• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

0 dbA Computer

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.
jabaro

jabaro

Member
​
Joined
Jul 24, 2004
Location
Seattle, WA
Is the only possible way to build a totally silent computer Water cooling and a silent power supply? Is there anyway to build a computer with just passive heat dispersion instead of water or fan cooling?
 
When I see what those totally silent cases like the TNN500A cost, I'd rather use water cooling: an order of magnitude cheaper. And watercooling doesn't need fans either if you make the rad big enough...
 
And then there is the whine from the HD's, the rattle from the CD/DVD, the vibration from the PSU coils and so on.. If watercooling, there is the hum from the pump as well..

The easiest way to get it silent, is to put the machine in a different room, and just run some cables through the wall..
 
If anyone has any links to a fanless WC system, I'd like to look at it. Almost all of them use fans - usually 120mm??

One of the members here had a WC system which dissipated the water's heat into his yard, a few inches under the surface ... fanless, if not pumpless ... but that's not realistic for me.

the wesson
 
Veland said:
And then there is the whine from the HD's, the rattle from the CD/DVD, the vibration from the PSU coils and so on.. If watercooling, there is the hum from the pump as well..

The easiest way to get it silent, is to put the machine in a different room, and just run some cables through the wall..
Click to expand...

bingo.

the loudest two parts of my build are the harddrive and CD/DVD drive. fans can be loud, but nothing compares to the high-pitched whine of my optical drive playing a CD.

cut these two problems out with harddrive silencers and a good quality optical drive like an LG and you'll be eliminating more than half the problem.

That being said, assuming you will not be overclocking on this rig, SilenX fans and something like a Sunbeam rheobus should cut out most remaining fan noise. Finally, get a good PSU and simply replace the fans it comes with, with something such as Panaflows or the aforementioned SilenX.

good luck ;)
 
Veland said:
...and I'm building something similar myself, with copper pipes embedded in the foundation of my house..
Click to expand...


amazing! I can't believe I haven't thought of that. Another good idea might be using the existing cold water pipes in your house? Just leech off one, and have it join back up with the pipes after it goes through the computer. especially for people with well water, or people in cold climates, this would probably rock.
 
Veland said:
And then there is the whine from the HD's, the rattle from the CD/DVD, the vibration from the PSU coils and so on.. If watercooling, there is the hum from the pump as well..

The easiest way to get it silent, is to put the machine in a different room, and just run some cables through the wall..
Click to expand...

You know, i was thinking about that, since i have a small closet right behind the wall of my room, where the computer is right now. But how can i "build" a main power switch, so that i can turn it on right from my desk? Is there a way without too much messing around with the motherboard/case? The DVD/CD ROM wouldnt be a problem since i could buy a external USB version.

Any ideas would be appreciated! :cool:
 
Build the computer into a wall and wire the power source directly to the powersupply and use a light switch to toggle it. In the end, it would function similar to an old AT supply.
 
You could build a system with a low power cpu, amd mobile or the intel mobile. Get a fanless power supply, a really quiet seagete hard drive. With a low heat p4 mobile running at 1gig you can even do with XP-90 Heatsink, and put a really good fan on it ( fan will stay off when pc used at a low speed, or the fan will spin at a low speed) if you ever want the cpu at fast speeds you can always turn up the speed of the fan. You can even buy a fanless heatsink. If you want to use a highend system if may be a bit harder to make quiet, using watercooling would a good idea. For the fanless power supplies they do get pricy, so you may choose a quiet fan psu.
Thanks
 
Streifenkarl said:
You know, i was thinking about that, since i have a small closet right behind the wall of my room, where the computer is right now. But how can i "build" a main power switch, so that i can turn it on right from my desk? Is there a way without too much messing around with the motherboard/case? The DVD/CD ROM wouldnt be a problem since i could buy a external USB version.

Any ideas would be appreciated! :cool:
Click to expand...

There are a number of devices which can turn on or off power to an AC plug, remotely. Then if your computer is set to start up when power is switched on (that is usually an option in the BIOS), you're all set.

Google "X10" for all sorts of home automation applications. I also wouldn't be surprised if somebody made a really cheap power-switch-remote-control, less fancy than an X10 device.

the wesson
 
^^^ or use a power bar :D and have it turn on with AC power loss :D so then u dont have to cut any wires or anything.
 
If you can, you might want to turn down the speed of cd or dvd rom drives. Also, suspend the hard drive with rubber bands or something like that. They also sell sound-proof hd boxes. You can add rubber or plastic carpeting material to the inside of your case to absorb noise. Try turning down the voltage to your processor as mush as you can and use watercooling with a very quiet 120mm fan.
 
you could water cool using a strong pump and the tubing going to another room.
either way, you can't get 0dbA, you have a hard drive and cdrom that get a lot louder then 30dba sometimes.
 
well, if you were willing to do it, you could make WC system which dissipates heat throung pipes buried in the ground. you could WC the cpu, nb, gfx, maybe the PSU, put the pump outside with the buried pipes and just run long tubes...someone did that here already...i forget who
you'd get awesome temps that way too, because the ground is usually always sub-ambient
 
pwnt by pat said:
Build the computer into a wall and wire the power source directly to the powersupply and use a light switch to toggle it. In the end, it would function similar to an old AT supply.
Click to expand...

Thank you (and Wesson too!) for your input. But, even when i power on the PSU, the PC itself remains shut down. Only then you can push the main power switch to turn it on. Switching on the PSU doesnt start the PC, right?

Or did i miss something? I couldnt find a BIOS setting for this.
 
that depends on your BIOS I guess.

<downloading manual for MSI 865PE/G Neo3>

page 3-15 of the manual specifies BIOS setting.

Power Management Features
Restore on AC/Power Loss
"This setting specifies whether your system will reboot after a power failure or
interrupt occurs. Available settings are:
[Power Off] Leaves the computer in the power off state.
[Power On] Leaves the computer in the power on state.
[Last State] Restores the system to the previous status before power
failure or interrupt occurred."

A brief search didn't turn up the manual for the 865PE Neo2 in your sig ... one would expect it's the same as far as this feature is concerned.

the wesson
 
or if it's on a LAN you might investigate Wake-On-Lan (WOL); I don't know anything about it (like whether that works wirelessly?) but it sounds promising.

the wesson
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

tacitus
Building a silent rack-mounted workstation with the Silverstone RM51
Replies
4
Views
2K
Zerileous
Zerileous
D
  • Locked
Pc Freeze while gaming, about 3/4 times at months, what is the cause?
Replies
3
Views
180
EarthDog
EarthDog
rainless
Mea Culpa...
Replies
10
Views
319
EarthDog
EarthDog
B
Cooling Solution: Effective vs Quiet
Replies
3
Views
791
Woomack
W
U
360mm good quality AIO vs custom loop for ~250-300W CPU
2
Replies
38
Views
2K
User5566
U
Back