- About building a 'silent' computer -
To have a quiet, or even silent computer in my shack has always ben a dream. Most PC-Computers, homebuilt or factory built ones that i previously have used in my work and at home have been quite noisy.


Arctic Cooling Silentium T1 with water cooled CPU

However, the latest generation of factory built computers is much better then older ones. For example we are using ASER VERITON 7700G at my work, they have a werry low noice.
At Home and in my shack i am however using 'HomeBuilt' PC-Computers. I Build them myself from standard PC-Components.

These page is about my efforts to make my own 'HomeBuilt' PC-Computers as quiet as possible. I also make som misstakes and other 'discoveries' along the way.

Some 'initial facts' that i have learned from my previous PC-Building experiance.
  1. The First source of noise is the different fans, a standard computer have at least two(2) fans inside, one in the power supply, and one on the CPU (Processor)
  2. The Second source of noise is the harddisk, and other disk drives s.a. the cd-rom.
A General Noise Solution
When your computer is working it's components dissipate heat. The first thing to do is to check out if your computer can be made to dissipate less heat, or to make heat dissipation more efficient.
  1. Check if your power supply is sufficient.
  2. Check if your CPU-Heatsink is sufficient.
Why is this?
  • If your power-supply is to small - Messured in total output power (Watt),- it is forced to run at top levels and will dissipate mutch more heat then a sufficient power-supply made for larger loads. Example: At 280Watt total load, A powersupply rated at 300Watt max load, runs mutch warmer than a 450Watt powersupply.
  • Low quality power-supply tend also to get problems with drop in rated output voltage, with does that the output current goes up, causing more heat in leads and components.

    APPROACH 1 - FAN-Noise Reduction
    There is some easy ways to get lower noise levels from your PC-Computer. Here is some suggestions How-To use low-cost resistors to adjust FAN-Speed.

    FAN-Noise Reduction

    APPROACH 2 - Water cooling

    My First Water cooled PC in 2004
    Updated Water cooled PC in 2005
    My Water cooled PC-Server @ home
    Details of my water cooled ATX Powersupply

    VARNING !
     When your computer is working it's components dissipate heat. The fans in your computer is there for different cooling needs. The Fan inside the power supply is normaly also used to drag the air out from your PC-Cabinet, therefor it's also werry important for cooling the hole PC (All Components inside the PC-Cabinet)

    NOTICE! Cooling your PC-Computer propperly is werry IMPORTANT! - Running it to hot WILL cause permanent DAMAGE to components and may result in DATA LOSS!.

    Monitoring temperature
    Install software for temperature monitoring when you experiment with PC-Cooling and altering of fan's or fan-speed. Most Mother boards has built in hardware for temperature monitoring, software is available from the support site of your motherboard manu factor, there is also a possibility that this feature is available in your bios setup. I am mostly using a freeware program named 'SpeedFan' for this task.

    ISO 9296 Standard
    ISO 9296 is the international noise emission declaration standard for information technology equipment. ISO 9296 can be used for noise declaration of:

    # Personal computer system units
    # Mainboards
    # Hard disks
    # CD/DVD readers/burners, and other storage devices
    # Power supplies
    # Graphic cards
    # Other kinds of information technology equipment sub-assemblies
    # Projectors
    # Printers
    # Fax machines


    a 'Must read' page about noice measurement and standards
    http://www.silent.se/iso-9296.php

    Another one is:
    http://www.silentpcreview.com/article_index.php

    Also read this one:
    Radio amateur OZ2CPU homemade watercooling

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