The Sound of Silence: Computing's silent revolution-News.com
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
The Sound of Silence: Computing's silent revolution-News.com
Top of the page on Cnet's News.com this morning. Computing's Silent Revolution
Includes some discussion with Mike C and a link to SPCR.
Includes some discussion with Mike C and a link to SPCR.
-
- Patron of SPCR
- Posts: 2674
- Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 6:07 am
- Location: Houten, The Netherlands, Europe
Ah, now I know what I am. I am an acoustic cultist.CNET wrote:The quest for quiet computing has inspired ... a small underground of acoustic cultists.
And then he forgot the next half: ", but they don't have to with a bit of carefull planning."CNET wrote:Quiet PCs can cost up to $500 more than their noisier counterparts
-
- Posts: 171
- Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2004 7:11 am
- Location: manahttan beach, ca
- Contact:
Great to hear that we have got a little more mainstream recognition for the work that MikeC (and others) have put into this site. The more publicity we get, the more people will care about the noise levels their PCs put out. So many people have no idea that a PC can be quiet, they just have never experienced it. I do enjoy pointing them to this site
For me the holy grail is the off the shelf, high performance, silent PC. Something that I think will take quite a few more years to come. So, in short guys, you are going to have to put up with me in the forums for a few more years
For me the holy grail is the off the shelf, high performance, silent PC. Something that I think will take quite a few more years to come. So, in short guys, you are going to have to put up with me in the forums for a few more years
Pretty good article. Nice to see more expose for the silent. Hopefully this will decrease the price of silent equipment.
zalman makes WC'ing pumps now?But truly quiet computing is still largely a niche market, served by specialty manufacturers such as South Korea's Zalman Tech, which makes huge copper heatsinks, water-cooling pumps and other components
Yeah, I found that a bit objectionable too, as it rather misleading. Sure it can cost $500 more if you buy a Hush, but the premium Hush charge isn't just for silence, but for the aesthetics too as they point out.Tibors wrote:And then he forgot the next half: ", but they don't have to with a bit of carefull planning."CNET wrote:Quiet PCs can cost up to $500 more than their noisier counterparts
As we all know here, by carefully selecting the right components you can get a quiet PC for virtually no price premium over a standard machine. But I suppose quiet off-the-shelf systems are still more difficult to find.
I'm not going to register on their site just to leave my comment. So I'm just going to counter here and I'll let someone else do my dirty work.
One does not need to compromise performance for silence. A 15kRPM drive is not the best performing drive, this product (at the bottom) is much faster and much quieter. This product is pretty good too.
MikeC, they make it sound like you lost your mind one day and have been on a crusade since. Is that true?
One does not need to compromise performance for silence. A 15kRPM drive is not the best performing drive, this product (at the bottom) is much faster and much quieter. This product is pretty good too.
MikeC, they make it sound like you lost your mind one day and have been on a crusade since. Is that true?
-
- Posts: 380
- Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2004 12:44 pm
- Location: UK
Just crazyMikeC wrote:That's one way of putting it.sthayashi wrote:MikeC, they make it sound like you lost your mind one day and have been on a crusade since. Is that true?
Why, do you feel righteous and holy when you're here? Or just crazy?
I look at hardware differently due to this site, and I have to bite my tongue when someone in the Real World asks my opinion on a loud-but-otherwise-good computer component (e.g. 6800 Ultra video cards).
I've had friends that couldn't believe that I'd given them my old 30GB Maxtor or my old scratched up Cooler Master ATCS-201 case to them for free because they were in need of computer hardware and I wasn't going to use it since it was too loud. Especially when I told them I felt bad that I was giving them such a loud drive/case.
A 6800U, loud but otherwise good? You're kind of overlooking expensive, hot and power hungry.sthayashi wrote: I look at hardware differently due to this site, and I have to bite my tongue when someone in the Real World asks my opinion on a loud-but-otherwise-good computer component (e.g. 6800 Ultra video cards).
I also look at hardware differently now, but not really due to this site, I've been kind of apathetic about performance for while, mostly for a while before I found SPCR actually. And I also appreciate some of the side benefits of silencing/other benefits of more moderate/better desgned PC's(like the above coment suggests), like lower cost, lower power requirements and the high reliability of slow sleeve bearing fans.
Well, I have felt a strong urge to convert my friends and family to the Silent side. I have succeeded in saving several benighted souls from the tyranny of noise pollution so far. Though that's mainly because I generate a steady stream of quiet-but-not-quiet-enough components that have to go somewhere. Oh, well. I will feel justified when they start spending their own money on silencing.MikeC wrote:That's one way of putting it.sthayashi wrote:MikeC, they make it sound like you lost your mind one day and have been on a crusade since. Is that true?
Why, do you feel righteous and holy when you're here? Or just crazy?
-
- SPCR Reviewer
- Posts: 2696
- Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2003 9:53 pm
- Location: Scarsdale, NY
- Contact:
Some of us have to go through hell to seek heaven...
I once had a machine with these specs:
Thermaltake Xaser II
Antec True 550
Gigabyte 7NNXP w/DPS
Barton w/Aeroflow
Radeon 9800 Pro w/ZM80A-HP and three 70mm TMD fans tied to it at 12V
4 80mm high speed LED fans from Galaxy, 12V
1 80mm LED fan from Cooler Master, 12V
2 92mm high speed LED fans from Galaxy, 12V
1 18GB Cheetah 15K3, hard mounted
2 60GB Diamond MAX 9, hard mounted
4 40GB Caviars, hard mounted (no I am not kidding)
3 red 12" CCFLs
1 white 12" CCFL
That's my last loud rig, and basically it's what tripped over the line for me. More amazingly, I used to leave that beast on 24/7.
-Ed
I once had a machine with these specs:
Thermaltake Xaser II
Antec True 550
Gigabyte 7NNXP w/DPS
Barton w/Aeroflow
Radeon 9800 Pro w/ZM80A-HP and three 70mm TMD fans tied to it at 12V
4 80mm high speed LED fans from Galaxy, 12V
1 80mm LED fan from Cooler Master, 12V
2 92mm high speed LED fans from Galaxy, 12V
1 18GB Cheetah 15K3, hard mounted
2 60GB Diamond MAX 9, hard mounted
4 40GB Caviars, hard mounted (no I am not kidding)
3 red 12" CCFLs
1 white 12" CCFL
That's my last loud rig, and basically it's what tripped over the line for me. More amazingly, I used to leave that beast on 24/7.
-Ed
-
- Posts: 968
- Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2005 7:13 pm
- Location: Bristol, UK
- Contact:
-
- Patron of SPCR
- Posts: 429
- Joined: Sun Aug 11, 2002 3:26 pm
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- Contact:
Ouch...thats some scary specs! I started on the right track right from the beginning; I got pushed over the edge with 2x 120mm panaflo L1A's @ 12v and a stock old enermax dual fan. Back then, cases with stock 120mm fans were quite rare, but mine had 3 openings for them STOCK. I paid $180 for the case though... I also had a IBM deathstar 30gb hard mounted. Back then these were considered quiet already, and I picked most of these for their advertised quietness. Once I put em in my PC I just assumed that noise level was considered quiet. I did however notice my PC bothered me and my concentration a lot, especially when I did all nighter papers for school.
Then I found Mike and the rest of the early underground on silent PC yahoo groups... . Quickly moved to a cuda IV 40gb suspended, modded the enermax to a single 80mm panaflo, and undervolted the 120mm's to 5v with the simple 5v trick from the PSU connectors (this was actually the first silence mod I did and I found it before the yahoo groups). Found myself on my PC more than ever before after it was quiet. Never turned back since...
-Ken
Then I found Mike and the rest of the early underground on silent PC yahoo groups... . Quickly moved to a cuda IV 40gb suspended, modded the enermax to a single 80mm panaflo, and undervolted the 120mm's to 5v with the simple 5v trick from the PSU connectors (this was actually the first silence mod I did and I found it before the yahoo groups). Found myself on my PC more than ever before after it was quiet. Never turned back since...
-Ken
-
- SPCR Reviewer
- Posts: 2696
- Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2003 9:53 pm
- Location: Scarsdale, NY
- Contact:
The fans weren't the worst part, actually. Just look at the specs and think a bit more on it.luminous wrote:11 fans !! 3 of them 70mm!!! All at 12V..... hold on I think I just fainted at the concept.
THE HORROR, THE HORROR - I'm sure thats a good film quote from Apoc Now...
Its very nice to see that you have converted from the Dark Side, and not a moment too soon
But then again my high frequency noise sensitivity is just crazy compared to my merely above average mid and low frequency sensitivity, so that also had to do with why the fans, as incredibly bad as they were, weren't the worst part for me.
And as to why, the simple reason was that it had not yet occurred to me that I could get much lower noise for barely noticeable performance in exchange for a hardly noticeable performance drop at the time.
-Ed
All those hard drives creating a gyroscopic effect on your computer ?Edward Ng wrote:The fans weren't the worst part, actually. Just look at the specs and think a bit more on it.
I'd forgotten how loud non-FDB drives could be, and I didn't read the count until just now. You sound like another guy who lost his mind one day and went on a crusade
Amen to that. 1.2GHz and no effect on my emailing or forum posting.Edward Ng wrote:And as to why, the simple reason was that it had not yet occurred to me that I could get much lower noise for barely noticeable performance in exchange for a hardly noticeable performance drop at the time.
-
- SPCR Reviewer
- Posts: 2696
- Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2003 9:53 pm
- Location: Scarsdale, NY
- Contact:
One Caviar is ear-bleeding. What impressive effect does four of them at once render?sthayashi wrote:All those hard drives creating a gyroscopic effect on your computer ?Edward Ng wrote:The fans weren't the worst part, actually. Just look at the specs and think a bit more on it.
I'd forgotten how loud non-FDB drives could be, and I didn't read the count until just now. You sound like another guy who lost his mind one day and went on a crusade
Amen to that. 1.2GHz and no effect on my emailing or forum posting.Edward Ng wrote:And as to why, the simple reason was that it had not yet occurred to me that I could get much lower noise for barely noticeable performance in exchange for a hardly noticeable performance drop at the time.
A sudden urge to review for a silencing site?
-Ed