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Why are OEM systems so quiet?

N

NTB

Diamond Member
What am I missing here - my uncle has a P4 Gateway and my girlfriend's family recently got a P4-based Dell. Both are dead silent. How can the systems be so quiet and still manage not to cook themselves to death from overheating? I love building my own systems, but the fact that these computers are so quiet makes it awful tempting to go with an OEM system next time I want to do a major upgrade (system overhaul). At the very least, I'd love to know what tricks they use to keep them so quiet; maybe I can use this info to quiet my existing system down. And yes, I realize I'm comparing a P4 to an Athlon XP; but at similar speeds the difference in the amount of heat they give off can't be that big, can it?

Well, This answered my question about heat (from this thread):

Nate
 
I just put together a new system for myself last night and this box is silent. The noise it makes is the floppy drive polling at bootup and the Cd spin up.
 
Originally posted by: DrJohnMarkway
I just put together a new system for myself last night and this box is silent. The noise it makes is the floppy drive polling at bootup and the Cd spin up.
Click to expand...

Based on what? Intel P4 or AMD AthlonXP/Barton?

Nate
 
OEMs use a HUGE heatsink, and normally just 1 large, slow fan, which has it's own duct directly onto the CPU.

They also don't worry about it being too hot, if it works, it works, no matter how hot it gets (within manufacturer's limits, of course)

We could achieve the same with a large, slow, quiet fan, and a nice big heatsink. You can get a nice Alpha HS for Intel or AMD, and put a 80mm Panaflo on there, and you won't be able to hear it!


Confused
 
Dell's explanation is that they spend a lot of R&D on meeting some swedish guidelines regarding noise pollution and EMI shielding particularly in business settings. With that, they are required to build quiet systems for the corporate desktop, but the tradeoff is often that they will use proprietary designs in order achieve the low noise while providing proper airflow (as required by intel's guideline) while using passive cooling over the cpu, in their system designs. see the current dimension and optiplex line - note the huge duct over the massive heatsink, and only a low rpm 92 or 120mm exhaust fan. that's one of the main reason they achieve such low noise levels. they also use plastic drive rails and plastic case/side panels over the aluminum and steel chassis.

say what you want about dells, but their engineering (low noise, proper airflow, low emi) and industrial design is actually very good.
 
Originally posted by: NTB
Originally posted by: DrJohnMarkway
I just put together a new system for myself last night and this box is silent. The noise it makes is the floppy drive polling at bootup and the Cd spin up.
Click to expand...

Based on what? Intel P4 or AMD AthlonXP/Barton?



Nate
Click to expand...


P4 with Intel stock heatsink and fan. Antec Sonata case with 120MM Panflo for intake. Seagate Baracuda 4. Retail Radeon 9700 Pro

 
Originally posted by: DrJohnMarkway
Originally posted by: NTB
Originally posted by: DrJohnMarkway
I just put together a new system for myself last night and this box is silent. The noise it makes is the floppy drive polling at bootup and the Cd spin up.
Click to expand...

Based on what? Intel P4 or AMD AthlonXP/Barton?



Nate
Click to expand...


P4 with Intel stock heatsink and fan. Antec Sonata case with 120MM Panflo for intake. Seagate Baracuda 4. Retail Radeon 9700 Pro
Click to expand...

Is that the 9700 Pro Sapphire with the massive heatsink? Otherwise I thought they were supposed to be a bit noisy.
 
Originally posted by: pukemon
Dell's explanation is that they spend a lot of R&D on meeting some swedish guidelines regarding noise pollution and EMI shielding particularly in business settings. With that, they are required to build quiet systems for the corporate desktop, but the tradeoff is often that they will use proprietary designs in order achieve the low noise while providing proper airflow (as required by intel's guideline) while using passive cooling over the cpu, in their system designs. see the current dimension and optiplex line - note the huge duct over the massive heatsink, and only a low rpm 92 or 120mm exhaust fan. that's one of the main reason they achieve such low noise levels. they also use plastic drive rails and plastic case/side panels over the aluminum and steel chassis.

say what you want about dells, but their engineering (low noise, proper airflow, low emi) and industrial design is actually very good.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I give em the props. Their newest cases are quite the engineering achievment. Especially the optiplexes and precisions. If I got to actually design my own case from the ground up I'd have a much easier time building it quiet too.
 
Originally posted by: Smilin
Originally posted by: pukemon
Dell's explanation is that they spend a lot of R&D on meeting some swedish guidelines regarding noise pollution and EMI shielding particularly in business settings. With that, they are required to build quiet systems for the corporate desktop, but the tradeoff is often that they will use proprietary designs in order achieve the low noise while providing proper airflow (as required by intel's guideline) while using passive cooling over the cpu, in their system designs. see the current dimension and optiplex line - note the huge duct over the massive heatsink, and only a low rpm 92 or 120mm exhaust fan. that's one of the main reason they achieve such low noise levels. they also use plastic drive rails and plastic case/side panels over the aluminum and steel chassis.

say what you want about dells, but their engineering (low noise, proper airflow, low emi) and industrial design is actually very good.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I give em the props. Their newest cases are quite the engineering achievment. Especially the optiplexes and precisions. If I got to actually design my own case from the ground up I'd have a much easier time building it quiet too.
Click to expand...


They also only use 1 case fan + the PS fan.

No active cooling on the CPU, just ducting.

amish
 
Confused has it right. The OEMs do not care about CPU temperature, as long as they design a system that maintains the CPU temp under the 70 degree C. limit. They only have to make the CPU last as long as the warranty, and the Dell base warranty is only 1 year. This is not a case of fantastic engineering, this is engineering exquisitely matched to the warranty and the European noise specifications.
 
Um, this is pretty easy to figure out... noise is going to come from 3 sources, CPU fan, PS fan, and videocard fan. Find a HSF with a bigger HS and slower rpm fan. Find a lower powered PS, with a more silent fan. And find a videocard with a more silent fan.

And perhaps get a decent case.
 
Originally posted by: stranger707
Confused has it right. The OEMs do not care about CPU temperature, as long as they design a system that maintains the CPU temp under the 70 degree C. limit. They only have to make the CPU last as long as the warranty, and the Dell base warranty is only 1 year. This is not a case of fantastic engineering, this is engineering exquisitely matched to the warranty and the European noise specifications.
Click to expand...
If you are inferring that Dell or Gateway only expects (or cares that) their PC's make it to the warranty period, you are dead wrong. If they only lasted to the warranty, they would never be as successful as they are. Their PC's last for years.

I think the answer to the question that enthusiasts tend to overkill. You don't need multiple case fans, you don't need a 550w PSU, you don't need a high speed cpu fan, etc...

I have a P4-2.8ghz, Radeon 9700, 2 hd's, 2 optical drives, etc... All running on a Lite-on 250w PSU, and no case fans. Is the cpu running 3F warmer than it would if I added more fans? I don't know, nor do I care. I don't even have an app running that would tell me. The system is stable, and quite fast, and that's all that matters. 🙂

But it's really not that hard to build a quiet system. Just use quality, quiet fans and only the bare minimum.
 
Most of the time the 'noise' is coming from high end video lately....those little high rpm turners on the GPU are noticible to me over my ultra quiet 80mm case/cpu fans.

Also cheap power supplies have cheap fans and that is a lot of noise...I was working on my dad's PIII-450 and the noise was killing me....noticed it all coming from the PS.

A quick R&R and my dad didn't even know his PC was turned on.

Also like Wing said...only use what you need....if a CPU runs ok at 40C and you can get it to 37C with 10 case fans you just wasted about $80 and unknown noise amounts. 😉
 
Originally posted by: stranger707
Confused has it right. The OEMs do not care about CPU temperature, as long as they design a system that maintains the CPU temp under the 70 degree C. limit. They only have to make the CPU last as long as the warranty, and the Dell base warranty is only 1 year. This is not a case of fantastic engineering, this is engineering exquisitely matched to the warranty and the European noise specifications.
Click to expand...

No, their recommended warranty is a 3 year period. For workstations and servers, only an IT idiot would get anything less than their MAXIMUM warranty of 5 years.

My Dell with a Northwood P4 runs at about ~55C at load. Well under the magical 70C limitation.
 
OEM computers quiet??? HAH! You obviously have never heard a server!

Nothing beats hearing the sound of the beast with special sound proof enclosure removed starting up...

You can make a very quiet system (both AMD or Intel based) as noted earlier. Of course, these OEM computers are NOT OVERCLOCKED either!

-DAK-
 
My video card is the loudest part of my system. I'm thinking about getting a fanless Radeon 9000. I actually took out my Geforce 2 GTS with fan and replaced it with and old Voodoo3 for a while just to hear what the difference would be. I put the Geforce 2 back in, but man, my computer was quiet for a while.
 
Originally posted by: shuttleteam
OEM computers quiet??? HAH! You obviously have never heard a server!

Nothing beats hearing the sound of the beast with special sound proof enclosure removed starting up...

You can make a very quiet system (both AMD or Intel based) as noted earlier. Of course, these OEM computers are NOT OVERCLOCKED either!

-DAK-
Click to expand...

I think he meant workstations 😉

The Compaq's at work use active cooling, but they're dead quiet as well.

The DL360 G3 servers we have though...noisest little bests I've ever heard, you can hear through the 10cm thick steel in the server room door.
Not to mention our colocation site, a room packed with some 20x50 racks full of computer, and still, we can listen our way to our racks 😕
 
There's nothing like the whine of hundreds of 10k disks coming from a server room!

Better yet, IBM 10k disks that make that recal noise ever minute and a half! Damn that sound is nuckin' futs!

-DAK-
 
I built my system myself, and it's so quiet I can't hear it. I use: Inwin S500 case, P4 Celeron with retail fan, ECS P4S5A/DX+ board, nVidia reference GF2MX as a graphics card and a Seagate B4 hardrive. I got only 2 fans in my whole system and it's quiet! I used to have an Athlon 1800+ system, but I couldn't bear it with it's Volcano 8SE mothercrapping HSF, it was terrible. Intel is significantly slower but it's also much quieter so I don't care.
 
Thanks for all the replies, everybody. In my quest for a quieter case (and as a result of a discussion in the Cases & Coolling forum), I'm considering getting this case over the summer, and dropping a couple 120mm Panaflo L1As in it over the summer.

Edit: looks like I may have to use Vantec Stealths or something else...The page I linked to says the case uses 120x25mm fans. Panaflos are 38mm thick, correct? Guess I could still use a panaflo as an exhaust fan.

Nate
 
Electric Amish....there is active cooling on the Dell heatsink. It's in the form of a very large exhaust fan at the end of the duct on the back of the case. This may be a semantic matter, but I consider that to be active cooling
 

get a rheostat to slow your fans. use large fans at low rpm. windows are nice but probably leak sound. you can pack your case with acoustic foam and dampening material since most cases aren't as thick or as sealed as oem cases.


and yea many computer enthusiests really overcool their systems.


i've seen mod sites showing how to isolate fans from the cases using rubber grommits to reduce vibration noise etc. not sure how much that helps.

my case is plastic over metal, probably muffles sound a little better. also i packed accoustic foam everywhere i could fit it. only annoying thing is the antec sl350 supposed variable fan speed psu. it doesn't slow down much from what i've seen. onyl solution would be psu fan muffler from this thread maybe i'll try that eventually🙂
 
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