hi,
ive been following this forum for a few months but never felt like registering to post, because i didnt have the funds to modify my pc (still dont actually, heheh ).

well, i am extremely pleased that my first post could be on this wonderful topic...

ive always thought the current solution to pc silencing wasnt really an optimal solution, no manufacturer is really trying to make cheap and silent pc parts (well excluding the spinpoint hdds), so we are scrambling around and finding these difficult to implement solutions.

i have this nagging annoyance that we are putting in all this effort and energy, and if we just wait like 1 or 2 years, the manufacturers will get their act together and start making cheap silent pc components and entire systems.

kind of like, when mp3s first hit the scene, some people went to great lenghts to modify their car by putting in a computer or laptop, so they could have mp3s in their car.... nowadays you can just buy a $50 cd based mp3 player and hook it up to the car stereo.

i kind of feel our solutions are like this. plus i am really annoyed by the price gouging that is going on by some companies to sell a quiet pc part. $80 for a PSU, etc. is total BS.

anyway, what i was looking for is a cheap simple easy solution that is guaranteed to work.

today on slashdot i finally found a solution that will probably work.

its basically a big box heavy box to put the pc in, with 180 degree sound vents.

umm... ill just quote the whole news posting from /....

"An anonymous reader points to this wacky but effective-looking home-brewed answer to computer noise, consisting of a wooden case stuffed with ventilation shafts which follow a number of 180-degree turns, and implementing several ideas found at 12ghosts.de (in German) <http://supergee.com/de/silence/>. From the description on the site <http://www.carsten-buschmann.de/noise-protection/>: "By traveling through the shafts, the noise is weakened gradually on its way through the sections. On the front the case has a door for accessing drives, the cables come out of a kind of "mouse hole" at the rear panel. A fan inside pulls an air flow through the wooden box." "


the english website is http://www.carsten-buschmann.de/noise-protection/ if you didnt catch it

there are pics of it here...
http://www.carsten-buschmann.de/noise-p ... cture1.htm

i remember reading somewhere that in order to stop noise, the walls must be thick, and that they dynamat and all that stuff that some people try isnt applicable to our situations. the thick wood box is where its at.

its not that thick actually only 19mm. and say this isnt quiet enough for you, just double it to 40mm and im sure it will be even quieter.

anyway what do you guys think about this... hopefully someone will sell this and it will incite some competition in the pc silencing scene. the guys site says it only costs about $50 in materials

"Optical embellishment?" Do like the red shag carpet tho!

Well you do make it sound easy. Once you start with a solution like this, you'll encounter all the same type of problems that other quieting solutions involve.

Just make one...then let us see the result.

It is not a new idea - you will find some posts around here on the same theme.
This is the real gotcha: while a few bends are effective at damping sound, they are also mighty effective at slugging airflow. Do a search here for posts by (IIRC) jafb2000 (aka Dorothy) who gave some actual numbers for the impact on static pressure.

I've built a similar one, weighing ~100 pounds: It don't really work & it is a PITA to have your PC buried in a box, even if you have a hinged door. I'd rather go for remote location with long VGA & external USB optical drive cables with wireless keyboard/mouse. Just stick your PC in the basement or something. But an isolation box that cools and silences takes huge effort & $ to get it right. If you do some google searches on "computer noise isolation cabinet" or similar, you will run across a bunch of commercial box-it-in products -- they start at ~US$1000.

Even if it did work, I can't help but see this solution as sort of a poor fix to a problem that really should be addressed in different means....plus, the case is going to act as an insulating layer, in addition to impeding airflow--with the eventually increase in heat dissipation from computers, all this product is going to do is cause you to have to increase the speed and airflow of your fans.

What most of these knowledable guys have posted is correct: it's not anything new. Recording studios and places were silence is held as a high priority have been using isolation boxes for years. With professional isolation boxes, which cost a VERY pretty penny, the results are probably more drastic. But with home brewed ideas, YMMV.

To me, I think it's the wrong direction. Hard access to optical drives, weight, and the fact that there is now an even bigger box sitting by you. Until manufactureres start working together towards a quiet solution, I think you're stuck with what we have now.

When I came into this thread, I was expecting to see $50 worth of C4 plastic explosive.

I think the real answer on how to make a quiet PC is:

- read every byte at SilentPCReview.com
- spend a bunch of money on a great new case and power supply
- wonder why it isn't quiet
- read a bunch more stuff and actually understand it better now
- serially buy and test a few dozen fans
- modify (read: cut and grind) that cool new case you spent hundreds on
- buy a fan bus controller, heat pipe video cooler, and heat sinks

- By the time you're done, you also have a new motherboard, CPU, more RAM, and a fancy new graphics card. Hey... how did that stuff get in there?

I think you can achieve a dramatic reduction in noise without costing you hardly anything. Before I found SPCR, I spent a small fortune on quieting components because simply I did not know what or how to get a computer quiet.

It can be done quite cheeply now.

1. Undervolt or swap PSU fan and have it a constant 7v or even less if you are willing to risk it. Make a duct which draws cool air into the PSU, just try to avoid the PSU drawing in heat from the rest of the components. You will come up with ideas!

2. Undervolt CPU fan to 7v or less depending on the quality of the HS already there. Use a adaptor if you have one of those whiney 60mm or smaller fans. Get a 80mm to 60mm adaptor or make one with card.

3. Undervolt case fan and add a extra case fan at low voltage. If you don't have space, see if you can use what was normally the intake as an exhaust instead.

4. place your hard drive on a piece of thick soft foam. If you got one of those that whines like mad, then your unlucky because this noise is hard to remove without replacement of the drive.

Temps may rise a bit, but hell it probably has cut well over 10dBA (percieved by human ear to be half as loud). Temps are still within the safety range.

But then if you caught the addiction of silence bug from SPCR, then you're in trouble. Money that was not available has now become available because you're not eating. "Quiet is never quiet enough".

To achieve inaudibility or close to silence it's a more costly affair. That's where specialist components come into it.

I must of have taken off ~15dBA off my brothers computer without costing more than £10. It makes about 1/3 of the noise it made before. My one is close to audibility but my brothers would still satisfy most people except the hardcore silencing community, like us!

What kinda bothers me is the patent pending part. Many of us have planned/attempted similar stuff (pretty damn similar, if I check my old plans). I guess that's how this industry works

Ah well, a cabinet built according to the rough plans on the page would definately not allow enough airflow to cool a decent computer. This muffler configuration would need a fixed fan at both exhaust/intake, and even that wouldn't cool enough.