Help in the quest for Silent PC's - post your ideas

[james_blonde007]

Hi all, I need your help advising on a SILENT PSU.

The challenge lies with my old PII 400 in a small tower case which acts as my Linux firewall and Router.
Its located in my bedroom and switched on 24/7 allowing my neighbors wireless access to the internet etc.
My GF is complaining about the noise at night so its time to silence the firewall.

The only noise generated by the firewall is from the PSU and the HD.

It has an old generic 300 watt PSU in it. I recently replaced the ageing (10 years) 800mb HD (yes that’s 800 mb!!!) with a brand new 40gig western digital drive.

I recently purchased a Sparkle ZAN fanless 300 watt PSU and it did not function properly in the firewall or another of my pcs. (the machines kept rebooting after a bout 5 mins and the drives would not spin up properly there after).

What are your opinions as to quiet PSUs and I mean either you can’t hear it or its virtually silent.

Seasonic, akasa, antec etc.

I have an enermax noise taker and would like it to be quieter than that.

The HD is mounted in a cheap plastic removable caddy for convenience, but this is not essential as the quest for silence is more important.
I don’t know how significant silencing the drive will be.

In case this helps work out why the Fanless Sparkle ZEN did not work, the MOBO is an old BX (the donkeys at the time). Not sure of brand.

 

[james_blonde007]

Cool about the PSUs, but are you just listing what i can read on the web or have you personal experience of the PSU's? (not being rude just getting the facts).
I am looking to get personal experiences as I don’t believe the marketing rubbish that gets applied to the products.

I don’t think that the sound deadening mat will be of much use as the increase in case temps will out weigh the sound benefits. the pc is on the floor close to a heater. Not ideal i know but the case temps are approx 26-30 degrees and I don’t wish to increase that.

Thanks for your reply though

 

[james_blonde007]

no I have not, will look now, thank you.

Does anyone have any experience of the Silentmaxx Semi-Fanless 450W PSU ?

 

[james_blonde007]

Thanks every one for your posts. It’s great to get real world opinions.

I will consider the seasonic & Antec as a replacement for my workstations, anyone want a 1 month old enermax noise taker, its not a whiney one, (its already pretty quiet) and I really like the idea of using a laptop HD for the firewall to reduce temps, thanks marc I would never have thought of that one.

I have a brand new western digital 40 gig in the pc at the mo and it is relatively quiet but it does have the high pitch whine.
I only need drive space of like about 1-2 gigs so capacity is no probs.

What do i need to mount and convert a 2.5 inch drive?
Can i use a lead or something and leave it in my caddy box?

I am also in agreement about the power usage, but did not know there was any other alternative to 300+watt psu's for silence. Can you tell me more about the picopsu from your experience?

The CPU is fanless with a large heatsink as is the north bridge.

[edit]Marc, the GF wins on this noise issue as i think i will greatly appreciate it to now that i have thought about it, plus its quite an interesting challenge if not an expensive experiment.[/edit]

 

[james_blonde007]

I'll post details of how to do it tonight

How did you get on Marc, did you forget to put the kettle on? ha ha ha.
If you get a chance i am keen to see you write that post.

 

[james_blonde007]

Thanks everyone for your input, in particular marc. I am investigating the pico power supply today.
In my head i am gonna try out the pico power supply and get a samsung laptop drive.

I am not concerned with the speed of the drive as all the firewall has to do is boot the OP sys every so often, (really only when i update it) and record incoming and outgoing traffic etc. Not taxing stuff.

I will post back with my findings on the same thread if its still here.

regards

007

 

[james_blonde007]

I will respond to the answers soon, but please bear in mind that i require 2 network sockets, ie. at the moment i am using 2 isa's and 1 pci.
1x incoming traffic,
1x outgoing trafific for the wired network
1x outgoing traffic for the wireless network.

regards
007