sick of computer noise

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,378
I have very sensitive hearing and I can't stand high pitched noises.

I have 3 Western Digital hard drives (1 Raptor and 2 500gb 7,200rpm) in my Coolermaster case. I bought 3 hard drive enclosures:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article245-page1.html

but I can still hear them spinning at idle and it's enough to annoy me. I also sleep with my computer on. I recently had to dump my PSU because it insisted on making a horrible high pitched whine whenever I moved the mouse :mad: It was an Antec as well.

I don't like to turn my machine on and off every day because it's often downloading something overnight and I believe it reduces hard drive life as opposed to leaving them spinning constantly.

Anyway, I'm seriously considering building a box made from 5mm thick aluminium and lined with foam and rubber... and then dumping my current setup inside it! Am I crazy? The answer is yes but at least I will have silence at last!
 
WD are quite loud drives, especially Raptor. My HTPC is pretty quiet but even that would annoy me if it were in my bedroom (only 2x12cm fans plus 12cm psu) 2xSamsung 500GB, one 60GB, the 500GB shut down after a few hours.

believe it reduces hard drive life as opposed to leaving them spinning constantly.

Not really I've switched my old computer on and off once a day for a few years, and the 4GB drive was still fine when I mothballed it.

I'm seriously considering building a box made from 5mm thick aluminium and lined with foam and rubber

And how will heat and cool air go into the box?
 
If it's only your HDD's that are the problem, then replace them with Samsung Spinpoints - totally silent. Even when seeking they are really good.
 
You can gererally fix things if you throw money at them... How much money have you got for the silence the PC campaign? Is it really worth 3 new silent drives?
 
And how will heat and cool air go into the box?

well it's a big aluminium box to start with :p

plus I will have hole for a fan and cables at the back. I can handle a soft wurring noise of a fan.

Actually, I was just thinking of retro fitting my Coolermaster with lots of foam and rubber on the inside of all the panels.

The silent drive enclosures I've do an OK job but they do feel a litte hot. I might ditch my Raptor though.

Plan B consists of turning my main machine off at night and using my laptop as a download box :D
 
I got my PC almost near silent, and I mean near silent

I used a Seasonic PSU, Samsung HDDs, SilentX 120mm rear fan
and a Scythe Ninja HSF

and that was in a aluminium case :eek:

My mobo and graphics were passively cooled :D

You can go one better by using a steel case and only a single disk if you really want to keep the noise to a minimum

I honestly had a hard time telling if it was on or off lol
 
Which Coolermaster case? This matters a lot, especially if the Scythe rubber box enclosed drives are hard mounted to the case!
 
I had a problem with pc noise too. Solved it with a mini-itx pc with a passive cooled psu and laptop hd. Also its in another rtoom under the router. Makes a fantastic download box and files just get sent to fileserver / storage in the morning.
 
passive watercooling and suspending your drives (even my raptor is taimed, but I accept you can just hear it 'clicking' when writing)

Final stage will be two GUP Japan enclosures but they don't come cheap ;)
 
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