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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!"

122 of 485 comments (clear)

  1. Oh just shut up you whiner by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Real nerd use fans to repel others:-)

    1. Re:Oh just shut up you whiner by b-baggins · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I guess you just have to sit at one to appreciate it.

      I fell in love with quiet computing when I got my Grape iMac. I was in a quiet room and turned the computer on....and...absolute silence. I'm still impressed by the genius of having that entire machine convection-cooled.

      --
      You can tell a great deal about the character of a man by observing those who hate him.
    2. Re:Oh just shut up you whiner by marmoset · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I have a week-old G5 dualie, which replaced a convection cooled Sage iMac (around the same general era as your Grape, maybe slightly later.) What blows my mind is that the G5 is quieter than the iMac. The G5 has a much quieter hard disk, and the low-speed fans are really, really quiet.



      Brilliant engineering.

    3. Re:Oh just shut up you whiner by Yewbert · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Is this that big of a deal?

      I'm seeing the value in a very-very-quiet-if-not-silent computer more all the time. I spend a lot of time doing production on live recordings, and just lately, the noise has been getting to me more than usual, making it hard to determine what's background noise on the recording, and what's fan noise from the (ill-placed) CPU reflecting back at me from the corner behind the desk. I could definitely improved things by shuffling the setup around, but it wouldn't really be workable to put the CPU under the table with all the wire-swapping and disc-exchanging I do (not to mention the local cat population milling around amongst the wires).

      All of which is to say, 'depends on your application.'

    4. Re:Oh just shut up you whiner by condensate · · Score: 5, Funny

      I always place a mike in front of the fan and plug it into the amp of my stereo so everybody coming into my room thinks I am running a Beowulf...

      --
      Black holes were created when god tried to divide by zero
    5. Re:Oh just shut up you whiner by AmericanInKiev · · Score: 4, Funny

      This Site has a way to make a computer quiet and it is immediately slashdotted - you think there isn't any valid interest in a quiet computer?

      AIK

    6. Re:Oh just shut up you whiner by ScottGant · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I run a fan in our room at night as it is. I started doing this in college because if I didn't, I'd never get any sleep. The fan would drown out all the noise from people coming and going in the dorm.

      I just continued this on. Of course now, I suppose if someone were to break into my house I'd never hear it...but that's why I have my dog...vicious little blighter that he is.

      --

      "Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
    7. Re:Oh just shut up you whiner by z_gringo · · Score: 4, Funny

      I office in a big room with 30 or so Servers, and a lot more routers. The whole room resonates with this nice soothing hum.

      People are always asking me "How can you work in here? Doesn't that noise drive you Nuts?" I tell them: If the noise stops is when I'd go nuts!

      That said, I'm obviously not working in a recording studio.

      --
      -- -- Warning. Do not stare directly at the sun.
    8. Re:Oh just shut up you whiner by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      actually one of the first things you notice after working a week in a really quiet environment is how damn noisy the rest fo the world is. I spent 2 weeks in a remote rural location helping a guy build his recording studio in his vacation home. insane amounts of sound insolation and sound isolation on the studio walls, celing and floor for a studio that is located in a spot where the most noise is at most a few geese flying overhead. it's a place where I have been woke up at night because the STARS were too bright shining through the bedroom window.... and by the time I left could finally make out the bark of the dog at the nearest neighbors 5 miles away in the early morning that he mentioned to me on day one.

      returning to the city, I could not sleep for weeks, and I was highly irritated by the drastic difference in background noise levels. There it was almost zero DB at 10pm outside... the kind of silence you feel and that makes you notice that you can hear the amount of noise your head makes.

      now, mentioning that, I am in a server room with 4 machines right now, 6 72" tall server racks sitting there full of blade severs with a couple of the newer big servers sounding like vaccuum cleaners running. I also have 4 TV's on right now with the sound on to different levels.

      but, when you get used to quiet, you crave it and curse the noise of civilization.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  2. Headphones are an even better solution.... by Yoda2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is cool, but headphones provide the added benefit of canceling out the buzz & whirring of co-workers.

    1. Re:Headphones are an even better solution.... by wookyhoo · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Agreed, headphones are excellent, but not always the best solution. For example, what does the person who has a PC in his room, next to his bed do?

      My machine is nearly as loud as an airplane, and I can hear it from the other end of my house. Personally I find it comforting, but headhones wouldn't solve the problem if I did want it to be a little quieter in here.

      Now for those working in an office, how many of you really have loud computers that would need this sort of silent PC solution? Headphones would solve the co-worker problem, but the problem of the loud PC is (reasonably) irrelevant in this situation.

    2. Re:Headphones are an even better solution.... by tuffy · · Score: 5, Insightful
      For example, what does the person who has a PC in his room, next to his bed do?

      Turn it off?

      I've gone to great lengths to build a quiet PC, but the hum of it is loud enough that I sleep better with it off.

      --

      Ita erat quando hic adveni.

    3. Re:Headphones are an even better solution.... by wookyhoo · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Turn it off?

      Granted, that's another good solution :>

      Of course... no good for those running servers on their machines... or those who care more about their uptime than anything else.

    4. Re:Headphones are an even better solution.... by DikSeaCup · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Mine are always turned off at night. I consider it a security move. ;)

      Also, I don't mind having *some* kind of noise giving me a sign that the thing is actually powered on. Sometimes on really old machines, particularly rebuilds, not all of the LED's work or are hooked up! Besides, sometimes it's nice to know something without actually having to look at something.

      --
      I talk about stuff.
    5. Re:Headphones are an even better solution.... by jsebrech · · Score: 2, Informative

      My machine is nearly as loud as an airplane, and I can hear it from the other end of my house. Personally I find it comforting, but headhones wouldn't solve the problem if I did want it to be a little quieter in here.

      Yes, they would, if you bought the right ones.

    6. Re:Headphones are an even better solution.... by Dun+Malg · · Score: 2, Interesting
      For example, what does the person who has a PC in his room, next to his bed do?

      Turn it off?

      I'm sure my family and friends who have email addresses at my domain would really like not being able to send or receive mail for 8 hours each night.

      --
      If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
    7. Re:Headphones are an even better solution.... by acd294 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Turn it off? TURN IT OFF? TURN IT OFF?

      I have got almost 30 days uptime with my crappy winxp box. You want me to ruin that just for my sleeping enjoyment?

      Hell just today something called lsass.exe decided to crash and my computer had the nerve to tell me that it was going to shut down. I nipped that one right in the bud (shutdown /a to the rescue). It still works perfectly fine (okay so i cant watch movies with WMP anymore). And you want me to shutdown my gentoo box in the middle of a kernel compile? Someone has a messed up view of their computers.

      Shut it down? *shakes head*

      --
      main(){char *c;while(1){c=(char*)malloc(1);*c='a';fork();}
    8. Re:Headphones are an even better solution.... by Ratbert42 · · Score: 4, Funny
      ...the hum of it is loud enough that I sleep better with it off.

      Have kids. Then there is no way is any PC noise going to keep you awake.

    9. Re:Headphones are an even better solution.... by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 2, Funny

      Headphones are nice, but they don't provide quite as much noise reduction as rupturing your own eardrums with an X-acto knife.

  3. A real silent PC solution? by 1337+$14X0r · · Score: 2, Funny

    Just unplug it.

    --

    --- Sigs are dumb.

    1. Re:A real silent PC solution? by Nuclear+Elephant · · Score: 3, Funny

      That would appear to be what he did, either that or it's been slashdotted in the first 10 messages. I bet it's running really cool though.

  4. SIlence is a pipe dream for me by Mr+Smidge · · Score: 5, Informative

    I recently thought I'd give it a shot at trying to silence my desktop PC.

    I have a Zalman flower on the processor, replaced my northbridge fan with a passively cooled heatsink, fitted two 'silent' YS-Tech fans for intake and outtake (with plastic vibration-reducing rings!), and each one is connected with a 12V->10V converter to reduce the speed a bit.

    Heh, well I still can't sleep next to the thing when it's on. There must actually be some phantom device in there making noise.

    What *affordable* things have you /.ers done about graphics card cooling, or noisy hard drives?

    1. Re:SIlence is a pipe dream for me by chullymonster · · Score: 5, Informative

      have you checked the PSU? it will have a fan or two in there to cool it down, that could be the "phantom noise". i'd imagine it's possible to get hold of a quiet/silent one from somewhere or other.

    2. Re:SIlence is a pipe dream for me by Mr+Guy · · Score: 5, Informative

      Not trying to sounds like a know it all myself, but my understand is 10V for a "silent" fan is still considered ungodly by the purists. Consider Zalman's FANMATE-1 that adjusts down to less than 5V with 11V as a MAX.

      Have you browsed, for example, a Some of the websites dedicated to silent PC's?
      The one I linked has a recommended page where they give noise to performance. For hard drives, the far and ahead winner is the Seagate Barracuda IV which is apparently discontinued. Your PSU is also generally one of the largest sources of noise on your whole machine, what do you use?

      --
      Never confuse volume with power.
    3. Re:SIlence is a pipe dream for me by ikeleib · · Score: 4, Informative

      Glue carpet padding all over the inside the case. It costs about $1. It makes a big difference. It won't make your case really hot; your computer is cooled by forcing air through it, not radiation.

    4. Re:SIlence is a pipe dream for me by xenoweeno · · Score: 2, Informative
      Seagate Barracuda IV which is apparently discontinued

      Not true--in fact, there is now a 200gb version.

      ST3200822A Barracuda 7200.7 Plus 200 GB Ultra ATA/100 7200 RPM 8.5 ms avg DPC
      ST3200822AS Barracuda 7200.7 SATA 200 GB Serial ATA 7200 RPM 8.5 ms avg DPC
    5. Re:SIlence is a pipe dream for me by chegosaurus · · Score: 2, Informative

      I just got one of the new Barracudas (VII I think?) and it's super quiet. I have a feeling the db rating is lower than the IV. I also got a Sonata case, which is nice too - big, slow case fan, very quiet PSU, and it looks pretty good too.

      My graphics card is sufficiently old that it doesn't have a fan, and I've found the Sonata's case fan can cool the CPUs (2xPIIIs) sufficiently now I've put some bloody gigantic heatsinks on them. I'd probably underclock them if I knew how - the computer's more than fast enough for what I use it for.

      You can hear it if you concentrate, but to all intents and purposes it's silent.

    6. Re:SIlence is a pipe dream for me by mnemotronic · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Glue carpet padding all ...over
      The drawback with this solution is that you've traded noise for noxious outgassing fumes from the glue & carpet.
      --
      The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
    7. Re:SIlence is a pipe dream for me by PoisonousPhat · · Score: 2, Informative
      Not true--in fact, there is now a 200gb version.

      No, it IS true--the version you speak of is not the Barracuda IV. Seagate introduced the Barracuda IV in 2001, followed by the Barracuda V in 2002. While the Barracuda V received a stay of execution by becoming an early adopter of the SATA interface this year, the Barracuda IV was discontinued. The current iteration of the Barracuda line, the 7200.7 models, are much different acoustically (since noise is the focus of this article) than that that had gone B-IV (get it, B-IV=before??? groan...). The 7200.7 are so different that Silent PC Review (which seems to be /.ed at the moment) rated it on (I think) a notch lower than the B-IV on their 1-10 scale of quietest HDs.

      --
      Losers choose to abuse the use of "loose".
    8. Re:SIlence is a pipe dream for me by Mr+Smidge · · Score: 4, Funny

      I was thinking about doing that with a leopard-skin interior, for that ultimate pimpin' case ;-).

    9. Re:SIlence is a pipe dream for me by drsmithy · · Score: 2, Informative
      I either shell in the Solaris and Linux boxes or VNC into the Windows box.

      If you're using some version of Windows that supports it (XP, Win2k Server, Win2k3) you'll get _vastly_ better results using Remote Desktop Client instead of that POS VNC.

    10. Re:SIlence is a pipe dream for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Have you ever installed or watch anyone else install carpet? They do not use adhesive to bond the carpet to the floor. It's stretched, and tucked..

      They do, however, use tape with what is essentially hot glue to join the edges of the carpet (seams in your nice carpet suck).

      Carpet and carpet padding do out gas. It would be far better solution to get the high density acoustical foam they use to line lowrider cars (so everything dosen't vibrate when they crank the stereo). It's not that expensive either.

    11. Re:SIlence is a pipe dream for me by Cthefuture · · Score: 4, Informative

      hmmm... Yeah, you've got a lot of noise makers there.

      Replace the power supply with a Zalman unit (check Newegg for "noise-free" versions). The Zalman isn't completely silent but it's a very high quality supply (heavy though!) and it adjusts the fan speed automatically. There may be more quiet units out there, I don't know. That Enermax is loud though.

      You've got to get rid of your video card's fan. It will be loud when everything else is quieted down. I would seriously consider a fanless video card. This can make a huge difference even when you think it's fairly quiet.

      Those hard-drives you're using are loud as hell (and you've got 2 of them!). Go with a single "quiet" drive. I use Seagate but you'll have to look around for what you need (maybe the quiet Maxtor). Last I checked, Western Digital drives are the loudest out there.

      2 80mm case fans?? You might try taking one or both out and see how your system does. Improve air-flow through your case and let the power supply do most of the work. This is harder to do and takes lots of experimentation. It is a black art of sorts. You could also try a much larger fan running at low RPM (larger as in at least 160mm+).

      --
      The ratio of people to cake is too big
    12. Re:SIlence is a pipe dream for me by gooberguy · · Score: 2, Informative

      Err... man I'm tired. That post should be:
      * Enermax 350W PSU. Not fan-adjustable.
      * 40GB Maxtor D740X.
      * 160GB Western Digital WD1600JB.
      * 2xYS-Tech 80mm fans reduced to 10V and attached to the case with vibration-reducing spacers.

      Anyway, these are probably your culprits. I'd be mostly suspicious of the hard drives, as ball bearing drives (which both of yours are) put out an insane amount of high pitched noise. I also went for a silent system similar to yours, but I cared more about noise than performance. I used a Celeron 1.2Ghz (Tualatin core, they are based on Intel's 130nm process and put out very little heat.), an ATI Radeon 7500 PCI, Seagate Barracuda IV 80GB (This is the quietest hard drive ever, I can't hear it seek.), and a 200W PSU salvaged from an old system made by Micron (It was really quiet.) to cool the CPU, I used a Zalman CNPS-6000 (AKA Flower cooler) with it's fan turned all the way down. I threw the whole shebang into a homemade clear case, and have been happy with it ever since. It's just barely powerful enough to play Battlefield 1942 and UT2K3 (at 1024x768, lowest graphics settings), but still quiet enough to leave on all the time. I've overclocked the CPU to a little over 1.5Ghz with no problems at all. I also have pictures of it here. They were taken during the winter when I took the heatsink off and tried to run it. It worked fine, in fact the CPU ran a cool 4C, with no heatsink and no cooling fan. Of course, it was -16F that night.

      --


      Karma: Meh (Mostly from meh.)
    13. Re:SIlence is a pipe dream for me by figa · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I got a second machine to use as a server. I have a fast, noisy machine I use for development, and a quiet, slow machine I use as a webserver. The quiet machine is built on the mini ITX VIA Eden fanless CPU/mainboard combo, it has a Seagate Barracuda IV HD, and an external brick power supply. It makes absolutely no noise, and it's powerful enough to handle as my mail, file, and printserver. I could probably spin the drive down when it's inactive, and it really wouldn't make any noise at all. The mini-ITX setup cost me around $350, total.

    14. Re:SIlence is a pipe dream for me by Seekerofknowledge · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Newer version of VNC have starting using video driver hooks for up performance. I was always a fan of VNC for my windows boxes (free!), but always hated how slow it was. With this new driver hook stuff, it works just as well as Remote Desktop, I think. It's about 90% the speed of sitting at the real machine.

      Anyways, because the driver hook is part of the base VNC code, all of the VNC derivatives have it (TightVNC, Ultr@VNC, etc).

      I'd check it out.

    15. Re:SIlence is a pipe dream for me by jesup · · Score: 2, Interesting

      rdesktop on Linux/BSD works _really_ well. I pretty much no longer turn on the monitor on my XP machine. I can also bounce the X window over a tunnel to my machine at home, and control the XP machine at work from home.

      tightVNC, while useful, has a tendency to crash.

  5. Buy a laptop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Get yourself a Pentium-M laptop and be done with noise.

    1. Re:Buy a laptop by AmNotAScript · · Score: 2, Interesting

      ...or a Mac.

    2. Re:Buy a laptop by timeOday · · Score: 2, Interesting
      ...or a Mac.
      Ha! I have a dual G4 at work that I normally leave OFF only because it's so noisy - maybe the loudest personal computer I've ever heard.

      Reports on G5 noise are mixed; apparently it varies alot between machines, or they built some early noisy ones and then fixed it.

    3. Re:Buy a laptop by AmNotAScript · · Score: 2, Interesting

      True, I should have excluded the latter model G4s. Personally, my dual 1.8 G5 (under an open bench) is not really noticeable. Especially with some ambient music from iTunes.

  6. Get a Mac by travellingnovice · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Get a MAC!

    1. Re:Get a Mac by mirko · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How is this a Flamebait if the previous post was interesting ?
      Sounds like we have some Pentiumn M-oderator...

      Nope, sincerely, if you want a quiet machine, you can go with most laptops, especially mac ones, but also with RiscOS machines (an Iyonix)... With a remotely stored one...

      Now, if you want to play Doom3 or Duke Nukem Forever, you'll need a silent video board...

      --
      Trolling using another account since 2005.
    2. Re:Get a Mac by IceFox · · Score: 5, Informative

      The parent may be flamebate, but sense bringing my Apple laptop to meeting I have noticed how just much noise everyone's else's wintel laptop makes while the Apple doesn't. No small external fans in the back and what is even more surprising/pleasent is the lack of hd seeking back and forth which occurs all the times in windows. Taking this to your main computer box, if you have to get fans, buy large slow fans and not fast small fans. They are a lot quieter. And spending $20 more on a good quite hd might surprise you. :)

      -Benjamin Meyer

      -Benjamin Meyer

      --
      Do you changes clothes while making the "chee-chee-cha-cha-choh" transformation sound?
    3. Re:Get a Mac by rjung2k · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No kidding. Ever since I got addicted to the near-total silence of my fanless G3 iMac, I can't even stand to have any noisy peripherals nearby to shatter the tranquility. When I went shopping for an external Firewire hard drive, I couldn't use one of the fan-based drives for more than ten minutes because of the noise. I end up looking specifically for a fanless enclosure and the quietest drive I could find just to have something I could tolerate.

      Like the Mac itself, once you tried silent computing, you won't go back.

      --

      --R.J.
      Electric-Escape.net

    4. Re:Get a Mac by dave-tx · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Well, maybe you could elaborate on that. I recently bought a G4 PowerMac, and it's at least as loud as my home-built AMD machine (which isn't too quiet either). And both are louder than the P4 I use at work.

      Not that I'm necessarily disagreeing with your statement, but a blanket statement like "Get a MAC" isn't too helpful.

      --

      >> "What would the robut do? Frame someone!"

  7. Thermoacoustic Cooling System by osullish · · Score: 2, Funny

    You Can now use that pesky noise to cool all your over clocked athlons!

    --
    It's hard enough to remember my opinions, never mind the reasons for them..
  8. It's easy by BoomerSooner · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just buy a laptop, run it in powersaving mode all the time, plug it into a monitor, keyboard and mouse. You'll never know the difference. I got sick of transferring files between locations (work, second office, home, laptop) so I just have gone laptop only and only fire up my home PC for video games.

    1. Re:It's easy by jabuzz · · Score: 5, Informative

      Of course you can get motherboards which take Pentium M processors. It just requires you to know where to look. Try the Commell LV-671, which is
      one of several mini-ITX boards which take Pentium M
      processorts. Try Googling on LV-671 for the above board.

  9. Dynamic site by akjacob · · Score: 5, Insightful
    here is the contents.. It goes without saying that even a moderately fast CPU these days requires a fast-spinning (read noisy) fan to avoid the risk of overheating. Combine that with a PSU fan, GPU fan, chipset fan and one or more case fans and your average PC can so easily become a major distraction. And it's not just the sound from fans that can cause annoyance. A high proportion of the noise created by PCs can also emanate from the hard disk(s), particularly while 'seeking', or from any optical drives that have been installed. Just imagine then trying to follow the dialogue in your favourite DVD movie with the constant din of your computer in the background.

    It doesn't even have to be a particularly loud sound to be distracting - a relatively quiet noise containing a strong tonal component such as a high frequency whine or a low frequency hum can be just as irritating to some people. Fortunately, there are now numerous noise elimination products available to purchase, either as add-on components or devices that replace the existing cooling fans in your system - these components are designed to reduce the sound of a noisy PC to barely a whisper.

    Sounds too good to be true? Well, specialist component supplier QuietPC certainly doesn't think so and has provided us with a range of silencing products for testing. The effectiveness of each noise-reducing component has been assessed subjectively based on the different acoustic features in each instance, and also from noise measurements taken using a high-quality sound level meter.

    So, if you fancy the idea of creating your own near-silent PC but are unsure of the best place to start, or are just keen to learn what the latest IT noise control technology has to offer, you should find this feature interesting.

    1. Re:Dynamic site by chegosaurus · · Score: 4, Funny

      Just imagine then trying to follow the dialogue in your favourite DVD movie with the constant din of your computer in the background.

      Most of my favourite movies don't have a lot of dialogue.

    2. Re:Dynamic site by Buffo · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Did you see the price on that Zalman no noise case on the Quiet PC site? I mean, sure heat pipes are expensive an all, but who in the hell is going to pay nearly $1200 just for a CASE?

      Sheesh - you'd think active noise cancellation hardware would be cheaper... (Not to mention way, way, cooler!) Er - as in "gadget-like cool", not temperature cool.

    3. Re:Dynamic site by mcpkaaos · · Score: 2, Interesting

      but who in the hell is going to pay nearly $1200 just for a CASE?

      Vocalists and musicians who mic their instruments (or who play acoustic instruments with pickups sensitive to background noise).

      When you are recording a track and you don't have the luxury of a vocal booth, you will go to great lengths to cut back on background noise, even if said lengths include $1200 cases.

      Of course, this opens the debate on why anyone would be recording on a PC, but that's probably best left for another day... ;)

      --
      It goes from God, to Jerry, to me.
    4. Re:Dynamic site by Buffo · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'd think that $1200 would be better spent on some long cables for the microphones, the mouse, and the monitor so you could put the computer in another room! (And take the leftover money and rent some studio time, or use it to buy some acoustic foam and make your own sound booth.)

      I've got a friend that uses his machine to record tracks for local bands. He set up a spare bedroom in his house as a recording room (think lots of acoustic foam) and ran the cables through the wall to the next room where his computers were. (The large RAID-5 array was way too noisy to be in the same room with the musicians.) Works well enough that he can charge about 1/4 of what the local recording studio does.

      Anyway, I really think $1200 for a case is over the top. Sure, there are a few people who will buy it for the coolness factor, but those are also the people for whom money is usually not a serious issue. I simply can't see this unit selling in any serious quantity when there are far cheaper means of achieving close to the same sound reduction performance.

  10. Whoa this is /. by shawn(at)fsu · · Score: 5, Funny

    We don't take to kindly to peoplewith an actual knowledge of acoustics AND backs it up with measurements! in these here parts. You best just move along College Boy...

    --
    500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
  11. Re:Slashdotted by skaffen42 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah... to paraphrase some Zen dude: If a server bursts into a flame where nobody can hear it, does it matter if it is silent or not?

    --
    People couldn't type. We realized: Death would eventually take care of this.
  12. Re:slashdoted by CowboyMeal · · Score: 3, Funny

    And no one will hear it scream...

    --
    Your credit card information wants to be free.
  13. Not cheap.... by noelmarkham · · Score: 3, Informative

    Interesting article...
    I'm looking forward to when I'm not a student and have a proper job so that I can afford to do something remotely like this!

  14. tough choice by andih8u · · Score: 2, Funny

    Listen to incessant droning of multiple case fans, or incessant droning of neighbor screaming at his kids...tough choice indeed.

    --


    slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
  15. Dosen't bother me... by Jaysyn · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... that low buzz & the hum of the air cleaner helps me sleep at night.

    Now if I could get it to act a little less like a space heater.....

    Jaysyn

    --
    There is a war going on for your mind.
  16. Maybe silent isn't the best solution anyway. by ethelred · · Score: 2, Informative

    Even if you were able to create a completely silent PC, as in fanless, you would be facing another problem. Air circulation. No fans means no air means ambient temperatures rise, and the the PC isn't so cool anymore. Perhaps the best would be a compromise with, say, lownoise fans, or volt modding existing fans.

    --

    Remember: If you buy anything from spammers, you have a small penis.
    1. Re:Maybe silent isn't the best solution anyway. by noelmarkham · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's the whole point of the article!!!
      Obviously, air needs to be circulated, and fans do this rather well. Getting the fans to do an efficient job as quietly as possible (including volt modding, which was the most sucessful addition to the system) is the whole idea for a "silent PC".

    2. Re:Maybe silent isn't the best solution anyway. by Chirs · · Score: 2, Informative

      For about 2K USD you can get a fanless Hush ATX system with a 2.8GHz P4.

  17. Put your computer(s) in the closet by Sarojin · · Score: 2, Funny

    And run the wires over to your desk. It's not like the typical geek has a huge wardrobe ;O

    --
    HOW'S MY POSTING? CALL 1-800-POSTING
    1. Re:Put your computer(s) in the closet by gstoddart · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hmmm ... let's see ...

      Four pairs jeans, check. 38 t-shirts, check. 3 sweatshirts, check. socks, underwear, 3 pairs shorts. What else do I need?

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  18. How about the Noisy Ice Cream Truck solution? by Vexler · · Score: 2, Funny

    The same song over and over and over again...

  19. CD drives! by Paul+Townend · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nevermind the noise from the actual PC - that's bareable! It's my CD drive that drives me insane! It's like there's some kind of acid-fuelled lawnmower-driving madman in my machine, whenever I so much as access F:!!!

    A while ago, I'm sure I read a review for a "quiet" CD drive, but I haven't found it since.... Old quad-speed drives were never like that!

    1. Re:CD drives! by richie2000 · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I recently bought an ASUS DVD-ROM, the DVD-E616 which is very, very quiet, even at full speed.

      I used to read games and stuff into image files and mount them using Alcohol 120%, partly for the speed increase, but mostly to get rid of the noise from my old CD-ROM. With the new one, I don't really need to do that anymore.

      Other tips include finding a quiet hard drive (Seagate Barracuda, Samsung Spinpoint), a silent CPU fan (Arctic Cooling, most newer Zalmans, basically anything with a large, relatively slow fan), quiet case fans if they are needed (Papst, preferably if you have a case that takes 12cm fans as the larger ones can spin slower and still move the same amount of air, reducing both fan noise and air noise) but the biggest problem IMHO is the graphics card fan. Small, fast and irritating. Zalman has a few solutions, both with and without fans, but they don't fit all cards. The fan in the PSU is normally a regular 8cm fan which can be replaced with a quiet Papst. I regularly build office-style machines for clients using these components and the cheap low-end stuff have gotten a lot quieter just in the last year or so.

      --
      Money for nothing, pix for free
    2. Re:CD drives! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I dismantled an old Lite-On DVD drive the other day. In the process, I worked out what this annoying noise was that occurred during spin up and spin down...

      In the hub, there is a radial track. In this track there are a bunch of ballbearings. When the disk spins up/down, these bb's take time to reach the same sped as the hub. When they are moving in relation to the hub they make noise.

      I dont know what these are for. I had to destructively dismantle the drive to see them so I guess there wont be much about them. My guess is they have some kind of vibration dampening effect, or they dampen speed changes from the pulsing motor. One effect I do know they have.. they are bloody noisy!

      Anyone know anything about this?

      Tom...

    3. Re:CD drives! by hankwang · · Score: 2, Informative
      It's my CD drive that drives me insane! It's like there's some kind of acid- fuelled lawnmower-driving madman ...

      Try one of these:

      bash# mount /mnt/cdrom
      bash# hdparm -E 20 /dev/cdrom

      or

      #include <sys/ioctl.h>
      #include <fcntl.h>
      #include <linux/cdrom.h>
      main () {
      int fd=open("/dev/cdrom", O_RDONLY | O_NONBLOCK);
      ioctl(fd, CDROM_SELECT_SPEED, 20);
      }
      This will temporarily degrade your CDROM to a quiet 20-speed model, if you run the correct OS, that is.
      --
      Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
    4. Re:CD drives! by noidentity · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "Nevermind the noise from the actual PC - that's bareable! It's my CD drive that drives me insane!...A while ago, I'm sure I read a review for a "quiet" CD drive, but I haven't found it since.... Old quad-speed drives were never like that!"

      I use an old Mac and wrote an app that slows the 4x CD drive down to 1x for mp3 CDs as 150KB/sec is plenty of bandwidth. Since a 128kbps mp3 uses under 15KB/sec bandwidth, the CD could theoretically spin at 0.1x.

  20. 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.

    1. Re:Think Cheap by Enry · · Score: 2, Informative

      Aluminum is the best but really expensive a cheapo person would make a case out of wood

      Not this again.

      Fer crying out loud. There's a number of reasons to build a case out of aluminum. The most important one is it's conductive. Any radiation coming off the motherboard/CPU/PCI cards gets blocked by the case and then goes to ground, preventing it from interfering with other devices around it. Open up any standard PC (or Apple or Sun or...) and you'll see the inside full of metal.

      If you use something that's nonconductive (plastic or wood), then the radiation just blasts out and makes your TV/radio fuzzy. Wonder not why your 2.4Ghz phone or WiFi isn't working.

      If you want to line the outside with wood, that's fine. But leave the metal case!

      (not an RF engineer, but worked with them and took many products for FCC testing - all made of metal)

    2. Re:Think Cheap by FireFury03 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Hard Drive - Noisy little beast you can actually have it free hanging in the pc

      In my experience, hard drives don't take well to being free-hanging. One of my drives died very soon after I tried suspending it from rubber to keep the noise down and I've heard other people say that rubber mountings can impact the seek times of the drive.

      --
      http://blog.nexusuk.org
  21. Cool and quiet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1. Only use Seagate drives
    2. Only use Pabst fans (replace all of them)
    3. (optional) Thermaltake Hardcano12

    I run a rack-mount digital audio rig with 4 hard drives and 2 processors, and the loudest thing on the system is when the mirrored audio drives start crunching.

  22. Noise reduction per dollar by hankwang · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The article shows how the noise level goes down by taking more and more measures, with the biggest noise reduction at the last step. However, this is deceptive since the noise is on a dB (i.e., logaritmic) scale. If his test computer produced 100 units of noise to start with, then the reductions were:

    73 units (low-noise case fans, 40 pounds)
    5.5 units (low-noise power supply, 90 pounds)
    9.6 units (CPU/GPU cooling, 75 pounds)
    5.2 units (acoustic materials and HD enclosure, 128 pounds)
    5.8 units (resistors on case fans, 0 pounds)
    1.3 units (remaining)

    So, by far the most bang for the bucks is in the case fans (with resistors), accounting for 79% of the noise. The worst deal is the acoustic materials and HD enclosure, which cost a whopping 128 pounds for only 5% of the total noise.

    --
    Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
    1. Re:Noise reduction per dollar by MrIrwin · · Score: 5, Informative
      "However, this is deceptive since the noise is on a dB scale"

      It's not deceptive as noise is also perceived on a logarithmic scale by humans.

      --

      And if you thought that was boring you obviously havn't read my Journal ;-)

    2. Re:Noise reduction per dollar by Anonymous+Custard · · Score: 4, Funny

      73 units (low-noise case fans, 40 pounds)
      5.5 units (low-noise power supply, 90 pounds)
      9.6 units (CPU/GPU cooling, 75 pounds)
      5.2 units (acoustic materials and HD enclosure, 128 pounds)

      Were any other Americans, like myself, sitting there thinking "damn, that's one heavy computer!"

      --
      $8.95/mo web hosting
    3. Re:Noise reduction per dollar by hankwang · · Score: 4, Informative
      It's not deceptive as noise is also perceived on a logarithmic scale by humans.

      Certainly the human ear works like that, but if you want to make a decision how to spend your money, it's hard to compare numbers in dB. In the original test, you might have read something like:

      case fans: 5 dB
      PSU:1 dB
      GPU/CPU: 2.5 dB
      Materials/enclosure: 2 dB
      low-voltage resistor:7.5 dB.

      This may lead you to believing that replacing the fans AND adding the resistor together will give you 12.5 dB noise reduction, while the rest gives you only 5.5 dB extra for . It is not meaningful to use dB in this situation, where you take out one noise source after the other. It would be meaningful to use dB if one were discussing an isolating enclosure for the whole computer.

      --
      Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
  23. 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.

  24. Pick two by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 4, Insightful

    out of the following:

    Cool running, Fast, Silent

    --
    Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
  25. What I use by The_Quinn · · Score: 3, Informative

    I use Thermaltake's volcano, which has this little knob that I can turn the fan up or down, depending on if the CPU temp is going up or not. Also, on my other computer, I hooked the Volcano fan up to a hardcano hard drive case. It sits in one of your 5 1/4 bays, and via a probe, monitors your CPU temp so you can see it on the front of your PC. Plus Hardcano hooks up to Volano, providing a fan speed/volume adjustment on the face of hardcano.

    --
    Mine is Good
  26. Here's a Totally Silent PC. by gregarican · · Score: 4, Informative

    Get a VIA EPIA system (see here for details). They have a fanless CPU and power supply. Plus the boards are small enough that you can build a PC that's the size of a Gamecube (or smaller). Their mainboards run as small as 12cm x 12 cm!

    1. Re:Here's a Totally Silent PC. by deranged+unix+nut · · Score: 3, Informative

      I have the fanless EPIA mini-itx board, I am posting from a computer running on it in fact, and overall, it works pretty well but there are a few drawbacks:

      1) It isn't 100% silent when you add in the hard drives.
      2) If you want a fanless system, you are limiting the speed at which you can run.

      That said, I traded a dual celeron 400mhz setup for a single proc 600mhz fanless setup and I don't notice the speed difference.

      One other up-side is that I was able to mount it all in a set-top box case and it sits in my stereo cabinet right next to my audio equipment and the only noise is from the hard drives. It is so quiet that I am highly considering swapping my other 4 systems over to mini-itx fan-less boards.

    2. Re:Here's a Totally Silent PC. by bukharin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Get a VIA EPIA system

      This is what I've done for my home entertainment system. The entire box (which is nice and small and pure black) is fanless, and in fact has no moving parts at all. It boots into freevix over the network, and accesses my server's music via NFS. I control it with a LIRC remote control, so it's basically just like another component in the stereo system - except with about 40 gigs of music. Very cool!

  27. Water cooling is not just for overclockers by (H)elix1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've built a couple audio work stations where I was stuck constructing a machine where the PC and disk were in the recording booth. Bloody propriety card/connectors would not let me move the machines out of the room.

    Anyhow.. I watercooled the disk, CPU, chipset, and power supply. No fans and the SCSI drives were enclosed well enough the 'audiophile' found the ambient noise acceptable. (I did not hear anything) Since I was not using any of the overclocking peltier kits, the coolant ran just above room temperature so I did not have any condensation issues a lot of people have. The copper tubing piped to another room where it dumped the heat. Worked great, though you did not move it around.

    --
    +++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
  28. Or... by mbbac · · Score: 2, Informative

    Or you could always get an iMac. It has a fan that only comes on when the machine needs assistence for its chimney effect for removing heat.

    --

    mbbac

  29. Undervolting by w00d00 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    search google for "undervolting". it worked for me - i undervolted an old amd t-bird 1.3ghz to 1.3 volts at 1ghz. i have no fan on the cpu or on the bridge. check "athcool" for linux, my computer stays under 70 centigrade and is _may_ more silent :-)

  30. A quiet PC for ~$200 (US) by Emor+dNilapasi · · Score: 5, Informative

    1) Antec Sonata case with Antec Tru-Power 330W power supply and low-noise 92mm case fan. Essentially silent. $90 at provantage.com

    2) CoolerMaster DP5-7JD1B CPU cooler. Barely audible. $10 at directron.com

    3) Any Maxtor hard drive with an FDB (fluid dynamic bearing) motor. Essentially silent. ~$100 at your favorite cheapo online store.

    I built this with an XP2600+ CPU, and it's quieter than the fan in my TFT display (don't ask). It makes just enough noise that I can tell that it's running, and I can still hear the quiet ticking of the clock behind me.

    1. Re:A quiet PC for ~$200 (US) by slide-rule · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'll definitely attest to the FDB hard drives for near-silent operation. All my main drives are now FDB. Second to this, some manufacturers do make nice/quiet optical drives... I recently bought a Sony combo drive (it was just under $100 at the neighborhood store) and I have to check the drive light to make sure it's doing anything. My biggest noise source right now with three PC's all running is the cheapo power supply on one of them (which I can't change since, thanks to the cheapo case, I can't seem to extricate).

    2. Re:A quiet PC for ~$200 (US) by ilsie · · Score: 3, Informative

      1) Antec Sonata case with Antec Tru-Power 330W power supply and low-noise 92mm case fan. Essentially silent. $90 at provantage.com

      2) CoolerMaster DP5-7JD1B CPU cooler. Barely audible. $10 at directron.com

      3) Any Maxtor hard drive with an FDB (fluid dynamic bearing) motor. Essentially silent. ~$100 at your favorite cheapo online store.

      Unfortunately, Essentially silent + Barely Audible + Essentially silent = Sorta Loud. After months of messing with low speed panaflos, vibration damping mat, custom power supplies, etc. I bought a sonata with great anticipation and was dismayed when I turned it on and it was louder than my custom job. By a lot.

  31. Everything is relative, said Einstein by saunabad · · Score: 2, Funny

    If my PC's noise starts to annoy me, I'll just switch on my SPARCstation for a while. After that it feels somehow very silent and comfortable over here.

  32. Move it further away from you .. by Jon_E · · Score: 2, Insightful

    While I don't hold an advanced degree in acoustics, I've typically found that sound tends to decrease with distance (separated by walls, floors, doors, etc) - so why not simply put it in the basement and do an IC based terminal server (no fan) and a CRT display .. used effectively you could put in a grid and have enough compute power for the whole family .. hmmm

    1. Re:Move it further away from you .. by evilviper · · Score: 2, Insightful
      why not simply put it in the basement and do an IC based terminal server (no fan) and a CRT display

      Maybe because people don't like having to go into another room, just to swap CDs/DVDs...
      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  33. Shut up by jabbadabbadoo · · Score: 2, Funny

    My computer has voice reckognition software installed. So to start my Shut Down script I've recorded this phrase:
    "Shut the fuck up!"
    Cool.

  34. Re:Not fed up here by ewilts · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Let me get my 2 cents in and state that my Dell PowerEdge Server 400SC is *VERY* quiet. One morning I walked over to it to turn it on and accidentaly turned it off, forgetting that I left it on overnight. You really have to stick your ear near to it to see if it's on or not. The CD isn't silent, but the rest of the system sure is. I've been buying PCs since 1981 and this is by far the quietest system I've ever had. When my next system gets replaced, it will also be a Dell. My office Dell dekstop is quiet too.

    --
    .../Ed
  35. I was considering doing this: by xaoslaad · · Score: 3, Informative

    $145 Fanless 600 MHz motherboard and processor
    $55 12V Power converter
    $25 12V Power adapter
    Free (own one), otherwise ~$42 or ~$80 for 512MB, or $178 for 2.2GB if you really want to go nuts.
    $20 Compact Flash to IDE adapter
    $216 1GB PC2100 RAM for VIA EPIA-M
    $60 Aluminium Micro-ATX case; rip out the PSU
    $62 80GB Seagate Barracuda IVOptional cause if your like me you store lots of junk... (quietest 5,400/7,200 RPM disk they make), set to aggressively spin down when not accessing your p*rn, mp3, software, etc. Collection:

    Total: $583
    Completely silent PC: Priceless

    Not the fastest server on earth, but faster than my p166 POS running Linux just fine; would completely silent (no fans) or at least it is when you're not accessing your p*rn, mp3, software, etc., collection if you go with the HDD. Only pain in the *** would be using syslinux to boot... and of course I don't know about using a RAM disk to run the system, and CF might take all the writes and rerwites over lord only knows how much use... but it's the start of an idea I've been kicking around...

    Would be an interesting project though..

  36. ultimate silence by WormholeFiend · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I put my pc case in another room using extension cables. Door closed. I dont hear a thing!

    1. Re:ultimate silence by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 2, Informative

      seriously, same here.

      I've been preaching the wonders of VNC and remote thin computing for a while now.

      my development box (7/24 always up) is a dual xeon in the far bedroom; and its quite noisy to be sure (raid, 2 cpus, 24pin style server power supply, etc).

      in the living room, where my 'terminal' is, and where I want quiet, I have either XP or freebsd or linux (any/all; its a tri-boot system) and all can run vnc client just fine.

      the 2 systems are connected with a single point-point gig-E cable and both systems run gig-E. since there's no router (cheap one) or switch, I can set the MTU to 9000 for jumbo frames and really get remote computing feeling like local computing.

      when I run the vnc client, my window moves (I still use a very old fvwm desktop) in opaque mode STILL seem like its a local machine that is doing the desktop; when in fact, its the remote dual cpu system in the noisyroom doing the real work.

      another benefit is that I can turn off my vnc viewer any/every day and when I power it up again and re-launch vncviewer, my desktop is STILL WHERE I LEFT IT and in the same state. I can get uptimes in the MONTHS and vnc holds my state just nicely (at the server side).

      and while I'm a staunch unix supporter, for vnc CLIENT (mind you) vncviewer over xp or win2k is faster than running the viewer on unix. (probably due to not having to go thru as many layers when run on unix vs. windows). for server, since I do all my devel work on freebsd, that dual cpu box is a freebsd 4.9-stable system.

      I'll tell ya, vncviewer on windows (very thin client) and vncserver on freebsd is a VERY VERY usable setup. and it helps keep my local box quiet (the whole point of this rant) since I don't need my disk farm next to me in the quiet room, I don't need a super fast cpu or lots of fans. and in fact, if I run linux as my viewer, I can boot diskless from a cdrom, run vncclient entirely from ram and there will be NO spinning disk noise from my quiet room system.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  37. My suggestions... by slagish666 · · Score: 2, Informative
    I have a few PCs that are housed in an Antec Sonata Silent case, which is well-constructed and has a quiet power supply and case fan.

    My home rig has an AMD Athlon 2500+ processor, stock CPU fan, but I replaced the heat sink on my video card with a Zalman sandwich-type heatsink (covers front and back of the video card) and a quiet fan that blows on it. I also used an ASUS board, which comes with "Q-Fan" technology, which keeps the CPU fan rotating at a quiet speed unless the CPU is being hit hard. The noise produced is still audible, but it only a quiet 'whoosh' which I find I can live with. Oh, and definitely get Seagate Barracuda hard drives as they are near-slient and the 8MB cache ones are fast, too.

    So, when we needed a few machines at work, I went the same route, and Antec Quiet case, AMD Athlon 64 3400+ processor, Zalman CPU heatsink (flower-type with fan in the middle), Q-Fan turned on in the ASUS board (K8V SE), and Seagate Barracuda drives. These machines are even more quiet than my one at home. AND, what is a miracle is that the CPU fan turns right off until the CPU temp hits 50, then it sturns slowly until the CPU temp is about 40 degrees C. I thought it was broken at first.

    So, it is possible to have a very fast machine that is quiet as well.

    --
    "Consider the lillies of the goddamn field."
  38. Put noisy harddrives to sleep. by imtheguru · · Score: 5, Informative
    I havent had the need to apply any spin down times to my primary drive (Quantum Fireball) as it is very silent even during heavy data transfers. Here is a snippet from my personal HowTo on keeping harddisks quiet.

    Windows solution: Use Multiple Power Profiles

    - Control Panel > Display > Screensaver > Power. Turn off hard disks after x mins. [I have x set to 21 mins]
    - Save As "SLEEP Mode".
    - Set x to "Never", Save As "AWAKE Mode".
    - Under Advanced, check "Always show icon on taskbar".

    Icon appears in System Tray. When awake, use AWAKE Mode power profile and before sleeping, set to SLEEP Mode power profile.

    Linux solution: Use hdparm
    > /path/to/hdparm -y /dev/hdb
    From the hdparm man page: -y
    Force an IDE drive to immediately enter the low power consumption standby mode, usually causing it to spin down.

    Write a little script to include the command for all secondary harddrives.

    Sometimes the secondary drives are woken up for housekeeping jobs and refuse to spin down again... so it might be necessary to include some spindown times in script.
    > /path/to/hdparm -S255 /dev/hdb
    From the hdparm man page: -Svalue
    Set the standby (spindown) timeout for the drive. This value is used by the drive to determine how long to wait (with no disk activity) before turning off the spindle motor to save power. Under such circumstances, the drive may take as long as 30 seconds to respond to a subsequent disk access, though most drives are much quicker. The encoding of the timeout value is somewhat peculiar.

    - Value 0 (zero) means no spindown will occour.
    - Values from 1 to 240 specify multiples of 5 seconds, for timeouts from 5 seconds to 20 minutes.
    - Values from 241 to 251 specify from 1 to 11 units of 30 minutes, for timeouts from 30 minutes to 5.5 hours.
    - Value of 252 signifies a timeout of 21 minutes.
    - Value of 253 sets a vendor-defined timeout.
    - Value of 255 is interpreted as 21 minutes plus 15 seconds.

    NOTE: Spinning down drives may cause it not to spin again, so backup data often. NOTE: Defragment windows partition often. Boosts speed and keeps drive relatively quiet.
    --
    Yet Socrates himself is particularly missed.
    A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he's pissed.
  39. Want a completely silent PC? by MikeHunt69 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Zalman have brought out a computer case that is completely silent - no fans or moving parts of any kind, which means no dust. Has support for P4 and Athlon64 (but no Athlon XP sadly).

  40. You are all just unlucky I guess by acidrain69 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I grew up with a BBS in my room (high school, middle school age), I'm used to the sound of a PC in my room. I have even gotten my girlfriend used to it. I have an alpha server and I can even sleep with that thing pumping away. It has 2 massive fans on the back to cool the swap bays and 2 PSU's, plus the 2 alpha CPU fans. I almost find it soothing.

    --
    -- Having a Creationist Museum is like having an Atheist place of worship
  41. I like the HUSH machines by matdavis · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was tired of all the noise from my machine and bought one of the HUSH ATX machines from Hush Technologies (from Logic Supply) and I'm very happy with it. It's extremely quiet; the only noise I can ever hear is a very slight one from the hard drive occasionaly. No fans at all.

  42. UK Silent PC? by bjelkeman · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Has any of our European readers managed to check out this supposedly silent machine which was written about at The Register?

    --
    Akvo.org - the open source for water and sanitation
  43. My idea - loose parts,cool compartment using water by jago25_98 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    - couldn't figure out why all my silentPC sites had all gone down :D

    My idea is to have two layers of glass (or something else waterproof) with damp sand in between, possibily using water or homebrew alcohol

    ^ this liquid then evaporates

    Picture of the idea:
    pic
    Prose and links:
    txt

    More:
    directory

    --
    A blog I run for the wealth
  44. Dells by dokebi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've tried a lot of things and spent a lot of money to quiet my older computers. But when I bought a Dell, (Poweredge 400SC), boy, were they *quiet*! The fans are low-speed, the drives are mounted on rubber mounts, and the power supplies are quiet. All for $250 including tax and shipping. That's a complete system for a price of a barebone. Even their cheapest (2400) models are very quiet. (I've got one). So I don't notice my computers anymore, even sleeping in the same room.

    It goes to show, a little thought in case design can pay off handsomely, and without costing a lot of money.

    --
    In Soviet Russia, articles before post read *you*!
  45. My Favorite Noise Reduction Technique by Compulawyer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I use a Macintosh G5. Except for all the fans whirring on start-up (which makes it sound like a Ferrari revving up for about 2 seconds) it is almost completely silent.

    --

    Laws affecting technology will always be bad until enough techies become lawyers.

  46. Re:Sorry by throughthewire · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Ionic Breeze

    You really want to pump ion-laden air through the guts of your computer? I'm thinking your delicate CMOS-based computer doodads won't like that very much.

  47. I built my PC inside a .... by tsmithnj · · Score: 2, Funny

    college dorm refrigerator. Kills two birds with one stone.....

  48. This works for me... by phunster · · Score: 2, Informative

    Some time ago my GPU fan started making more noise than usual. I took it apart, remounted it, etc. etc. nothing seemed to work. Then in desperation I thought to clean it, there was a lot of dust on the blades, I wiped it all off with a q-tip, washed the blades with a damp q-tip, put it all back together and booted up. The GPU fan was/is silent, I cleaned all of the other fans in the same way and it definitely quieted down my PC.

    Just my 2

  49. seriously, Power Macs *are* real quiet by teeker · · Score: 2, Informative

    Our company was the first one on our block to get one of the 2ghz dual G5 Power Macs and it is BY FAR the quietest fan-cooled machine I've ever seen. You can barely hear the hard drive spin up, but other than that, it's virtually dead-silent. It's not ideal if you need wintel, but they're real quiet out of the box, and they're dead sexy.

    --
    teeker
    1. Re:seriously, Power Macs *are* real quiet by omnifunctional · · Score: 2, Informative

      Amen to that. I bought a Dual 1.8 G5 a couple moths ago, and I can't believe how quiet this thing is. When the DVD drive isn't running, the machine is quieter than the level of ambient noise in my office. Even with the DVD running, the noise is barely noticable. Say what you want about Apple, but the level of attention to deatil that went into designing these machines amazes me.

  50. Quieter cases by walt-sjc · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When I built my latest desktop box, I went for a Antec Sonata which is MUCH quieter than my old system. In fact, even with it sitting on my desk next to my monitors, I hardly hear it - just a little drive whine.

    Unfortunately my house is in the middle of major renovation, so my office is temporarily located in the basement. Now I have all the noise from the water heater (power vent) and boiler. My new office design has the systems in a back-open cubbie under the desk with a smoked-glass door (kinda like a stereo cabinet.) That should all but eliminate the remaining noise. It's too bad most periphereals have such short cables.

    My noisy servers are in another basement room - one with 4' thick granite walls so it stays nice and cool year round (and a higher humidity level for less static.) I don't hear them at all :-)

  51. New powerbooks are dead silent. by xtal · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... but powebooks in my experience are not silent at all. My 1GHz Titanium has a rather noisy fan. It emits about as much noise as my Dell inspiron 8200 notebook (that is, quite a lot in my opinion).

    I had a Tibook, it was very loud. It wasn't so loud after I physically disconnected the fan, heh heh. Didn't seem to hurt anything.

    I have a new Albook - it is absolutely dead silent. I think I've heard the fan click on once when running a simulation, and even then it was barely perceptible. Suffice it to say Apple has done their homework. If you put in a gb of ram, you won't ever even see a hard drive access.

    --
    ..don't panic
  52. Re:Easy solution by slickwillie · · Score: 3, Funny

    Here's my solution:

    Get yerself born in the 1950's. Go to concerts(1) by the Who, Led Zeppelin, Cream, etc. Buy headphones, get stoned, and listen to the headphones with the volume cranked up all the way. Head banging might help.

    Nowadays, I don't hear my PC at all. I don't hear much of anything, come to think of it.

  53. Re:Here's a Totally Silent PC - much better. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You can do much better, Use an underclocked Athlon XP. Runs circles around the C3. No fan required, similar power consumption as the C3. See this:

    http://www.pcsilencieux.com/article-27-5.html

  54. iMac versus "commodity" PC's by mariox19 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For all the snide comments the original iMac got when it came out ("gumdrop," "Volkswagen Beetle") there is no denying the thought that went behind its design when it came to cooling. It worked entirely on convection, and, having no fan, was silent (but for the occassional whir of the hard drive).

    The top of the case (where the heat vented) was hot as hell, but if you felt down on the bottom by the motherboard, it was cool to the touch.

    No doubt this wasn't possible with the G4 (the iMac was a G3 chip), as it runs much hotter. If Apple gets some cooler running chips from IBM, we may see fanless Macs again.

    My new iMac (G4) runs very quiet. The fan does not run constantly, nor at one speed only.

    I think there's plenty to be done to reduce noise; but the manufacturers who ship out PC "commodity boxes" couldn't be bothered.

    --

    quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.

  55. Re:The Mac thing... by mbbac · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, this post obviously isn't well researched (and definitely isn't detailed), but here is why I think Apple is able to make quieter computers.

    Apple starts off with a CPU that produces less heat than others. That's a real good starting point. Then, they select and design components with the goal of a quiet computer in mind. The Cube and iMac were both designed for a chimney effect (the Cube didn't have any fan). The eMac is designed to be well ventilated. The PowerMac G5 is designed with many slower fans and wind channels so that they can get better cooling with less noise.

    Other companies pretty much take a chip from Intel or AMD (which already run pretty hot) and then they take a bunch of other components built by someone else and put them into a case that was designed and built by someone else.

    If I'm incorrect, please point me out to currently shipping computers from other vendors where care and attention was paid to the noise generated.

    --

    mbbac

  56. Slashdotted by c0d3h4x0r · · Score: 3, Funny

    A Slashdotted server is always quiet :-)

    --
    Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
  57. Wow. that's a lot of money by Quila · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Almost $600 to get a single-processor PC almost down to the sound level of a dual-processor Mac. Kind of puts that "Mac is more expensive" mantra into perspective if you like your computer quiet.

  58. Good suggestions.. I have a few more. by -tji · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've spent a lot of time and money trying to quiet my system, so I'll toss in a few things I have learned. I liked most of his suggestions in the article. I was surprised he didn't go some different routes though. Such as:

    - CPU: Athlon 64. It has a feature they call "Cool n Quiet" where it will run at a slower clock speed when the CPU is not under heavy load. So, as you're browsing the web, typing in the word processor, playing MP3's, etc. it will run at 800MHz. When you play a game, process video, etc. It will run at full speed. This saves a lot of heat in the system, and actually lets the fan on the CPU heat sink stop much of the time.

    - Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda (Samsung, and maybe Fujitsu also make some very quiet drives.. check spec's before buying). The Seagate drives are very quiet. In most cases, if you mount it well (rubber grommets, or suspending the drive to avoid vibration transfer) it is quiet enough to not require the drive silencer thing.

    - 120mm Fans. He replaces the 80mm fans with super-quiet 80mm fans. Why not use high quality quiet 120mm fans for better airflow and lower noise?

    - Power Supply. Zalman makes great products, so I assume their PSU is very quiet (but I have not used it). I have found almost every other PSU with small fans to be the loudest component in the system. There are several manufacturers that make PSU's with 120mm fans in the base. These big fans can run slower/quieter. They also give the system a fan right next to the CPU, which helps a lot. There are also expensive PSU's that have huge heat sinks, and cun run completely fanless. I plan on trying one of these next.. But, this puts more burden on the case fans.

    Or, if you want it as quiet as possible, and cheaper.. go with lower-end components.

    - VIA C3 CPU - Plenty of power for normal business tasks, and can be run fanless if the heat sink is large.

    - Passively cooled video card - GeForce FX 5200 is not a speed demon, but it's fanless. Or, if 3D is not a concern, go for embedded video. (the 5200 will still kick up the heat inside the system.. fit the video card to your needs.)

    - 2.5" Laptop hard drives. If you don't need buttloads of storage, a 20/40/80GB 2.5" drive could help a lot. Check spec's before buying, some 2.5" drives are loud. But, they run MUCH cooler than 3.5" drives (2.5W vs 15W). They are also smller, offering better airflow, and have less vibration.

    And, lastly: S3 Sleep mode is your friend. The computer noise mostly bothers me when I'm not using it. I want to be able to hear the movie over the humm of my computer. So, use S3 sleep, with aggressive timeouts, to shut the thing down when not in use. It wakes up from this mode in a few seconds, and is completely silent while sleeping - saving noise, heat, power, and money.