Does low-noise system exist?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by qdz, Dec 12, 2002.

  1. qdz

    qdz

    Are they financially affordable?

    All my desktops and notebooks are annoyingly noisy. Sometimes, I even fear to turn on one of my systems because the neighbor might complain. Is there quieter system available? When will they be in a normal price range? If there is no solution, I probably will move one of the system outdoor and put them in a hole underground.

    I don' t know how you guys feel about it. But I feel lousy about the noisy. I think this is a big weakness of PC industry and whoever vendor resolves this problem will get a real push.

    Thanks.

    :p
     
  2. I just moved to a compaq presario 6050.. quiet quiet quiet.

    If you're building your own:

    1. Spend at least 2x what you spent on your last power supply.
    2. Find a quality cpu fan.
    3. Move to graphics cards that don't require fans.. (I have a matrox g550, and will get the pci g450 when I need more than two monitors).
    4. Isolate drive vibration. There are suspension mounts out there, or you can create your own with a pair of rubber bands..
    5. Move from 'flat ribbon' drive cables to the tubular ones.
    6. Buy a solid case.

    Tom's Hardware (google it) has some articles on noise reduction..

    Best of luck,

    laz
     
  3. Htrader

    Htrader Guest

    Check out the dell optiplex line.

    http://www.dell.com/us/en/bsd/products/series_optix_desktops.htm

    They are made for the small business, but perfect for daytraders. I bought mine in 2001 and its so quiet that you can barely tell its even turned on. You'll pay a couple hundred more bucks than if you bought from some bargain place, but i think its worth it.

    The key is to have a small CPU fan, which means usually getting a pentium since athlons run much hotter and require bigger fans.
     
  4. yeah, my Dell is veery quiet compared to that old thing, as a matter of fact, I had to stop and listen to see if I could hear it to tell how quiet it is.
     
  5. alternate

    alternate

    mine are noise dammed with special foam mates. The power supply is modded with Pabst silent fans. My Ati 8500 got a copper cooler with no fan and the cpu cooler is also a silent one.
    conclusio:
    you hear almost nothing, compared to my old system it's a tremendeous difference

    So there is a way to get your systems silent.

    Mates ~ 40$
    Pabst Silent Fans ~ 15$/each
    CPU cooler ~ 60$


    Btw there are a couple of shops who concern with this issue. But as I'm german I do only know of a few german sites:
    www.pcsilent.de
    www.listan.de

    if you got the appropriate funds I'd recommend watercooling ... but this will cost you roughly 250$ for a good cooling system
     
  6. chs245

    chs245

    I just rebuild my system in order to make it more quiet. My first attempt this February was not really successful, as the CPU fan (1.6Ghz P4) was spinning at 4000rpm when I was running all my application.
    It is pretty easy to design a system that is quiet when the computer runs only at 5% of its performance, but when all the quote screens and trading apps are running, realistically, the performance usage is between 30 and 70%, which causes the CPU to heat up.

    My new system has 4 key features:

    - most importantly the CPU fan. I'm using a Zalman CNPS 6500B-Cu (http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/cnps6500b-cu.htm) , which you can use in silent mode for P4 Cpu up tp 2.8GHz. It turns at less than 1500rpm in silent mode and has a manual speedometer included ("fanmate").
    - second most important thing is the power supply. I use an Engelking 300 Watt AP2-6300SFC , which is a passive power supply, ie it does not meed a fan up to a temperature of 45deg Celsius. It costs $240, but well worth the money.
    - 2 Seagate barracuda IV hard drives. Check http://www6.tomshardware.com/storage/20010905/index.html for a review.
    - 2 matrox graphics cards WITHOUT fan. An MAtrox G550 n the AGP and an G450 on the PCI port.

    Try avoiding fans if possible (such as for graphics cards, hard disks) or use fans that can be regulated depending on the temperature. ASUS has a neat technology called Q-Fan which lets you regulate fan speed.

    Oliver
     
  7. One

    One

    While I have used 5 - 10 Dell computers over the past 10 years for trading, contrary to others, I can't recommend them based on how quite they are. My Dell P4's are relatively loud.

    Sytems and parts specifically designed for quite operation can be found at:

    http://www.endpcnoise.com/


    O.
     
  8. I wish I had your problems. One of my neighbors has his a/c set to 65 degrees and the other has the heat turned up to 75. So no matter how warm or cold it gets, I always have at least one of the units going. Plus they are both 30 years old. I wish my insane neighbors were running 200 computers as loud as yours instead of their devices! The only advantage to the situation is that I don't have to pay for a/c or heat. Whenever I get cold I move towards one side of my condo, and when I get hot I move to the other side.

    But if I could select one type of machine whose noise I would like to kill, it would definitely be boats. Whenever the sun shines, there is at least one moron continually racing his sh!t box back and forth along the shoreline for no apparent reason right in front of my window.

    It wouldn't hurt to fine lowlife on motorcycles for excessive noise production either.

    And there is one more thing worth mentioning. If we could collect enough data to prove that most of what gets called music these days causes more cancer than cigarettes, we should finally be in a position to really make the world a more peaceful place.

    I believe everyone should be allowed to smoke or listen to rap or heavy metal or take heroin or any other drug. But if it affects others it should be punishable as attempted murder. I mean, think about it, this is supposed to be the land of the free, but God forbid a woman shows her boobies. It would only be commmensurate to at least forbid any noise from audio equipment that anyone hears who didn't ask to hear it.
     
  9. qdz

    qdz

    Okay, maybe the neighbor is too sensitive. But it is true that my wife refuse to go to bed with me if I have one of the system on.

    Anyway, thanks for all the kind advice.

    :p


     
    #10     Dec 12, 2002