<- to Hubbe's corner
The silent computer project

or: How to get rid of those damn fans!



Resources:

  • Silent PC Guide
  • Old silent diary entries
  • Older silent diary entries
  • Why I gave up watercooling before

    CPU fans and HD enclosures:

  • Molex
  • Quietpc.com
  • New England Digital Computers Inc.

    Silent fans & PSUs:

  • PC Power & Cooling
  • Quietpc.com

    Water Cooling:

  • Senfu
  • Plycon

    Sound-absorbing materials:

  • Accumat
  • B-quiet

    Computer enclosures:

  • Sound Construction & Supply

    Temperature monitoring:

  • Digital Doctor
  • Plycon

    Links:

  • Lots of Info!
  • Noise reduction using carpet padding

    Windows Software:

  • Rain, CPU cooling software
  • CD Bremse

    Linux Software:

  • Hdparm
  • Noflushd

    Other Software:

  • IBM drive noise management
  • The quiet diary

    Jun 1st 2002

    It's been almost a year since last, but I found this neat link that I had to share. It is a noise comparison of various fan models done by Directron.com. Go check it out.

    And be sure to check back here, because I have a new (noisy) computer that I need to work on. See you then... :)

    Aug 7th 2001

    Got my water cooling stuff going again. The modified senfu radiator seems to work very well. Doing a burn-test right now, and the temperature seems stabe at 39.5 degrees celcius. I still have to find a better container and some RedLine 'water wetter', but other than that I am fairly pleased. Hopefully this system will last longer than the previous one... After I clean up the mess I made putting this together I will see if the pictures I took are worth putting up.

    I'm done cleaning (for today), so I put up the pictures I took.

    Aug 6th 2001

    I went to the hardware store today to pick up some items for my new water cooling system. Unfortunately they didn't thave the shutoff valves I wanted to be able to build a closed-circuit system, so I'll just have to build a system with a water tank first. I started by modifying my Senfu radiator to fit larger hoses, as described here. While I was at it I also replaced the fans with two very quiet slot fans that I hooked up serially so that they will run on 6 volts. I will post some pictures of this setup eventually. :)

    I have also started building an inline temperature sensor as described here. Tomorrow I will try to find an auto supply store that has the RedLine Water Wetter (tm) that will keep the water in my system from becoming Green Slimy Goo (tm).

    Aug 2nd 2001

    A couple of months has gone by since I gave up on my water cooling rig and a lot has happened since then. I've discovered a few new things and I'm now ready to give water cooling another try. But before I go into that I'll have to tell you that I bought a Koolance case! :) I bought one with an non-watercooled PSU, because I wanted to have a HD and a GFX cooler as well as a CPU cooler. The first thing that I noticed is that the fan in the PSU was NOT quiet!! I opened it up and measured the voltage to see if it was temperature controlled... It turns out that it wasn't even temperature controlled. :( So I replaced it with a fan that *is* temperature controlled from Directron.com... Now the box is fairtly quiet, but far from inaudible. I also bought a whole bunch of cyclone slot fans from Directron. When running at 7 volts they are both quiet and efficient!

    Now, back to the water cooling!
    What really made me make up my mind to try this again was this page. Now if I can just build a closed system without a tank, I'll be happy.:)

    And, last but not least; I have decided to upgrade my TiVo with a 80Gb Seagate Barrracuda IV. If they are half as quiet as they claim, it should be an excellent hard drive for everybody with an interest in quiet data storage.

    Come back soon, I will. :)

    May 3rd 2001

    I finally got a digital camera so I can start documenting some of the stuff I've been doing here. And today I started by documenting the decay of my water cooling system as I replaced it with regular fan/heatsinks. See the gross guck that grows in my water here.

    Apr 8th 2001

    Whoa! Water cooling done right is here! What can I say? I'm getting one of these cases as soon as I can. :)

    This page has been accessed 132,641 times since April 9th, 2000.
    Last modified: September 25th, 2011 - Design by Monica & Fredrik Hübinette