How to make a Silent PC ?

[anm]

I have witnessed people move air completely silently - you only realize the movement with your nose and not with your ears!

but still air is moving, and moving air is not given to being completely silent!

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Hmmm... It's an important part of their cooling system too!

 

[magma]

@square wave and others

some of you know im on a quest on the most silent PC possible
My source for my music is a Music PC which has been completely built along the lines of the much acclaimed article "art of building computer transports"
i cant seem to find the link for your reference currently

im running an ESI juli feeding an ESS sabre based DAC ( i think one of the top DAC companies called DCS uses this)

i have fiddled with the idea of going completely passive but im a bit skeptical considering a live in mumbai heat with my gear in a NON ac room

i have been toying with the idea of getting
Scythe Shuriken Rev.B Quiet Low Profile CPU Cooler

or going allout and passive and using this'

ATACOM D15G 1U PASSIVE COPPER HEATSINK COOLER INTEL SOCKET 478

There is no other fan in my PC

My smps is EXTERNAL
im working on how to go passive there too
but thats a continuing project

comments will be helpful

note: the pC is a P4 with only 2 PCI slots ( i have purposely opted for this config ) that does no other duty than music PC
Visuals are through a touchscreen

 

[spirovious]

Hi Magma,thats good DAC.

 

[cmsajith]

how did you made the smps external. can you post some pics?

 

[square_wave]

@square wave and others

some of you know im on a quest on the most silent PC possible
My source for my music is a Music PC which has been completely built along the lines of the much acclaimed article "art of building computer transports"
i cant seem to find the link for your reference currently

im running an ESI juli feeding an ESS sabre based DAC ( i think one of the top DAC companies called DCS uses this)

i have fiddled with the idea of going completely passive but im a bit skeptical considering a live in mumbai heat with my gear in a NON ac room

i have been toying with the idea of getting
Scythe Shuriken Rev.B Quiet Low Profile CPU Cooler

or going allout and passive and using this'

ATACOM D15G 1U PASSIVE COPPER HEATSINK COOLER INTEL SOCKET 478

There is no other fan in my PC

My smps is EXTERNAL
im working on how to go passive there too
but thats a continuing project

comments will be helpful

note: the pC is a P4 with only 2 PCI slots ( i have purposely opted for this config ) that does no other duty than music PC
Visuals are through a touchscreen

Hi Magma,

If planning to go the pc way, try and get hold of a USB dac (asynchronous) and get your music out through the usb. Try and avoid sound cards/analogue out from the pc. There are myriad of issues with power supply and noise which will eat into your sound.

Another option is to get hold of this if you cannot get an asynchronous dac;
M2Tech | hiFace USB 24bit/192kHz Audio Interface

Now connect this to a regular dac and you are good to go. Treat the pc as something which is silent and sit in one corner as a server. Assign no other duties to it.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I feel really unhappy with the mechanical aspects of that device, which will exert quite a lot of leverage on the USB port from the cable hanging off its end!

 

[magma]

not a great fan of usb dacs
if i had to buy one it would be the MF v dac or the EMU 404 which are the best bang for buck ive heard

one of my client actually uses the emu in a setup with wilson watt puppies and swears by it

the ESI juli i have outputs digital via co axial not analogue
im quite old school
i think its a decent way to go

 

[square_wave]

not a great fan of usb dacs

Can you shed some light on this ?

From what I know almost all hi-end pure audio setups are on USB these days.

There are of course exceptions to this rule.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I think that the really high-end external audio interfaces that are not PCI-connected are Firewire, but there are certainly many respectable USB boxes.

USB 1.0 was certainly not really up to audio. My theory is that USB 1.0 earned a bad name for audio work, which is not true for USB 2.0, but the prejudice still lives on.

 

[magma]

From what I know almost all hi-end pure audio setups are on USB these days.

.

did i deny this?
i just said im not a fan of using usb and i would like to use the digi out on my ESI juli instead

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Fair enough.

I hope you give the Juli@'s analogue output a fair trial too? Any resultant comparison would be read with interest.

 

[square_wave]

I think that the really high-end external audio interfaces that are not PCI-connected are Firewire, but there are certainly many respectable USB boxes.

USB 1.0 was certainly not really up to audio. My theory is that USB 1.0 earned a bad name for audio work, which is not true for USB 2.0, but the prejudice still lives on.

Agree. Many use firewire too. It was always the preferred method.
But USB have come a long way now. To beat a correctly setup PC-USB Dac setup, you need a pretty hi-end transport. Have been doing some experiments recently. Many hi-end cd players do not stand a chance against such a setup.

Do not have much experience with digital out from pc sound cards.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

That's what I'd expect, square_wave. I wonder what the future, with USB 3.0 will bring? I suppose we will have to wait a few years before we can find out, as even external storage devices with the 3.0 standard are still not that common.

People had genuine problems with USB 1.0 sound, but I think that a lot of the objections to PC sound are theoretical. Perhaps an internal PCI card should/could be affected by all sorts of internal electrical noise, but I can never forget the discovery that my RME PCI card, analogue out, was so much better than my Cyrus CD player!

 

[square_wave]

That's what I'd expect, square_wave. I wonder what the future, with USB 3.0 will bring? I suppose we will have to wait a few years before we can find out, as even external storage devices with the 3.0 standard are still not that common.

People had genuine problems with USB 1.0 sound, but I think that a lot of the objections to PC sound are theoretical. Perhaps an internal PCI card should/could be affected by all sorts of internal electrical noise, but I can never forget the discovery that my RME PCI card, analogue out, was so much better than my Cyrus CD player!

I am sure there are ways to get terrific analogue out from a PC. After all this is all electronics and what a cd players has in it is a transport and a sound card with a very good power supply minus all the issues of noise typically found in a PC. If one can design a PC in such way as to avoid all these problems, there is nothing stopping you. I am sure there are custom made PCs out there which has already achieved this.

 

[gobble]

That's what I'd expect, square_wave. I wonder what the future, with USB 3.0 will bring? I suppose we will have to wait a few years before we can find out, as even external storage devices with the 3.0 standard are still not that common.

People had genuine problems with USB 1.0 sound, but I think that a lot of the objections to PC sound are theoretical. Perhaps an internal PCI card should/could be affected by all sorts of internal electrical noise, but I can never forget the discovery that my RME PCI card, analogue out, was so much better than my Cyrus CD player!

Just decided I am buying a new mATX Mobo tomorrow. So should I pay the premium for a usb3 one?

Is there anything better in the budget chipset range than a 880G currently?

Also need an external HDD case to slip my existing hdd into for watching movies. Or is it cheaper to buy the slim readymade external disks from seagate (I can leave the existing ones inside my PC)?

Any recommendations on Gigabyte vs Asus in 880G? What are the prices like?
I suppose my AM2 cpu will fit into an AM3 socket?

I havent had the time to do any kind of research.

Thanks
--G

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Gobble, you've answered many of my questions, I wish I could return the favour --- but I really don't know.

Whilst my USB3.0 ports remain, so far, unused, I have vague plans to buy a USB3.0 external drive soon...

 

[iaudio]

Gobble, You could try the Asus m4a 88 Evo. It's got USB 3.0 and comes for around INR4.5k.

 

[gobble]

Ok Guys

I stayed up late to finish some research after I posted and here are my findings -

1. The m4a-88T-V only has Sata 3gb while the m4a-88TD-V has Sata 6GB.
This is because the southbridge chip is not the SB850 but an older SB7xx on the non TD-V version. Also only the TD verison has USB 3.0. For the sake of future upgrade ability anyone purchasing the M4A-88 should get the TD version.

2. 880G comes only in socket AM3. while AM3 CPUs will work with socket AM2+ mobos, AM2 CPUs will not work with socket AM3 mobos.

Therefore my choices are limited to 785G chipset. The best deal I can find in AM2+ mobos is Gigabyte ga-ma785gm-us2h rev 3.3. It has 2 USB3 ports as well but only SAT 3GB/Sec. The rev 3.3 can power iPad and iPods when in sleep mode or suspended (well I have a wall charger that works fine anyways ) . It supports Advanced Clock Calibration for over-clocking or Under-clocking the CPU as well (not relevant anymore as I will use AMD Fusion for HTPC).

Thanks for your suggestions.

Now for an great USB/eSata external enclosure.

--G

 

[Jay5150]

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

This one from Asus could be useful..if you can get it.

Cheers