Why Silent Computer?

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 2:55 am

I have been thinking a lot why Silent computer is important to me and why I started silencing it.

My hearing is very senstiive, I pick up sounds that other's won't hear, especially high pitch and low pitch sounds that diturb me a lot. I have always been sound sensitive person.

Exposing long time for "regular" i.e. normal boxed coolers will make my head ache eventually with-in hour. Sound of boxed cooler in full speed make me feel uncomfy, distracts me from everything else which leads into a stress and head ache.

This has grown passion to me in time. Silent computer's and making computer's silent.

But why do you want to have Silent computer? Is it just for convinience? Test of skill how much you can do about it? Is it passion?

kater · Post by **kater** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 3:17 am

Work, fun, challenge - a bit of everything. I like to work in comfortable conditions, I like dabbling with PC's, and I like to impress my heathen friends with my rig. Some still refuse to be impressed but I just know that when they get back to their dB monsters at home/work, they go mad with jealousy. Some have already yielded and begged me to save their souls, er, ears, from decibel damnation. They are now my forever obedient servants. And of course silentosis is the kind of disease that won't ever let you go. Once you drop, even accidentaly, the RPM of just one tiny little fan by 20%, you're doomed to follow the path until you either go broke or two huge, white-clad guys like this will ... Hey, where are you taking me? Lemmelone! Don't, I say, don't you put the belts on me! Argh!

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 3:27 am

It started as silencing (well, quieting) a PC I had some years ago. It was running at night also, and we lived in a single room apartment back then. I started looking into "silent parts", got a Sonata (as many of the SPCR users did at one point) etc and found SPCR.

So for me it started as something I needed to do, involved into a hobby and now is a passion, or more of an obsession. Along with it came the interest in fan bearings, blade design etc. which has been useful at work also.

I'm not sure how healthy it is, but especially during the first year (?) after assembling a PC you notice yourself trying to pick up any odd hum or whines coming from the case, especially at evening when it's quieter.

ayjay · Post by **ayjay** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 3:49 am

I too find it a stressful thing. If I'm working on a machine making loads of noise I just can't concentrate, produce lower quality work etc. I barely hear my pc during the daytime, especially on hot days like today when I have the window open. I can however atm hear vibrations but that's because I still haven't softmounted my case fans

Also I use the same pc for dvd playing. The whine of fans and hard drives during the quiet bits of a film make me immediately come out of the world the film has immersed me in.
I actually sleep in the same room I work in, so on the odd occasion when I'm rendering overnight or uploading stupidly large files to a client I need a machine that can do the business without constantly reminding me it's doing it.

Das_Saunamies · Post by **Das_Saunamies** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:01 am

People need hobbies. Computers are one which I find interesting, challenging and affordable.

I silence my own and any computers I'm asked to build as a challenge, and to provide better living for the users. I'm not overly sensitive to noise, but there's no excuse for using poor materials when you could be using proper ones, so it's also got to do with my principles a bit. It's always been fun for me to be tinkering with machines, big or small.

I do it for the challenge as well as the rewards.

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:26 am

its a hobby for me, i do it for fun more than anything. i'm sort of a perfectionist when it comes to things i'm passionate about, and IMO, a powerful computer is only perfect if it is also quiet while maintaning "safe" temps.

i spend a lot of time every day just researching computer hardware online. New platter areal densities, new chipsets, different motherboard layouts and sizes, power consumption charts, effeciency charts. you name it, and if it has somthing to do with computer hardware, ive probably researched it. its just what i do for fun. i enjoy being knowledgable about computer hardware.

ive gotten over the whole "silent pc" thing. its still a staple of my knowledge base and practical applications, but my current main interests as of late are more focus'd on small form factor cases, motherboards, as well as other hardware of smaller form factors. I'm of the firm belief that smaller is better, and is the future, and i always strive to be on the forefront of future hardware.

JoeWPgh · Post by **JoeWPgh** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:02 am

I've come to this recently for a couple of reasons. First is that computing used to be a hobby until I had one die suddenly and without warning. Because I needed one right away, I went out and bought an eMachines Celeron D 'off the shelf'. Much to my everlasting surprise, it ran almost 24/7 for over 4 years without any serious issue. It was very loud, but as far as I knew back then, about as loud as anything else I'd put together. In terms of bang for the buck, it went farther than any computer I'd ever owned.

I eventually replaced that with a Gateway AMD Anthon box. It was much quieter, but I detested the machine for any number of intangible reasons. So I began to look into building one of my own again. A lot had changed in 6~7 years, and I had much to learn. Then in a single month, I had a series of 3 power outages, each of which lasted over 2 hours and at times when I was home. Each time the lack of computer noise was astounding, and to a surprising degree, enjoyable enough that I didn't mind having the lights go out. It became something of a strong curiosity for me. Then I discovered the incredible resources of this site. Had I discovered the site a few months earlier, I would have saved a few dollars in building my rig silent from the ground up, as opposed to taming the beast I'd built. Now it's become something in between a hobby and an obsession. I've got my main machine almost completely tamed and the other 2 are well on their way.

I'm very grateful to everyone who contributes here. Silence is indeed golden.

blubberhoofd · Post by **blubberhoofd** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:07 am

I've started silencing when I was forced to move my 24/7 PC to the bedroom, which cost me a lot of sleep.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:14 am

I too find it a stressful thing. If I'm working on a machine making loads of noise I just can't concentrate, produce lower quality work etc.

similar story. I used to have a really noisy computer, ie every time I turned it on it sounded like a leafblower starting up. It just got more and more annoying, and also as I have very high ambient noise (motorway), I would probably have a been a prime candidate for premature hearing loss if I hadn't done something about it. so silent computing was more a necessity for me rather than a hobby.

did you know noise pollution has very well-documented health effects?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_health_effects

Important cardiovascular consequences follow from elevated sound levels, principally because the elevated adrenaline levels trigger a narrowing of the blood vessels (vasoconstriction). Sound levels, again of fairly typical roadway noise exposure, are known to constrict arterial blood flow and lead to elevated blood pressure; in this case, it appears that a certain fraction of the population is more susceptible to vasoconstriction. (Independently, high noise levels are known to produce medical stress reactions, another risk associated with cardiovascular disease.) Noise-induced medical stress is significant for two reasons. First, it often results from prolonged exposure for 8 to 16 hours per day, leading to elevated blood pressure for much of the day. Second, unlike emotional stress, it has a very clear effect on blood pressure, whereas this is not always true of emotional stress.

I just had one of those moments where I thought to myself, "why does my computer have to be so noisy? surely there is a better way?" I like to think a lot of the best inventions have come about through a similar thought process.

zistu · Post by **zistu** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:35 am

I'm not really looking for a silent computer, stability and reliability are my first aims. I have a small development/media server that is on 24/7 and a workstation that runs most of the day when I'm awake. The systems I currently have are pretty noisy, but they've done their duty very well in the past years. The current server I have is coming up on its 12th year of service, the workstation on the 6th. Both cases are Chieftec Dragons cooled by Noiseblocker 80mm fans, as said, not silent, but very reliable.

What I like about SPCR is that they look at cooling very seriously, while keeping a close watch on sound levels. While it's easy to just stuff some fans in any case to cool a machine efficiently, it is much harder to find a good balance between cooling and silence. The articles offered by SPCR as well as the forums have helped me identify the points to focus on and have given me loads of information on now to build my next systems.

The aim for my next builds is to cut sound levels in half at least, which I think I should manage easily. Another side aim is to reduce the dust building up inside the cases, these Dragons are quite good vacuum cleaners.

My other interest is to build a low energy consumption server, which is also the focus area of some of SPCRs members and articles. I had planed to build my next server based on the Speedster 4R with a T7200, but since that CPU is no longer available for me at my regular suppliers I put that project on ice for now. I'll look at it again in a year or two from now and hope (pray) the market for that has matured somewhat and more products become available specifically aimed at lower power consumption. But maybe that'll remain something to dream about for me.

So, in short, I guess I am somewhat of an infidel, since I don't really focus on silence alone. I hope you won't exile me for that

I am also very grateful for all the hard work silencing their systems and publishing their findings. Without all that I'd still be buying products based on their packaging, not their performance

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 2:16 pm

Mainly, I do it because it's fun.

I started off quieting down my computers because excessive computer noise was really bugging me, but really that's only enough of a reason to make ONE quiet computer. My only real explanation for my...umm...dozenth build is that it's fun.

woodsman · Post by **woodsman** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 2:57 pm

Definitely personal stress and tolerance levels for noise. Much of the noise from a PC is high frequency, and my hearing is quite sensitive to that kind of noise. I began my silent computer crusade in 1991 with a 486 when I disconnected the chassis fan!

Noise is not the sole criteria, although most important to me. Energy efficiency now plays a role in searching for hardware for my next box.

I always have been sensitive to noise, probably a result of my initial years growing up in a rural environment. I live in a rural environment today and find when I visit friends or family in the city that I struggle to maintain my mental composure, especially when sleeping. I am always amazed at how much background noise exists in an urban area, even at night.

Around the house I always wear hearing protection when working with machinery, even the lawn mower.

The cumulative effect of all this noise certainly plays a significant role in contributing to the various stress levels of all humans.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 4:13 pm

I am always amazed at how much background noise exists in an urban area, even at night.

tell me about it. when I tell people there is road noise 24/7 from the busy main road about 100 yards from me, they don't believe it. even at 3am there are still cars whizzing past; who the heck needs to get anywhere at 3am in the morning?!!! (and we're not talking about Friday or Saturday night; this is every night of the week)

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 2:31 am

jaganath wrote:
I am always amazed at how much background noise exists in an urban area, even at night.
tell me about it. when I tell people there is road noise 24/7 from the busy main road about 100 yards from me, they don't believe it. even at 3am there are still cars whizzing past; who the heck needs to get anywhere at 3am in the morning?!!! (and we're not talking about Friday or Saturday night; this is every night of the week)

i personally find the noises of aircraft, trains and motor vehicles at night comforting. Like how thunder during a storm at night is comforting. Something that breaks up the silence, and gives it a bit more life. Cant sleep when there is absolutely no noise, and even when listening to music its nice to hear the occasional "whoosh" of a car going by, or the sound of kids playing outside, or dogs barking.

Absolute silence is maddening.

Redzo · Post by **Redzo** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 6:58 am

jaganath wrote:
I am always amazed at how much background noise exists in an urban area, even at night.
tell me about it. when I tell people there is road noise 24/7 from the busy main road about 100 yards from me, they don't believe it. even at 3am there are still cars whizzing past; who the heck needs to get anywhere at 3am in the morning?!!! (and we're not talking about Friday or Saturday night; this is every night of the week)

How about cabs, ppl working nightshifts, police and public transports, trucks delivering stuff, mail and so on ????
What about moving into woods... or an isolated island. sounds like an idea

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 7:23 am

How about cabs, ppl working nightshifts, police and public transports, trucks delivering stuff, mail and so on ????

no public transport uses the road near me. I know the sound of trucks after all these years, it's not trucks. that means there must be at least 2520 cabs, people working nightshifts (who are poor and so probably using public transport in London where driving is expensive) and mail deliverers using the road near me every night. (I estimate a car or several cars passes at least once every 10 seconds between midnight and 7am).

What about moving into woods... or an isolated island. sounds like an idea

yeah, if I win the lottery that would be great. otherwise I'm stuck with it.

woodsman · Post by **woodsman** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 10:49 am

Absolute silence is maddening.

On the contrary. For me I find silence golden!

What about moving into woods...

Heh, that is exactly what I did!

spookmineer · Post by **spookmineer** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:20 pm

I first knew of SPCR when I was looking for a new PSU (tired of getting problems with former, cheap, PSU's - I have had multiple hardware burn out from one bad PSU and didn't want that happen again).

Read a review of a Seastone PSU here and saw how quiet it was.

Ordered it, and from then on it became "worse" (better really).

Somehow I never noticed how much noise my PC made before (and at the time it didn't really bother me) but after reading a lot of forum threads here, I knew there was something to do about it, and suddenly I was also annoyed at the noise my PC made.
When I watch a DVD, I just enjoy the experience, the DVD doesn't make any noticable noise (ofcourse, being drowned out by the sounds from the DVD). Why can't a PC be the same? Just enjoy the PC, without the noise it makes.

The ultimate for me would be a non compromise PC, which somehow will still be quiet enough.

It is funny, how at work, PC's will make up a lot of ambient noise, printers will make noise when printing and it doesn't bother me as much as at home.
My PC is much less quiet then PC's at work, but it simply isn't enough: I'd like to use a machine that does it's job without interfering with the music I play (or just be quiet when I don't play any).
Ofcourse, both environments are totally different, at work people are calling, talking and there is just this general buzz of activity. But when I (finally) get home, I want it to be quiet, and I only want to hear what I want to hear. Period.

[On a side note, I don't mind noise increasing when I'm playing games, the headset with gameplay noise will drown out any noise the PC makes, even when I had a loud PC]
I'm afraid it's an obsession though, some replies after I posted a short movie of my PC on another forum went "I can't even hear your fans spinning up because my fans drown out all noise, even when listening to it with headphones on full".

Obsession.
My wall clock never bothered me before but now I want one that doesn't click as loud...
I may be "lucky" to not be in a loud urban area, I hear the clock at night in bed, >5 meters away. And it's not *that* loud, it's just ticking.

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 5:25 pm

Aris wrote:
jaganath wrote:
I am always amazed at how much background noise exists in an urban area, even at night.
tell me about it. when I tell people there is road noise 24/7 from the busy main road about 100 yards from me, they don't believe it. even at 3am there are still cars whizzing past; who the heck needs to get anywhere at 3am in the morning?!!! (and we're not talking about Friday or Saturday night; this is every night of the week)
i personally find the noises of aircraft, trains and motor vehicles at night comforting. Like how thunder during a storm at night is comforting. Something that breaks up the silence, and gives it a bit more life. Cant sleep when there is absolutely no noise, and even when listening to music its nice to hear the occasional "whoosh" of a car going by, or the sound of kids playing outside, or dogs barking.

Absolute silence is maddening.

That sounds horrible really. I live in small town, a stone throw away from Sea and Forrest ( Literally ) so main noise comes from wind and trees. Idea of urban area with planes and such is terrifying for me.

On the otherhand, living in nature without urban noises does add its challenge to silent computing due lower background noise.

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 12:50 am

Redzo wrote:
jaganath wrote:
I am always amazed at how much background noise exists in an urban area, even at night.
tell me about it. when I tell people there is road noise 24/7 from the busy main road about 100 yards from me, they don't believe it. even at 3am there are still cars whizzing past; who the heck needs to get anywhere at 3am in the morning?!!! (and we're not talking about Friday or Saturday night; this is every night of the week)
How about cabs, ppl working nightshifts, police and public transports, trucks delivering stuff, mail and so on ????
What about moving into woods... or an isolated island. sounds like an idea

I did live in downtown San Jose years ago...right under the final approach flight path to the airport. For a long time now I have lived in the woods,in the mountains. It's about 200 yds to the 2 lane road and there's not much traffic on that. There's no house real close. I DL bit torrent music,live shows,a lot and sometimes the computer is on all night in my room. I've been planning my next computer-probably too much-and as a result-lived with this one-only somewhat quieted-too long. The upside is there's a LOT more good ways now to do a quiet computer so the next one will be VERY quiet. As I don't game,mostly do audio and graphics-I don't need a lot of power. An undervolted or C+Q Brisbane 3600 is almost overkill and If 65NM Sempys show up?????

mr. poopyhead · Post by **mr. poopyhead** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 7:51 pm

kater wrote:...and I like to impress my heathen friends...

HAHAHA... heathen friends.... time for a silence inquisition!

i do it cause i like silence, and it's a challenge to achieve even more silence, while maintaining enough cooling...

it's an ART...

fri2219 · Post by **fri2219** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:59 am

If my computer is too loud, I can't hear the voices in my head.

After I silenced the plants in my office, the computer was logically next.

spookmineer · Post by **spookmineer** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 3:00 pm

fri2219 wrote:If my computer is too loud, I can't hear the voices in my head.

After I silenced the plants in my office, the computer was logically next.

You freak me out... Maybe the second line is scarier then the first.

WR304 · Post by **WR304** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 4:11 pm

There are a few reasons why I've spent so much time and effort trying to make my PCs quieter.

The main one was probably other people complaining about the racket to be honest.

When you have a PC in a quiet front room it's a lot more intrusive than the same PC would be in an office for example.

Having lots of Delta screamer and Sanyo-Denki fans running whilst someone else is watching TV doesn't go down well...

Following on from that if you use the PC for DVD and music playback you can really appreciate the benefits of a quieter PC which makes it worth doing also.

Plus nowadays it's a hobby of course.

Mr. B · Post by **Mr. B** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 5:39 pm

My PC is in my bedroom and I used to like having my computer run overnight for various things. My old chieftec case was rediculously loud. Curious about how I could solve the problem, I found this site and took an interest in quiet computing. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and with regard to computing, this is just one more aspect where you can strive for 'perfection.'

Plus, it's just awesome when someone asks "Is it on?"

Silent-Tuna · Post by **Silent-Tuna** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:00 pm

Well, biggest reason for me would probably be me wanting a computer that's quiet enough to leave on over and still be able to sleep in the same room with (lawl, my bedrooms almost as big as the living room, office and bedroom in the same place is rather convenient). I do a lot of downloading (porno, cough cough) but yeh. My PC drives me nutz at night time or when I wanna do some quiet reading on the computer.

Recently my migraines are getting worst so I'm trying my best to reduce the amount of noise pollution I'm exposed to and the biggest noise generator in my house at the time was my computer. After I got it to quiet down it kinda became a hobby to make it close to silent as possible.

My mother also complained every single time she enters my room on how ridiculously noisy my computer was. At that time my bro pulled out his 2 year old computer caused about a quarter the amount of noise my computer generated. I guess that was what got me into researching on quiet computers at spcr though my philosophy regarding quiet computing has changed over time.

jaldridge6 · Post by **jaldridge6** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 12:04 am

For me its quite simple... noisy computers seem to occupy too much of my attention. I find myself too interested in why they're loud or screechy or what-not. I absolutely hate computer vibrations and poorly made fans. Some harddrives sound horrifically unnatural to me. For me, computer silencing is a way to forget about the computer and just use it.

spookmineer · Post by **spookmineer** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 3:36 pm

jaldridge6 wrote:For me, computer silencing is a way to forget about the computer and just use it.

Most excellent way of putting it!

wwenze · Post by **wwenze** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 7:41 am

I just want to sleep...

And I don't want my mum to know my com is on. (killed all the LEDs for this too)

Erssa · Post by **Erssa** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:15 am

kater wrote:Work, fun, challenge - a bit of everything. I like to work in comfortable conditions, I like dabbling with PC's, and I like to impress my heathen friends with my rig. Some still refuse to be impressed but I just know that when they get back to their dB monsters at home/work, they go mad with jealousy. Some have already yielded and begged me to save their souls, er, ears, from decibel damnation. They are now my forever obedient servants.

Pretty much sums it up.

Like most people here, I started with a horribly loud computer and basically didn't know jack squat about computers. It's been a learning experience and now I know everything important there is to know

. It would just be a horrible waste not to share this vast knowledge with people I know.

You know, kids today are so spoiled. Building a silent computer is so easy nowadays; pretty much all hard drives are silent, there are tons of efficient heatsinks, quiet psus and fans available, cpus are low power with c'n'q and speedsteps. I remember back in the good old days, when we were still young (3 years ago), it actually took some effort to build a silent computer...

Why Silent Computer?

Why Silent Computer?

It's The Orbiting Mind Control Satellites!!!!!!!!

Re: It's The Orbiting Mind Control Satellites!!!!!!!!