Beginning Of the End For PC Noise

An anonymous reader writes "If you work around computers a lot you are probably pretty tired of the noise they produce. The cutting down on computer noise has grown from the pet-peeve of a few people to a major segment of the hardware industry. If you are looking to cut down on noise there are a lot of ways to go, but one of the easiest and most effect is to upgrade to a silent power supply. This guide goes over and tests the four most popular ones on the market right now." A few years back, I had also written a piece about making silent machine as well. Any other hints from people?

Comments

Zzzzzzz

[suso]

If you work around computers a lot you are probably pretty tired of the noise they produce.

Are you kidding? That noise helps me go to sleep.

Re:Zzzzzzz

[DustyShadow]

Apparently it helps the article's server go to sleep as well =)

Re:Zzzzzzz

[JWeinraub]

you are so right! especially in college my room mate snored so loud my only conform was my (and his) computer making noise! of course my router flashing was so soothing too!

Re:Zzzzzzz

[Anonymous Coward]

you could come round to my house and talk me to sleep - you sound very very boring :)

Re:Zzzzzzz

[b1t r0t]

When you sleep in the same room with servers running all the time, it's when the noise stops that wakes you up.

The Wonderful Humming

[ballstothat]

I, for one, enjoy the sound my computer makes.

That constant 25-dB wooshing is the perfect white noise for blocking out the sounds of chatter and staplers in my office, and helping me catch some much needed sleep.

The only answer

[luckypp]

Have your PC in the basement, and the longest monitor and keyboard cords you can find to your office.

Re:The only answer

[Fargazer]

I have a bit of hearing loss, and the noise a computer makes tends to garble any kind of conversation. I tried for years to get a relatively quiet yet powerful computer, and finally decided to physically move the bloody computer away from my ears.

I purchased a Cybex Longview from http://home.hiwaay.net/~redwood/kvm/, put my machine in a room off of my garage, and ran some STP between it and the recreation room. Unshielded is supposed to work, but the line ran past some flourescent lighting, so I became paranoid and bought Shielded Twisted Pair cabling.

That took care of the KVM (1280 x 1024 works just fine on my 22" screen). For sound, I use a Terk product that transmits audio signals over phone lines, and ran a dedicated phone cord for this. There's a bit of hiss if I crank up the volume when nothing's playing, but if a game or other program is actually feeding the system, it's fine. The Terk feeds a 2.1 Klipsch speaker set.

I stayed away from wireless solutions because my Siemens 2.4GHz phone system had / caused problems with most transmitter arrangements; this included the Terk wireless sound transmitter, as well as an older Turtle Beach sound transmitter set. After all, I am running a STP cable already, so running a dedicated phone cord isn't a big deal.

Overall, it works great; the only noise I pick up is a bit of hiss if I don't keep the speaker volume low, and that goes away when I actually play music or games.

There are a couple flaws. The biggest pain is when I need to swap CDs in the machine; Virtual CD programs can help here, but if you are making ISOs or burning disks, it's time to do a few laps about the house. The other pain is when I want to use USB; then I have to run into the other room to load / install the device. Also, you better be using a DB-15 video connection; I know of no inexpensive KVM extender that can handle DVI (I am looking, but most appear to be too near the $1000 mark for my taste).

Total pricing was about $250 for the Longview, $50 for the cabling, and about $75ish for the Terk box. Sounds expensive, but A) it's still in the high end water cooling price range, and B) it is truly silent, with no dangers of liquid leaks. I've been using this setup for over 3 years now, and feel my money's been well spent.

Silent machines?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Luxury!

When I was your age, we worked in factories with machines so loud, we'd go deaf by the time we were 12 years old!

Shameless

[Valarauk]

Doesn't PC noise have more to do with the operating system? I remember a study a few months back which seemed to imply that windows machines were silent a whole lot more of the time compared to their competitors. Anybody remember that link? :p

Re:How many times?

[Golias]

As long as we are recylcling articles, let's recycle comments too.

I'll start with the old stand-by that this rise in popularity of "silent" PC's is just one more example of the Windows world playing catch-up to the Mac.

Oh, and I'll be the rush to suggest using active phase-cancellation to reduce ambient noise in the room.

That should start us off nicely.

Re:Headphones: Cheap Solution

[morie]

I got this advice earlier, but sleeping with these earphines on is just to uncomfortable.

Yes, I only have one room in my house.

Whenever I want to silence my computer

[Geshem]

I just go to Start menu -> .. err just a minute, it's stuck.
Wait, I'll try the tray icon..
What?? It crashed.
No worries, I'll just resta.. WHAT?!?
*** UNPLUGS COMPUTER ***

There, silent.

completely silent*

[tverbeek]

Any other hints from people?

Buy a Mac Plus. It's completely silent.*

*Except for the floppy drive, of course.

Actually, I don't mind noise.

[Zweideutig]

I have my Prescott P4 overclocked, and I have replaced the stock fan with a 1 hp vacuum cleaner. I don't mind the noise, as long as I have speakers capable of blasting Metallica louder than the vacuum cleaner.

Re:How many times?

[ArmorFiend]

That's the spirit. I'll trot out my time-tested technique of taping squares of old tee-shirt to the inside of the case. Someone will probably complain that'll cause the computer to die of lint poisoning, and I'll just come back with "if you're worried about dirt in your computer that's the least of your problems".

Article summary:

[Anne_Nonymous]

Article summary:

Ad, ad, ad, cookie, cookie, ad, cookie, ad, cookie, ad, cookie, cookie, cookie, ad, ad, ad, silent power supplies are quieter than normal ones.

Re:Article summary:

[borawjm]

Ad, ad, ad, cookie, cookie, ad, cookie, ad, cookie, ad, cookie, cookie, cookie, ad, ad, ad, silent power supplies are quieter than normal ones.

This makes me picture the cookie monster with an accounting job. I guess he decided to leave Sesame Street once he found out they weren't going to let him eat sweets anymore.

Re:How many times?

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't that a fire hazard?

Re:Airtight case

[mysticwhiskey]

Yep, did that and it worked great. Then I noticed my hard drive noise. So I quietened that by replacing it with a slower 5400-rpm hydralic-bearing model, suspended in a rubber harness to avoid vibration. Worked great!

Then I noticed my CRT humming. So I got an LCD. Monitor hum - gone.

Then I noticed the noise the floppy drive made. Got rid of that (who needs 'em?). Worked great.

Then I noticed the whistling my nostrils made as breathed whilst using my ultra quiet PC. Ear plugs in the nose - problem solved. Great!

Then I noticed the crickets chirping in the background. Booted up the wife's noisy PC. Problem solved!

Re:How many times?

[ArmorFiend]

So far so good. ;)

Re:How many times?

[jasonmicron]

this rise in popularity of "silent" PC's is just one more example of the Windows world playing catch-up to the Mac

I didn't know that Microsoft made power supplies and processor fans. Usually when Windows is making too much noise on my machine I just turn the speakers down. :)

noise reductor: make a hole in the wall!!

[uioreanu]

The easiest way, and also maybe the healthiest way to avoid this first generation long-time exposure to PC radiations is to make a hole in the wall and place the PC in another room. All cables to pass through this hole, one gains much more working space and all becomes surprisingly quiet! Might be that a good percent of work related stress is subconsciously caused by computer noise.

User Noise

[spaztech]

I find that the noise generated by the PC users to be far more annoying than the PCs themselves.

I'd rather hear fan noise (think air conditioned server room) than the white noise of a thousand users grumbling.

Re:Headphones: Cheap Solution

[dragonman97]

Turn the computer off? I'm afraid I don't understand...

Re:Easier way to silence your fans

[Lumpy]

screw that.

I cut v notches in the trailing tips of the blade to increase the noise created by the fans 3 fold.

my PC at home sounds like someone is running 6 vaccuum cleaners in the box.

at lan parties, I usually get a "holy crap! how many fans you got in that?!"

Re:Are you kidding?

[Doctor Memory]

Heh, reminds me of a story from Ye Olden Times...

We were doing bank processing on a S/370 and had jobs than ran 24/7 (back before we even had the phrase "24/7"). We upgraded to a new 3081 (basically a pair of S/370s in a single box). However, they couldn't install the disk controller (a separate box) until the next day, so what they did was to run cables over to the still-running S/370 and use it as the disk controller for a couple of days. Well, as they were pulling the cables, they somehow managed to snag the EPO (emergency power-off) line, and the entire server room (remember, this is two mainframes and a few dozen washing-machine size disk drives and their attendant power supplies) spun down within a few seconds. I can still hear the shift manager screaming "WHAT THE F*** JUST HAPPENED!?!?" from all the way down the hall...

Re:Turn it off

[TrappedByMyself]

Yeah right. Not with the endless screams of "Turn me onnnnn....Tuurrnnnn meee onnnnnn.....".