SPCR

im new here but i've been reading for a while, since i decided to build a silent pc for my recording studio. it worked, the pc is pretty quiet and compared to the squealling whining piece of junk i had before it's lovely but..

now i've started silencing my girlfriend's pc, my mailserver and it doesnt stop... you get it quiet but you can still hear something - monitor hum is the latest. last night i ended up wondering if i could swap the fan out of my PS2 for a quiet one. then the central heating started annoying me. maybe i could undervolt the main pump if i soldered copper fins to all the radiators in our house?

so is there anyone here who's kicked the habit? can you sit next to a loud pc without installing speedfan? how?

No, face it, you're screwed for life. By the way, silencing a PS2 is not too much fun. Read my experience here:
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=2999

Cure? Hah! There is no cure, only the temporary relief from a trip to the parts store for quieter components than the batch you just finished installing.
Funny you should mention the HVAC (looking over my shoulder giving the evil eye to this rattling vent that is taunting me as I type).
Have you read the thread titled "The vicious cycle"?

Deafness or severe tinnitus would probably be the best and cheapest cure.

Its come to the point for me that I've decoupled my mechanical clock from the wall... LOL There is only one true cure, silence.

Realistically the only way I see this happening is with 100% passive cooling with EXTREMELY minimal electronic noise and solid state harddrives (or in sand, if that works well).

By the way, decoupling the clock from the wall worked pretty well! I just put some pads of cork on the back of the clock and around the pushpin that it was hanging on. Seek noise....errr tick noise is reduced and cannot be heard in my room where the clock is on the other side of the wall (I used to hear this soft "thonk, thonk, thonk" for every second amplified with the wall).

I only use digital clocks in my room but my mom in the room next to me refuses to move that clock from the wall which makes a tick noise for every second. Bet she can't tell its now decoupled!

As for everything else, isolation earmuffs? Noise canceling headphones?

By the way, how is "decoupling" pronounced?

-Ken

I refused to accept mechanical clocks years ago, dude...
The only one into whole house are in kitchen, and i don't hear it from my room, so that's fine. The noise from watter in radiators circling is fixable easily - just close the radiator valve
(however better clotching is then recommended, as temperature go down, especialy now, in winter )
About monitor - nah, buy a better one. I end with Eizo, slightly modded to be absolutely silent.
Now from my two computers thre are only two fans, both in main one and Enermax power supply - 80 out and 92 mm one in bottom. Both running at 5V only, and very very silint, however i still think im going to replace them for fanless PSU anyway

So, there is no cure, just some work you have to do to keep things quiet. Wellcome aboard.

BTW, im the sensitive type, who can hear if TV is on of off

Ear defenders work quite nicely, along with some masking noise.
The rig I'm working on for my MEng project is getting logged to a not-very-quiet PC. However, the rig generates so much noise that it's uncomfortable with ear defenders on.
Funnily enough, I've never been bothered by the PC noise!

you need to see a therpist

Buy a laptop - I'm on one now and there's no comparison to my quiet Desk rig.

Buy a laptop - I'm on one now and there's no comparison to my quiet Desk rig.

Don't do that. It is possible to get a desktop a lot more quiet than a laptop since you have a lot more space to work with. Also the noise from a laptop is a lot more irritating since you have the computer a lot closer to your ears.
I have to look at the front LED to check if my desktop computer is on during daytime, and I have not run any laptop that has been quiet compared to my desktop.
But since I have _the_ obsession I am building a much more quiet rig now.

my pc is quieter than my laptop now

i've half-cured my obsession by bumping cooling performance up a few rungs on the priority ladder - i've decided to go watercooling.

seems like the logical "next step"