Last week we alluded to quiet computers when we discussed cooling. Noise and fans go hand in hand. The top culprits are power supply fans, CPU fans, and case fans.
Admittedly, my computer sounds like a fan. At least these days it is less noisy than the floor fan I use to cool the room in the summer or the fan on the electric heater that I use to help heat the room in the winter. My trade off is that I'm willing to accept a little noise to keep the component cost down and the case as cool as possible.
Other than a owning a power supply with thermally based fan control and making the effort to buy quality case fans with "normal" dB ratings (about 28 dB), I've made no particular effort to quiet my PC. It can be expensive to buy quiet components. Is it worth it? Well, if your computer is noisy enough so that you are aware of it, or it bothers you, you may need to start working on it. Also, a media PC in a living room may need better quieting than the ubiquitous beige office box.
I've gathered a collection of links with some good information about quieting your computer:
SilentPCReview.com Everything about Silent - Quiet Computing
Wired News Is It On Building Silent PCs
TechTV Yoshi's Mods Project YS-2
Quiet PC USA Article - How to Silence a Computer
Good luck. If you have built or are building a quiet computer we'd like to hear about it.
© 2004 Gail Allinson
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