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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."
make for loud masterbation
Or he could save cash and increase functionality by putting the computer in a cupboard...
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FreeNET user? Comfortable with the adverse selection?
... 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.
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.
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
Computer user discovers a sound absorbing item indeed absorbs sound.
It lets me know things are working correctly.
A silent hard drive is a dead hard drive.
A silent fan is a dead fan.
Give me as many physical clues to the health of the machines, if you please.
I have been pwned because my
I used to have a annoying loud PC in my bedroom and it was very difficult to sleep with it on, so what I did was to place it in the basement and use it as a terminal server.
For my bedroom I built myself a not-so-dumb terminal. I used a VIA processor based motherboard and run it diskless.
All I did was fit a CD-ROM so I could boot a minial homebrew Linux based on knoppix and Morphix. Once booted up it logs in automatically and launches Rdesktop which allows me to login to my server in the basement over 802.11b.
This works great and I sleep much better now!
Bethanie: Whore...
Fan Whore
"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"
Use larger, slower fans when possible. They move the same amount of air as smaller, faster fans, but without the noise.
...get a quieter fan?
Read Pynchon.
I've known some loud DBAs, but I didn't realize they had been organized into a loudness-measuring system.
And here, laugh, it's relevant
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
My DELL Optiplex GX260 is dead quiet. You can't even tell that it is on. They did an excellent job making it quiet.
My previous DELL was a noisy s.o.b.
My home computer (AMD 2200XP and Antec case like the one in the article) is pretty quiet, after i down-voltaged all the fans, replaced both the CPU and northbridge fans with big copper heatsinks, underclocked the cpu to minimum, seagate baracudda drive, but it still makes noise.
In comparison, this DELL is dead silent. I can not tell that the machine is on, even a few inches away, while I am at the office. It only makes noise if I use the DVD/CDROM drive.
-mark
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.
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
rdesktop does not support audio redirection so mplayer and xmms are reasonable altrenatives, I tried to run mp3s off a windows share using SAMBA but it didn't work too good, so I tried webdav and that seems to be a lot more stable.
Video is not really viable but I usually burn to SVCD and watch on my DVD player.
Howevar I don't play games.
Just letting you know how I do it, this might not be a good idea for everyone despite this it's a great box for coding.
Bethanie: Whore...
Fan Whore
Foam panels are just the beginning. Imagine how quiet his machine will be after he fills every space and crevice inside with expanding foam!
In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
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".
I let mine fill up with dust, and I can't even hear it.
A computer that sounds like is supposed to! And what right-thinking geek could resist that? :^P
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
I've personally used Dynamat for my bedroom system, right next to my bed (Used it for music,movies) and it really made it a lot quieter and well worth the money.
:)
The -1 hour increase in time it takes to get asleep was worth its weight in gold
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
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.
...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.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
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.
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.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
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
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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...
No, I don't trust in god. He'll have to pay up front, like everybody else.
Soundproofing your case produces results, but the biggest bang for the buck is definitely replacing the PSU.
I built a TV PC and I was annoyed by the hovercraft-like PSU, so I invested in a silent PSU. There are lots of custom quiet PSUs recommended here, but you pay for the styling and mods.
For me, the most economical approach was to pay $50 for a standard Fortron/Sparkle PSU with inside-case 120mm fan intake. There's a review of it at Tom's.
After the PSU replacement and replacement of the PC case, the PSU is literally inaudible. The loudest ambient noise in the apartment now comes from the fridge compressor in the kitchen one room over.
It's a minimal system though, an underclocked XP2400, a single hard drive. If and when I put in some more drives, I may line the case with soundproofing...
Da Blog
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
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.
c-hack.com |
An often asked question is if active noise cancellation can be used for to minimize PC acoustic noise emissions. The answer is no. Active noise cancellation relies on ones position in relation to the noise source, and hence will an implemention of it for PCs have to force one to sit in the same position all the time for to benefit of it.
You mean like sitting in front of the screen?
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.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
BTW, a stupid artical like this one desireves OT posts :P
He fails to mention what the speeds of all the fans in his case are. With the increased temperature, most 'smart' fans will increase in speed, and therefore noise. So adding all that insulation can even increase the noise in some cases (not this one it seems). ie, on my case, it actually runs quieter with the sides off, than on, because the temperature drops and the fans all drop in speed. Plus it means I can disconnect some fans as they are no longer needed.
I can run a nvidia G4 & P4 2.5ghz with harldly any noise at all - seems crazy to me that some people require such extreme cooling/insulation methods. I just use fans which adjust based on load.
I.O.U One Sig.
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.
Ok, the truth is that it doesn't really run silently, but you won't hear a damn thing. Modify a desk by removing some drawers from it to make enough space for your computer to sit inside. Drill a hole at the top for the wires. A monitor, keyboard, speakers and rat are all you need on top of the desk. The best insulator is air, and there's air around the computer inside the desk. If you need to access the CD-ROM drive or something, set it up so that in place of the drawers, there is a door you can open. This has other uses, like physical layer security. You could put a lock on the damn thing or simply make it so inconspicuous (by putting a shoddy computer case next to the monitor that doesn't do anything) to fool anyone who might otherwise jack your comp. It is so silent that nobody will ever even know it is there.
You could go further, if you're like me and you've kept every old computer you've ever had. Put them in a walk-in closet and run a network cable to your desk. Run applications on all the computers and access them all from the one on your desk, via X, VNC, or other software. When your friends come over, they'll think your computer is 10 times as fast as it actually is since you can run tons of applications all at once and they all seem to operate at full speed. Little do they know that you've actually got 10 computers (or however many) doing the work. Even at work we don't put computers out of commission and continue using them to run old applications, and new ones that don't use up 200% of system resources in order to display stupid useless graphics.
I have 7 computers up and running, 5 of them being in the same room, one in the garage and one in my sons room.
I'm here to tell you that the noise and the heat is more than I can stand. So, I scored a twin door soda display cooler from a drive in grocery store for CHEAP. It was broken and has a bullet hole in it from a robbery attempt. But, it LOOKS good. It's 6.5' tall, 5' wide and 3' deep. It's got a dozen heavy duty adjustable shelves plus internal and external 48" flourescent light fixtures. The doors are self closing, double paned glass.
Well, I stripped out the compressor and all the other cooling things. Now I have a HUGE, insulated sound proof box that is big enough to put ALL of my computers into including my laserjet and other heat producing devices.
pic of cooler stripped all the way down
pic 2 of cooler stripped all the way down
I pulled the doors off and seperated the double panes of glass and removed the "COKE" logos,
pic of one door before removing logos
Now I'm going to apply my own "etched glass" appliques that suit my tastes, I'm sanding the outer cabinet down and priming it so I can put a nice paint job on it and shortly I'll have a giant soundproof box for my pc's..
I'm going to put vents in the bottom rear and baffle and filter them to keep the sound in and and the dust out. In the top I'm going to cut a four inch diameter hole and run a PVC duct through the top of the cabinet and through my ceiling into my attic. With a small, super quiet 4" fan to help exhaust the hot air, my computer room will stay nice and cool and my air conditioner will not have to work nearly so hard as it does now.
In the winter I'll divert the exhaust into the computer room to assist the central heater..
And to top it all off, I'm going to put a few cold cathode lights in it just for a nice effect. The internal 48" flourescent light I'll leave in there to light it up when I have to pull a rack out to work on something...
My biggest problem now is figuring out how to get it into the house. I can take some door frames out but I don't know if it will turn the corners or not..
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.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
is on the wall behind the computer. One of the biggest noise-emitters is often the power supply fan and noise from other sources tends to leak out through other access points on the computer's back. If the computer's back faces the wall, putting a block of good sound-absorbing material can lower the amount of noise radiated into the room quite noticeably.
You don't even need a screwdriver.
I've recently built a power amplifier with a practically sealed case with plenty of metal. The case itself is the heat sink, so there's no need to have any dusty air wandering inside. Of course audio devices don't usually need fans, but it's basically the same idea anyway. The next computer I build will hopefully have passive cooling in a similar fashion, and of course a fanless power supply.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
I have a one year old Maxtor hard drive (40gb@7200 rpm) here and its making as much noise as my 4-5 year old fujitsu 8gb@7200 rpm. So I guess that hard drives is another major noise source.
If you have the ressources to do it, heres an ingenious way to silent an hard drive.
"...a generation of kids has grown up thinking Trance is the shittiest music since country and western." - Paul van Dyk
You guys who disagree are wrong. If I feel heat on the case of the computer that means heat is being dissipated by the case. The fan is blowing the hot air around, mostly out the holes, but in the process some air contacts the metal walls of the case which is transferring the heat from the inside to the outside. Is that so hard to understand? Hey here's a thought! Why don't you remove all the insulation from your house walls and let the resultant air do its job of insulating. Put a bunch of fucking fans in your house in the winter time and that'll keep you warm, right? Sometimes I wish I was dumb so that life would seem simpler and yet more mysterious like it must to you guys; the ones who make stupid statements as if they were true and especially the ones who mod those stupid statements up as if they were insightful and actually not stupid.
The problem with putting a computer in a desk or cabinet is that it heats up due to the confined air pocket around the machine. Fans that just end up recycling hot air don't make the machine any cooler. One of my machines I've had to maintain has stability problems as a result of this.
Lastly, the air gap in the cabinet is not what's shielding the sound. It's shielded because the walls of the desk/cabinet are good at absorbing sound, and because you're farther away from it (less reaches you), and because vibrations in the desk can couple into the floor and other parts of the building you're in to sink energy instead of resonating in the room.
If anyone else is considering a similar desk mod, I'd suggest making cutouts in the back or side of the desk (something unobstructed) for a large exhaust fan and an air intake vent.