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Topic: "Silent audio computer" (Read 37137 times) previous topic - next topic
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"Silent audio computer"

Reply #125 –
Quote
Removing the grill is the minimum you should do to reduce the turbulance from the PSU.  Installing the fan on the outside is supposed to reduce turbulance further, but I have never tried it!

Do not remove the grill if there are cats, dogs or children in the vicinity.

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #126 –
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I have a Zalman heatpipe on my GF4,  How do I check its temperature?

If it is an Asus adapter, install SmartDoctor avalible from asus.com.tw or the cd-rom that came witht the card.

If not, try browsing the driver cd for some monitoring software.

If this fails too, just place a termometer on top of the card.

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #127 –
Quote
Quote
I have a Zalman heatpipe on my GF4,  How do I check its temperature?

If it is an Asus adapter, install SmartDoctor avalible from asus.com.tw or the cd-rom that came witht the card.

If not, try browsing the driver cd for some monitoring software.

If this fails too, just place a termometer on top of the card.

Nah,  its one of them MSI GF4 ti4200 x4 cards

[edit]
Sorry, I lied.  Its actually an Inno3D GF4 ti4200
[/edit]

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #128 –
Having worked with a Dell dual Xeon workstation at work over the last few days, I can recommend Dell boxes to anyone who aren't into DIY-stuff. These things are very nice; not quite as silent as my watercooled rig at home, but close. They come with big fat air ducts over the procs, proving this to be an adequate solution.

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #129 –
Quote
Having worked with a Dell dual Xeon workstation at work over the last few days, I can recommend Dell boxes to anyone who aren't into DIY-stuff. These things are very nice; not quite as silent as my watercooled rig at home, but close. They come with big fat air ducts over the procs, proving this to be an adequate solution.

Agreed. At my university, some computer labs have 30 or more Dell P4-2400's in a small room, without any partitioning. It is still very easy to hear a lecturer at the front of the room. The noise characteristics of the PC's are such that I don't even notice all the computers when I'm typing at a terminal.

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #130 –
Quote
There have been several discussions at SPCR about the SilenX power supplies. Everyone who has bought one agrees it is astoundingly quiet. From what people have said, if you can't hear your hard drives, there's no way on earth you'll notice this PSU.

New information about the SilenX brand reveals that the SilenX employees have been deceptively using many different screen-names at the SPCR forums, posing as end users to promote their products. The official product review is quite positive, so the product itself is still of high quality. But buying the product from SilenX.com would likely be a bad idea, now that it's clear how shady its employees are.

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #131 –
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Quote
Having worked with a Dell dual Xeon workstation at work over the last few days, I can recommend Dell boxes to anyone who aren't into DIY-stuff. These things are very nice; not quite as silent as my watercooled rig at home, but close. They come with big fat air ducts over the procs, proving this to be an adequate solution.

Agreed. At my university, some computer labs have 30 or more Dell P4-2400's in a small room, without any partitioning. It is still very easy to hear a lecturer at the front of the room. The noise characteristics of the PC's are such that I don't even notice all the computers when I'm typing at a terminal.

My old work place had Dell as well. The cheap desktops were reasonable quiet, but the Dual Xeons were noisy even in an office enviroment.

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #132 –
Dell must have changed much - my father's PIII 500 is very noisy...

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #133 –
'Cheap' alternative to SilenX and Nexustek and the likes:

I built this one into my brother-in-law's pc last week.
The 120mm fan makes it intrisically less noisy. Since it's an Aopen product, it wasn't built with silence in mind, but rather just constant voltages. To me that's a comforting thought. It doesn't come with the "ultra-silent"-price premium either...

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #134 –
I found the thermometer sticker in the Silent Drive box and stuck it onto the GPU heatpipe.  The temp its showing is 42 as idle and 46 after running 3Dmark2001.

Thats OK... isn't it

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #135 –
Quote
I found the thermometer sticker in the Silent Drive box and stuck it onto the GPU heatpipe.  The temp its showing is 42 as idle and 46 after running 3Dmark2001.

Thats OK... isn't it

I'm not sure how accurate those thermometer sticker things are. My test: put a finger on the heatsink right on top of the GPU. See if you can do the touch-test on the aluminum block clamped directly to the GPU, if there's enough room. If you can hold it there for 2 seconds, I'd say things are running okay.

From my extremely unscientific touch-testing, I've found that there's a pretty good correlation between maximum touch-time and temperature. 1/8-second means you're burning up at about 90C (happened to me once when something was stuck in the CPU fan... whoops! Thank God for my motherboard's thermal-protection circuitry). 1 second is ~70C. 2 seconds is 60-65C. Assuming your heatsink is clamped on pretty tightly, so the heatsink temperature is representative of the GPU die temp, a 60-65C temperature should be okay for the GPU if you're running at stock speeds.

FWIW, I ran my GF3 Ti200 with the whiny fan removed for a while, and an 80mm blowing from the side. When I touched the puny aluminum heatsink plate directly above the die, I couldn't keep my finger there for even a second, so it must have been running quite hot. But games never showed any distortions or signs of GPU overheating.

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #136 –
Quote
'Cheap' alternative to SilenX and Nexustek and the likes:

<image>

I built this one into my brother-in-law's pc last week.
The 120mm fan makes it intrisically less noisy. Since it's an Aopen product, it wasn't built with silence in mind, but rather just constant voltages. To me that's a comforting thought. It doesn't come with the "ultra-silent"-price premium either...

Yeah, only $32 with shipping from Newegg. I'd likely buy one if my computer could run on a 300W.

Patsoe, you say it wasn't built for silence in mind, but to your ears does it run quietly enough to belong in a "quiet" computer?

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #137 –
Well, it was the only fan running in the box, so after a while it still seemed noisy to me. Initially, however, it was subjectively very quiet.
If it had been my own pc it was running in, I would have made the fan run at 7V though. At standard speed it is moving tons of air. True, this would make it a non-standard component - but at least it doesn't require heavy modding like dremeling fan holes...

BTW, I used the 350W version of this thing. If you're not running dual Xeon's with 10 SCSI drives, that should really suffice... in a review, it was rated equal to a no-name 550W PSU.

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #138 –
I have noticed that many people here are using Zalman flower heatsinks, but I also noticed that when the Zalman CNPS5000plus/CNPS5001 heatsinks were pitted against the Alpha PAL8045 ( http://www.anandtech.com/cooling/showdoc.html?i=1532 )  it was determined that the PAL8045 provided either the best performance or the lowest noise.  Why are you guys still choosing the Zalman over the Alpha?

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #139 –
I ordered some Noiseblocker dam up mats in order to silence my tower, which is really loud. Especially when I have my old 17gig Quantum Fireball 5400 harddisk running.

I've read that some fo you completely isolated the tower from inside so that no noise could escape. I have a "hole" (it is secured by a grid with a filter which should prevent dust to enter the tower and there are to fans behind it which suck air into the tower, but I have deactivated them. They are not low-noise-ones and they sink the tower-temp around 5° only) on the front of the tower through which the who tower fans and the one of the psu get their air. Whe I hold my hand into that "hole" I can easily feel the air flowing through it.

Now my question is: Should I close this "hole"?

I fear that the tower will die by the heat which now cannot escape anymore. I put a piece of wood (which I adapted quite well) on it, so that no air could pass. A result of it was that the cpu temperature increased up to 5-7°.
I love the moderators.

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #140 –
Quote
I ordered some Noiseblocker dam up mats in order to silence my tower, which is really loud. Especially when I have my old 17gig Quantum Fireball 5400 harddisk running.

I've read that some fo you completely isolated the tower from inside so that no noise could escape. I have a "hole" (it is secured by a grid with a filter which should prevent dust to enter the tower and there are to fans behind it which suck air into the tower, but I have deactivated them. They are not low-noise-ones and they sink the tower-temp around 5° only) on the front of the tower through which the who tower fans and the one of the psu get their air. Whe I hold my hand into that "hole" I can easily feel the air flowing through it.

Now my question is: Should I close this "hole"?

I fear that the tower will die by the heat which now cannot escape anymore. I put a piece of wood (which I adapted quite well) on it, so that no air could pass. A result of it was that the cpu temperature increased up to 5-7°.

You said the temps increase by 5-7C.  What are the actual readings when the holes are closed?  Also, did you take the readings with the CPU idle or 100% load?

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #141 –
Quote
I'm not sure how accurate those thermometer sticker things are. My test: put a finger on the heatsink right on top of the GPU. See if you can do the touch-test on the aluminum block clamped directly to the GPU, if there's enough room. If you can hold it there for 2 seconds, I'd say things are running okay.

Alternatively, you can use a program like DriveHealth to monitor the temperature of your drive using S.M.A.R.T. features (which most drives support these days).  My 80 gig WD 7200rpm ATA133 drive averages around 42C inside its SilentDrive enclosure.

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #142 –
Quote
Quote
I ordered some Noiseblocker dam up mats in order to silence my tower, which is really loud. Especially when I have my old 17gig Quantum Fireball 5400 harddisk running.

I've read that some fo you completely isolated the tower from inside so that no noise could escape. I have a "hole" (it is secured by a grid with a filter which should prevent dust to enter the tower and there are to fans behind it which suck air into the tower, but I have deactivated them. They are not low-noise-ones and they sink the tower-temp around 5° only) on the front of the tower through which the who tower fans and the one of the psu get their air. Whe I hold my hand into that "hole" I can easily feel the air flowing through it.

Now my question is: Should I close this "hole"?

I fear that the tower will die by the heat which now cannot escape anymore. I put a piece of wood (which I adapted quite well) on it, so that no air could pass. A result of it was that the cpu temperature increased up to 5-7°.

You said the temps increase by 5-7C.  What are the actual readings when the holes are closed?  Also, did you take the readings with the CPU idle or 100% load?

When the cpu is working at 100% I have to add  around 5° to it. So when I close the front hole and I encode a dvd the cpu gets up to 65°.
I love the moderators.

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #143 –
Today I got the Noiseblocker EvolutionEQ Platinum dam-mats and installed them into my tower. My first impression is: yes, it has become more silent, but:

As all the noise (or big parts of it) coming from inside is damed I can hear other noise-sources now. These are the fan of the back of the tower and the one on its top. I've built a some kind of canal which sucks the air throught the cpu-heatsink and blows it out of the tower's roof. (The story behind this weird construction has really made me nuts for a short time: I've waited some month till PC-Professionel finally came up with their comparison of different cpu fans (including heatsinks). I thought Iordered the best one (which had a pure copper heatsink and looks quite cool). With the fan it cost 60€ and without 50€. And as I'm a really smart guy  I ordered it without the fan so that it wasn't kinda low noise... So I managed to build this certain canal with papp. I reduced 1466MHz to 1100MHz in order to keep it cooler. With this canal the cpu is around 50° when idle. Without it, it doesn't stop heating. When I tested it without the canal I let the cpu-temp go up to 70°.)

My next step will be to replace these noisy fans with silent ones. That'll cost again... pfiu

My question now is to those who managed to make their computer silent: Did you keep some aeration holes or is a possiblity for room-temp. air to enter the tower unnecessairy?

EDIT: I deleted a double negation, where there shouldn't be one
I love the moderators.

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #144 –
I think them temps are fairly high.  I read somewhere that CPUs @ 65C and over can produce errors!!!

Anyway, I managed to get my PC silent and I have 2 fanless intakes and 2 fanned exhausts.  The reason why I can not hear the fans at the back is because the case in under the table.

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #145 –
You must allow some ventilation at your case. If not, the computer will overheat. Maybe not in an hour, but if the room temperature is not very low, it will eventually overheat in some hours. The warmer the room (think in summer), the less it will take in overheating.

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #146 –
I was wondering if there are free alternatives to CPUIdle. This page seems to be a good starting point. I've tried VCool and it lowered CPU temp. from 46 -> 38°C (System temp. 30/29°C, Via KT133 MB, Athlon 1333@1200MHz). Nice!

Edit: With "Idle loop enalbed" I arrived at 35°, 36° if fb2k playing (no DSPs). 

A question: AFAIK notebook processors need less cooling. Anyone experiences with building silent PCs using notebook processors/other components (I guess notebook processors won't work with desktop mainboards)?
Let's suppose that rain washes out a picnic. Who is feeling negative? The rain? Or YOU? What's causing the negative feeling? The rain or your reaction? - Anthony De Mello

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #147 –
I ran across another interesting factory built box by HP.  It has a 1Ghz Transmeta crusoe processor and is fanless and diskless (no moving parts at all!) , though you should be able to add a card to control a DVD drive.

It comes with 256 mb of flash with embedded winxp.  I don't know what's involved
in configuring it to boot up in a media program and point to a file server.

hp thinclient

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #148 –
Quote
I was wondering if there are free alternatives to CPUIdle. This page seems to be a good starting point. I've tried VCool and it lowered CPU temp. from 46 -> 38°C (System temp. 30/29°C, Via KT133 MB, Athlon 1333@1200MHz). Nice!

A chaotic but in-depth read about your needs starts here: http://grassomusic.de/english/amdk7.htm

I got rid of my bookmarks about this subject some while ago, but from memory, these are the search words you'll need to find more: HLT, register 52, SGS (stop grant state). Also, IIRC, you could make the effect of VCool permanent (without resource-eating software) on KT133 by using WPCRSET. This may cause instability according to many users.

"Silent audio computer"

Reply #149 –
A local computer parts place in town has this on their website as a possible future product

http://www.directron.com/fanless.html


Pretty neat. I'm sure many of us have had similar ideas and just wondered if there would be enough heat transfer to the case to make it work.


Tomorrow, I buy a Zalman video card cooler, some panaflo fans, fan isolators, probably some grommits, and I haven't decided which HSF to get yet. Maybe a Zalman flower, maybe the thermaltake sku900 thingy.
"Droplets of Yes and No, in an ocean of Maybe"