Acoustic Dampening

[Ibrihim]

From my limited knowledge it seems if it insulates sound it insulates heat. Most of the stuff I've looked at to line my case would also be useful wrapped round my tea cup to keep it hot. Help- what else is out there?
My current dream is there maybe an aluminum foam board or frame with conventional foam inserts ? Any and all suggestions please.
I hate fan noise, pump noise and spending money.

 

[Alan G]

Yes, insulation can impact a case's cooling ability as heat is not effectively transferred to the metal case walls. There are a number of cases that are designed to reduce noise BUT there success is also heavily dependent on the components that are responsible for the noise (fans, pumps, CPU coolers, PSUs with coil whine). You can achieve a quieter case by selecting good components which IMO is more important than the case selection.

I have a Fractal Design Arc Midi R-2 which is almost dead silent even though it only sits 18 inches away from me on my desk top. It's not insulated but the 'Define' series are. The case fans are all controlled in during winter months I can run them on the lowest setting because the room is 18C (during the summer months I need to run the fans at the medium setting, 7V as the room is warmer). I have a silent Enermax ETS-40 CPU cooler and don't OC.

I don't know what type of insulation Fractal Design use with their Define case but you could look at some thin foam to put in your existing case (see HERE for a good resource).

 

[PliotronX]

I've used polymastic asphalt panels from McMaster-Carr as it is cheaper and takes care of lower frequency resonation for a lot less cost than Dynamat. Basically anything you do to the chassis to deaden sound will reduce thermal radiation but airflow is the main way of dissipating heat. I've never tested the effect but I really don't think it will cause any problems with proper airflow. I've used eggcrate foam as well which helps with higher frequencies and is inexpensive especially if you score a twin size mattress topper of the same convoluted design Ultimately the reduction in noise was not worth the time invested in it at least to me.

 

[Charlie98]

I have a Fractal Design Arc Midi R-2 which is almost dead silent even though it only sits 18 inches away from me on my desk top. It's not insulated but the 'Define' series are.

I have 2 Define Minis... one as my desktop, about 2 feet away from my ears. They use some sort of open cell foam but with an outer layer to make it smooth. Whatever it is it really works. The other Mini is my HTPC... absolutely silent.

Don't be afraid of cases with sound damping material. I had my desktop in a very open HAF922 case, but it was too loud. I swapped everything into a Define Mini... and not only did the noise go away, but I have better thermal efficiency (lower CPU temps.) Much depends on the airflow through the case, positive case pressure is a must. I won't ever build in an open case like the HAF again.

 

[Ibrihim]

Thanks to all. I am hoping to make my own case , so choosing a lining is a problem. I've even been thinking of a sealed copper case full of light mineral oil. My own oil filled radiator.There are many examples of computers in an oil filled perspex fish tank . Can I rely on the psu and cpu fans giving enough circulation and of course how will the fan bearings last in such liquid? Looking at the price of copper and oil it wont be cheap. As I am retired I have got time.

 

[Aikouka]

I thought about doing something kind of like that. My idea was to build the structural part of the case (the "frame") out of copper tubing, which has valves (to change flow) and G1/4 plugs in various locations. The only negative aspect would be that in some cases, you would have excessive tubing lengths, but since they're made of metal, they will somewhat help dissipate heat. They shouldn't be as effective as a radiator though since the fins on the radiator increase the surface area used to dissipate heat.

Although, my metalworking skills are not very good, so it never went anywhere other than my mind!

 

[Ibrihim]

Thanks Mr A , I'm ok with metal but although the posts I've seen promise to say how the fans last they have not. I am currently playing with a Biostar Intel NM70I-1037U
which is very cool (temps and all round) and see it as a good candidate. I am hoping with the mother board at the top of the SFF tower I build under a copper top and sides no tubing will be needed. I guess I'll have to drown a psu and see how it does maybe I can trick it to behave like it s under some load.

 

[PliotronX]

Holy crap chassis out of copper and oil plz post pics of the project

 

[Ibrihim]

Holy crap chassis out of copper and oil plz post pics of the project

I will, but probably not till Easter. I'm still looking at oil and its corrosive effect on rubber , cabling and can a fan tolerate viscosity. On a positive note none of my now adult kids show any sign of perishing and they were often smothered in baby oil and that was mineral based. I intend to get "seasonally adjusted" over the next few weeks which will slow things down.

 

[Ibrihim]

Sorry I should have mentioned simply typing "pc powersupply in oil" on Google was my starting point. I want the case to be the pump free radiator.

 

[smackababy]

I thought about doing something kind of like that. My idea was to build the structural part of the case (the "frame") out of copper tubing, which has valves (to change flow) and G1/4 plugs in various locations. The only negative aspect would be that in some cases, you would have excessive tubing lengths, but since they're made of metal, they will somewhat help dissipate heat. They shouldn't be as effective as a radiator though since the fins on the radiator increase the surface area used to dissipate heat.

Although, my metalworking skills are not very good, so it never went anywhere other than my mind!

Couldn't you effectively build the fins in though? If most of the structure of your case were copper pipes and the normal fan slots were radiators, wouldn't it have the a similar effect? The problem would be that it isn't exactly extendable. However, if you take a rather large case that has say 9 fans and make them all a radiator, you'd likely be okay for quite some time.

 

[smackababy]

Sorry I should have mentioned simply typing "pc powersupply in oil" on Google was my starting point. I want the case to be the pump free radiator.

You can't have a pump free radiator. You can, but it wouldn't be very good. The point of a radiator (and a heatsink) is to remove heat from the source and transfer it away (generally to the outside environment via air or water).

What you're looking for, I believe, is a passive cooling case (the case itself serves as the heat sink). I don't believe these work very well for dispersing much heat.

 

[Ibrihim]

Thanks Smackababy, as it seems the fans on power supply and cpu will work in oil I was hoping they might provide enough movement internally to not use a pump. Using a board with a Intel NM70I-1037U and ssd I'm thinking there won't be a lot of power/heat to deal with. The thermal properties of oil will not be as useful air or water but heat still rises. Then again I would not put my i5 2550k and gtx 660 in oil then overclock but maybe one day.
I've got an itx board and a sff power supply so the casing would be small and the volume of oil would be small. If I contour the case there may be only an inch or so of oil between heat source and fan and the outer copper case. And sorry I hit bold again.

 

[Blain]

I've even been thinking of a sealed copper case full of light mineral oil.

I hate fan noise, pump noise and spending money.

Forget the copper/oil option.

 

[serpretetsky]

the Intel Celeron 847 is a very low power processor.

Are you looking for cheap effective cooling solutions or crazy out of this world cooling solutions?

If you're looking for cheap and effective I would strongly consider some combination of large heatsinks, ultra quiet 120mm fan(s), ultra quiet PSU, and a case with good airflow. If you do the right combination of these, you probably wont hear much from your computer.

You might even be able to go full passive if you choose the right cases and heatsink

 

[Ibrihim]

I agree on the noise. At the moment I've screwed it all on to piece of A4 size plywood and I cannot hear it at all. The 300w Fsp sff power supply and SSD are also inaudible to me.Ive played simple bench marks and temperature logs. As there seems enough amps left over from the motherboard/cpu and ssd I've even run a 768mb gtx460 on it. Its not in a closed case and temps are very low , without the noisy video card. I could not make up my mind on a sub £100 mini itx case. I thought what I could build for £100 , now I'm up to my neck in oil. I guess I'm edging towards crazy

 

[Blain]

I guess I'm edging towards crazy

Sverre Sjøthun is already there with Project Stealth Cooling.

 

[Ibrihim]

Thank you Blain, I don't feel so crazy now. In fact my plans now seem between coy and modest. Having decided to build my own case I find I am not sure what I want from it. Features I know want are, quiet,small and novel. So quiet- acoustic material , water or air or fan less. Small, all components on the same level or stacked a cube a rectangle or an old video player case (vintage transistor radio case etc etc) Novel well so far oil cooled. Finally onboard graphics suck though hats off to AMD. Video cards are big and hot ,even if low profile and passive . I have an asus 1gb nvidea 610 in my HTPC and what does it need 1gb for? The web thank heaven is full of homemade "novelty" cases, the more I look the more choice I see.

 

[HeXen]

Quiet computing comes from quiet methods of cooling. Sound deadening it only hinders the cooling part requiring better cooling and exhaust and of course every tiny hole, intake and exhaust will pass that noise right on through.
Damping is really only good if you have vibrating metal.

 

[Ibrihim]

Thanks HeXen, its that sort of truth made me look at sealed light oil. While I feel the low power rig I've got on plywood will be fine immersed I wonder how a real desktop cpu would do. I do like the idea of using the case to absorb and radiate heat. After all really I'm building a toy as I've got my main machine Ive got an htpc and I've got a socket 775 and a 1155 crude test rig for family problems. Although I can only describe my self as a "fitter" not a computer engineer. This is all new ground to me.

 

[Ibrihim]

My son has just pointed out they already make cases that absorb and radiate heat- they're called laptops.

 

[Blain]

My son has just pointed out they already make cases that absorb and radiate heat- they're called laptops.

Zalman had a fanless case... TNN 500AF

 

[Ibrihim]

Can't see it in my living room, and it sorts the quiet bit. What I would like is someone to tell me they've had a sandy bridge i3 running in oil for 2 years now,or similar

 

[HeXen]

I used to want to make one using an Aquarium. Though I would think it would be pretty messy if you had to swap out any parts.

I found this post from here discussing dead silent aquarium PC, just thought it might contain some valuable info for the OP: http://www.instructables.com/id/Mineral-Oil-Submerged-PC/

Malkaris says: 2 months agoReply
I've got a machine I've been running submerged for a while. A few observations
1. The oil never "wicked" up the wires, I suppose in some special case it might, but I never experienced it.
2. Depending on the watts you may not need external radiators to cool the oil. As a server under light load it would hold a temperature (a little warm but it was safe)
3. Don't try phosphorescent powder, it's too dense to stay suspended
4. Never had any problem, I use it for ASIC bitcoin mining and CPU litecoin mining
5. For the CPU mining I added a small (very small) aquarium pump with a pair of oil radiators striped from a Ford Explorer, they word well to quietly cool the system.

The best way to think of oil cooling is a universal heat-exchange adapter. The oil nicely takes heat from your device and transfers it to where you'd rather the heat go. So if you've got a 1000 watt PSU, if you use a large enough (1BTU/hr ~= 0.3Watt) radiator to "balance the equation"

 

[Ibrihim]

I think a copper mini tower about 200 mm high with a window in the front. But it will have to wait till after Christmas. It's doable but I want the psu and cpu fans the only thing moving the liquid no pumps. I assume if the towers top is too hot to touch then some thing is frying inside. Maybe a tropical aquarium thermometer would look ok through the polycarbonate. Many thanks.