Silent Computer - Advice

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 23:16:11 +0100, Robert wrote:

In message , Brian Jones
writes
Antec case - the sonata - great design, sideways mounted hard drives
on rubber mounts do indeed cut down on drive noise

Front of case has poor ventilation, but they are on the right track by
using a 120mm fan. Look inside a Mac G5 to see it done right. I would
rather mod my Antec 1080 to be silent than buy the Sonata as my
current case has much better ventilation and no front case door
getting in the way.

Agreed, the intake is too small but it is simple to modify - detach the
lower front plastic bezel and using a small hand saw or jigsaw it is a
few minutes work to double the size of the aperture and, as it is on the
underside of the bezel, this is hidden from view. This does make
sufficient a difference to the airflow to reduce the temperature of the
adjacent HDDs by 3-4C.

You're right, but on the other hand, if the case is going to be
modified anyway, there's less and less reason to pay a premium for it.
For example, I just overhauled an old HP case, fitted it with 120mm
rear and 172mm front fan, total cost of the fans was more than the
case.


Dave


Dave

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 23:04:29 +0000 (UTC), Baffie
wrote:

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 13:17:19 -0700, Brian Jones
wrote:

On this day of our lord, Wed, 24 Sep 2003 17:07:08 +0000 (UTC), Baffie
quilled:


Antec case - the sonata - great design, sideways mounted hard drives
on rubber mounts do indeed cut down on drive noise

Front of case has poor ventilation, but they are on the right track by
using a 120mm fan. Look inside a Mac G5 to see it done right. I would
rather mod my Antec 1080 to be silent than buy the Sonata as my
current case has much better ventilation and no front case door
getting in the way.

Can't say I noticed a problem. With temp controlled fans, they'll only
blow out harder when they are needed, and consequently, they'll only
draw in air from the front when they need to.

That is a potential problem. When the system is essentially idle,
creating less heat, the fans slow down, draw in less air, but the HDD
are still spinning, need as much cooling but don't get it. One way to
combat that would be temp-controlled fans with their sensor(s)
attached to the hard drive, which is also possible if there's a front
intake fan.


Dave

On 24 Sep 2003 08:20:01 -0700, (David Taylor)
wrote:
Erm, why not get a good quality long video cable, keyboard cable,
mouse cable. And stick the box in another room? Or wear earmuffs?
:PppP
--
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But keep in mind you pay extra bandwidth for their bloated code

The little lost angel wrote:

On 24 Sep 2003 08:20:01 -0700, (David Taylor)
wrote:
Erm, why not get a good quality long video cable, keyboard cable,
mouse cable. And stick the box in another room? Or wear earmuffs?
:PppP

Actually, at one place I lived there was rather conveniently
a small storage room/pantry adjacent to the room I wanted my
computer in. Being a bachelor, I obviously had no use for a
pantry so ...
I just drilled a 1" hole through the wall to pass my
monitor, keyboard, and mouse cables through - no extensions
needed.

My intention was cooling - the storage room was unheated -
rather than sound muffling , but it obviously worked for
both.

Eventually I also got an external CD drive for the rather
obvious reason :-D And there was obviously a hole in
the wall to patch when I moved out.

"The little lost angel" wrote in
message ...
On 24 Sep 2003 08:20:01 -0700, (David Taylor)
wrote:
Erm, why not get a good quality long video cable, keyboard cable,
mouse cable. And stick the box in another room? Or wear earmuffs?

Earmuffs ? why is it cold ?

Ear Defenders or Ear Plugs don't you mean.

On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 12:25:05 +0100, Johannes H Andersen
wrote:

Hmm. I've used cable extensions in the past, but it didn't work very well
so I gave it up. In particular it caused problems for the mouse and the
monitor.

I think the quality of the cable matters quite a bit? In one of my
previous work places, the distance was at least 3~4metres apart in
terms of point to point distance. So the KVM cables had to be quite a
bit longer and I never had any issues with the mouse/keyboard/video
when I was working there.

--
L.Angel: I'm looking for web design work.
If you need basic to med complexity webpages at affordable rates, email me
Standard HTML, SHTML, MySQL + PHP or ASP, Javascript.
If you really want, FrontPage & DreamWeaver too.
But keep in mind you pay extra bandwidth for their bloated code

Baffie wrote:
[snip]
Can't say I noticed a problem. With temp controlled fans, they'll only
blow out harder when they are needed, and consequently, they'll only
draw in air from the front when they need to.

For quiet computing I prefer constant speed fans (though with an
efficient speed regulator to set the speed initially). You naturally
filter out constant noise sources if they're quiet enough, variable
noise sources are much more irritating. But then, my CPU load is 100%
24/7 so I need full cooling all the time.


Tim
--
And the beast shall be made legion. Its numbers shall be increased a
thousand thousand fold. The din of a million keyboards like unto a great
storm shall cover the earth, and the followers of Mammon shall tremble.
- The Book of Mozilla, 3:31

Rob Stow wrote:
The little lost angel wrote:
On 24 Sep 2003 08:20:01 -0700, (David Taylor)
wrote:
Erm, why not get a good quality long video cable, keyboard cable,
mouse cable. And stick the box in another room? Or wear earmuffs?
:PppP

Actually, at one place I lived there was rather conveniently
a small storage room/pantry adjacent to the room I wanted my
computer in. Being a bachelor, I obviously had no use for a
pantry so ...
I just drilled a 1" hole through the wall to pass my
monitor, keyboard, and mouse cables through - no extensions
needed.

I've had a similar idea but putting my PCs in the loft space (I have
my PCs in the attic room). Two main problems, it's an enclosed space
*heavily* insulated so it might get a bit warm, and it's filthy in
there so I'd need to build a box with filters. If I'm building a box I
may as well have it in the room and save having to crawl through a
hatch to upgrade the hardware!


Tim
--
And the beast shall be made legion. Its numbers shall be increased a
thousand thousand fold. The din of a million keyboards like unto a great
storm shall cover the earth, and the followers of Mammon shall tremble.
- The Book of Mozilla, 3:31

On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 14:40:19 +0000 (UTC), Baffie
wrote:


That is a potential problem. When the system is essentially idle,
creating less heat, the fans slow down, draw in less air, but the HDD
are still spinning, need as much cooling but don't get it. One way to
combat that would be temp-controlled fans with their sensor(s)
attached to the hard drive, which is also possible if there's a front
intake fan.

It ain't a problem for me as I've got my power settings shutting down
the HD after 10 minutes of inactivity, saves power, saves wear and
tear and prevents heat/noise.

Then you may have an atypical usage pattern. For many people allowing
the HDD to spin-down after 10 minutes, then spin-up again, more often,
will put a lot more wear on it than letting it continue to spin.



Dave

Baffie wrote:
snip
It ain't a problem for me as I've got my power settings shutting down
the HD after 10 minutes of inactivity, saves power, saves wear and
tear and prevents heat/noise.

As long as your HD is adequately cooled it's kinder to leave it spinning
than to frequently spin it up and down.