Re: Real silence - move your PC to another room!
Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 6:44 am
Just a personal view previously lurked here for a number of years, and in various ways I've been experiementing with making quieter computers since before this thread was started. I don't have a problem with the OP's view though in my case I was driven to distraction with an exceptionally loud Dr. cooler CPU fan on my old AMD Duron CPU.
I could actually hear the computer clearly from my kitchen with the PC in the bedroom, and that's concrete floors as well really it was that loud probably the loudest processor fan I've ever heard (think hairdryer at full blast). Hence the move the pc strategy isn't really a solution for many people. Regarding cost making a quieter pc for recent builds I would not say the additional cost was that much, some selected fans, I added some rubber feet to the PC case, selected a PC case that was pre fitted with sound insulation which wasn't really any more expensive than a normal good quality PC case would have been.
Overall I think with careful planning the cost of making a quiet computer isn't a lot more than making a normal one. Even if you ignore sound insulation or quiet components ie fanless PSU's, you can do a lot by simply decent management of fan speeds one obvious area. It is true in the past I have splashed out on custom solutions which were somewhat more expensive ie hard drive enclosures etc, but there are many DIY alternatives available to folks too.
Cost isn't really an issue in my view regarding quieter computing. Of course like anything you can go on a quest to have no noise at all which will be more costly. I consider myself happy with very quiet computers, there are some who take things possibly a little far for my own tastes ie hardcore quiet pc folks I'm more mainstream quiet myself!
I could actually hear the computer clearly from my kitchen with the PC in the bedroom, and that's concrete floors as well really it was that loud probably the loudest processor fan I've ever heard (think hairdryer at full blast). Hence the move the pc strategy isn't really a solution for many people. Regarding cost making a quieter pc for recent builds I would not say the additional cost was that much, some selected fans, I added some rubber feet to the PC case, selected a PC case that was pre fitted with sound insulation which wasn't really any more expensive than a normal good quality PC case would have been.
Overall I think with careful planning the cost of making a quiet computer isn't a lot more than making a normal one. Even if you ignore sound insulation or quiet components ie fanless PSU's, you can do a lot by simply decent management of fan speeds one obvious area. It is true in the past I have splashed out on custom solutions which were somewhat more expensive ie hard drive enclosures etc, but there are many DIY alternatives available to folks too.
Cost isn't really an issue in my view regarding quieter computing. Of course like anything you can go on a quest to have no noise at all which will be more costly. I consider myself happy with very quiet computers, there are some who take things possibly a little far for my own tastes ie hardcore quiet pc folks I'm more mainstream quiet myself!