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Build a Quiet Gaming System
ThinSkin writes "Armed with a newly discovered soundproofing foam, Loyd Case from ExtremeTech set out to build a quiet gaming rig that hits the sweet spot in both performance and silence. After choosing the right components and insulating the PC case, Loyd's silent PC weighed in at a shade under $2500, scored 5206 3DMarks, and is hardly audible from more than a meter away."
One must not forget that all that foam will increase temperatures in the case as well as make it a pain to get back in the machine to replace\troubleshoot hardware issues. He should have gone with http://www.dynamat.com/ . Its much much thinner and won't retain the heat.
Click Click Bloody Click PANCAKES!
...you could just use one huge heatsink: http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=6 4&code=020
I have built a fairly silent PC that, during normal operation, is barely audible. During gaming, it is not noticable with even moderate sound from the speakers at a medium volume, scores 7800 in 3DMark05, and cost $1800 (7 months ago). Today you could build it even cheaper:
Antec P180 Case (a sound-dampening, full size steel case built for heat management and airflow, using multiple tri-speed 120mm fans)
Antec TruPower 2 550 W power supply (in the P180 case, it goes down below, in a separate air flow chamber, so it stays pretty cool)
Athlon64 3700+. Best gaming price/performance at the time I built the system.
Stock heatsink/fan. This is where my noise comes from, and I was satisified; 32C/3000rpm idle, 44C/5500rpm at max load after 12 hours in an unvented, uncomfortably warm room.
Audigy 2 ZS. Cuz I like EAX, k?
eVGA GeForce 7800 GTX (nowadays, the 7900 GT is same performance but for $200 less than what I paid, and lower power/heat, and the 7900 GTX is more power for about $100 less and same power/heat)
2 matched Corsair TWINX 1-gig sticks
160 gig SATA-II Western Digital HD
Sony DVD-ROM (they make fairly quiet drives)
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium motherboard. Uses a heatpipe to move the chipset heat into the airflow coming off the CPU. Works fine. No noisy motherboard chipset fans.
It isn't silent, but its quiet enough. If it's not running a game, I can only tell it's on if I concentrate and listen for it. If the window is open (I'm not on a busy street), the ambient outside noise drowns it out entirely.
Hunt your preferred prey at Aliens vs Predator MUD. Join the war at avpmud.com port 4000
I just measured the distance between my ears and my main dev machine. It's less than a metre away.
you have a metre long monitor kb and mouse cables?
( i know they exsist but how many people purchase extenders? )
grandparent is exactly what I thought. except for the fringe people that hide the PC in a closet 3 rooms over from where they actually are working, most computers are either on or under a desk. definately alot less than a metre away.
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
YOu don't need FX-57 or 7900GTX to play the latest games; if he choices mid-range products they will produce less heat, and can be cooled easily without extra noise. CPU cooler choice is outdated model, CNPS7700 is old, CNPS9500/9700 is better choice, and there are tons of alternatives which offer even better performance/noise ratios like Scythe Ninja to name one. The choice of case is "okay", Antec's own P150 would be much more suited though. at $2000 this silent system is hardly budget friendly; too many expensive parts. My route to silence was posted on /. last year: http://www.madshrimps.be/gotoartik.php?articID=286
When I first saw this article the first thing that popped into my head was DYNAMAT. Though the Antec solution w/ foam is pretty cool. But what about the dust that would collect in the foam? EWW.
A couple drawbacks with Dynamat - it ain't cheap, so it would cost more than the foam kit, but you could build a quiet box much cheaper than $2500 anyway, so that probably isn't a huge consideration.
I've used Dynamat in my car, and it is also kinda tough to work with. For best results you have to warm it for fitting, and that means you're working with a sheet of sticky play-doh. And you would think cutting it with an xacto knife or razor would be cake, but again, it's tricky.
Unfortunately, Dynamat probably would likely retain some ambient heat in the case just like the foam. To what degree though? *shrug*
One last thought - Dynamat is typically used in much louder, more dynamic volume environments - your car with a thumpin system on a street with potholes. Seems like Dynamat is more for serious vibration dampening vs. ambient dampening. Then again, I haven't coated my car's interior walls or hood w/ Dynamat, so what do I know?
Then recently I started to learn how cheap offbrand PSU's are bad. And I got a Antec Sonata II case, not because of noise but because it just looked cool (it was that or the Antec P180 but that one was too big). The Sonata II comes with a 450W power supply so I just used that. And I booted it up and damn, it was quiet. I used to think only wimps needed quiet PC's. I used to think a loud PC was just an expression of how good and powerful it was. Boy, that was stupid.
So to sum up, Dells have been pretty quiet for years now, but most hardcore gamers don't run Dells. Some even scoff at Alienware. Personally, I just like having full control - I reccomend Dell to anyone who doesn't want full control (or who I don't want to have to support on the phone)
Schnapple
The only thing I have to say about this is:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/
I'm stunned it hasn't been mentioned already. It's pretty much the only place that you can take their computer noise information seriously and has a great community as well. Everything from very reliably sound tested retail parts to crazy do-it-yourself projects (including shoving it in a cupboard) are intelligently talked about there. I know this sounds like an ad but go there yourself, you'll see.
Note that foam generally does a pretty good job of absorbing sound reflection, but what many folks don't understand is that it's fairly poor at dealing with sound transmission. It helps a lot that computer noise tends to be relatively high frequency, which foam is better at absorbing. As an example, an attempt to dampen out upstairs neighbors' footsteps using acoustic foam is an expensive way to do nothing. Especially as all acoustic foam is less effective the lower the frequency of the sound.
In TFA, the foam primarily seems to be used to dampen internal reflections, making the case's sound reduction more effective. E.g. foaming the inside of the venting duct helps to reduce high frequency noise escaping from the duct. Clever.
A great solution that I've used over the years is to just shove the computer into a closet, or even into the basement if the space affords it. When scouting out new living spaces, the ability to keep computers out of earshot has often been a key decision maker for me. I even got my last landlord to let me put a 4" circular port for cable passage into a closet off of a finished basement for just such purposes. Air space in the port was filled with foam discs cut to size -- open air passage between the computers and your space is to be avoided. Worked great; computers in the closet were completely inaudible more than a foot from the cable port.
My system is similar to yours. We may have read similar reviews.
My stuff:
01) I use a similar case: I chose the Antec P150 instead of the P180, because I use a more traditional airflow system, and never could get into the P180 design
02) same motherboard: ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD
03) probably the same memory: CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel
04) I use two Nexus 120 mm case fans, spun down using zalman fanmate 2 variable resistors to 35% normal speed (about 415 rpm)
05) I use an IDE ATA-6 laptop hard drive (with an adaptor for the Mobo); 5400 rpm 80 gig. It's small but it's all I need.
06) I use the stock Antec 440 watt PSU (despite the bad reviews on it, I've never had issues with it: b/c the fan speed is based on temp and power consumption, and my system is so low temp and power consuming, I can never hear the PSU fan, unless I put my ear up to it)
07) fanless GPU: the GIGABYTE GV-NX66T128VP Geforce 6600GT
08) I use a dual core AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ CPU
09) Scythe SCNJ-1000 CPU Cooling Heatsink (this is where the 1st spun down 120mm fan is, the 2nd is at the back vent of the case, replacing the what-I-found-to-be fairly noisy tri-speed fan, even if it was 120mm)
10) I use a simple Soundblaster Live! card (the card is three years old now) with the SPDIF/digital out for sound.
11) LG 16X DVD±R DVD Burner 5X DVD-RAM drive: it supports dual layer and DVD-RAM (my favorite).
12) A Hauppauge 980 ( WinTV-PVR-250 ) to watch and record TV
I can *never* hear this system, since it's about 23 decibels, unless the room is completely quiet with no speakers on; then I can hear a "whoosh" of airflow. It doesnt have massive GPU power, but if I wanted that I would have sprung the $500.00 for a XFX PV-T71F-YDL9 GeForce 7900 GTX (650MHz) 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 card, with it's excellent heatsink and fan system. Since I'm not FPS gamer (never did like those kinds of games much), I passed on that expense.
I didn't put any foam in (thought about it for while, though), since the sound deadening properties of the P150 were good enough, and the system is virtually silent anyway.
I already had a DELL UltraSharp 2405FPW 24-inch Wide Aspect Flat Panel LCD Monitor, so that expense was out of the way. I read reviews at silentpcreview.com first, shopped in local retail stores, and then bought most components from Newegg.com (except the fans and fanmates from endpcnoise.com). The whole system cost me about $1,200.00, ($2,000 if you include the monitor) which I found reasonable, especially for an almost completely quiet system.
Hope this helps anyone looking for a system out there,
uR iGn0ranc3, Their Power