i just replaced my noisy-ass stock 6800GS cooler (which i was only using because my NV5 silencer kicked the bucket last month..) with a passive heatsink. getting rid of the stock cooler freed up some real estate and allowed me to get rid of the unbearably noisy fan cooling my nforce3 chipset.

now you'd think getting rid of 2 lawnmower-like fans would satisfy anyone... but now whenever i turn on my computer the PSU and HDDs sound 10x noisier than they used to be... it feels like i haven't silenced anything...

my silence addiction has been escalating every time i change something...
-replaced the stock AMD cooler last year: was happy for about a day
-bought an antec P180: on a silence high for about a day
-replaced noisy stock GPU cooler: this one kept me happy for about a week.
-now this....

i hate my ears for being such greedy bastards... why can't i just be content?

you know what i do when i start thinkin like that? i open up iTunes and put on some of my favorite music. Guess what happens to a fairly quiet but still audible computer when you put on some music, its dissapears and becomes completely silent.

The worst thing for me is that I sleep with my computers in my room, and I tend to concentrate on finding the slightist noise coming from my computer and thinking where did that come from...

The next thing to "silence" will be my Floopy + 7 card reader, its electric noise is getting loud...

Move to a busy neighborhood, get some good noise cancelling headphones, or put your computers in another room After trying out and modifying different components continuously, hoping they would be quiet, I've learned to just start with all of the right equipment the first time around(money permitting of course)...although, that "soothing" gust of air from my Yate Loonies is starting to get rather loud.

my computer is on 24/7 as well.. i sleep with it on. i notice every noise that comes out of it.... woe is me...

I think it's a human trait - a sort of self-destruct mechanism. I find that the more time and the more money that I spend trying to achieve a silent computer, the more obsessed I become with the slightest amount of noise. The ridiculous thing is that most of the time, the background noise (eg central heating) is noisier than the PC, so I don't hear the PC at all, but because I've not spent any time or money trying to silence the central heating (hmm... that sounds like a good project for those long dark winter nights!) I don't find the central heating noise that intrusive.

Sometimes one just has to stop and get a reality check - but if you're obsessive about something, then it can be hard to stop and find satisfaction in what you've achieved - as I said, it's a character trait.

When i get really irritated with teh computers i just turn them off and go do something else, like drive fast on twisty country roads That kind of takes your mind off everything else.

If im feeling lazy i just put on some music. No wait i can't do that because im most likely already listenig to music

I've reached the point where my computers are quiet enough. The server is inaudible and the desktop is used to watch movies and play stepmania so that makes it effectively silent because it's not on when not needed.

But our kitchen doesn't have a space for a freezer, so it's in our living room, and it's by far the most noisiest thing in here.

I think you need to find more to do in your life man. The only reason you notice your computer is because you're not busy enough. Silencing is a hobby meant to take up your time but be something enjoyable. I think when it reaches an obsessive level it's because you have too much free time.

I think you should just keep going until the machine is basically silent. It's not that hard, and the result is very satisfying. I can't tell the difference when I switch mine on or off, even in the dead of night.

Heh, and here I am not being able to sleep soundly without the low hum of my PC :). (It's turned into a sort of white-noise kind of thing)

There is no end. Welcome to SA. Silencers anonymous.

Only when its completely silent 'to you' is when your finished. For me it was a case of cost. How much am I willing to spend on silence?
Over the years I have spend alot getting the next silent upgrade which was quieter by one db or so. I just deciding to get one big costly upgrade and im happy. I got a zalman TNN-300

My computer is on in my room and my room is very very small 7x9 ft so sound bounces and stays in the room and I sleep about 4ft from the box so I hear every click, whir, whine.

Since I have no fans in the TNN300, that elimates the whir of fans and air noise. All thats left is the hard disk, ive sold my raptor cause of heat reasons and noise.
I have 2 hitachi 7k100 raid enclosed in a aluminium box filled with gel packs similar to this.
This has completely elimated disk whine and all thats left is faint clicks from the read/write heads and I have to be within 1ft to hear them.

My PC is my htpc/general computer/games/browsing everything basically. Windows media center is great for htpc. I sleep as if the computer was never there.

The high cost of such stuff will put people off, but I think I have spend more on silent equipment over the years than the cost of the TNN-300 alone. I have freed myself from the constant upgrade of better air coolers, cases, fans and power supplies. I find myself not bothering to look at the Cases and Damping/Power Supplies/CPU Cooling/Fans and Control section of this forum.

Good Luck with ur addiction lol

I thought i was alone.... but obviously i'm not. i just replaced all the fans in my P180 with nexus/sythe fans to reduce the noise, and i've been buying large capacity hard disks so i can reduce the number of HDD's i need from six down to four (almost three).

SPCR has cost me a LOT of money....

I guess I'm a silence-holic too... And also don't know whether this obsession is going to have an end (soon). I could manage reducing the number of fans in my case to just two - while keeping all temps near to ambient (sonds impossible But the 12cm Yate Loon in my PSU, which once used to be the most silent component in my rig, now sounds unacceptably load to me... I'm considering a FSP Zen now, but I also know what follows next - the damn Hitachi whine...

I think it's true that paying attention to such details suggests lack of more importatnt things to do... But that's it, and I still must deal with it somehow - by just getting the next silent component

Surely you can't be serious, saying there is more important thing in life than silencing computer apparatus? You be mad, i say

Who says this? It's just about getting a job well done to the end. You may call it perfectionism, and I enjoy being a perfectionist in everything I do, not in just playing with my rig. Besides this, there is enogh madness in everyone on earth... It just sublimes in different areas of life.

The quieter my system gets the more annoyed I get. After I pulled the computer out of the closet it took a week to adjust to it, but then it didn't bother me at all for a month. But then I put it back into the closet and now I'm bothered by small sounds again, soon I need to replace my MX510 mouse.

Look at it this way: Some people are just very likely to get addicted to stuff. Now you could be getting addicted to booze, religion, gambling, drugs etc.
Silence is a good choise.

silence has little synergy with other addictions tho.

it doesn't work well with sex or alcohol

Someone should change this thread to silence addictions! lol

Anyway you should build some ducts with some acoustic padding along the walls. That'll silence the hell out of your fans! lol

I'm in the process of building multiple ducts in my Centurion 5! Honestly I like my case but then I regret the open mess in the front ;_; My big mistakes I suppose.

I've been so addicted to silencing this thing I think I've spent well over $200 now on silencing equipment. Everything from Zipties, to Dremels, to fans, PSU, to Cardboard!! Oh can't forget the elastic I used for the HDD! haha Silencing is the best hobby ever lol.

Does not help. Haven't you noticed all the threads about silent keyboards and mice?

Not to mention various sorts of electric noise from the monitor and the sounds from the chair.

Potential future keyboard/mice-less computers that plug directly into the central nerve system might eliminate all the noise we are bothered with today, but I bet that we will then be annoyed with squeeky little sounds from the insulation of the cables connected to your brain/spine (I cannot imaginge myself having wireless receiver there. I am to sceptical about security ) or have some weird feeling/tingling sensation from the implant.

I do wonder if the only way to combat this disease is actually to introduce more sound into the environment (noisy neighbours, soccer field next door, wife and children) so you do not focus on the PC anymore.

Terje

Bah, if you can't get your PC noise below ambient you either live at the North Pole or you're not doing it properly.

I need HDD's too-but found that I can have my "main" stuff on one-with everything I store-or use in certain situations-on 2 others,which live in external,fanless USB-2 housings. When needed-I turn them on,otherwise-they are off. When on-they are more audible than if in the main case-but they are not on that often. I may make a quieter housing for the externals..some sort of gel-pac thing?