Att: PC audiophiles

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barkingpig

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Jul 10, 2003
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OK I have a question to those of you who do most of your music listening on your PC. How do you deal with all the noise coming from the computer? The one thing that bothers me most is the constant whining of the hard disks. i have 2 WD 7200s and they're not the quietest hdds I suppose. I know there are hdd silencers but how effective are those things? I would be surprised if they can make the hdd as quiet as my friend's Maxtor I-touch. Apart from that, the stock P4 3.0ghz cooler I have is also noisy when its running at max rpm...u know that high-pitch noise. Same goes for my stock Radeon 9700pro cooler....i tried running my computer with all the fans disabled except the radeon's and believe me that tiny bugger makes a fair share of noise. Is it safe to run the vidcard without a fan?

I'm pissed at all the obtrusive noise my pc is making....it ruins the sound of my new hi-fi (Acoustic Energy Aegis 3/ NAD C320BEE). i'm posting this because it's connected to my computer (audigy 2zs) and i need the computer to be running to play those mp3s and apes!!

i'm curious how you guys get the most out of your audio systems? watercool the pc to eliminate all the unwanted noise? i figured that won't work very well since there will be a huge fan to cool the radiotor rite! so what gives?
 
Noise from my PC isn't really a problem, as either 1) My headphones drown them out, semi-open HD497's barely even pick up the noise from my computer, or 2) My speakers are loud enough that I don't hear my PC. I switch to headphones if I'm just going to turn my speakers down that low that I can hear my PC.

I have a single Maxtor 45 gb and an IBM 80 gb, and they don't spin as much as you make them sound, but that's probably your WD's doing all that work. Mine are quiet as a bug.

As for my CPU cooler, I have a 92mm Zalman propped on the thing running @ 2500 RPM, hardly any noise from that either. I have 4 x 80 mm fans, and 2 x 92 mm fans running at full speed now since summer is coming along, and I don't really notice it because of the two reasons I stated above. If your PC is making more noise than your speakers, than you need to invest in better speakers, or put your PC in a sound-proof padded box.






And yes, you will ruin your video card if you take the fan off.
Actually, do it for fun and post results :)
 
barkingpig said:
The one thing that bothers me most is the constant whining of the hard disks. i have 2 WD 7200s and they're not the quietest hdds I suppose. I know there are hdd silencers but how effective are those things? I would be surprised if they can make the hdd as quiet as my friend's Maxtor I-touch.
Click to expand...
So-called "hard drive silencers" address the issue of vibrational noise, mostly. Traditional mounting techniques do not isolate vibrations very well, adding to hard drive noise. These "silencers" help address this problem. Other products use noise absorbing material to absorb certain frequencies of noise. However, these products will not completely address the issue of hard drive noise as a whole. The rest depends on hard drive selection. The vast majority of Western Digital hard drives do not take advantage of quiet fluid dynamic bearings. Basically all new models of hard drive use FDBs now, but this wasn't likely the case with your WD drives. Your best bet is to visit SilentPCReview.com and choose a hard drive based on their excellent recommendations.
Apart from that, the stock P4 3.0ghz cooler I have is also noisy when its running at max rpm...u know that high-pitch noise. Same goes for my stock Radeon 9700pro cooler....i tried running my computer with all the fans disabled except the radeon's and believe me that tiny bugger makes a fair share of noise. Is it safe to run the vidcard without a fan?
Click to expand...
There are heatsink/fan units that do a much better job of cooling with less noise. Again, I suggest visiting SilentPCReview.com for a guide to these products. It's a great resource.

I'll start you off with that website. It should be pretty enlightening. If you want to discuss specifics for your current PC, let me know and I'll try to help.
 
OK, my pc is a good example of quiet...but I went a very long way to do so.

I started with aircooling and even picked my hard drives for quiet (Seagate Barricuda).

I had it so quiet i could only hear my hard drives when they were performing I/O funstions...kinda unnerving but I could live with it.

Well...then summer came and I had overheat issues...so onto watercooling.

Now the system runs fairly quiet. I am looking at getting another case and going to an external rad unit soon, so I might jsut be able to go for near silence once that's done...
but for now, it does make some noise, but is easily drowned out by my speakers.

as far as electrical noise...digital outputs...if your area is obscenely eletrically noisy, use TOSLink and get an isolation filter to plug all your audio gear in. I have a Waber "Wave Tracker" WT8 (125Db filter) that I use for this....it's a very pricey unit, but I managed to get mine from EBay for $50. What it does is it has a heavy filter for everything outside of 60hz (the frequency of US 110v electrical circuits)...this removes as much of the noise as possible, so amplifiers and such which have less than perfectly filtered power stages don't have any problems as a result (many PC speakers can benefit from this unit...most "hi-fi" recievers probably will only have minimal gain at best).


EDIT: jsut 7-volted my radiator fans...system is practically silent now...and running at 33c int a 73f room...not too shabby.


EDIT again: the thing with large fans is they put out more airflow per unit of noise than a smaller fan...jsut gotta get those fans rotating as slow as you can while getting adequate cooling. Actuyally the pump can often be the noisiest component...but only if you don't properly deal with vibration. I have three 120mm fans in my rig, and the two fans in my antce truepower 380 psu...and from 3 feet its just a whisper.
 
Zalman ZM-2HC2 Heatpipe HD Cooler.
$28 shipped from the egg
I have ZERO hd noise using this and it keeps my temps a couple C lower too. Very pleased.
 
zachary80 said:
Carpeted closet + 15' SVGA cable + Wireless Keyboard/Mouse = Silent
Click to expand...

That is probably one of the best options if you can do it. I myself have an Antec Sonata with single Papst 120mm fan (running around 5-7v), a Zalman CNPS7000 modifed to use a Panaflo 92mm fan, also running around 5-7v. The Antec "silent" power supply had to be modified with an 80mm Panalfo medium because it was anything but silent before that. The insides of the case have sound absorbing material just about everywhere I can put it. Finally, since I refuse to use anything but a 15k SCSI drive, I use an external SCSI cable and have the drive actually hooked up in my server in the next room over. Right now the loudest thing in my system is the hum the Samsung SyncMaster 955df makes. Tons of good info can be found over at silentpcreview.com.
 
Thanks for the replies folks. After spending a day scouring silentpcreview.com I have decided to replace my WD hdds with the Seagate Barracuda IV and get a Zalman passive heatsink for my vidcard. of course more to come when i have some dough!
 
A few months ago Fry's had a sale on 200GB IDE Hitachi Deathstars. It came out to being $100 after rebate (which I recieved in the mail) and is the quietest drive I have ever owned. Have a Seagate 7200.7 to compare to, a WD800JB and friends' WD1200JB's. Western Digital drives whine, and the seeking on the Seagate is loud, much louder than the Hitachi.
 
Yeah, I've also dealt with the Barracuda 7200.7. It's not nearly as quiet as the IV/V generations, which benefitted from (illegally used) Convolve technology. Now that the lawsuit has come and gone, the 7200.7 was the first generation to be changed--at least, that's my theory. That's why Samsung drives are now in my favor in terms of quietness.
 
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