PC noise

[JS]

Hi all

It seems to me that if you're bothered by PC noise you get a pretty raw
deal in today's market.

You either have to get a very weak mini-ITX system or pay the earth for
something exotic like the Hush ATX.

On the other hand, you could buy a bunch of noise reduction stuff from
Nexus and Zalman with so-so results and at large extra expense but why
is any of this necessary in the first place?

Surely the technology exists right now to make computing quiet? Is there
any need for my PC's fans to be whirring away when I'm doing something
as undemanding as reading a webpage? Surely with advancements in
low-power mobile hardware and heatpipes we could scrap noisy cooling
once and for all for undemanding work? Why is making a quiet, fanless
system still such a big deal?

The truth is, I don't believe enough people are making a stink about
noise for the manufacturers to take notice and start addressing this
problem, so noise issues never factor into the hardware vendors' equations.

For example, my notebook is silent for maybe 20 minutes from a cold boot
if I'm not doing anything CPU-intensive. I imagine it wouldn't take much
to keep the chassis fan off +completely+ for lite work, but because
there's no will to make this happen that fan comes on and it makes a lot
of noise.

Another example: My friend recently bought an external USB HDD and the
noise it makes is astounding - it's caused by rapid vibration in the
case. Surely it would've been trivial to fix this but apparently nobody
cared.

I'd love to see noise issues gain some prominence in the mainstream. For
instance, I'd love to see manufacturers release noise data about their
systems as a matter of course.

Any thoughts on this (rambling) post anyone? What do you think of PC
noise and would you like to see changes?

 

[Bob]

Any thoughts on this (rambling) post anyone? What do you think of PC
noise and would you like to see changes?

Build your own machine using quiet components.

For example, Panaflo fans.
http://www.directron.com/80l1a.html

WD drives are quiet too.

 

[Livewire]

Build your own machine

Yes, but you should't have to do it yourself hush to get a bit of hush.
I agree with the OP.

 

[Bob]

Yes, but you should't have to do it yourself hush to get a bit of hush.

Actually as a practical matter you do have to build your own machine
because that's the only way you can select quiet components. The
manufacturers don't care about your sensitivity to noise - all they
care about is how much crap they can put in their crap machines.

It is so easy to build your own machine, if you are willing to do your
homework and ask your favorite vendor for assistance.

I agree with the OP.

I do too, in the sense that noisy computers are a real bummer.