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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?"
> 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.
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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.
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Could someone fill me in on the background of "silence". How many dBs is silent?
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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.
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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!
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
Even better if you don't need all the power is to pick up a used PIII system from Dell or HP. They are even more quiet machines than the P4's, and have plenty of power for most tasks. Right now I'm sitting in front of a 866Mhz HP Vectra, and hum from this old 15" monitor is louder than the computer.
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.
My noiseless case was about $150, thankyouverymuch.
Totally agree on the Nexus count.. just put in a Nexus cpu fan and 2 case fans and the quiet, gentle hum is great. I'd also recommend good old standard Seagate for a quiet hard drive (switched from a Maxtor - good god was that loud).
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.
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.
I have 4 PCs running 24/7 in my bedroom, including the server w/ 2 PSU fans, 3 big case fans, and 10 little fans on the SCSI RAID enclosure.
:)
On those rare occasions when my power has gone out at night,I wake up instantly. The absence of noise is what wakes me up.
Just don't tell my daughter, or she'll kick the power plugs to wake me up at 7am on Saturday
jred
I'm not a mechanic but I play one in my garage...
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!
Why bother with DVI cable? Why not go with coax R G G H V? My Sony 20e10 works just dandy with a three meter cable. I'm not sure the max length on it, but it's pretty easy converting a monitor to BNC connectors. While DVI gets points.... Coax is much more down to earth and they have the stuff at home improvment shops, the last time I looked. If 5 wires are too bulky, cut it down to three with sync on green.
I have thought about it actually... putting the PC in the closet, BNC connectors in the wall... exhost vent to the outside, USB run as well for jacking in various things. I decided to invest in a hepa filter instead. It's lower then my pc fans, so I don't hear them anymore, and I can still hear my hard-drives clicking away.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
One big problem is that a quiet atmosphere is only one thing but a stifling atmosphere is another. How long until a rediculous case like this heat's up the room its in until it's unbareable?. Not long with those panels radiating off so much heat.
Youd have to put the case on the other side of the room and buy extra cable's too, which would defeat the purpose of paying for a silent pc when you, can do the same, with a normal PC and put it on the other side of the room where you can't hear it and it will keep the room cooler!
Earplugs, or ear protectors (available at gun shops), will do better in that case, because they will also block noises other than your PC. (Just be careful what you say if you go to a gun shop--I got some strange looks when I walked in and said I was looking for something to deal with a noisy neighbor!). BTW, earplugs and ear protectors stack--they tend to have different noise blocking characteristics, so using both helps.
If I didn't have to wear ear plugs at work, I would have thought that a reasonable idea....But wearing ear plugs for an extended amount of time is worse than someone giving you a hundreds of consecutive wet willies. They are not comfortable in the least bit, and I couldn't imagine being able to sleep with them in.
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.
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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?
Heat pipes are probably an unecessary overkill.
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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 !
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
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.
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