[uzziah]

looking to build a pc, and also use it as a source. wondering: what would make more sense (sound quality and financially):

put my computer in my bedroom closet, and run extension cords for monitor, keyboard/mouse, amp and even external cd rom drive

or

spend the money on making my computer as quiet as possible, and have my tower right at my desk

the logistics of running the cables wouldn't be a big deal in my place, it would be a pretty straight line, out of sight, behind furniture etc. to where i'd have my "input" station.

the former idea really appeals to me, but i wonder how reasonable it is

also, here's my big question: when i hear "noise" being talked about in computer source systems, are we talking just external noise from the computer, or "noise" i'll actually hear through my headphones?

looking at emu 0404 and amp. external dac to come later when have more money

 

[breez]

Closet + wireless stuff where possible

 

[luukas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by breez Closet + wireless stuff where possible

Hear, hear! I stuck my PC case into a closet a few days ago, and am loving the silence. Quite strange at first, to not hear the humming of fans, but you get used to it

 

[lan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by uzziah spend the money on making my computer as quiet as possible, and have my tower right at my desk also, here's my big question: when i hear "noise" being talked about in computer source systems, are we talking just external noise from the computer, or "noise" i'll actually hear through my headphones?

I'm for making a quiet computer and keeping cables as short as possible.

The noise people refer to is the noise of the computer system like the fans, and harddrive.

 

[bg4533]

Quote:

Originally Posted by luukas Hear, hear! I stuck my PC case into a closet a few days ago, and am loving the silence. Quite strange at first, to not hear the humming of fans, but you get used to it

I tried this once a few years back and the whole closet heated up and components got a bit too hot for my liking. Depending on your system you might be ok, but be sure to check your processor and hard drive temps.

About 1.5 years ago while building a new computer I set out to make it as quiet as possible. I lined the case in acoustical foam, removed the stamped grills from the case and bought a bunch of Panaflos and a rheobus. My Radeon 9800 has a Zalman passive cooler and my hard drives (10k RPM WD Raptor and 200GB Seagate sit on foam with fans blowing over them). My processor is an XP1700+ OCd to 2GHz. The system is pretty much inaudible sitting on the ground 3 feet away from me. If you have a bit of time and desire to play with things I consider the quiet route a much better way to go. Extension cables are only going to degrade quality and it is a pain to have to go to the closet or where ever you have your computer to switch CDs or whatever you need to do. I think it will be far cheaper to build a quiet system than to buy an external CDROM drive and all the extensions too.

 

[triodesteve]

IMHO there are both types of noise. Mechanical is most obvious. I get around it by using a fanless iBook. I don't notice it (or the 2.5" HD that sits behind the iBook) at all while I listen. Across the basement in the office, sits my G4 tower...that I can hear from my listening chair.

The other is noise from the power supply. When my iBook is hooked up to ac power, I hear lot's of noise thru my system...it's not pretty. Now I can probably hear this more easily for two reasons. Number one is that my speakers are around 106db efficient...I hear everything! The second reason is that my whole system runs off of battery. There is nowhere for noise to hide...I hear it all.

recently I compared my digital system (ibook-usb-TwinDac Plus) to an early VRS system. FWIW, the VRS had quite a bit more noise (power supply), but two out of the three of us preferred the VRS (me included)

 

[luukas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bg4533 I tried this once a few years back and the whole closet heated up and components got a bit too hot for my liking. Depending on your system you might be ok, but be sure to check your processor and hard drive temps...etc. ...

I can see how heat could become a problem, but just so happens there's a ventilation hatch (or whatever) in the closet I have here. I did try silencing my system otherwise at first, but since I don't have the space to fit a heatsink like the Zalman 7000, it didn't end up very well.

 

[llmobll]

Hehe, i can see I planted some seeds on this extention cord stuff. Anyway, currently I'm trying t get the best of both worlds. Mines not in the closet anymore, but rather behind my desk. I'm at college and these things are big enough to place your computer about 3-4 away from you and still be very very quiet. However I was also on the all mightly quest to build the quietest computer. This required me to lower my over clock from 1.3-2.0 to 1.3-1.8. All in all I totally agree that getting some heavy cooling is a great idea paired with good computer placement.

P.S. I realize alot of people have "COOL" windows and whatnot, I got over that crazy when I saw that stuff popping up at CompUSA. So I got a Sonata case, modded it a bit, and now I'm one happy audiophile.

 

[Zurg]

I am currently putting together a PC system. It will be a general purpose system but I intend to listen to music through it while I am using it. I am trying to make it as quiet as feasable without breaking the bank. Here are the decisions and the parts I have bought so far:

1. Pentium 4 3GHz processor with a 478 socket and with a Northwood core. These run significantly cooler than the newer Prescott core CPUs and apparantly they crunch more data at the same clock speed as the Prescotts.

2. ASUS PC4C800-E-Deluxe motherboard with the 875 chipset. This is supposed to be one of the best mobos for the 478 socket. I'm trying to shoot for a balance between processing power while minimizing heat.

3. Antec Sonata case. I have heard many good reviews of this case and it is supposed to be one of the quieter ones. It comes with a 380 watt power supply which should be sufficient. Hopefully, it will be quiet. If not, I will consider replacing it.

4. Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600XT AGP 8X video card. This is not as powerful as the newer PCI express video cards, but it consumers less power and doesn't have/need an onboard fan. IMO the new PCI express cards haven't really been out long enough to get good reliability info on them. I'm not much of a gamer but I do want a card that can drive my 1600x1200 20.1" LCD simulataneously with my 19 monitor @ 1280x1024 @85Hz refresh.

5. 1GB of Corsair PC-3200 memory. I do a fair amount of heavy duty Photoshopping with fairly large images, so 1GB is really a minimum for me. I may have to add more later.

6. Plextor PX-712A DVD+/- Drive. Dual layer discs are economically infeasabile and single layer discs write so much faster. This will be used for backing up music and image files.

7. (2) Samsung Spinpoint 160GB hard drives. These are currently rated as the quietest drives on the market, from the reviews I've read. I will be hooking these up in a raid 0 configuration for maximum performance. Since I am fairly religious about backing stuff to DVDs, CDs, and/or external USB hard drives, I am unconcerned about the reliability risks posed by raid 0.

8. I will be using my M-Audio transit to output my sound to my receiver.

I am currently considering using either the Thermalright XP-90 or XP-120 for cooling my CPU. I am going to hook the stock system up first and see how loud it is.

I will probably be assembling all this stuff next weekend. If anyone has any comments or suggestions about how to further quiet this system, I would appreciate your input.

-Z

 

[Nospam]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zurg ...I will probably be assembling all this stuff next weekend. If anyone has any comments or suggestions about how to further quiet this system, I would appreciate your input. -Z

If you don't mind spending the extra money, you could take a look at the Zalman water-cooling systems.

 

[Zurg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nospam If you don't mind spending the extra money, you could take a look at the Zalman water-cooling systems.

Nospam, thanks for the sugesstion. From what I have read water cooling is a pain maintainance wise. I have read several posts by people who claim to have gone that route and I have yet to read one positive post from someone who has used it for more than 6 months. I definitely want this to be a low maintainance system so I think I will pass on W.C. for now.

-Z

 

[llmobll]

Water cooling is for performance, and definitly not for quiet. i realize alot of people get this messed up and end up with systems that aren't very cost effective. Although it is entirely possible to make a silent water rig, it's just too much work for a moderate improvement over a well thought out Fan system.


Good choice on the Sonata, the main reason I love that case is the HUGE 120mm fan it has in the rear. I had lots of trouble finding a case with a 120 in the back. Also it's not a normal 120 is a slimmer quieter version which makes absolutely no noise!! The noisest component in any computer is ALWAYS the CPU/heatsink. I always recommend NOT to skimp on a heatsink here. This could make or break your system no matter what case you put it in. I'm a huge fan of those monsterous swiftech heatsinks and love anything that is above AMD/INTEL's heatsink weight rating. You want copper and you want huge, with a 92mm fan here. This is key.

For you super fan coolers definitely go with some kind of Funnel system. Either from the side panel pointing directly on top of the CPU heatsink or I've seen effective rear funnels. These systems always provide huge cooling gains. Side mounted fans with funnels are great performers.

If anyone cares I don't recommend those "Stealth" fans by vantec and the like, they are too noisy. The best implementation is always a normal sized fan with a variable resistor. ie. get those controllers that allow you to throttle down the fan. They allow you to go way low in the rpm's while still moving a lot of air.
That should be enough to keep anyone busy for awhile.

pease, and may all your mods be quiet ones.

-dan

 

[ooheadsoo]

Quote:

The noisest component in any computer is ALWAYS the CPU/heatsink.

Nah, not always. My 5 hdds are far louder than my cpu fan, power supply, and videocard fans put together. Good choice on the samsungs. Now I just wonder how long they will last.

 

[lan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ooheadsoo Nah, not always. My 5 hdds are far louder than my cpu fan, power supply, and videocard fans put together.

Yeah my 1 harddrive is louder than those other things of mine.

I just ordered a 74GB Raptor. It will be quieter than my SCSI harddrive. I can't go 7200rpm IDE/SATA since I wouldn't be able to deal with the performance hit.

 

[strogg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zurg Nospam, thanks for the sugesstion. From what I have read water cooling is a pain maintainance wise. I have read several posts by people who claim to have gone that route and I have yet to read one positive post from someone who has used it for more than 6 months. I definitely want this to be a low maintainance system so I think I will pass on W.C. for now. -Z

the trick is to do it right the first time (ie right clamps, right fluid, right pump, etc). i learned the hard way, but after six months (yeah... it's been six months, actually), i'm happy and am enjoying the silence of my computer. it's actually quieter than ONE of those pesky 40mm fans you find in cheap cooling setups.

as for maintenance in general, all one really needs to do is change the water ever half a year. nothing hard about that.

electrical-noise-wise, there's probably more noise coming from the computer than there is from the pump itself. my swiftech mag pump most probably adds to the noise (i dare not test that theory!), but from experience with component swapping and/or moving, the noise from the pump is negligible.