PC Noise Solutions

[jonmatifa]

I was just curious as to what sort of things people do to eliminate their PC noise, stick them in another room, block it off with isolation, water cooling, quite fans, case dampening, or my favorite...

 

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/TNN-500AF.html

 

I wanted to see because I'm trying to decide what the best idea would be for noise control. I haven't been able to get past the CPU fan and PSU/Case fan. There are plenty of other low noise cases as well and I've wondered about getting one of those and just isolating the are where the case goes.

[EngineGuitarist]

alot of studios have machine rooms for this very reason. the easiest thing is to put it in a closet IMO. some of those cooling systems can be pretty expensive. there are plenty of cases to put your computer in to isolate the noise but those arent cheap either.

 

I know the noise issue depends on the make and model of the computer, but I dont have any problems with my computer being in the same room as me without any isolation. i can only hear it when im sitting there not making a sound, and that doesnt happen much! good luck with it.

[Billster]

There's always the 8 gallons of cooking oil solution

[Phil O'Keefe]

My current system, which I think I spelled out in the "8 gallons of cooking oil" thread over on SSS, is pretty dang quiet, even with some modest overclocking - fanless video card, fanless mobo chipset cooling via a heat pipe, quiet case fans and power supply, quiet CPU cooler... I don't trust or want to hassle with maintaining a water pumper, and I'm not about to immerse everything in oil either. A closet or dedicated machine room approach can work well, or an isolation enclosure, but so can some basic tweaks to a system - internal foam / barrier vinyl, quiet components, etc.

 

Here's another good source for information and quiet PC parts.

[IsildursBane]

Originally posted by Billster There's always the 8 gallons of cooking oil solution

 

Beat me to it!

 

-Dan.

[scapier]

The Sonata Case by Altec I think? Is a great case that can be made very quiet.

 

Spencer

[Rubber Lizard]

I just built a machine using the Antec P180 case, a supposedly quiet Antec PS, the same fanless mobo as Phil has, and a fanless video card. The stock AMD CPU fan was audible, so just tonight I installed an Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro cpu cooler. It is, indeed, almost silent, but... the Power Supply is still quite audible.

 

In my last studio I ran cables through a hole in the wall so the computer was outside the room. This solved the noise problem despite the fact that the PC was NOT quiet at all. If you can put the computer outside the room, do it. Costs:

 

Cable extensions for Mouse, Keyboard, monitor, Audio card(s).

 

Short piece of 3-inch electrical conduit and a tube of construction adhesive.

 

After running cables through the hole, stuff a rag in it. Done!

[Phil O'Keefe]

I helped a client with a one room home studio setup once and we put the PC into the closet and extended everything - it worked great as an "equipment room" substitute.

 

The only downside I can see to having it in another room is access to the optical drives, and that's only an issue if you play a lot of audio CD's, burn a lot of disks and / or need to do a lot of software installs... IOW, the walking back and forth from room to room that will be involved when doing those tasks with that setup might be something to take into consideration if anyone is thinking about going that way. Did you find that to be much of an issue Rubber Lizard?

 

But I do agree - getting the computer out of the room is the ultimate in cheap isolation and noise reduction, and is definitely something worth considering too.

[dougb415]

 

Originally posted by Phil O'Keefe I helped a client with a one room home studio setup once and we put the PC into the closet and extended everything - it worked great as an "equipment room" substitute.

 

 

That's the decision my wife and I made this weekend. We're trying to get the mixing room ready for bass traps, and also going thru and finding any extraneous noise. Our PC is LOUD and I didn't feel like doing any internal mods, wrapping it in foam, etc.

 

Our mixing room (a bedroom in its past life) connects to a small closet which then connects to the attic. There are doors leading into and out of the closet. We've ordered cable extenders and are going to move it either this weekend or next.

[dougb415]

 

Originally posted by Phil O'Keefe I helped a client with a one room home studio setup once and we put the PC into the closet and extended everything - it worked great as an "equipment room" substitute.

 

 

That's the decision my wife and I made this weekend. We're trying to get the mixing room ready for bass traps, and also going thru and finding any extraneous noise. Our PC is LOUD and I didn't feel like doing any internal mods, wrapping it in foam, etc.

 

Our mixing room (a bedroom in its past life) connects to a small closet which then connects to the attic. There are doors leading into and out of the closet. We've ordered cable extenders and are going to move it either this weekend or next.

[Picker]

Sounds like a good solution. My main concern (especially for the attic) would be heat. Make sure you PC is kept cool enough one way or another.

 

I bought a couple of case fans from endpcnoise and was happy with them. Eventually, I also intend to move the 'puter to a closet or build a quiet box to reduce noise further.

[Kiwiburger]

You can extend keyboards and mic over USB, and long video cables are no problem. You could even use a USB CD/DVD drive if you wanted to avoid all that walking. Also, consider a USB numeric keypad on your popshield stand, so you can remotely start and stop your DAW.

[Rubber Lizard]

Yes, Phil, it *was* annoying, walking out the door each time a disk was used... But worth it. And as others have mentioned, USB can be your friend. Do keep in mind, however, that most USB devices have a supposed maximum of about 12 feet of cable. That said, I've used 16-24 feet and not had issues. It's worth a try. If your device stops "U"ing, "S"ing, or "B"ing, the cable is too long.

 

My room was carpeted. In order to protect the many cables that ran accross the floor I cut a piece of 3-inch PVC conduit in half, using a table saw. The two halves worked great inverted over the many audio and electrical cables.

 

Mark LaCoste

[jonmatifa]

It is possible to use a USB Hub as a signal repeater so that you can double the 12' cable restritction.

 

As far as monitor cables go, they can supposedly go pretty far before you start to notice signal degregation.

 

So maybe I should buy myself an external DVD+/-RW drive....

[The Chinese]

 

Originally posted by Rubber Lizard Yes, Phil, it *was* annoying, walking out the door each time a disk was used... But worth it. And as others have mentioned, USB can be your friend. Do keep in mind, however, that most USB devices have a supposed maximum of about 12 feet of cable. That said, I've used 16-24 feet and not had issues. It's worth a try. If your device stops "U"ing, "S"ing, or "B"ing, the cable is too long. My room was carpeted. In order to protect the many cables that ran accross the floor I cut a piece of 3-inch PVC conduit in half, using a table saw. The two halves worked great inverted over the many audio and electrical cables. Mark LaCoste

 

 

There's actually a great solution for this- It;s called the Super Booster and I' have run USB to 150' with sucess using this box. It basically converts the USB signal to an Ethernet ptotocol of some sort, then uses a box on the other end to turn it back into USB. works great.

 

Here's a link

 

http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat_id=201&sku=29341&engine=mactech&keyword=(29341)

 

 

-Todd A.

[chugheshc]

if you are not challenged by meddling with the innards on your

pc, you can do what I did to make it more silent.

 

note: this is only talking about fan noise, not drive noise.

 

opened up the box, took the fan out of the power supply, took the fan off the cpu, took the fan off the graphics card.

 

in the middle of the box, install the largest fan you can buy

(120mm?) and build yourself some ducting inside the box to -

pull air through the power supply and over the cpu heat sink

and exhaust out of the unused pci slots & graphics card.

 

this way, three small diameter fixed high speed fans were replaced by one thremostatically controlled large diamter slow turning fan, making the computer, much, much, quieter.

the additional benefit is that th fan is in the middle of the box not

enar the outside and the additional duting inside the pc absorbs

possibly a little noise.

 

upside : ridiculously cheap ($12 US)

 

downside: can't use empty pci slots, amateurish ducting and

tape inside pc is scary looking, but once the top is on nobody can tell. if the large fan ever dies, eVERYTHING will get warm.

 

my two cents, ymmv

[IsildursBane]

 

Originally posted by chugheshc in the middle of the box, install the largest fan you can buy (120mm?) and build yourself some ducting inside the box to - pull air through the power supply and over the cpu heat sink and exhaust out of the unused pci slots & graphics card.

 

 

With that routing, isn't the hot exhaust just going to be sucked back into the cold-air intake? This would be especially true if your tower is in some kind of enclosed area. AFAIK, most PC cases are designed to intake air front the front and exhaust it through the rear.

 

-Dan.

[chugheshc]

you are correct, if the tower is used in a vertical orientation,

but mine lays on it's side. you could always modify the ducting to

exhaust out the front, side etc. good catch though!

C.