Silent PC ??

Dougal95 · 2 Jan 2010 at 10:35

Hi Guys

Is it possible to build/buy a silent (or almost) PC?

It doesn't have to be powerfull at all. I have my main rig which i use for flight sim. The small one will be networked in order to run small addon applications.

The one i'm currently using for this is a VERY old office NEC machine. Only something like a 1.2Gg Duron and 256Mb RAM, and very nearly adequate. Trouble is, it's REALLY noisy. Tried replacing fans but it didn't make much difference.

Thanks

mjones1 · 2 Jan 2010 at 10:42

A passive cooled atom 1.6ghz itx build powered by a pico psu would be silent apart from the hard drive.

OpenToSuggestions · 2 Jan 2010 at 10:43

Dougal95 said:
Tried replacing fans but it didn't make much difference.

The only place noise can come from is fans (jnc cpu, psu, gfx card) and hard drives.

I bet a 1.2 Duron has an old hard drive that sounds crunchy.

Nuwidol · 2 Jan 2010 at 11:43

mjones1 said:
A passive cooled atom 1.6ghz itx build powered by a pico psu would be silent apart from the hard drive.

Maybe a 40gb kingston ssd would take the place of the main hdd. They're cheap enough to be considered & it would mean true silence.

J.B · 2 Jan 2010 at 11:57

You need to work out what is causing the noise. Unplug the hard drives and see if its still loud.

Probably the CPU fan or PSU.

Dougal95 · 2 Jan 2010 at 12:17

Most of the noise is from the little PSU. It's a very small machine with a little slimline PSU. I looked at a replacement PSU - be more than PC is worth!

Definately like to build another SFF machine.

Skilid · 2 Jan 2010 at 13:15

My PC is pretty quiet and I didn't even spend a great deal on making it quiet. I have a Lian Li V351b with 2 120mm fans running off molex, a 80mm rear system fan, an 80mm scythe cpu fan, a 140mm PSU fan and my ATi 5850 fan. It's very quiet considering, very easy to sleep in the same room as.

Could prolly make it quieter by modding the two molex fans, but tbh, I'm happy with the volume of it already.

Cripple.

el Kuarlos · 2 Jan 2010 at 15:32

Heh- just for giggles but you could just try this that i stubled upon yesterday-

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/strip-fans,1203.html

Would even muffle the HD's I think.

Biz.Kid09 · 2 Jan 2010 at 15:52

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-002-ZT
and a ssd will be silent

manbearpig · 2 Jan 2010 at 17:39

if its the psu, maby you could open it up and replace the fan.

JonJ678 · 2 Jan 2010 at 18:56

If you put hard drives in oil, they die.

The answer to your question is yes. However to say components etc, we'll need to know budget and how obsessive you want to be with this. You can get computers quiet enough that the monitor humming is all you can hear, but it won't be as cheap as one that purrs.

MikeHunt79 · 2 Jan 2010 at 19:02

^ Monitors should not hum...

mjones1 said:
A passive cooled atom 1.6ghz itx build powered by a pico psu would be silent apart from the hard drive.

this is when you choose an SSD

Glaucus · 2 Jan 2010 at 19:04

Certainly possible, even possible at high end level.

As said an Atom ion is perfect or if you want somethign more powerful. Then a normal build with a nightjar psu and passive coolers, or if using high end stuff a few 800rpm fans.