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I would like to thank Dave at Quiet
PC for generously providing the hardware and alot
of technical support for this article
Introduction:
Ever since I got my Volcano7+ from Thermaltake, a
high pitched whine has been added to the symphony
of fans and drive whirrs. The ensemble has gotten
way too loud for my tastes these days. As I was being
consumed with sound, I started reflecting on the noise
levels of my old PIII system. At 650 MHz and a 66MHz
FSB, the CPU had a simple cooler that was almost silent.
The PSU that I had then was 300W, and again the cooling
mechanism was a 92MM Pabst fan which was just about
inaudible (not to mention my "high end"
VooDoo3 was still passively cooled). This was back
in a time before overclocking even crossed my mind
so I had no case fans whatsoever. I could leave my
computer on all night, and fall asleep in the same
room; it was that quiet.
Well, now that I have an Athlon XP2700+ based system
and the system bus is pushed to 182 MHz, things are
a little different. There are fans on the northbridge,
the graphics card, the CPU, heck there's two in one
of my PSU's. At one point I had a HDD cooler that
sported dual 60mm fans on a slick blue anodized heat
sink. I have only two case fans, which is minimalistic
according to many people I know. One thing I have
noticed is that fans are like college students drinking
beer. One or two together is fine; they get along
and keep to themselves. If they live next door to
you, you hardly notice their little party. But get
a bunch together, and things change. The sum total
of the noise starts to become very noticeable, even
uncomfortable. Soon, not only is there noise from
the drunkards, but the vibration from the house amplifies
the noise to levels that shake the foundation on your
own house and you are forced to call the cops.
My noisy XP2700+ neighbor has recently gotten to
the point of unbearable. I finally decided to do a
little investigative reporting myself, so I could
"call the cops" and register a noise complaint
get the little fan party next to my desk dispersed
in a peaceful manor. After looking into the situation,
I came across the closest thing I could find to "noise
police"; a site called QuietPC. The guys at QuietPC
are all about silencing the belligerent roommate that
resides in all hardcore PC enthusiasts lives. I spoke
to Dave about what can be done to shut the drunkard
up, and we came up with a game plan.
First, we had to single out the offending parties;
basically this meant having a listen and seeing just
where the noise was coming from. Once we had an idea
as to where the specific noises were coming from,
we targeted those areas. Then, as an extra measure,
Dave suggested two rather innovative sound dampening
solutions to squash any residual noise that might
still be hanging around, like those guys on the couch
the next morning after a party. They are part of "Case
Preparation," which we will get into in a couple
of pages.
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