I've been saving my pennies for a while, and since the Canadian dollar is now worth more than the US dollar, buying a system from EndPCNoise.com is actually something I can afford. :D I'm planning on ordering one within the next few weeks. I'm basically looking for an off-the-shelf quiet PC, and if ...

It may have been documented here in the past, but I didn't figure it out until yesterday! :shock: :D :shock: I was convinced that the problem was either a driver issue or a problem with my external HDD. I didn't realize that the case itself was the problem. :D I also found out that Antec has an adap...

This isn't exactly related to "quiet" systems, but the Sonata is a popular case choice among these forums, so I thought I'd pass along some info I learned about the Sonata: The front-panel USB connectors on some of the early Sonata cases are NOT USB 2.0 compliant. I discovered this on my Sonata when...

All 9600XT cards (the Sapphire Ultimate edition card excepted) require fans, unless they're modded with a really large heatsink.

Problem is, if you're going to rest the drive on foam at the bottom of the case, what's the point of the novibes? You could save the money and just put the drive on the foam. I'd suggest giving the novibes a shot in one of the upper bays, and seeing how high your hard drive temp goes. If it's still ...

Figured I'd post a second confirmation - the Zalman 7000-series heatsinks WILL fit in an Antec Sonata case using the Antec A7N8X board (I have an A7N8X non-deluxe, and it fits with about 5mm clearance).

I just went through and tried stopping the various fans - they don't seem to be the problem. I think what I'm hearing is the HDD whine. The Sonata stock case fan isn't the problem - I've modded the molex connector so it's running at 5V instead of 12V. It's making just about the same noise as it was ...

The HDD is definitely not the problem - if I put my finger on the side of the drive cage, there's next to no vibration. Any vibration being transferred to the case is likely coming from the Zalman HSF (and even then, it's very minimal).

I'm not sure. It might be the PSU and/or the Zalman HSF; I turned it up a bit beyond 5v (maybe 8v - midrange of the Fanmate) because it's really hot in here - ambient temps are around 28C. My mobo "case" reading is 38C, and my CPU diode is at 53C. Nothing to be too worried about, but I don't want to...

I thought I'd post a big thanks to the site staff and forum regulars for all their advice I've leeched for the past year or so. I've finally got a system that's quiet enough for my needs. Here's what I've done (in the order I did it): 1) Replace crappy generic case with Sonata. Big difference - old ...

I'll toss in my recommendation for the Sapphire 9600XT ultimate (link in my sig). Every game I've tossed at it has run fine, however I'm not big on "cutting edge" games. If that's your ball of wax, the Sapphire 9800XT Ultimate would probably be a better option.

Yes, it's truly shameless - I highly recommend sorbothane for silencing your HDD. You can get some here:

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=14385

LOW LOW PRICES! GET THEM WHILE THEY'RE HOT! ETC ETC

The people at Folding-community.org are vehemently opposed to illegal folding. Still the solution I posted came from them. Yes, but I would think that the "solution" was designed for non-networked computers where you are legitimately allowed to install software . An example would be an old 486 with...

Thanks for the warm welcome! I've set up the console client to start as a scheduled task, and it's invisibly working in the background, where my wife can't see it and fiddle with it. I plan on faithfully ignoring it for as long as I can.

Shh... they might hear us...

Howdy,

I've finally got my system quiet enough to feel like I can be part of the "Silent" folding team (it'll be even quieter when I get my new PSU from MikeC installed, but that's another story...).

So, you've got a new member. My system isn't blazingly fast, but it's on 24x7.

When I started thinking of silencing my PC, dampening material was the first thing I thought of, too. Problem is, dampening is a lot more trouble than picking quiet components in the first place. Sound dampening should only be looked into after the loud components have been replaced with quieter one...

Has SPCR ever considered doing a UPS comparison? Something kinda like consumer reports has done in comparing car batteries? Given that pretty much everybody in this thread has said that their UPS is silent or virtually silent (i.e. no noise beyond 50cm or so), what's the point of SPCR doing a compa...

What would be really interesting is if Antec incorporated something like this PSU into a future version of the Sonata case, possibly modified so that the PSU and case are one integrated unit. Now that'd be a true silent solution - a case engineered to run quietly, combined with a fanless PSU! Kudos ...

Because my Zalman7000A @5V was the loadest part in my silent-pc, i decided to decouple the fan in this cooler. Take a look, if you want to silence your Zalman: :wink: http://www.silenthardware.de/forum/index.php?showtopic=2249 (Scroll down for the english version) For those of us without the skills...

If I recall the Radeon 9600Pro cards don't have a sensor on them, so there isn't a way to get the temperature. The 9600XT and 9800XT cards do have a thermal sensor, however.

If I recall correctly (I'm not at home right now), it's listed on the "overdrive" tab.

I can't remember the version number of the Catalyst drivers - I picked them up off the ATI site yesterday, so they should be whichever ones are the most current for Windows 2000.

Well, yesterday I finally managed to get my hands on a Sapphire Ultimate Edition Radeon 9600XT card - for some strange reason, the cards have been hard to get a hold of here in Canada. Apparently one of the local distributors only received five (!) of the cards. I must say, I'm quite impressed with ...

I'm getting a Sapphire 9600XT ultimate edition this evening - I'll try to post my experiences with it within a week or so. I'm not too worried about Sapphire, as far as the company goes. You'll always hear a few negative reports about pretty much every product on the market. It's when you hear lots ...

Hi Jono, Welcome to the wonderful world of PC silencing, where annoying noises are the most common topic of discussion. :D Zalman says that you need 55mm of clearance from the centre of the heatsink (i.e. the centre of the CPU). I've done a rough measurement based on the scale drawings of the mother...

This may not be the case here, but one thing to keep in mind is that CPUIdle (if you're running it) causes speakers to buzz on some systems. This problem is noted in the CPUIdle FAQ.

As others have said, you'll likely cook the CPU if you try running it fanless.

The A7N8X at least has CPU overheating protection built-in, so the PC will shut off before causing damage to the CPU. That is, of course, if the overheating protection works properly.

PaleMelanesian & Rook -- After you silence your machines (less than 1m), get her to play with it a bit, mention how quiet it is & how pleased you are with it. Then find a friend, neighbor, someone who has a noisy PC in a quiet environment. Take her over there & sit her infront of that thing. Then s...

My current PC is definitely more then 2m away, but I'm in the early modding stages. I've replaced the case with a Sonata, and used the Hitachi Feature Tool to cut down on seek noise. Planned upgrades are a Sapphire Ultimate 9600Pro video card (no fan) and a Zalman 7000A Alcu CPU cooler when I upgrad...

I suppose I will do just that and wait - but you're right, them's fightin' words. Go Oilers!