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Topic: Computer noise driving me mad (Read 19494 times) previous topic - next topic
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Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #25 –
I have a GMC case which is built out of really thick steel plate (it's super heavy) and has rubber grommets on everything. Coupled with four 7 volted Vantec Stealth (I couldn't afford Panaflo or Pabst) case fans, a very quiet low speed cooler for my Athlon64 (Cool and Quiet is great) and a power supply converted to be ducted, it's very very quiet. You can hear it turn on, but the whole silencing endevour only cost me about R400 ($70 or so), so it didn't break the bank.

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #26 –
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Get a Zalman "flower" for your CPU and a quiet (Antec or Zalman) power supply.  Rubber grommets on everything.  This should help you get down to a "barely audible" state.
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Nexus Breeze came prefitted with really quiet [a href="http://www.nexustek.nl/nx3500.htm]NX-3500[/url] power supply and 120mm Real Silent case fan so I don't need to waste any more money with power supply or case fan. I've read Zalman has 30dB noise in normal and 20dB in silent mode compared to Nexus AXP-3200's 19dB. Of course these numbers are reported by the manufacturer and cannot be totally trusted... That being said anything below 30dB is much better than my current  out-of-the-box AMD fan (yuck!)

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #27 –
Thanks for various suggestions to use Mac/Laptop. Currently this is quite impossible as I have to use the computer in other things too. I hate to work with laptops and I'm having this love/hate relationship with Macs. When (if) I have larger apartment I may want to invest for another, dedicated HTPC. Now the use of two computers in one room strikes me a bit absurd. 

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #28 –
Software solutions:
*enable AAM on your hard drive
*use speedfan

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #29 –
Quote
Quote
Get a Zalman "flower" for your CPU and a quiet (Antec or Zalman) power supply.  Rubber grommets on everything.  This should help you get down to a "barely audible" state.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Nexus Breeze came prefitted with really quiet [a href="http://www.nexustek.nl/nx3500.htm]NX-3500[/url] power supply and 120mm Real Silent case fan so I don't need to waste any more money with power supply or case fan. I've read Zalman has 30dB noise in normal and 20dB in silent mode compared to Nexus AXP-3200's 19dB. Of course these numbers are reported by the manufacturer and cannot be totally trusted... That being said anything below 30dB is much better than my current  out-of-the-box AMD fan (yuck!)
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=332059"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


I recently measured a good deal of fans in an anecoic chamber, let me tell you, the manufactur-figures cannot be trusted at all, although one manufacturers 19 db usually is more quieter then anothers 24, even though both are louder (at 1 m). Nexus however seems to have less deflated numbers than many-others. I wish the began rating the sound-power, since that makes it much easier to compare.....

AtW

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #30 –
Quote
Software solutions:
*enable AAM on your hard drive
*use speedfan
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I know, use, and am happy with [a href="http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php]SpeedFan[/url], but... what is it AAM?

Thanks in advance.

Sergio
Sergio
M-Audio Delta AP + Revox B150 + (JBL 4301B | Sennheiser Amperior | Sennheiser HD598)

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #31 –
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what is it AAM?

Automatic Acoustic Management for hard drives.
You can enable it using IBM/Hitachi Feature Tool.

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #32 –
Quote
Quote
what is it AAM?

Automatic Acoustic Management for hard drives.
You can enable it using IBM/Hitachi Feature Tool.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=332104"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Thank-you for the quick answer.

I'm I right assuming this only works for IBM/Hitachi hard disks or may my Maxtors benefit of it?

Sergio
Sergio
M-Audio Delta AP + Revox B150 + (JBL 4301B | Sennheiser Amperior | Sennheiser HD598)

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #33 –
AAM doesn't work on seagate drive, not the SATA variant at least.

Why not knock up a new system?

A fanless mini-itx mobo
DC fanless PSU block
laptop HDD or install windows on a compact flash and access the files over a network.


There is nothing more silent than a system with no moving parts

have a gander at Mini-ITX and ultim8pc (if in uk)

Kristian

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #34 –
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I'm I right assuming this only works for IBM/Hitachi hard disks or may my Maxtors benefit of it?

It sometimes works with drives from other manufacturers. It works on my ATA seagate.

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #35 –
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This is bad news. While I cannot hear the compression/decompression (never even suspected this) I don't like the idea at all. I'm certain this 'feature' is not documented anywhere by Sony. Have you seen any discussion about this on any forum (here or elsewhere) or is this only your own judgment (I don't doubt it).[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=332056"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


I ripped a 5-minute-wavefile (A.wav) ... I did a loopback recording via my MD deck (playback and record at the same time via SPDIF) and compared it with a loopback recording from my my DAT deck (SONY DTC-790) ... a mix-paste in Soundforge came in handy to visualize differences.

The loopback recording from my DAT deck was absolutely bit-true whereas the loopback from my MD showed a lot of high frequency 'noise' which sounded like lossy encoding differences to me.

You can try to reproduce this experiment easily.

Back to topic ...

High CPU power and speedy HDD's equal the need for efficient cooling ... there simply is no universal workaround.
The name was Plex The Ripper, not Jack The Ripper

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #36 –
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Maybe I need to rethink the use of hard drive enclosure...  low noise hard drive and rubber grommets may be all I need. I'll buy the hard drive first and then decide if any additional dampening is necessary.

Both Seagate and Samsung are claiming to be really silent. Has anybody heard these side-by-side?

I'm too trying to 1) buy the most silent parts and only after that 2) to dampen the remaining noise.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=331940"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Rubber grommets...hmm, you have to know that the main way for HDD for riding off of heat is through the physical contact with teh case components...so grommets might mean higher temps which in turn might mean shorter longevity. However it's best to check in sepcs from manufacturer what are operational temperatures for your drive and see if yours aren't dangerously close...
My solution to all of this is very solid case.

And BTW, my Barracudas 7200.7 80GB are inaudible when not seeking...and personally, the solution to problem of "seeking noise" is adequate amount of RAM, because it means that when your drive DOES seek, it shouldn't be irritating at all.

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #37 –
My HD-s are hanging on shock cords. Difficult to get it right, but the result is that I have no seeking noise. It is heaven on Earth I can tell you!
My PC is super quiet. I might find some photos and post it here later.

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #38 –
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Rubber grommets...hmm, you have to know that the main way for HDD for riding off of heat is through the physical contact with teh case components...so grommets might mean higher temps which in turn might mean shorter longevity. However it's best to check in sepcs from manufacturer what are operational temperatures for your drive and see if yours aren't dangerously close...
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=332141"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
I my case rubber grommets made no difference to the temperature of my hard drives. Over 3 months of measurements every 300 seconds, the average without grommets was 30C, in the month since I installed home made grommets the average has been 30C. As always, YMMV.
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My solution to all of this is very solid case.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=332141"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
Good advice, for the most part. A solid case also makes a handy chair when you need one.

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #39 –
From experience, I know that Maxtor, Seagate, Samsung and IBM/Hitachi all allow you to activate AAM for their drives.  I know it's on by default on the Samsungs.  I've never noticed a real world performance hit.
"You can fight without ever winning, but never win without a fight."  Neil Peart  'Resist'

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #40 –
Isn't SCSI loud too?

If not, it must be I just have a loud computer.
 

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #41 –
Quote
AAM doesn't work on seagate drive, not the SATA variant at least.

Why not knock up a new system?

A fanless mini-itx mobo
DC fanless PSU block
laptop HDD or install windows on a compact flash and access the files over a network.


There is nothing more silent than a system with no moving parts

have a gander at Mini-ITX and ultim8pc (if in uk)

Kristian
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=332120"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Could you tell us more about installing Windows on a compact flash? I believed one should use a ramdisk to boot an OS from a compact flash to avoid repeated writes on the compact flash device since the number of writes is limited on such device. While this is well documented for Linux, I have never found a solution for Windows.

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #42 –
Quote
Could you tell us more about installing Windows on a compact flash? I believed one should use a ramdisk to boot an OS from a compact flash to avoid repeated writes on the compact flash device since the number of writes is limited on such device. While this is well documented for Linux, I have never found a solution for Windows.
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Sorry, i have never done that route myself, i have built a fanless sytem but it ran Linux, and i didn't use the CF method, i net booted from my server.

This article [a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20050909/usb-stick-windows-12.html]HERE[/url]

seems to do the trick though.

start of article found HERE

Kristian

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #43 –
Quote
Isn't SCSI loud too?

If not, it must be I just have a loud computer.

SCSI itself is not loud, it is just that technologically older drives are usually louder.

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #44 –
Quote
From experience, I know that Maxtor, Seagate, Samsung and IBM/Hitachi all allow you to activate AAM for their drives.  I know it's on by default on the Samsungs.  I've never noticed a real world performance hit.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=332250"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


That's not correct, recent Seagate drives don't allow AAM, because of patent issues. And of course there is a real world performance hit with AAM, as access times increase by 1 to 2 milliseconds. When handling big, fragmented files, it leads to a performance hit of up to 20%.

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #45 –
I have a 'ghetto' solution for my Seagate Baraccuda 4/5 HDD:s with (used) bicycle tube mounted in the 5.25" bay area of the case.

Result: Went from having the whole case vibrate in resonanse in idle with something that sounded like a ~0.5 Hz sine-like hum, driving me crazy, to complete silence. As a side effect it will probably also cut the disks lives in half from the heat increase (which is like +10 C). Try it at your own risk

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #46 –
Quote
Quote
From experience, I know that Maxtor, Seagate, Samsung and IBM/Hitachi all allow you to activate AAM for their drives.  I know it's on by default on the Samsungs.  I've never noticed a real world performance hit.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=332250"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


That's not correct, recent Seagate drives don't allow AAM, because of patent issues. And of course there is a real world performance hit with AAM, as access times increase by 1 to 2 milliseconds. When handling big, fragmented files, it leads to a performance hit of up to 20%.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=332349"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Ok, my Barracuda 120GB allows acoustic managment, I just figured newer drives did also.  As far as the performance hit, what I meant was that it has been nearly inperceivable for me.
"You can fight without ever winning, but never win without a fight."  Neil Peart  'Resist'

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #47 –
Quote
From experience, I know that Maxtor, Seagate, Samsung and IBM/Hitachi all allow you to activate AAM for their drives.  I know it's on by default on the Samsungs.  I've never noticed a real world performance hit.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=332250"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Not correct I have large quantity of Samsung 160 GByte SATA Spinpoints. All of them had AAM disabled. I had to enable them manually.

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #48 –
some nice things you get for free on most new systems:

AMD Cool 'n Quiet (on all socket 939 CPUs) -  I love this feature, really cuts down on heat and some noise

rubber mounted hard drives - get any Antec case, the hard drives are all isolated plus you get a 12cm fan (also rubber mounted)

hard drives - I have Samsung, Seagate and WD sata drives (8 in my main machine) and the Samsung are just barely quieter than the WD, the Seagates are easily noisiest.  my samsungs also keep a tiny bit cooler.

for some reason AMD's socket 754 mobile Turion processors are ridiculously cheap.  if i were building a new cheap, quiet system, i'd try one out.

Computer noise driving me mad

Reply #49 –
Quote
Quote
From experience, I know that Maxtor, Seagate, Samsung and IBM/Hitachi all allow you to activate AAM for their drives.  I know it's on by default on the Samsungs.  I've never noticed a real world performance hit.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=332250"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


Not correct I have large quantity of Samsung 160 GByte SATA Spinpoints. All of them had AAM disabled. I had to enable them manually.
[a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=332549"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]



Hmmm, it was on for both Samsung's that I own out of the box.
"You can fight without ever winning, but never win without a fight."  Neil Peart  'Resist'