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Melamine Ceiling Tiles and the Quiet PC

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the stretching-the-dollar dept.

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."

5 of 269 comments (clear)

  1. Morons. by lucifuge31337 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Lastly, since the front intake ports on this case are not used,

    Yeah...all those fans blowing out in the back don't need to pull air from anywhere. And they won't get louder as they have to run harder to pull air through the cracks in between the drive bays and around the insulation you just put in from on the intake.

    The really impressive thing about this article is that they guy managed to write an antire article about something as simple as chucking some industrial noise insulation material into a case.

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    Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
  2. Why not simply ... by caitsith01 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...get a quieter fan?

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    Read Pynchon.
  3. No inflow = no outflow = excitement? by Tsu+Dho+Nimh · · Score: 4, Insightful
    "A small section was also placed between the bezel and the front of the case in an effort to seal up the front intake holes which I don't use, and prevent sound from escaping."

    He might not be using those holes, but the air flowing into them is what replaces the air leaving through that noisy power supply fan. If he's making the fans work against higher resistance than they are designed to overcome, they will overheat, his computer will overheat, and he may be able to test the fire rating of those ceiling tiles he stuffed into the case.

    I bet he's the kind of guy who would take the air filter out of his car to "improve performance".

  4. High heat + low tech = ... by Atario · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...scornful Slashdot readers.

    Now, if you want a positive repsonse, how 'bout coming up with a sound-canceling system inside the case? Then you'd have high tech and low heat.

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    "A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
    1. Re:High heat + low tech = ... by arth1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A low-tech solution that works *better* in most cases (no pun intended) is to simply put some sound absorbant material on the wall behind the case. The reason is that most of the sound that escapes from a case does it through the rear, especially through the rear fans, and is reflected off the wall behind it.

      And yes, to those who wondered elsewhere in the thread whether this would increase the temperature, it will. By quite a bit. Yes, air is an insulator, but not THAT good, or else a heat sink would be pointless. The surface area of a heatsink is what makes it work, and the metal inside of your case also works as a heatsink that helps to keep the air inside the case cooler.
      By using acoustic foam inside a case, it's not uncommon for the temperature to rise 5-10C.

      Finally, a good high-tech solution would not be to cancel the noise, but to create quiet components. It's impossible to cancel all noise actively unless you know the exact listening position, so this just won't work.

      Regards,
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      *Art