quiet PC

[Peter Hiscocks]

I sympathise, many PC's these days are unbearably noisy. I got one that was
unacceptably noisy and simply took it back to OTA the next day and asked for
a quieter fan. They obliged. That's the easiest and simplest solution.

Incidentally, a larger fan is quieter for the same volume of air because the
fan blades can rotate more slowly.

If a quiet fan isn't an option, there are ways to quiet the device.
Basically, you have to put it in a sturdy enclosure with a labyrinth (a duct
with bends in it) for the cooling air to pass through. The labyrinth is
lined with absorbing material that absorbs the sound.

You may have noticed a generator wagon on film shoots. The thing is
generating thousands of watts of electricity from a diesel generator, there
is a plum of exaust gas coming out the top, and it can hardly be heard at
all. So it is absolutely possible to quiet a PC.

If you like, I can provide more details, I used to do consulting in
acoustics and noise reduction.

Peter


On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 07:07:15PM -0500, Chris Aitken wrote:
> I have a need for my PC to be quiet. This is for three reasons:
> 
> I have tintinitus several times a day, and when I don't the PC
> reminds me what it's like - it's like tintinitus-on-demand.  : /
> 
> I am starting a business for which recording acoustic instruments
> will play a large part.
> 
> My PC is exceptionally loud - so titinuitus or not, acoustic recording
> or not, it's damned loud.
> 
> Has anyone had luck shutting their computer up? I have a lot of
> start up expenses - weighted 88-key keyboard, clarinet, etc. so I'll go
> to great  lengths to quiet this one before I'll buy a new one.
> 
> In the last home studio I had, I had the PC in a closet - but I'm tired
> of positioning my recording/PC station to the lowest common
> denominator (the short leash of mouse, keyboard, etc.) - it's
> just silly.
> 
> I guess this is a rhetorical question: Is the fan the only thing that
> makes
> noise? I have three fans - CPU, chassis and removeable drive bay.
> 
> I suspected it was the removeable drive bay, so I replaced it with
> another,
> identical bay. No improvement - of course that doesn't prove that the
> bay
> is not the culprit - this brand might just have a noisy fan assembly.
> And to
> be completely honest, the unwanted sounds were different (but not less)
> with the second bay than with the first.
> 
> So, I guess my next step is to remove the bay and just install the hard
> drive
> the old-fashioned way (?). If that doesn't help it must be one of the
> other two
> fans (?). Or chip creep? What else is there?
> 
> Also, I'll be in Toronto over Christmas and I could take the PC back to
> Honson
> - they built it for me. I hope they will work hard on it without soaking
> me as they
> built it.
> 
> Chris Aitken
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
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-- 
Peter D. Hiscocks                         	   
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering    
Ryerson University,                    
350 Victoria Street,
Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3, Canada

Phone:   (416) 979-5000 Ext 6109
Fax:     (416) 979-5280
Email:   phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org
URL:     http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~phiscock
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
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