I didn't put in anything to act as a faraday cage on mine, and I can't get my own cell phone or cordless to have any effects (or be effected) even holding them right beside the case. Can't hurt, but imho not really necessary. The easy way to make one is to line the case with aluminum foil, making su...

I'm not inclined to install software just to look at this. I would suggest taking a screenshot and posting it as an image file if you want comments.

The only advice I have to give in the absence of a drawing is to make sure you isolate all the moving bits to avoid resonance issues.

Most likely you'd gain more from a small fibreglass panel placed behind the computer (see the third pic from the top here ) to absorb the sound coming out the back than you would from the small amount of fibreglass you might find room for inside. You might try to use the vinyl just to increase the m...

Yes, both high density rigid fibreglass and mineral wool are superior for sound absorption to foam. Any worthwhile sound absorption is likely to take up more space than you have available inside a standard computer case, though. Especially if you're serious about not giving up the case window. The i...

Fiberglass IS itchy. To handle it, suit up in a raincoat and don the breath mask and safety glasses. The effectiveness is NOT questionable. It's both the cheapest and most effective way of absorption. I agree pretty much 100% with your excellent post, but I think you're overstating the requirements...

In my opinion, there's no point in complicated pathways, but you can get some gains from some very simple sorts of things based on similar principles. For example, if you were to have an exhaust fan inset from the back of the case by a couple inches, or alternatively shrouded out the back, to focus ...

Well, I'm not affluent at all. But then stealing scraps of fibreglass from work doesn't cost me much, either, and the stuff we use isn't readily available on the retail market I'll admit. Still, you could make something comparable using regular fibreglass bat insulation. It's low density, so you nee...

I read it right the first time, and I simply absolutely disagree. My suspicion is that the noise floor you're working with must be rather high if you've had such success with such noise absorption. [added:] To clarify, I am NOT saying that such sound absorbers don't reduce noise significantly. They...

My experience is that the only way to "trap nearly all the sound" is with a full enclosure with no significant openings whatsoever. For computing purposes, the only place where this is really applicable IMHO is with silencing a 2.5" hard drive. Everything else requires some sort of ventilation that...

I'm going to disagree with Isaac about wood and resonance. Wood does resonate as much as steel or aluminum (probably more, actually), for any given thickness. A wood case with walls as thick as common metal cases would be like sticking a computer into a cello. I'll let you imagine what that would so...

My case has had less dust buildup than most of my previous cases (for the most part cheap beige boxes), and that's with absolutely no dust filter and leaving it untouched for months on end. I think it's because the airspeed at the intake is very low. I should probably point out that on a hard floor ...

I doubt you'd have any significant gains (acoustically speaking) using birch instead of MDF. Certainly not enough to justify that price difference, assuming that price is an issue. MDF is about as easy to work with as anything, too. Just remember that even small screws in MDF require pilot holes - i...

Hmmm you seem to know alot more than me about "wood acoustic"-properies. What would you recommend I use as building materiel ? Err....it depends. I myself ignored all the advice in my previous post and used solid softwood planks to build my case . I thought that the tradeoffs would be small enough ...

1. Don't use plywood. I repeat: don't use plywood! A normal piece of wood will do well, as will some semi-artifical materials. Plywood, even thick, is just horrible about transferring vibration. It depends on the plywood. Most pro audio speaker cabinets (you know, the kind you see hanging in audito...

If you've looked through the DIY articles here, you've no doubt read mine (Doug's Quiet Wooden PC Case, too lazy to make a link). As seen in the article, I cannibalized the optical drive cage and the mobo tray/expansion card lockdowns from my old case. Just drilled out the rivets, and it all came ap...

Mine looks exactly the same. I hadn't so much as opened my case for months. Everything's been working flawlessly and I can't hear any of it. But yup, the 6600GT Silentpipe is sure 'nuf warped. It's been in there for most of a year, and never given any trouble.

A clearcoat spray,even a colored spray paint will likely bind loose fibers,particles togather,also this can be enclosed in a fabric or sandwiched between thin layers of foam.. Perhaps not the easiest,but could be a real cost-effective muffler. While a clearcoat spray would bind the fibres, it would...

Looking good. The software in the touchscreen seems a tad garish, though.

There's no particular reason why plywood shouldn't be used, so long as it's thick enough. For sound containment, thicker is better. Cheap plywood is usually spruce, though, and thin spruce plywood is definitely not what you'd want. Lots of pro audio speaker boxes are made from plywood, which demonst...

Aspen and poplar are more or less the same thing. Fast-growing hardwoods.

Glad to have been helpful. I advise using better foam than the packing stuff I used, which turns out to have been too stiff even though my early experiments suggested it would work. It's adequate at the moment, but I'm looking to upgrade my cpu soon, and I've already added a passive 6600GT, so I'm l...

Remember that wood likes to resonate. You'll likely want to soft mount fans and such. That said, my wood case is almost always below ambient noise levels, and I don't have overly quiet components inside, so I think your proposal is definitely feasible. I'll also second the 'no direct path for sound ...

My computer's about 8' from the TV, and doesn't make a lick of difference to the picture. It might be an issue if it was right next to it, I don't know. As I said, the only RFI effect I can find is AM radio noise within a few feet (as in, less than 3). But my LCD monitor is noisier in that respect t...

My wood case has no shielding at all, and I can't get it to significantly interfere with cordless or cell phones. AM radio held within a couple feet picks up a lot of static, but that's true of a great many things. I wouldn't sweat RF shielding unless you can actually identify a problem.

I've had four cases in my life. Most recently the one I built . Prior to that, the case I got with my current system, in spring '03. Prior to that, one in '98, and one in '93. The systems in each case were upgraded to varying degrees along the way, of course. I can't see myself replacing the current...

It wasn't that the card itself got too hot (it can withstand very high temperatures) it's just that it pumped so much hot air into the CPU and motherboard chipset area that my computer actually turned itself off Remember that a passively cooled 6800 doesn't dump any more heat into your case than an...

I've got the fanless Gigabyte 6600GT. I'm using a single Nexus 120 at 7v as the sole exhaust (psu has seperate airflow), as seen here . I installed the card after the article was written, so you don't get to see pictures of it, just the case. The gpu idles around 60 and peaks in the mid-80s. The def...

My 6600GT Silentpipe idles at 61 and peaks under load at 85. Lots good enough for me.

Wood and steel resonate...well...differently. There's a reason that most musical instruments that use a resonant chamber to amplify themselves (stringed instruments, predominantly) are made from wood. Of course, the thicker wood is, the less it's going to make like a violin. I've no experience with ...

it's much much easier for me to detect compression artifacts with headphones than speakers, and i can only assume that's because the headphones were altering the signal less. Maybe not. In any room other than an anechoic chamber, you don't just hear direct sound from the speaker, but reflected soun...