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Quiet Computers
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| beats and beeps |
So, alot of you worry about getting prestine sound reproduction, and all of that. I imagine the thought of using monitors with a largely audible hum makes a few of you cringe, but I still don't understand one thing...
Judging by the studio thread, alot of you use fairly standard computer builds, and cooling systems. I would have to assume that the fans in these computers produce a fairly audible sound, just as most other computers do.
So how can you stand that? Whats the point in reproducing sound so clearly if you have a computer fan adding X-db of noise to the picture. Its basicly as bad as having humming monitors or something isn't it?
That said, does anybody have a computer purposely built to be quiet(er)? Is this a common thing to do? Or what about trying to get your cpu away from your work station? How do people solve this problem. |
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| deceptikon |
| My PC has 3 x 120mm speed controlled fans, and also a quiet CPU and GPU fan... It's barely audible. Also the sound of y our monitors humming and PC fans is not recorded. Cheers. |
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| Zombie0915 |
| I did a fair amount of stuff to make sure mine runs quiet, I got this anec p150 case which has hard drive suspensions in it and has some sort of sound dampening insulation, I got a fanless video card, I bought an aftermarket cpu cooler which is suposed to be quieter and cooler than the factory one, I hiope that is enough, you can really blow alot of money on silencing for really diminishing returns but I didn't go that far. |
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| Jason_R |
http://www.carillondirect.com/clnweb/index.jsp
I have one of these and the thing is scilent. Even at night when I've left it on ( everynight! ) and the house is quiet you will still struggle to hear it at all.
I highly recommended these systems to anyone as they are rock solid and built for the studio / home studio enviorment. However that said I do feel they are a little expensive and those of you that know about computers could probley build your own anyway.
But for some one like me it was and still is perfect. The support is second tonone as well. |
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| RivalMan |
For years I was producing next to the computer living with noise. Everytime a new CPU was sent on the market and the computer was upgraded, more and more noise came from cooling fans. When I got the Pentium 4, I finally had it with noise. I was so obsessed about it that I couldn't stand one single db of noise coming from the computer anymore (literally).
So I went out and bought special noise-preventing stuff, like passive coolers (coolers without fans), accoustic treatment, silence boxes for hard drives, external power supply etc. And now I finally have a dead silent computer. Let me tell you: It was all worth the trouble! Even if you put your head next to the computer, the only thing that will give away whether or not it's turned on, is the little green light on the front :happy2:
I'm pleased to see that the development in CPU-technology from Intel finally started to focus on heat and energy issues. The new Conroe CPU (in addition to being very fast) produces very little heat compared to the Pentium 4 and Conroes are easily coolable with a passive cooler (no fan).
If you want a silent computer, however you don't have to do all the selection of stuff by yourself. Rather you could buy the TNN 500A from Zalman (http://www.zalman.co.kr/). This is a case specially built for absolute silent computing. And the coolers are very effective and cools down everything from the CPU to the hard drives.
Regards |
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| KilldaDJ |
| seal it in a fridge |
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| DJDIRTY |
Hi guys.
So I got myself a zelman fan, a nice quiet psu, a set of some those quiet fans, and It's not bad. except the hard drives were really annoying. Tried mounting them alswere, and adding rubber bushings to cut down the noise. MY video card is fanless, but still the computer at this point, probably running twice as quiet as my gaming machine ( that thing sounds like a small engine ) is still noisey. Back in the day when I was running an atari to do my midi, man was it nice and quiet.. I miss the quiet I guess. So I finally just told myself that this is it. The computer has to go out. I don't wanna hear the damn HD's or the fans. It's just annoying. I went to my local computer store, and picked up a monitor extension cable, few usb extension cables, and moved the audio machine to the next room.. I've cut a small hole into a wall and run the cables thrue. Now the room is nice and quiet, I'm impressed. For me it makes a night and day diefferance, No computer noise whatsoever. The only thing I Hear in the studio is when I hit my midi controller and the sound comes at you from the monitors. I highly recomend doing somethign like this. If you have a spare room , and have like 40 bucks for the extension cables depending what you need. Yes You can build a quiet system, but nothing beats no noise at all. |
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| aquila |
| My PC has 2 case fans, 2 hard disk fans, a fan on the gfx card and on the cpu. It sounds like an airconditioner. But I hardly notice it any more....I tend to switch off to it. |
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| Bedlam-UK |
There is a plugin that comes with Cubase called Denoiser that can remove all that hum and noise. just place it into the final output channel as an insert on the first slot....very effective too ;)
My PC is in a self-made sealed and sound proofed cabinet....very effective :D |
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| DJ Chrono |
My computer is really quiet too.
Here's what I've done to get the noise level to be barely audible:
- Seasonic Super Silencer PSU, which is amazingly quiet. Seasonic seems to be top when it comes to quiet PSUs. They arn't fanless, but even so, they are more stable than a fanless one and you don't have to worry about overheating.
- Undervolted Zalman CPU heatsink. On the lowest setting it is not audible with the case closed.
- Swapped graphics card fan with a massive Zalman Heatsink and undervolted fan.
- 3x Undervolted Panaflow case fans.
- Seagate barracuda hard drives.
The loudest thing in the system right now is the 2 undervolted panaflow case fans at the front. And that's because they are sucking air in through a dust filter which makes the noise pitch up and be more audible.
Oh and even with the reduced airflow, my CPU temps stay around 29' degrees idle. That's with a P4 2.6C. Mobo temps are about 32' degrees.
To reduce hard drive noise, get a hard drive which has quiet seek noise, I hear the new Western Digitals are really good. Or the old Barracudas, but not so much the new ones. Then mount your hard drive with a suspension system which uses elastic to decouple the drive from the case, so there's no vibration going into the case. The new Antec SOLO cases I believe have a suspension HDD system that comes with it even. And they are designed to be quiet with some other nice features.
For the best and latest info on quiet computing, check out www.silentpcreview.com. |
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| david.michael |
| quote: | | I went to my local computer store, and picked up a monitor extension cable, few usb extension cables, and moved the audio machine to the next room.. I've cut a small hole into a wall and run the cables thrue. Now the room is nice and quiet, I'm impressed. |
I have considered going this route myself. Maybe running an external CD-ROM drive in case I need it... but I rarely use it as-is, so meh. |
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| Zombie0915 |
The antec solo is just a p150 with a black paint job and the power supply excluded. That 430w supply that comes with the p150 is decently quiet, not quite seasonic quietness though but it is really good for the price they are asking, same with the stock case exhaust fan.
I hope the new seagates aren't too bad, I just received 2 of them.
I haven't built a new desktop pc in soooo long, my motherboard and processor (conroe woot!) arrive in the mail tomorrow, I guess the only other thing I might need are 92mm case intake fans, which I hope I can get away with not using so that I avoid that high pitch air filter issue. |
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