Noise dampening/dust prevention/fans

[Keiron]

Hello all.

I was thinking about taping up the edges of my case in an effort to
deaden fan and harddisk noise whilst hopefully preventing dust entering
the case. Is this viable generally speaking?

Additionally I was thinking about adding noise damping material on the
inside of my case but not being prepared to pay the premium of commercial
products was thinking about completely DIY system. Any recommendation on
this? I had been thinking corrugated card treated with heatproof
embrocation of some description, or perhaps covered in duct tape?

Lastly, some questions on fan arrangement. I understand it's best to have
positive pressure inside the case as to keep heat and dust going in an
outward direction? This being the case what is the best configuration for
exhaust fans? If the exhaust moves less CFM than the intake fan does this
positive pressure on the exhaust fan have any negative effect? Would it
perhaps be best just to have just an intake and no exhaust fan? Equally
if I get a jet of an exhaust fan and an intake fan of less CFM, would the
exhaust fan be strong enough to create the positive pressure inside the
case by sucking the air though the case?

Your views and comments appreciated.

 

[Paul]

Hello all.

I was thinking about taping up the edges of my case in an effort to
deaden fan and harddisk noise whilst hopefully preventing dust entering
the case. Is this viable generally speaking?

Additionally I was thinking about adding noise damping material on the
inside of my case but not being prepared to pay the premium of commercial
products was thinking about completely DIY system. Any recommendation on
this? I had been thinking corrugated card treated with heatproof
embrocation of some description, or perhaps covered in duct tape?

Lastly, some questions on fan arrangement. I understand it's best to have
positive pressure inside the case as to keep heat and dust going in an
outward direction? This being the case what is the best configuration for
exhaust fans? If the exhaust moves less CFM than the intake fan does this
positive pressure on the exhaust fan have any negative effect? Would it
perhaps be best just to have just an intake and no exhaust fan? Equally
if I get a jet of an exhaust fan and an intake fan of less CFM, would the
exhaust fan be strong enough to create the positive pressure inside the
case by sucking the air though the case?

Your views and comments appreciated.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article32-page1.html

One way to house a PC, is with a heatpipe cooled case. (Use a Flash enabled browser)

http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?Idx=186

The case is not completely sealed, as there should still be
convection cooling for things not equipped with heatpipes.
And ventilation holes can still allow noise to escape from the
PC, such as from the hard drive. An SSD drive can fix that.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article302-page1.html

While I wouldn't buy one, here is an example of an SSD
drive with 512GB capacity. There are smaller drives that
might make more sense.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609415

A lower capacity SSD. Based on SLC flash chips (better than MLC in
terms of write cycles). To understand the compromises better,
you need to see review articles that compare multiple drives,
and the controller chip internally they're based on.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16820167014

In terms of "intake only" versus "exhaust only" fan strategy, I've tried
both. I think my exhaust only case had more dust in it. The "intake only"
is cleaner right now. Neither case uses dust filters. The "intake only"
case, blows air over the hard drives first, so they get the best cooling
that way.

Analysing multiple fan designs is a bit difficult, as one fan can
overpower another. For example, on one computer case with multiple
fans, I had a fan where the air moved *backwards* through the fan,
because another fan was stronger than it was. Depending on what
you're doing, air can also end up flowing backwards through the
power supply.

The exhaust fan will product negative pressure - otherwise, the air
would not be trying to flow out via that fan.

Making computers "noiseless" is largely a waste of time. When one
source is suppressed, then another becomes apparent and annoying.
This is the "masking" effect of human hearing. Human hearing also
has a tremendous dynamic range, so you can spend increasing amounts
of money, to get quiet. And, and the same time, as the case is
sealed up, the amount of power dissipation that can be handled,
drops. So you cannot use your Nvidia GTX 285, your quad core
processor at over 3GHz and so on. It is too much to expect,
for them to be cooled with no noise.

You could build a case in an aquarium, fill the case with Fluorinert,
and Fluorinert has a high dielectric breakdown strength. I have no
idea what the steady state temperature would be, using a fluid like
that. The hard drive cannot be immersed in Fluorinert, because of
the breather hole. But an SSD drive might work OK, as it uses
flash memory, and doesn't have a breather hole like a regular
hard drive. It would take perhaps $750.00 to $1000.00 worth
of Fluorinert, to fill the casing.

This article gives an example. They don't appear to have immersed
the hard drive. The mistake they made, was mixing liquid nitrogen
in the picture, for a cooling loop. The Fluorinert has a freezing
point, and they managed to achieve it with their setup.

http://www.octools.com/index.cgi?caller=articles/submersion/submersion16.html

http://www.octools.com/index.cgi?caller=articles/submersion/submersion3.html

What you'd want perhaps, is a metal box to hold the Fluorinert,
and the metal box to have fins for enhanced air cooling. And then,
to think up a means to hold the hard drive or the CDROM drive.
The metal box should have a lid, so that the Fluorinert is kept
clean.

Paul

 

[ElJerid]

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article32-page1.html

One way to house a PC, is with a heatpipe cooled case. (Use a Flash
enabled browser)

http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?Idx=186

The case is not completely sealed, as there should still be
convection cooling for things not equipped with heatpipes.
And ventilation holes can still allow noise to escape from the
PC, such as from the hard drive. An SSD drive can fix that.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article302-page1.html

While I wouldn't buy one, here is an example of an SSD
drive with 512GB capacity. There are smaller drives that
might make more sense.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609415

A lower capacity SSD. Based on SLC flash chips (better than MLC in
terms of write cycles). To understand the compromises better,
you need to see review articles that compare multiple drives,
and the controller chip internally they're based on.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16820167014

In terms of "intake only" versus "exhaust only" fan strategy, I've tried
both. I think my exhaust only case had more dust in it. The "intake only"
is cleaner right now. Neither case uses dust filters. The "intake only"
case, blows air over the hard drives first, so they get the best cooling
that way.

Analysing multiple fan designs is a bit difficult, as one fan can
overpower another. For example, on one computer case with multiple
fans, I had a fan where the air moved *backwards* through the fan,
because another fan was stronger than it was. Depending on what
you're doing, air can also end up flowing backwards through the
power supply.

The exhaust fan will product negative pressure - otherwise, the air
would not be trying to flow out via that fan.

Making computers "noiseless" is largely a waste of time. When one
source is suppressed, then another becomes apparent and annoying.
This is the "masking" effect of human hearing. Human hearing also
has a tremendous dynamic range, so you can spend increasing amounts
of money, to get quiet. And, and the same time, as the case is
sealed up, the amount of power dissipation that can be handled,
drops. So you cannot use your Nvidia GTX 285, your quad core
processor at over 3GHz and so on. It is too much to expect,
for them to be cooled with no noise.

You could build a case in an aquarium, fill the case with Fluorinert,
and Fluorinert has a high dielectric breakdown strength. I have no
idea what the steady state temperature would be, using a fluid like
that. The hard drive cannot be immersed in Fluorinert, because of
the breather hole. But an SSD drive might work OK, as it uses
flash memory, and doesn't have a breather hole like a regular
hard drive. It would take perhaps $750.00 to $1000.00 worth
of Fluorinert, to fill the casing.

This article gives an example. They don't appear to have immersed
the hard drive. The mistake they made, was mixing liquid nitrogen
in the picture, for a cooling loop. The Fluorinert has a freezing
point, and they managed to achieve it with their setup.

http://www.octools.com/index.cgi?caller=articles/submersion/submersion16.html

http://www.octools.com/index.cgi?caller=articles/submersion/submersion3.html

What you'd want perhaps, is a metal box to hold the Fluorinert,
and the metal box to have fins for enhanced air cooling. And then,
to think up a means to hold the hard drive or the CDROM drive.
The metal box should have a lid, so that the Fluorinert is kept
clean.

Paul

In addition to Paul' s extended explanations...
For me, dust prevention is important. If your case has no built-in filters,
dust will accumulate rapidly at the worst places: on the fans and between
the cooler fins and result in temperature increase of key components.
I solved this for a great part by cutting and placing kitchen furnace
filters between the case and the front fans (just room enough in my Antec
Nine hundred cases).
While previously I had to "blow" my PC every 2 months, now I can easily
wait 12 months. Only "problem" is that I have to dismount the front panel to
clean the filters.