I have a AthlonXP 1800 system as my home theatre PC which lives inside my home theatre. Obviously, it makes a fair bit of noise, and I was considering building a wooden enclosure of some sort for it to live in. <BR>I figured I could line the inside of the case with some acoustic tiles to hopefully reduce noise further. <BR> <BR>Anyone tried something like this??
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Here's the second one I built, used for a while, then abandoned after I learned more about quieting components. Heat buildup is substantial, and the noise of fans in tunnels is very difficult to subdue. The PC was based around a 1-GHz T-bird; your 1800+ would be a hotter & even more difficult to silence and cool inside a box. If you don't want to go for internal modding, rather than a box for the PC, I recommend remote placement in a closet or separate room. A a cabinet just big enough for the PC won't really cut it. Of course, all this depends just how quiet you want it. I wanted silence. With my already-pretty-quiet PC, the box did reduce the noise, but not completely; it also changed the tonal balance of the sound -- less treble, more bass. I never tried it with a stock ordinary computer so can't say how effective it would be with a louder PC. <br> <br><!-- BBCode auto-link start --><a href="http://members.shaw.ca/mikechinvan/sound_containment_cabinet_for_pc.htm" target="_blank">http://members.shaw.ca/mikechinvan/sound_containment_cabinet_for_pc.htm</a><!-- BBCode auto-link end -->
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>>Here's the second one I built, used for a while, then abandoned after I learned more about quieting components. Heat buildup is substantial, and the noise of fans in tunnels is very difficult to subdue. The PC was based around a 1-GHz T-bird; your 1800+ would be a hotter & even more difficult to silence and cool inside a box. If you don't want to go for internal modding, rather than a box for the PC, I recommend remote placement in a closet or separate room. A a cabinet just big enough for the PC won't really cut it. Of course, all this depends just how quiet you want it. I wanted silence. With my already-pretty-quiet PC, the box did reduce the noise, but not completely; it also changed the tonal balance of the sound -- less treble, more bass. I never tried it with a stock ordinary computer so can't say how effective it would be with a louder PC. <br>>> <br>>>http://members.shaw.ca/mikechinvan/sound_containment_cabinet_for_pc.htm <br> <br>I considered the idea but came to the conclusion it would be worthless building a redundant case around a case which can already be made silent using sound absorbing material such as magic fleece or similar. <br> <br>Magic Vent is also very usefull in getting rid of the noise. Its like a sound absoring box that fits over the entire back of your PC, made by Noisecontrol of course. Its lined with magic fleece and sucks cool air in the bottom and exprells hot air out the top. There is a dividor in the middle to stop hot air from getting in to the air intake near the bottom. <br> <br>Don't put case fans at the front of your PC, keep them at the back away from where you can hear them. You can still get good air flow if you do it right. <br>
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put it in the fridge !!!

Hi there. You know, the suggestion from SlowMo is not a half-baked idea.

Why not get one of those Koolatron solid-state coolers, rip apart the Koolatron for the solid-state Peltier cell and fan (or use a better panaflo), use the Koolatron PSU to drive the solid-state Peltier cell (and fan) and build an external enclosure around your PC.

Someone could do some experimenting here. MikeC - how about it? You got some time on your hands? HeHe.

Good luck and good computing.

TerryW

Hi. I'm of the opinion that trying to "mask" the noise is ineffective. I tried putting my power supply in a wooden cabinet. I could still hear it. I tried lining my case with various materials. I could still hear it. The only solution to quieting a computer is to replace loud components with quiet operating ones.

I have some nice links to wooden cases. Text is in finnish, sorry

http://koti.mbnet.fi/~kotelo/index.html

This one should be quite good. The green color indicates sound absorbing material.
http://koti.mbnet.fi/joseg/varasto/PC-v ... kaappi.png

Quietest one. Lilac color indicates sound absorbing material.
http://sivut.koti.soon.fi/valonen/kotelo/

Sami

Hmm, im thinking that another PSU means more heat to dissipate, a peltier also creates heat, and you still have to get rid of all the heat from the computer as well...

I used shelfing material and boxed in my noisy 2KVA UPS and Server. I had to put some fans and blow holes with ducting to allow airflow. I used Panafol L1A's, but am looking to replace with quieter fans. I lined the inside with "egg cate" style acoustic foam also.

So, it's kind of a case for computer cases if you will.

Works really well, and internal temps stay below 30 degrees Celcius with the server on. And that's in the hotter summer weather. Room temp is 27.

-Ed

jaeger: that first one is cool. the others are interesting. how quiet are they?

Can't say about the first one. It's probably a bit quieter than normal PC due to the thick wooden walls. The problem with that one is, that it has openings for the sound to escape from. Silencing is like the old saying about weakest link... If you leave one weak spot, then the sound gets out from there

The guy who build the last one says:"Lopputulos oli odotettu, kone on nyt todella hiljainen. Jos ikkunat sulkee ja kaikki muut laitteet sammuttaa, hyvin pieni humina kuuluu vielä. ", which translates to: "As expected, the computer is now extremely quiet. If I close the windows (not the MS one) and shut everything else down, I can hear very slight hum." So I guess if there are any background noise and you can't hear it.

The second one is a lightweight version of the third one (The second and third (and last) are based on a design by the same guy). So the second one is bit more noisy than the third one. The thing about those air channels is that there is no direct way for the sound to escape from the box. When the sound "bounces" (reflects) in those channels, it's also weakened (absorbed).

I read in an ExtremeTech article about quieting your computer to put it in a cardboard box. I haven't done it though, but I think it would absorb sound better then wood because it's softer so it won't reflect the sound.