How to make a Silent PC ?

[square_wave]

This seems to be relatively new concept. Not much discussed but there are forums on this. Check out silentpcreview.com.

What are the things that makes sound in a PC ? What are the best products/options/workarounds available in India to get a PC done which cannot be heard at 4 or 5ft distance from the listener in a relatively silent environment? Are there any gurus on the forum who have travelled down this path ?

This feat seems to be easily achieved for music server / pcs (with less horsepower)rather that HTPCs with lots of horsepower since the processor can be underclocked etc...

I am looking for a music server (it needs enough horsepower to rip cds and play foobar ). Please do keep this in mind.

 

[thatguy]

Not a new concept. I had to do some research on this about 10 years ago (had to quiten down a cheap e-machines PC) and had no trouble finding information/components.

Besides silentpcreview, I find Quiet PC Experts - Quiet PCs and Top Silent PC Parts very useful when I am looking for quiet alternatives to regular components. They sell complete systems too and will tell you the parts that will go into them.

 

[square_wave]

@thatGuy,

Thanks a bunch dude for the link. Just the place I was looking for.

 

[magma]

square wave

please do keep me posted with your build

though i already have a music PC based exactly on the lines of "art of building computer transports"
i would like to go even more silent

i would like NO fans at all
not even in the PSU not even above the processor

how are you achiveing this?

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I am looking for a music server (it needs enough horsepower to rip cds and play foobar ). Please do keep this in mind.

a 486 should be about right then! Ummm... even the Pentium didn't have a CPU fan if I remember correctly?

 

[square_wave]

square wave

please do keep me posted with your build

though i already have a music PC based exactly on the lines of "art of building computer transports"
i would like to go even more silent

i would like NO fans at all
not even in the PSU not even above the processor

how are you achiveing this?

Hi Magma,

This is very much possible. There are ways to do passive cooling for CPUs. Check out the link I have posted.
Basically you stick one of those heat sinks on the cpu using some special compound . If you are using a pentium (underclocked) this is a piece of cake

I am thinking of having just one fan in the entire setup. That would be the power supply. Apparantly you have these extrmely quiet ones (less than 18db).

Will post once I have done the research.

@Thad E Ginathom,

You are right ! The pentium probably a dual core is the max I will go for

 

[thatguy]

Guys, don't forget AMD Sempron. I am using one of them in my NAS build and it rarely goes above 35C. Power consumption is relatively low (TDP is 45 Watt) and, unlike Atom, does not need a special motherboard (it fits into the AM3 socket).

Ummm... even the Pentium didn't have a CPU fan if I remember correctly?

I have a pentium 133 MHz PC and the CPU has a fan. I am using the stock fan that came with the CPU.

 

[square_wave]

@thatguy,

Why did you not remove that fan and do a passive cooling thing with the cpu ?

 

[iaudio]

thatguy, Sempron 140?

 

[hifishree]

To get silent PC, i think, key is good silent SMPS. I am using SMPS from old HP desktop. Absolutely no sound even if you are standing 1feet away during night. Also I am using intel atom motherboard with fanless cooling. Using it as NAS(video, file server) and for downloading, till now no issues at all.
I would be interested to find out how much power it is consuming. I am keeping it on for 24hrs/365days. Do you guys know if we have in India something similar to wattmeter that is sold in US.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

There are non-fan PSUs available. Articles say that, even then, they may not be completely silent to the sharpest of ears; there may be some electrical hum.

I can say that, so far as fan noise is concerned, my PSU is silent. It is an Antec CP850, but this is a non-standard CPU which certain Antec cases are made to fit. Mine is mated with a P183, but I doubt that the HTPC builder will want anything this big.

Whilst little horsepower is required for processing sound, I am not sure that the same thing applies to video?

 

[theironhorse]

how bout glass wool around the cabinet and water cooling and seperate outlet of the air via slow 120mm fans.. its gonna be dead drop silent.. what say ..lolz just kiddin..

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Even better: put the PC in a different room!

Those designing a house including home theatre could easily design a small machine room, the size of a small toilet or even a large cupboard. It would require outside ventilation. (my eyes rest on our puja room as I write! but the logistics would not be good, so the gods are safe. For now.)

Our gas bottles occupy a small built-on cupboard outside the house. Building something similar outside the wall near my desk would be perfectly possible. It would not be quite as secure as inside the house --- and it would be a real pain to use the switches and the optical drive, but all the other cables could easily be led through the wall.

(whilst, unlike my power-house fantasy, I wouldn't have to get rich to achieve this idea, it still remains, strictly an idea. The power house, by the way, would contain all equipment to supply absolutely clean and continuous power to an entire house, which itself would cost about ten times my capital)

Leaving my fantasies aside... My wife just turned on one ceiling fan. I can no longer hear my PC. I guess we have to measure silence in the context of our environment.

 

[NetFreak]

Now an easy option is to buy a nettop that does not have any fan.

These PCs are just about the size of a typical media player, have Intel Atom CPU and some graphics chip for video playback.

Tigerdirect has a bunch of these at around $200.

these are silent as well as invisible (are small so you can hide it between TV and wall). You just need an IR extender for remote to work if this "PC" is hidden.

 

[thatguy]

Why did you not remove that fan and do a passive cooling thing with the cpu ?

It was 1997 and I was a poor student By the time I learned about quiet components, that PC was a museum piece.

thatguy, Sempron 140?

I am using a Sempron 145.

Put some sound dampening pads under it

You have never tried to quieten a PC, have you? This is real problem and many people have spent time and energy in designing precision components so that some of us could enjoy good quiet computing. Your glib answer is trivializing their hard work.

 

[thatguy]

Now an easy option is to buy a nettop that does not have any fan.

These PCs are just about the size of a typical media player, have Intel Atom CPU and some graphics chip for video playback.

The idea behind building a media PC is that you can use some high quality sound and graphics cards. A motherboard without 2-3 expansion slots that can take big cards wouldn't cut it. The Atom motherboards and the mini-ITX cases in the market are so crippled that I haven't been able to use them for any real application. Definitely not for a media player PC.

 

[NetFreak]

The Atom motherboards and the mini-ITX cases in the market are so crippled that I haven't been able to use them for any real application. Definitely not for a media player PC.

Newer Atom CPUs + Chipsets E.g. :

Atom D525 + NM 10 + ION2

Should be able to perform any task that is required from a media player PC. That includes:

1. 1080p (@ 60 fps) playback
2. 7.2 playback (DTS HD MA or True HD)
3. Misc tasks like remote control + metadata download

 

[dragonxwas]

well silencing pc's can take two routes : silent and dead silent.

Silent route :
we start by first detecting the source of the sound,
its the cpu cooler, powersupply fan and the case fan..

for high end pc's the number of fans increases..

so one might start by changing the fans, you get ordinary fans for as low as 30 bucks,,yeah thats right 30 bux only..
but they will be helluva lot louder and will die out soon..

good OEM fans will cost you around Rs.200-300,, Recommended manufacturers are delta and adda..

branded fans from coolermaster,Scythe will cost you 400 Upwards..

invest in good fans and get a fan controller if you got more than 4 fans...

this will be sufficient to make your pc near silent..

for complete silence, get some acoustic damping mats and stick it to the sides of your case and the bottom which will make it silent. Using rubber grommets for the fans will also kill vibrational sound coming from the fans..

WATERCOOLING will not make your pc silent, as still you will need fans to cool the radiator..water cooling is for people who want near ambient tempratures..

DEAD SILENT PC building would require one to make the pc out of all passive parts, passive heatsink for processor, passive cooling for the VGA card, even powersupply should be passively cooled, which will endup in a very very expensive pc..

Source : Building and selling computers since 2005

 

[NetFreak]

DEAD SILENT PC building would require one to make the pc out of all passive parts, passive heatsink for processor, passive cooling for the VGA card, even powersupply should be passively cooled, which will endup in a very very expensive pc..

Source : Building and selling computers since 2005

Repeating myself here, a nettop should not require any fan since:

1. Power supply is external ( power brick like laptops) and does not require fans
2. CPU + chipset cooling can be done with external fins

This has enough power to play most demanding media (1080p @ 60 fps).

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Unless, as has been said, everything in the case is passively cooled, we still have to move air. We can elinate much of the mechanical noise of fans by making them larger and thus slower, and by increasing build quality, all of which is tending to increase price, but still air is moving, and moving air is not given to being completely silent!

branded fans from coolermaster,Scythe will cost you 400 Upwards..

My Antec case has two fans. The Antec Tricool 120mm is nearer to Rs.800 to buy seperately --- yet, still I am tempted to try replacing them with Noctua fans