Anyone tried using eggbox foam for case silencing?

danza · 4 Dec 2008 at 22:56

As title.

I ask because I have enough thin eggbox foam sitting around at work to do a PC case. I can't remember exactly how thick it is, something like 1/2".

Has anyone here tried using it before? I'm not yet convinced it'll make much difference, and will probably be a rather good dust trap. However, I'm willing to try it if it works!

OpenToSuggestions · 4 Dec 2008 at 22:56

That looks like the silencing foam you used to be able to buy for a sonata 2 case!

Chimerical · 4 Dec 2008 at 23:03

That looks pretty good tbh. Better than the Akasa paxmate stuff, or whatever its called.

danza · 4 Dec 2008 at 23:06

Hmmm, okay. I'll investigate a bit further then. Google didn't turn up much though...

lunarwolf · 4 Dec 2008 at 23:07

is it fireproof?

Chimerical · 4 Dec 2008 at 23:09

lunarwolf said:
is it fireproof?

Probably not. Does it need to be though? I've only heard of PSU's catching fire, not motherboards.

danza · 4 Dec 2008 at 23:11

That's a good point. I do leave my PC on a lot unattended so maybe it's not such a good idea.

danza · 4 Dec 2008 at 23:16

I also have some sticky-backed plastazote foam. That's not too bad near heat/flames iirc.

Not sure how much there is at work but I'll have a look. It's 1/2" thick too.

matt100 · 4 Dec 2008 at 23:27

surely the pointy bits would need to be pointing into the case to disrupt the noise waves and deaden them, if you put it on the outside it will just make the inside of the case nice and quiet...

That being the case I don't know many cases with a happy 1/2" clearance around all the noisy bits.

And it'll be a heat trap too, probably do more harm than good.

lunarwolf · 5 Dec 2008 at 00:10

Chimerical said:
Does it need to be though?

no idea, fire hazard just popped in my mind when i saw this.

that is pretty thick, so would need to really stuff it in there -> close to computer parts and probably get temps up. if it melts and causes short circuits or whatever, i don't think that would be good thing.

anyway i don't know, was just sharing my thoughts

MikeHunt79 · 5 Dec 2008 at 00:17

It will reduve noise, yes, but it may increase your temps a little... Is it easy to get hold of as I wouldn't mind some for my walls.

Swi1ch · 5 Dec 2008 at 04:45

As far as acoustics go, yeah, it'll soundproof it. You can use stuff like that to sound proof booths pretty much.

Edit. "surely the pointy bits would need to be pointing into the case to disrupt the noise waves and deaden them, if you put it on the outside it will just make the inside of the case nice and quiet..."

Smack on there. It's gotta be on the inside unless you plan on sheathing the entire outside of the case, which sounds like a really bad idea.

danza · 5 Dec 2008 at 07:34

MikeHunt79 said:
It will reduve noise, yes, but it may increase your temps a little... Is it easy to get hold of as I wouldn't mind some for my walls.

I think you can buy it from smaller carpet shops, there's one local to me and they sell cut foam. There are several places on t'web that do it too.

Swi1ch said:
As far as acoustics go, yeah, it'll soundproof it. You can use stuff like that to sound proof booths pretty much.

Edit. "surely the pointy bits would need to be pointing into the case to disrupt the noise waves and deaden them, if you put it on the outside it will just make the inside of the case nice and quiet..."

Smack on there. It's gotta be on the inside unless you plan on sheathing the entire outside of the case, which sounds like a really bad idea.

I think they use the stuff (albeit thicker) in anechoic chambers for sound testing.

LOL at the thought of a lumpy hedgehog foam case!

slowrunner · 5 Dec 2008 at 11:53

10 years or so ago you could get printer cabinets that were lined with that stuff to deaden the noise of the old dot-matrix heads. Trouble is it soaks up dust and stinks after a while.

JonnyBase · 5 Dec 2008 at 15:12

Chimerical said:
Probably not. Does it need to be though? I've only heard of PSU's catching fire, not motherboards.

When used to work at ocuk had an ip35 pro catch fire around one of the mountings - turns out the pcb was dodgy...

Burnt a nice big black hole through it with some flames for good measure. Bundle it up with the dodgy batch of antec fans and its November the 5th all over again

MikeHunt79 · 5 Dec 2008 at 16:58

danza said:
I think you can buy it from smaller carpet shops, there's one local to me and they sell cut foam. There are several places on t'web that do it too.

Cheers, I may pick some up.

It needs to be inside the case, google up "helmhotz resonator"

Swi1ch · 5 Dec 2008 at 18:48

danza said:
I think they use the stuff (albeit thicker) in anechoic chambers for sound testing.

LOL at the thought of a lumpy hedgehog foam case!

There's no reason it shouldn't be used for that. Like I said, from an acoustics point of view it's great. I'm surprised that cases are yet to be built in a manner that would reduce noise.

MikeHunt79 · 5 Dec 2008 at 19:01

Swi1ch said:
There's no reason it shouldn't be used for that. Like I said, from an acoustics point of view it's great. I'm surprised that cases are yet to be built in a manner that would reduce noise.

Mac Pro ones are apparently which makes sense given their intended market...

rjk · 7 Dec 2008 at 11:14

you need to stuff that off and look at gup-japan or acoustipak extra