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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."

2 of 269 comments (clear)

  1. Why not simply ... by caitsith01 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...get a quieter fan?

    --
    Read Pynchon.
  2. 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