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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?"
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.
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.
...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
The AC is actually right, most humans can hear sounds down to about 0 decibels. It's no accident that it's scaled that way.
The decibel scale is logarithmic, which means a 70dB sound has 10 times the intensity of a 60dB sound. If you double the intensity, on the decibel scale you only go up 3db. So put 2 30dB case fans in a computer, and the total from them would be 33dB, not 60dB.
It's also possible to have sounds in the negative decibel range, it's just we can't hear them.
Actually, I've been thinking about this. What do you actually need on your desk?
- Monitor
- Keyboard
- Mouse
- Optical drive
For the monitor, DVI can handle a few meters, and there are repeaters that can extend that, at a cost of about $250 per 5 meters. There are also DVI->optical->DVI cables that can handle very long distances.For keyboard and mouse, USB2 can be up to 30 meters, if you chain some hubs together. Bluetooth might also be a possibility.
For optical drive, USB2 would work.
This seems reasonably feasible.
- 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.
To answer the question more directly, 28dB is considered the noise level of a quiet room, so less than that is accepted as "silent." If you see a dB(A), the (A) means that an A-weighted filter was used with the dB meter. reference
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.