Silent PC construction

[natenut]

Does anyone have any wizdom with trying to create a quite pc? I was think that the one i have now is rediculous loud. I saw some good links before where i guy made a totally silent pc, but i forgot where that was.

All i really want to do is take a micro atx board and make some sort of a headless mp3 player out of it. Any info on quiet stuff would be greatly appreciated!

[Geeky1]

Basically, get the biggest heatsink you can find, and use the biggest fans you can find... I'll post some more detailed info later when I get home... but, are you looking at a P4, Athlon, P3 or C3 based system?

[^Ben]

Or get watercooling if you want quiet :D

[DexterHolland911]

A headless mp3 player? If you want small and quiet, well that poses a problem. :) Via C3 is a pretty good solution I think, as long as you don't need any serious computing power. Other option is to go watercooling, but that is not going to fit in a micro atx case.

[EMN]

I'd even go a step further beyond mATX into mini-ITX. VIA has some good and cheap mini-ITX boards, however they are *very* small so you'd have to usually build your own case. The boards are 100% passively cooled, so depending on how your build your case it could be 100% silent. :)

The mini-ITX boards on newegg - http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=355&manufactory=1517&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1

Another option would be to get a Shuttle barebones PC. It's a shuttle mobo and a case. There is only 1 fan on the entire machine, so i'd think it would be really quiet. They are more expensive, but are also more powerful (available in nf2 flavors, and you can use your choice of AMD CPU).

The shuttle barebones systems are available in all kinds of varieties (from VIA's KM266 to the nForce2 to PIII chipsets) - http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=shuttle&searchdepa=0&page=2

And if you do go with VIA's mini-ITX I'd checkout modasylum.com for ideas on building the case for it.

[kanezfan]

water cooling is the way you want to go for silence, but it might be more than what you're willing to pay. Get a nice radiator, stick two 120mm fans to cool it, they can push way more air than an 80mm and at lot less decibels. then it's up to you to decide if you want to cool the vid card with a fan or not, or if it's only going to be used to play MP3s, then get yourself an old TNT card, I have one that's got just a heatsink, no fan on it, and bang, quiet PC. Don't waste your money on that noise dampening crap for your case, I've read reviews of that stuff and it doesn't work too well.

[mooseontheloose]

I have a zalman heatsink on my CPU, it's incredibly quiet.

Sexy too!

The only thing I can hear is my video card fan dying (gotta fix that) and my hard drives.

That's it!

[BLuKnight]

I guess the question is, do you want to do water cooling? I found a Coolmax heat sink and then QuietPcUSA (http://www.quietpcusa.com/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=8&Product_ID=15&CATID=7) has a nice quiet fan. I put 3 in the system to get good ventalation because they don't push as much air.

[primesuspect]

Originally posted by EvilMathNinja
Another option would be to get a Shuttle barebones PC. It's a shuttle mobo and a case. There is only 1 fan on the entire machine, so i'd think it would be really quiet. They are more expensive, but are also more powerful (available in nf2 flavors, and you can use your choice of AMD CPU).

Whoa on that, I have a shuttle SK41G2 and it is loud as hell. Extremely loud right out of the box. I've seen mods to make these things quieter, but that's the point - you have to modify them to get them quiet.

[Clutch]

If you want a quite pc then, your going to have to decide on what size case and all you need, and if your going to build your own then that's even better. And then get a quite fan(s) to cool. If it is just going to be a mp3 player then you won't need anything to spectacular, all according to what your budget is.

[karatekid]

Eliminate as many fans as possible, so no chipset fan, no video card fan (get something like a Geforce 4 MX that does not need a fan, or get onboard.) Could also get those adjustable fans and play with the settings.

[DJ-Quack]

Watercooling isn't all that quiet....the fans produce a Honda-like buzz. Doesn't bother me a bit, Winamp is louder than the fan. The way you could build a quiet pc is really simple.

Buy an aluminum heatsink, or an aluminum heatsink with a copper base, since aluminum radiates heat better than copper (although copper conducts it better), like maybe a Swiftech. You get something like a 1700+ JIUHB or 2100+ AIUHB and lower the voltage as much as possible (and underclock when necessary). If you bring the voltage down enough, you won't need fans, although the processor might be running a little hot.

[Black Hawk]

Adjustable fans?

[karatekid]

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=property&DEPA=1
Adjustable fan

[EMN]

Adjustable fans are not quite as useful as they sound, since at low rpms they are quiet but they don't cool jack. Moreover, you have to go over, monitor the temps, adjust the fans, yadda, not a permaenent solution by far.

My vote is for 100% passive mini-ITX with cutom case, since prime says the shuttles are loud. :-/

[Black Hawk]

True but XP's crap out at really high temps. Atleast for me... http://www.templeofchaos.com/~blackhawk/smilies/rolleyes.gif In an enclosed system the fan isn't that noticeable. Most HDD's are louder then a quiet fan.

[DJ-Quack]

50°c and under is generally ok. As long as it's stable, it's all good. If it's not stable, lower the clock. It can't possibly be slower than a C3 ;]

[Geeky1]

Not gonna run an athlon without active cooling. Dan just put up a letter about it- go read it @ dansdata.com

your best bet is either a via ITX or a standard system using the best heatsinks available with the largest fans possible.

[Enverex]

Yeah, one advantage of thunderbirds was their ability to deal with high temps, but thats to be expected as they generated so much damn heat.

NS

[natenut]

i was looking at the itx via moboard and i think that would be sweet for a general purpous av/mp3 thing. theres a review here:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=43&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

I also found a site http://www.silentpcreview.com that is a lifesaver. they have tons of powersupplies rated for noise and quality. By using one of the VIA's low powered chips you could get by using a passivly cooled power supply. Now the only trouble will be connecting a LCD screen to it and writing/using software for use with a remote. This has the possablility to be an awesome little project!

I think i will be switching to water cooling soon for my main rig. i'm thinking on doing the xp1700 overclocking route. But man, intel really has this amd die hard looking pretty closely at the 2.4C!! that is one quick processer and simple to OC!

Thanks for all the help and feel free to keep it comming.

[Tex]

I have built a copy lately based on the little VIA chip and for teh money they were sorta sweet. I don't game so the onboard video didn't crush me like it would you gamers.

I have multiple dual amd servers in my friggin living room and the noise is getting on my nerves. Trying to get them all racked and out of here and have two iTX/via cpu based workstations out here is all.

Tex

[Rob]

Those VIA ITX's really are perfectly silent machines. We have a rack of 20 of them serving out small websites, and the entire lot draws about 5 amps and generates very very little heat and noise. Were gettin about 8-9 Mbps out of them easily, plenty considering most resedential 100Mbps switches can't sustain over 5M. For some reason though, our switches cant decide if there 100 or 10 M interfaces *shrug*

Its not a consideration for a gaming machine, but a headless network server its tits.

[natenut]

I just found this website

http://www.mini-itx.com/

All the info and whatnot you would ever want on mini-itx motherboard solutions. They also say something about nano-itx! is there anything out there like this yet?

Furthermore, what speed would i need for seamless dvd playback and AC3 audio output? i would like to get by with the M600. Who out there has used these board? how do you like them? so far what i hear is that they're pretty good.

[Tex]

The ones I tried were dirt cheap. Like 60 bucks with via cpu etc...

I stuck 512mb of sdram and a fast disk in it and ran XP pretty well. Not like a 2000 XP but plenty fast for most stuff.

And sooooo quiet.

Tex

[EMN]

That site is great natenut.
Best. computer. ever. - http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/falcon-itx/
;)

[natenut]

lol, that website if full of cool projects. check out the commador 64 at 933 mhz! or the lincon log computer, but the falcon takes the cake.

[Asmo]

One solution, which my friend did and works very well, is he bought a really nice USB hub, that his monitor, keyboard and monitor plug into, and everything just runs on a single cord to his.. closet :P where his computer is housed in a big server case hehe. Loud when you open the closet door :P but can't hear a thing otherwise, good cheap solution, just make sure its a big closet and won't get too hot in there.

[DJ-Quack]

Originally posted by Geeky1
Not gonna run an athlon without active cooling. Dan just put up a letter about it- go read it @ dansdata.com

your best bet is either a via ITX or a standard system using the best heatsinks available with the largest fans possible.

I've personally run my 1600+ AGOIA at 1.5v and 1500MHz without a fan for an hour or so, and it maxed out at around 55-60°c. The dansdata letter only talks about lowering the clock, not the voltage. Lowering the voltage as well as the clock would make it possible to run a passively cooled Athlon. How do you think it's done with laptops?

[AMD Fan]

One word here ZALMAN are the quietest cooling products
made. Get a adjustable fan with yours and sleep well.

[Enverex]

Erm....... how the hell do you plug a Monitor into a USB hub?

NS

[Flintstone]

Ah.......Get an adapter?

j/k

Flint

[Asmo]

Your right, not the monitor into the USB, you just buy a long monitor cable :P

But you get the idea... move your case somewhere else, best way to really get silence.

[Geeky1]

Sorry for the lag in response time... for some reason I wasn't subscribed to the thread...

anywho, DJ, I've run mine with passive cooling before too (for very, very limited amounts of time- just enough to swap fans) and with a slower athlon it probably could be done, but i doubt it's a good idea for extended operation. Mobile athlons (and laptops in general) run considerably hotter than I like my computers to be running at- hence the 6.75" rotron that cools mine.... I'll bet that your case is well ventillated tho, if you can run a 1600 w/o a fan for that period of time, I'd expect that it would have to be. If you want a quiet, fast system, you want a big case, and a TMD cpu fan, attached to a Thermalright SLK-700, SLK-800, SLK-900, or SK-7. the problem with mid-tower cases is that hot air rises, and unless you have a blowhole or a power supply with one fan and no bottom vents or a front mounted intake fan (like those Leadmans), it tends to get stuck at the top of the case, because there's nothing there to take it out. That's the problem I'm running into with my SLK-3700AMB right now- that case has 90cfm coming in, 150+ going out, and I can't keep my ram from getting near burning hot, and it's not running near stock voltage or speed- it's rated for 200MHz @ 2.8v- it's running 166 @ 2.6... with a full tower, this isn't a problem, because the heat can get well away from the motherboard, where it's usually pulled out by another fan or two...

The TMD fans are near-silent, even the high speed model, and they both move more than enough air to keep an athlon reasonably cool, especially with a good heatsink. Keep in mind that the retail heatsink on the new AMD barton chips is an Ni plated AlCu soldered or skived-fin hybrid cooler with an 18cfm Delta fan. they include those with the 2500s and the 2800s at least, and I'm pretty sure they include it with most or all of their other cpus now too. So, if 18cfm and an aluminum-copper hybrid heatsink can keep it within operating temperature, 27-35cfm and a solid copper heatsink ought to be more than sufficient.

I'd suggest a Thermalright heatsink and TMD fan, as mentioned above, along with one of the Chieftec/Antec/Chenming mid-towers or full towers, equipped with either adjustable fans (which I'd recommend, because you get to decide how much noise u want) or Vantec Stealths, Papsts or Panaflo low-speed fans...

[dNA3D]

You do not neccessarily require ultra-quiet components to create a quiet, or silent PC. Several attractive proposals have been raised, one of them being Active Noise Cancellation. While it is a hypothetically sound idea, very few, or no one has yet implemented it to suit a PC based application. All those headphones that filter out external noise use this technology, as do several vehicle manufacturers. It would be nice to see any Active Noise Cancellation devices adapted for PC use, but so far, I have yet to see any.

If you don't know what I've just rambled on about, go brush yourself up on the Theory of Active Noise Cancellation (http://www.school-for-champions.com/science/noise.htm).

[Black Hawk]

Originally posted by natenut
Furthermore, what speed would i need for seamless dvd playback and AC3 audio output? i would like to get by with the M600. I've read a few articles about HTPC's with those setup and for video they kindda suck. Don't know how much power a DVD would need but for DivX and other stuff it's too slow.

[Enverex]

Originally posted by dNA3D
You do not neccessarily require ultra-quiet components to create a quiet, or silent PC. Several attractive proposals have been raised, one of them being Active Noise Cancellation. While it is a hypothetically sound idea, very few, or no one has yet implemented it to suit a PC based application. All those headphones that filter out external noise use this technology, as do several vehicle manufacturers. It would be nice to see any Active Noise Cancellation devices adapted for PC use, but so far, I have yet to see any.

Im sure many men would like it for their "Other Halves" too. :D :rolleyes:

NS

[dydx]

Have you considered using notebook components.

The Via Eden or whatever theyre called are very poor performers.

Just pick up a notebook off eBay with a broken screen really cheap, you see them on eBay UK all the time.

Have you ever seen a notebook HSF? My Compaq Evo P3 1.2 is kept cool with a really tiny fan and heatsink, and the fan is only on ~30% of the time.

Add a big heatsink to the psu and you wont need a fan.

You will also have the benefit of a silent external PSU, and a built in UPS!

2.5" HDDs are pretty quiet, and you can easily stealth the slimline CD/DVD drive.

A celeron based notebook would make a nice MP3 player. Probably wouldnt make a very good HTPC because its only got 8 meg mobility Radeon graphics, still good enough for basic DVD and DivX playback, just not gaming.

Either way, it beats ITX sytems.