not just quiet but SILENT!

Ray · Post by **Ray** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 2:50 pm

Hey guys , I been reading on these forums for a few months now and this will be my first post here. Like many of you I've been trying to get my computer as quiet as possible but without sacraficing performance.

Old Quiet Setup:
- Antec SLK3700AMB
- Power Supply- Antec 350W(SL350)Smart Power
- AMD A64 3000+ Newcastle @2.39ghz 9x266
- Zalman 7700Alcu Ducted
- Case fans- two Globe 120x25mm fans
- Seagate 160gb 7200.7 Sata w/ncq

The setup above was pretty quiet around 20dba, all my fans were spinning below 1000rpm and the hard drive suspended. Loudest thing was the power supply. I was thinking about upgrading to a seasonic or a fortron power supply and getting a passive water cooling system. But even after all that, at best the system would be real quiet but still not silent.

New Silent Setup:

There is a tool room next to my bedroom. I moved a cable wall outlet and drilled two 1/4" holes. Then I ran through the wall one 10' usb extension cable for usb hub, one 10' ps/2 extension cable for keyboard , one 15' firewire cable for external drive and one 10' extension monitor cable. I even swapped my case fans to two 120x38 sanyo denki 105cfm 38dba fans and still silent, no noise in my room.
Yes, silent. no fan noise, whining seeking or anything.
I power up the system with a keyboard like ive done for years.
I'm at work right now, ill try to take some pictures when I have time.

wooglin · Post by **wooglin** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:42 pm

good call on the cables-through-the-wall concept. I've thought about this in the past but I've been put off by the notion that you loose video quality over those VGA extension cables. How does that work for you?

Gorsnak · Post by **Gorsnak** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:57 pm

Shouldn't lose much video quality if you use well-shielded cable. I've run upwards of 100' of vga cable between a data projector and input jack, and the picture's been clear as anything.

RaNDoMMAI · Post by **RaNDoMMAI** » Sat Feb 19, 2005 6:54 am

did someone have this idea before and alot of people flamed him for it?

I cant find that thread anywhere.

anyway, if you finally got your goal then congrats.my comp is really quiet but my laptop is near silent! Fujistu S6231, i find myself using it more then my comp now because all my papers are on it.

~RaNDoM

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Sat Feb 19, 2005 8:29 am

Somebody had this solution before. He got flamed, but not for the idea. He got flamed, because he thought that this was the one and only good solution for everyone. According to him all other silencing methods where a stupid waste of effort. I don't see this poster having such an attitude.

I doesn't harm to remind people now and then that if you happen to have a well ventilated closet handy, then this can be an easy solution.

Chris`I · Post by **Chris`I** » Sat Feb 19, 2005 9:43 am

RaNDoMMAI wrote: anyway, if you finally got your goal then congrats.my comp is really quiet but my laptop is near silent! Fujistu S6231, i find myself using it more then my comp now because all my papers are on it.

~RaNDoM

I have the opposite now. Before I thought my lappy was "silent" or atleast silent enough that my PC was louder. Now my PC is so quiet my laptop is making more noise. I regularly get up and walk over to my PC to try and diagnose noise, just to realise it was my lappy making it all along! *doh*
I need a fujitsu hard disk!

Ray · Post by **Ray** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 10:25 am

My goal was to have my computer as quiet as possible. Now, I only know my computer is on from the monitor. I dont know how else to say it, it's silent, muted, noiseless, no noise, 0dba so yes I have reached my goal in pc noise. I forgot to mention, a closet would would prolly work too, depending on the noise of your pc, and the closet, if I didnt have a extra room next to me I would have used a closet.

There is one problem with this setup. if my computer is on fire or a fan is dying I wouldnt know.

RaNDoMMAI · Post by **RaNDoMMAI** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 8:01 pm

could you post the specs on your optical drives and the enclosures you use for them?plus the USB hub

I always wanted to put my spare NEC 2500 in an external enclosure but i was under the assumption that burning dvds like that is not very good.

TIA
~RaNDoM

Ray · Post by **Ray** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 12:26 am

USB HUB: I bought this hub because it's self powered and customers seem to like it also.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 300&depa=0

External Enclosure: When picking a external enclosure, firewire is nice to have because you can use it as a boot-up device unlike usb. also firewire uses less cpu processing vs usb. I choose the linked enclosure because it's aluminium cooled, no fans, solid and I also like how it looks.
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDe ... 214&depa=0[/url]

Grayfox · Post by **Grayfox** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 4:06 am

Does that enclosure do anything to silence the drive itself?

Ray · Post by **Ray** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 8:33 pm

the enclosure has nothing to silence the drive, I bought it because it has no fan and cools well.
it bolts directly to the top and bottom aluminum panels

Ray · Post by **Ray** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:06 pm

here's a quick pic I took of it. Look mom, no tower! The black box is a below is a sub-woofer. It's a little weird having no pc noise though. Everything else gets louder ie. outside cars, keyboard seems even noiser, mouse, and hmmm, the wind outside

Edward Ng · Post by **Edward Ng** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 3:16 am

Tibors wrote:Somebody had this solution before. He got flamed, but not for the idea. He got flamed, because he thought that this was the one and only good solution for everyone. According to him all other silencing methods where a stupid waste of effort. I don't see this poster having such an attitude.

I doesn't harm to remind people now and then that if you happen to have a well ventilated closet handy, then this can be an easy solution.

He got flamed for his attitude. He basically came in to push our buttons and say any other method than relocation was a waste of time, money and effort and not as effective i.e. relocation is the only solution. A waste of money! That's why he got the jolting he did. Then he had the gall to say that a 10 meter analogue video extension of any quality would do fine without affecting image quality, even at high resolution and refresh--it's harmful to spread that sort of bogus crap around.

-Ed

len509 · Post by **len509** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 4:11 am

Good Job. Was thinking about trying something similar. Will the enclosure and drive work properly with a 15' cable? I was under the impression that it was only good for 10' and under. So your speakers are not hooked up to the computer? Are you planning to get an external sound card?

ajagodnik · Post by **ajagodnik** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 7:52 am

Is that a Mac mini on your desk?

Where exactly is your computer/where does it make noise?

One idea would be to make a wall/shelf enclosure for the pc in the other room out of "dry wall"

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Ray · Post by **Ray** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 11:29 am

15' firewire seems to work fine. I Havent tested the burner past 8x for dvd yet tho but , newegg sell 25' firewire cables. The diagram I above shows where the computer is. No need to enclose it in that room.

nitram22 · Post by **nitram22** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 8:10 am

This sounds like an idea I can use. How about access to the CD-ROM drive??? I don't think I can run an IDE cable that long; maybe add an external enclosure with another CD drive? I'd hate to have to keep riunning back & forth from room to room to load CDs. I think I'd also have to run another power switch, since I don't think my motherboard has the power-on with keyboard option.