[JamesL]

Most black foam/dampening/etc works generally the same.
I'd only recommend them for finishing up touches, after you've added rubber grommets, and replaced every fan with a 120mm noctua or s-flex.
A analogy - you should get a good dac and amp before you think about recabling your headphones.

 

[Operandi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif http://www.silenx.com has some nice solutions to noise. A co-worker introduced me to SilenX a few years ago, and I've been pleased with their products.

SilenX is more about misleading marketing and imitation than anything else. You'll notice this heatsink looks stinkingly similar to an older Zalman design. You'll also notice the dBA rating; 11dBA is nearly impossible to measure outside of an anechoic chamber. There is no way their fan (or any fan for that matter) is that quite using any sort of practical measurement.

 

[LeonvB]

Intel D201GLY2 (NOT the A)
Intel® Desktop Board D201GLY2 / D201GLY2A Overview
Price should be WELL below 100$.
It runs XP without any problems, Linux isn't too big a problem either. With the right case, you can use a brick type 80W power supply that has no fan. Make sure the CPU isn't loaded to 100% too often, or i't'll get hot.
Or you could wait for the Diamondville version of the board, it should be available in the fall.

 

[namelock]

I've had good experiences with coolermaster cases - they're reasonably cheap and are silent

 

[TSi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamesL /img/forum/go_quote.gif I've always kept away from via motherboards. They're not exactly quality motherboards..

+1 +1 +1... unless u want your pc to be running with problems (yes, with problems) id keep away from via.

via has probably one of the crappiest chipsets that are manufactured, four words can be said about them: cheap price, cheap quality.

 

[lobehold]

If you do not need performance as you have stated, you would be very well served by a used notebook.

You can select from a huge variety of price and performance parts and obtain awesome price/performance ratio versus "silent PC". Plus you get a built-in screen + keyboard. You can run external monitor instead of course.

Heck if you don't plan to move it you can even grab ones that have dead batteries for even cheaper.

 

[CountChoculaBot]

Quiet's very easy to achieve.

Make sure your case has all 120mm or larger fans. Replace 120mm fans with Scythe Slipstream 500RPM.

Get a big heatsink that doesn't come with a fan, like the TRUE120. Slap on a very slow RPM fan. I prefer the Scythe Ultra Kaze 1000RPM, undervolted to 7v.

For hard drives, get a Western Digital or Samsung. WD in general is pretty quiet, Samsung is pretty damn silent.

For power supplies, get the HX series of Corsair. The fan in it spins extremely slow, and barely makes any noise.

For cases, I'd suggest a P182. Very few open fan vents, so less noise escapes. A Cosmos would also be good.

My system is configured in this manner, and it is pretty much dead silent. The only niggle is that I have a TX series PSU, which needs that damn fan baffle. I tried removing it; when I entered the room one day, I had to stand still and listen to hear if the PC was on. Unfortunately, removing the fan baffle caused the PSU to overheat, so it had to go back in

 

[ok computer]

And if your feeling lazy and don't want to build one, you might consider something from pc audiolabs. there audio pcs , and I've heard are pretty decent.

 

[T.B.N.]

silentpcreview.com | Everything about Silent / Quiet Computers!!!!

awesome site.

 

[GordonFreeman]

Desktop PCs: Computers for your every need! - Home & Home Office

I would just configure something like this if your not into building your own.

 

[sonci]

The Antec Phantom 500 is dead a silent PSU, and you can find a good price since is 2 years old. I even use SLI with it, but however i dont recomand it, for that purpose

 

[Wilson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xzjia /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you do not need performance as you have stated, you would be very well served by a used notebook. You can select from a huge variety of price and performance parts and obtain awesome price/performance ratio versus "silent PC". Plus you get a built-in screen + keyboard. You can run external monitor instead of course. Heck if you don't plan to move it you can even grab ones that have dead batteries for even cheaper.

I think that is good advice.

Two years ago I built a very quiet PC for home use using Sonata case, fanless power supply, large heatsinks. The quietness is worth all the work and time spent.

But now there are a lot more choices. I think the very compact ASUS Eee PC is a good platform to do these things:

Newegg.com - ASUS Eee PC 4G – Galaxy Black Eee PC Intel processor 7" Wide VGA 512MB Memory 4GB HDD Integrated Graphics - Laptops / Notebooks

It has no hard drive, comes with Linux, but you can configure it to run XP or Linux. Very quiet, pretty solid build, and all hard drives and devices can be USB based. Very usable and a perfect tinkering platform. There is a large user base out there, all kinds of experiences ...

EeeUser ASUS Eee PC EeePC Forum


cheers,
W

 

[namelock]

I've read from reviews that the EEE Asus PC is hardly quiet - the fans are on high all the time. Really, you could configure an optimal silent PC that would beat the crap out of a similarly priced laptop. I think it was possible to build a crysis running machine for around 300$ on Newegg. If you don't need this level of performance I'd imagine the prices would be even lower you picked the correct parts, i.e. a quiet power supply, harddrive, vidcard. After market fans and heatsinks are not necessary if you do not plan on over clocking or doing heavy gaming.

 

[strangedaze39]

OP? I wonder if he forgot about his thread.

Intel C2D.-Maybe an E2140 $70 Newegg.com - Intel Pentium E2160 Allendale 1.8GHz 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - CPUs / Processors

Intel Based 945 Motherboard $50
Newegg.com - ASRock Wolfdale1333-D667 LGA 775 Intel 945GC Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

DDR-800 Memory 4 GB
$65
Newegg.com - A-DATA Value Series 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

Corsair 450 PSU (By far these are some of the best PSU's on the market and SILENT and absolutely worth the cash) $70
Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX ATX12V V2.2 450W Power Supply 90 - 264 V UL, CUL, CE, CB, FCC Class B, TUV, CCC, C-tick - Power Supplies

Rosewill Case w/ Free Shipping $35
Newegg.com - Rosewill R220-P-BK Black 0.5mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases

3x Energy Max Electro Magnetic Fan (SILENT!) $21
Newegg.com - ENERMAX UC-12EB 120mm Case Fan - Case Fans

ZeroTherm NV120 CPU Fan (quitest/best performing fan on market, w/ fan controller, Yes it's better then the Tuniq Tower

) $40
Newegg.com - ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 120mm 2-ball UFO Bearing / Transparent CPU Cooler - CPU Fans & Heatsinks

7600GS Video Card- $55 after MIR
Newegg.com - EVGA 256-P2-N541-T2 GeForce 7600GS 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics

Video Card Cooler $15 after MIB (SILENT)

TOTAL: A little under $400 for your complete build.

Why get this set-up? This set-up will be SILENT, literally. It's going to run like a beast, it has great overclocking possibilities! It will be stable enough to run 24/7 and is going have very cool temps. And the best part yet, it can run Windows, Linux, and Mac (see osx86)

Hope this helped, let us know what you decided.

 

[dsavitsk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xzjia /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you do not need performance as you have stated, you would be very well served by a used notebook.

It's not a bad suggestion. I've got a pretty large stack of oldish IBM notebooks, but mine are all sub 1GHz and seem to struggle. But, I may look around for something slightly newer and see how this works. The one problem, though, is needing a soundcard to use with RMAA, and the EMU USB ones won't work (RMAA does not support ASIO, and I need the digital output which requires ASIO). Internal seems easier.


Quote:

Originally Posted by strangedaze39 /img/forum/go_quote.gif OP? I wonder if he forgot about his thread.

Nope, still reading.

Thanks for the very detailed suggestion. This may form the starting point for a project.