Help me build a super quiet computer.

[txxxx]

Originally posted by: theNEOone
ok best advice is get a dell.

dell=cheapo and silent
christ, they're selling $600 2.2 ghz nicely equipped systems - and this price includes an LCD!!!


and trust me on the silent part. i work in a lab full of dells. they are DEAD fvcking silent.

So true.

 

[FishTankX]

Generally speaking, here would be my reccomendation.

If you want *dead* silent... get an older C3.. like this with a large heatsink.. like this, but rip off the fan. It'll run fanless. and a motherboard like this.. C3 integrated video DDR motherboard.

Then just get a baracuda ATAIV harddrive (quietest harddrive known to man.) and this powersupply and near any generic ATX case you can find, and you have a completly silent computer. (Fan will never come on, trust me. This system will have a max powerdraw of like.. 60 watts)

 

[FishTankX]

Oh, and just to be sure about cooling (the powersupply fan not coming on might have slightly detrimental effects on your case airflow) get two of These. One for intake, one for exhaust. They won't add up to much noise at all. (Certainley much quieter than the baracuda IV.

 

[vegetation]

Originally posted by: Marshallj
Those new Shuttle mini systems are pretty quiet. They use a heat pipe or something like that.

They are not quiet at all. In fact, it may be one of the noisiest systems you'll come across. The hideous 40mm power supply fan that spins at insane rpm levels is what's responsible. Granted, you can heavily modify the case to shoehorn an 80mm fan into it, but it's a difficult mod. Oh, and don't even think about lowering the rpm level of the 40mm fan or taking it out completely, it's a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[Techno Pride]

I have a LianLi mini tower that takes a fullsized ATX mobo.

Dual intake fans at lowest speed
Coolermaster 80mm processor fan
Geforce 256ddr default fan
Antec Truepower 430
Barracuda IV HDD

Plenty quiet. Prob a "tad" bigger in size than those Shuttles, but I can't afford them

 

[Jhhnn]

For your purposes, one of the lower end dells would work just fine. They're not silent, but they are *very* quiet.

If you want to build it, you need to understand that for what you want, the via board and processor mentioned by FishTankX would be an excellent choice. Their 1gig processor definitely has the power to do what you want. Add a fanless zalman heatsink, or an aavid cooler from siliconacoustics, for example. buy some fan isolators and one of their ultra quiet 80mm case fans, while you're there. the 80mm panaflo will operate at 7v rather than 12, if it's too loud for your tastes.

I only know of one vendor for the right case/psu combo- casedepot carries the liteon st050 w/ ultra quiet seasonic psu. It's plain jane, but it breathes well, and may not even require a case fan with the via system. You don't need 300w, but you do need the ultra quiet fan, and this is one of the better buys. Beware of cheap psu's- they make up for lack of beefy heatsinks with lots of airflow using noisy fans....

Check storagereview.com for quiet hdd's- a 5400 rpm model will do what you need. Several outfits sell the silentdrive enclosures, or similar, if you want to spend the money for one. Most 7200rpm drives run too hot for these enclosures.

Getting significantly quieter than this will cost mucho dinero- Check out the fanless psu from siliconacoustics, for example, and solid state storage drives are available, at exorbitant cost..... That Hush ITX looks nice, except for the price.....

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

1.2 tualatin celery - $45
sk6+ - $10
nmb fans - $2/each
seagate barracuda for a hdd, too lazy to look for a price

cheap, and extremely quiet.

 

[human2k]

Go to SVC.com and pickup a Five pack of NBM 18DBA 18CFM 80MM fans, add a good thermalright heatsink. And you got yourself a dead quiet rig.

 

[lowtech1]

Originally posted by: GermyBoy

Originally posted by: lowtech
Built a diskless station with disk-on-chip & solid state memory. Get any CPU of your choice and under clock it. I have built disk-on-chip systems for firewalls that is about 1/4 of a note book size from 225~750mhz, and they were noiseless due to no moving part with very quick boot time (as low 10 sec with linux).

Details of this anywhere? I wanna take a look. PICS?

I can't give you the pics of the machine I built, because it was for my former employer. However there are many embeded manufactures that make mico-pc board (some can bebuilt with monitor that is about the same size as a pack of cigarette.

EMJ Embeded System (so far I only have dealt with this manufacture boards)

M-System (and, only have uses disk-on-chip dims & solid state memories from this manufacture)

VersaLogic Embedded Computer Products