Carpet inside case...

[Gandalf]

Ok, I picked up a cheap $40 case and I'm planning on lining it with carpet.

What should I use to attach the carpet to the case?

Two sided tape? Glue?

[FrozenFears]

Umm you can get fabric glue (not sure if it will stick to a case though), or probably hot glue and a hot glue gun might be your best bet. But why would you want to line a case in carpet? or use tape if you are going to want to take it out later

[Daven]

To keep down the sound? you can buy mats for that btw.

[rugbyroy]

I found this glue that I can glue my hands together with... It's called zap a gap. You can purchase it at any hobby shop.

[rugbyroy]

Not that you're trying to glue your hands together, but I think it would get the job done.

[Eclypsyr]

I think zap a gap is a good product name for something that is going to be holding CARPET in a COMPUTER case....;)

Jon

[k3nshin]

you could try spray adheasive. Hot clue doesn't like staying on metal that well.

[KnowlesTech]

Carpet inside the case = ZAPPP!
There are special cloths and such for this exact purpose online. Run a search but stay far away from ESD intensive carpet.

[sirtoby]

You could for instance get the Akasa Paxmate (if I remember the name now correctly.. :))

or, go to any car shop.. they have stuff that is supposed to be in cars.. works wonders.. ;)

[Gandalf]

Hmm, well this is just a fun project for me and it would be really cheap.

I didn't think of ESD....think that'll be a problem if it's grounded to the case and nothing is really rubbing against it to cause friction?

[f00t]

I would suggest velcro, if it has not been mentioned yet.

[Wiseass]

reminds me of this case :)

http://www.whatisthebinty.com/images/fun/images/dogpc01.jpg

http://www.whatisthebinty.com/images/fun/images/dogpc02.jpg

[n17ikh]

Mine looks like that just from all the cat hair sticking to the front panel... :D

[eab]

There is this stuff called carpet tape, Its a double sided really sticky tape. I used that stuff to tape on the foam that I put in for sound damping.

[FunkDaMonkMan]

are you going to have a window in this case?

if you are, i would suggest putting a little man sitting on a couch in the bottom of your case :D. Instant 150mhz increase.

[pik4chu]

Originally posted by k3nshin
you could try spray adheasive. Hot clue doesn't like staying on metal that well.
spray adhesive is pretty bad for anything other than wood/paper type stuff. and ya hot glue doesnt like metal too much (though I still use it, heh)

I would go with what eab said, the carpert tape is the best you could get since its for, you know, carpet :D

[FunkDaMonkMan]

i think i would go with some sort of super-duper glue, because you don't want that stuff comming up in areas when you are moving stuff around inside the case. My dad use to have "Jet Glue" when we made model airplanes... the stuff they use to glue the tiles on the space shuttle.

[Gandalf]

Hmm, I think I'll try the carpet tape first, and then some glue if that doesn't work.

And no, no window, this is going to be a really ghetto silent rig.

The hd will be suspended in elastics, and all of my fans will be ~ 20dBa. SHouldn't be too loud eh....

[CrystalMethod]

If the carpet tape doesn't work you can try contact cement. This however is a pretty permanant solution. Once the stuff sets (about 15 mins, if you've followed the directions) it's pretty much on there for good.

[ziptieboy]

or duct tape....
lol

Scott

[exothermic]

I don't know how good of an idea this is. The carpet is going to rock out to a lot of lint, and it's going to attract dust like crazy. Especially if you've got a lot of air flowing through that case. Dust could settle everywhere, clog your fans, insulate your heatsinks, insulate your psu, etc.

Just a heads up.

[Daven]

Originally posted by Wiseass
reminds me of this case :)

http://www.whatisthebinty.com/images/fun/images/dogpc01.jpg

http://www.whatisthebinty.com/images/fun/images/dogpc02.jpg

wow, nice :D

[Gandalf]

Originally posted by exothermic
I don't know how good of an idea this is. The carpet is going to rock out to a lot of lint, and it's going to attract dust like crazy. Especially if you've got a lot of air flowing through that case. Dust could settle everywhere, clog your fans, insulate your heatsinks, insulate your psu, etc.

Just a heads up.

Hmmm, what other materials could I use?

I need something that is easy to come by; nothing that I have to ship.

[TheGhengisKhan]

there is this stuff they sell for beds, it's called something like "egg crate" it works great as a sound-proofing material, though it is ugly as ****. and regular glue will hold it in place fairly well.

[KILLorBE]

I would probably use 4-6mm thick vinyl tiles orso (the type with a thick spongy back), or you could use Dynamat (http://www.dynamat.com/) but it's kinda expensive.

I have some stuff (Don't know its name) that's used under wooden floors and it dampens noise by ~10dB (Silver top, spongy back).

[Gandalf]

Ok awesome, thanks for the ideas. Looks like I'm hitting home hardware tonight!

I think I know the stuff that you're talking about KILLorBE. :)

Did you guys cover ALL of the inside panels? Or just the side panel?

[D0ughB0y]

What about the black spray cans of undercoating that you spray on the underside of cars. Sure, its heavy as hell, but it insulates against sound very well.

[i_like_penguins]

I like the little man on the couch idea. Now if only you could get a little vaccum cleaner and teach him to use it. Asside from that, contact cement if going to be your best bet for glue.

[gecko]

I'd recomend some dynamat (or generic equivalent since its only a computer case).
Go to any decent car audio shop (or circuit city grrrr stupid place).
They sell "door kits" that has 2 18"X18" sheets. That is plently for probably 4 cases.

Just use a nice hot hair dryer to put it on, it will bond with the metal and never move. It also soaks up sound and vibration VERY well.

Just put small pieces ont he drive bays and then cover maybe the top 3rd of each side panel, front and back.

No adhesive necessary.

-Pete

[KILLorBE]

Originally posted by Gandalf
Did you guys cover ALL of the inside panels? Or just the side panel?

It's better if you cover as much as possible, but it doesn't have to be better (Uhhh..it's always better but not always necessary*), it depends on several things like:
1) Volume of the noise/sound.
2) Thickness of the walls/case or whatever the noise/sound travels thru.
3) Frequency of the Noise/sound.

*NOTE: Small parts made of thin material vibrate less (are more rigid) than large parts made of the same material.

You just need to know the basics of sound-proofing.
1) Noise/sound (Vibrations) travel thru air.
2) Thick walls vibrate less than a thin wall made of the same material.
3) Different materials have different damping properties.
4) By reflecting noise/sound many times, the noise/sound will eventually die*.

*NOTE: Different frequencies require different distances of which the sound reflects to let them die (High frequencies need little space, while low frequencies require lots of space, that's also the reason why you can NEVER get good bass in a car as the wavelenght of a tone @ 20Hz is about 8-9 meter (can't remember the formula, but I know that's about the right distance..as I want a room twice that size for my HT:p ).

Lets sum it up:
1) Your case has to be airtight....simply not possible as you need to cool stuff, but you could close as many holes and gaps as possible.
2) Make a case of 2x 0.5" thick MDF or HDF layers with something in between , possible but it's gonna be heavy.
3) Use different materials...by sticking vinyl tiles orso to the case you're already using 2 different materials, you could improve damping by using small pieces of....(something....like spikes for speakers) all over the case (inside of course), and glueing the vinyl or whatever on top of that, you now have a third insulator....air (which is not the best, but it does help as long as it's a completely sealed compartment).
4) Reflecting sound (Like the egg crate TheGhengisKhan mentioned does), soft materials will reflect noise a lot less than hard materials do, by reflecting noise in different directions (egg crate) you'll spread the noise, thus making it less loud...but I don't think it's very useful in a small case like PC cases usually are. Egg crate is soft so it will absorb some sound, but I don't like it as it will hold dust and it usually is 1"+ thick.

I'm busy with a SS mod, I haven't done anything yet but I'm looking for some parts....I have one of the parts but I'm not sure if I want to use that, I think I'll change my plans and use the parts I do have.

SS stands for many things....uhh it has nothing to do with Germans/WWII, but it has to do with Super Silent, Super Secret and my actual MOD:D

BTW: There's gonna be a Screamer (aka Black Label...while mine does have a label) inside, and it'll be almost silent <25dB.

For your reference:
20dB Whisper.
40dB Conversation at home.
70dB City Street.
100dB Pneumatic Drill at 3m.
120dB Jet aircraft taking off.

Sorry for all that crap, but it's kinda hard to explain it with less words if English isn't your native language.

D0ughB0y, if I'm thinking about the same stuff as you are, I think you're wrong, the stuff is used to protect the body from stones and alike...but then again you're right as well, it does insulate against sound...but not to well (It won't close gaps and holes).

About glue, don't you Americans have glue like Bison Kit or Pattex?
When I was a child (I still am) I used some Bison Kit (Blue-ish/Greenish package...still my fav.) to glue some stickers on my (dirty) door...well there was no way to get it off w/o damaging the door.
Double sided tape: Most double sided tape sucks (even if it's made for carpet) A friend gave me some tape which would hold a full can of coke to the ceiling for about a week...uhh I used 2 pieces of ~1x1cm, so basicly it was only ~0.5 square cm (or less) that touched the ceiling...he took it home from work, they used it to hang furniture on the wall to dry (They coated/painted all sorts of stuff), 2 2x2" pieces would hold a 50Kg (~100 pounds) piece to the wall long enough to dry.
Not to mention the Permabond I got from a friend while he was in the army, they use it to glue rotor blades of a helicopter (Not my words, but the package I got isn't for sale on the Permabond site).

gecko, I agree, but I believe I read Gandalf wanted it to be cheap, you could use the stuff they use on roofs (Again I don't know the word, except the Dutch word...bitumen), but when it catches fire it'll burn more intense than vinyl would...actually most vinyl will just melt and hardly burn (I always try to think about safety first), but I have to disagree about that there's no adhesive necessary, as I'm interested in High-End audio I know a few things about sound and DIY audio, I've heard ppl talk about using hair dryers and such, but on a warm day the stuff would come off due to its own weight.

[Gandalf]

Alright, thanks for the very informative post! My dad's going to check his work for any material that I could use.

I might try a few different layers like you suggested.

[amdperson]

Why don't you try cork Tiles instead. The Dont cause electricity(Like carpets). They are also light and should stick with contact adhesive.
Plus they are good at aborbing sound.(some people use them to sound proof rooms)

[Gandalf]

Cork tiles eh?

My mind is drawing a blank....

[KILLorBE]

Originally posted by Gandalf
Cork tiles eh?

My mind is drawing a blank....

Good call amdperson.

Yeah cork tiles work pretty well, a lot of ppl use it as it works fine (not as good as egg crate) but it's easy to clean and it looks better than egg crate.

Take a look at cinema's, most of them use carpet on the wall and/or have lots of curtains all over the place (while there's no window behind them).

BTW: There's a flaw in my story, I said:
by reflecting noise in different directions (egg crate) you'll spread the noise, thus making it less loud...
That's not really true, By diffusing (the word I was looking for, instead of "reflecting noise in different directions ") you'll spread the sound and make it less loud...but overall the noise is still the same (diffusing the sound doesn't mean you absorb sound, you just spread it like diffusers on tweeters do) so the power of the sound emitted in the same room stays roughly the same, but as it'll be reflected much more it'll die sooner.....egg crate does both.

Hope that cleared things up.

I got all this knowledge from DIY audio as I like to build speakers myself (I've also build my own CD player), and audiophiles want speaker enclosures that sound 'dead' (IE when you knock on it, it shouldn't sound hollow).

Once I'm done with my case I'll (try to) write an article for the front page and cover the basics of sound proofing a bit better, but for now I think I got most of it covered pretty well.

About using different layers, as you don't want to transfer (or as little as possible) vibrations from one layer to another you should use small pieces (as little as possible) of...... to attach the layers to eachother.

That's about it, as I don't have much experience with sound proofing cases I don't think I can tell you much more at the moment, the same goes for building speakers.....keep on trying.

Well I have a few ideas about intake/outtake, but I need to do a few tests first.

Once again lets sum it up (The easy way):
1) All outside panels shouldn't vibrate.
2) You don't want vibrations exiting your case.

[Gandalf]

Originally posted by KILLorBE
Once again lets sum it up (The easy way):
1) All outside panels shouldn't vibrate.
2) You don't want vibrations exiting your case.

I'll keep that in mind.

Just got the case, so I'll start testing soon.

[exothermic]

Wow, the cork tile idea is awesome. I think I'm going to do that with mine. :)

[Gandalf]

Does anyone have a picture of cork tile?

[amdperson]

heres a pic of a cork tile:

http://www.theforumisdown.com/uploadfiles/0103/APCbacchusmix_detail.jpg