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62 Comments
- kodek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Done. Oh, the article?
- Crosshare, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11I will second you on Zalman cooling fans. I bought a Zalman CPU Fan/Heat sync while building my wife's computer as an afterthought since the stock one I had wouldn't fit properly and I wanted to get the machine done. I remember looking at it on the package thinking "That's kinda funky looking, wonder if it'll fit properly in the case" I can't believe how quiet her machine runs next to mine. A great 50 bucks to spend if you're looking to go quiet, if not, you can save some cash.
- lowlight, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11The days of super loud HDD's are pretty much a thing of the past. As long as you're not running a 10,000 RPM Raptor or something, your drive should be pretty quiet.
- skinnypupp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Buying a Zalman VF700 AlCu for my 6800GT was the best $30 I ever spent.
- doodlebumm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9My WD are usually (read almost exclusively) more noisy than my Seagate drives. But they are all under 200GB, so that may be a difference.
- xxNIRVANAxx, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12"Is the police looking for you..."
that would be "Are the police looking for you..." - Rikkochet, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Dugg. This is a great resource for the media center PC I'm putting together - PC fans are downright ANNOYING when you're trying to sleep.
- doodlebumm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Sonata cases are AWESOME. I have one and have installed 4 others. They are VERY quiet. The Aria's are also nice for a very small space case. I have two of those. They are hard to get into and out of, though, so be careful.
- exobyte, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6My intent was not to promote any manufacturer; I just needed an example. Just to make sure I'm fair.
- m0shen, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10For those seeking silence:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/
http://www.quietpcusa.com/
http://www.cpemma.co.uk/index.html - exobyte, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7It was, but there should have been a section on hard drives. I had a very quiet WD 320gb and a loud Seagate 400gb. It depends on the model, speed, etc. Compact flash is getting to be a realistic alternative for just the OS and basic software (provided 300,000 writes is enough)
- bt0127, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Considering the helicopters flying overhead as low as possible every night nearly all night, the buzzing of my PC is the least of my worries.
- MrUnderbridge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6"I also own a G5 iMac and it's not nearly as quiet thanks to a rather hot CPU. It was still quieter than most PCs I've owned over the years."
Little known fact - When Apple engineers were trying to make a laptop out of the G5, they had to make the cases out of Tungsten instead of Titanium because the melting point is higher. ;) - pardonmedoug, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Wurzel is right. This has nothing to do with Mac vs. PC. My Core2Duo PC is quiet as hell. Actually, much quieter. I'd imagine hell is rather loud. Anyways, it's all about the super efficient (thus lower temp, thus less fanning necessary) chips. Back when I used Apples (into 1999) I had a few machines that were rather loud. A few of them, I didn't need space heaters in the winter because the comp did the job.
- jexdawg, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7Does anyone else turn the computer off when you go to sleep? Or am I crazy?
- puffarthur, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4If I wasn't going watercooling on my next system, I would have Zalman coolers on everything and a Seasonic PSU, like I have on my current rig. I'm not a fan of Zalman's watercooling, its too big and bulky. Koolance wins in that category.
- puffarthur, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4You can still have a Core Duo system that is loud and hot. My brother's Sony Vaio laptop is Core Duo 1.83ghz, but it is super loud and super hot when he plays CS source or DoD source. It even crashes due to the heat, even with a cooling pad underneath. Chalk it up to Sony to ***** up a Core Duo.
- maxium, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I have a Sonata 2 case myself and it is indeed extremely quiet out of the box. The only thing I can think of would be to replace the power supply with something more quiet. As long as I'm not gaming the case never gets above 32 C...
~M - spritom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I've thought about it when I've had a half dozen boxes in a room and the room heats up. Maybe a 55 gallon drum and run water coolant lines to each box? Maybe have the water reservoir inside a fridge in the room?
- roeboedog, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Someone pls tell me - When you have a few systems at what point does it start to make since to have a central cooler system for five or more systems? Even if you have to give each system a feed fresh air line and hot return.
- wurzelgummage, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7That's mostly thanks to the core 2 duo. Which funnily enough, PCs use now... they must've stolen the idea of using Intel chips from Apple ;)
- Nerfdude, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8awesome, another list, DISGUISED as a guide to a quieter pc. and they clearly didn't do any research on this- the antec p180 is one of the loudest, least insulated cases i've ever experienced. my friend's p180 sounds like a commercial airliner landing in his dorm room.
if you want a quiet case, get a case that was ACTUALLY designed to be quiet, like the Antec Sonata II. i have it, and you can't even tell the computer is on most of the time. oh, and i saw they had one in the new episode of thebroken, so there's your celebrity endorsement, too. :D - spritom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The article seems to be a great first-time overview of the issues. A couple of years ago I figured I was now old and my fans were too loud. I went through every system in the house and did the Big-Quiet on them...Zalmann was my war cry and Directron, Newegg, and Frys were my enablers who cheerfully gobbled up my money. I was pleased with the results even though I didn't go for the ultra-ultra quiet on them. Well...except for the HTPC box...but by going extra-super-secret-quiet on that box, it took a little more money and even a little trial and error as some advertised quiet items weren't quite so quiet.
As for the new Intel iMacs...yes, they're very quiet. But so are workstations from Dell, HP, and others. - lowlight, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3HTPC is definitely a whole different beast than regular PC's when it comes to silent, efficient cooling.
- ivachen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Things that matter the most: Fans
Ever since i switched all of my case fans to panaflo low RPM ones (L model i think) my homebrew computer's been running at Dell noise level. The new intel and AMD cpu fans hardly make any noise now, just be careful and read the newegg reviews before you pick up noisy video card and u will have a near silent computer.
I got a 10k RPM WD and it's not noisy, but audiable. In fact, all WDs are audiable, if you want silence, get Seagate or even Maxtor. - funkspiel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Me, I just turn up the music.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@moonwell:
Reasons not to buy water cooling:
1. The cooling of water vs. good air flow and a good heat sync and thermal paste is not worth the additional cost for water cooling.
2. Consumer water cooling systems fail more frequently and after a shorter time than air cooling systems. I've witnessed it myself.
3. Water cooling doesn't eliminate the need for fans. You're going to have fans anyways, why not put them directly at the source of the heat?
4. It's water. Hoses leak. If hoses were leak proof there would be a lot of disappointed auto parts manufacturers. - Kale, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Fans are cheap and easy. WC is quite a bit more expensive, plus harder to install, plus more danger if there is a problem (however unlikely). And some have external radiators. Fans are cheaper and easier and less risk. For the few that need the extra performance (like OC'ers), the price/risk may be worth the performance increase.
I just use a Mac Mini (Intel). Even when I'm encoding video (not blazing fast, but tolerable), it barely makes a noise. My linux fileserver, on the other hand, is about to get a Zallman makeover :D - Nerfdude, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3my sonata stays plenty cool, and i've got three hdd's in it- and one of them is a seagate 750gb, so, yeah... it's doing just fine. the p180 is pc-dressup *****, like case windows and neon.
- spiffyman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I won't disagree with that at all. Nor did I imply that this was somehow only a "Mac" thing.
I also own a G5 iMac and it's not nearly as quiet thanks to a rather hot CPU. It was still quieter than most PCs I've owned over the years. - Scott2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"Little known fact - When Apple engineers were trying to make a laptop out of the G5, they had to make the cases out of Tungsten instead of Titanium because the melting point is higher. ;)"
Sounds like a little known crock of ***** to me.
1. There was no low power G5 until a month after Apple announced the switch to Intel. There was no reason for Apple to develope a new machine based on the LP G5 chip, only to replace it 6 months later.
2. The melting point of Titanium is 1668 °C. The processor itself would have been soup long before the case even broke a sweat, not to mention the surface underneath the computer.
If you're going to bash Apple, please at least get your facts straight.
And (as spiffyman noted) this isn't a Mac vs PC thing. Spiffyman was just commenting that his machine (which happens to be a Mac) runs very quiet. But here's how to build a PC that's even quieter (if it makes you feel better):
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=silent+pc&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Congrats, you just got owned by common sense and 10 seconds worth of Googling.
@ mbthompson - you can say that again. - vaxguru, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Bought a new pc last week and I decided to try an Antec case. http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=96500
I'm running a 6600 Core 2 Duo, with a Leadtek 7600GT extreme, 2gb ram and 250gb WD hard drive and it is VERY quiet. If I leave the pc on and comeback a little later, I have to check the case's LED's to make sure its on. Props to Intel for making a quiet and cool cpu and to Antec, for a solid case.
Compared to my old Athlon 1800+XP (which was getting close to 4-5yrs old), this thing is whisper quiet. - lowlight, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3The 180 IS designed to be quiet, but it isn't totally silent right out of the box. But of course, you read the article so you noticed that they said you should replace the fans ;)
Puting silent, low-flow fans on a Sonata will not provide enough cooling for the system, and you may run into heat issues.
We're talking about SILENT PC's here ;) - crapple, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I had a beautiful Shuttle case I built my own system out of. I had a ballbearing Samsung HD, the built in cooling (their I.C.E. system at the time) and a radeon 9800 pro. Only thing I changed out was the northbridge fan...the thing was MUCH quieter than the advertised 21 db....it was just as quiet as the iMac I purchased as a replacement a little over a year ago. It was a nice little box.
- mbthompson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wow, great suggestion on the Sonata. Actually a reasonable price for a case that comes with a 450W power supply. Here's the price-grabber link to save us lazy folk the trouble of typing.
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php?masterid=9328542&search=Antec+Sonata+2 - punchmonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The best thing I've done recently for my quiet pc is installing a Hardcano 13 fan controller. It keeps all the fans at very low speed and cranks them up when they need it.
Speaking of which, does anybody know of any place to check what kind of support motherboards have for fan control? An old Asus board of mine supported three fans, but they would all run at the same rate. My new MSI supports three, but only the CPU fan varies, the other two are always 100%. - eXus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1SilentPCReview is hands down the best website for this sort of info. I started researching quiet computing on there about 4 years ago and havn't looked back.
I love being to leave my gaming machine on in the same room I sleep in and not have to hear it. - tastethevenom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I use a Zalman Reserator Plus and an Antec Phantom PSU, and it's COMPLETLEY silent. The loudest noise emitted from my computer area is the HDD, and a slight speaker hum.
- Nerfdude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1and if you don't want to pay shipping or wait, they sell the sonata II at comp usa for about 90 bucks...
the ONE thing about the sonata case though... it has these obscene blue LED clusters built into it, around the front access USB/firewire/headphone jacks, that are well capable of lighting up a room. just go ahead and cut their power when you first build your computer, so you don't have to go back and do it later :P - lowlight, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2When you have this many systems ;)
http://www.heavybit.com/img/rackshack.jpg - mbthompson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sony Vaio's are some of the worst computers available, especially for the price, regardless of what PC Magazine thinks. They probably have never had to work on one to repair it. >:-/
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Zalman make nice coolers but nothing better than liquid cooling system. I really don't understand why ppls avoid to buy one, maybe they think the PC and the WATER incompatible (first of all that liquid not conventional water) but everyone can assemble one by the manual. You must be very lame to screw something in the install to the liquid bled somewhere. BTW as I sad before it's cheap. So time to forget the good old FANs.
- mindinhand, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1How come nobody mentions buying long cables and putting the computer in a another room? Seems like the cheapest option. Sure you need to get up to put in a CD... but usually you need to get up to find the CD in the first place.
- mav451, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1doodlebum - if you have a silver top...then you have the classic WD "whine". On the other hand, I recently got 2 x 320GB "black top" WDs. Those are pretty darn quiet.
That's the annoying thing - just cuz one generation was "quiet", doesn't mean the next-gen from even the very same manufacturer will be the same. - nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I can't hear my Raptors (or any of the other 5 disks in my workstation/server).
This is really a no-brainer, but yeah upgrade things that get hot and have fans, and get quieter ones. I have a box here in desperate need of a silencing, wish I had the $$ on hand for a new case and hsf. - kwreid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I've got a Sonata case and it's worth it for the noise reduction equipment it comes with.
See the details here: http://blog.geeqs.net/archive/2006/03/11/Upgrading-my-PC-Part-3.aspx
It comes with the following built in low noise equipment:
* rubber vibration suppression drive mounts
* large 120mm case fan with a variable speed setting
* power supply fan that spins up only when needed
I also added a Zalman ALCU CPU fan, and overall I cannot hear the PC when it's on at all. There's a period immediately after it's started where the CPU and/or video card fans run a full power until the power management settings kick in, but then it's - spooky - quiet. - Nova79, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0My Intel Mac Mini is damn quiet. Maybe some of you PC guys should try it in your lifetime.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I have honestly never wondered how to make my PC quieter.
- Scott_T, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Summary of the article: find something that's making noise in your computer and replace it with expensive, quiet stuff.
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