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Build a Quiet Gaming System

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the whirrrrrrrrrr dept.

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."

9 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. 3d iMarks by porneL · · Score: 1, Interesting

    How many 3D Marks Intel iMac gets (or will get when someone hacks drivers)? It's super silent and cheaper than that...

  2. My PC... by MaestroSartori · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...is quiet enough to do music recording in the same room as it. It's fast enough to play most current games at reasonable framerates. It's a four year old Dell with a newer pro-spec soundcard and cheap nvidia fanless graphics card, and is whisper quiet now. When I first got it, it was totally silent except for the DVD drive sometimes whirring a bit. I literally couldn't tell it was turned on. I think the big slow fan is getting old, so it does make some noise now.

    Where is everyone else getting their hideously noisy jet-engine PCs from? Or am I just lucky?

    --
    Game dev and music blog
    1. Re:My PC... by massysett · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Dells have been pretty quiet for years now

      I can't stand Dell, but I give them credit for this. They seem to put attention into making their PCs quiet, though some of this might also be part of a drive to reduce costs.

      My Dell Optiplex sitting next to me is fairly quiet. There are only two fans in the thing. The Pentium 4 sits under neath a heat sink, and a plastic shroud covers that and directs airflow to the 92 mm case fan. The case fan has a thermostat in it to vary the speed. The only other fan in the thing is the power supply, and I never hear it. The northbridge has a heatsink on it, and the cheap Nvidia has a heatsink too.

      The PC noise varies with ambient room temperature and with what the PC is doing. If it's cool in here and the PC is idle, I barely hear it at all. It does ramp up a bit if the CPU is at full throttle (doing Folding at Home.)

      Dell noise does seem to vary depending on whether one gets a cheap Dell or the cheapest Dell (pretty much the only two choices -- XPS is just overpriced cheap Dell.) I've heard the cheapest Dell Celerons, and they're louder than my P4.

      I will definitely build my next PC, but have been amazed at how many fans are in a typical build. You're looking at at least three fans (PSU, CPU, and case fan) though typically the northbridge has a fan too. Those really concern me because they're so small. Unfortunately only expensive ATX motherboards have passively cooled northbridges. Or you can get a cheap micro ATX that is passively cooled, but a lot of these micro ATX boards seem to have troubles with Linux. That, and no slots.

      I figure I will go with the Asus A8N5X, the top rated one on Newegg. I can't find anything about it on Google regarding Linux, which hopefully means it works without trouble. I'll take my chances and take off the northbridge fan and replace it with a Zalman northbridge heatsink. Isn't modding what building a PC is all about :)

      --
      Penny - plain text accounting
  3. What about Liquid Cooling? by Voltageaav · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's not that expensive for a kit anymore, cuts noise out of the picture completely, and is much more effecient to boot. http://compreviews.about.com/od/cpus/a/LiquidCooli ng.htm I don't know why more people don't use it.

    --
    Someone save me from this sanity.
    1. Re:What about Liquid Cooling? by zullnero · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I had one of the first Koolance cases they released. It was amazing for about a year. Then one day, I went to swap out a hard drive, and I must have cracked one of the nozzles. A day later, I had green coolant leaking out of my machine. Luckily, nothing sprayed out or splashed around...much, and my hardware was all working fine. Well, I was stuck ordering a new water pump. After a year of that, the stupid thing started leaking...again. I had noticed that the temperatures had been steadily climbing, so I went to check the inside of my box. Turns out, the new metal nozzle wasn't quite as snug as the old molded plastic one from the original pump, and there was a crystallized formation growing on the hose that opened up a crack in it. Anyway, I replaced both of my boxes with 100 dollar Aspire X-Cruiser cases with Zalman GPU fans. They keep my stuff just about as cool, are reasonably quiet...and best yet, the analog backlit meters on the front provide a wonderful blue glow that lights up my living room at night. :)

    2. Re:What about Liquid Cooling? by catch23 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Liquid cooling can be cheap too! Instead of wasting all that cash on expensive rigs, just get your parts from the auto store & home depot. The only thing you'll have to buy are the cpu/vga water blocks. Everything else can by bought via home depot. I bought a $50 1985 Honda radiator on ebay (new) and retrofitted it to 4 CPUs and 2 video cards. There's also a 5 gallon jug of water connected to the system. I used 2 $40 500gph pond pumps from petsmart to pump the water through all the tubing. The most expensive part of all of this is probably the water blocks which will usually run you about $70 per cpu. I'm using 2 Koolance blocks, and 4 Zalman blocks. The single radiator is large enough that it doesn't need a fan to reduce the temperature 10 degrees celsius. The car radiator isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but at least it's got more surface area than any other passive water cooling system commercially available. I'm just using basic distilled water.

  4. Re:Quiet or silent? by geekoid · · Score: 2, Interesting

    " If you are clever, a drop of rubber cement will server the same purpose as LokTite and costs a lot less."
    Nail polish is better. Easier to break, and not gummy.

    The reason CD-Roms come with 4 per side is to support different brackets and/or different screw sizes.
    Over tirgtening the scews can cause th cd rom drive frame to warp.
    Same thuing with hard drives.
    In both cases the spinning of the platters apply torque to the device.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  5. Re:what?? by kesuki · · Score: 2, Interesting

    wire may have latency advantages, but they also have this nifty 'wireless' technology available... so one can take one's keyboard and mouse a few meteres farther than cable can be extended.

    That being said, the 'insulating foam' seems like it has less to do with the silence than with the ultra silent, ultra efficient heatsink like the zalman one they used (they also mave an aftermarket VGA cooler model, that's just as silent)

    yeah the CPU and VGA cooler each putting out around 20 dbs of noise ;) and then claiming it's some 'special foam' that's making it virtually silent? 20 Dbs isn't that silent either, i usually run my TV set at 20 DBs. although i suppose this is where the 'special foam' comes into play.

    In any case, this system is hardly a 'silent' PC, when one can get a pretty simple to install WC kit, that with a 'fully submersible pump' will emit about 2 dbs of noise.

    hrm. ~20 dbs or 2 dbs not to mention that one can build a full mineral oil bath rig that uses the same zalman cooler sans fan, for a 0 dbs 'full immersion liquid cooled' rig.

    'silent' gaming rig? i've heard quieter ones. sure they all weighed a LOT more than this one. but if ones wants a TRULY silent gaming rig that's the obvious performance trade off.

    --
    https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
  6. Lets learn from the car stereo scene... by Coplan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Before I started spending my spare cash on building computers, I used to compete in the automotive stereo scene. But now that I am into building computers AND I am into making music on those computers, I am very surprised at how many people don't look to the car stereo scene for advice. I'm guessing that the average geek doesn't think outside fo the PC-mod world. But just because something isn't marketed for computers, that doesn't mean it isn't usable. Dynamat and Killer Blue. Dynamat is thin, very dense, and it does wonders for sound dampening. Killer Blue is a spray-foam that works for areas where a sheet of rubbery stuff won't work. While dynamat does make a "PC" kit, the regular automotive stuff is cheaper and better. Dynamat also comes in several grades and thicknesses. You'll want a couple different types for different applications. Don't forget to put some between your fans and the case and between your power supply and the case. As for the Killer Blue, you won't need much of it. Some cases, you won't even need any. In my case, there's a plastic front and there's a lot of space between it and the case. I sprayed some of it in there - careful not to block any airflow around the fans. There are also some crevices at the corners where the Killer Blue was more appropriate as well. But the important thing about sound-proofing any case (especially aluminum cases) is the fact that you will increase heat in the case itself. Make sure you ventilate it properly. Use larger fans when possible. For that matter...start with a good case.