Introducing 'Paul Simon':
"Fools", said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of silence
CPU: Athlon 64 3200+, Venice core. 2.0GHz at 1.1v, since I can't go lower I can only go faster from here
Cooled by Thermaltake Sonic Tower (fanless)MB: ASUS A8V Deluxe
GPU: Sapphire Radeon 9600 (passive!)
RAM: 2 x 512MB Crucial
HD0: Seagate 7200.7 80GB, mounted on Sorbothane for quiet seeks
HD1: Maxtor (unknown) 20GB. Whines and for testing/backup only; is switched off by Windows
CD0: Lite-on CD-RW. Complete with jet engine sound effects.
CD1: Early Hitachi DVD-ROM. Also with jet engine sound effects, but only when reading a CD.
VDU: Samsung SyncMaster 17" CRT with flat screen. It whines faintly, which neatly covers up any noise from the PC itself.
CASE: Antec Sonata with some mods and covered with MuteMat Plus damping material
PSU: Seasonic SS-300GS 300W PSU, with two fan mod - Panaflo FBL L1As running at 5v
Diagram and (assumed!) airflow path is here. It shows some of the stuff I've done better than explaining it here.
A noisy slot blower fan at 12v, but inaudible below 30%. It's controllable via SpeedFan, connected to the chassis fan socket.
Looking down the back. Case grille cut and replaced. Cutting the PSU grille will be of little benefit, the air isn't exactly rushing through it, and it stops people sticking their hands inside and dying.
This is why case doors are invented! MuteMat was placed in the door which really muffles the harsh drive sounds, as well as keeping dust out (hopefully! time will tell).
Temperatures using the Sonic Tower are 40°C while folding and with the stock case fan at 30%. (The heatsink is comfortably warm to the touch.) Considering an ambient of 22°, that means lots of headroom for overclocking. I'm going to try it soon and see where I get to, stopping at 25% if it's still stable.
Right now my monitor is making more noise than the computer. If I turn it off, the computer becomes faintly audible, along with internal organs etc.
Edit: The filter is in place and catches a lot of dust. Antec holes are blocked by mutemat, which was also placed on the bezel behind the dust filter. It has about the same effect on the hard disks as the drive door on the CDs. I made sure that it didn't block the vents - also, they were left stock which causes turbulence when fans are at 100% (i.e. only on startup). However at the slow speeds they run at the bezel mod simply isn't necessary.
When you can hear your monitor, I think you're in a pretty good spot.
