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A Practical Approach To Shushing Your PC
An anonymous reader points to this wacky but effective-looking home-brewed answer to computer noise, consisting of a wooden case stuffed with ventilation shafts which follow a number of 180-degree turns, and implementing several ideas found at 12ghosts.de (in German). From the description on the site: "By traveling through the shafts, the noise is weakened gradually on its way through the sections. On the front the case has a door for accessing drives, the cables come out of a kind of "mouse hole" at the rear panel. A fan inside pulls an air flow through the wooden box."
I'd like a quieter PC, but space is at a premium here and I don't want a PC which is 5'x5'.
...simple as that. Go get a decent Watercooling setup and a , and you've got an (almost) silent PC.
I have over 70 freaks, do you?
If the original design came from 12ghosts.de, how can he patent the design? Or is he the same person that came up with the design at 12ghosts.de? Wouldn't prior art be applicable to patents?
Interesting concept, but that case looks really bulky, and I would worry about airflow. Would this idea work if we shrink it down drastically?
-B
...is running Virtual PC on an iBook ;-)
Hmm. The noise from my PC has often made me want to throw it out the window. Now it occures to me that, since I live in Finland, this might actually be a *great* idea!
I've found that this always does the trick!
I don't like the idea of putting something which gets very hot inside a well insulated wooden box.
The problem with going after the silent PC at all cost is that the level of noise is not purely objective, and there is a strong psychological aspect to how much a sound will disturb you. A lot of people have computers that sound like F15s during take-off, but seem completely surprised when you even mention the noise to them: other people start trying to silence their computers, yet end up finding even the slightest hum annoying.
The problem here is the way our brain work in regards to sound. If a sound is percieved as a threat, then the sound amplified subcontiously, where-as ambient sounds that are percieved as mundane are muffled. It is not difficult to understand why we have evolved that way.
When you start trying to silence your computer, it is easy to start thinking of any sound you hear as a "failure" and thus a threat, which will make you focus on it. Thus you have people who get a silent power supply, only to suddenly find themselves driven up the wall by the CPU-fan, and then the harddisk.
The extreme end of all this, of course, is tinnitus. I've suffered from this condition for ten years, and it is like having a noisy a computer inside your head that nothing can turn off. But at the same time, it works just the same psychologically: if you start fearing the sound, running from it, thinking about how it will be there for the rest of ones life, the condition becomes unbarable. Whereas if you can tell yourself that it really isn't that bad, and learn to just accept it, you can live almost undisturbed. (The latter is easier said then done, even when you realize it is true - myself I tend to have good periods followed by bad.) Some people even argue that tinnitus is entirely psychosomatic in this sense (I would like to believe them).
So, just as a warning, a silent PC isn't a bad thing, but be careful about how far you take yourself down the road of fighting the noise.
And one of the first 'problem' areas I had with it was the noise gernerated by the fans. I bought a volcano 11.. sounded like a jet engine taking off and I only had the dial at 3500rpm (full speed is 5000+). My solution was to remove the metal grill which covered about 50% of the top. It was really badly designed and after getting rid of it not only was the pc quieter but it was cooler too. I know I should bought a aeroflow but that was the only one I could find in my town and I needed it in a rush.
While I'm not the kind of person that needs a silent PC, I know there are a lot of people that require a low noise polution level in their home or work environments. Several studies show that having computers perpetually running can cause people to become aggrivated often, due in part to the noise produced by loud fans or hard drives.
When I had my first computer, I remember every 2-3 minutes the fan would intermittantly become about 40db louder than it should be, warranting a swift kick (or 2,3,4,..) to the side or front panels of the case (and I'm not a violent man). So I can definitely sympathize with why some people find a quiet computing environment optimal.
Sorry, little walk through nostalgia lane. But that said, I do have a few recommendations for people that don't want to build their own wooden case just to limit noise output.
* Buy quiet fans * Buy quiet hard drives * Make sure things are mounted securely! * NEVER skimp out when buying a case
If you follow these very simple, unspecific guidelines, you will be well on your way to a quieter computer (at least one that doesn't require you to kick its ass at regular intervals)
I appologize if this didn't turn out coherent, I tried to proofread, but I'm a little out of it ~~
You're just mad because the voices in your head talk to me.
Go to enough loud rock concerts and voila! your Ear Mod is complete, and you can't hear that fan noise (or anything below 80 dB) anymore!
Freedom: "I won't!"
1. Get the latest tunes from your faviourite record company/piracy source.
2. Turn the volume up.
3. Press play.
There is no need for you to work next to
your computer box, the cables/RF connecting your
screen keyboard and mouse to your computer
can run a great distance. I have a computer set up
in my bedroom with the box in a diffrent room.
with a Screen a keyboard a mouse and a USB CDRW
drive conviniently available.
No nutty modifications, just USB extention cords.
Me.
Actually, he modded the wood himself. Observe: Outside view of the noise insulation case. The outside plush coverage only serves as an optical embellishment. Personally, I think that look works better on the interior of a Chevy Nova.
I've never understood people's obsession with getting their PCs quieter. My PC has maybe 6/7 fans in it all going at the same time, and it honestly doesn't bother me. If it was silent, other noise would piss me off. For example, human voices actually piss me off a lot more. I find it very hard to concentrate in multi-user environments like libraries. And these people are saying that a small whirring is unbearable?? They need to adapt to life.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
Well, actually, the secret here is that the wall behind my monitor is very thin wood paneling (3 or 4 mm) separating the main basement from the workroom, which isn't used much. Cables thus run from the desk in the basement through a 2" x 3" hole in the paneling under the desk and into the computer. By closing the door that separates the two rooms, I simply cannot hear the computer, even during hard drive activity and full fans blasting.
There is, of course, one unfortunate aspect to this: I have to take about five steps to access the CD drive; this problem could be solved by buying an external drive, but I don't use the CD drive often enough for this to be a problem. The benefits, however, are twofold: no computer sounds, as previously mentioned, and also, because of the colder air in the other room and the full-power fans, I can run a 2.4 GHz P4 overclocked to 3.0 GHz at 27 degrees Celcius idle, maxing out at 35 degrees C under full load.
Oh, yes: the hole I mentioned earlier... I named it Glory
I just worked a bit on making my pc silent, mostly for the fun of it but it was a nice bonus if I could get less noisy PC :)
First I got the MSI FX5900 with the dual fans. Makes less noise than my GF3 TI500 and a lot less heat.(no more warm cabinet
Then I swapped the standard Intel P4 cooler with a Zalman CNPS7000A-CU.
I also installed a Thermaltake PSU that I already had, which lowered the noise compared to the noname PSU I had before.
I exchanged the Western Digital harddrive with a Seagate Barracuda which has no rotation noise, unlike the WD harddrive. I have a 5" mounting frame for the HD that suspends the HD screws in some rubber thingys that I hope will lower the head movent noise that the Seagate does have.
Finally my cabinet has room for a big fan in the front which I have installed and adjusted so it runs slowly with little noise.
So what now makes the most noise in my PC are the fans on the Thermaltake PSU. Regarding the cooler. The CPU temp went to 35c when idle(and fan runnin 200rpm) and 50c under full load with fan running at 70%(before staring to make noise). With the original cooler the idle temp was 43c and it hit 55c(full fan speed and a lot of noise) under full load where the motherboard kicked in at fired up the fan to full speed. I don't have much expirence in this and I am a bit unsure if I have applied the correct amount of thermal paste, but I have a lot left for experimentation, so I will try different configurations. I was expecting poor air flow inside the cabinet to be the cause of the high operating temperature but I tried opening the cabinet and placed an office fan above it to make sure the air in the cabinet was room temp. and the CPU temp. readings was pretty much the same. They only got 2-3c higher when the cabinet are closed.
Also if anyone has any suggestions for a silent harddrive, I would like to know. Of course I would like it to be fast but noise levels are the top priority.
It has been fun playing with this, tryng to make the optimal air flow and getting the most out of as little cooling as possible. And it is now clear to me that noise reduction and a silent PC is often one of the things you don't get in a DIY PC unless you put some effort into it.
I received a pair of these the other day. They are incredibly effective at blocking computer noise and also provide an effective method of silencing your boss/wife/gf without encasing them in a wooden box.
Karma police, I've given all I can, it's not enough, I've given all I can, but we're still on the payroll.
You could just replace the existing fans with Panaflo L1As (probably the best "quiet fans" in existence), put vibration dampeners on any fan mounts that need it, and get a quiet power supply such as an Antec TruePower. Provided that you spend an estimated ten U.S. dollars on getting a decent CPU heatsink, you should never have any heat problems even given the low output of these fans.
Of course, if this approach is too radical, you could build an exterior case for your computer the size of a car.
Have you seen the Apple G5 case? A terrific setup with a enclosed area and special fan just for the CPU. When the case is closed, the fan moves at a slow speed, drawing air front to back. When opened ('cause everyone has to look inside to admire its layout) the air channel is no longer as efficient and the fan picks up speed. Why can't my Dell be made that way?
"Love is a familiar; Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love." --William Shakespeare ('Love's Labors Lost')
I live in an old apartment built in the 1950s, and it has a cool cabient in the kitchen which is cooled by outdoor air. I put my computer there. Of course it's only useful in the winters, but then it provides enough cool air so that I can close the cabinet door without fearing overheating. The monitor, mouse and keyboard cables are about 5m each and run neatly inside cable ducting. With the door closed the computer is much quieter than my fridge, which is not that noisy either.
I've only ever had a limited amount of success with this little trick - it definitely does something, but it's never really made things much quieter. Anyone gotten a better result with this?
- Stormcaller
http://www.stormcaller.net
If you want a silent PC (as I do), build it silent from the start...
There are good web sites devoted to doing this.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/
http://www.silent.se/
In my house we keep the fan (only the fan) running on the hvac unit 24/7/365. It does three things for us:
1) Evens out temperatures so the hot and cold spots in the house are less pronounced.
2) Filters out some of the ambient cat hair and dust (yes I change my filters often) and
3) Provides white noise to cover the otherwise distracting sounds of being married to someone who keeps a differant schedule than you do.
And let me tell you, it was CRUCIAL when we still lived in apartments to block the noise though our neighboirs walls. Do I really want to block all the noise of my computer to improve my perception of (a few years ago) my neighbour listening to "Who let the dogs out?" On repeat? There are worse things in the world than white noise.
Hey!!! the parentheses are good for something
Get some Bose noise cancelling headphones.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
Sound enclosures have been around a while, but usually for noisier things. A company I worked for purchased a sound deadening box like this for a client's noisy dot-matrix printer in the early 90's.
Here's someone making sound deadening boxes for G4's (a favorite of AV types, I guess).
As an ameture speaker designer I'd be worried about the folded ports forming resonances that my not even be audible due to extreme low frequency, but which are still subconciously iritating. Granted there is usualy no coherent audio souce in a computer, and the ports are small buy audio standards but resistive coupling can produce some odd results just when you don't what it. I agree with others who have said "build silent to start". The Apple G5 design IS pretty damn nifty, but not perfect. As someone who has owned an Apple Beige G3 tower with five auxiliary fans and four 10,000 RPM Seagate drives in the case I KNOW what a bitch a REALLY REALLY loud computer can be. I aplaud all efforts to make computers quieter.
A Call For A New Slashdot Moderation Level!
How's the Cube for being quiet? Or the new G5? Hell-looooo!
-m
http://www.invisik.com
I found this one out just yesterday Step 1: Press the "Off" button until the screen goes blank.
In Soviet Russia, beowulf clusters imagine YOU!
I've seen somewhere on the web a nifty little hdd enclosure that suspended the hard drive in an elastic web. Think of it as a hard drive being suspended with rubber bands on all sides - from what I can recall about it the enclosure almost eliminated all the noise, as the hard drive was acoustically isolated from the chassis by the rubber bands. That's the big reason you hear the noise, it's being amplified by the case itself.
But if it helps at all, try Samsung drives - I have a Spinpoint 80Gb drive in this PC and it's absolutely silent. I can't hear it at all - even though it's directly connected to the case. It also happens to run quite cool to, especially for a 7200RPM drive. Running a S.M.A.R.T. monitor the highest I've seen the drive temp has been about 17C.
Looking for hardware (Currently need: Large Etch-a-Sketch) Have one? See my journal!
From the book of truly desperate measures to "silence" a PC (without killing it), take a look at this interesting episode (only some images archived - anyone got a mirror?): An entire mainboard was submerged into pure mineral oil, to work silently below the surface of this unconventional computer coolant - which it actually did, and survived...
Anyone sell an active noise cancelling solution that would work off a PSU power supply?
/dev/entropy into a pink/white filter to the sound device?
You'd think with all that power my AMD has, 1% could be used to track and cancel by white noise the offending sounds?
I figure there is more to this than there seems?
Like disturbing my brain with whitenoise.
Has someone figured out how to dump
aka almost like here
Maybe it's just me. I dig the bigger, better, faster, quieter debate, but what are you trying to sneak up on with your PC that you have to completely silence it? Taladan
I can't believe what a bunch of nerds we are. We're looking up "money laundering" in the dictionary.