As I explained in this thread, I'm planning to build myself a new rig that bears some resemblance to SPCR Model One. I agree, I kinda chose the wrong PSU for that (Corsair HX520W) and my CPU (110W TDP) and GPU (X1900XT) surely are hotter than what Mike used, but I still think something decently quiet is doable by throwing in some additional quiet, undervolted fans.

So I have a question for you, Mike, if by chance you happen to read my reply : how exactly did you lay out the AcoustiPack Deluxe ? More precisely, I'm not sure where I could fit the (thick) AcoustiContour sheet, since I suppose I'll have to avoid : my PSU, my exhaust fan, and probably the Ninja, too. Both the hard disk cage and the 5"1/4 drive bays look close to the side panel as well... I read a reply about that earlier in this thread, but I still have my doubts, since it sounded much like the generic recommandations from Acousti. I hope you (or maybe someone else) can give me precious advice about how to do it in an optimal way in an Antec Solo.

Thanks.

The mfg recommends lining as much of the interior as possible, but that's more for their benefit, not the users'. The main functions of the material are...

1) damp the panels to keep them from vibrating. But the P150 side panels are already mass damped.
2) help absorb some of the internal noise, thus reducing the total amount that emerges from the case. This can only be marginally successful if there are openings in the case through which sound can get out -- ie, holes for fans, etc. It won't do anything for lower frequencies much below 500Hz.
3) stop standing waves. Basically standing waves cause air resonances, due mostly to parallel walls where the sound can bounce back and forth. All enclosed (or partially enclosed) spaces have air resonances, but they can be greatly reduced by keeping the internal acoustic reflections to a minimum. This often means lining one of two parallel walls is enough to reduce the standing waves between them significantly.

In other words, don't sweat the damping. It's not critical. Apply it where you can and don't worry about the rest. My basic position is that it's the last thing you should look at. If the system is well designed and executed for low noise, there's hardly any need for acoustic damping... if there's little noise to begin with, what's there to damp?

Have you ever thought about getting paid to put the SPCR logo on commercial items?

Like i know zalman still sells 7000's at stores like comp usa.

Have you ever called up the manufactueres that you regularly endorse here and tell them you'll put your stamp of approval on specific items they sell that pass their rigorous testing methodology?

Something like the 80+ certification? Can you make an SPCR certification?

Never for long. Why not? Well, other hardware sites routinely hand out "awards" with little logos that brands quickly slap on their products -- for free. Why would they pay for SPCR endorsement when it's all free from elsewhere? OK, maybe the really seriously quiet-targeted product makers might.... but they don't need to as long as SPCR reviews have been done of their products. All DIY PC builders who want quiet components find SPCR.

But if you have a viable plan to increase revenue for SPCR with some form of branding like this, I'm all ears.

I just got an Anitec flyer in the mail, and jumped when I saw the 1/2 page ad on page 2 for their 'ACT Stealth - SPCR Stealth 100 System', that Mike C describes here: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article782-page1.html

That is EXACTLY what I have been looking for! A robust 22 dB system - prebuilt and modestly priced!!!

(I'd be a lot more excited, if I had known about this a week earlier, since just this past Tuesday, I bought a fanless, Celeron M based CappucinoPC system - after weeks of waffling on what to get. If I'd known about the SPCR Stealth 100, I'd have bought one of them from Anitec instead!)

Anitec is advertising the complete system at $899 CDN, with Vista Home Premium installed - so I assume it is cheaper if you have your own OS. This includes the 750 GB Western Digital Caviar Green Power drive, which go for about $275 - making the price of the system modest and very fair.

FINALLY silent computing is affordable to those of us who do not want to build our own systems. Hitting the $800 price point for a modern, well equipped system, with a good upgrade path is a big deal, IMHO.

This is great news Mike. Well done!

Shipping a case with a giant heatsink like the ninja inside kind of concerns me because of the horror stories I've heard of heatsinks ripping off the board.

But the system looks nice I think Mike has a very clean home though, because I'd be worried about the unfiltered dust flow ending the psu fan early.

PPPPPS: How about a mini ninja on that sucker instead of the full ninja! Small performance decrease for great mass and volume and perhaps cost decrease!

PPPPPPS: RE: BRANDING: Unfortunately I guess SPCR isn't getting any/much licensing money from the Anitec deal. But that is okay as long as they have limited rights to using the name, because SPCR can start charging more money in the future if greater branding opportunities arise.

The Ninja is not really that heavy.... and when the thing is shipped, the interior gets filled with bubble wrap so all the components are braced/supported on all sides. There's nowhere for the HS to go even if it could be dislodged off the motherboard.

No clean home, there's plenty of dust bunnies around here! But dust shortening fan life is not something I've seen much of -- even going back 10 years. Unless you have a particularly serious problem with fine dust, I don't see that is an issue... and if you did have fine particulates that could get into the sealed bearing of a fan, then no ordinary dust filter is ever going to help.

Great system! (But I'm not in Canada.)

One question: Can we buy that spiffy SPCR logo and slap it on our builds? Pretty please?

As a unique symbol of our dedication to quiet computing, it just looks right...

Mike,

I'm very interested in buying that model of computer from Anitec, but I have a few questions about it:

Is the hard drive blocking the pci express expansion slot? By the way, is it ok to add any expansion cards at all, or is that a no-no in terms of heat generation for this computer?

Is it possible/recommendable to add a second hard drive to this machine?

Does it make a difference if I use RAM that requires a higher voltage to run, for instance 2-2.1V instead of 1.8V, such as http://www.anitec.ca/product/8827/ocz_g ... _ddr2_kit/ ? Also, I suppose it's not possible to use ram such as http://www.anitec.ca/product/9093/ocz_d ... annel_kit/ because of the Ninja heatsink, right?

Does it make a difference to use the HDMI version of the motherboard with the hdmi card installed? http://www.mvkc.jp/product/asus/motherb ... mage01.jpg

Thanks in advance.

AFAIK...

1) yes. There is a second HDD location in the less ventilated upper chamber, which would be fine as the thermal/power of the WD green is very low.

2) yes, but... see 1). You could ask for a terabyte version of the WD green power and add an external HDD.

3) BIOS allows up to 2.1V for the RAM. re- Reaper, I don't know. Clearance looks difficult.

4) no dif, that should work fine; the Ninja does not stray into the PCIe slot area.

what happened to SPCR designed modelOne and modelEleven which were covered in this article?
i used to like reading up on them; especially the modelOne as it is a great basis for a quiet computer..... now they are gone!
only thing left is links to enpcnoise and anitec!?!?
whats up with that?

You're quite mistaken. Those links are to full description/reviews of the SPCR systems the two companies offer.

ok, i see.
i was refering to the article that was 5 pages long and had both the modelEleven (picture page one) and modelOne (picture on page 4 of article)
i guess they have now been seperated into two seperate articles.
thanx!
ps, what would you recommend as an update to the following components in order to make the modelOne more modern (as in 1333FSB):
-motherboard
-cpu (highest clock speed acheived on passive ninja without OC)
-passive dx10 video card
(everything else leaving as is as it is an amazing design and choice of components)
thanx again

Doesn't this really depend on how much you want to spend? Unless you're going for a bleeding edge setup, the Ninja without a fan on it should cool just about any CPU as long as the back 120mm fan is within say 1" from the edge of the fins. The choice of vidcard could impact overall heat in the system, but unlikely to affect the noise. An Arctic Cooling S1 rev B (2?) should cool just about any GPU these days, especially if you add a slow fan in from to for some air directly across it... and remove some (all?) of the back PCI slot covers for good throughflow.

well the modelOne being a fairly budget oriented setup, it would probably be proper to have a more updated one within the same category.
definately not bleeding edge; but a upper/mid level system
when you mentioned that just about any cpu can be used on a passive ninja, does that include the intel quad Q6600?
also regarding videocard, i was hinking about a ASUS EN8600GT SILENT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814121098
and motherboard: Abit IP35
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... BIT%2bIP35
cpu; probably an intel C2D (45nm) maybe a E6750 (unless the Q6600 can be cooled passively)

this will be a machine used to make music/DAW

thanx for your advice!

The TDP of the Q6600 is either 105W of 95W, which is a bit higher than the 65W of the original CPU in that system, so you might not be able to get away without another fan on the heatsink... but even if you have to have one, if you choose a quiet fan and run it slow, you probably won;t hear any increase in noise -- maybe a db... As for the mobo, I know nothing about your choice, I don't pretend to be uptodate on every component out there. That VGA card has been reviewed at SPCR btw.

I just ordered one for a relative from endpcnoise.com

It is very well done.

Are there silent/quiet PCs &/or laptops offered in Europe?

And how silent/quiet are these exactly? /anyone with hyperacusis on the forum? /

I can't seem to get to the details on the models mentioned here:



It looks like the detail link is pointing right back at the main article page rather than the detail page.

I actually kind of asked the same thing about SPCR logos et al here: http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=50979

I've clicked all over the site and can't find the detail page for the SPCR PCs. Does such a detail page even exist?

Here's the detail pages I was looking for.

Model One:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article826-page1.html

Model Eleven:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article781-page1.html

I was actually looking at this very same barebones system a few weeks ago. I figured it looked like a good deal, and the case is pretty attractive, but I just assumed it couldn't be quiet with the PSU handling all the ventilation. It's nice to be proven wrong, this time!

It's a shame none of these companies ships to the United States, though (or overseas, but that's a lot more difficult). I know there are quite a few forum posts asking for a quiet prebuilt system, and these are the perfect response...as long as the person asking the question lives in Canada.

The way it opens up is bizarre; I thought the third picture on page two was a different PC at first...

Nice build though, thumbs up.

1. why didn't you use E8500/E8400 for the processor, is it the price or heat issue?

2. is it possible to replace the Momentus with 7200rpm notebook drive with similar noise?

I was seriously considering this until i saw the picture of the motherboard. Its not mATX form factor, which means you must use the motherboard they ship with it and can never replace it.

Its too bad, if it was standard form factor i would seriously consider it.

Quoted for truth.

Custom motherboard size is a horrible, horrible idea. The case doesn't even support uATX or ATX motherboards. Mobo dies your comp will be down for weeks waiting for Asus to send you a replacement. It's nothing more than a much larger shuttle. I don't want to be negative but this thing is fundamentally flawed in my opinion.

I just don't understand why this computer was even assembled with the "Anitech Stealth 100" (NSK 3480) available. http://www.silentpcreview.com/article782-page1.html

Oh well, at least it looks nice (not as nice as the Stealth 100 though).

Anitec was seeking a slim, unique stylish box for the general user. This is a pretty good answer to that quest.

Mike- on page three of your article, in the very last table called "Hot 30°C Ambient Testing" there is a typo. The column called "Fan RPM" looks like it should be called "HDD".