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Tom's Reviews Expensive, Noiseless Case
hakker writes "Toms Hardware Guide is running a review of a new case that claims it provides noiseless computing. The TNN 500A case from Zalman Tech is fanless (including PSU), and uses a bunch of heatpipes to move heat outside of the case from sources inside the system. Potentially costing as much as $1400, how much is your peace and quiet worth?"
$1400 would sure buy a lot of Lord of the Rings DVD's or a lot of hookers. Since I am on Slashdot, you know they will be robotic hookers.
...unless you're running one of these :)
When you've had a Volcano 9 in your computer for as long as I have, you'll really appreciate the silence when you turn it off.
For 1400 I could put a godlike non-noiseless sound system in my car, so that would be a no.
$1400 for a quiet PC or $1400 for a bunch of strippers and beer.. decisions, decisions..
(\_/)
(O.o) This is Bunny. (> <)
I know as a college student that a quiet atmosphere while doing work is valuable. The question for most would be, is it $1,400 worth. I *know* that I could not afford that while trying to pay tuition, renting a house, and feeding myself. Somethings are necessary, and some are just...not. Now, if someone gave that to me as a gift or something, no way i would complain :)
Jeff
As expensive as that case is, it sure is gonna be quiet. It'd be months before I could afford to buy anything to put in it that made noise.
for $1400 I'll rent the apartment next to mine, put the computer over there, leave the air conditioning on, drill a hole in the wall, and run my cables to it through the wall while leaving my monitor, keyboard, and mouse in my apartment... and still come out ahead!
Sears carries one for $600... And thouugh you'll need a tad more square footage to put it, it's ripe for some great extreme case mods.
Heil Sig! -Rob
Fanless cases running VIA EPIA chipsets and cpus have been available for some time and are quite useful, especially when running operating systems that allow one to stick a huge monitor in front of them, a keyboard, a 3-button mouse and connect to the massively parralel machines in the quite noisy, but lovely air conditioned, server room.
I can't run Quake on one of these, but then again it's research we're talking about -- if I wanted games I'd buy a PS2.
The only fan I have is, funnily enough, on my video card.
> Potentially costing as much as $1400, how much is your
> peace and quiet worth?
I'd value it highly, but not that high. Almost all of my computing life has been spent around equipment with fans, drives or printers that clatter whirr hum or otherwise make other white noise underneath. That's stretching back to the late 1970s.
On a few occasions I've had a chance to use an entirely silent machine, one of which was a 700MHz iMac belonging to a dear friend, who has since sold it on for a G4 model. When I used it however, the sound from the HD was undiscernable, and with no fan inside it was genuinely silent. Browsing online and emailing while it was raining gently outside was an experience, at my own desk I often have no idea it's been raining for hours as I've been working with the white noise from at least two PC cases.
If I could have genuine silence again, I would. I'm considering putting all the noisy components in another room and cabling through the wall for the KVM.
The silence is well worth it. Perhaps if I won the lottery I'd invest in $1400 per case for it, but not on my current salary.
nude macgirls webcam
my room sound's eerily quite without it. Besides, the noise helps droun out my roomates, always a plus.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
solaris?
My box is located in my bedroom, and I have an assload of fans.
I recently discovered that I can't sleep without the computer running. I actually find the noise pleasant.
I wouldn't shell out 1400 bucks for insomnia.
~To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation. -Yann Martel
Perhaps if you could retrofit a Mac motherboard into it...
Could someone fill me in on the background of "silence". How many dBs is silent?
[blue] - The Ministry of Information approved this message...
And I was just about to complain about my little G4 cube too...
Yes, I know they have different audiences and uses.. please use your sense of humor subroutine before flaming.
After loading up my case with 8 fans to control the heat from an excessive amount of drives, I placed some soundproofing paneling on the inside. From there, I ran KVM cables about 10 feet or so to a closet. I close the door on that side, but the hatch to the attic is cracked just a bit to keep the closet cool. Of course, it's not *completely* noiseless, but pretty damn close. Only costs were for the KVM cables, and maybe a couple of bucks a month for the warm air that leaks into the attic. And I'd certainly rather spend that $1400 on a trip to Mexico, or something to that effect.
this should be great for recording engineers trying to keep their studios as quiet as possible. you dont realize just how much ambient noise there is arround you until you step into a mix room of a recording studio, its an alien experience.
I want 2D games back.
This is a good idea, but it's not going to appeal to many people until the price drops drastically. Dell and Apple make some pretty quiet computers that you can get for about the cost of this case.
.. I tend to leave my TV going while using or at work I have noise sources called co-workers ;)
If I wanted to put my computer in my Closet, what would be the easiest way of allowing me to connect my monitor / keyboard / usb goodies[toothbrush :D] at my desk, about 10-20ft away.
[blue] - The Ministry of Information approved this message...
...in three easy steps.
1. Antec Performance One P160 case.
2. Nexus PSU, fans and CPU heatsink and fan.
3. Samsung SpinPoint series of HDDs.
Zalman's products aren't bad but, IMHO, Nexus' are superior.
Oh, and either ditch the jet engine that masquerades as a graphics card with something quieter or replace its fan too.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
The American Tinnitus Association has a wealth of information regarding hearing and tinnitus. It's well worth your hearing to do whatever you can to prevent hearing loss or damage.
I've suffered with tinnitus for years, and have changed fans several times looking for something quieter. It's amazing the amount of noise the average fan produces, and it would be well worth it to me to quieten down the office even more.
Of course, all those years going to rock concerts at the Grande in Detroit probably didn't help either.
Pete Carr Owner Chatmag.com
At work i have a linux terminal server for the students and i use it myself. The Fujitsu Futro i use as a terminal client is dead silent. The new computer lab uses diskless old intel P2 200mhz terminal clients and they are silent aswell.
Our old computer lab on the other hand would make a jetfighter green of envy. The noice is abnoxious and disturbing. Since both labs is in opposite sides of a corridor the difference is extreme.
The only really silent computer i have seen elsewhere is one from Fujitsu wich uses the ATX power supply fan to chill the CPU. Cant really remember the model but it sure is silent.
HTTP/1.1 400
Silent PC case: $1400 Headphones and CDs to drown out computer noise: $50 Cost saved: $1350 Zalman's PR firm putting a price on your head: Priceless
NOISE-IS-ENERGY!
- - - -
MATRIX THEORY !
i have submitted this as a story. WE will see how DENSE the editors are. LET THE ENERGY FLOW!
I have a totally silent workstation.
:).
;)
I've got a empty room besides mine, and some months ago I got the idea of putting the computer in the other room (while having the monitor, keyboard, mouse etc in my room). So I drilled a hole in the wall, and bought extension cables for the monitor, keyboard and usb. On my end I've put a USB-hub, so my extension cable give me four usb inputs (nice if you've got memory card readers, joysticks etc). I've been thinking about buying an USB2 CD-writer, but since I already own a cd-writer it seemed like a better idea to somehow get my cd-writer inside my room. I managed to get an IDE-cable through the wall, and I now only have to reach a little to use the cdrom drive. I've also put an own power switch on my side (extended), so that I don't have to leave the room to restart my computer.
I tried putting the computer back, just to check the difference. It's huge!
Because I have my workstation in the same room as I sleep, I can set some downloads for the night (eg. Linux ISOs) -- and sleep
Cost: ~60 bucks. (usb hub included)
Value: Great!
I really think I can find something better to spend that kind of money on... Though in all honesty, if a case alone could make an entire computer 100% silent - I'd probably pay the $1,400.00 for it.
Now, if they'd make something to shut my wife up - I'd pay $14,000.00 for that!
Chip Companies..I'm not going to name names but companies like Intel should stop ramming clockspeeds up to insane numbers just for more $$. I've noticed a trend of clockspeeds continuing to rise at ever faster rates while real world performance increases only hold steady or decline with time. All this is doing is just increasing heat and decreasing reliability for MONEY...
Heatsinks without fans? Does anybody still do those? One box I have here pulls about 70 watts per CPU using aluminum wide-fin sinks and *no* fans. The HDD noise is greater. FWIW cost-wise I picked it up on E-bay a couple years ago for $150 USD. And no, performance does *not* suck for day-to-day desktop apps (sorry, not a gamer). Does anybody still design shiznit like that?
C|N>K
If you want a truely silent PC, then you will need one of these flash drives. It will cost you a shit-load of money, but it's a solution non the less. Check them out here http://www.m-sys.com/
Life is not for the lazy.
I'm really not bothered by the noise of the fans, and I'm always annoyed when I *can't* hear my hard disk spinning and my ROM drives whirring - I'd think something's broken.
...if you're an audio engineer, video producer, or run a studio. A case like this allows you to work with instruments and other devices, while editing the sound live, with easy access to your monitor/keyboard. This is particularly useful for those who operate recording studios as a side business, out of their home or office space... or people trying to develop their own music, semi-professionally.
People who know how to do this can start up their business without spending well over $1,400 building a soundproof room. For full-blown recording studios, this is a no-brainer. They probably wouldn't think twice about spending double that to keep the sound engineer from getting distracted and/or missing sound details just because of a noisy fan.
You know those sweet looking cars you see in auto show reports? Those one-offs designed to get people excited about the manufacturer and looking at its other models? Ever try to buy one? They're frickin' expensive. A concept of a $15,000 vehicle will set you back six figures.
That's what this case is, a concept. It's a limited run designed to get the money of early adopters, get people excited about the manufacturer and looking at its other products, and test the market viability of such a product.
It's very cool, I want one but can't afford one, have looked over their other products (well-priced nice stuff and I'll probably get one of their quiet CPU HSFs), and look forward to this case hitting the $100-$200 price range where I'll be able to afford it.
As far as Zalman is concerned with me, they have a success in a $1400 case. Crazy, huh?
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
My noiseless case was about $150, thankyouverymuch.
watercooled systems. Though it makes me nervous to have fluid and electrical components sharing such a small space together, its a quiet (and affordable) alternative to trying to insulate a case that's stuffed with fans.
I'm laughing at clouds.
After years of trying to build and buy quiet PCs I
finally stumbled upon a Dell 400SC. That thing is
super quiet and super cheap. I have a few of them.
You can pick one up for about $399 and most of the
time there is a $100 rebate on them that brings the
price down to $299. Free shipping too.
Oh and I do have the completely silent VIA based
mini-ITX system also that I boot over the network.
But it aint fast. I end up using my Dells most of
the time. They are not as quiet as the VIA, but
they are *very* quiet.
Here is the unofficial FAQ with
tonnes of more information for those interested.
...how much is your peace and quiet worth?
I'll pay this amount of money for this case, if it can suppress all noises from outside world.
May Peace Prevail On Earth
I like the sound of fans in my computer, it's reasurring. I know that everything is working properly. Now, when it gets a high workload, the fans speed up. If I'm not doing anything to it at the time, I'll look to what's causing it. Or, for example, if I turn it on, and the fans spin up, but nothing else does. Noise has become a diagnostic tool of sorts. Now, I've heard my share of windtunnel cases (not my computers, other peoples), but I've never owned a computer considerably louder than my P-166. I use my Dell as white noise when I sleep too. (the second quietest computer I own is my Dell XPS, that model has 5 fans in it, though you wouldn't know by listening to it)(don't flame me over that either, I build my own computers in most cases, but in this case it was $400 cheaper than building my own (seriously!), gotta love gotapex and Dell e-mail coupons, but I'm getting off track)
It's not worth the cost in my opinion. Especially not that $1400 monetary cost, but the loss of my fans as diagnostic tools is too much.
"Potentially costing as much as $1400, how much is your peace and quiet worth?"
Cheaper than the divorce. I say go for it.
As alluded to at the end of the artical, a quite case does not mean a quite computer. In fact I have a friend who has just bought new computer whose case cost significantly less than $1,400 but yet is virtually silent. It has a single, very good fan in it. Unfortunately, one of the fans on the motherboard is very noisy, and is installed in such a way it would be near impossible to replace it.
As a result I see little value in spending such a large amount of money on a computer case when much cheaper and very quite alternatives exist. Especially considering the noise generated buy the case is likely to pale in comparison to that of other computer components.
---
Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves. -- AE
The powermac G5s are awfully quiet. You can barely hear them. For the price of the case you can get a nice computer.
War is necrophilia.
Instead of spending $1400, how about assembling a case around a fanless Antec Phantom 350 power supply?
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
I have a 733 Quicksilver mac at work and that can be one noisy computer at times; my PC at home takes the cake - it's loud as hell, which is unfortunate since that is my recording PC.
I'll be soon recording on my Powerbook, which is fast, beautiful and quiet.
Plus, I can take it to a pals house to lay down some tracks. I will never buy a noisy PC again.
Now a G5, with that I'll just play louder... :)
... and keep computers on the other side of wall.
;-)
For that kind of money, I could keep ALL of my gear
in the next room & fit a noise-isolarion port
between the two rooms, no?
i sent my noisy pc along with $999 to some guy in india named Haji, who will be doing my computer work for me for as long as i live. not only is it quiet, i have $401 left over for hookers and beer.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
I don't think so.
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I didn't want to leave this space blank.
For probably the same amount as that case, you can buy yourself a Vapochill, which will undoubtedly drop the temperature to around -5 to 5 degrees F. Of course, it still has fans and hard drives and optical drives, but you could create a case for your case. Using the same methods to make ported speaker enclosures, you can create a windy path for the sound to slowly leak out. Sorta like how Bose WaveRadio's work, except using eggcrate foam in the inner paths to dissipate the noise, rather than channel it out into beautiful, beautiful noise. Cheaper, cooler, and sexier, because you made it yourself.
A pair of earplugs for two bucks
End of Line.
In other words, we do not recommend placing the Zalman TNN 500A under a desk, or in the farthest corner of a desk butted up against the side of a desk or a wall. A better solution would be to place this unit in the middle of a desk, on top of a desk, or next to a desk in such a way that there is adequate airflow around both of the side panels, allowing for maximum heat dissipation. What's this about the desk again? Anonymous Joe
You know, from the first picture that Tom shows of the case, I wonder if its really worth 1400 bucks. I mean, come on! It may be quiet, but its fugly! :(
Ah am not a crook! (\(-__-)/)
$1400 is a huge amount for a case (looking is free though :) ). You're spending gigabucks for the last couple of elements of silence.
How often have people spent that sort of money for the last couple of percent on the performance curve?
At least the quiet is not going to get obsoleted?
How do you price the idea that comes to you when your environment just works????
ls
nt
Don't use the words holy, gaping, and orifice in the same sentence. It gets me too misty-eyed and sentimental.
xX_stickyXx
Every one of the newer flat panel iMacs I've used has been pretty much dead silent while running. If I was ready to spend $1400 for quiet computing, I'd rather get a whole machine for around that price than just a case for one!
I just built a computer for a guitar-playing colleague who uses his box to mix/record music professionally. It's a well-cooled P4 (with 2gigs of pc3200, CL2 RAM to hold some of the larger samples)... but he had to disable some of the fans because his musical ear could pick up the white noise in the background of his recordings.
I agree... professional audiophiles will pay that amount easily. In my experience, when someone does music for a living, their ear is often able to pick out those subtle imperfections in a recording. For an environment/person like that, noisy fans are a liability.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
Surely you can get decent noise cancellation hardware inside your (standard) case for less than 1400 bucks?
/tone of fans and drives would seemingly be easy to cancel. Even if you just ducted your main inlet fan and put some noise cancellation on that.
Especially since the constant drone
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
I find fan noise very pleasant. While at work, because of the whir of fans around me, It completely masks out the ringing in my ears. It's only when I get to the quietness at home do I notice them ringing again.
I very much doubt the db level of computer fans can come close to further damaging the inner ear..... Unless you're using one of These
Actually, I have never really had a problem with noisy PCs. That's because I've really never used a real noisy PC. The loudest PCs I've ever used are the ones that were at my college. My current PC, an HP, is already extremely quiet as it is. Only when I am doing something that requires some real processor power or something, like gaming or Photoshop, does it start to make any real noise. Even then, its just for a short bit.
:P
I like my PCs quiet, and even if I had a noisy one, I sure as hell wouldn't spend 1400 bucks to make it quiet. I'd rather use the 1400 to buy a laptop or something I'd actually be able to use. I'd probably just throw a blanket on the damn thing or something.
Ah am not a crook! (\(-__-)/)
As long as your cpu's not under much load this cools pretty well without a fan, and even if the fan's on, a large fan @ fewer rpms will move as much air with less noise than a smaller one running faster.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
When I consider the noise my wife would make if I spent $1,400 on a case, my current case is quieter.
Sure... Most of the major PC builders try to use heatsinks without fans wherever it's possible. It just makes sense from an RMA perspective. Why bother with warranty replacements of fans that got clogged up with lint and pet hair and failed?
Every Dell Optiplex desktop I've worked with since the days of the XMT and GXMT series of Pentium 90-100Mhz boxes used oversized heatsinks for the CPUs with no fans attached to them. Even on the slot 1 Pentium II and III Optiplex models, they attached big heatsinks to the cartridges instead of the usual cooling fans. In more recent models, though, they can't seem to draw enough heat off of the CPU with just a passive heatsink - so they generally use a regular-sized case fan mounted to the back of the case, and attach a plastic duct that snaps over the CPU heatsink. This isn't a bad solution since the larger fan can move air while spinning at slower RPMs, making it quieter - and is less likely to clog up with lint/dust and fail.
if there are any fans in my iBook I have yet to hear them. I think I paid about $1400 for it too (that might be before the memory upgrade though).
My other laptop, a Compaq, that has an external fan gets noisy running Windows. In Linux the fan is always off, unless I run something that loops for a long while like Setiathome.
Seems like they should easily be able to make noisless laptops these days by simply backing off the clock speeds a bit. They would still perform perfectly adequately. Batteries would probably last longer too.
The idea that everyone needs to have the absolutely fastest clock speed in the universe is over except for special case use and gamers. hardware companies seem to be lothe to figure it out though.
These guys have been selling this for a long time:
http://www.calmpc.com/. There biggest problem may be the lack of distribution in the US, but ordering from Korea went very smooth in my experience.
OK, maybe this doesn't support a 4GHz P4, but I'm running a 1 GHz PIII in one of these with a high end ATI video card and using CompactFlash for a harddrive.
There's special heat dispensers for the power supply, CPU and graphics card.
It's just amazing. You hit the power on button and nothing happens. Then all of a sudden, there's video, and the OS starts booting. You stick your head in the enclosure and you can just hear NOFFINK.
mmmm quiet computing sounds nice. With 8 fans in my case it would be nice to hear myself think once and a while. hmmm maybe this is why I can't do any work in my room, distractions distractions...... but only when the distraction sounds like a vacuum cleaner does it get annoying.
Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day.
- Evercase 4252 case: $37. About as un-cool looking as you can get, but it has good airflow and the openings on the front are baffled a bit to keep it quiet.
- Fortron 300W PS: $24 A no-name brand. But it uses a 12cm fan instead of the usual 8cm ones, so it can turn more slowly (and quietly) and still move enough air.
- Thermalright Heatsink: $39. Huge and a pain to install, but great heat transfer. Just make sure its weight doesn't rip the CPU socket off your motherboard.
- "Stealth" fans: 2 x $8. These are reasonably quiet and easy to find. The Panaflo fans are quieter but more expensive and hard to find.
- Fan speed control: $19. Ugly, but it works. I actually used two small, single-fan controls that dangle inside my case, but I can't find them online.
- Vibration absorption mats: $15. Dampens vibrations and covers annoying ventilation holes in the side of the case
That's what, $150? You can send the extra $1250 to me.The links are to Newegg just because I like them and it's easy to find things on their site. I'm not affiliated with them, ymmv, void where not prohibited, etc.
Hey, this looks pretty cool... If you have $1400 to waste on effectively nothing more than a case-mod (and not even a cool-looking one at that).
You want similar results for almost no cost? Take out your desk drawers, cut off just the faces, stick the PC in the hole, and replace the faces. Optionally, put a 120+mm fan in the back of your desk ("optional" meaning "if you want your computer to survive the day"). Voila, your PC no longer sounds like a 747 taking off (if it still does, you most likely can blame this on your desk itself vibrating - Try pads on the bottom of the case, or lay the PC on half an inch of sand (seriously!), or both... those will kill most vibrations).
Of course, for the less cosmetically-inclined (or if you want your desk to still have drawers), you could get the same effect with a large wooden (or even thick cardboard) box over the PC - Just make sure to put a large fan (the key to low noise and good air-flow) facing away from you in this box, and you can easily and cheaply ($10 vs $1400) drop your PC by 20-30db.
If you're looking for a "silent" or at least a very, very quiet one; don't forget to pick a mouse and keyboard that are quiet. A lot of the more recent mice and keyboards no longer have the loud clicking noises of early keyboards, but its something you should keep in mind if you're really that concerned about the extra noise.
Damn..
Cost a little more. Comes WITH the computer. Unless you like rendering your own 3D pr0n while you sleep, you won't hear shit from the new G5 case.
I have one shoved in my computer...
1888 Franklin St.
thank god i didn't read your post..... troll (the plural) are cool and all... but not on this thread...
Wow, not only is this a completely subjective statement. Do you really want your sleek and professional silent PC looking like a Type-R?
Take out the fan.
Get a *big* aquarium pump.
Run hose from pump to machine.
(Aimed right at the CPU).
Start adding hose and moving the pump farther away, until it's in a place where you can't hear it. Closet, next room, basement, whatever.
Not enough? Get a second pump.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Or you can spend $1400.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
I dunno about other Slashdot users, but I wouldn't want a truly silent PC. Obviously it's a Bad Thing if my PC can out-noise, say, a 747 at takeoff power, but a certain level of white noise helps me sleep. I suppose it's a byproduct of growing up in a highly technology-using culture, but I'm more comfortable with some kind of background noise.
TANSTAAFL: It's not just a good idea, it's the law.
Yeah, I totally agree here. well, mostly agree; I have noticed that I really do like *some* noise, but not a ton of noise. I used to have a 60mm 7000 RPM Delta fan on my processor; that thing was a bitch. I do get bothered when I can't easily hear classical/relaxing type music. :)~
:O
Oh yeah, don't ever try to lick a 7K RPM fan. not that I know from personal experience (I still have use of my tongue)
That thing is ghetto. To quote Tony the Tiger, it's greeeeeeeeeeeat!
Dude, just put it under your desk.
I object to that article, and to the next reply.
Speaking of games, I'd be very very happy if there was an passively cooled projector! I know of these but they doesn't really exist yet.
headphones. get yourself a really descent pair of headphones, ones that block outside noise while you listen. don't want to listen to anything? don't plug them in to anything...and there you have it, moderate peace & quiet, depending how good of headphones you have.
they are also good for keeping your ears warm under a touque. thank you KOSS, i hope to never live without headphones again.
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
Looks like he just whipped out a cheap digital camera and started snapping away, which is fine for your dime-a-dozen review site, but this is Tom's Hardware, which I'd argue is one of the largest review sites online (surprised they don't have a magazine yet). You'd think he could invest in a little better lighting or something, especially when it's a review of a product they have in office.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
A case that functions as a heat-sink is a brilliant idea. I do hope the idea if not the product takes off but for now I doubt any of us are reaching for our cheque books.
Personally, I gave up on the idea of swapping out noisy components for quieter, better-engineered replacements (expensive idea if you have multiple systems) and built my own box. The results are always better and you get way-kewl furniture as a bonus. 3/4-inch MDF is cheap, 3/4-inch birch isn't much more, and even if you double-wall the enclosure for a dead air layer (highly recommended), you'll shell out less than $100. The time? Skip tee vee for a night or two and pretend you're Norm -- plaid shirt required, of course.
Oh, and if you're living with rackmount equipment and need a solution, this centrifugal fan (read "bathroom) is probably the quietest in existence, moves lots of air, and works great either housed in a cabinet or installed in the ceiling of a small closet.
What is all this fascination with fanless cases? I always thought fans were an indication of how powerful your computer was, and therefore how cool you are. If your computer doesn't need enough fans to make it sound like a jet engine, well, then your computer just isn't doing anything worthwhile.
My computer has more fans than CleverNickName.
For those who cant afford to such a pc case and still want a noiseless PC...turn it off! (or buy fans breaking the wall of the sound)
At first I thought it said "expensive, noisy case" and thought it was more about SCO...
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
Who needs a desk?
Nice comfy chair in the middle of an acoustically perfect room with a nice sound system.
Slot-load optical drive
Keyboard on a swing-out tray
Wireless mouse with a small mousing pad.
Big white wall
Projector
And before you go harping on price, we ARE talking about a $1400 computer case in this thread.....
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Probably much more likely than heatpipes, fans will fail one day, especially if they draw dust and vapors into the PC/server in some environments.
I would not want to be liable for a system that starts a fire rather than powering down after running for a while without cooling, e.g. as it fails to recognise a broken fan a few years down the road.
A case like Zalman's could be dropped at a client's site e.g. even at a petrol plant in the middle of a desert, without having to worry just as much - about travelling a long way for service every now and then, or about potential responsibilities for applying only second-best components which are bound to break in a possibly hazardous way some day.
Not that magically nothing's prone to go wrong anymore at all, but isn't it a good start that due to the absence of fans, you may spare yourself one nightmare?
Although the noise from this revolutionary ducts are much lower, they do emit ultra low frequency noise not unlike those of seismic disturbances. ;-)
SilentPCreview.com has reviews for "silent" PC parts(cases, CPU fans, power supplies, etc), and you can probably get some idea from them if you want to build a quiet system. I don't live in recording studio, so I don't think I would ever need this one to create 0db environment. My neighbors are obnoxiously noisy already, so what's the point?
Besides I've been using a laptop primarily and it's quiet enough (...duh) even without water cooling thingy. Laptop these days are not so expensive, you can get a good one for $1400 and less. Of course if you need to build a server, laptop won't work, but for 'home' use, laptop works good enough and is quiet.
Just get better parts. Set a quiet power supply, and fans. Then get something to dampen harddrive noise, get quiet processor and silent videocard heat sink, maybe throw some acoustic dampening foam on the case walls ans you should be able to bring the PC noise down around the background noise of the room. PRobably run you $200-$300 for the whole deal.
www.quietpc.com
www.silentmaxx.net
Two places to get you started.
That what the engineer did at the studio I like to hang out at. He built a compartment in the wall that holds all his computers (there are 4 of them). The door to the compartment has dampening material on the inside, and is behind the wall dampening material on the outside. He can basically throw whatever kind of computers he wants in there and it dampens their noise as such to be less than the quiet hum from all the other equipment (you can't hear the hum, but you can hear the change if all the equipment gets powered down).
- lots of folks use the BIOS health monitoring screen while tweaking fan RPM speeds on the CPU, power supply and case fans... adjust the fan speeds for acceptable noise level while monitoring temp settings... you can use a $4.95 variable unit with multiple leads and extensions, or for the price of a couple resistors (about 9 cents for three) in-line on the positive fan leads, get quite acceptable results... of course, one could always turn to a mini-ITX mobo w/embedded CPU...
I can, afterall, load monitoring software. I mean ya, my old 486 I used to be able to tell things about what it was doing by listening to the headphones. There was so much noise on the soundcard form the system it was insane. You could identify processor load, if the nisk was reading and so on.
Well now my soundcard doesn't do that, and the computer itself is very quiet. I can't even hear the disks click when they read or write. This is a huge improvement.
However, I too would not spend $1400, but you don't have to. HEre's what you do:
1) Get a good, large case, preferably one with lots of fan slots. You want good airflow from slow fans. The Chieftec Dragon cases work excellent.
2) Get a bunch of quiet Papst fans. They only generate like 12dB of noise, so it's ok to have 3 or 4 of them. They don't blow a whole lot fo air, but that's fine, that's why you have several.
3) Get a quiet powersupply. I'm partial to Silentmaxx ones, but there are plenty of other ones. PRovided it has a good vairable speed fan it should be REALLY quiet, since your case fans will do most of the work.
4) Get a quiet CPU heatsink. SM CoolFlow makes excellent ones that are rated to work with 3ghz processors.
5) Get a silent GPU heatsink. Zalman makes fanless heatsinks for even the latest cards like Radeon 9800s.
6) Get harddrive dampers. Most of the noise from a harddrive is vibrational noise, so you get a little suspension kit for 5.25 bays. Cuts almost all the noise.
7) Get some acoustic dampening foam. It's fairly cheap stuff that you just stick to teh insides of the walls of your case. This helps a lot since steel is rather acuostically reflective and this stuff is quite absorbive.
You do all that, and I'd be supprised if your system is much louder than the ambient room noise. Can be done for about $200-$300.
Fotron powersupplies acutally aren't no name, believe it or not. Quite a respectable brand. You probably recognise their US name better, Sparkle.
I suppose it would be 0 dB since that is allegedly the threshold of human hearing. However as a practical matter silent usually means anything that doesn't audibly increase the noise in the room. BAsically all rooms, except anechoic chambers, have inherant background noise. These days, it's usually somewhere around 30dBSPL supposing everyone and thing is being "silent". So, provided it slides in under that be about 6dB, you won't hear the additonal noise and so consider it silent.
My power amps are like this. If I turn them on, you hear no change in the noise in the room. So you'd call them silent. But they DO make a little noise. Put your ear right on them, you can hear a slight hum from the transformers. Also, the speakers hiss slightly, since no amplifier is perfect and all introduce at least a little loise to the signal. You can't hear the niss unless I turn them waaaaaay up, but it's still there.
What nonsense I used to be a uni student, and I can assure you the most valuable thing as a student is a decent racket in the back ground, something that sounded enough like conditions when I first learned to study, in mums kitchen with 4 sisters and 2 brothers. :-D
in my life God comes first.... but Linux is pretty high after that
Francis Smit
There are cheaper solutions such as Hush ATX and the Hush ITX computers
fsck it. screw teh money. i will give everything for some peace and quiet.
Dave Chapelle gives a review of a noiseless woman. Long story short, he gives her two thumbs in the ass.
Most modern machines are quiet. My Machine is a Athlon 2000+, and it is cooled by three quiet fans. My keyboard is louder than it. Traffic is louder than it! Three cheap queit fans are a lot cheaper than an expensive case!
Heat pipes are probably an unecessary overkill.
Zero Sum (don't amount to much). [root@localhost]
Matter of fact, I really prefer to actually hear my fans and similar cooling stuff. That way, I'm not dependent on some temperature sensors that - in my case (pun intended)- fail all the time, because I just HEAR if something has gone wrong... ... thus creating a new style of IT-geekdom loosely connected to those car geeks out there ^_^
Screw the FSM - Real geeks believe in the Invisible Pink Unicorn
I have actually done this. ..., but these are nicely out of sight next to the tv set and you have 'em anyway... ah yes another cable for tv-out.. :)
pc in the hallway under the stairs. At first I only had 2 cables through the wall , one the monitor cable and 1 cable for the receptor of the wireless mouse and keyb.
I have added a webcam,serial cable for digital camera, sound out to stereo, fireware for video camera,
So the number of cables adds up but depending on your actual setup this is not a problem , just a bigger hole
Yes indeed, I have to get up to load a cd, but I have a completely silent pc ( only way to convince the wife it could go in the livingroom) wich is not an eyesore ( nice flatpanel) and The kids can't touch the buttons !
You could also make a silent computer by wrapping your computer with $1400 in cash!
In evaluating the overall temperature cooling and performance of this chassis, we found the TNN 500A able to run at optimum cool temperatures when placed in roomy quarters with adequate ventilation, which provided for effective heat dissipation capability. In other words, we do not recommend placing the Zalman TNN 500A under a desk, or in the farthest corner of a desk butted up against the side of a desk or a wall. A better solution would be to place this unit in the middle of a desk, on top of a desk, or next to a desk in such a way that there is adequate airflow around both of the side panels, allowing for maximum heat dissipation.
We did encounter a problem with a temperature increase inside the chassis when the TNN 500A was placed too close to a floor heating vent in our test scenario. Placing it too close to the heating duct caused the internal temperature to rise (for obvious reasons), and this skewed the effectiveness of the side panel heat dissipation capabilities.
Still, during our testing we did not encounter any crashes or sub-par results in use.
This might be an issue in some college dorm setups ...
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Finally someone else sick of the stupid repeated joke. Thank you
Rupture all your internal hearing organs. Ahh, the silence.
Pelé!
I'have been sleeping for years with my linux workstation always on, when i periodically turn it off for cleaning all the dust inside... well silence its a real surprise. if i had space, i'd probably put my case away from my room, leaving my monitor, printer, mouse & keyboard as usual on my desk. Has someone of you already done this?
" I know as a college student that a quiet atmosphere while doing work is valuable"
...and yes, graduated with distinction, thanks...
At your age, you should be able to concentrate with a blast furnace going next to you. In college, I could routinely work through the night with the stereo blasting.
I'm well into middle age now, and I find I need it quiet to work, but that's something that has come about through old age.
If you need quiet to work now, you'd better look for a job as a mortician when you get older.
"some of us have the fortunate position to have married our hookers"
Please. You get more when you're single. When you're married, it all ends. Once a week, if you're lucky.
Plus, I always thought it was pathetic that people got married for sex; what a reason. It marks you as a loser.
upper body workout:
"The case offers two handles on its top offering portability; but due to its dimensions and weight, this chassis would not be an optimum choice for gamers or users who move their PCs frequently."
Most PC Gamers I know could stand some exercise. Besides, think how l33t one would look on LAN night lugging in their kit on a hand truck like a dock worker then setting it in the middle of the floor with a satisfying "thunk". You could put up safety cones around it and mount one of those rotating amber lights. Ph33r!
=^..^= all your rodent are belong to us
My Fotron power supply causes the picture from my Hauppage TV card to wiggle like crazy. I'm not impressed.
Man those guys aren't kidding when it comes to wanting silent components! Even fanless PSUs only get 9/10 for noise..
Robosexuals!
pi = 3.141592653589793helpimtrappedinauniversefactory7
The COCOON enclosure seems like a better idea. While hideously expensive, it's still lower cost than this solution.
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.
I own the 2ghz dual processor G5, and it's a really sweet machine. In fact, I'm typing this on it right now.
:-). Another factor, of course, is that it does in fact get my render done fast, so I never have to listen to it for very long.
I have it under my desk, and at this moment, it's just about noiseless. If I turn off my music, I can hear a slight whir and some HDD noise, but if I put the music back on or stop trying to hear it, it's totally inconspicuous.
But when I do rendering for my video projects, the fans turn up, and I can hear them clearly even over my music. I actually like the way they sound for the short time they're on; I guess it acts as some kind of reassurance that my computer is trying its best to get my render done quickly
Apple brand loyalty aside, I don't think it would be worth a $1,400 case to make my computer more quiet than the G5. On the other hand, I have no idea how much my G5 case would actually cost as a standalone unit. They're using some pretty pricey components in there.
D
I have a couple of the single-fan controls that dangle inside the case - they're made by zalman. They basically just have a knob that varies your voltage from 5v to 12v. I found them at sharkacorp.com and plycon.com"> Both of those sites have a other components for noise reduction also...
www.norenproducts.com
Some products advertised as quiet enough for studio usage. I am more concerned with having LOTS of noisy equipment in small spaces such as a trailer, an apartment.
Some models are essentially 19" NEMA/RETMA racks.
--tomd
Retired software developer developing neural-net related software in Swift just for the hell of it.
You can get as close to silent as you need for a lot less than $1400, with an ordinary case, a Zalman fan, a quiet power supply, and a hard drive noise dampener. I did it for under $300. (Not counting the case, motherboard, and hard drive, which I recycled from my previous system.)
Unless you get under the desk and put your head next to the case, the only thing you can hear is the CD-RW drive when it's running. (Which makes it arguably quieter than the Zalman -- the Tom's Hardware reviewers stated they could still hear the Hard Drive.) My desktop is still a PIII, which made it easy, but it's also feasible for P4s. Look at the Silent PC Review site.
Whoever took the fucking pictures for this review is a MORON.
Liberty.
I've been impressed with the silence of Dell's machines for the last few years. Everything from the Dimension 8200 to the Precision 340, 350, and 360 have been almost completely silent.
I've done that too. Works wonders without spending thousands of dollars.
Works well except that I can still hear the monitor buzz. If you want a truely quiet environment, get an LCD monitor.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
(in conjunction with Zalman) for their [url=http://voodoopc.com/systems/f50.aspx]Rage F-50[/url]. Read somewhere on their forums that they collaborated with "another company" on the case; apparently, it turns out that company was Zalman. Odd how no one seems to have noticed or mentioned it yet, though.
Work is punishment for failing to procrastinate effectively.
Sorry about the [] tags, other forums I go to use them >_<
Here's the proper link: Voodoo Rage F-50
Work is punishment for failing to procrastinate effectively.
The only way to convince your wife the PC could go in the living room was not to put the PC in the living room.
Jedi Mind Trick?
I actually have a PC in the kitchen. Its darn quiet. Thermaltake pure power PSU, ~AMD1.1GHz or less processor (I believe its less), Slim Slient PRO CPU Fan from www.svc.com. NFORCE 1 built in video.
1. Buy better cooling fans. This means better bearings & better balanced blades. Motor noise in this size equipment is bearing/bushing noise. 2. Keep the fan blades clean. Dirty fans are less aerodynamic hence louder. 3. Stick your box in the closet and close the door. Buy longer cables for your monitor and keyboard...very cheap. 4. Remotely mount a small squirrel cage fan in the garage and run flex ducting to the computer room, down or through the wall and into the computer where the fan used to be. Very cheap, but a pain. or 5. Don't worry about the noise. The tires on your car make a lot more noise most people aren't complaining about that.
Back a decade ago we used to put the entire computer (including whatever case it came in[*]) into a larger aluminum box lined with noise-absorbing (egg-cup-style) foam. It had it's own quiet fan and a clear acrylic front door providing access to drives. These seem like a better, and of course cheaper, solution...
[*] I.e. not all noisy computers are PC's--we had Suns that you couldn't buy a special case for...
that pretty much does it.
you can boot a cdrom (knoppix, etc) linux and run vnc client. no hard drive. that's a lot of your noise right there. if all your computing is on the remote server, then you can underclock or under-fan your cpu. avoid video cards with fans.
I run 10/100 but will be upgrading to gig-e (its already on most modern mobos today) to use as point-to-point to the compute server in 'the noise back bedroom'. the quiet workstation (my vnc client) is in the living room and is near dead silent. plus it has the benefit of being a 'persistent desktop' since I can power on/off my vnc viewer box all I want (kernel reconfigs, etc) and when I boot back up again and re-run vnc client, my desktop is just where I left it. since it never exited - that back-room server box kept its state running, ready for me.
I find this gives good flexibility to test kernels, test hardware configs and have fun - yet boot back up into a many-month-long running desktop and defer the noise and the cpu cycles to the back room. with a 10/100 connection between computers, its decent. with gig-E, I bet moving opaque windows will seem near-local. and silent, too.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
I hardley know their on; I have actually powered them down thinking they were off...
Potentially costing as much as $1400, how much is your peace and quiet worth?
I suppose that's a function of how much your time is worth.
If you are a consultant getting paid $350/hour then this is not a very expensive case. If you are a student fixing PC's on campus for $10/hour then this price is obscene.
I'd sooner just buy an Apple G5 (dual of course!) which gets me all the power, no noise, and is a "standard" off-the-shelf computer.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
$$$?
. php">here</a>)
- Put the noisy thing in a cubboard
- or in another room
- maybe some sort of enclosure available (<a href="http://www.buildsilentpc.com/silent_pc_case
A blog I run for the wealth
This case, even at this price, is *perfect* for industrial applications, and other applications that have a high amount of dust, soot, or other particulate matter in the air.
Since there are no fans, there is no requirement to circulate air *inside* the case, so the inside stays nice and clean - even in a very dirty environment.
Ever seen the inside of a PC that's been at a coal mining operation? Or at a volcanic research station? Or a military PC used outdoors in a dusty environment? They get pretty filthy inside very quickly, and it is this filth that causes fans to fail, and then the components to fail.
If someone uses this case to sell a packaged boxed PC solution for dirty air environments, it's a winner.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
I tried making my computer silent with low noise fans, powersupplies, and hard drives.
.... and you can run Unix. The fonts and crisp colors and icons are ahead of X. Sorry but I have seen it with my own eyes. Aqua supports the deep colors denisities that Windows and X lack.
But only reduced the noise.
The macs have 2 huge fans which run at low speed. You can not even tell they are on.
If your spending an extra $1400, upgrade in class ans style. A dual smp 2 ghg would be alot cheaper and really fast.
Spend the extra $1000 on a good Apple LCD 19 wide screen monitor taht is HDTV and DVD widescreen compatible. If you all never seen Apple monitors with under 16.7 million colors per pixel, then I pity you. PC ones look so grayish and dull compared to them.
Such a beast would be pefect for watching the Matrix or Lord of the rings on such a quiet and brilliantly detailed color monitor.
http://saveie6.com/
Pull out ground wire from fan and plug into the red wire 5v line of the molex connector from the power supply. This runs 12v fans at 7v.
Alternately, if your fan can handle the lower voltage and still spin up(you'd want to test by powering up/down a few times), pull out the red 12v wire from the fan instead and plug it into the 5v line from the ps, which will run the fan at 5v.
If running at 5v or 7v keeps things cool enough, then you are set.
If you need more cooling then the next no cost step would be ducting the fan output to the outside of the case. Toobing, paper/cardboard & tape, etc, lying around to make piping for the exhaust.
If you still need more, next cheapest is to spend a couple dollars and swap out smaller fans for larger ones. Same or better airflow, less rpm.
After that, water cooling is the next cheapest and can be made yourself.
By replacing the stock HD with a Seagate Barracuda V 120gb ($130) and the fan with a Papst fan ($15), I've made it so the the only audible noise my g4 makes comes from the PSU. Pretty quiet and pretty cheap, considering I needed a bigger HD anyway.
But I want it dead quiet, since I use it to record music, and I hate computer noise anyway. So next step is to replace the PSU, probably with one of these ($80). The only problem is, Apple doesn't follow ATX guidelines with its power supplies, but lucky for me some guy's already figured out the differences. Unfortunately, that's only for the Sawtooth g4s, those of you who have something else may be SOL. But there's no reason why you couldn't find out the pinouts of your own particular g4's PSU and match it to the ATX standard.
Only thing is, I'm never going to want to buy a newer machine, b/c my current one rocks so hard (or rather, so softly). So I started looking into g4 upgrade cards (more). I'm probably going to try and hold out till they come out with something that lets me upgrade to a g5, but i figure an upgrade card with the heatsink replaced with something more like this, perhaps with a fan controller, might be the way to go. Anyone know if it's possible to use a heatsink like that on an apple chip?
Of course, if I've got a heatsink like that, I'm going to have to cut a window into the case to show it off. Anyone know anything about how much EM shielding the case offers, and if cutting a big hole in it is a bad idea? I mean, I see all-plexiglass cases around, how do they get around the EMI problem?
c-hack.com |
- http://www.procooling.com/reviews/html/antec_sona
t a_case_review.php t a/sonata-1.html c /AntecSonata/
Not too shabby for $100 !http://www.arstechnica.com/reviews/003/cases/sona
http://www.bjorn3d.com/_preview.php?articleID=277
http://www.cluboverclocker.com/reviews/cases/ante
It may not be 100% inaudible, but with a baybus and/or some acoustic material, I'm sure it could be. I'm going to be using mine in a DAW environment (my little room all to myself doubles as recording studio and lan gaming room- just not at the same time
I wonder if one could make a modded version with a windowed side and still keep the noise down though ?
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
There are many other silent pc's available, three from hushpc, voodoo pc (looks awfully like that tnn 500a though)
and i'm sure i've seen others...
I like the hushpc idea, of course, i'm still not ready to spend that much =)
...when that much quiet lets you hear the current on your cable modem, the flyback whine of your CRT (if you've got one), the electrical poppings in your wall warts and the gentle feedback in your speakers?
There are times when I just need quiet -- but there are a huge variety of sources of noise and spending $1400 on a case won't catch 'em all.
(And if you've not seen it yet but do care about quiet computing, go check out http://www.silentpcreview.com.)
Does that Thermalright include a fan, or is it all-heatsink?
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
that loud roar that you will eventuaaly get used to and forget, is so cool to hear when they all wind down upon shutdown!
The noisy fan on the game console doesn't matter much, assuming you're playing loud games :-) And unlike a desktop computer which is on while you're doing quiet work, the game console is probably turned off when you're not fragging.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
A decade ago, when the Sparcstation ELC was still fast (with a *rocking* 40 MHz processor uilt into the back of the monitor), I chose it a my desktop machine precisely because it was diskless and had no fan. The computers that had the real data I was working on were up in the lab, but my office was nice and quiet. I had a CDROM shoebox attached to it, but that only made noise when I turned it on to feed it CDs. It was unfortunately black&white, not color, but most of the work I was doing was on the databases attached to our graphic viewer application, and I could walk up to the lab if I needed to use the graphic side.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Why would you want rotating machinery in your office? Use a network! Get yourself a diskless workstation or an X terminal, and keep the disk servers in some other room. That was an obvious strategy a decade ago with Sun workstations, but you can find a number of little appliance-sized PCs today. Alternatively, use a small flash to boot from, if you're more comfortable that way, but still keep the bulk of your storage somewhere else.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
... I'm sitting in my basement office on-line and mostly working. I have a ceramic space heater running (Canada, eh) and my desk is next to the furnace room. The noise from both those appliances dwarfs that of the three computers in the room. I wish I could hear my computer!
Frankly, the quiet whoosh of a computer fan is kind of soothing. Just a gentle white noise to screen out the really distracting stuff coming from outside the house.
Anyways, let's say you get a 100% quiet PC. What do you do? Sit in the silence? As if! You play loud games, crank up the tunes, or worse, listen to the click and clatter of keyboard and mouse.
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
...They are going to be trying to figure out why there have been 150,000 hits on their outdoor storage unit from some website called "Slashdot".
It's all heatsink -- a big, heavy, copper monster. The fins are quite thin, so there's a lot of surface area for radiating heat. You can use normal 80mm fans with it (maybe even 90mm?) rather than the smaller, faster, louder 60mm fans that many other heatsinks use.
I didn't lose my mod privs then, I don't expect to now.
:-)
two years already? My how time flies; at least we have had (and still have) kuro5hin as a viable alternative.
They stuffed old hardware in it and kept talking about how the outside of the case felt "warm". Where's the temperature sensor charts saying "ok it was this temperature while idling, then after 4 hours of gaming it rose to X while the outside of the case reached Y degrees Celsius". Bad Tom! Bad! No doughnut!
So, it's just the heatsink -- but does it require a fan to be paired with it for proper cooling?
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
I have a $280 Dell 400SC system running a 2.8Ghz P4 with 800fsb and it is nearly silent. You need to put yuor ear behind the case to hear anything. here is a similar deal, they seem to happen every month http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?ca tid=24&threadid=264777
http://www.leadmagnet.50megs.com
This case first appeared on Slashdot last summer, linking to an article (auf Deutsch) with much better pictures.
Co-operation beats competition
Monitor
Keyboard
Mouse
Optical drive
On/Off switch*
* if running Windoze
gewg_
I appreciate a silent computer, but since I don't have to see all the falshing lights and neon tubes todays kids stuff their computers with, I'd rather make a small hole in my wall abd have the computer in the next room than spend $1400 on that stuff. I could then use the spare $1395 not used on the drill bit and silicone on beer and strippers - perhaps getting even more silicone. . .
This message has been ROT-13 encrypted twice for higher security.
take the cheap case you have now, put it in the cupboard/spare room/loft/cellar and get some long monitor,mouse and keyboard cables.
As far as I know it requires a fan, but you can use a slow and quiet one. If the case had good internal airflow from a case fan or from good convection, then maybe you could get away without one. Tell me what happens if you try it! :-)
Just look at http://www.silentmaxx.de or com
...
A 100% silent machine for approx. $500
I use their standard ST-11 (approx $100) case and a silent PSU (approx $90) and the only thing I hear is the CPU fan. Pretty nice case comes with all cables and screws and
I will change my CPU fan within the next months to reduce the sound to just a wisper
The old 80:20 rule still applys. You can get 80% of what you want for just 20% of the money
God damned bureaucrats always looking for another way to take my money.
If they don't want it, sell it, but don't go begging to the people robbed at gunpoint to build it in the first place.
Screw them, the greedy blood sucking tax leaches.
Bob-
The Ludwig von Mises Institute. The reasoning individuals economics
I made an error in the above post, meant to put it under "save the Saturn 5".
Just ignore, nothing here, move along. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Bob-
The Ludwig von Mises Institute. The reasoning individuals economics
you can hear a mouse peein' on a ball of cotton.
What?
Buy the processor with the highest frequency your money can buy, the best heat sink, and an adjustable speed cooler.
When you need silence, reboot, downclock the processor and turnoff the cooler.
A 3.2Ghz half at half frequency (that not means half speed) is still very fast.
You can also just use a high quality headphone
And those sound enginners might user their computers on a hot room, because air-conditioning make noise too.
Not THAT much. Personally, I find the pink noise generated by my systems to be restful, in that it masks more disturbing sounds.
I have to wonder if this rather expensive case is actually effective in keeping chip temperatures within the same limits that conventional cooling does. If so, then then it has removed yet another frequent failure mode in modern computers: the fan. Once the hard disk is replaced in favor of some kind of massive solid state storage technique, the PC will become entire non-mechanical and potentially MUCH more reliable.
The next step will be to replace Windows with a more reliable operating system, and then the RESET button will become a thing of the past.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Now, show me a theatre PC style case for one of these and I'll buy it tomorrow.
Hush Technologies small, quiet and fast (going by specs, I haven't figured out how to justify it yet, baby due any day).
I have been watching these guys for a while, you can get them with a VIA C3 and now a P4, Celeron, Athlon or Duron
For whatever it is worth, while I do not own such a case, I have been VERY happy with the low-noise line of Zalman coolers, and I know they have other things such as video cards, hard drives and power supplies.
If I _had_ US$1400 to spend on a case, I would most certainly consider it. I like silence.
(8-DCS)
I blocked it out immediately afterward, because I can't see paying $1400 for eliminating a few measly decibels. I'm saying this as someone who has Asperger's Syndrome and serious noise hypersensitivities, and EVEN I don't have a problem with PC noise; I have four case fans in my Antec SX1030 case, and a Koolance Exos (watercooling) unit on top with its three fans, and that doesn't bother me!
If you wanna waste $1400 to eliminate something that doesn't even bother an autistic, be my guest!
It's Baloo, give me an email. Been a while since we've talked.
I really wish manufacturers would do something about this.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.