Review of Silent 400w Power Supply

SnowPunk98 writes "OCModShop has done a review on a SilenX 400w 14 dBA PSU "The power supply doesn't boast any flashy designs or cool colors however that is not the purpose of this power supply. Silence is what the main goal of the unit is and there are tons of features to help achieve that.""

Comments

My 400w power supply is silent, too

[Anonymous Coward]

Until I turn it on.

Re:My 400w power supply is silent, too

[aarku]

It ain't no power supply then... it's not a power no-supply now is it?

Advertising?

[Kent Recal]

There are dozens of "silent" PSUs around. Just bought myself one a couple weeks ago... What exactly makes this review of one a headline?

Re:Advertising?

[EulerX07]

In this era of stealth advertising, one must be getting a pretty good bonus at the end of the month for getting a product on the slashdot front page.

(Yes, I'm stealing links from some of my old posts)

Re:Advertising?

[Golias]

Yea, but I've never once bought a product based on a /. review.

Every time a front-page story about the iPod goes up, you get 150 posts about how much the iRiver is a better deal. Every Rio story has just as many posts trashing it in favor of the iPod.

As far as I can tell, a /. story gets you a 2-12 paragraph blurb followed by 300 posts bashing your product, your company, and anybody who buys your stuff. Not a very good way to advertize at all!

(I have, on the other hand, bought stuff I've seen on /. banner ads. My "#include " beer glasses from thinkgeek, for example.)

Re:Advertising?

[Basehart]

"My "#include " beer glasses from thinkgeek"

You, sir, are a true geek.

Your #include beer glass is almost as cool as my big chipped plastic mug with Apple printed on the side in the most horrible pink color ever seen.

Re:Advertising?

[Anonymous Coward]

Boycott CBS for NOT SHOWING THE MOVEON.ORG advertisment!

LIBERTY OR DEATH!

Re:Advertising?

[Anonymous Coward]

High wattage. The fact that it was submitted.

Is yours a 400W silent psu?

Re:Advertising?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a big fan of PC Power & Cooling. Very high quality, durable products.

Re:Advertising?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know. But I'm old enough to remember when our home computers were silent because they had no fans at all (the power supply was external-- and I suppose it was drawing considerably less power than what my newer computer would need... I'll have to check that when I get a chance).

Re:Advertising?

[Anonymous Coward]

Um.. dude... that was just six years ago.... most of us are "old enough" to remember that.

Re:Advertising?

[AssClown2520]

I just read the link to the stealth advertising that you gave. I actually don't find this type of advertising objectionable. While it is slightly devious it is better than trying to con me into thinking that all women that drink Miller Lite beer have big boobs...

Re:Advertising?

[DarkVader]

But Apple only stopped making the 15" iMac last year...

And the original Macintosh never had an external power supply either. It used so little power that it was actually energy star compliant - without any sleep function at all.

Re:Advertising?

[Anonymous Coward]

those include glasses are awesome, built my own binary clock though, with yellow leds, don't think they have those on thinkgeek yet.

-brewmeister smith

Re:Advertising?

[ErroneousBee]

14 dBA (if I read the product name right) is way quieter than anything else in the market. I guess the best of the rest come in at 20-25 dBA.

My rig at home is 'quiet' (as opposed to silent). Its fitted with passive coolers and 5 throttled/temperature sensitive fans that generate about 20dB each.

The components that generate the most noise now is the PSU (25ish dB) and the CD/DVD reader. This 14dB PSU means I can eliminate the loudest contant source of noise from my PC.

Silent power supply?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that a surprise? All my outlets, including my 20 amp (2,400 watts) are silent.

Re:Silent power supply?

[77Punker]

The problem with power supplies is not buzzing, but fans...I think.

What is silent?

[KingDaveRa]

Is 14dBA really silent? Should 0dBA be considered silent? I'm curious to know.

Re:What is silent?

[ErrorBase]

This could give you a clue.
14dBA is way below whisper ...

Re:What is silent?

[jeffkjo1]

Well.. 0dB would be ideal, but most people cannot hear sounds that low... especially geeks with big stereo systems.

This page has an excellent table of information on various dB listings.

According to it, human breathing at 3 feet is 10dB... can you hear people breating from 3 feet away? (I can't.)

Re:What is silent?

[zzxc]

Uh, no, negative infinity dBA should be considered silent. It is logarithmic just like dB. dBA simply means that it uses an "A" correction curve to more accurately represent human hearing than a simple logorithm... which is what a dB is.

Re:What is silent?

[javiercero]

Errr no, the dB scale starts at 0, thre is no negative axis, hence no possibility of negative infinity. As such, 0dB is perfectly silent.

Re:What is silent?

[Anonymous Coward]

A whisper? I have voices whispering to me all day long; it's pretty hard to ignore. "Get a rifle and climb up the water tower", or "Flick that lightswitch two more times", or "Get a load of the *** on her!", or "Time to reline your tinfoil hat". If my power supply were this annoying, I wouldn't get anything done around here at all...

Re:What is silent?

[aonaran]

Actually that page says human breathing at 3m is 10db, which is more like 9 feet. I definitly can't hear people breathing at a distance of 9 feet. I think I'd find it rather annoying. I only wish my PDA was that quiet. (ever since I had the screen fixed by pocketpctechs.com it's made an annoying high pitched hum.)

Re:What is silent?

[mph]

Errr no, dB measure the log ratio of two intensities, the one you're interested in, and a reference. For dBA, the reference is supposed to be the threshold of human hearing. You can have sound with positive power, but quieter than the reference level, which would result in negative dBA.

0 dBA may be "perfectly silent" in the sense that you can't hear it by itself, but if you put two or more 0 dBA sources together, you will hear them. The 0 dBA sources are producing sound.

Re:What is silent?

[a whoabot]

Depends what you mean by silent. Percieved or not? 0dB is supposed to be the threshold of hearing for humans. So, effectively silent yes. But a "sound" of 0dB can still technically be a sound, I suppose.

Re:What is silent?

[kels]

Wrong. Zero dB is just an arbitrary choice and a sound at 0 dB has nonzero amplitude. In air the reference pressure is normally 20 micropascals. The previous poster is correct, the decibel scale is relative, and negative infinity dB is truly silent.

Re:What is silent?

[cjj]

0 dBA corresponds to a sound power of 1 picowatt per square meter. Roughly, it's the threshold of human hearing. There definitely is possibility of weaker sounds measured at negative dBAs.

Re:What is silent?

[Flavio]

Unfortunately most (all?) manufacturers of silent computer products lie about noise levels.

For example, the Silent Boost heatsink/fan from Thermaltake is advertised as being as loud as 21 dBA. However, closer inspection will tell you that it uses an 80cm Panaflo 2450 RPM fan, and Panasonic says the fan alone (without the heatsink, which will add to the noise due to additional turbulence) is 28 dBA loud.

The same goes for all sorts of fans and PSUs advertised as being silent. Manufacturers exaggerate their claims, and the one with the lowest number typically sells the loudest product.

Re:What is silent?

[Anonymous Coward]

Interestingly, it also says that the threshold of hearing, having good ears, is 0 dB. So if you have good ears it should be easy to hear someone breathing at 3m. :P

Re:What is silent?

[Anonymous Coward]

if you're in a room that is completely silent except for the sound of the person breathing, you probably will hear that person breathing at 9 feet away.

Re:What is silent?

[Anonymous Coward]

According to it, human breathing at 3 feet is 10dB... can you hear people breating from 3 feet away? (I can't.)

The answer to that question depends on who we're talking about. If you mean the average Slashdot masses: pasty, odoriferous, morbidly obese mouth-breathers... then I think 5 feet is more like it.

Re:What is silent?

[kfg]

It depends a good deal on where you take the measurement from and there is a good deal latitude in this matter, even at the same distance from that noise source.

For instance, are they mearsuring the noise level with the device sitting on a bench, or in the case?

The in the case scenario isn't lying, per se, but it's certainly deceptive.

KFG

Re:What is silent?

[m0rph3us0]

dbA are 20*log(X/sound) where X is the reference level 20 micropascals and sound is the measured pressure. the A signifies that a filter has been applied to account for the pyscoaucoustic model of a human.

Re:What is silent?

[DAldredge]

Please excuse him. He works for NASA. :->

Re:What is silent?

[Flavio]

Well, I won't argue about semantics, but reputable manufacturers like Panasonic make it quite clear how they measure noise. For example, here's what Panasonic has to say (source): "the noise data is measured at 1 meter from the intake side of the fan suspended in a semi-anechoic chamber (background noise 13 dBA maximum)".

Zalman, Thermaltake and others neglect to specify this, which is no surprise since their claims always clash with each other and with their suppliers'.

And there's also the subjective side of things, but that's a whole other issue. Two fans with the same noise emission levels aren't necessarily as pleasant, since their spectra may be completely different. Reducing RPMs will give you less overall noise, but crappier fans will always give you irritating bearing noise, for instance, even though they may be quiet on average.

Re:What is silent?

[aulendil]

Just curios, but surely 3m is more like 10 feet than nine? I just can't seem to get a hang on imperial metrics.

Re:What is silent?

[UrgleHoth]

about the page with the various dB listings.
They must have erred somewhere, rock concert below the threshold of pain?

Re:What is silent?

[kfg]

. . .Panasonic make it quite clear how they measure noise.

Zalman, Thermaltake and others neglect to specify this. . .

Exactly.

Fans (that is to say afficionados, not rotary oscillators) of older American cars sometimes like to point out that the older cars produced more hp from the same or lesser displacement than they do today, totally ingoring that the methodology of the measurement is completely different in the two cases.

Specicifically, in the case of older cars the methodology used was that guarunteed to produce the most impressive number to the consumer.

KFG

Re:What is silent?

[gnu-generation-one]

"Well.. 0dB would be ideal, but most people cannot hear sounds that low"

dB is not a measure of noise level, it's a comparaison of numbers.

0dB means "equal to"

So I'm a little confused how you say that people can't hear 0dB. On my stereo, 0dB is used to define the maximum possible power, and any noise level less than that is shown as (for example) -18dB relative to full power. Computer sound systems use the same measure, for example DirectX defines 0dB as the maximum power that your soundcard can produce. You'd have a hard time convincing anyone that my stereo set to 0dB was inaudible.

Re:What is silent?

[Pieroxy]

can you hear people breating from 3 feet

Well, I can definitely hear my wife snoring 1 foot away. Does that count?

Re:What is silent?

[nathanh]

Errr no, the dB scale starts at 0, thre is no negative axis, hence no possibility of negative infinity. As such, 0dB is perfectly silent.

You are wrong. 0dB means a unity gain. In other words, the signal you are measuring is exactly the same intensity as the reference signal.

In audio, 0dBA (notice the A) means it's the same intensity as the smallest discernible noise to "standard" human ears. Basically it's pretty damn quiet.

You most certainly can have negative dB. It just means attenuation (ie, the signal you are measuring has less intensity than the reference signal). 0 gain (which would be truly silent) is the same as negative infinity dB.

Re:What is silent?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't you mean like.... 50 feet?

Re:What is silent?

[operagost]

That's because you're comparing sound pressure with VU. They are not the same.

Re:What is silent?

[xorbe]

They defined 0dB as "equal to" just below what the average person can hear.

Your stereo defined 0dB to be "the loudest it gets".

It's a relative unit, true.

Re:What is silent?

[southpolesammy]

According to it, human breathing at 3 feet is 10dB... can you hear people breating from 3 feet away?

Ask my wife that question at around 3AM while I'm snoring like a chainsaw....

Re:What is silent?

[karnal]

As opposed to those darn Jedi metrics?

Re:What is silent?

[Anonymous Coward]

So if someone whispers in my ear (20dBA) whilst an F15 takes off (140dBA) my ear drum will instantly burst (20+140=160)??? ;-)

Re:What is silent?

[littlecindylouwho]

Thanks. My monitor is now covered in Dr. Pepper.

Re:What is silent?

[owdi]

The Panasonic Panaflo is rated for 28 dBA, 2450 RPM at 12 volts. Many of these PSU's control rpm by temperature, so the fan hardly ever spins at the full rated RPM, therefore emitting less than 28 dBA. Dan

Re:What is silent?

[los furtive]

He's right. I did hearing tests in a deprivation chamber once and the noises I heard my own body generate were enough to distract me from the task at hand.

Re:What is silent?

[Hogwash McFly]

That's weird, I was only just thinking how people only seem to click on and read funny comments while at the same time drinking carbonated beverages. Perhaps there needs to be some research into this 'phenomenon'?

Re:What is silent?

[Flavio]

True, but the Silent Boost is a processor cooler without any thermal control. The Panaflo runs on 12 V continuously.

Re:What is silent?

[Anonymous Coward]

With all the lack of wit and humor on here, you generally feel pretty safe to drink and read at the same time.

Re:What is silent?

[Anonymous Coward]

Listen I really hate to add another dB means this and that message. The fact is though dB is a relatively old unit, on a logarithmic scale (in case someone doesn't know, that means 2 is 10 times as much as 1). But it isn't a measure of how much energy is transmitted, at twice the distance, a fourth the pressure is there, that means any sound pressure, dB, whatever is useless without a distance from the "center" of the transmitter. OK... rant over.... ten four over and out

Re:What is silent?

[shepd]

>ever since I had the screen fixed by pocketpctechs.com it's made an annoying high pitched hum

The transformer in it (or perhaps an inductor, probably the backlight transformer, though) has a loose winding.

HTH!

Re:What is silent?

[Anonymous Coward]

My ex-wife could even hear my eyelids when I blinked and it used to keep her awake at night until I went to sleep. Seriously. So not everyone would consider 14dBA to be silent.

Re:What is silent?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's never lying when it's marketing!

Re:What is silent?

[aonaran]

That's basically what I figured, (well that it was to do with the backlight anyway) I sent it back to them to have them correct it and they sent it to me with a note saying basically 'your're crazy, they all make a little noise, we're surprised you can hear it, you must work in a REALLY quiet environment' (not exact wording, it was back in June, so I don't remember the words they used exactly) I work with PDAs a lot and I have NEVER heard one other than mine make ANY sound.

Re:What is silent?

[lars_stefan_axelsson]

But it isn't a measure of how much energy is transmitted, at twice the distance, a fourth the pressure is there, that means any sound pressure, dB, whatever is useless without a distance from the "center" of the transmitter.

Ah, we're into nit picking are we? In that case, you have to qualify that you're thinking of a point source in a completely echo free environment. Which won't typically be the case in a computer case.

No, seriously, you make a good point. Of course if you started your fan in Mongolia it could be pretty powerful and still be considered silent here (for most definitions of 'here' not actually close to Mongolia). Hence, how the measurement is made really is an important factor. I'd take a 21dB fan at 10cm over a 14dB fan at 1.5 meter any day.

Zero comments and slashdotted already

[Anonymous Coward]

400 watts, silent, and smoking!!

Outstanding!!

[loserbert]

Now I'll be able to listen to my 5 case fans that sound like an Harrier hovering above my house! That stupid power supply fan was screwing everything up....

Re:Outstanding!!

[flewp]

I think you've hit on a new cool case mod.... using the fans to create a hover-case!

On a side note, I have never really been bothered by noise from my computers, except maybe the older ones when the fans start to rattle.

The soothing hum is actually kind of nice to my ears, and if I try and sleep in my room with none of my machines powered on, it becomes almost too quite. Guess I'm just used to it by now.

Re:Outstanding!!

[AKnightCowboy]

The soothing hum is actually kind of nice to my ears, and if I try and sleep in my room with none of my machines powered on, it becomes almost too quite. Guess I'm just used to it by now.

A soothing hum is fine. The problem comes in when you have odd noises. One of my hard drives made this awful whining noise and I just go so sick of it I had to throw it out. An old Sparcstation had that problem with the 2GB Seagate drive in it a few years back as well. Sounded like I was running a table saw chopping wood.

Re:Outstanding!!

[Grayden]

I've noticed the same effect on me too. Ever since my freshman year of college when I started sleeping within 5 feet of my computer, I can't sleep in a silent room anymore. I NEED to have some kind of white noise in order to sleep properly, so I usually have a fan or two running in my bedroom now.

Re:Outstanding!!

[KewlJedi]

Yeah, i have rented my case out before for use as a wind tunnel.

Re:Outstanding!!

[geoffspear]

That's why you want your cooling system to be loud enough to drown out any hard drive noises.

Re:Outstanding!!

[ncc74656]

I think you've hit on a new cool case mod.... using the fans to create a hover-case!

Years ago, somebody built a cooler for an Apple IIGS that had way too many fans on it. It just about needed the weight of a monitor, floppy drives, etc. over it to keep it from floating over the computer.

Re:Outstanding!!

[Anonymous Coward]

The soothing hum is actually kind of nice to my ears, and if I try and sleep in my room with none of my machines powered on, it becomes almost too quite. Guess I'm just used to it by now.

I like that, too. Helps me pretend I don't really have that tinnitus. ;-)

Re:Outstanding!!

[Sinter]

At my workplace, our 2 server rooms are actually so loud that OSHA required a box of earplugs at every entrance :-P. Gotta love those Dell PowerEdge-Noisemakers! -Sinter

Re:Outstanding!!

[deacon]

And what better way to build a hover case than to start with a hovermower

Best part: Sound of the engine makes drive noise unimportant.

Sorry about the link, it only seems to work half the time.. :(

Re:Outstanding!!

[gnu-generation-one]

"Now I'll be able to listen to my 5 case fans that sound like an Harrier hovering above my house! That stupid power supply fan was screwing everything up...."

Question is, is it possible to get a non-crap graphics card which doesn't double as the sound system for your racing games? Looking at my case, it seems that the two fans I can replace (CPU and power supply) are fairly quiet, but the graphics card has a tiny little fan making a big noise. And worse, the heatsink has been epoxied onto the GPU by the manufacturer so I can't replace it with anything passive.

Take a look in kustompcs.co.uk for replacement graphics cards, and... yes, that's right, they're all renowned for the noise they make. Reviews of high-end graphics cards typically use phrases like "so long as you don't mind the noise", and the better the card, the worse the noise.

Is there anything good which can be passively cooled?

Re:Outstanding!!

[ShadowBlasko]

You know, I usually do not reply to AC's, but you hit on something I need to mention here.

Recently, my gf's tinnitus has been getting considerably worse. From her descriptions, what used to be only perceptable in a otherwise "quiet" room, is now discernable even when watching TV at a normal level.

She is *not* technically inclined, and has always made it clear that the computer stuff stays *out* of the bedroom. I've just gotten used to leaving the fan in the bathroom running, or a small fan, something that creates background noise for her, so she can sleep better.

Recently, when I was sick, I was *granted* the leeway (insert whipped jokes here) to have the laptop in the bedroom, as I was going to be spending a few days in bed. Now it appears that she misses the "higher pitched" sounds of the laptop, and wants me to find something similar.

Maybe I'll just move the firewall machine into the bedroom. She can't complain much if there is a comp, but no monitor or keyboard to get in the way.

Sometimes a little sound is a good thing. I like the idea of a silent PSU, but with the other three fans (graphics card, processor, and system fan) I doubt it will ever be silent. Not to mention the fact that the rear fan is keeping my feet warm as I type this.

Just an (admittedly OT) thought...

Re:Outstanding!!

[eyegone]

IBM BladeCenters actually come with a muffler that fits on the back!

Re:Outstanding!!

[karnal]

One thing I've noticed with my slight tinnitus is that the TV annoys it more.

The high pitched whine has a lot to do with it. I can't wait until I get a projector or an LCD tv to get rid of the CRT whine... they can make monitors that don't whine much, but when it comes to 200-300$ television sets, they all have that whine.

Re:Outstanding!!

[gcaseye6677]

Can you put one of those fat pipe fart can mufflers on it to make a rice burner computer?

Re:Outstanding!!

[ShadowBlasko]

This is going so offtopic, but I have never had a chance to discuss it on slashdot, so here goes anyway.

You mentioned the monitor whine, did you know that a large percentage of the populus can not hear that? Second question. Do you, by any chance, have ADD or AD/HD?

Here is why I ask:

All my life I have been able to hear the whine from television sets, and monitors. Even if I am in another room I can "feel/hear" it when someone turns on (or de-gausses) a monitor. I used to think that everyone else heard it too, and when I realized that they didn't, I quickly stopped talking about it. (didn't wanna be labelled a nutcase or anything)

Especially bad were the old "dumb terminal" CRT's that were starting to go bad. If there was one near me, it would drive me almost batty. I could hear it *all* the time. When I worked at a call center in the early 90's, I would walk around at night when I was on the late shift until I found the bad CRT and turn it off. Usually I could "triangulate?" the location by walking around the room once first.

About the same time I was (finally) diagnosed with AD/HD. About 2 years later, when I switched doctors, I was asked about things that distracted me when I was trying to concentrate. I mentioned the monitor/CRT whine, and the doctor was somewhat amused. "I hear that a lot from easily distracted people."

That got me thinking, so I brought it up at an ADHD group meeting a couple months later. Not suprising to me, almost everyone I asked at the meeting said that they could "hear" the TV's and monitors in other rooms, especially when they are first turned on, even if the volume is all the way down.

I told my doctor about it at my next appointment, and she dismissed it as coincidence. She did not seem to even believe that such a sense of "electronic or electromagnetic perception" even existed.

I had her blind test me by going in the waiting room and switching the TV on and off a specific number of times. I was correct on the number each time.

As far as I know, nothing ever came of it. I just let it go, because it seems to be damned hard to convince someone with a Phd that you might know something that they don't.

Personally I think that, if my theory is correct, (That this "perception" of Electromagnetic interference, or maybe it is just a "sound", is so common in people with ADD or AD/HD, That the increasing numbers of devices which generate those sounds could correlate with the increasing numbers of ADD and AD/HD cases) it could really be interesting to say the least.

Needless to say I have neither the expertise nor the resources to study this.

I apologize to the slashdot readers for taking up so much space, and their time, in my ramblings, I just needed to finally get that out of my system and tell someone when the opportunity came up.

And hey, if I get famous, you heard it here first.

Re:Outstanding!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Out of interest, have you done a hearing test to see what frequencies you can hear?
What would be interesting is if someones high frequency hearing was limited, but they were still able to perceive the monitor whine.
There are free tone generators that would be worth a go if you want to test yourself, but make sure your listening apperatus is not generating noise in the audible range due to bad design. (good quality headphones and soundcard/amp is a must!).

BTW, It bugs me too, and I don't have ad/hd, I just work in a studio so you get used to listening in a different way.

Re:Outstanding!!

[jCaT]

There's definitely a high pitched whine, and I can hear it too. I have some of the symptoms of ADHD, but was diagnosed as just being a lazy bastard when I wasn't doing good in school. Oh well, no ritalin for me.

Re:Outstanding!!

[mOdQuArK!]

That this "perception" of Electromagnetic interference, or maybe it is just a "sound", is so common in people with ADD or AD/HD

What makes you think it's a perception of electromagnetic radiation, when it might just be the detection of the high-frequency whine of the monitors? I would hazard a guess that people without ADD/ADHD filter out the sound without thinking about it (since it's usually a little too borderline for them to bring up to a conscious level), but people who have some difficulty filtering out environmental distractions might be more aware of this kind of thing.

The study might still be interesting, but I doubt you'd find that you were detecting electromagnetic radation as "sound".

Re:Outstanding!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Hum is normal to flyback transformers and such. You aren't hearing electricity, but the electricity is inducing microscopic motion in the transformer windings which makes noise. Old TVs and welding transformers often make noise audible to the rest of us. :)

Re:Outstanding!!

[gnu-generation-one]

"Take a look in kustompcs.co.uk for replacement graphics cards, and... yes, that's right, they're all renowned for the noise they make"

Correction, about half of the graphics cards on the site I mention are passive, heatpipe, or water-cooled. Unfortunately it's the expensive half...

Re:Outstanding!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey man!!! I have the same problem!!! I can also "listen" to radiographies and i hate them!

Re:Outstanding!!

[Anonymous Coward]

The freq of the sound is ~18000-20000Hz. If you dont belive me, got get a noise generator and test it out. Around there (19000Hz) you'll here the same high pitch sound. If you can't hear it, turn you volume up. It is at the edge of the human hearing limit.

Re:Outstanding!!

[HawkingMattress]

Hum I don't know what ADD and AD/HD are, but I hear monitors whining all the time too. I didnd't know it was uncommon... In fact i'm sure that someone who knows how a screen work can easily explain this.
Especially i have a 70cm but very cheap TV whose screen literally screams. The more clear (white) the colors are, the louder. I often have to turn the volume up to cover the noise. Same thing for (analog) monitors, but much more acceptable to me.

Re:Outstanding!!

[CBravo]

mod parent up please...

Re:Outstanding!!

[ShadowBlasko]

Honestly, I have not had a hearing frequency test done in, wow... I guess its been 15 years.

(BTW, thanks everyone for not modding me into offtopic hell, if it makes any difference, todays my birthday, and getting to discuss this is one of the best presents I could have possibly received)

Something I did not point out in the above post, but should mention is this:

There are two distinctly different perceptions. There is the monitor/CRT whine, which seems more audible, and the second, which is a little bizzare.

The second is the "sensation" for lack of a better word, when a monitor or CRT is first turned on. (or when it is degaussed, which is what leads me to beleive it is some type of electromagnetic thing)

That "sensation" is somewhat harder to describe. It's very brief, like a 1/2 second "wave" for lack of a better word. It feels like static electricity. It "tingles" a bit. Like when you put your hand close to a (sorry to use this again in comparison, but it is the best I could think of) TV set that is very statically charged. But its not localized, just sort of "passes through" you, very quickly.

I can feel that someone turns on a monitor or TV set (to my best estimates) within about a 50 foot range of where I am. It does seem to depend on the type of CRT/Monitor though. With our TV set (fairly new zenith) it's barely perceptible, yet when someone fires up my old 21" rasterops monitor (dinosaur that it is) I can feel it upstairs.

I know it sounds totally bizzare, and honestly I would laugh at me too, but I've lived with it for all of my life and, as far as I know, I'm not crazy.

Re:Outstanding!!

[Big Nothing]

Offtopic but still...

No, you're not alone. As a matter of fact, I can usually hear if a TV set is turned on in another room, even if the door is shut, or even on another floor (yes, the TV is muted) due to the high-frequency tone it emits.

The noise is generated in all CRT's; TV set, computer monitor, CRT projector, osilloscope, etc and is called the "line frequency". The frequency of the tone is 15.734 kHz, wich is well within the human hearing range.

However, modern equipment generate a lot less - if any - of this noise. The generated sound really is a biproduct of the frequency used to generate the line scan of the electron sweep. I am unable to hear any line noise from my brand new computer monitor but I can hear some (but not a lot) from my old TV set. Some really old TV sets and PC monitors make so much noise that I am unable to stay in the same room as the monitor for any period of time without developing a brain tumor.

Also, many (most?) people over a certain age does in fact NOT hear this sound, due to reduced hearing. Although reduced hearing is in no way something to crave, I wouldnt mind being unable to hear this tone. It can be terribly annoying and distracting and can even cause headache. In fact, many people who have trouble with headaches after a day of office work should try upgrading their monitors. Even if they are unable to conciously HEAR the sound, the ear is still recieving the noise (and the noise melting their brains - or something).

There is, AFAIK, no relationship between ADHD or ADD and being able to hear the line noise. Whether or not you ARE able to hear it would solely depend on your hearing. Bare in mind that you can have certain part of the frequency range reduced or "enhanced" due to various factors. For example, frequent visit to discos and clubs, where loud music is played, is a sure-fire way to remove that line noise from your hearing (although the tinnitus you'll develop can be even more annoying).

Re:Outstanding!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Attention Deficit disorder, Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Re:Outstanding!!

[Zach Fine]

I can hear the whines of monitors and televisions, and have been able to hear them my entire life (at least, as far back as I remember), but have never found them particularly distracting.

Interesting thought though.

-Z

Re:Outstanding!!

[adrianbaugh]

I don't have AD(H)D. I don't notice monitor whine if the monitor is already on but do notice the difference when one is switched on or off. Degaussing I'm not sure about. It's deafening on my monitor but then my monitor is old and crappy - I'm probably hearing more than the actual flipping of magnets...

Re:Outstanding!!

[Epistax]

I don't thave ADHD, or at least if I do, I haven't shown it, but I can hear those noises. CRT monitors are usually the worst, where most TV's aren't as bad unless they are displaying lots of white. LCD's do nothing to me.

Perhaps I am low grade?

Re:Outstanding!!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's just sound. You have better-than-average hearing. I hear the damn things all of the time.

Now, if most people who have ADHD have better-than-average hearing, that is interesting and you might be on to something. However, if you claim that you're hearing a signal induced on your audio nerve by the magnets in a CRT that's on the other side of the room, I will dismiss you as a nutcase.

Re:Outstanding!!

[Lord Kano]

I've spend the majority of the nights during the past 13 years with a computer's fans humming me to sleep. I have a problem sleeping without a fan going.

LK

Re:Outstanding!!

[geekoid]

I know a great many peopel that can hear a monitor whine.

Anybody who intealled linux 10 years ago probably made there monitor whine!

Me, I can hear older floresant lights. They gave me a headache as a kid, so I stayed out of Gemcos.

and no I odn't have A

Re:Outstanding!!

[Anonymous Coward]

I hear them. I have been diagnosed.

Although the typical ADD symptoms are much better now, I still am sensitive to environmental noise. I have a 21 inch KDS and I can hear it 2 rooms away. The powerbook that I type this on makes a noise too. If I dim the screen the sound changes pitch on the first bios notch and then gets quieter.

Crazy shit, but I think that ADD people are more in tune with environmental noises because the brain does not filter them out as well. With me lighting is a big deal too. Some people will light their bedroom or even living room with a bright shiny incadescent or even fluroscent overhead lighting and create shadows and every surface of the room will glimmer and that aggravates me. However, they don't even notice that they are living in a hospital kitchen.

They look at me all funny when I commence with the turning on lamps and turning off overhead lights routine.

Perhaps, I am just nutty.

I got bat ears.

Re:Outstanding!!

[eVirtueDragon]

I mildly have some of the symptoms of ADHD but don't actually have it; just have been attenion-seeking and hyperactive in the past, with wild mood swings. I wrote qBasic programs in my youth too to test out my range of hearing, and I could hear noticiable pitch up until about 20-22kHz. I do hear older TV's and Monitors whine and it bugs me up the wall, and though I notice that not many other people can hear this, I do have friends who definitely aren't ADHD affected and can also hear it. I had attributed it to my musically encouraged care of my hearing but it is very interesting the point you identify about the correllation of hearing range and ADHD symptoms.

Re:Outstanding!!

[line.at.infinity]

As far as CRT monitor whines go, I found out what helps is to change the monitor resolution when it starts acting up. Most of the time, this reduces the whine a great deal. Once, though, one of my monitor's wouldn't get quieter... Next moment it was drawing all sorts of funky diagonal rainbow colored lines. I had to turn it in for repair, and it turned out it was a bad motherboard that was causing it. Flourescent lamps can be pretty bad too. Japan uses these more often than filament bulbs for lighting, but I think they use high quality ones so the noise's not as annoying.

Re:Outstanding!!

[Anonymous Coward]

How about alarm systems? The noise that alarm systems make (in department stores, warehouse, cars, etc.) drives me crazy. Same with damn lights on light posts. The only rest I got is when I moved to the country, and then I got to pass new high voltage wire. Those damn things are painful.

Re:Outstanding!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, many (most?) people over a certain age does in fact NOT hear this sound, due to reduced hearing. Although reduced hearing is in no way something to crave, I wouldn't mind being unable to hear this tone.

Many times hearing loss is accompanied by a never-ending sensation of noise called tinnitus (ringing in the ears). When I was younger, I too could hear the oscillators in some televisions. I can't any more, due to hearing loss, and the tinnitus is much louder than the TVs ever were. Imagine having 1000 noisy monitors follow you everywhere you go! Moral of story: Being able to hear noisy monitors should be a reassuring thing, don't let it bother you.

Re:Outstanding!!

[Slowleggs]

"There is, AFAIK, no relationship between ADHD or ADD and being able to hear the line noise. Whether or not you ARE able to hear it would solely depend on your hearing."

True, an ADD / ADHD's ears are just as normal as everyone else's.

However, the human brain suppresses redundant noise (e.g. heartbeat) so that our consciousness may focus on the important stuff. This may be directly related to why ADD people have attention problems (I guess, I am not a doctor).

Re:Outstanding!!

[tim_mathews]

I'd just look at getting a better fan for the video card, if you can. For some reason (perhaps to sell more cards) the manufacturers of said video cards seem to use the cheapest fans they can find. Which means that they're generally pretty lound and have a rather low MTBF. I bought 4 Radeon 9100 PCI cards for a multi-head system in November and I'm down a head already. It may not be the fan's fault; perhaps the heatsink wasn't big enough to begin with, but the combined effects of being on 24/7 and thermal expansion caused the little fan to sieze and it didn't take too long before I started getting nifty artifacts on the screen. I can't even spin the fan by hand now. A similar thing happened with my GeForce 1 a long time ago, but that was my fault. I was cleaning it and broke a blade off ... it had 8 others so I just sort of ignored it, but I guess that unbalanced-ness isn't really good for the fan and it died slowly and loudly until one day it just stopped spinning, started humming and my screen got lots of purple dots and everything had a shadow.

Re:Outstanding!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Most TVs and monitors also degauss when they are first turned on. So turning them on is really another way to trigger a degauss. I don't know if you were aware of that since you wrote of being able to sense when they were turned on "or" degaussed.

Degaussing often produces a clearly audible sound that many people can hear.

Re:Outstanding!!

[Crazy Eight]

Here's another wierd one for you guys to listen to; the video card in your computer. I'm not talking 'bout yer CRT. I really mean your video card. The first time I noticed this it was on a Matrox G400. I was screwing around with framebuffer consoles and noticed I could control the (extremely faint) noise by scrolling the buffer. The ear-to-card-with-the-case-door-off test cinched it. I figured it had something to do with the post-DAC analog output circuits or somesuch, but I can hear the same thing on my TiBook which uses LVDS or TMDS to talk to the LCD. Any theories here? I'm talking about a noise that shows up with heavy blitting. Is it possible for a motherboard's traces to hum just like a transformer? Or even a chip?

Re:Outstanding!!

[Hektor_Troy]

Well, I don't know if I have ADHD or ADD or something else, but I can hear if a monitor/tv is "bad" or what you want to call it.

Examples:
I have an old Nokia 17" monitor, that can do 1280x1024@85Hz at the max. However, the guy I got it from always ran it at 1280x960@75Hz, because higher res/freq gave him headaches. I certainly found out why, as it gave a high pitched whine when it went above that. Seriously high pitched.

A friend of mine used to run his monitor at 16x12@90Hz, because he could. This was within range of the monitors ability, but I could always hear the whine. Then when he wasn't looking, I set it to 85hz, the whine dissapeared and he didn't notice. A week later or so he told me, that out of the blue, the constant headache he had, that the doctor could find no cause of, had dissapeared. I told him what I'd done, thinking it might be that. He didn't believe me and put it back to 90Hz. A few days later he said he'd turned it back down to 85Hz, because the headache came back, and it dissapeared and hasn't come back after he set it to 85Hz.

My mom gets a headache at the local super store, when she's at the electronics department, and I certainly understand this, as I can't go anywhere near it, as I can hear the whine 50 feet from the television stand.

My friends parrents bought a new television that their cat didn't want to lie on. They didn't really know why, thinking maybe it didn't smell like home anymore. No. High pitched whine again.

I have no idea wether it's the line scan, bad electronic components or whatever, but I can tell you, if your monitor/television is likely to give you a headache ...

Re:Outstanding!!

[ShadowBlasko]

Just to add a bit of a postscript to this whole thing, I think slowlegs up there summed it up pretty well.

I am not saying that people with ADD or AD/HD can hear things that other people can not.

What I am saying is that perhaps there is a link between what causes people to have the symptoms of ADD to hear those sounds all the time. Their (our) brains seem to have a problem filtering out that background information that other people seem to be able to dismiss easily, or do not even percieve.

I wasn't saying that electronic background noise was *causing* the problem. The problem is (most likely, I am not an expert) in the brain. However, I do stand by my statement that as the density of electronic devices in our enviroment increases, people who do have problems filtering out that background noise will have more and more input to filter out. Thus, causing an increase in the loss of concentration.

Therefore, it seems logical (to me) that more and more people will be diagnosed with ADD or AD/HD at a younger age, because of the prevelance of electronics in our schools and homes.

When I was in school, lets say, 5th grade for example (which was when I started having some problems) There was *one* monitor/tv set for every 8 classrooms. And this was a fairly affuent school district.

Now, looking at my daughters classroom in the 3rd grade, she there are three computers (at least) in every classroom, and a Television set in every room.

If your conscious mind had problems filtering out the background whine of those electronics, don't you think you would have more problems now?

come on...

[fjordboy]

The flashy colors make power supplies better - period.

The purpose of a power supply is not to be quiet - if that was the purpose I'd just make one that didn't work - the purpose is to provide electricity to the components in a computer. Duh.

Re:come on...

[AKAImBatman]

Anyone see that AOL optimized commercial that was crossed with American Chopper? There was an AOL optimizer sitting on one of their benches that was putting out a loud throbbing noise. (Looked a lot like the TNG warp core.) The big guy with the handle bar mustache was shouting something at the guys, but no one could hear it. Cracked me up. :-)

Re:come on...

[jointm1k]

It is not the purpose of a PSU to be anoyingly loud either. The quieter, the better.

Silent? 3 days until...

[Anonymous Coward]

...someone posts a power supply mod whereby they've hooked up 3 strings of flashing LEDs, a plexiglass window, and an air horn.

HA!

[pbranes]

Their power supplies are really quiet too after a good slashdotting!

Re:HA!

[mh_tang]

SilenX 400w 14 dBA PSU
Date : Sunday, January 25, 2004
Author : SnowPunk98
Vendor : SilenX

Introduction
I have reviewed a lot of power supplies over the years here at OCModShop and now I look at the SilenX 400w. This power supply claims to be the quietest active cooled power supplies on the market. I have done reviews on many other silent power supplies from many other companies. Some have been as quiet and they boasted to be and others were much louder than they should have been. This power supply features Over Voltage Protection, Over Power Protection, and Short Circuit Protection. All of these features will ensure that the power to your system is stable and fixed. I don't like loud systems at all, before I got this power supply I was using the True Silent 450w PSU I previously reviewed because it was the quietest I have encountered so far. I will be using the True Silent power supply to compare this SilenX one to see which is quieter.

The power supply does not come boxed, rather it comes in a plastic bag with the power cord supplied. The power supply was shipped via USPS Priority Mail and was in one of their boxes. The power supply was protected well during shipping with packing material and came undamaged. I think that SilenX should really look into getting a box for their power supply, for many different reasons.

The power supply doesn't boast any flashy designs or cool colors however that is not the purpose of this power supply. Silence is what the main goal of the unit is and there are tons of features to help achieve that. It would be nice if there was something extra as far as looks is concerned with this power supply if it did not raise the price.

The back of the power supply has an on/off switch, 110/220v toggle, and power connector. The 80mm fan that is used as an exhaust has a unique blade design and hybrid immersion bearings to lower the noise level. Instead of the traditional metal screws the fan is held in place by a silicone composite fan vibration dampening system. The fan on a power supply is what makes the noise so the quieter the fan the quieter the it will be.

Because this power supply is designed to be silent there is only one fan so there needs to be some decent heatsinking inside of the unit to keep it cool. One thing I noticed is that the screws holding the cover in place had Loctite or some similar product on them to keep them from vibrating. Small details like this show that the manufacturer has really taken time to make the best possible product. After getting the cover off I found that there was a impressive amount of heatsinks inside. You can also see on top of one of the heatsinks that there is a thermal probe which controls the fans RPM.

This SilenX 400w has pretty standard connections including: 6 Molex, 1 berg, 1 Auxillary, 1 12v, and 1 ATX. None of the cables have sleeving or any other form of cable management which would have been nice to see but is alright none the less. The cables also don't look to be too long which is the case of many other power supplies.

Testing
I installed this SilenX 400w power supply to my normal test bed which is the above hardware. As I suspected the cables are a good length and not too long which is nice. To test the noise level of this power supply I bridged one of the black wires with the green one on the 20 pin connector so I could run it without anything else. After comparing the two power supplies I found that the SilenX 400w was much quieter than the True Silent 450w. I installed the power supply to my computer and hooked everything up. I also took out the temporary video card that I have been using and replaced it with a XFX GeForce FX5700 Ultra that will soon be reviewed. The cables are a not too long but were long enough with some slack to reach down to the Molex on the video card.

# Test Bed: Albatron K8X800 Pro II (review to come)
# AMD Athlon64 3200+ (review to come)
# 60GB Seagate Barracuda IV HDD
# 1024MB PC3200 Corsair TwinX
# XFX GeForceFX 5700 Ultra

Re:HA!

[Anonymous Coward]

Who laughs about these?

WHO LAUGHS?!

I really would like to know what a person with such a miswired sense of humor looks like.

Other sources of noise

[Some guy named Chris]

Seems to me the power supply is but one aspect of the war on noise.

You've got hard drives spinning and cpus cooling.

Still, a step in the right direction.

Re:Other sources of noise

[Anonymous Coward]

get hdd's with fluid dynamic motion. they're really awesome-lee silent. two down, one more to go...

Re:Other sources of noise

[flewp]

Another source of noise for me, and it seems to be this way throughout the house is whenever my powered PC speakers are on, I can faintly hear the radio through them. I'm not using any high tech cables or anything, and when I'm not listening to music or playing games (when I am listening to music/playing games you can't hear the radio) I turn the speakers off, so it's not really a big issue for me, but my brother and parents get rathered annoyed at it sometimes (their machine's speakers don't have an on/off) Does anyone know how to help get rid of this problem or at least make it a little less noticeable? I'm assuming maybe just better shielded cables or something, but I have no idea, I'm not an audio guy.

Re:Other sources of noise

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

Watercool. There, now we have a silent machine, AND the answer to 'how many slashdot posters does it take to get a silent machine?'

Re:Other sources of noise

[Anonymous Coward]

Make sure the microphone input volume level is set to mute.

Re:Other sources of noise

[aonaran]

For a lot of people the powersupply is one of the biggest sources of noise, that and cheap CPU coolers.

I replaced both of those and now my hard disk is the most noisy part of my system and well, there isn't much I can do about that, but the PC is a whole lot less annoying than it used to be. One of these days I'll be able to afford something truely quiet.
Booting from a 4+GB CF card would be good. Then only when it loads up the next media file from the hard disk would it make any noise. (i'm assuming 120+GB CF is out of the question for a long time to come) I really would like to see CF cards get bigger, cheaper, and FASTER so this can become a reality.

Cooler running chips would be nice too, so that I could lose the last fans and make it completely silent.

Re:Other sources of noise

[Anonymous Coward]

I had a pair of El-Cheapo $20 powered speakers (with a tiny subwoofer, too) last year in college. We had them hooked up to the TV, the N64, the PSX, and a computer. We used to get police radio transmissions on them while they were OFF. Explain THAT.

Re:Other sources of noise

[a whoabot]

Yeah, it's a shielding problem. Most likely in the speaker case itself, so getting different cables, probably won't do it, but you can try. You can try getting some shielding paint and painting the inside of the speakers, if you can easily access the insides that is. Most PC speakers are just plastic cheapos really, that's the problem.

Re:Other sources of noise

[Some guy named Chris]

How much noise is the hard drive making? I wonder if it would be possible to surround it somehow with styrofoam or some other acoustic baffle.

I've got three computers and two laptops here in my office and it's just too much noise. Too much heat too, but short of putting them up in the ceiling, I don't have a solution for it.

The heat is nice right now, but late afternoons in August are unfun.

Re:Other sources of noise

[aonaran]

No more noise than the average hard drive, I'm just a silent PC nut.

I thought about that, and quietpc.ca has such a thing, but they say it would cause my 7200rpm drives to eventually overheat.

My case is already covered on the inside with foam baffles I bought there, but it makes little difference.

Re:Other sources of noise

[grammaticaster]

I had a pair of El-Cheapo $20 powered speakers (with a tiny subwoofer, too) last year in college. We had them hooked up to the TV, the N64, the PSX, and a computer. We used to get police radio transmissions on them while they were OFF. Explain THAT.

Is there a cop with a hearing problem in the apartment next door?

Re:Other sources of noise

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, if you live relatively close to the radio station in question, then you can quite often force them to find a way to fix it. Check the FCC regs for the relevant paragraph, but basically if a station causes interference to your devices, they are sometimes (but not always!) required to fix it for you for free.

Re:Other sources of noise

[hageshii]

You've got hard drives spinning

after buying a quiet psu (antec tru-power) and the zalman flower cpu cooler, my system quieted down a lot. but the hard disks still annoyed me. so i just moved the hard disk into my server in the closet (on its own IDE channel) and mount root over NFSv3. performance is comperable to having the disk local, even over a standard 100Mbps ethernet link (through a $30 switch). now i can watch movies without straining to hear dialog.

Re:Other sources of noise

[operagost]

If they are whining, you can't do much other than buy a quieter drive. If the seeks are causing the case to vibrate and rattle, you can buy thin rubber grommets or washers and place them between the drive and the cage. If that's not enough, you could also put them under the screw heads but usually not much vibration is transmitted through the screws.

Re:Other sources of noise

[Fulcrum of Evil]

We used to get police radio transmissions on them while they were OFF. Explain THAT.

Your cheapo speakers were sensitive to police transmissions, and they transmissions induced a current in said speakers. It happens when you live near a transmission tower, too.

Re:Other sources of noise

[Hank the Lion]

whenever my powered PC speakers are on, I can faintly hear the radio through them.
You will see this with most cheap speakers. RF signals are rectified by the non-linearity in the input stage of the amplifier.
What will help is putting a large ring core (made for high-frequency EMC compatibility) in the input lead to your speakers. Make approx. 10 turns through the core. You will need a large core because otherwise you won't be able to pull the cable with plug 10 times through it. This helped me when I had the same problem.

You know...

[Anonymous Coward]

Some of us just can't sleep without the soothing turbine noise of a plethora of fans. Hope these things don't catch on, I'll be hooked on Ny-Quil within a week...

Re:You know...

[npistentis]

I only wish you were joking. When I turn the machine off, the absence of the blue cold cathode glow and deafening hum leads to insomnia!

Re:You know...

[sadomikeyism]

NOW how am I going to be able to tell whether my PC is in sleep mode, had a power failure, or is just in a pre-blue screen of death mode, and hasn't got even the nads to display a blue screen?

I want lots of pretty LEDs, like you used to see on 50's B SF movie computers...

"Danger, Will Robinson..."

Re:You know...

[cyb97]

I personally close my eyes when I sleep. I don't know about you, but shutting the old lids usually implies not being able to see anything.

Re:Will I be the first to say it?

[jonathan_95060]

I do! I'm willing to pay a premium for a PC that is silent. A few years back Apple designed a Mac that didn't have any fans ... unfortunately it was a flop.

sigh

it must be quiet

[Chuck Bucket]

I've never _heard_ of this power supply! (get it?)

CB

Re:it must be quiet

[Cpt_Kirks]

Wack Waaaaaa...

Re:it must be quiet

[Tumbleweed]

Will you please shut up? I'm trying to use the phone!

Re:it must be quiet

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL ROFL

Re:it must be quiet

[Saganaga]

I'm sorry, I can't hear you, I have a banana in my ear.

Re:it must be quiet

[joel.br]

There really should be a groan moderator option, that was really terrible.

groovy

[mixmasterjake]

now i can hear all the subtleties of the baldwin brothers jams without that damn power supply noise.

Why?

[dncsky1530]

I dont want a silent power supply for my computer, who wants a silent engine for their car?

Re:Why?

[ErrorBase]

Would you like the fuel make so much noise ? (or let the CPU make noise ?)

Re:Why?

[Lumpy]

who wants a silent engine for their car?

most everyone who isn't a poser.

Funny how every Lincoln, Cadillac, Lexis, BMW, Mercedes, Bently, Rolls Royce, and other cars you will never afford all strive like crazy to make the engine silent as possible.

In fact Porche, Ferarri and Lamborgini all have very silent engines until you rev them up to a resonance point.

The only people I know that want a noisy engine is the wanna-be poser kids that have junk cars that they want to make look and sound annoying because they think it's cool... (tip, it's not, you look like a dweeb.... most everyone points and laughs at you.)

I strongly suggest you learn about automobiles and automotive engineering in general... you might actually learn something useful.. the kid that impresses me is the one driving the "sleeper" that can easily kick the crap out of every ricer he meets and it looks like he is driving mom's or Dad's car.

Re:Why?

[comedian23]

>Funny how every Lincoln, Cadillac, Lexis, BMW, Mercedes, Bently, Rolls Royce, and other cars you will never afford all strive like crazy to make the engine silent as possible.

>In fact Porche, Ferarri and Lamborgini all have very silent engines until you rev them up to a resonance point.

While this is true, remember that these are luxury cars, NOT race cars. If you go anywhere where real racing is done, whether a drag strip or a road race they cars are LOUD! Trust me the Lamborghinis racing at Laguna Seca Raceway don't sound anything like the ones you see on the street. This isn't because they want to look cool, but because the engine performs better without backpressure which is caused by mufflers and cats, among other things.

Therefore if you remove the mufflers, or get a less restrictive muffler(a.k.a. make it louder) you get more power. However, I'm sure you know this since you know about automobiles and automobile engineering.

-Comedian

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

it's called a dump valve and it's useful ONLY for racing and it gains you approx 12 Horsepower and lowers the exaust headers temperature.

that is VERY different than a poser putting a tip on.

Re:Why?

[comedian23]

Actually it's called a less restrictive exhaust system, which I already said. It will increase power in any stock engine. The HP gains are dependent on the size of the engine you are using. A dump valve is something else entirely, which is used only on turbo cars.

For an explanation of exhaust systems, and backpressure in cars look at the Automotive Encyclopedia for sale on Amazon.

-Comedian

Silence is overrated.

[MrDigital]

I have this quad Intel server that sounds like a jet engine when it's powered on and has the drone of a nascar engine while it's running.. I like it. Reminds me that I have powerhouse machine. :)

maybe it's like those people who drive obnoxious SUVs.. overcompensation.

Re:Silence is overrated.

[crabpeople]

"maybe it's like those people who drive obnoxious SUVs.. overcompensation."

your analogy is a bit flawed. people who drives SUV's have small penises. If you actually have a powerhouse machine (quad xeon i think would count) then it is very fitting for it to sound like it.

however if you had say a single processor celeron that had a 6x120mm fan array which swallowed passing rodents whole, then i would be forced to redefine you.

Re:Silence is overrated.

[adrianbaugh]

> people who drives SUV's have small penises.

Depends. If they drive SUVs purely to collect their children from the school 500 yards from their house, then yes. If they drive them in the Paris-Dakar rally each year then I'm a little more impressed.

slashdottted already...

[Anonymous Coward]

so here's another review of it, on a different site...

Re:slashdottted already...

[ModernGeek]

That wasn't very helpful, it says 8.5 out of 10, but doesn't give a matrix of features or anything, and why would a mad leet computer modder site have an iMac for their icon thingy that shows in Mozilla? I guess I'm just hateful today :) I just want to know what it is that is so new about this powersupply that is so different from any other one, does this one just sport a quiet fan?

Quiet PCs

[Ianoo]

I have recently become totally fed up with the high pitched whine my main work machine made, so I decided it was about time to do something about it. I bought a Zalman silent PSU, a Zalman flower CPU cooler, two Zalman silent case fans and a Zalman heatpipe graphics card cooler. When they say silent, they aren't totally silent (except for the heatpipe graphics card cooler which has no fan), but they're pretty damned quiet.

My PC is transformed, the loud, obtrusive, high pitched whine has now been reduced to a quiet, low pitched rumbling. I struggle to hear it when I'm 10 feet away, and even when sitting by it and working it's so much quieter it's much more enjoyable to use. Music is also a much nicer experience without the fan noise. I've even found that my CPU runs cooler with the Zalman heatsink than it did with the medium priced heatsink I had in there before.

Re:Quiet PCs

[Anonymous Coward]

I apologise for the poor verb tense agreement grammar in the parent post.

Re:Quiet PCs

[Triumph The Insult C]

i second the zalman psu. i have the 400w one and it's fantastic.

silenx psus are nice too. the company that manufactures them, ahanix, also made the htpc case i'm using. i only went with the zalman because the silenx was on a few weeks backorder

Re:Quiet PCs

[dFaust]

Ahanix DOES NOT MAKE SilenX PSUs!!!!!!!!!! This important, please mod this up!!!! See www.silenx.com to see what I'm talking about.... Ahanix is basically a rip off company (you'll notice their homepage is even a rip off of Samsung's).

Also, while Zalman PSUs may be quiet, they're not on the same level as the SilenX. The parent article notes that the SilenX is "much quiter" than a PSU which he reviewed as being "much quieter" than the Zalman. So the SilenX is essentially "much, much quieter" than the Zalman :) Seriously though, Zalman's specs rate their 400W PSU at 20-30db. SilenX's is rated at ~11.5-14db. If you're going for true silence, 30db compared to 14db will make a huge difference.

Re:Quiet PCs

[jsoffron]

I actually recently bought a computer that has this power supply, and the zalman heatsink, and a silentmaxx case (it's soundproofed) for a home audio studio. It does make a very big difference for someone like me who records in the same room their computer's in (no control room...), but for anyone else I can't see the benefits being too great. It quiets your system down enough that the hard drive being accessed is your biggest problem, but really, unless you get rid of that problem, it doesn't really matter that much...sound is sound, and stopping it from leaking in on a good mic (I like the akg c414 btlII, for instance) is virtually impossible. These components *do* let you make it possible to drown out computer noise through cumulative recording (i.e. the drums being loud will cover the mic noise on your acoustic guitar track), and if you can get far enough away and position your mic correctly, you can almost eliminate it. But for anyone who's not doing home audio, I really doubt it would be worth it. My old computer had 2 *loud* fans in it, so I kind of feel like I overreacted in going so far to get this computer to be silent. And besides, if I didn't have a utilitarian need for silence I'd try and find something with a laser show in it. You can't go wrong with laser shows. You *can* go blind with laser shows, but at least even then everyone else can see how cool you are.

Re: Quiet PCs

[X_Bones]

MOD PARENT UP

-Joe Blow
Marketing Division
Zalman Inc.

(hehe)

Re:Quiet PCs

[Triumph The Insult C]

my bad on ahanix! thanks for the link ... now i know not to buy from them again. fuckers.

the back of my mentioned psu is about 3 feet from my head when i'm sleeping and i can't hear the damn thing, so, good enough for me. the cat sleeps by it too and she's not bothered (normally bothered by anything). =)

Re:Quiet PCs

[Quarters]

I can summarize your entire post as: "I'm 1337, I do home recording. If you're not me than you can just suffer with case noise. I'm the only type of person who needs a quiet machine." Why do you feel that other people don't need quiet machines? The benefits are huge, btw. I built my newest machine with the quiet Zalman CPU cooler, heat pipe video cooler, quiet powersupply, and quiet case fans (with rubber insulation gaskets, no less). All of that is in a LianLi case that has sound proofing insulation and a rubber gasket around the front panel door to insulate CD noise. The sound level difference between this machine and my 3 year old Athlon box is staggering. I can't stand to have the old box on now. The new machine is so quiet that I could put it in my family room and not be bothered by it while watching TV....something I'd never consider with my older box. Silent PCs aren't just useful for people running CoolEdit (aka Audition). Everyone can benefit from them.

Re:Quiet PCs

[adrianbaugh]

I found a weight-limit-compliant 20dB cooler for my Athlon, which is pretty sweet: not silent, but a good trade-off between silence and not trashing my motherboard. My graphics card is old so I got away with the weird GPU heatsink that isn't quite as massive as the heatpipe, but is still silent. I don't bother with case fans. Now I just need a silent PSU, so I might check out this Zalman of which you speak (since the link in the article doesn't work from here). Thanks.

Re:Quiet PCs

[jsoffron]

Perhaps instead of reading my post with such sarcastic bitterness you should have seen it for what it is and was - a post describing that the benefits related to soundproofing your machine are not necessarily worthy of the additional cost of using those components. Evidently you have the money to burn to put your computers together based upon their noise level relative to the sound coming out of your tv. Not everyone has that luxury. My machine is set up simlaraly to yours, and knowing what I know now, I would have taken some of the extra money I spent on soundproofing my machine and put it into upgrading some of its other components instead.

Oh, and incidentally, I do not spell words using numbers, and as such I am certainly not 1337. I'm just some guy who's actually used the components in question and had some feedback about it.

Re:Quiet PCs

[lars_stefan_axelsson]

Perhaps instead of reading my post with such sarcastic bitterness you should have seen it for what it is and was

Oh, I wouldn't be too hard on the guy. You did come across quite a bit like that to me to.

My machine is set up simlaraly to yours, and knowing what I know now, I would have taken some of the extra money I spent on soundproofing my machine and put it into upgrading some of its other components instead.

Well, you may want to think about your wording in the future then, that's not at all how I got the tone of your post. Just a friendly advice, take it or leave it.

Myself, I'd argue the opposite angle. Even my old computer is plenty fast/big for anything I need/want to do with it, even the (few) games I play. If it hadn't been quiet (I built an MDF sound proof hood for it) I couldn't have it on all the time conveniently situated in my living room, which makes TV-out a delight for example.

I mean, what use is an epsilon faster computer, costing you hundreds of dollars more for very little speed up, if it's so damn noisy that you think twice before turning it on (not to mention the complaints from the rest of the family, especially later in the evening), and turning it off as fast as you can? Spend a reasonable amount of dosh on quiet I say, and choose a slower processor, slightly smaller disk etc. You wont regret it.

Cranking up the TV/stereo to drown out the noise of the computer is not an option for most of us.

So what?

[metalhed77]

I just bought a ThermalTake Pure Power with 420 watts and its impossible to hear (probably because I use nowhere near 420 watts so the fans never throttle up). These have been around for ages.

SILENT 400w Power Supply?

[Anonymous Coward]

Come on. No one has ever heard of such a thing.

Re:SILENT 400w Power Supply?

[Chuck Bucket]

ssshhh! that joke was already posted above.

CB

Re:SILENT 400w Power Supply?

[Anonymous Coward]

A whole minute apart!

Re:SILENT 400w Power Supply?

[Chuck Bucket]

ssshhh! thanks for the update, but please, be _quiet_ about it!

CB

Re:SILENT 400w Power Supply?

[KewlJedi]

SSH? where? Ohhhh, I get it.

thats not all

[Grimlock88]

their website is pretty silent too!

Silence is golden

[Anonymous Coward]

Silence is what the main goal of the unit is and there are tons of features to help achieve that.

The ear-drum piercing spikes are particularly effective in this area. Everything else is redundant.

5v/12v regulator chip (78xx)

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone have success turning a simple wall transformer into a regulated +5V/GND or +12V/-12V power supply? Radioshack sells regulator chips rated at 1A, 7805 and 7812 for 5V and 12V respectively. Has anyone tried to use a bunch of these chips together to make a more powerful supply? What kind of heat sink did you use? Do you know of a cheap place to get 9V wall transformers?

Re:5v/12v regulator chip (78xx)

[gpinzone]

Your PC's power supply regulator is a lot more advanced than what you're going to get using those chips. I have a huge 12v powersupply that was used to power automotive equiment that had no fan whatsoever. I'm sure it got hot, but since it was never located anywhere near the items it was powering, no fan was necessary. If you come up with a PC case with an external power supply, I'd bet the power supply wouldn't need a fan at all.

Re:5v/12v regulator chip (78xx)

[Mateito]

Yeah, building regulated power supplies with the 78xx (and 79xx chips for the negative rail) is pretty stock. If you are hoping to run your computer off one.. well... I wouldn't bother. By the time you stack enough of these to give you the required amperage, you may as well buy a good quality switching power supply. (A 7805 gives you 5V/1A. Ie 5 watts... which is about one buggerallth of what a modern computer draws). Still, if you are interested, grab a couple of big polarized electrolitic capacitors, stick one either side of the 78xx, tie the middle pin to ground, the inputs and outputs as marked.. and there you go. Not difficult. Here is one of the many sites that talk about this chip Note that the voltage may be ajusted by using resistors on the input and middle pins.

Re:5v/12v regulator chip (78xx)

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a small video camera that is powered by the keyboard port (5v) and needs 220mA. Has anyone had experience using one of these for such a load? Have you used a heatsink, if so, what kind? I'm not sure how hot the chip will get. How big of capacitors did you use?

Would you recommend using this with a wall transformer to power this thing, or should I be using something else? Having a circuit board dangling from the cord wouldn't be to appealing... are these sold commercially anywhere? Radioshack doesn't carry them.

Re:5v/12v regulator chip (78xx)

[programmeratarms]

the 78xx are linear regulators; using them to power anything nontrivial will waste unbelievable amounts of wattage; a thermal nightmare as well. There are guides to the construction of serious switching power supplies; google is your friend.

Silence in a PSU?

[SStrungis]

Mine's quite silent...It's the WD HD that's killing me. If my PC ever sleeps, then it is quiet. Maybe it's vibrating the case or something, but the PSU is the least of my noise issues.

Scott

Re:Silence in a PSU?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd recommend the Seagate BarracudaIV drives - 80Gb upwards. the fluid bearing system REALLY
makes them quiet. best upgrade my systems have ever had!

Re:Silence in a PSU?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just recently built a new computer with pretty standard parts. An Antec case, AMD Athlon XP 2500+ with retail heatsink and fan and no case fans. I turned the computer on before plugging in the hard drive and could barely hear it at all. It was very nice. Then I powered down and plugged in my 60 GB Western Digital hard drive. The thing suddenly makes the most awful noise. It's a high pitch noise that makes you want to throw the thing out the window.

There are so many factors that go into making a computer as a whole silent, it's maddening.

-1, lack of insight

[cultobill]

From the site:

Pros:

# Only 14dB which means its silent
# 5v &12v lines are very strong
# Cables are a good length

Cons:

# Does not have a box

That's all we get?

Sweet...

[Mysticalfruit]

Though I wonder if any of us would really notice. Of all the fans in my machine (7), the power supply is the least noisy of them all.

I'd rather they spend their time researching quieter case and CPU fans.

Re:Sweet...

[0x0d0a]

If you have seven fans in your computer, you aren't going to have a silent PC.

Actually, why *do* you need seven?

I can think of a couple required: one for the PSU, one for the CPU. On some motherboards for a short period, you needed a northbridge fan. Finally, if you demand a high-end gaming card, you may be in a for a fan on-card. That's still only four.

I've yet to see a (non-overclocked) system that required a case fan. Perhaps if you have a hell of a lot of plastic in the thing, rather than a metal case, it might be necessary. Some high-end drives come with fans in-case. I never saw the point -- more slower hard drives == better than one hot drive.

I suppose a multi-processor system might have higher cooling requirements...

This PS is good

[W32.Klez.A]

I bought one of these, and it's not only the most silent I've encountered, but it's nice and solid. When you pick up the thing, it doesn't feel like a run of the mill power supply. You can tell it was crafted quite decently.

Though, I did need some extensions on a couple of the ends.

Big deal

[Apreche]

I got an Enermax 400W. it's shiny and blue. It has two fans. And it may not have all those fancy silence features, but I can't hear it. All the noise from my box comes from the cpu fan and a little bit from the video card fans. Even my hard drives are quiet. All these extra silent products are bs. I mean seriously, who has a power supply that is super loud. Nobody has a power supply that is so loud that it is conciously irritating. Nobody.

And don't give me crap about really old really big computers. We're talking modern desktops here.

Re:Big deal

[Anonymous Coward]

_I_ have a PSU that sounds AWFUL! And its pretty new, 6 mo. at the most. It was a cheap-cheap-cheap 400w though, so I guess Ive got myself to blame, sadly I didnt then have the money to buy a silent(er) PSU.

Re:Big deal

[KewlJedi]

Yeah, with a Zalman 7000CU, TruePower 550 watt, and fan speed controller I can finally go to sleep at night. That's all that I ask.

Re:Big deal

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd have killed for silent fans about a month ago... My desktop computer then was a Proliant DL580 sitting on top of two Smartarray 30 controllers full of 144 gig drives and a MSL6030 tape backup. Now THAT was a lot of noise. Sounded like a goddamned leaf blower. I still have a ringing in my right ear...

And most of the noise was from the power supplies on the Smartarrays, which doubled as the cooling fans.

I also found out that they make excellent space heaters, my little office got heated up to about 90 degrees when I had that bastard running for any length of time...

Re:Big deal

[aonifer]

My power supply easily outclasses my case fans, cpu fan, and hard drive put together. Of course, that's because all of my fans are undervolted Panaflo L1As and my hard drive is a Seagate Barracuda IV mounted with silicone washers. That said, even my power supply is inaudible if there is any significant background noise in the room. Of course, I"m still thinking of replacing the power supply fan with an Evercool. The quest for silence starts to make one a bit obsessive.

Re:Big deal

[nate1138]

Actually, I do have one that is pretty bad. My home theatre pc has an enermax power supply and I can hear it plain as day. That fan and the hard drives are the loudest things in my equipment rack. After lining the case with Dynamat, it the hard disk noise is gone, but I can still hear the PS. As for it being irritating, it can be, especially when watching a movie or listening to music. Of course, there is the posiblity that the bearing is wearing out, or maybe I just got a loud one.

Re:Big deal

[Anonymous Coward]

Your Evercool will die in 3 months. I guarentee it.

Here's a sound clip for the power supply:

[Anonymous Coward]

Re:Here's a sound clip for the power supply:

[Soko]

I can't see anything. I must be deaf. ;^)

Soko

Re:Here's a sound clip for the power supply:

[Anonymous Coward]

Please don't post binaries to a discussion forum. Have a little consideration for those people (like taco) who have dialup still.

Re:Here's a sound clip for the power supply:

[ashitaka]

Now how did you get THAT around the lameness filter?

Re:Here's a sound clip for the power supply:

[Anonymous Coward]

(no semi-colon. extrans adds the semi-colon)

Seasonic Tornado

[jhunsake]

I just got one of these, and I can't hear it at all.

The fan is also placed horizontally rather than vertically, so it won't develop a whine over time.

Seasonic Tornado

Re:Seasonic Tornado

[Brian Stretch]

Really? I can hear mine, the Seasonic Super Tornado 400W version. I bought a Seasonic Super Silencer 400W too for my other PC and it's definitely quieter, mostly because it moves a lot less air. If you've already got good case cooling then you might as well get the Silencer.

The Tornado isn't all THAT loud, but it's very noticible, even when my Athlon 64 is running in Cool and Quiet mode (800MHz @ 1.275V).

Great thing: they're both high-efficiency power supplies. About 15%-20% less power consumption according to my APC SmartUPS's load meter. Less waste heat in the AC-to-DC conversion process. Especially for machines that run 24x7 they are well worth the money.

Re:Seasonic Tornado

[jhunsake]

I think mine is the lowest watt version, so that may explain it. Also, the inside of my case never gets that hot, because I only have 533MHz Celeron in there. Thus, the fan runs at a low rpm.

According to the specs on Seasonic's website, the Tornado is supposed to be the quietest of all their power supplies.

Silence is not the main goal

[burgburgburg]

Cooling is the main goal. Cooling silently is the prime requirement.

Re:Silence is not the main goal

[Anonymous Coward]

nahh I think the main goal is powering the computer

Think of the children

[b00m3rang]

The power supply does not come boxed, rather it comes in a plastic bag with the power cord supplied.[...snip] The power supply was protected well during shipping with packing material and came undamaged. I think that SilenX should really look into getting a box for their power supply, for many different reasons.

So, the unit showed up well packaged, undamaged, and in a bag instead of a box. What's the problem? Not enough useless packaging to end up in landfills? Yeah, that'll make your computer perform better. It'll help keep the price down, too.

It's this very attitude that'll kill us all.

Re:Will I be the first to say it?

[wedding]

The fan(s?) on my iMac are considerably less noisy than the PII box I previously had stuck under my desk. I'm not sure what the difference is under the hood, but the difference in the noise level coming from my office at night when everything else is quiet is noticeable, even to my wife. Yeah, I paid the premium, but it's well worth it.

I've got a design!

[AKAImBatman]

I want a 400 watt RTG to power my computer! Completely silent, and doesn't need to be plugged in! So, It gets a little hot. Who cares if the cat gets burned for sitting on my computer? Serves her right. Just got to keep it secret from the feds! They don't seem to like the idea of consumers and plutonium. (Go figure)

Want silence? Switch to Apple.

[Anonymous Coward]

My powermac G5 is silent as a mouse, that is when I'm not using it along with my iPod to kick out the tunes. On top of that it is the fastest PC anyone can buy, runs the best operating system you can get today (written by professional, ethical programmers, not amateurs, hackers, terrorists or monopolists). More apps than Linux, beter GUI, and backed by a company that stands behind its products. So tired of your shitty, overhyped "open source" OS running on a shitty, loud, crappy PC? Come on over to Apple, the water's fine!

Must I? I THINK SO

[Sexy Bern]

Just imagine a beowulf cluster of these!

Sorry.

Re:Will I be the first to say it?

[Anonymous Coward]

I do! I'm willing to pay a premium for a PC that is silent. A few years back Apple designed a Mac that didn't have any fans ... unfortunately it was a flop.

The G3 iMac? It was one of their most popular models ever. I guess they added fans in later models. Then there was the G4 Cube.

The power supplies aren't the problem..

[EvilStein]

It's the loud SCA SCSI drives in the Sparc 5's.

*THOSE* are the noisemakers here. :P

Apple anyone?

[niko9]

Disclaimer: I have never and currently do not own a mac.

I happen to notice that the G5 (when I saw it at Best Buy) had the power supply at the bottom of the case spread along the length. I bet you it uses the bottom of the aluminum case as some sort of heatsing, obviating the need for one more case fan.

In my opinion, the ATX power supply should go out the window. There's no reason to be cramming 500 watt power supplies in such a cramped box.

Several ideas:

Borrow from Apple, make the power supply longger and use the case as a heatsink. Spread the heat out.

Female molex connector jacks. Right now you have a whole bunch of wires in the anticipation that everyone has a RAID array, 2 cdroms, and video card that needs auxially power. The unused connectors have to be rubberbanded and bunched somewhere.

Gives us jacks on the PS unit so that you ony have the minimum amount of wires needed in a case.

By the way, Antec is soone releasing a tottaly silent psu. No fans whatsoever, just big aluminum heatsinks on all sides, rated at 350 watts for now. The Inquirer had a photo from CES.

--

Re:Apple anyone?

[ubertemp]

The ATX power supply standard has nothing to do with the size of the power supply.

The ATX, and more common ATX12V and EPS12V, refers to the type of connectors supplied as well as a few power requirements that don't concern most home users.

If you are looking for a small 400W ATX12V supply look at either Etasis or a company called SPI, which goes by the name of Sparkle or Zippy at your local Fry's.

Re:Apple anyone?

[Golias]

Female molex connector jacks. Right now you have a whole bunch of wires in the anticipation that everyone has a RAID array, 2 cdroms, and video card that needs auxially power. The unused connectors have to be rubberbanded and bunched somewhere.

If you are 100% positive that you will neither use all that stuff, nor re-sell the PC before it's obsolete, a pair of horizontal wire clippers can provide a very simple solution to your problem. :)

Re:Apple anyone?

[WoodstockJeff]

In my opinion, the ATX power supply should go out the window. There's no reason to be cramming 500 watt power supplies in such a cramped box.

When you're designing a proprietary computer, you can do whatever you damn well please with the power supply. In the early days, Dell and Gateway did exactly that for their desktops... and EVERYONE does for their laptops.

The problem comes when they fail - and they will! - and you're up against a deadline. On more than one occasion I've had to pull hard drives out of such machines and plug them into something else to retrieve data that was needed NOW, and the proprietary replacement wouldn't arrive for a few days...

We are "stuck" with the AT power supply form factor because you can always run out and buy a replacement when it burns up, without waiting for the manufacturer (assuming they're still in business) to get back from a surfing break to take your order.

Re:Apple anyone?

[rbullo]

I think he means that IBM (assuming they still have any control over PC standards) should have the next form factor design incorporate a G5 style power supply.

Apple Advert (Re:Want silence? Switch to Apple.)

[geomon]

Is it me, or is Apple's advertising copy getting worse?

Hardly on the same level as the 1984 Apple ad.

You want one of these then...

[Andy Davies]

http://www.tranquilpc.co.uk/

I'll buy that for a dollar

[djupedal]

The soothing hum is actually kind of nice to my ears

She's wilder than me, and it keeps me up all nite...she can drive as fast as I can, but she stops at all the lights.

costs $99

[DanThe1Man]

If you were wondering how much it is and where to order it, go here.

Nice!

[odorf]

Heck, the power source on my 486 makes more noise than my brother's AMD box does altogether!

Re:Apple Advert (Re:Want silence? Switch to Apple.

[Anonymous Coward]

Spoken so poorly. Like a typical PC/Linsux/Windoze user. Come on, geomon, give a Mac a try. I used to be like you, alone, living in my parents basement, masturbating to porn every night, touching my dog in sensitive places. Then I found Apple, and now I am saved! Praise Jobs!

Good

[j_sp_r]

I need one of those, my computer doesn't know it is NOT a vacuum cleaner ....

And I just bought a power supply...

[Dimensio]

...though I got a 510W supply from PC Power & Cooling. Of course, my hard drives and all of the internal fans make enough noise as it is, no need to spend extra for a "quiet" power supply that isn't going to have any impact on the noise level of the room anyway.

Re:And I just bought a power supply...

[Anonymous Coward]

close your fucking mouth psycho.

Re:And I just bought a power supply...

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for the incredibly insightful and thought-provoking comment. I assure you that your post will be on my mind for days to come. Just the thought of what you bought, and all the hard drives and fans inside your case... it makes me shiver. It's so absolutely important for us to know these things!

Asshat.

Silent Hard disks help out as well...

[karmatrip]

Good harddisk for silent systems, if you don't need disk space and only moderate performance:

IBM DCHS-04. 4 gig scsi ultra-wide disk. Cheap, about $30 if you look (try froogle). You can hear it spin up (that's quite loud), you can hear it seek, but idling it really is silent.

It's also built to survive a thermonuclear apocalypse.

Re:Silent Hard disks help out as well...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yah, they're nice. But the best (if we're talking old-school) is an array of 380MB Full Height Micropolis SCSI (forgot the model #) drives. Sounded like a jet turbine on power-up. Completely silent until you started doing seeks, then it sounded like (muffled) ball bearings falling on a hardwood floor. Still, they were a lot better than the high-pitched whine of my 7200RPM Western Digital.

Re:Want silence? Switch to Apple.

[Jeremy Erwin]

And if you're wedded to x86, there's always this solution.

SilenX website

[vasqzr]

Since the review page is Slashdotted, here's a link to the manufacturer.

[i]
SilenX power supplies are simply the quietest active cooled power supplies on the planet! With a ture 14 dBA noise level from 1m, it will blow away any other so-called "silent" ppwer supply on the market today. Zalman? Nexus? Seasonic? There's no comparison. Under load, the difference gets even wider! Thanks to some innovative technologies, SilenX power supplies can not only run quieter than other power supplies out there, but do so with higher efficiency , greater reliability and beter stability.
[/i]

mundane detail

[crumshot]

yeah, last thing i worry about is how much noise my power supply gives off. usually the fans are sub-3000rpm and dont give off much noise anyway. any good brand name power supply has temperature controlled fans to make them quieter regardless.

the noise of my 5 case fans and my cpu fan (which is basically a 80mm case fan) puts off more noise than my antec PSU. ive got all my fans rigged to a rheobus, and even when i turn off 3 of the case fans, turn the other 2 plus my cpu fan down to 7V, its STILL louder than my power supply.

any power supply i buy these days i would almost expect to be next to silent.

Re:mundane detail

[slash-tard]

This, and other silent pc type products, is not for overclockers or someone who has 5 case fans.

Anyway, you can buy silent case fans, video card fans or heat pipes, and silent cpu fans.

I used to have a dual P3 1ghz, with a similiar power supply, 2 silent cpu fans, no case fan, and a video card (GeForce 4 MX) without a fan. Unless you put your ear up to the system you couldnt tell it was on.

Question with out answer...

[evilnissan]

If a computer is turned on in the forest, and no one is there to hear it,,, does it make a sound.??

Or

If the computer that isturned on in the forest crashes, will the squarles cuss out Windows and the Bears mawl on Bill Gates???

Re:Question with out answer...

[Idealius]

omg spelling. that is all.

Re:Question with out answer...

[linkdead]

"If a computer is turned on in the forest, and no one is there to hear it,,, does it make a sound.??"

Yes, it sings showtunes. Your computer was designed to not only sing showtunes, but walk and talk and frolic htrough the forest, but is scared to do such things around anything that wields a screwdriver.

"If the computer that isturned on in the forest crashes, will the squarles cuss out Windows and the Bears mawl on Bill Gates???"

Nah, the squirrels have better things to do, like mess with their linux powered nautilus class starships. The bears...they just wnat fish, they could care less about servers.

Damn, those bears had it right all along...hose tech, eat more fish.. :P

Re:Question with out answer...

[NightEyez]

Dang .. whatcha been huffing? That was like a walking into a Dali painting.

Maybe they should've

[Anonymous Coward]

made the review silent as well. I for one (maybe for many, from the sounds of it) don't give a flying frig. I have a really quiet dishwasher as well. Want me to post an article on it???

Re:Want silence? Switch to Apple.

[Lussarn]

This is getting pretty pathetic.

In case it hasnt been said

[slash-tard]

www.quietpc.com
This site has a lot of tips and equipment, including case and cpu fans, to silence your PC.

Slashdotted...

[Anonymous Coward]

What's the price on this?

What's the big deal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Companies such as Zalman have been making these for a while now. Even then, It's so easy to just replace the fans in a PSU with something quieter like Panaflo L1A's (you could even use a resistor to make them slower).

Oh I know, the pretty lights make it better....um well if you didn't have that window and all those holes in your case it would be quieter too!

Efficiency

[tttonyyy]

At 75% efficient, the supply above would chuck out 133W of heat under full load. This is pretty poor - a well designed supply is capable of >90%. No doubt transformer cost is a major factor, but surely if you waste less energy then there's no need to shift so much (noisy, swirly) air through it in the first place?

Re:Efficiency

[loftydog]

Toms Hardware just did a roundup of 15 different, name brand power supplies here. To quote their conclusion page, "The efficiency factor of 72% is among the best in the test panel" when talking about one of the power supplies. Even Exeltech, considered some of the best inverters on the market, only see efficiencies in the 88% range, and they don't have to deal with that pesky ATX format. Maybe there has been a breakthrough the rest of us don't know about; if so, could you share?

Re:Efficiency

[tttonyyy]

No problem:

350W Mains down to 12VDC
500W DC-DC

There are now even telecoms switchers up to 1kW that are up to 91% efficient (OK, so it's not quite mains down to 12V/5V, but still impressive for the power).

What's all the fuzz about

[Pidder]

A 14 db "silent" PSU is nothing new. There are fan-less PSUs available on the market now if silence is what you want.

Another option:

[Anonymous Coward]

Using plywood, build yourself a box that's a bit larger than the case, line the case with insulation (the stuff from your attic works very nicely for this!) and place your case (with the power on, of course) snugly into the centre of the box.
Run all your cabling out the hole in the rear of the box and seal up the hole around the cables with some of that canned sealant that expands upon contact with the air. Make sure you spray quite a bit into the hole as well for better insulation capability.
Place insulation over the exposed case and close up the plywood box. It's best to use large wood screws as they have much better holding capability than nails.
It may take about a day or so, depending upon what processor you have (we've seen the Athlon complete this process in about an hour's time) but very soon you should be fully insulated from any sound and you will be able to boast to your freinds about your ultimate quiet system!!
(Don't worry about that blank screen, it's in power saving mode, just hit the spacebar.)

Cheers!

Re:Silent? 3 days until...

[Golias]

Meanwhile somebody over at Ars Technica will brag about how he stepped it up to 412.5W, but needed a jet turbine cooling system to prevent it from melting the bezels on his PC case.

My power supply is better

[WebMasterJoe]

I have a power supply that will sound an alarm every three seconds to let us know that everything is ok!

Turn it off! Turn it off!

It CAN'T be turned off! .... but, it does break easily.
/not-so-obligatory Simpsons reference.

Or CD/DVD drives

[zoney_ie]

Gnarg - why are optical drives louder than ever now! It would be nice to have a review of the quietest DVD drives! MUCH more annoying than PSU noise. Especially the sporadic nature of it.

Re:Or CD/DVD drives

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup, and 52x cdrom drives. I went all out to quiet my computer, succeeded, then popped in a music cd to play. Suddenly the cdrom drive sounded like a rotary saw in comparison to the quiet. Ripped my entire cd collection to ogg so I can play music without the noise of the cdrom drive.

Re:Or CD/DVD drives

[zoney_ie]

My main complaint with copy protect CDs is that if you can play them in your PC - it's using an on-disc application. This reads the tracks digitally, leading to not just a rotary saw - but a JET TURBINE noise.

I sent a strongly worded email after purchasing the latest Dido CD. Needless to say it's safely ripped. I wouldn't have bothered ripping if they didn't have copy protect.

How ironic. (or should that be moronic).

Re:Or CD/DVD drives

[Tycho]

Buy a Samsung DVD drive or DVD/CD-RW drive, I have one of each and they are some of quietest optical drives I have used. While Samsung CD-ROM drives are louder than either the DVD drive or DVD/CD-RW drive the Samsung CD-ROM drives are relatively quiet. The only problem is that Samsung DVD drives will not read DVD+R/RW discs yet. The newest firmware for the DVD/CD-RW drive, which is not on the Samsung website yet, adds support for reading DVD+R/RW discs.

Re:Or CD/DVD drives

[Ed Thomson]

Because everyone seems to buy the cheapest and fastest drives. The faster the drive the noisier it will be.

There is some linux software that will let you lower the read speed of cd/dvd drives making them alot quiter.

Re:Or CD/DVD drives

[Rolo Tomasi]

Uhhh ... ever heard of Nero Drive Speed? It allows you to set the speed of your CD/DVD drives. It's free, BTW.

Re:Or CD/DVD drives

[Zak3056]

Gnarg - why are optical drives louder than ever now!

Because they're spinning faster. Simple enough answer, no?

Silent PCs

[1HandClapping]

last year I spent four months researching quiet PCs. The Best Site for Silent PC Info and Review of the SilenX

Typically the most irritating noises in order are

1) CPU Fan

2) PSU Fan

3) Case Fans

4) HDD

I have a Zalman pure copper Flower on my CPU with only one 12cm fan ducted near it. (No CPU fan). With my HDD decoupled it was silent (i.e. I could not hear it at 2 AM from 1 meter) during normal operation and barely audible when seek/writing.

To overclockers 28dB may seem quiet, but whispers are about 24dB. I personally find it dificult to work with someone whispering 1 meter away. About every 3 dB doubles the acoustic energy. (e.g. if one fan is 20dB, then two of the same fans would be about 23dB) I guestimate my system at about 22 dB.

Re:Silent PCs

[Anonymous Coward]

I personally find it dificult to work with someone whispering
Depends what does she whispers...

Re:Silent PCs

[0x0d0a]

I personally find it dificult to work with someone whispering 1 meter away.

Agreed, and I like quiet PCs a lot as well -- but keep in mind that it's a lot easier to learn to filter out white noise than whispering.

I *do* have to say that people that get a fancy sound system and then have a regular PC have got to be crazy -- nobody can hear "external vs internal DAC" differences as more significant than the fans in the PC.

Re:Silent PCs

[Anonymous Coward]

1) CPU Fan

2) PSU Fan


Wow, you people must have bitching CPU fans. For the last twelve years, I've NEVER been able to hear a CPU fan over a PSU fan.

Re:Silent PCs

[1HandClapping]

If you're running a 12 yr old cpu it's probably about outputting 15W or less. The P4's are about 75W.

Most better PSU's have a thermister that lowers the PSU fan when temps are low.

CPU fans tend to be smaller, higher rpm, and have more irritating whine.

Re:Silent PCs

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm running a 2Ghz P4 right beside my head with the case open, and I can still hear the PSU fan. If I stop the CPU fan with my finger, I don't notice any noise difference. Actually, the high pitched whine from my monitor is louder than both.

Re:Silent PCs

[Skilleter]

What about the noise of the CDROM drive?

When mine winds up to full speed I can't hear _any_ of the fans in the PC!

Of course, I could use one the utilities that limit its maximum speed, but these seem to upset the copy-protection systems used on some games.

Re:Silent PCs

[1HandClapping]

Optical Drives vary in noise generation. My cheap fast CD ROM is very noisy.

My TDK +/-R +/-RW DVD drive is quiet. DVD drives for home theater should be quiet.

What a lame article

[stratjakt]

does even Toms Hardware waste time reviewing power supplies?

Who cares. Its a power supply with some "quiet" fans in it. Stick a quiet fan in any power supply for 5 bucks and you have the same product.

Now post some articles on ram coolers or glowing mouse pads.

Que?

[nihkee]

What, is this Tom's Hardware or something?

What's so special?? & IMPOSTERS

[dFaust]

I've seen some posts asking what's so special about this PSU, as "silent" PSU's have been around for a long time... I have to say, I've been following reviews of this brand for the last few months (and plan to order one myself in a week or so) and from all the reviews I've read, these take silent to another level, and are high quality, to boot.

Tom's Hardware has a few PSU roundups (older, newer) which include noise level testing... as you can see, other "silent" PSUs are much louder than 14db (nor do said PSUs even claim to be that quiet). At best, you're talking about PSU's doing 25 (low load) to 33db (full load), and they tend to get louder as the wattage rating increases. All SilenX PSUs (I believe they go up to 600watta) are rated around 11.5 (minimum) to 14 (maximum) db. So it really is a big difference. I know my "silent" PSU which is around 30db is -much- louder than my 80mm case fan which claims to be 20db.

Anyhow, literally EVERY SilenX review I've read has said they a) really are quiet (much quieter than other "silent" PSUs, apparently) and b) are very high quality.

Also note that you have to buy them from www.silenx.com or (soon) NewEgg. You'll see "SilenX 14db" PSUs on Pricewatch and such, but they are imposter PSUs of inferior build made by a company named Ahanix, whom SilenX is currently involved in lawsuits with regarding this issue, and whose site is a blatant rip-off of Samsung's.

Offtopic?: Re:Silence is overrated.

[Anonymous Coward]

how hilarious...

people who drive SUVs are obnoxious and overcompensating... yet people who have a quad Intel server aren't overcompensating...

sounds like perfect logic.

SilentX compared to competition

[EconolineCrush]

Tech Report compares the SilenX with four of its competitors here.

Re:Want silence? Switch to Apple.

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree. Can you imagine? A hardware/software platform that is technologically superior to Linux in every concievable way and still so many people on slashdot have not seen the light. How completely pathetic.

Cost?

[robot captain]

How much did all of that run you?

I too am quite sick and tired of my extremely loud machine. I would like to do something about it but I'm curious what sort of an impact this would have on my wallet.

Re:Cost?

[Ianoo]

A shade over 120 Sterling. I'm afraid I don't know how much this sort of thing costs in the US, but I would suggest Quiet PC USA as an excellent place to buy this sort of thing (they started out in the UK and is where I bought my bits). I will recoup around 20-40 selling the PSU and HSF on eBay, hopefully.

Re:Cost?

[Zebedeu]

I have a friend who just did this to his pc.
He got a noise blocker cooler for his cpu and a silent fan for his case. Both had manual control of the fan speed.
At low to medium speed we were strugling to hear the fans, but as you got to top speed, they'd get loud as hell.
Anyway, the fans at medium speed managed to cool the cpu to acceptable levels, so it was ok.

After that we realized just how loud the graphics card was, so we went back to the store and got the zalman passive heatsink. Boy did that work wonders.
Now you can't almost hear his pc running, even without changing the PSU, which was a major change for an athlon 2000+ setup that sounded like a turbine.

He burned around 80 EUR on this little scheme, which is why I'm puting off doing it myself. I'm saving for a new graphics card.

Decisions, decisions...

Re:Cost?

[J3M]

I know I'm not the OP, but I just built a new PC last week using Zalman stuff, so I can answer some of it. I bought two Zalman 80mm Quiet Mode fans for $9.98 and the Zalman Copper - Aluminum CPU Cooler for $35.99. The CPU fan is very quiet, and the 80mm fans are quiet at around the 1700 - 1900 rpm range (but loud at 3000 rpm). The quiet mode the 80mm fans speak of is simply an adapter with a resistor to drop the current. I didn't even install it, rather I let the BIOS control the fan speed. I can't speak of the Zalman PSU since I went with Antec (which is rather loud, but pretty).

Not impressed. NorthQ 500W 12db here

[julie-h]

I am not impressed. have a look at this NorthQ 400W 12dB or this NorthQ 500W 12dB PSU.

LOL, good troll

[multipartmixed]

Me, I couldn't give a rat's ass how loud my desktop PCs are -- there 9 servers less than 5 feet away from me, sharing a total of.. oh, 22 + 22 + 5 + 2 + 2=53 disks and about twelve billion freakin' noisy fans, what with the quad CPU and redundant PS configurations.

It's a wonder I get anything done. Somehow, I do.

Oh, and I can hear the relays in the PBX click from 25 feet away. Astounding. They must have dug those suckers up from a 50 year old landfill. Or maybe they used starter solenoids from an automotive recycling yard.

Re:LOL, good troll

[Anonymous Coward]

Boy, 9 servers you say? Wow, I didn't realize Linux was that inefficient. I run MY entire pr0n business on 2 dual G5 powermacs. Once again, Apple shows that Linux blows.

Fsck the Children

[Detritus]

A nice, recyclable corrugated box provides much more protection against damage than a plastic bag.

Weight

[SuperBanana]

My PC is transformed, the loud, obtrusive, high pitched whine has now been reduced to a quiet, low pitched rumbling.

And the best part is, that low frequency vibration will help the motherboard crack even faster since the Zalman coolers all cheerfully ignore the max weight limits set by motherboard companies. They have supposedly caused a few mobo deaths.

Tip- a)make sure all the standoffs are installed properly and the mobo is screwed down. b)if you move the machine, consider taking the CPU heatsink off FIRST, because if you bounce it around, the heft of the heatsink could flex the motherboard a little too much.

Re:Weight

[Ianoo]

The Aluminium ones are actually less than the 450g maximum rated for P4 coolers. Admittedly the Copper one is over 800g, but if you go for the Alu one you shouldn't expect the motherboard to crack.

Re:Weight

[Quarters]

I've got the all Aluminum cooler (~800g) on my P4. I just moved the computer about 100 miles in a bumpy moving fan. I had no problems whatsoever. I put the computer back in it's original packaging and shipped it flat (e.g. lying on its side).

Re:Weight

[amembleton]

I've got the copper one (~800g) on my Athlon. I've had it in the back of my car travelling between uni and home for vacations. I've probably done at least 1000 miles of travelling with it in my car.

No problems...

This is probably FUD

Slashdot Effect

[wjames]

I bet CmdrTaco had some grudge aginst the site and just wanted to see it get slashdoted.

Re:Slashdot Effect

[SnowPunk98]

I sure hope not but my server is being slammed thats for sure. Sorry guys but keep checking

Powersupply

[Anonymous Coward]

I have one of these powersupplies they are pretty quitet but also don't really move a lot of air and can get very hot. Its not an ideal power supply if you don't have good airflow through your cases. there are total silent powersupplies coming out on the market now, that are either passive or have one fan that turns on as needed, those might be a better deal.

Silent PC Review

[LordKronos]

Silent PC Review is a good site for finding out about quiet components. According to their ratings on power supplies, there are actually a few 400 watt PSU's that they ranked better than this one:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/modules.php?op =modlo ad&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid= 28&page=2

Will it fit in a G4 Quicksilver case?

[GlobalEcho]

I would certainly love to swap this for the power supply in my Dual G4/800. Does anyone know how likely that is?

Re:Will it fit in a G4 Quicksilver case?

[jcsehak]

The pinouts are likely different. I have a sawtooth, and I'm about to try swapping the noisy stock PSU with a Zalman one, following these directions (and double-checking voltages myself). You probably want to google for someone else who's done the same thing with a quicksilver, or at least get yourself a multimeter.

If it has a fan, it is not silent.

[JonMartin]

The authoritative resource for silent PCs is The Silent PC. On there you will find a link to fanless PSUs. Like the proSilence fanless from silentmaxx.

These things are neat. No fan, just a big-ass heatsink sticking out the back of your case. But remember that without the airflow from the PSU you will need a fan for your case (or a special self-cooling case).

Re:If it has a fan, it is not silent.

[1HandClapping]

Even The Silent PC defers to Silent PC Review on power supplies (and other hardware).

Silent PC Review does the best hardware reviews for silence. Mike uses light bulbs (60W and 100W) when load testing PSUs to test how they deal with heat.

For a quick rundown on PSU ratings see: Recommented Power Supply Units

My free solution to having a quiet power supply

[nic1m]

If you have a system that doesn't load your supply too heavily I highly recommend what I've done to mine.

System specs: I have a nice Enermax Whisper 350 Watt supply. Very large full tower case. Celeron 1.2 @ 1.3 GHz CPU. Only one hard drive and no fancy 3D graphics card.

I removed the two fans from the supply, as well as the top cover. I then mounted the supply on the back of my case outside. It is oriented so that the supply's heat sinks get as much convective cooling as possible.
This works very well indeed. The supply doesn't get too warm. It's totally silent since there are no fans. I think it would be possible to do this with a somewhat more powerful system without the supply needing active cooling. Worst case you could mount a Panaflo 80 mm fan slowed down with some resistors to the supply to cool it.

Drawbacks:
- you have to watch out where you put your fingers so you don't electrocute yourself. The paranoid may want to cover the supply with some sort of mesh.
- if your supply has short power cables you might need extensions.
- you won't have the supply's fan(s) drawing air through your case, so you may need to add a case fan. Instead I recommend using the CPU fan for that purpose by attaching a duct to it. In my case the duct goes to the large hole at the back of the case where the supply used to be.

Well durrrrrrrr...

[b00m3rang]

It obviously wasn't shipped UPS in a bag by itself with a shipping label on the side... it had to already be in a box surrounded by packing material.

If it's on a store shelf it's one thing, but if you're getting it shipped to you, what do you care if it's in one box or two?

If every time I ordered 20 floppy or optical drives they came individually boxed, I'd be needlessly buried in cardboard.

Re:Well durrrrrrrr...

[Detritus]

I care if it is going to be stored on a shelf as a spare part, rather than immediately installed in a PC. I want packaging that is going to protect the part from damage in storage and handling until it is ready to be installed.

External power supplies

[ChaosDiscord]

My understanding is that power supplies don't actually need cooling at all. The fan is there to keep the power supply from overheating the rest of the computer. So, how about ripping the power supply out of the computer and replacing it with a fan (which can be much lower speed since it isn't handling the hot power supply. Then put the power supply into a mid-cable wart like laptop power supplies. Does anyone actually offer such a beast? Am I confused and power supplies actually need active cooling on their own?

Re:External power supplies

[eviljav]

Speaking from experience, that's not true. :)

I tried pulling the fan out of a power supply in a case with good ventilation, and it worked. For about 10 minutes. Then the power stopped working and started making the "dead electronics" smell. The system was fine with a new power supply though.

Re:External power supplies

[0x0d0a]

I believe that PSU fans were necessary in even PII days. Your power supply will fail from heat otherwise. I have two friends that tried running without a fan. Good way to kill a PSU.

Re:External power supplies

[dj245]

You are mistaken.

External power supplies are not uncommon in the niche market. A couple years ago, the HP E-vectra machines, which I would call the first mini cube-type pc's (Pentium III at 500-733mhz) ran from a 19V DC external power supply. The supply got very hot however and could probably inflict 1st degree burns (not that you'd be sitting on it or anything). That machine was build much like a laptop, but for businesses wanting small computers.

Some of the Shuttle and other small-form factor computers today use external power supplies, but they can't be too powerful. Most of shuttle's boxes use small ATX-style power supplies, but a few of the other companies offerings use external power bricks (passively cooled). They run current P4 and Athlon XP cpus, but with no expansion room.

Re:Want silence? Switch to Apple.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, especially if you have a Wind Tunn... err... "Mirror Drive" G4.

Re:Apple Advert (Re:Want silence? Switch to Apple.

[geomon]

Spoken so poorly.

Criticism like this from an AC is laughable.

Like a typical PC/Linsux/Windoze user.

Actually, my first computer was a TRS-80.

Which camp does that put me in now?

Come on, geomon, give a Mac a try.

The first computer I used in an office setting was a Mac. I like Macs.

I used to be like you...

The only way you could have *been* like me is if you are writing from the grave.

I am an adult.

Not necessary

[Innominate Milquetoa]

I don't know about you, but after leaving my machine on for a day or two, I don't even notice the noise anymore.

Except that one time when I had to pack up my comp to move the next day... It was so eerily quiet that I had to turn on my desk fan just to get some sleep.

Re:Will I be the first to say it?

[Moofie]

Yeah, nobody bought any of those iMacs. Stupid Apple.

(the original fruit-flavored Macs had no fans. The current iMacs and eMacs have very, very quiet fans. The G4 Cube, which I assume you are referring to, is fanless unless you add a video card.)

Idiot

[multipartmixed]

*sigh*

Who even said anything about linux?

Who said anything about running a business? That's just my lab.

Hmmmm

[currychicken]

I've been using a Enermax "Whisper" series PS in a Lian Li PC60 case (fans set on low) for 2+ years now. Once I switched from AMD to my P4, the machine started running so quiet that my girlfriend actually would turn it off when it was on cause she couldn't hear it running over the din of my other computers.

After much teasing on my part, I did it myself... the kicker was, all my other computers were off and I was completely alone in the house (no background noise from the kitty, pooch or gf).

Since then, I've sold all my old delta 80's to anyone who will buy them. Oddly, no one is a repeat buyer... they all think the fans are too loud. Imagine that.

-CC -MmmMmMMMM curried chicken, I taste SO gooood!

Try this for silent:

[eviljav]

If you're interested in a silent (fanless) 350W power supply, check this one out:
http://www.siliconacoustics.com/silpc.html

Me Too!

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not?

[Anonymous Coward]

chill out.

These kids are having fun with their cars! Some of them never get past a fat air intake, but that's more hands-on car work than most people will ever do.

Until I can scratch enough nickels out of the sofa to start a project, I'm stuck with regular maintenance. But you can bet I've got plans...

So does my 6 year old son. His input is that he wants "blue flames" painted on the side. Is that "uncool" too? Grow up. Blue flames are fun. Loud exhaust is fun. Ultra-silent luxury cars are fun.

Go have some fun and stop complaining.

Re:Why not?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you do womething with your engine, breaks or handling, that's impressive... a poser that screws on a resonator tip, a stick on hood scoop (in the wrong location I might add for 90% of them... I've even seen them on roofs!) and that really stupid looking erector set on the back as well as the stupid lights all over it? yes. that is pretty darn stupid.

your first step is to improve handling on the vehicle, next is breaks, then engine... only after all that is done do you add the useless crap.

Right back at ya, shazbot.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wooo, your "lab". You don't say!

In other words you have a fold out table holding a "quad" 486/66 (ie: 4 old Gateway door stops) running Windoze 95 doing shit all. ROTFLMAO. Let me guess, these machines are set up in a "cluster" and used to research and develop "extremely advanced" routing code for telecommunications applications. Wow, for such a dim bulb, you are sure good at making things up. Clicking PBX's. I love it! Do you find guys at the local pickup joint fall for that kind of thing? Maybe I'll try it myself some time.

dB On A Stereo Different Than dB For Sound

[DonnarsHmr]

Your stereo achieves maximum volume at OdB because at that setting there is 0dB of attentuation applied to the signal before it gets to the gain stage(s). The numbers on a stereo, or mixing board (well, the numbers below unity at least) really ought to be specified at -XdB not XdB. So when set to 15dB, your stereo is attenuating the signal by 15dB before passing it to the gain stage.

Sound Pressure Levels (SPL), on the other hand are the measured SPL compared to a reference level defined to be 0dB. 0dB is defined to the the standardized lower limit of human hearing under ideal conditions. Interestingly, for humans with no hearing loss, this lower threshold is thermally limited. In other words, if your hearing isn't damaged and there are no other sounds, you can hear the temperature of the room. At 0dB, your eardrum is deflecting by about the diameter of a Hydrogen atom. Another fun fact to know and tell: the system of small bones that convey the vibration from the ear drum to the inner ear function as a hydraulic system with a 7000:1 ratio, which is almost exactly the accoustic impedance mismatch between air and the fluid in your inner ear. For an intersting discussion of human hearing, read the first few chapters of Master Handbook of Acoustics

Server is slow but not slashdotted

[SnowPunk98]

Sorry for the slowness everyone my server is bogged of course. Hopefully everyone will be able to read the article. If you cant access the page check back. Just FYI I am running a dedicated server off a T1 but it seems thats not enough.

14 dBA != Silent

[-tji]

This may qualify as a Quiet power supply.. But, anything with a fan is not silent.

I have been repeatedly disappointed by other power supplies that were advertised as quiet. I can control the noise in most other components:

- fanless video card - like the GeForce FX 5200
- quiet hard drive, like the Seagate Barracuda line, or one of the newer Maxtors with fluid bearings.
- Quiet heat sink / fan. Zalman flower, or CNPS7000 - lots of surface area. Large/slow fan, or no fan at all.
- Lower power CPU. Via C3 for low horsepower needs, Tualatin 0.13u P3 for midrange, Athlon 64 with "Cool n Quiet" to slow it down when not under load for high end.
- Antec Sonata case - Advertised as quiet.. It's okay, but not great. Has rubber connectors on the hard drive trays to lessen vibration noise.

But the power supplies always end up being the loudest part of the system. With such a limited space to work with, I guess it's difficult to build something quiet.

I will skip this power supply, and go for a truly SILENT, fanless PSU, like one of these:

http://www.deltatronic.de/int/power_supply.html
http://www.siliconacoustics.com/silpc.html

14dBa not credible

[jmichaelg]

The reviewer doesn't measure the actual sound level that the psu generate under load. Instead, he takes the manufacturer's word for it that it's 14 dBa.

Mike Chin at www.silentpcreview.com writes a more credible review of a psu that has a 120 mm fan and it's cranking 22 dBa when the psu is drawing 215 watts. I find it very hard to believe that an 80 mm fan can move enough air to cool a loaded 300+ Watt psu while only generating 14dBa of noise.

Silent until...

[snevig]

The only time I ever notice my machines are producing noise is when I read about some new "silent" cooling system.

In deed

[b00m3rang]

That's valid, I stil think that as a whole we waste a lot of packaging for reasons of aesthetics only. Why is it the Power Color Radeon box is twice as big as the Sapphire Radeon box, when it contains the exact same size unit? So they can get a little more visibility and double the waste? It's awfully selfish.

PS Fans not the problem!

[TheRealStubot]

For the life of me, I cannot determine how anyone can figure out if the power supply fan is even running! My home office rings with the sound of exactly 4 2nd. generation Cheetah drives, and it's roughly the same amount of noise as a Marilyn Manson concert. A 400w amplifier and JBL speakers don't even begin to mask it. Make quieter hard drives!

Another solution

[Jon Abbott]

Rather than use these new fangled pseudo-silent power supplies, we could all revert to systems that don't require fans on the CPU and power supply. I still have a Pentium Pro 180 MHz system that runs fanless and doesn't overheat. The G4 Cube, IIRC, was also entirely sans fans by design. I remember old 286 and some 386 CPUs would run cool to the touch. Surely, there is a better way! :^)

luckily...

[Anonymous Coward]

my computer is not as loud,
as the voices in my head.

no relationship to adhd, sorry to inform you.

[bani]

ac transformers tend to vibrate. the same kind of effect that you hear from the giant transformers on telephone poles humming at 60hz.

the typical television or monitor transformer hums at 15khz. typical human hearing is ~15hz - 20khz.

you arent hearing EMI. you are hearing normal sound waves. nothing special.

i hear it too, many people can -- with or without adhd.

so no, it has absolutely no relationship to adhd. sorry.

Hearing TV Whine

[mlanett]

Being able to hear the TV is just a matter of having good (not alien, just good) hearing.

The scanline transducer operates 525 times per refresh, 30 times a second: 15.750khz. This is within the range of human hearing, so if a transducer is of poor quality, you can hear it.

My guess is that many people just don't pay attention to it, even though they can hear it.

However lots of people who grew up listening to Walkmans and other devices can't hear it, because they've destroyed their high-range hearing.

Yes, and it's bloody annoying!

[stuaxp]

And I thought it was just me!.... I wrote a qbasic program back in the day to test different frequencys, and found I could hear up to 17000hz, whereas most people only seem to go up to 14500hz or so. I put this down at the time to most people listening to earphones too loudly and breaking their hearing... I also find if you smoke er... greenery, then it gets much worse, to the point I can't have the tv on sometimes. I think the noise is definately real, and you could probably measure it... the day they make silent screens will be a good day for me. Not only this, but LCD screens seem to make a noise as well, looks like you can't win. I've had similar experiences with CRT screens as well, I lived with someone with an old ST, and once could tell he had it on, because I could hear the screen as soon as I walked in the door, even though he was upstairs!

Re:Yes, and it's bloody annoying!

[mnmn]

What a coincidence. I used the SOUND command too in QBASIC to measure and I found my maximum 17000 too (although I felt there was sound at 18 too). I never came across another programming language that made producing sounds like these so easy.

Now that they mentioned it, I can suddenly hear the hiss again, although for the past 6 years I havent noticed it and am getting close to being deaf at 15k. We have 5 monitors and 1 big TV at home, and I work IT at work so I dont really know what the lack of the hiss sounds like anymore.

Re:Yes, and it's bloody annoying!

[stuaxp]

Incidentally, the noise the adsl modem makes is pretty bad; I was getting bad moods through lack of proper sleep and that noise all the till I moved it. Don't have the listing to the QB prog here (though do still have it somewh)... called it hurts, as it made high hz sounds that could hurt (well not really), plus you could put in eg... 'A' to get 440hz... I definately find my quality of life goes up if I can avoide those noises for a while, but difficult when your chained to the keyb!

Or buy a Mac G4 Cube...

[glawrie]

Good to see the PC community catching on to quiet. But it is really just fixing a designed-in problem. I have an ageing Mac G4 Cube that has worked perfectly since the day it arrived and it makes no noise at all other than disk drive chatter. The whole thing is designed around a huge passive heat sink, and has no fans inside at all. And curiously, no market at all for 'silent' extras. I wonder why that might be...

Also:

[WhodoVoodoo]

New Silent Webservers!

SilentX webserver, garunteed to make NO noise, and serve NO webpages (that is, after being slashdotted ruthlessly)

Ah progress!

The sound of flyback + deflection coil

[ScottBob]

The 15.7 kHz noise all us ADHD sufferers hear is, as previous posters noted, the scan line frequency. (For PAL, its a wee bit higher.) I have an early 1990's model RCA 25" TV and a 2000 model Sony 25" TV. Believe me, the newer Sony squeals much louder than the older RCA.

As stated previously, the sound is caused by minute vibrations in the horizontal sweep winding on the deflection coil. The flyback operates at the same frequency because it is powered off of the same horizontal output transistor as the sweep coil, so the two add up to one shrill whine.

My monitor is on 800 x 600 at a refresh rate of 72 Hz. High frequency hearing has often been associated with asthma, but I don't think any of us can hear the 57.6 kHz whine of that!

At work, we have an old monitor with a bad part that sometimes causes high frequency oscillations. If I beat on it, it'll go away, but it eventually returns. If I shake the monitor, the whistle seems to "bounce". I think it's a loose slug in an inductor in the IF circuit somewhere.

I've also had older power supplies where the switching frequency dropped to just within hearing range. Annoying.

BTW, 1 dB = 10^-12 watts per square meter.

Re:The sound of flyback + deflection coil

[fkamogee]

I have at work a new monitor that makes very loud, high frequency oscillations. Loud enough that EVERYONE can hear it. Beating on it sometimes makes it stop (and is fun!); other times, beating doesn't work, but in those cases it stops by itself. But it always comes back eventually...

How about "central" power supply

[SailFly]

Have you heard of a central vacuum cleaner? How about a large central power supply in another room (or garage) with a long wire harness feeding each PC.

Keep the big, loud fan....Just move it to another room.

Re:Apples and those other things

[loftydog]

Converters are something else entirely, enjoying inherent efficiencies over inverters so there is little groundbreaking news there. As for non-standard (non-ATX) inverters, even the exeltech's, known for solid, reliable, super-clean, pure sine wave output of dc to ac power have a peak efficiency of 90%. What Toms and others like to quote is the real world, not claimed, performance.

Show me an ATX supply with those kind of efficiencies (not even the current active ps have those numbers) and I will be the first to buy at a mortal price. Having a rack of computers to feed, anything to reduce the food budget would be nice. Did I mention how appealing those PowerPC 970 chips are at 90nm? Power consumption in the low 20W range....that is efficiency.

I own one.

[MelodicMotives]

Proud owner of their 520w model. It never uses the fan it has, it's just in case of emergency. The unit is amazingly quiet, and the rails are incrediably stable. It's a bit pricey but it's a worthwhile PSU if you're aiming towards silence.

Want silence? Take the fans out.

[Anonymous Coward]

Several years ago I had an extreme autistic moment and took the fan out of the power supply on my case. I also fiddled around with taking the CPU fan off the CPU but I found the fan was quiet enough if I ran it at 5v instead of 12.

The case in question is an antique made in germany NCR AT case which originally held a 12mhz 286 (1 wait state...). I took the fan out and took the lid off the PSU (thankfully my cat didn't jump into the PSU). I keep the case closed almost all the time and disconnect it from the mains when I do open it up as the open PSU is a little bit dangerous.

This computer currently has an 866mhz pentium III, 2 seagate disks (80 and 120gb). It has some crap piled on top of the case, and lives in an un-airconditioned apartment, and gets no direct or indirect airflow. It can get to be 100 degrees Fahrenheit around here, so it isn't like I live in sweden.

This computer has been on and running 24x7 for the past 5 years, at least, and sometimes under very heavy loads. I imagine most high quality power supplies could operate without a fan if they had a very small load relative to their rated capacity.

Of course, if you do this, you could blow yourself up or burn your house down or turn into lou ferrigno.

Re:Outstanding!! getting WAY OT

[beanlover]

I can hear TVs and monitors too.

When I was a kid we had a console tv that was on it's last legs. It took forever to turn on...but I was able to get it to turn on without much problem because of my hearing. I would hit the power button and hear the tv but it wouldn't be "on." Then I would hit the power button again and listen to the sound until it was almost gone and then hit the power button again and viola! it was on like it should be.

I used to think everyone could hear that stuff too...and although I have never been diagnosed with AD* I am easily distracted. :)

My mother in law has an HP computer (Fairly new) and every once in a while, usually when surfing the net with the annoying sounds of IE enabled, the on-board sound would make the speakers emit an annoying high-pitched frequency that I could hear from other rooms without much problem. She would be sitting right in front of the monitor, reading a page, and not hear it. I even asked, "Can't you hear that??!?" because it was so loud to me I almost couldn't stand it. Had to make another sound happen on the computer to make it stop.

I once had a roommate in college that claimed to have "dog ears" because he couldn't ignore background noises (and he didn't have a hearing aid either). I had an old XT 8088 and I had to decompress .jpg to .gif just so I could look at the pictures (you know...of landscapes and such!) It had one of those full-height harddrives (either 20 or 40 megs) that ANYONE could hear from anywhere, but the decompression was so slow that it would only hit the drive once every 40 - 50 seconds for a brief moment. I would do this at night so it would be done in the morning...and it would never fail...right before I would be completely asleep he would ask me to turn the computer off because the HD was keeping him awake!

Oh well...enough about me...:)

Nexus

[ZeLonewolf]

I recently bought a silent Nexus power supply. Ran me $70. It's silent, looks very cool, and to boot the fan actually blows across the CPU. The back of the PS (the part when you put the plug into) is a mesh instead of solid metal, so the airflow is quite effective.

YMMV

Its NOT silent

[cjb110]

These silent psu reviews a really getting annoying. Its not silent, merely quiet, maybe even very quiet...but its not, and never will be silent.

Any PSU (AFAIK pretty much anything) will never be silent if it has moving parts.