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A Silent PC Solution?

Posted by michael on from the earplugs-much-cheaper dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Fed up with the monotonous whirring emanating from your PC? Well for once, someone with an actual knowledge of acoustics demonstrates what can be done AND backs it up with measurements!"

2 of 485 comments (clear)

  1. Think Cheap by stecoop · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The goal of silencing a PC is thinking like the cheapest man you have ever known.

    Start with the Case - Aluminum is the best but really expensive a cheapo person would make a case out of wood (im sure your going to do this one).

    Next the Case Fans - yeah you can buy those fancy isolators, better yet use silicon to "glue" the fans to the outlets.

    Hard Drive - Noisy little beast you can actually have it free hanging in the pc or use zip ties to isolate it from the case. Or you can sandwich it in between two thick sheets of copper or aluminum (wouldn't use wood here) and put bolts at the corners and tighten lightly.

    CPU cooler - hmm can't use the fans from a hair drier, any other ideas?

    The Actual Fans - ball bearing last longer and are a little more expensive, better go with the sleeve bearings because they are quieter. Also if the fan gets noisy peel the off sticker (half way so you can re-stick it) on back and drop some 3n1 oil in the hole.

    Placement - get the computer off of the desktop and put it into a ventilated box. I have been thinking about building a small box with a regular household box fan on the back having a solenoid start the fan when the computer is on.

  2. mini-itx by sshtome · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I didn't read the article cos it was already trodden on by the time I got there.

    but I built a fanless PC for less than $300 using a Mini-itx mother board, it's quite good.

    I installed the 17cmx17cm mainboard in the cardboard box it came in. It's small and quiet... I should've bought a quieter hard drive though.

    Useful links:
    linitx.com /linitx.org
    mini-itx.com
    via.com.tw

    I think I must've missed why this is news.