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

Larger, slower fans

[metatruk]

Use larger, slower fans when possible. They move the same amount of air as smaller, faster fans, but without the noise.

Since he throws the terminologies around.

[Mononoke]

A 6dBa difference (decibels, A weighted) is perceived as a doubling (or halving, in this instance) of loudness. His measurements seem to average in that area.

Most of what he did was close off areas where sound could escape. However, as has already been mentioned, those same areas would have allowed fresh air to enter. I'd rather have the noise than let the smoke out.

What are you smoking?

[chriso11]

Standardized /. response:

Your post was found to:
___ Support Microsoft in some form
___ Bash OS applications
___ Support the activites of MPAA/RIAA
___ Show lack of technical knowledge
_X_ Post without RTFA
___ Accept SPAM as a valid marketing technique
___ Incorrect Anime/ST/Star Wars/Other Sci Fi reference

Comments:
The author actually DID evaluate the affect of temperature. A 2degree rise in temperature for a 75% reduction in noise is pretty good. Unless you can do better for cheaper...

Re:Safety question?

[kirkjobsluder]

Actually, one of the Melamine collectors handbooks, (believe it or not, there are people who run around trying to collect complete sets of brightly colored plastic dinnerware from the 50s) claims that the makers of Melmac had the Dod use Melamine dinnerwar. in above-ground nuclear weapons tests. Evidently the DoD was interested in the survivability of everyday materials and the producers of Melmac got free advertising on how indestrcuctable their product was.

bitumen mats

[Rxke]

not the same thing, but related: A lot of cheap computerboxes resonate, due to the spinning of the drives, fans, cd/dvd drives. An inexpensive solution is to go to your local upmarket hifi store, where they sell bitumen mats, used to deaden-stiffen the walls of speaker cabinets. These things are thin but heavy, and reduce the 'rattling' a lot by increasing the mass of the walls. Just apply a (small) patch to the insides of the case et voila Or you could try a cartuner shop, same material is used to dampen resonance soundproblems in cars

Seagate Barracudas

[jcsehak]

I second that - can't say enough good things about them. SO quiet. I replaced the one that came with my early-model mac g4 (a Maxtor (Western Digital's are equally noisy, BTW)) with a Seagate Barracuda I picked up from www.endpcnoise.com, and now the whole machine is maybe a third as loud. It's like a dream - the only sound I can hear is that of the power supply fan. I also replaced the case fan with one that was (unfortunately smaller) much quieter. So now, if I can find a quiet power supply that is guaranteed to work with my machine, I'm golden.

In my last place, I had the thing in a closet, which really quieted it down. I was nervous about the heat, but nothing bad happened at all. I had to keep it quiet so I could do recording. Now I just have the mic in a different room. Much nicer.

Are these fiber pannels?

[thogard]

One problem is fibers break off and tend to collect in things like fans. If the fiber size is small (like asbestos), it can even find its way inside hard drives.

I used some tar lined sheets. They are about 2mm thick and have metal foil on one side. They weren't cheap but the inside of my case isn't that big.

Re:And the really good part is....

[Laur]

Unless the heat producing parts of your computer are in direct contact with the metal, there's no difference, because the air acts as a nice insulator.

False. While you are correct that air has a low thermal conductivity, if you have a signifigant air gap (say >.5") you will get convection. This is what the fans are doing, providing forced convection inside the case, transfering heat from the hot componets to the sides of the computer as well as expelling the hot air. Air is only a good insulator if you can keep it from circulating. Incidentely, this is why foams are good insulators, they are mostly little pockets of air which can't circulate. This is why if you are using foam to insulate something you do NOT want to compress it.