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Quiet Computer Help - from the ground up

L

Loco3KGT

Senior member
I'm sorry if this topic has been beaten to death. But I haven't found any threads that cover as many parts as I'm trying to. But even if I did, I'd still want feedback 🙂

I'm looking to build a new computer, powered by a P4 2.5GHz.

[*]I haven't found any reviews on quiet P4 hsf's, just AMDs. Any recommendations?
[*]Sony/Lite-On/Plextor for quiet optical disc drives. (need CD/RW and a DVD-ROM)
[*]Panaflo sounds like the best quiet case fans.
[*]Then Seagate Barracuda ST380021A for the HD

As for the case, I haven't found what I'm looking for and this is what I need the most input on. I don't need a monster case. I've only got two disc drives (i don't intend to have a floppy, does XP Pro require a floppy?). I don't 8 cubic feet of storage. So max of 4 internal and 3 external bays (4 if a floppy is on it)

And I don't need 1.21-gigawatts to power it. I just need the lack of noise. So for the power supply i'm thinking TruePower (330watt i reckon, can't find a lower wattage).

Are there many other things I can do to quiet the case after that?
 
With respect to finding a quiet HSF for your P4, you might want to try going for a really good copper based heat sink that supports 80mm fans, then you can put a quiet fan on top. Also, you might want to try a Zalman ZM-80HP or ZM-50HP to get rid of your vid card fan. Also look for a mobo that's doesn't have a fan on the north bridge. The truepower is great when it comes to quiet operation, but I do thinkg that Zalman offers an even quieter solution. I can't confirm this.

Personally, if what you're looking for is a quiet computer, I'd go for a Dell. I'm in a lab full of optiplex's and can't even tell that they are on. Seriously, I'm not exagerating - they are quieter than a whisper.
 
Here is a case you might consider:
Fong Kai FK-603 Directron is the place to buy them if you are interested.

Also, I recently saw some relatively cheap sound deadener on sale at SV Compucycle, that might be worth a look.
Akasa Paxmate

I'm on my own quest to build a quiet PC. I have the Fong Kai with an Enermax Whisper 350 power supply, and I replaced all internal case fans with Panaflo L1a's. I also have as Alpha PAL8045 heatsink, which is reputed to work well with low speed fans. But I am building an AMD system.

Good luck,

Dan
 
I appreciate all of the feedback so far. I found a heatsink for the P4 that is completely passive. Claims to work on the P4's up to the 3GHz. My current dual G4 powermac is completely passive cooling so I have faith that this will work (yea yea entirely different processors, and even heatsink material, but a proof of concept).

The Fong Kai looks like a potential winner. Not too ugly, holds enough stuff, and quiet. Don't know how I feel about doing a dynamat equivalent of stuff for a PC. If the noises turn out to be from a lot of vibration, then no question. But we'll see.

Thanks for everyone's input so far. I found out the reason I didn't really find much was because Cases and Cooling was the forum I should have been searching in, instead of general hardware.
 
All I can say is do not get a Liteon DVD drive.... mine is easily the loudest part of my computer, it is VERY loud.
 
If you're not going to overclock and are satisfied with merely adequate CPU cooling (i.e. enough to keep the system stable), then you could consider the Arctic Cooling Super Silent 4 TC heatsink from SVC.

I'm using one on my 2.53GHz P4, and most of the time the heatsink functions passively -- the fan only begins to spin after the system is under heavy load for several minutes. This does result in what many here would consider high temps, but they're still within spec and are sufficient for a stable system. Even after heavy load for several hours (i.e. encoding MPEG videos) the fan still only has to spin at ~1600 rpm, and it's still quieter than a Panaflo L1A at that speed.
 
Actually it looks like the stats have changed. According to OCZ's website it's only up to 2GHz now. When it was initially released it said 3GHz (so the reviews I found said 3GHz). Spec changed confirmed on this forum.

OCZ passive hsf

So completely passive cooling is apparently out of the question. So thank you skriefal for the Arctic Cooling suggestion. Looks like I'll probably end up going with that.
 
Pretty good article. Thanks for the link! Unfortunately they left out CD/DVD drives. I reckon because they were focusing on idle quietness, or just overlooked it.
 
Originally posted by: murphy55d
All I can say is do not get a Liteon DVD drive.... mine is easily the loudest part of my computer, it is VERY loud.
Click to expand...

mine isn't as loud as my liteon CDRW. 😉 but a healthy dose of acoustical foam can help with that somewhat. helps tons with hard drive scream, too.
 
I was going to put a Radeon 9700 in mine. Honestly wasn't aware they even came with AGP ports, let alone had the internal capacity for a large card. Thanks for the update.
 
Originally posted by: thomsbrain
Originally posted by: murphy55d
All I can say is do not get a Liteon DVD drive.... mine is easily the loudest part of my computer, it is VERY loud.
Click to expand...

mine isn't as loud as my liteon CDRW. 😉 but a healthy dose of acoustical foam can help with that somewhat. helps tons with hard drive scream, too.
Click to expand...

I don't have any experience with the CDRW drives. My Plextor is pretty quiet.... but good lord, that DVD drive sounds like a damn jet engine spinning up.
 
I was going to put a Radeon 9700 in mine. Honestly wasn't aware they even came with AGP ports, let alone had the internal capacity for a large card. Thanks for the update.
Click to expand...

Not sure that you can beat the Shuttle ss51 for quiet. 🙂
 
Well, since my attempt at selling my PowerMac is going to fail, it seems that instead of getting to build a DVR (which is going to be a shuttle based computer) and a new PC, I only get to do the DVR :-( . Thanks to all that helped. I've kept a copy of everyones comments and if I ever do get the chance to build my "quiet" pc, I'll be sure to let everyone know the details.
 
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