I've got a computer cabinet that I'm trying to set up to dampen the sounds my computer makes while providing adequate ventilation.
The cabinet is the right 1/3 of my desk, mostly made from particle board. I was thinking about lining the cabinet with some thick carpet and wondered how effective that would be. It has a lot of room. I could probably fit 3 of my computer boxes side-by-side and if I removed the shelf, I could probably lay another computer on top of the others sideways.
Also,
someone made a comment that big boxes allow for more complex baffles. I did plan on making some baffles too, how complex is necessary? Originally, the plan was for a simple baffle. Thanks
Carpet damping
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DeltaForce
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My 2 cents
My 2 cents,
Heavy-weight vinal blocks out sound better than carpet. Sound foam works in a sound studio to stop ecohing, but to stop sound from coming through, denser and thicker materials work better. Home Depot might have some heavy weight vinal.
It's hard to "dampen sound", and personally I woud put more effort into making each system quieter -with heatsinks/adjustable fans, etc. Could you run into overheating problems in that cabinet too?
I read on this forum an interesting idea once of putting the computers in a different room, like a basement, and using extended cords for a monitor/keyboard linkup. It's probably too much of a hassle, but it's an idea.
Acousti products (at quietpc.com uk) makes business sized quiet server enclosures -that enclose the server cases, and dampen their sound -so perhaps that is another route -or you could see what their design is, to help with your project.
I would still focus on making the computers quieter rather than putting them in a dampened area though. A computer can be made to run quiet enough that you won't even need external dampening in a cabinet. You will get better results for your time-spent this way I suspect.
Good luck
Heavy-weight vinal blocks out sound better than carpet. Sound foam works in a sound studio to stop ecohing, but to stop sound from coming through, denser and thicker materials work better. Home Depot might have some heavy weight vinal.
It's hard to "dampen sound", and personally I woud put more effort into making each system quieter -with heatsinks/adjustable fans, etc. Could you run into overheating problems in that cabinet too?
I read on this forum an interesting idea once of putting the computers in a different room, like a basement, and using extended cords for a monitor/keyboard linkup. It's probably too much of a hassle, but it's an idea.
Acousti products (at quietpc.com uk) makes business sized quiet server enclosures -that enclose the server cases, and dampen their sound -so perhaps that is another route -or you could see what their design is, to help with your project.
I would still focus on making the computers quieter rather than putting them in a dampened area though. A computer can be made to run quiet enough that you won't even need external dampening in a cabinet. You will get better results for your time-spent this way I suspect.
Good luck
If your PC is already pretty quiet, that should make it silent. But if it's a jet engine it probably won't help much.I was thinking about lining the cabinet with some thick carpet and wondered how effective that would be.
The key point about a baffle is it should prevent direct sound paths, ie it will typically look like:someone made a comment that big boxes allow for more complex baffles. I did plan on making some baffles too, how complex is necessary? Originally, the plan was for a simple baffle.
exhaust air ----->------
________<_________|
|
------>----exit
please excuse my pathetic attempt at a diagram.
MDF is pretty heavy already, so it's not a resonance issue like it would be with a case panel vibrating. I don't think more mass would help that much.
jaganath is right about the baffles, that's probably your best way to keep the noise away. If you found some egg crate foam to line the inside of the box, that might help too.
jaganath is right about the baffles, that's probably your best way to keep the noise away. If you found some egg crate foam to line the inside of the box, that might help too.
Thank you.
Basically, if I close my cabinet my compmuter is acceptably quiet but then it doesn't ventilate enough. So I'm adding powered ventilation to my cabinet so I can close the door. But with the holes I expect the computer to not be as quiet. I was hoping that carpet would control the echo effect so all of the sound didn't come out the ventilation holes.
Upgrading my computer to be quiet will be a much more expensive solution, so I'd rather just find a way to improve the enclosure, since it seems to do a good enough job of dampening the sound, it just doesn't ventilate very well currently.
Basically, if I close my cabinet my compmuter is acceptably quiet but then it doesn't ventilate enough. So I'm adding powered ventilation to my cabinet so I can close the door. But with the holes I expect the computer to not be as quiet. I was hoping that carpet would control the echo effect so all of the sound didn't come out the ventilation holes.
Upgrading my computer to be quiet will be a much more expensive solution, so I'd rather just find a way to improve the enclosure, since it seems to do a good enough job of dampening the sound, it just doesn't ventilate very well currently.
Vinyl is nice for adding mass to thin computer case walls, but I doubt you'd see much effect adding it to a particle board cabinet. Thick carpet is a reasonably effective sound absorber, though not up to the standards of purpose-made acoustic foam or high-density fibreglass. The main thing to remember is that it will absorb high frequencies (say, upwards of 2kHz) very well, but lower frequencies won't be attenuated very much. The thicker the carpet is the more it will absorb lower frequencies.
I believe the consensus here is that baffles complex enough to prevent sound from escaping also result in very low airflow. I believe you're best off with a fairly simple baffle, essentially just forcing any unreflected sound to make one 90 degree bend to escape. I achieve this by having a fibreglass absorbing panel standing about 3" behind my case, but there are lots of ways to do something similar. Frequency comes into play here again: high frequency sound travels in straight lines, while low frequencies can refract around corners. You may have done wave pool experiments in high school physics that demonstrated this phenomenon. What a simple baffle will do is force any high frequencies trying to get out to bounce off your carpet at least one - except high frequencies won't bounce off the carpet, they'll be absorbed. So you'll get rid of them completely (in theory). Low frequencies are already going to escape no matter what you do, so there's little point in putting huge effort into stopping them. A simple baffle will increase the number of times the low frequency sound is partially attenuated by the carpet, though, so it will still help to some extent.
Contain and absorb is definitely possible, even with fairly noisy components. I completely silenced an old 80GB Western Digital screaming harddrive and some really annoying motherboard coil hiss using this technique, without compromising airflow at all.
I believe the consensus here is that baffles complex enough to prevent sound from escaping also result in very low airflow. I believe you're best off with a fairly simple baffle, essentially just forcing any unreflected sound to make one 90 degree bend to escape. I achieve this by having a fibreglass absorbing panel standing about 3" behind my case, but there are lots of ways to do something similar. Frequency comes into play here again: high frequency sound travels in straight lines, while low frequencies can refract around corners. You may have done wave pool experiments in high school physics that demonstrated this phenomenon. What a simple baffle will do is force any high frequencies trying to get out to bounce off your carpet at least one - except high frequencies won't bounce off the carpet, they'll be absorbed. So you'll get rid of them completely (in theory). Low frequencies are already going to escape no matter what you do, so there's little point in putting huge effort into stopping them. A simple baffle will increase the number of times the low frequency sound is partially attenuated by the carpet, though, so it will still help to some extent.
Contain and absorb is definitely possible, even with fairly noisy components. I completely silenced an old 80GB Western Digital screaming harddrive and some really annoying motherboard coil hiss using this technique, without compromising airflow at all.
The carpet anti-echo is decent-and cheap..
Some $ spent on one of those front panel control units that read temps,control fan RPM can help you lose RPM while not overheating.
Know what's loud. While a couple of Nexus 120's may be more $...Coolermaster makes a low $ 700 rpm fan that's probably a BIG improvement-or you could use a Aerocool or Yate Loon 140 mm
Did you suspend or foam mount the hard drive?
A big Ninja does a lot to lower noise...but at half the cost,something from Artic will likely mean less noise.
Is the stuff in the box an older P4 or earlier Athlon? You may find a low $ Sempron 2800,a decent mobo and a 512 stick of RAM costs about 125...you keep your drives,PSU,get a decent heat sink and boom,silent but probably faster than an older rig.
Some $ spent on one of those front panel control units that read temps,control fan RPM can help you lose RPM while not overheating.
Know what's loud. While a couple of Nexus 120's may be more $...Coolermaster makes a low $ 700 rpm fan that's probably a BIG improvement-or you could use a Aerocool or Yate Loon 140 mm
Did you suspend or foam mount the hard drive?
A big Ninja does a lot to lower noise...but at half the cost,something from Artic will likely mean less noise.
Is the stuff in the box an older P4 or earlier Athlon? You may find a low $ Sempron 2800,a decent mobo and a 512 stick of RAM costs about 125...you keep your drives,PSU,get a decent heat sink and boom,silent but probably faster than an older rig.