Noctua fans Question

[BonzaiDuck]

I think that depends pretty strongly on background environment. As you indicated above, inexpensive handheld equipment isn't really designed to read below ~30 dB, and that's well below the noise floor of most people's day-to-day environments anyway.

SPCR generally regards 22 dB @ ~1m to be imperceptible. YMMV based on the background environment, the spectral qualities of the noise source etc.

Thanks for your refined observations on this.

I should remind myself to check the tracking status of my own order from Amazon. This is all going to be an "interesting investigation."

 

[Ramses]

The accuracy of the reading on the cheapy meters is the question.
I'm curious to find what you guys get for ambient noise levels, mine are quite high
here, but I'm in a redwood cabin built in the 40's less than a mile from the ocean,
so it's not what I'd call quiet regarding background. It's not loud-loud, but it's loud
in the realm of already pretty quiet fans.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

The accuracy of the reading on the cheapy meters is the question.
I'm curious to find what you guys get for ambient noise levels, mine are quite high
here, but I'm in a redwood cabin built in the 40's less than a mile from the ocean,
so it's not what I'd call quiet regarding background. It's not loud-loud, but it's loud
in the realm of already pretty quiet fans.

Northern CA? Oregon? Washington? My mild curiosity.

I'm on top of foothill overlooking the city in So-Cal. Between us and the highway below, there's hardly enough undeveloped land to think such a thing as possible, but a whole pack of coyotes live there. If I go out on the patio during a work-day, there's always the usual noise of traffic below. Family members all have their own TVs, computers and devices.

A far cry from 7 days hiking the Chilliwack River trails in the North Cascades. Of course, there's background noise their, too . . .

I suppose all these things you mention had always left me more inclined to just judge the sound-levels "by ear." But I definitely have quiet computers.

 

[Ramses]

Central coast, near SLO. Coyote symphony starts about 8pm here too.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Central coast, near SLO. Coyote symphony starts about 8pm here too.

Riverside. I often wish, when my family came to live in the Golden State around 1958, that they had chosen Marin County or parts northward. Climate Change or Climate Change denied, this place has always been a bit too hot for my taste. Worst air in the US for that matter: more rain would change that.

There'd been a general interest article published in the LA Times a year ago, about a couple who had acquired some National Forest land up north, and built their own cabin. They could only hike in; I think they had to park their car at a trailhead a half mile away or so. The place was up for sale, and the newspaper had many color pictures for what they'd done with it. I could imagine adding some solar panels and batteries.

But -- between woodpeckers, the wind in the trees and any number of things, there's still background noise, but only of a higher subjective quality!

 

[MoInSTL]

The accuracy of the reading on the cheapy meters is the question.
I'm curious to find what you guys get for ambient noise levels, mine are quite high
here, but I'm in a redwood cabin built in the 40's less than a mile from the ocean,
so it's not what I'd call quiet regarding background. It's not loud-loud, but it's loud
in the realm of already pretty quiet fans.

I lived all over the Bay Area from N. Oakland to Silicon Valley. Even further up to Guerneville. At one point I lived a block away from the ocean in SF Outer Sunset. When I first moved there the sound was pretty loud. But being able to look out at the ocean from a 2nd story townhouse made it worth it. Still took some getting used to.

My loudest ambient noise now is my AC. It's 10 years old and well maintained but we've been having crazy high heat so it's on a lot. It has horrible coil whine to put it in PC terms. :'(

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I lived all over the Bay Area from N. Oakland to Silicon Valley. Even further up to Guerneville. At one point I lived a block away from the ocean in SF Outer Sunset. When I first moved there the sound was pretty loud. But being able to look out at the ocean from a 2nd story townhouse made it worth it. Still took some getting used to.

My loudest ambient noise now is my AC. It's 10 years old and well maintained but we've been having crazy high heat so it's on a lot. It has horrible coil whine to put it in PC terms. :'(

We just shelled out about $800 for some AC parts replacements because the home-owner decision-maker -- my elderly moms -- would just forget about annual service for the AC when I'd bring up the topic at least once annually. I figure for about $50 to $80 annually, in a climate such as mine, it's worth it to have them clean, inspect and service it.

Looks like I'll have to take over everything for keeping things ship-shape here. She lost her land-line wireless phone a couple weeks ago three times in three days. A zillion other incidents like that.

Eldercare. Y'all gonna face the frustrations.

 

[Ramses]

We're between the hills and the water, no AC here. I saw it hit 78F once in the last three or four years.
The only way I can really stress test my computer cooling is in the winter if I get a
serious fire going in the woodstove and don't open any windows.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

We're between the hills and the water, no AC here. I saw it hit 78F once in the last three or four years.
The only way I can really stress test my computer cooling is in the winter if I get a
serious fire going in the woodstove and don't open any windows.

You lucky so-and-so! I hate you! :twisted::biggrin:

Seriously, without either cutting the casual environmental discussion or the on-topic part. I built a 3570K/Z77 rig for my disabled brother who lives upstairs. The plot unfolds like this.

Moms -- by my reckoning -- is a bit nuts about her preferred temps. She's not happy if the thermostat slips below 80F. The other day, I happened to notice it was pushing 90F!! I usually never let it go above 82 -- I prefer the 75 to 78 range. But we've been having a tug-of-war -- not about the bill -- but about Moms's whine about the "cold air from the vent."

Bro's idle temperatures were slipping over 50C!! If it was 92F downstairs, it was 96 upstairs, because I saw his thermometer ("poor little tyke!" Moms used to say [he's 60 years old].

I'm not sure what prompted folks to live here in the Inland Empire. First, it's not much of an empire; second -- it's the desert. I conclude it was a common distaste for rain and "bad weather" of any sort.

Then -- the "political" angle. The newspaper had been run out of a Dallas penthouse for years, pushing Texas heavy-industrial interests ("Hands off Big Oil!" one editorial complained.) The other day, a Chucklehead got a letter-to-the-editor published, reacting to Huckabee's remark about "the ovens" and someone's characterization of Nazi-ism as "right wing." "National Socialism! Socialism! Isn't that Left-Wing?!"

I was going to reply to it; I'd managed to publish 5 letters a year. But at this point, I lost patience with the idea. For instance, I never wanted to teach K-through-8 -- I'm not good with kids and always sought "intellectual stimulation." But here was grown-up and a chucklehead. Why bother?

If I have little hope for humanity, I can see I wouldn't think -- or rant about it much, if I lived in that cabin I mentioned up north. But this is like a "black-hole:" Gotta take care of Moms, and Moms doesn't want to leave.

She just wants to bake! And I don't mean angel-food cake or toll-house cookies.

 

[Cerb]

We're between the hills and the water, no AC here. I saw it hit 78F once in the last three or four years.
The only way I can really stress test my computer cooling is in the winter if I get a
serious fire going in the woodstove and don't open any windows.

That's only a few degrees above the lows around here, this time of year, with highs in the triple digits, if you're anywhere near asphalt (official highs haven't been going over 100F much, but thermometers sure have!).

 

[Ramses]

I look it as payback for the unreasonable cost of living and goofy politics/economy here.