Comments | _kent: I can hear for miles.

_kent

I can hear for miles.

Jan 07, 2008 00:10

My PC was quite noisy, so when it came time to upgrade, I made sure I got a quiet case. And, lo, the PC was a lot quieter. It was, for instance, no longer possible to hear the thing when the door of the room was closed ( Read more... )

Comments 15

simont January 7 2008, 09:22:59 UTC

This is the sort of reasoning which, when I applied it to the light levels in my bedroom at 5am on summer mornings, caused me to first buy dark curtains, then very thick dark curtains, then stick cardboard over the windows behind the curtains, then tinfoil, and eventually totally opaque purpose-designed plastic blackout sheeting fixed in place with equally opaque adhesive aluminium foil tape.

So now, even in conditions of peak direct sunlight falling on the window, the most light that gets into my bedroom is round the edges of the door. Result: I seriously considered trying to find clever ways to get rid of that too, before managing to tell myself not to be so silly.

bateleur January 7 2008, 11:09:57 UTC

When Currant is on (most of the time) it sounds like an aircraft taking off.

...which is why I'm very glad I opted for the super-quiet case fan. I dread to think how noisy the loud sort is.

_kent January 8 2008, 23:18:22 UTC

If I do solve the problem with drive noise, I'm sure my case fan will be the next victim of my insanity. It is, as advertised, whisper quiet. Clearly whoever designed it has never been to the cinema, since whispering is completely irritating, and not something to aim for.

smiorgan January 7 2008, 11:35:45 UTC

http://quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/harddrivesolutions

If it's low frequency throbbing then isolating with grommets may help. If it's high frequency spindle whine then you might need an enclosure.

I have an Antec BQE 3700 case - big slow fans and grommet mounted hard drives, so no seek noise. Cutting down whine is a matter of buying quiet HD in the first place

Also: www.silentpcreview.com

_kent January 7 2008, 15:35:02 UTC

Well, mine's an Antec Sonata III, which is similar in many ways, I think. It's certainly got grommet-mounted hard drive enclosures, and a really quiet case fan. By any sane standard, the throbbing noise really isn't very loud. Spindle whine is practically nonexistent. To be honest, I'm not even completely sure it's the hard drives providing the throbbing noise, it's just the only thing left to blame.

Unfortunately, I'm reaching the point where I'm not evaluating it to a sane standard. I'm pretty sure that no-one but me can even hear it.

tackline January 7 2008, 16:06:54 UTC

You could put the machine in another room and use an X Server/VNC Client/long cables.

I've got an absolutely silent (100 MHz, 8 MB) SunRay on my desk at work (backed by a cluster of 8-ways). Pity I can hear the server room aircon from here. It's also not very good with the youtube.

katsmeat January 8 2008, 08:52:32 UTC

You should subscribe to the Make feed...

http://syndicated.livejournal.com/make_podcast/3143767.html

_kent January 8 2008, 23:15:43 UTC

I think I'm good for deadening the vibration of the drive casing. I'm a bit dubious about actually letting the casing oscillate freely like that, it can't be a good idea for a running drive!

The problem now is that the drives themselves make a noise, and that noise resonates in the box. I don't think much vibration is being directly carried from the drive to the case, I think it's just echoing about the box. It's really not loud. I'm just going a bit mad.

The next Totally Unjustified Expense, therefore, would probably to line the case with some kind of soundproofing material like this:

http://www.acoustiproducts.com/en/acoustipack.asp