Building computer, need feedback
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Alfapitcher
- Posts: 26
- Joined: Thu Sep 05, 2002 4:00 pm
für ne Stunde Arbeit 2000€, guter Stundenlohn.On 2006-10-15 15:58, stardust wrote:selbst ist der MannOn 2006-10-15 10:56, hifiboom wrote:(die totale Preisverarsche, oder?
hab mal nen bisschen rumgeklickt und war bei knapp 4000€ für etwas was ich locker für 2000€ auch zusammenbaue.
okay silent. aber naja geht auch günstiger)
Bausatz + eigene Komponeneten -> unter 2000€
in English: DIY not the off the shelf ones
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Alfapitcher
- Posts: 26
- Joined: Thu Sep 05, 2002 4:00 pm
This thing about the silentium kit looks good (even if pricey)... but isn't it dangerous a completely fanless pc?
According to deltatronic's info, the heatpipe cooling is enough for the processor and graphic card. But what about a couple of large cwa cards?
Does anybody here have any experience with this or other fanless pc?
According to deltatronic's info, the heatpipe cooling is enough for the processor and graphic card. But what about a couple of large cwa cards?
Does anybody here have any experience with this or other fanless pc?
a totally fanless PC is a totally senseless idea, imho 
...unless you have no harddisk inside, and even then, with lots of flash memory, you WILL actually hear the latter operating over a slow rotating fan. The reason is the higher frequency 'noise'.
I'm not kidding, I once bought a small VIA with fanless PSU and a 1GB flash disk that could be plugged into the ATA port.
The chips made a funny noise when the 'disk' was accessed - btw the same applies to my ATI Radeon (passively cooled) videocard (during certain operations) and to the fanless PSU in my P3.
Any 'regular' harddisk is multitudes louder than a quality fan - I once bought a small stock of Samsung 40G 5200RPM disks (almost unhearable when new) to have some available when supplies would dry out...
some rules of thumb:
you should have a big and slow rotating fan to shovel air out of the case, or at least move it, preferably in a heavy case (it should not resonate when hit) with lots of metal to take some of the heat.
Strangely I found industrial steel cases work pretty well, though aluminium is supposed to be a better heat conductor.
acoustic mats inside the case are a waste of money !
the better solution is to 'hide' the PC under a bottomless box (backside open) with acoustic foam (proper frequency range !) glued to the inside and (!) outside.
then 'hide' this box under a 2nd one which is somewhat (say 15 inches) larger and vice versa oriented.
this way there's a tunnel the warm air can leave, possibly supported by a slowly rotating fan.
depending on your skills you can build it from plywood or just paper boxes.
the foam is rather expensive (be sure to get quality), but I guarantee that you won't be able to hear your PC at all - if the foam matches the noise spectrum.
you may get along with just one box - in that case the outside doesn't need the expensive foam of course.
I remember the trick from my days in mechanical engineering - we built a machine that cut paper by a thing with 40 inches diameter rotating at 800 rpm (or so) - a sound like a helicopter ready for takeoff
then they put a plywood construction with the afforementioned foam over it - and it was just unbelievable (of course not dead silent), but you could comfortably talk beneath the running machine.
to avoid heat there are new voltage regulators with an efficiency in the 90% range, that don't need cooling at all.
The VIA has one about the size of a cigarette box, but afaik those are also produced in versions which can supply (at least) poer for a standard ATX board - you just feed them 12V DC.
oops, got a bit long winded - take it for an inspiration - I may sort out the details if required.
cheers, Tom
...unless you have no harddisk inside, and even then, with lots of flash memory, you WILL actually hear the latter operating over a slow rotating fan. The reason is the higher frequency 'noise'.
I'm not kidding, I once bought a small VIA with fanless PSU and a 1GB flash disk that could be plugged into the ATA port.
The chips made a funny noise when the 'disk' was accessed - btw the same applies to my ATI Radeon (passively cooled) videocard (during certain operations) and to the fanless PSU in my P3.
Any 'regular' harddisk is multitudes louder than a quality fan - I once bought a small stock of Samsung 40G 5200RPM disks (almost unhearable when new) to have some available when supplies would dry out...
some rules of thumb:
you should have a big and slow rotating fan to shovel air out of the case, or at least move it, preferably in a heavy case (it should not resonate when hit) with lots of metal to take some of the heat.
Strangely I found industrial steel cases work pretty well, though aluminium is supposed to be a better heat conductor.
acoustic mats inside the case are a waste of money !
the better solution is to 'hide' the PC under a bottomless box (backside open) with acoustic foam (proper frequency range !) glued to the inside and (!) outside.
then 'hide' this box under a 2nd one which is somewhat (say 15 inches) larger and vice versa oriented.
this way there's a tunnel the warm air can leave, possibly supported by a slowly rotating fan.
depending on your skills you can build it from plywood or just paper boxes.
the foam is rather expensive (be sure to get quality), but I guarantee that you won't be able to hear your PC at all - if the foam matches the noise spectrum.
you may get along with just one box - in that case the outside doesn't need the expensive foam of course.
I remember the trick from my days in mechanical engineering - we built a machine that cut paper by a thing with 40 inches diameter rotating at 800 rpm (or so) - a sound like a helicopter ready for takeoff
then they put a plywood construction with the afforementioned foam over it - and it was just unbelievable (of course not dead silent), but you could comfortably talk beneath the running machine.
to avoid heat there are new voltage regulators with an efficiency in the 90% range, that don't need cooling at all.
The VIA has one about the size of a cigarette box, but afaik those are also produced in versions which can supply (at least) poer for a standard ATX board - you just feed them 12V DC.
oops, got a bit long winded - take it for an inspiration - I may sort out the details if required.
cheers, Tom
An isolation box and/or moving the PC to another room are sensible choices, surely the best.
Unfortunately, in my particular case, housekeeping limitations apply and I have an specific and rather limited space under a desk for the PC.
So, my current target is to get a PC as silent as possible with a standard form factor. But of course I'm not willing to fry any components, specially my beloved cwa cards!
Unfortunately, in my particular case, housekeeping limitations apply and I have an specific and rather limited space under a desk for the PC.
So, my current target is to get a PC as silent as possible with a standard form factor. But of course I'm not willing to fry any components, specially my beloved cwa cards!
The quitest and fastest single threaded DAW I ever didn't hear was the Pentium M box that ran SFP and Gigastudio 160 damn near silently. And it smoked the AMD FX, and P4 in the polyphony department with it's super short pipeline. The HDD's were water cooled and sleeved by Quiet PC parts. All Maglev fans and the super quiet Zalmann PSU. The dual core follow up to this wasn't near as cool and efficient as the M780, even when it was OC'd to 233MHz FSB. Check out Koolances water cooled rack mounted PC if it is still made. I often dreamed of having one, b ut I just didn't like the idea of water and DSP cards in the same box. To each his own though.