Hi guys. I just registered here, but, I am not new to silent computing... Since my soph year at Iowa State I was setting up dangerous electrical hazards with fanless power supplies and computer components in open air cardboard rigs. I have shocked myself on power supply heatsinks countless times. All for the sake of silent computing. My roommate junior year went by "Tweakfreak" and had a monstrosity clear vinyl case with no less than 8 fans all running at 60 db. So, I transferred to a new room in the middle of the semester. This LAN party mentality (Noise? What?) was foreign to me. I thought I must be some kind of weirdo to underclock my processor and build a 70 pound insulation-lined MDF enclosure for my PC. I was alone. or so I thought!
At last, I have found my place... Thanks SPCR for making me feel at home.
Personally, my silence fetish started when i got into classical music - where dynamic range, being able to hear quiet parts, is important. Very early on I realized that turning off my PC was like getting a $5,000 audio system upgrade, in terms of the noise floor and overall sound quality.
Anybody else -- why do you care about your PC noise so much?
-matt
Finally found my home...SPCR
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
With me I think it started after I ordered my Duron 800 system back in 2001. I had no idea computers had become so noisy. It never caught my attention before, with my K6 266 and my 586 120 and my 286 10... never a problem. But this time I had a freaking noisy cpu fan, a power supply that would ramp up to vacuum cleaner level when temperature rose above some ridicilously low threshold, and a harddisk that would whine until you got mad. I don't know if it's just me, but that was the time that I started to notice how noisy computers had become. Having become annoyed by my own system, I also got sick with sitting too long in a computer room at the university; those idiotic harddrives! It really had a bad effect on me, but maybe it was just because I had concluded that noise==bad. I'm still easily annoyed by noisy components, but I try to get rid of the annoyance by realizing that it is mostly my own judgment that's at cause, which helps a lot but not completely.
So my quest for silence really sstarted when I couldn't leave my computer on at night because I wasn't able to sleep with this power supply fan ramping up all the time, in addition to the harddrive whine I started to notice.
So my quest for silence really sstarted when I couldn't leave my computer on at night because I wasn't able to sleep with this power supply fan ramping up all the time, in addition to the harddrive whine I started to notice.
Primarily it is because I got into music. I also use my computer as my primary source of entertainment and work, quiet is nice when you're trying to think clearly.
I wear open style headphones and instead of turning it up I decided to start caring about my hearing and turn everything else down. Not that my computer is silent... but finally below ambient house noise.
I also like being able to snooze in the same room, and I normally had a difficult time.
I also think it's very space-age-like to have a computer that you can't hear. Call me crazy.
I wear open style headphones and instead of turning it up I decided to start caring about my hearing and turn everything else down. Not that my computer is silent... but finally below ambient house noise.
I also like being able to snooze in the same room, and I normally had a difficult time.
I also think it's very space-age-like to have a computer that you can't hear. Call me crazy.
Well, i just got silent pc fever. I was looking for some new parts of my p180 build, came across here and got pulled in by the display of cases here.
The main reason to start silencing was because i had my rig downloading overnight a lot recently and while i could fall asleep while having my pc running, it wasn't the most comfortable of things.
I then started with a few tweaks on silencing my build.
I then coupled that same pc to my tv to watch my movies / series and found it annoying to hear my pc while watching something late at night (can't crank up the volume since housemate is sleeping at that time).
This lead me to delve deeper into the silencing and now i'll just do it for the fun of tweaking with a pc.
As of today though, i get another use out of it. Got my guitar in and it's nice to not have an annoying background buzz while trying to hit some chords.
The main reason to start silencing was because i had my rig downloading overnight a lot recently and while i could fall asleep while having my pc running, it wasn't the most comfortable of things.
I then started with a few tweaks on silencing my build.
I then coupled that same pc to my tv to watch my movies / series and found it annoying to hear my pc while watching something late at night (can't crank up the volume since housemate is sleeping at that time).
This lead me to delve deeper into the silencing and now i'll just do it for the fun of tweaking with a pc.
As of today though, i get another use out of it. Got my guitar in and it's nice to not have an annoying background buzz while trying to hit some chords.
.
For me it was major hearing loss in one ear. Unfortunately, how it turned out is that I can't hear voices very well (the ones in my head are still loud and clear!), but pick up background noise very well. So, I sold everything else and bought a laptop for school, but it couldn't keep up with the heavier CAD and math software. I found spcr while doing my research before building my desktop, over the summer.
Really, I never knew computer noise bothered me so much until I had something effectively silent.
Really, I never knew computer noise bothered me so much until I had something effectively silent.
I live in a well insulated (for the states) house in a quiet neighborhood.
I avoid loud noises (e.g. almost all popular music in the last 50 years is played way too loud). While others at my Jr. High were deafening themselves with Kiss and AC/DC, I got into folk dance and ethnic/folk music.
My first attempt at silent computing was when I was selecting a 486 (upgrading from an original IBM PC). Found a local store that was associated with a Swedish company that put together quieter systems (thermally controlled PSU fan). It wasn't great, but better than most.
When putting together my successor to that - a P2 266, I got a PC Power and Cooling Silencer power supply. Again, not really quiet, but better than most of what was available.
On laptop front - had a Winbook 486 (back before laptops had fans),
then an HP Omnibook 800CT (one of the few Pentium laptops that doesn't have a fan.)
It is great that manufacturers are finally paying some attention to PC noise. (Thanks I am sure in part to sites like The Silent PC http://www.silent.se and, more recently SPCR). Too bad it has taken soooo long, and that things had to get so much noisier before the manufacturers woke up some.
At least now there are some sites starting to test for noise, but makers and sellers of lots of things could still do lots better. I wish every electronics/computer store had a listening room. And as for the volume of the muzac they play - going into so many places (Best Buy, the bank, etc.) is now a penance. Guess they don't want to be bothered with customers.
I avoid loud noises (e.g. almost all popular music in the last 50 years is played way too loud). While others at my Jr. High were deafening themselves with Kiss and AC/DC, I got into folk dance and ethnic/folk music.
My first attempt at silent computing was when I was selecting a 486 (upgrading from an original IBM PC). Found a local store that was associated with a Swedish company that put together quieter systems (thermally controlled PSU fan). It wasn't great, but better than most.
When putting together my successor to that - a P2 266, I got a PC Power and Cooling Silencer power supply. Again, not really quiet, but better than most of what was available.
On laptop front - had a Winbook 486 (back before laptops had fans),
then an HP Omnibook 800CT (one of the few Pentium laptops that doesn't have a fan.)
It is great that manufacturers are finally paying some attention to PC noise. (Thanks I am sure in part to sites like The Silent PC http://www.silent.se and, more recently SPCR). Too bad it has taken soooo long, and that things had to get so much noisier before the manufacturers woke up some.
At least now there are some sites starting to test for noise, but makers and sellers of lots of things could still do lots better. I wish every electronics/computer store had a listening room. And as for the volume of the muzac they play - going into so many places (Best Buy, the bank, etc.) is now a penance. Guess they don't want to be bothered with customers.
for many people here it started with music, i think even the site admin included there..
my reasons much same as yours i realised one day that what is the point of getting a decent sound system if the computer noise effectively trashes any SNR you might otherwise have before it reaches your ears..
and then once you've started, it's mildy addictive
my reasons much same as yours i realised one day that what is the point of getting a decent sound system if the computer noise effectively trashes any SNR you might otherwise have before it reaches your ears..
and then once you've started, it's mildy addictive
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KansaKilla
- Friend of SPCR
- Posts: 381
- Joined: Fri Aug 01, 2003 12:13 pm
- Location: Rochester, MN
-
KansaKilla
- Friend of SPCR
- Posts: 381
- Joined: Fri Aug 01, 2003 12:13 pm
- Location: Rochester, MN
First I'd like to say welcome to spcr, more discussion with silence addicts is always a joyful thing.
And then I'd like to say, everyone needs a pet ruri ruri to take care of their computer needs
Personally the main reason for silence in my case is sleeping in the same room as my computer. It's a major annoyance if the white noise from the computer is loud enough to be noticeably detectable. Currently I've found some new noise sources sneaking up from various places that are slightly quieter than my computer(which I estimate at around 23db), but far louder than ambient .a) APC UPS coil noise b) ps2 ac adaptor buzz c) Logitech speaker power buzz. It's amazing how many things can cause just a slight amount of noise.
And then I'd like to say, everyone needs a pet ruri ruri to take care of their computer needs
Personally the main reason for silence in my case is sleeping in the same room as my computer. It's a major annoyance if the white noise from the computer is loud enough to be noticeably detectable. Currently I've found some new noise sources sneaking up from various places that are slightly quieter than my computer(which I estimate at around 23db), but far louder than ambient .a) APC UPS coil noise b) ps2 ac adaptor buzz c) Logitech speaker power buzz. It's amazing how many things can cause just a slight amount of noise.