Allow me to add to the chorus. You can see I've been signed up for a while, but don't post often. When the other contributors know more than you do, you keep your eyes open and mouth shut. This site has nonetheless been an invaluable resource for me. I wonder if advertisers know how many products get purchased due to SPCR recommendations. I've bought dozens. The best of these has been my Antec P182 case, that probably wouldn't exist if not for this site.

I've been too smug in reading others sites talking about their 30-40db noise floor. Your setup makes all the rest look lame. I think that you will find someone to take it over. I'd move there myself if it weren't so bloody expensive. I would think there would be many looking for a peaceful, quiet place in Vancouver now.

Also imho, as long as computers have moving parts and even coil whine, there's a purpose for spcr. Even though it's nowhere near as bad as the old loud P4 days, there's still plenty of noise to go around, and not even just in normal computers. I really wish Antec was still working with spcr on case designs, because I feel like you made some really good things happen in that direction. We do have some interesting case competition out there at least, but more high quality cases designed for quiet cooling are still kind of a rarity. At least SSD's have made our lives a bit easier recently. :)

Quite simply:
Thank you Mike for everything you have done for this community in particular, and the computing community as a whole.

I hope SPCR continues to have life, but wish you the best.
No one is more dedicated, diligent, and honest than you when it comes to silent computing and those personal standards shaped this website and community.

sgt pokey

Hardly ever comment on the site, but read daily... All hardware choices over many many years have been made due to your detailed testing. All the best for the future, thanks for your work and I hope (with some luck) to be here again next year!

Cheers!

As a nearly nine year member, I just want to say thanks and best wishes on your next adventure, Mike. You've greatly changed my computer experience and those of many others. As I always keep an open tab on SPCR, and occasionally post, I certainly hope that someone with commitment steps into your very large shoes. All the best!

I discovered this site relatively recently - probably within the past year - but it quickly became my favorite review site on the internet because of the outstanding quality of the reviews.

Call me crazy, but I can't even begin to describe the surprisingly large sense of satisfaction I still feel every day just by not hearing my computer. And I owe it all to this website.

Thanks for all of your hard work!

I don't post often, but have learnt a lot from your articles and reviews. Mike, all the best and thanks for providing a first rate service that was much needed at the time. Fingers crossed that this site will live on without you.

Sorry to hear that you'll be signing off, Mike, but am hopeful SPCR lives on.

By far, your in depth reviews with a focus on noise and energy consumption has been one the most useful tech sites I visit on a daily basis.

The forums here are also top-notch!

Just like to add my small voice to the sense of shock, but also my very best wishes and thanks to Mike and the whole SPCR community. I only have half a dozen websites pinned to the top of my browser for daily visits and SPCR has always been one of those.

Whatever happens, the journey has been excellent.

Martin

Very sad news indeed. Hopefully a solution is found so this valuable resource and community can live on. What can you say but amazingly fabulous work Mike!

How will we stay now? How will we know if a product is or is not loud? Or can someone actually trust the analyses of other reputable sites?

The only reference in terms of acoustics for computers, I said ONLY, is the SPCR!

Please do not go!

Wow. Disaster.

It's hard to believe SPCR may be gone soon.
I've never been big on consumer tech sites and all the well known ones are obviously influenced by their sponsors/corrupt - but SPCR was the first (and I think ever) tech site I've ever signed up to.
The technical quality of the reviews and the high level of the forum content puts it head-and-shoulders above the rest.

I really do hope that a solution can be found and that SPCR can live on.

Outstanding work Mike.

DonP.

PS The reviews and the forum content are worth their weight in gold - if no solution can be found to carrying on SPCR would it at least be possible to keep the site as an archive? maybe even keep the forums open?

Mike, thanks for the opportunity to participate in such a wonderful community. I wish you well and am certain you have a bright future.

This is so sad.

It is good that the site will continue to run - it's been so valuable to me, I've found information nowhere else available, and it has formed my perception of computer usage and aesthetics quite a bit - but a site's power lies in its community and its members and this community will be very weakened by this departure.

I wish Mike well and every success in the future.

I hope some one who sees the value in this site decides to pick it up from you and continue the good work you have been doing.

Thank you for the work you have done. And good luck.

It's a wonderful tribute to Mike and the important influence of SPCR to see the many locations all over the world from which messages on this thread are coming.

Please see the change in my exit strategy - edit of original post:
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=62491

[quote="MikeC"]Please see the change in my exit strategy - edit of original post:
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=62491[/quote]

That's good to hear :)

Such good news, Mike. Thanks very much.

Thank you for the good news and keeping us updated :D

Very good news...I mean those mentioned in the 22nd June update

The least I can do is make a public THANK YOU to running such an awesome site over the years!

On the one hand, I've often wondered if SPCR was becoming less relevant, because it's now quite easy to build a *quiet* computer; and if you cherry-pick components from SPCR reviews, you can fairly easily build a *silent* computer. Despite that, SPCR is still my favorite and most-visited hardware review site and forums. And it's for the reasons everyone has mentioned: the articles are consistently of the highest quality, and the forums have an unusually high signal-to-noise ratio (and are remarkably friendly to boot).

Although I would hate to see SPCR go away completely, I think it would be still worse if the "new management" didn't run it by the same ultra-high quality standards that made it great in the first place. I'd hate to see it milked for ad revenue, and the name run into the ground.

Mike, some questions before you leave:
- Any hints as to what your next venture will be? Are you staying the with web publishing scene, or going in a completely different direction? What about Eco PC Review?
- Have you seen traffic to SPCR increase dramatically since you made the announcement? I wonder if there are people out there running mirror scripts "just in case".
- Have you put any thought into how SPCR can maintain its excellent reputation after you're gone? Or is that completely in the hands of the new owners?

I remember when I first got into this site, maybe five or six years ago. I remember looking at the "Gallery" forum, where people had just done *amazing* things to silence their PC. Who remembers McMaster-Carr? SPCR *had* to be responsible for some of their sales (vibration-dampening grommets, sorbothane, mass-loaded vinyl, other odds'n'ends parts). Overall, I'm happy that these days I don't have to work too terribly hard to build a quiet/silent PC. But I do miss seeing the creativity that some people put into quiet computing.

Thanks again Mike for giving us all such a wonderful site!

-Matt

Edit: removed BBCode (not allowed in this forum?)

Perhaps the most enduring contribution by SPCR won't be the reviews of hardware, as the harware will go obsolete at some point anyway. Rather, it's that Mike Chin championed the notion that it's worthy to make our computers quiet, and we have a forum of like-minded individuals where previously it would have been difficult to share ideas and knowledge. It seems likely, though, that before long processors will consume ever less power, SSDs will replace magnetic hard drives, and quiet PCs will be the norm. Thank you, and good luck!

Except for the sweet new 10,000W PSUs cooled with vacuum cleaner technology (TM). :)

[quote="atmartens"]It seems likely, though, that before long processors will consume ever less power, SSDs will replace magnetic hard drives, and quiet PCs will be the norm. Thank you, and good luck![/quote]

Except, of course, for gigawatt PSUs like andymcca said and video cards that despite all the improvements still get hot and noisy.

Thanks for your invaluable contribution to silent computing!

I hope some solution could be found at least to keep reviewing fans, coolers, PSUs and CPUs.

I love this site. Every time I am thinking about buying new hardware or tinkering with my build a bit I can visit here and get some great new information :).

So thanks! And best of luck with whatever it is you will be doing after this.

I hope the site will be able to stay alive in some form, but I think that should be possible.

Mike,

I'm sorry to be so slow in responding to your announcement. I've been checking for new articles every day and finally decided to read the announcement page. I'm sorry to see you go, but I know your considerable talents could be better compensated through some other endeavor. So, I understand.

Thanks for such an exceptional site. Your years of hard work are truly appreciated. I have not bought a single component, for any of my three PCs, over the past five years without researching it here first. My house is quieter and cooler and I am happier thanks to you.

Best of luck to you,

Mike

[quote="rpsgc"]Except, of course, for gigawatt PSUs like andymcca said and video cards that despite all the improvements still get hot and noisy.[/quote]

Even Kilowatt PSUs today are virtually silent unless they are actually putting out a Kilowatt, at which point they probably have to be loud.

And when I think back to my GeForce4 Ti4400 from 2002 to my GTX460 now, the new card is a lot hotter but a lot quieter too. And most of the year when it's idleing, it draws less energy than that old GF4.

Today, you have to actually try hard or just be plain unlucky to get a [i]really[/i] loud PC.

I recently build a cheapo PC for a friend: Athlon II X2 2.8 Ghz, 4 gig of memory, some 880g mainboard, a 350w PSU, WD Caviar Blue 640gig and a Radeon 5770. And what do you know, out of the box, that thing is very quiet. Not silent, but quiet. With stock cooling that is.

So in a way, I think SPCR has run its course. It's nice if the forums are kept alive for the nerdier things, but in general SPCR's methodology is probably overkill in today's world. It's like when some AV-site reviews a 3000$ LED TV and they nitpick about things that you'll only see in certain conditions when you're looking for them and have a comparison TV-set standing next to it.

I think in the last 2-3 years the most interesting thing about CPU-cooler reviews have been exakt measurements and installation issues. When was the last time an established manufacturer has released a cooler that couldn't cool a modern CPU quietly? When was the last time you've seen a case that couldn't be cooled adequately (and wasn't some mITX contraption)?

I've been coming here since 2003, I still remember, I think I found it googling for hard drive decoupling.

Goodspeed Mike, it's been nice "knowing" you!

Hi Mike the Chin ;)

I hope too, this site will continue to be active in reviewing all those noisy components focusing on silence and efficiency.
As others have done, all computer part buys I've done was referenced either from the recommended section or from the forums.

Being able to not hear the computer is fantastic.

Thank you for all the worthwhile reads!