Cheap fire suppression system for a PC?

ShadowTek wrote:
On 2009-10-19, SteveH wrote:
Out of interest, why do you /need/ to have all that crap around the PC?

I have sensitive hearing, and typical PC noises aflict me with an
occasional case of tinnitus.


If you want quiet, why not get a quiet case and coolers?

I did.

This is an example of the kind of case to get. It uses heatpipes
extensively. I think this may have gone out of production.
When it was available, it was around $1000.00 .

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/coo...-tnn500af.html

One of the issues with some of these kinds of solutions, is
the vibration isolating grommets used for fans or hard drives.
They have to be made from the right materials, to prevent
noises from devices like the hard drive, from getting
coupled into the case walls.

Paul

On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:46:55 +0000 (UTC), ShadowTek
wrote:

On 2009-10-19, Ken Maltby wrote:

That can certainly be the case, but we have no way of knowing
how much performance you are demanding from your system.
More to the point for this thread, we don't know if you have a
paranoia with regard to sound, that in anyway matches the OP.

I think most of us are quite satisfied with the sound level of our
systems, without the efforts the OP seems compelled toward.
I have a couple of very quite Antec "Three Hundred" cases,
for instance.

It isn't "paranoia" that's motivating me, it's an actual hearing
sensitivity that I have which allow me to hear things that some people
can't.



No it's not, it's a compulsive fixation on noise which most
other people ignore. Being able to hear a little better,
even if it were true, does not result in what you hear being
excessively loud, all other sounds are still relatively
louder.

If you want absolute quiet so be it, but anyone can
hear/discriminate more if they're trying to because they are
obsessed about it. Normally low level background noises are
simply ignored. However, there are other things you can do
about vibration.

Low quality fans lacking proper balance, and those using
ball bearings tend to produce more noise. Switch to a high
quality very low RPM fan and it will make less noise than
the ambient room background noise level if there were no
computer. Switch to an SSD instead of mechanical hard
drive. Don't leave optical discs in drives so they're not
spinning up and down all the time. If the motherboard, PSU,
video card, etc has loose windings on an inductor or
transformer replace them, or pot the transformers to
immobilize the windings.

There are sufficient aftermarket products available that you
need not have a system vibrating at a level you could feel
holding your hand on it, let alone hearing it.

On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:42:32 +0000 (UTC), ShadowTek
wrote:

On 2009-10-19, Ken Maltby wrote:

You can also use watercooling to remove all the
noise producing elements to another room. That
leaves just the hard drive "noise" to manage.

The hard drives produce the highest pitch noises, so I would still need
some kind of sound insulation.

Also, the greatest resonating vibrations are comming from the
power supply (not its fan), and I would still need to isolate that as
well.


Swap the PSU fan for a quieter one. Done.

On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:36:15 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:



Ken Maltby wrote:

You can also use watercooling to remove all the
noise producing elements to another room. That
leaves just the hard drive "noise" to manage.

I thought the purpose was to improve safety, not worsen it by creating
a potential electric shock hazard with a cooling system that hasn't
been UL, VDE, or CSA certified.

.... then use a ground fault breaker circuit and remember,
the water cooling was probably proposed for the low voltage
areas, it's not particularly unsafe to short the highest
voltage (12V) line directly to ground with coolant, it just
doesn't conduct that well.



The cooling systems I've seen use
vinyl hoses that can melt if the processor's heatsink gets hot enough,

"if". No matter what material you talk about, it would
melt "if" something gets hot enough. Now back to reality,
of all the cooling systems you've seen, how many of them
have melted their vinyl hoses from contact with anything in
the interior of a PC? If the CPU die itself, which is much
hotter than the outer fins of a heatsink, were to get
remotely close to hot enough to melt vinyl, the CPU has
already throttled down if the system didn't totally shut
off.

In other words, those tubes aren't going to melt as soon as
any of the electrical wiring in the system would.



and I haven't seen any leak detection devices, like those made for
preventing washroom flooding. A better solution may be a heatpipe
cooling system


It's really rather trivial to do, just completely
unnecessary and indulging a wild mind that proposes
superhuman hearing of very low level noises is a physical
problem rather than a mental one.

Water cooling is simply an unnecessary expense and effort
given today's high quality air coolers, many of which can
run at average loads with their fans not spinning at all
because the rear case exhaust fan pulls sufficient air past
them. At full load it could be necessary to turn on a 120mm
fan at 1,000 RPM, but it is not a problem and in fact if
noise is such a terrible thing then the typing the OP is
doing to post to this group is far louder than a 1,000 RPM
fan.

wrote in message
...


Ken Maltby wrote:

You can also use watercooling to remove all the
noise producing elements to another room. That
leaves just the hard drive "noise" to manage.

I thought the purpose was to improve safety, not worsen it by creating
a potential electric shock hazard with a cooling system that hasn't
been UL, VDE, or CSA certified. The cooling systems I've seen use
vinyl hoses that can melt if the processor's heatsink gets hot enough,
and I haven't seen any leak detection devices, like those made for
preventing washroom flooding. A better solution may be a heatpipe
cooling system

You obviously have no understanding of how a watercooling
system works, or basic physics for that matter. The processor
and any other component needing active cooling, would have a
"waterblock" not a heatsink. The distilled water being pumped
through the waterblock(s) and the "hoses" is at most only a few
degrees above the ambient temp., of the room with the radiator.
The hoses are at the same temp. as the water.

Most any water pump you can buy will have all the required
certifications.

There is no more "shock hazard" with water cooling than with
air cooling.

You know not of what you speak.

Luck;
Ken

"ST" == ShadowTek writes:

ST Regardless, I need my *computer* running 24/7.

I also have a need for a computer running 24/7 for a proxy server and
the occasional torrent download, etc. I got a cheap, 5 watt,
no-moving-parts repurposed linux computer for the task. It's dead
silent but best for me doesn't run at 50-100 watts like my desktop
computer does. If your need doesn't involve windows-only programs
post here and I'll describe more details.
--
Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they
ought to have.
~ Richard Salent, Former President CBS News

On 2009-10-20, kony wrote:
On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:46:55 +0000 (UTC), ShadowTek
wrote:

It isn't "paranoia" that's motivating me, it's an actual hearing
sensitivity that I have which allow me to hear things that some people
can't.



No it's not, it's a compulsive fixation on noise which most
other people ignore. Being able to hear a little better,
even if it were true, does not result in what you hear being
excessively loud, all other sounds are still relatively
louder.

You're telling *me* what *my* hearing condition is? lol

I *can* hear sounds that many other people can't.

Doubt me if you like.

I *do* experience physical pain and *actual* lingering tinnitus after lengthy
exposure to certian sounds that don't bother most other people.

Doubt me if you like.

On 2009-10-20, kony wrote:

Swap the PSU fan for a quieter one. Done.

Send me the money to do it, and it'll get done.

I'm not going to spend $70 of *my* money on another PS when I can simple isolate the
sound that my current one is making.

On 2009-10-20, Bob Fry wrote:

I also have a need for a computer running 24/7 for a proxy server and
the occasional torrent download, etc. I got a cheap, 5 watt,
no-moving-parts repurposed linux computer for the task. It's dead
silent but best for me doesn't run at 50-100 watts like my desktop
computer does. If your need doesn't involve windows-only programs
post here and I'll describe more details.

The biggest thing holding me back from setting up a different computer
was a lack of a multi-port router, which I just recently acquired. I've
been thinking about setting up a different computer in another room for
just that purpose, but I've got to make space to set one up, as my house
is *very* tight on space.

Anyway, I have enough know-how to set up the software for it (and I
don't use Windows anymore).
Thanks.

wrote in message
...


ShadowTek wrote:

I would like to install a small fire detection/suppression system for my
computer. I've seen a lot of rediculously expensive stuff online, but
I'd like to spend as little as possible.

Use a case made of steel, not aluminum, with no window on the side.
Keep all cooling fans and vents at least a foot from anything
flammable, such as curtains. Computer fires aren't likely to spread,
except their odor, since the materials are fairly fire resistant, even
the plastics (except those for windows). The cheapest automatic fire
supression system I know of is a large bag of baking soda. The fire
melts the bag, and the baking soda extinguishes the flames.

And the insulation value of the "large bag of baking soda" is
likely to up the odds of the computer overheating, in the first
place.