Help me silence my PC

[downhiller80]

Two choices:

1) Make this system silent
Inwin 500 case
WD1200JB 120GB hard disk
21" Eizo monitor (and 17" dual monitor)
Asus A7V board
Tbird 1400
512MB PC133
HP 9110i 8x/4x/32x CDRW
Aopen 10x DVD drive
Sound Blaster platinum
Geforce 2 GTS & Voodoo 3 3000

2) Build a 2nd silent PC
What processor would you recommend for running without a fan?
What's the quietest HD (60GB minimum)

I think 2 is a more achievable goal.

- seb

 

[djunreal]

Get a DVD burner. They're really cheap now (compared to a few months ago), as are blank DVDs. You'd still have about 200-300 left after that. If you wanna play Doom 3 when it comes out, you're going to need some serious hardware, so maybe get a new video card or upgrade your mobo/cpu.

Just my suggestion.

 

[downhiller80]

So that people understand what's gone on, the original thread was "what upgrade should I get", but then I changed it entirely

Will look into DVD burners though, what do they go for these days?

- seb

 

[djunreal]

Whoa, you totally changed your post. Ah well, I don't know much about silencing a PC. Anyone else?

 

[djunreal]

Here's what I think is the best DVD burner around:
Sony DVD Burner
Sony DVD Burner
It supports both formats (DVD-RW/DVD+RW) and it's Sony.

 

[downhiller80]

oooh, check the case at the bottom.... might just have to make myself a living-room mp3 server

Quiet PC

 

[Slappy00]

powersupply (antec Truepower 430)
$79

Epox EP-8RDA+
$112

Crucial (2X256) 512mb pc 2700 (333mhz) DDR
about $100
OR
(2X512) 1024mb
$206

(if you oc then get 400mhz DDR CL 2.0)


Onboard sound is good on most nvidia cards that utilize the Soundstorm features (inc the epox i mentioned above)


remember Doom III is geared for Ti4600/4400 types of cards, but I woud just buy the best card out now and not worry about another upgrade for 2 years (ignore the hype in other words)

CPU:

AMD Thouroghbred 1700+
$72

total: $363

that leaves you with about $267 for a video card, I would suggest a 9500pro, 9700, or a Ti 4600, depending on how much you wanna spend , remember that you will have to pay shipping too...

 

[DaveSimmons]

www.slientpcreview.com reviews, recommendations and a forum

for hard drives, get a Seagate cuda IV while you still can.

for CPU, a P4 with big HS and under-volted fan (5V or 7V)

 

[majewski9]

This isnt that bad!

#1 get quiet PSU
#2 buy a huge heatsink and big slow spinning fan
#3 Video card passively cooled even Radeon 9700 pro can be passively cooled!
#4 hard drive silenter enclosure

 

[Slappy00]

hehe now i look like a dum-azz after he editied his message hehe...

 

[masterxfob]

your WD1200JB is going to be the loudest thing in your silent PC. i say silent because if you have that drive in your PC, it's definitely not silent.

i have a WD800JB and it's louder than having 5 Panaflo L1A's run full speed. i'm currently looking to get a Seagate Barracuda V 80GB or 120GB hard drive which don't perform as well, but are much quieter.

 

[sharkeeper]

The only way to have a TRULY SILENT pc!

Cheers!

 

[djunreal]

Originally posted by: sharkeeper
The only way to have a TRULY SILENT pc!

Cheers!

So you mean run it on battery power? J/K

Yeah, I think working towards a "silent" PC is a lost cause too.

 

[BD231]

Just get some decent but cheap ddr, the 8RDA and a 1700+, you can downclock it to 500mhz and 1.40V, very easy to make it run cool and quiet. I just use an old K6-2 system as my main computer, and the power system for anything the K6-2 can't do.

 

[SaveYourself]

OR...

You could check out the HushKit which is on the page before the quiet cases. You could use that set of quiet stuff to make a pretty quiet PC, I think.

Is your case an A500 or S500? (just for the sake of asking.)

 

[sharkeeper]

Well I say this because there are solutions that will quiet the PC down to inaudible levels. (you can barely hear it with an ear hard pressed against the enclosure!) However, these solutions can cost tens of thousands of dollars to the end user. :Q

Cheers!

 

[BG4533]

It seems you could make a computer that produced zero noise with the exception of the optical drives. A lot of passive cooling and a solid state hard drive and there you go, couldnt be easier. That is assuming money isnt an issue...

 

[downhiller80]

Originally posted by: djunreal
Yeah, I think working towards a "silent" PC is a lost cause too.

Hence why I suggested building a second, quiet system.

 

[downhiller80]

Originally posted by: SaveYourself
OR...

You could check out the HushKit which is on the page before the quiet cases. You could use that set of quiet stuff to make a pretty quiet PC, I think.

Is your case an A500 or S500? (just for the sake of asking.)

A Q500 I think? Does that make sense?

 

[BG4533]

Originally posted by: sebfrost

Originally posted by: SaveYourself
OR...

You could check out the HushKit which is on the page before the quiet cases. You could use that set of quiet stuff to make a pretty quiet PC, I think.

Is your case an A500 or S500? (just for the sake of asking.)

A Q500 I think? Does that make sense?

Sure does.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: sharkeeper
The only way to have a TRULY SILENT pc!

Cheers!

Hey, it works! I tried it! You could make millions with that idea, lol

 

[Gomce]

buy a lap top

 

[K6]

using water-cooling can make the difference.

You have powerful but quiet PC.

 

[JasonG]

I bought a "flower" cooler for my P4 2.0A which allows me to run at low rpm with the included fan.

I was also able to disable the fan on my chipset (which was very loud!) since the CPU fan cools that as well.

Flower cooler

I also now have a Maxtor diamondmax plus which rounds things out nicely and much quieter than my old IBM 75GXP.

The only fans I have running are the flower cooler fan and my video card fan (haven't tried disabling that yet).

Everything runs perfectly and is very quiet compared to my previous setup.

Good luck!

Jason

 

[sharkeeper]

buy a lap top

My Toshiba lappy is louder than most pc's when its blower spools up like some ATI supercharger doing 20 psi. :Q Not to mention you must wear a jock cup to avoid penile ablation!

Cheers!