Creating a sound dampening enclosure for my case

hawkboy13 · Post by **hawkboy13** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:32 pm

Hi,

I have a fairly quiet pc. It's not dead silent, but it's no louder than my laptop when its fan revs up. You can hear the power supply fan going and a fairly weak, but high pitched, noise from the hard-drive (the power supply makes a similar noise, but the HD is louder).
I've done everything I can with fans, etc. and I don't want to get a new case.

I was wondering if it would be a good idea to build a box around the pc to reduce noise. It would be made of noise reducing materials and only have openings for ventilation and cables.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

ozdoc · Post by **ozdoc** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 5:39 am

hawkboy,

What are you current system components? (case, PSU, HDDs, CPU / CPU cooler, Fans/voltage etc).
It would probably make more sense to identify the noisiest components and work on those. It's certainly not difficult to produce a low noise system, or are you after a completely silent rig?

hawkboy13 · Post by **hawkboy13** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 7:35 am

I have a thermaltake XaserIII case (many fans with speed controls) with a thermaltake PS (don't remember the exact model, but I bought it for its noise reviews), my cpu has a massive heatsink fan combo that can't be heard even with the case open. Previously, the loudest thing was the video card fan, but I'm taking that out (new heatsink that doesn't need a fan).

Even with all that, I can still hear my pc. I'm hoping to get it to a point where I can't hear anything when I try to sleep on my bed which is about 10 feet away.

I figure a nice enclosure would be the easiest way to get rid of more noise. Anyone agree?

ozdoc · Post by **ozdoc** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 11:35 pm

Personally, I would just turn it off.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 2:22 am

If the noise still bothers you from ten feet away, your computer is too noisy. An enclosure for the thing might work, but at extreme complication compared to a quieter internal component.

My bedroom computer sits on a night-stand about a foot from my head. It is quiet enough I can fall asleep with it running.....but turning it off is the easiest fix for noise.

ozdoc · Post by **ozdoc** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 6:36 am

Bluefront wrote: My bedroom computer sits on a night-stand about a foot from my head.

I'm having a hard time visualising that.
I trust it's fully screened for EMI...

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 6:56 am

ozdoc wrote:I trust it's fully screened for EMI...

I trust you don't have a cellular phone...

ozdoc · Post by **ozdoc** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 4:21 pm

qviri wrote: I trust you don't have a cellular phone...

Yeah, but I try not to sleep with it strapped to my head for 10 hours.

vitaminc · Post by **vitaminc** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 4:55 pm

ozdoc wrote:
qviri wrote: I trust you don't have a cellular phone...
Yeah, but I try not to sleep with it strapped to my head for 10 hours.

well, perth should be dense enough to have cell phone towers and wifi hotspots everywhere, so your head is being blasted with all the radio waves anyway. doesnt hurt to have another one.

besides, lots of emi will be grounded/insulated by the case (unless u have a wooden/plastic/non-shielded one).