PCs on floor boards on the 1st floor of a house.. how2quiet?

jimbobUK · Post by **jimbobUK** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 4:59 pm

Hiya folks..

As I'm sure you all are doing i am continuing to struggle at reducing the noise of my PCs... mostly they are pretty good.. the one thing that i have now though is that these machines are in my bedroom and the living room is right below them... CDROM noise, fans, hdds all seem to pass straight down through the floor boards and can become very loud and unpleasant for those downstairs..

I've recently brought a camper mat and cut it up into PC size strips.. 2 PCs now rest on 4 of these strips and that has helped a lot... i've tried squash balls (too unstable) .. erasers stacked (not brilliant) .. cork .. (not brilliant) ..

I know QuietPC for one (in the UK at least where its constantly difficult to find things) are stocking

QuietFeet™ Vibration Isolation Feet
http://www.quietpc.com/uk/caseacc.php

Which look promising but are also really expensive.. I dont know how much more effective they'll be than my best performer of the moment.. 3" or more of this camping mat stacked..

Anyone got any experiences with this or anything else.. UK relevant would be nice but i WOULD import if it was THAT good.. has anyone gone from really horrible computer noise downstairs to near silence/inaudible following some fix.. this is what i'm looking for

Thanks

Jim

Zyzzyx · Post by **Zyzzyx** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 5:02 pm

Suspend it from the ceiling (or under the desk) with bungee cords.

Otherwise I was going to recommend the Quietfeet which you already linked to.

jimbobUK · Post by **jimbobUK** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 5:37 pm

How good are they tho, has anyone tried them... Thanks.. too late here

Lilla · Post by **Lilla** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 11:01 pm

How about getting some black rubber balls (or silicon rubber balls), and cut them in half, and glue them on the bottom four corners, this would then be much like the QuietFeet(tm) that you linked to.

You could put a circle of felt on the bottom like the QuietFeet(tm) too.

You could look for a ball that is the diameter specified in the QuietFeet(tm) chart based upon the weight of your computer.

I think you want to minimize the surface area that makes contact with the floor, and the half-ball design of the QuietFeet would do that.

Just a thought,
Lilla

frosty · Post by **frosty** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 8:09 am

I was thinking of using two rubber coffee coaster and place a piece of soft carpet foam between.

jimbobUK · Post by **jimbobUK** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 4:35 pm

I am using camping mats at the moment.. its cheap for a big mat, cut into pieces you get a lot for your money and it makes a BIG difference to sound downstairs.. will buy more tomorrow.. I brought squash balls (its similar to a hifi trick thats since been shunned as all tricks should be for sound differences

but they didn't work well at all.. the computer was too unstable...

The quiet feet i believe are very very absorbant and soft..

To be honest i'll see how much better you can go with these mats.. I could try cutting them into smaller pieces to be more like feet (at the mo the whole underside of case touches floor...) but its much easier to manage with big pieces.. its kinda neat too you can pull your computer out of places with them...

Sam Williams · Post by **Sam Williams** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 11:41 am

I've just had a great success by placing the PC on a supermarket fruit tray (for pears or apples)! The computer, which was previously resting on the floorboards and a medium-thick carpet, is now inaudible in the room below - despite the hideous old PSU which sounds like a cross-Channel ferry. It seems slightly (maybe 5%) louder in my room, but that's a small price to pay for the silence elsewhere. You might want to give it a try - it's free, after all!

mahkum2 · Post by **mahkum2** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 1:40 pm

jimbobUK-- I was surfing Maplin website yesterday and came across this soft touch nob which might be of interest to you. This thing is amazingly enough made of the same thermoplastic as the recommended fan isolators. You would need super glue to stick it on the case.

Post by **MikeC** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 2:32 pm

The quietfeet from QuietPC work very well with an already fairly quiet PC, but the results will vary a lot depending on your particulars:

1) amount & freq. of vibrations in PC/case
2) weight of case -- greater is worse
3) exact nature of floor -- an old springy/creaky wooden floor will be worst, the best will be a heavy concrete floor

grindlestone · Post by **grindlestone** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 2:49 pm

In my experience a piece of carpet has better noise damping that a piece of camping mat. My PC's on my desk beside me and I've tried both. Carpet is definitely superior.

jimbobUK · Post by **jimbobUK** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 3:32 pm

I have 2-3 inches thick of camping mat though.. and its quite cheap for that... the only prob i have when trying to make feet and not a full floor for the length of the case is that the uneven distribution of weight in a typical case (heavy on the motherboard side usually) means you get the case leaning by nearly 20 degrees after a day or so.. had to take it out..

Its the cheapness and convenience that makes this work ok atm..

I am using some bubble wrap to stop the case leaning into the side of the computer desk it is in.. industry strength bubble wrap must be a good idea?!!? air is surely the best seperator..

I wish there was a cheaper magnetic levitation system available.. i recall seeing them for hifi components but they are about £500.. thats perfect as its completely off the ground

Post by **MikeC** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 3:53 pm

Try this:

Get a 2-3 cm thick medite board (medium density fiberboard -- sort of like particle board, or even strong plywood) slightly larger than the base of the PC case. Bond some medium-soft foam to it -- across its entire surface. You will have to play with exactly what type of foam. It should probably be at least 1" thick.

Set the foam on the floor, the board on the foam, and then the PC on the board. Ideally, the foam should compress somewhat but not all the way -- if you know what I mean. Play with different types/thicknesses of foam till you get the damping effect you want. Then use whatever type of glue you want to bond the foam to the board, probably hot glue gun or silicone will work best.

You could also try 4 pieces of foam, one on each corner, so as not to need as much foam, but this may not distribute the weight of the PC as evenly.

I've used this with one of my PCs. It works very well. It's just another variation of mechanical decoupling.

Trip · Post by **Trip** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 7:23 pm

whoa! magnetically levitating your HiFi components??? that's amazing!

Sam Williams · Post by **Sam Williams** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 8:05 pm

Magnetically levitating your hard drives would be even more amazing... But not for long!

al bundy · Post by **al bundy** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 12:52 am

MikeC wrote:...You will have to play with exactly what type of foam. It should probably be at least 1" thick...

Where do you get your foam Mike?

Post by **MikeC** » Sat Nov 29, 2003 7:30 am

al bundy wrote:Where do you get your foam Mike?

Probably from a shipping box used to hold something that was sent to me. But I've also sourced such stuff from both mattress/furniture foam shops as well as packing materials suppliers.