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Hardware Hacking

Beginning Of the End For PC Noise 494

Posted by Hemos from the ah-the-quiet-machine dept.
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?
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Beginning Of the End For PC Noise More

Beginning Of the End For PC Noise

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  • Zzzzzzz (Score:5, Funny)

    by suso ( 153703 ) * on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:31AM (#13155519) Journal
    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 (Score:4, Funny)

      by DustyShadow ( 691635 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:40AM (#13155607) Homepage
      Apparently it helps the article's server go to sleep as well =)
    • Oh, good! Glad to know I'm not the only one who:

      (a) Actually LIKES fan noise...

      (b) Uses it as a sleep aid.

      Though I will admit that I keep the noisiest stuff (my Internet-presence servers and most of the network hardware) in the garage. You think desktop systems are noisy? Try listening to a ProLiant 6500!

      Keep the peace(es).

    • Re:Zzzzzzz (Score:2, Funny)

      by JWeinraub ( 773433 )
      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!
    • Really, man. I've got four machines in my bedroom, running 24/7. When I go out of town for any reason and have to sleep in a strange room, the missing noise keeps me awake.

      Is this really a problem for some people? Like, don't they have anything better to worry about than a bit of added ambient noise? To me, the noise goes with the territory. If you don't like the noise, find another job/hobby.
    • Not sure he meant to be modded funny on this... I can't sleep without a fan by my head now, the silence can be deafening when I try to sleep. Computer noise so soothing....

    • Re:Zzzzzzz (Score:3, Funny)

      by b1t r0t ( 216468 )
      When you sleep in the same room with servers running all the time, it's when the noise stops that wakes you up.
  • Make sure you don't use/need a DragonOrb3. I have one for an AMD Palomino 1.2 GHz and it wakes the dead, and sometimes even me!
  • I bought a Zalman cooling fan, and it came with an adapter with a knob that you can turn to slow your fans down to about 1k RPM. I found a few more online, and with my Antec PS, which lets you plug its fan into a mobo fan slot, i can control the speed of all 3 of my fans. My computer is as quiet as a mouse if I need it to be.
    • What's not quiet are the sirens of the firetrucks when they need to put out your PC.

      I don't understand the variable fan thing. You get to choose between quiet or cool in different degrees. Just because I like it quiet, doesn't mean my PC is happy.
      • Currently, with all my fans on lowest power (and have been oevernight, and stay that way if I'm not gaming) my CPU temperature is 36 celsius. My RT2 is 30 celsius. My room is 25 celsius. When I crank up my fans, my CPU cools to 34 celsius, my RT2 stays the same.

    • Re:Easier way to silence your fans (Score:5, Funny)

      by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @11:45AM (#13156669) Homepage
      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?!"
  • 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 quest for silence... (Score:5, Informative)

    by megla ( 859600 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:35AM (#13155552)
    I built my latest AMD64 rig around the fact that it was going to be in my bedroom and on 24/7, so it is nearly inaudible from three feet away. Silence comes at a cost though - it's been rather expensive to build for it's modest specs. The basics are Athlon64 3000+, GeForce 6600GT, 1GB crucial ballistix ram and 3 160gb harddrives. I found SPCR [silentpcreivew.com] to be a very helpful source of information and many modifications i've made to the internals of the case are based on plans and recommendations from that site. It's worth a look.

  • 13 pages and nothing said (Score:5, Informative)

    by venolius ( 409629 ) * on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:35AM (#13155553)
    The poster makes us go through 13 ad-filled pages and then concludes that all the power supplies are great.

    Check http://silentpcreview.com/ [silentpcreview.com]; it has a lot more information about silencing a PC and less ads.

  • Is it really the fan that bugs you? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mary_will_grow ( 466638 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:35AM (#13155554)
    To me, the white-ish noise of a fan doesn't bother me nearly as much as the clicks and clacks of my coworkers mashing their keys and mouse buttons. Forget the fans, just stop shipping mice and keyboards that INTENTIONALLY make noise every time you do anything! Why does my mouse button need to make a click that can be heard 20 feet away?

    • Why does my mouse button need to make a click that can be heard 20 feet away?

      So that co-workers can tell when you are playing solitaire.
    • Well, they're designed to *feel* clicky, not just make noise. But yes, I agree about the noise, as it often wakes my wife up. I know some people need that tactile feedback, but I'd just rather have damper pad there in behind the keys.
    • I'll second that. Ever get on a conference call with some imbecile clacking away on their keyboard, drowning out anyone trying to talk and pissing off a whole crowd of people? That's when it really gets to you. And I have to politely ask them to stop, instead of grabbing them by the throat and shrieking "MAKE IT STOP!".

      As for mice, why should any mouse need to click so loudly? It's especially irritating that Apple mice are so often loud. I don't need to be told that I clicked the mouse; I'm well a

    • Re:Is it really the fan that bugs you? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Sark666 ( 756464 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @10:13AM (#13155882)
      Well, the history goes back to the typewriter. Supposedly, the mainusers of typewriters did not like not have an audible click when typing as the were used to the audio confirmation of a typewriter. So even though the first keyboards were silent, it became 'standard' to make keyboards have the clicks. The mouse just followed suit.

      This bugs me and looked into it a little a while back. I found a couple of silent keyboards but they seemed rare. I couldn't find one silent mouse. I looked for some hacks for mice but it sounded like you'd usually end up making the mouse non-functional.

  • The only answer (Score:3, Funny)

    by luckypp ( 619541 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:35AM (#13155556) Homepage
    Have your PC in the basement, and the longest monitor and keyboard cords you can find to your office.
    • This is also a great way to get some excercise, whenever you want to change a CD or whatever
    • I did something like this in my new house, only a little less extreme than a basement. I added an air return in my closet (to keep the closet from getting too warm) and put my computers in there. Shut the door, and it's nearly impossible to hear.

      With the KVM switch in the closet, there's only 1 set of KVM cables coming out to my desk. An extra USB cable connected to a hub on my desk, and I've got my DVD drive handy plus whatever else I need to attach at any given time.

      Yeah, I know - this is nothing e

    • the longest reasonable vga cable probably wouldn't even make it up the basement stairs. You're better off using remote desktop from a laptop or quieter pc

    • Re:The only answer (Score:4, Funny)

      by Fargazer ( 153269 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @10:32AM (#13156065)
      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/ [hiwaay.net], 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.

  • Airtight case (Score:5, Informative)

    by Iriel ( 810009 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:35AM (#13155558) Homepage
    One thing that most people overlook is how tight their case is. If your tower is made of metal of any kind, make sure to eliminate any room for the walls to rattle or vibrate and that will cut down on noise by great leaps and bounds. Also, I try not to have my tower on a metal surface, because the vibrations also cause more noise than most people give credit to, or at least get some kind of boots under the machine.
    • 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 - proble

  • Headphones: Cheap Solution (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Bad to the Ben ( 871357 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:35AM (#13155560)
    If you want noise to be less of a problem, buy a nice pair of headphones and use them at your computer. You'll be able to hear sounds and music better, and they'll cut out a lot of other background noise (people talking, outside noise) which will help you concentrate. You'll also be able to listen to whatever like at whatever volume you like without disturbing anyone.

    It's a cheap and easy solution, and until silent PCs are perfected it's what I'll be using.

  • Another... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tomstdenis ( 446163 ) <tomstdenis@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:36AM (#13155563) Homepage
    thirty page story full of advertisements with zero content.

    Wanna lower the noise of your computer? Stop burning 450 WATTS of power to browse the web or send email.

    Don't see any moving parts on your gameboy do you? Or your PDA for that matter. If desktop computers were made of APPROPRIATE parts instead of the "my computer has to be faster than yours" parts we'd have silent desktops that run in under 20 Watts of power that cost 150$ and run whatever OS you choose.

    Anything short of this and you're doing to noise what we do to heat, moving the problem elsewhere. You could [for example] pump ice cold water over the heatsinks and keep the pump outside, in the basement, etc...

    But that's just moving the problem elsewhere and not really solving it.

    The solution is more scalable computing or appropriate choices. There is no reason, for example, why the P4 idles at 400Mhz and the AMD64 at 1Ghz other than the design can only scale so far. This matters a bit more in laptops where every mW counts.

    Tom
    • Because we all know that this is an acceptable solution to PC noise.

      In fact, no one should need a computer over 1GHz! Therefore, we should not make power supplies or parts that are meant to supply something over a simple processor, video/sound card, and hard drive.

      Hell, while we're at it, lets do away with the PC altogether. After all, its not necessary for you to live, is it?

      TV, too. And anything else in our lives. Because NO ONE would have to have a use for them.

      • Re:Another... (Score:2, Insightful)

        by tomstdenis ( 446163 )
        Typical BS reply. "it's my right to have it!" then put up with the fucking noise you loser cry baby.

        But know this. You like high gas prices? What do you think drives it up [hint: supply & demand].

        So keep using your 450Wh computers [anther other excesses]. you'll drive power demands up higher and higher and costs higher and higher.

        Or ... you can play on the winning team and not live in excess.

        I mean I too use [and make good use of] a dual core AMD64. But I'd love it to be more scalable too. It

        • Re:Another... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by brunes69 ( 86786 ) <`gro.daetsriek' `ta' `todhsals'> on Monday July 25, 2005 @03:24PM (#13158913)

          I'd say out of a given day my computer is sitting doing absolutely nothing productive around 16 hours or so. I can't turn it on and off because I often login remotely, but during the 2/3rds of the day it's not doing anything it would be nice to have it go into a sleep state of sorts, e.g. clock the cpu down to absurdly low states, heck even halt the GPU, lower the DRAM refresh, etc...

          This is a wee bit of nonsense.. look into Wake On Lan (WOL), which is readibly supported in Windows, Linux, OSX, FreeBSD, you name it.

          Your PC goes into a heavy sleep state where it is essentially totally off except for a few mW to the NIC... when a UDP packet is recieved, it boots up.

          And I know what you are thinking - "but how do I know what the IP is to send it a UDP packet from work!". Well, if your PC is as you say a dual-core 450W PSU, you are probably burning away almost 10 dollars a month in power at average power rates of $0.08 per kW/h... take 20 bucks, buy a router on ebay that will update your IP on a free dyndns service.

    • Well, how about just use a laptop? Both the powerbooks and the thinkpad are virtually silent. The slight noise is usually lost in the HVAC noise of most workplaces. They also use quite a bit less power, and make using a UPS almost (almost) redundant. I end up using my UPS to power my network stack and flatscreen rather than my machine.

      Of course, you do sacrifice upgradeability for the most part. Does that even really matter these days?

      -WS

  • The power supply? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ergo98 ( 9391 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:36AM (#13155564) Homepage Journal
    but one of the easiest and most effect is to upgrade to a silent power supply

    It has been years since I've used a PC where the power supply was a significant contributor to the noise, and even the bargain basement ones are pretty well behaved these days. Not only are power supplies generally pretty quiet, but the noise they do make is the gentle sound of airflow.

    Instead the low hanging fruit in aggravating noise are the hard drive, especially as rotational speeds increase (bringing the pitch to more and more irritating levels), optical media drives (though only when in use), and CPU fans. A quick up-and-comer in the ranks of audio assaulters are video cards, some of which come with ridiculously loud cooling contraptions.
    • Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.

      HDs have never been more silent than today, the cd-x-factor race has long been over and after the turbo 60mm fans of the thunderbird/willamette generaton cpu fans also became more and more silent.

      In a typical new system, the PSU fan is the loudest noise creator (if it doesnt use a high end gfx-card)

  • Are you kidding? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cha0t1c ( 752261 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:37AM (#13155574) Journal
    If I walked into the server room, heard nothing, I would friggin' panic. Silence would take some getting used to. Also, that low hum or whir tends to soothe my frazzled nerves on my home PC..., Just my take.
    • 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
  • "If you work around computers a lot you are probably pretty tired of the noise they produce."

    Not at work. Background office noise drowns out any PC fan noise. Businesses won't care. Only people who will are gamers and Divx movie watchers with puters in their bedrooms (nerds).

  • It's not the PSU. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Jaruzel ( 804522 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:40AM (#13155608) Homepage Journal
    I have a silent PSU in my main machine. It also has a Zalman Flower Cooler on the CPU, which also runs damn near silently. Unfortunately the noisiest part of my PC is the ATI Radeon card, with its proprietory fan and heatsink.

    I know there are kits out there that can replace the fan/heatsink combo on a graphics card, but they are not for the faint hearted - I broke my previous graphics card just trying to remove the original heatsink :(

    Graphics card manufacturers really need to get on the silent PC bandwagon, instead of focusing on how many trillion polys per milli-second they can render.

    -Jar.
    • I ended up getting an AeroCool VM-101 dealie [newegg.com] for my graphics card, and it's made a world of difference in the amount of noise my machine makes. Installation was pretty straightforward once I popped the original GPU fan off the card. Well worth investing in if you have the previous generation of gfx card or earlier in your machine.

    • It's not terribly tough... (Score:4, Informative)

      by raygundan ( 16760 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @10:07AM (#13155828) Homepage
      I had the fan die on my video card a few weeks back, and went with the $20 thermaltake fanless kit instead of a replacement fan to prevent the failure from happening again.

      It wasn't any harder than installing a heatsink on a CPU. Removing the old one was just a matter of squeezing the little plastic bits that held it on with pliers, and pulling them through the holes. Installing the new one was just a matter of putting all the pieces on in order, with heatsink goo in between.

  • Full article mirror (Score:3, Informative)

    by winkydink ( 650484 ) * <sv.dude@gmail.com> on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:40AM (#13155614) Homepage Journal
    here [networkmirror.com]

  • Turn it off (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mrblurgle ( 98177 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:41AM (#13155615)
    Turn it off, it's very quiet :-)

  • Buy a Mac? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jacobcaz ( 91509 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:45AM (#13155642) Homepage
    I switched from a WinTel to a Mac a few months ago (not specifically for noise) and immediately noticed a huge difference in sound. Did the mac make noise? Yes. Did it make about 1/16th the noice of my PC? Yes!

    I moved my PC out of the office and to the garage to serve duty as the house fileserver. I can once again watch TV in my office without cranking the volume three-fourths of the way to max.

    As a side bonus my office got cooler. I was able to take my 450watt PSU and 19" CRT out of the room and it makes it all the more comfortable in the summertime!

    Cool and quiet - it's a winning combination! DoublePlusGood; the Mac has a high W.A.F. because it's "pretty."

  • Big Fans (Score:5, Informative)

    by Apreche ( 239272 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:45AM (#13155650) Homepage Journal
    I've had a lot of cases and computers in my day. And the best thing for getting a quieter computer is bigger fans. Bigger fans have to spin at less rpms to push the same amount of air as a smaller fan. Less rpms means less noise.

    The real key here is not to go crazy with the cooling/overclocking. Giant heat sinks with crazy fast fans are loud as all hell. And often the default fan that comes with the CPU is sufficient.

    If you want more cooling than you need for overclocking the only real way to stay quiet is water cooling.

    But my recommendation is always to just run hardware at speed, default cpu fan, big intake and big exhaust fan running at lowest speed. You wont even know it's there.

    • Re:Big Fans (Score:3, Informative)

      by shaka999 ( 335100 )
      Last time I checked my heat sinks weren't making any noise :).

      A giant hit sink with a big fan is the best way to go. A big heat sink will pull more energy away from the CPU. Put a big slow fan on it and you'll really reduce the noise.

  • 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* (Score:3, Funny)

    by tverbeek ( 457094 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:49AM (#13155681) Homepage
    Any other hints from people?

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

    *Except for the floppy drive, of course.

  • I'd like a PC that doesn't interfere with AM radios too.

  • Loads of suggestions. (Score:2, Informative)

    by burnttoy ( 754394 )
    If you're not a total performance junky but like me just want to get on with computing (audio/music/image editing/perl/html/asm etc) then buy a thin and light or ultraportable laptop like sony T or S series. Many laptops are very quiet and the "centrino" based systems even more so (yeah, Intel's done a good job on those CPUs)

    here's more info on the T series
    http://vaio.sony-europe.com/view/ShowProductCatego ry.action?site=ite_en_GB&category=VN+T+Series [sony-europe.com]

    I can barely hear it. Failing that you will just
    • I'll second that.
      Just got a Sony T-series: tiny, ultraportable, and quiet. Only time I notice the fan at all is when it's running at 100% CPU for a while. DVD drive is noticeable, but that's only used read/write optical discs ASAP; when playing a CD/DVD, just copy it onto the hard drive first (then can send the disc into storage, content is now online, but I digress).

      This in contrast to my old SR17K, which made quite a racket (but took a beating). Sony is learning.

      Having gone to notebook computers, I won'

  • Actually, I don't mind noise. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Zweideutig ( 900045 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:53AM (#13155712)
    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.

  • From experience (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dostick ( 69711 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @09:59AM (#13155765) Homepage Journal
    You need to defeat two major factors: fan noise and hard drive noise.

    Fan noise:
    -Buy good silent CPU fan (Zalman, etc)
    -Buy silent case & mainboard fans.
    -Have motherboard that can regulate fan speeds depending on temperature.
    -Power supply noise: it's the easiest part - buy better power supply that has no noise ($30 here make a world of diffrence).

    Harddrive noise:
    -Harddrive itself may be noisy, depending on speed/model, etc. Nothing you can do about it (except buy another).
    -Harddrive noise resonated in case: Solution is hard drives monuts on rubber pads- reduce noise, but not as much as advertised.

    Case is very important. Cases starting from $100 are more silent then average cases.
    Case can be temperature efficient and noise efficient.
    - Case temperature design: more expensive cases have better design/materials to keep system cooler. Means less FAN noise.
    - Noise efficient design: this comes to fan&hard drive mounts, air flow and overal case quality.

    • Efficiency (Score:3, Informative)

      by MarkByers ( 770551 )
      Defeating fan noise:

      Get a processor that runs efficiently, then you don't need a fan.

      Harddrive noise:

      Buy more memory and then you will find that your computer doesn't need to use swap space too much. You can then even turn your harddrives off when not in use, saving even more power and produing less heat.

      Laptops run very quietly and consume very little power. Why can't they start putting some of this technology back into desktops?
  • Some of the modding sites sell that fabric you can line the inside of your case with for noise reduction. Does this stuff actually work, and wouldn't it have an insulating effect?

  • Another benchmark game (Score:3, Interesting)

    by edremy ( 36408 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @10:04AM (#13155797) Journal
    I recently built a computer for home (AMD64), and was disappointed in the noise level. It was still better than the noisy monster before it, but I've been working on getting it quieter.
    • Antec Sonata case with very quiet PSU, full fan control and vibration reduction for the drives
    • Zalman flower CPU fan
    • Zalman northbridge heatsink.

    My biggest problems now are the CD-ROM and the hard drives- I was kind of surprised to find the video card fan (ASUS GeForce 6600) is literally slient even under heavy load. I'm debating if the hard drive silencing enclosures are worth it- you can still tell the thing is on if you're within 5 feet, but unless the CD-ROM spins up you tune out the noise in a few seconds.

    I'd love to see a benchmark of "Quietest PC for a given performance level".

  • A small noise cancellation thingy that you can stick into the computer case and plug into a normal PC power plug such as a HD plug. I'd buy it!

  • To be honest, I've endured quite some time my ThermalTake Vulcano running at about 40-50Db thinking "the loader the cooler, and more hardcore / OC-abilities", accepting the soothing jetengine like produced whitenoise.

    But where I work they delivered new Dells, running extremely silent. After getting a PC in for repair and also having this contrast with my "hardcore Thermal Take" I went to investigate on silent Coolers, and they are en effect really quiet these days... (AMD Athlon, temps haven't been an issu

  • I find it's the best way to keep the computer quiet (but then the AC becomes the nosiest thing there :)). With an AC you won't need all the case fans, you can run your cpu fan at a lower speed and your powersupply fan (if it's intelligent can also run low speed)

  • My solution (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Ruprecht the Monkeyb ( 680597 ) * on Monday July 25, 2005 @10:16AM (#13155918)
    I had this problem. Loud PC, small apartment. Made it hard to leave on all the time downloading, um, updates...yeah, downloading updates.

    Anyway, before I decided to plunk down some serious $$$ on quiet power supply, case fans, new case etc., I figured I'd give quieting the thing down one more shot with just what I had on hand. Turns out, I could disable both of the loud as hell case fans. The overall case temp. went up several degrees, but the CPU and MB sensors only went up a couple. PC has been running 24/7 for almost 2 months that way now, during the hottest part of the year.

  • the PS is only part of it, (Score:3, Informative)

    by pair-a-noyd ( 594371 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @10:24AM (#13155998)
    One of my biggest pet peeves is HD whine.
    I usually have 4+ (up to 9 sometimes) pc's running here and among the fan noise, the HD whine is far louder and far more annoying. I am in the process of building a sound proof area in my office for the pc's.

    I moved all the pc's into a double wide closet and brought out my connections through a 16 port KVM to my desk. Next step is to install sliding glass patio doors on the closet so I can see inside and get inside to access them. I installed a QUIET bathroom type vent in the ceiling of the closet to exhaust the heat up into the attic. When done my noise AND heat problem will be almost nil.. I know it will work because I tested it by closing the original wooden doors. I just want the glass doors so I can see status lights and the like..

    Pretty cheap to do when compared to replacing all the PSU's and fans with water cooling stuff. The price of one set of sliding glass doors is about the same as one water cooled PSU.. When you are talking about quite a few of them like I am, it's an easy choice to make.

  • But I did put some work into it as well. There are two fans in my case, the PSU 120mm fan, and the 120mm fan that blows air through the radiator of my watercooling system.
    I am running an AMD64 3700+ that barely reaches 30C, even when the ambient temperature is 35C and the CPU is at 100%.
    My whole case is padded on the inside with asphalt/foam mats, which reduces the noise considerably. This does increase the case temperature, but the water cooling takes care of that effectively.
    My only harddrive is mounted i

  • Just a PSU won't help (Score:3, Insightful)

    by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Monday July 25, 2005 @01:17PM (#13157535) Homepage Journal
    The secret to reducing computer noise is to start by targetting the loudest component in the system. Quite often, that isn't the PSU, but the CPU fan. CPU fans tend to be smaller, but run at high speed so make much more noise than larger PSU fans.

    So, carefully stop each fan in your system in turn to see which makes the most noise. You will be able to tell becuase you will notice a big difference in sound when you stop the loudest one, while the others will make very little difference. Find a way to quieten it, and the repeat the process.

    My system is water cooled, and has three fans. Two are 92mm Panaflos running at 4.5V, which are inaudiable. The third is a 120mm PSU fan, which also cools the water, which I can hear and is the loudest thing in my system. With the window open, the system is totally silent, without it is just audiable.

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