynamat the price difference is substantial."

Comments

quiet PCs

[Anonymous Coward]

make for loud masterbation

Move?

[Mod Me God]

Or he could save cash and increase functionality by putting the computer in a cupboard...

Re:Move?

[Anonymous Coward]

Or increase security as well by burying it in concrete.

And the really good part is....

[nzyank]

... it helps keep your PC nice and warm and toasty inside. Metal conducts heat. The side of my computer is warm. Ergo it is probably helping transfer heat outside of the computer where it belongs.

Hmm...

[DNAspark99]

Does this mean I can cram in one of those ceiling fans too?

Summary.

[Anonymous Coward]

Computer user discovers a sound absorbing item indeed absorbs sound.

I cant prove it, but its true

[RobertTaylor]

"I wasn't able to measure the noise frequencies before or after the modifications, but suffice to say the case is also much less "annoying.""

Reminds me of a Brass Eye quote when a popular UK DJ compared the genes of crabs to sex offenders:

"There is no real evidence to prove this, but it is a fact"

Is that like the Rhode Island size standard?

[PhysicsGenius]

"quiet a computer by several dBA."

I've known some loud DBAs, but I didn't realize they had been organized into a loudness-measuring system.

Home Depot technology

[worst_name_ever]

Foam panels are just the beginning. Imagine how quiet his machine will be after he fills every space and crevice inside with expanding foam!

Price v. Dynamat

[Anonymous Coward]

As the legal representatives of the Dynamat Corp, we will be filing a lawsuit against both the submitter of the story and against slashdot for misrepresenting the efficacy of our product versus cheap alternatives such as this.

The Dynamat Corporation

PS - Screw you.

there's a better and yet cheaper way

[Anonymous Coward]

I let mine fill up with dust, and I can't even hear it.

Ahh, but you see...

[AndroidCat]

After the computer has been rendered silent, the sound card will play all those classic movie computer sounds to let you know it's alright: clattering relays, doot-doot-deep telemetery, chugga-chugga card punches, a little R2, etc...

A computer that sounds like is supposed to! And what right-thinking geek could resist that? :^P

Re:Ahh, but you see...

[Mr Z]

Ah yess... I remember when "Microsoft Plus" came out for Windows 95 (and people around where I was still called it the "Plus Pack"). My roommate installed one of the "high tech" themes (SciFi or Robots or whatever it was called).

I've never really truly recovered. It's amazing how you largely don't notice the sound effects when you trigger them yourself. It's similarly amazing how maddening they can be when the guy next to you keeps triggering "Beep... snap... gloop... clink! Tronggggg... gloop.... shshshshshshshsh... Bleep!" (Adding about 2000mg daily intake of caffeine doesn't help either.)

To get "back at" him, I wired up a cron job on one of the Linux machines there in the basement to play every .MOD file I had handy at a time I knew I'd be in class and he'd be computing. :-) He tore out and hid the speaker from that computer, at which point I found an old Kraco car stereo speaker and magnetically mounted it within my case and connected it electrically with two unused jumpers and some ghetto engineering.

I miss college.

Makes me want to electrify my door knob again like I did in my dorm room freshman year...

--Joe

Holy Crap!!! Great White Fire!!!!

[EDA Wizard]

This guy better watch out, or just like the greatest tragedy of early 90's glam rock, his computer case is going to go up in smoke.

Now that I think about it. Maybe he should get a window case, some Great White action figures, and he can have himself a little recreation right there next to his Pentium.

Why waste $3.00..

[Enraged_jawa]

When you can get a can of Expanding Foam for $2.79 at Home Depot. Just stick the nozzle into the fan grille opening and fill 'er up till foam comes out the floppy drive slot and all 8 corners. It will get real quiet and work much better than the tiles.

Re:Why waste $3.00..

[Graff]

you can get a can of Expanding Foam for $2.79 at Home Depot. Just stick the nozzle into the fan grille opening and fill 'er up till foam comes out the floppy drive slot and all 8 corners.

You mean like this guy did?

Posts/Screws/Clips

[sharkey]

I usually spend my time on the computer with a pair of headphones on just so I can escape the noise of the three or four cooling fans rattling around inside my computers' case.

Those holes in the fan chassis are for the screws that came with it, unless you have a nice case with existing clips for simple mounting of the fans. Just leaving the fans hanging by the power cables to "rattle around" is not a good idea.

Re:Why not active noise cancellation?

[mikeophile]

an implemention of it for PCs have to force one to sit in the same position all the time

You mean like sitting in front of the screen?

Spending money

[chunkwhite86]

These case moding fools will find a use for any old scrap of crap lying around. Some people have more time than money and this is how they spend it.

Well it's either that or they go and buy chrome wheels and a large wing for their throw-away disposable economy car. And don't forget the beer-keg sized super-loud muffler and the clear tail lights. Yeah... the clear tail lights... they add like 50 horsepower!

Using trash to silence a PC is not cool or geeky. It's stupid. I'm all for reusing things and being resourceful, but use some discression. sheesh.

Folks that have more dollars than sense should not write articles on modding anything.

Raccoon Cubs ...

[Mooncaller]

... sound like failing fans. Two weeks ago, while doing an all night coding session, I heard a failing fan. I at first thought it was my window fan. I turned it off; the sound continued. "Oh no my system is dying." I had just replaced my CPU fan, which I would not have done if I had'nt heard it failing. In a panic (I'm unemployed and don't have the resources to replace my old PPro system) I shut everything down. Fortunatly the sound continued. It was coming from outside. I finally located the source even though it was highly intermitend, fading in and out just like a failing fan. What I found was a days old orphaned raccoon cub right outside my window. It was yelling for its mom. Right now the cub and a sibling are with a Wildlife Rescue raccoon specialist.

BTW, a stupid artical like this one desireves OT posts :P

Re:I like loud computers

[Xzzy]

> A noisy hard drive is a dying hard drive.

Or a seagate. :D

Course they're fine these days, but several years back it was like setting off a chainsaw inside your machine.

Re:What are you smoking?

[mojowantshappy]

Insulation foam.

Obvious solution

[Raul654]

You need to add some air holes. I recommend a sawed-off loaded with buckshot. Or if you want to go old-school, just use old fashioned slugs.