Last updated: 10 September, 2002 Please email comments to
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Copyright (c) 2002, Scott Lystig Fritchie. All rights
reserved. Void where prohibited. Don't try this at home without
consulting an attorney, an electrical engineer, or your mother. Eat
your vegetables!
Why Build a Quiet PC?
The computer noise in our home office started to really bother
me. I wanted a quiet PC, a really, really quiet PC. Silent
would be wonderful, but then again I didn't want a completely silent
PC so badly that I'd spend $1,000 to buy or build one. So, I wanted
as quiet a PC as I could get for a modest budget.
One of my former coworkers pointed out that it was ironic that I
lived close enough to the
Minneapolis/St. Paul International
Airport to qualify for its
sound
insulation program ... so I'm
trying to build a silent PC with DC-9 and Boeing 727 aircraft roaring
overhead. Alright, so call me crazy. The computer noise was driving
me nuts. Perhaps the construction on our house tipped me over the
edge. Perhaps instead it was inspiration.
There's a huge segment of the PC market that's focused on the
overclocking hobbyist. Some boast as much about many fans they've put
in their PC cases (6 or 7 fans being quite common) as they might brag
about how far they've overclocked their CPUs. A cousin of mine was
startled one day while visiting a friend's house: he thought a dog had
brushed past his leg, but it was only the airflow of his friend's PC
when he turned it, and its multiple 120mm fans, on.
Compared to the overclocker's market, the quiet/silent PC marketplace
is microscopic.
I put a
lot of research into trying to build a cheap, quiet PC.
I found myself getting a bit compulsive, digging deeper to try to find
a magic vendor to solve my problem on the cheap. I didn't find one,
but perhaps you'll find the collection of hyperlinks useful.
Reminder: See the resources links below
for details on all the stuff I discuss below.
The easiest decision to make ended up being what to do with the
disk drive. I
first thought about buying a SilentDrive enclosure or two. But I read
so many good things about the Seagate Barracuda IV IDE drive that I just
decided to buy a couple. (For an example review, see
http://www.pcpowerzone.co.uk/reviews.php?id=39.
Those drives are extremely, impressively quiet. Sitting
in a quiet room, I cannot hear one spinning if I'm about
5 feet away. If the heads are moving, I can't hear it from about 10 feet
away. Put into a computer case, the thing is just silent. In a case
when moving heads, I can barely hear the heads if I know what I'm
listening for ... but, as I'll describe later, my case is now pretty
darn quiet. :-)
The next easiest choice was what to do about the CPU. Again, the
reviews I read on the Net were very helpful. The VIA C3 processor was
highly recommended as cool cucumber. They also point out that,
performance-wide, it's definitely slower than a comparably-clocked AMD
or Intel CPU. But since the C3 dissipates so much less power than
those CPUs, it was an easy choice. I was looking to make a quiet box,
not a rocket box.
The case and power supply was the hardest thing to choose. I
found several cases that are fanless but are made outside the US as
well as being too expensive. I thought about a standard ATX case and
trying to find the quietest PSU I could find in it.... And then I had
a conversation with a cousin, Rob, who'd put together a couple of
systems based on the
Shuttle SV24
barebones system. He bit me with the SV24 bug.
I read a number of reviews on the Shuttle SV24. (Links to many of
them can be found below in my incomplete SV24 link
collection.
All but one said
that it was impressively quiet. One said it was quite noisy. I
didn't know what to believe. Rob said that he thought that they were
fairly quiet but didn't really trust his memory.
I recalled seeing the Cappuccino advertised at
ThinkGeek. I found
a
Slashdot article on the Cappuccino that had a comment that says,
in part, "Only down side is the thing is that it is fairly loud, for something so tiny. I've got it sitting in my living room, and it's fan noise is
rather noticable."
The Book PC folks specialize in making small
PCs. However, nothing I found on their Web site mentioned them
specializing in small and quiet PCs. Oh well.
I decided to try out the SV24 after all. I liked its
highly-integrated motherboard, its size, and its overall cuteness.
When it arrived, I plugged it in as soon as I could ... and the darn
thing sounded as if it had a small hairdryer inside. {sigh}
Warning: Don't open your power supply case unless you know what
you're doing. Those things can hurt or kill you, even if they were
last plugged in weeks or even months ago. Here are a couple of
articles a Silent PC Review
that discuss the dangers and rewards of modifying power
supplies:
article one
and
article two.
Having known that for years, I opened up the power supply. The
40mm fan isn't nearly as loud when it's outside the power supply. The
shape of the narrow power supply seems to amplify the fan's noise by
(subjectively) about double. So, I clipped the fan's power leads and
ran them outside the PSU to a
Zalman
Fan Mate 1. It's a simple variable resistor, but it's one male
and one female 3-prong connector for easy insertion between a
motherboard connector and fan. I've got the PSU fan, normally 5000 RPM,
turned down to 3600 RPM. I connected a second Fan Mate to the SV24's
60mm case fan (located in the back), reducing its speed from 2500 RPM
to down to 1900 RPM. The CPU's temperature during normal use is about
43C.
The End Result
In the end, I got a cute little PC that is a very quiet hum when it's
located underneath a desk (sitting a small stack of books sitting on
the floor) and I'm standing 10 feet away. I'm hum is audible
when sitting at the desk, but
Kinesis
Professional Contoured Keyboard makes enough noise
to cover it up. FreeBSD runs quite happily on it, as does XFree86.
What more can a person want? :-)
Performance-wise, many reviewers felt the built-in graphics system
is not competitive in this day and age. I'm a curmudgeon who doesn't
need speedy 3D graphics acceleration, so the built-in S3 Savage
graphics engine is just fine. Here are some results compiling various
software packages using my old machine, an AMD K6-2 233Mhz box, and
the new one.
| | AMD K6-2 233MHz | VIA C3 800MHz
|
| FreeBSD 4.5
generic kernel
make depend | 4:34 | 1:41
|
| FreeBSD 4.5
generic kernel
make kernel | 13:11 | 4:43
|
| Erlang R8B-1
compile | 1:33:26 | 0:35:57
|
This shows that the C3 800MHz CPU is a bit less than three times
faster than the K6-2 233MHz. The difference in CPU clock rate is
about 3.4 times, but given the design tradeoffs made in the C3, my
observed 2.7-2.8 times speed increase is reasonable.
I'm a software developer, not a gamer. Hey, it took me
all these years to replace a 233MHz PC with something faster, right?
As far as I'm concerned, something that's roughly 3x faster and
much, much quieter was a successful upgrade.
Total cost: $440, which includes the SV24, C3 CPU,
256MB RAM, Zalman Fan Mates, and a Seagate Barracuda IV hard drive.
Overall, I'm happy with my SV24-based box. If I have a problem
with my modified power supply, well, I'm not worried about not being
able to make a warranty claim. It isn't silent, but it's close
enough ... given the amount of money I was willing to spend.
If I were to do this again, I would do things differently:
- I'd start with a standard-size PC case. They're easier to find
and easier to work with: small spaces can cause big problems for big
fingers. Standard-sized cases can also use much larger fans
(80-120mm), which can then be slowed & quieted down using handy
& cheap gizmos like the Zalman Fan Mate 1.
- The VIA C3 CPU will run at least 10-15C cooler if there's a fan on
the CPU heat sink. Most CPU heat sinks are designed for active
airflow; purely passive heat sinks are apparently designed much differently. A variable resistor on the fan can have it run at
an inaudible level and will make a big difference in the CPU's
operating temperature.
I usually don't run my desktop at 100% CPU
busy for many hours at a time, but if I did, I'd probably get the C3
above 70C (eventually). With a slowly-spinning heat sink fan on it, I
would never worry.
- I'd look much more seriously at fanless PSUs.
- If fanless PSUs are still too expensive or hard to find, perhaps
a handmade duct, placed inside the case, to blow air from a quiet 90mm
or 120mm fan (running at a slow speed!) through a standard PSU (with
its fan removed) would be an adequate compromise?
These vendors sell a variety of noise-reducing products. I
haven't anything good or bad to say about most of them: let the buyer
beware.
- http://www.quietpcusa.com/
- Lots of good products. Lots of testimonials on-site, though
I've also encountered nothing but positive things elsewhere:
quietpcusa.com and quietpc.ca appear to have a good
reputation. {shrug}
- http://www.directron.com/
- A wide array of cooling stuff. Has a special section at
http://www.directron.com/silence.html.
I ordered my Shuttle SV24 barebone system as well as misc
other parts from this vendor; I had a good experience and
would recommend it.
- http://www.sharkacorp.com/
- Fair number of cooling products. Useful links to third-party
reviews of various cooling products.
- http://www.endpcnoise.com/
- Another quiet equipment/parts specialist with good selection.
- http://www.thebookpc.com/
- A vendor that specializes in small PCs. What a concept!
Currently running a special on a complete "book" PC with VIA
C3 processor 667MHz for $350 @ http://www.thebookpc.com/p_8601.htm
- http://store.yahoo.com/newtech/
- Big selection. Includes complete systems and bare bones
systems compatible with VIA C3 as well as C3 CPU alone. I
ordered a couple of 800MHz C3 CPUs from this outfit: they
charged a fortune ($30) for 2nd day air for 2 CPUs (!) and
still neglected to include a suite number (I gave it to them
with the order) on the shipping label, which delayed delivery
another day. I was glad that they had the CPUs in stock, but
I think I'll look elsewhere next time.
- http://www.pcpowerandcooling.com/products/sleekline/index.htm
- I dunno why, but I never thought of mounting a 1U 19" rackable
PC like that before. Silly me.
- http://www.siliconacoustics.com/
- Fair selection of products. Carries a fanless PSU, the
TKPower 300W fanless, $195 US. I'm not quite that desperate yet,
though it's featured in this review at SilentPCReview.
- http://www.microspacepc.com/
- Spiffy looking fanless PC, apparently designed for markets
such as point-of-sale terminals and other pretty tough
environments. Claims that noise is "<35db".
It'd be quite interesting to find anyone
selling those things retail in the US. Hrm, there's
apparently a distributor in Canada....
Note that some of the vendors mentioned in the
variety vendors section also sell the C3.
- http://www.via.com.tw/jsp/en/channel/vcdp.jsp
- VIA's list of C3 resellers.
- http://www.softwareandstuff.com/
- Search for "VIA C3". Has some really cheap full systems, too,
though I suspect that many of them are "get what you pay for"
systems.
- http://www.newegg.com/
- They sell C3 processors: perform a product search for "VIA C3".
- http://www.iowacomputing.com/
- Power supplies by Enermax, including a 250W unit for 1U cases.
- http://accelenation.com/?doc=141&page=1
- Review of the VIA EPIA All-In-One motherboard and Eden processor.
See also:
variety vendors section above.
- http://www.signum-data.de/english/futureclient.htm
- Completely fanless @ 2.2GHz. Expensive, it figures. German company,
buyable in the US?
- http://www.calmpc.com/english/product-e.htm
- Evaporation-based PC cooling system, fanless. They do have an
on-line ordering section, believe it or not: click the word
"Shopping" in the head graphic that's below the text links at
the top of the page.
- http://www.rsg-electronic.de/english/index.cfm
- Announced in early June 2002: a fanless ATX power supply a
300W. Wow. At full load they say that it'll require a fan to
move air through the box, but that shouldn't be a surprise.
It's much easier to find quiet fans than quiet PSUs....
- http://www.pcsilent.de/en/index.asp
- Nifty German supplier of quiet chassis & parts. Too bad it's
German, say all we Americans who's have to pay evil shipping
costs....
- http://www.justcooler.com.tw/english/products/other/sp-300/sp-300.htm
- 300W ATX power supply that uses a blower instead of of a
standard fan. Claims it's much quieter than a standard PSU.
I dunno of any comparisons of this PSU against Enermax Whisper
series, Zalman, or Q Technology which have been reviewed
extensively as being quiet. {shrug}
- 110W
ATX "open frame" PSU
- Hrm ... for a small box like my 1 hard drive, 0 CD-ROM drive,
VIA C3 system like the one I just built, 110 watts ought to be
more than enough. With a large case fan (spinning at low
speed) to exchange some air in the box, this baby just might
be the right thing....
- Transmeta ...
- I can't find any home or office desktop system made by
anyone with a Crusoe chip in it. Weird. I guess its thermal
advantages aren't enough to penetrate that part of the market
yet.
-
Google search for 'Therm-A-Pipe'
- The Shuttle SV40G (FS40??) uses uses something like this to help draw
heat from the CPU heatsink to another sink several inches away
and much closer to a big, theoretically quiet fan. See
this review at t-break for photos. Supposedly there's a Minnesota
company that distributes Therm-A-Pipe, see
this query for details.
Info sites
- http://www.directron.com/howtoquiet.html
- Beginner's step-by-step guide. Well written.
- http://fredrik.hubbe.net/silence/how.html
- Another good step-by-step. See also links on left side of
http://fredrik.hubbe.net/watercool.html.
- http://www.circuit-hacker.org/silence/
- and http://pmitros.mit.edu/silence.html (old version)
Very interesting writing by a guy with the same goal as me:
make the silly PC silent. Good stuff.
- http://www.heatsink-guide.com/
- Tons of info articles incl max temp guidelines for various
cpus, thermal compound info, "cool CPU s/w" for Windows to get
it to slow !#!#$# down CPU utilization when not busy, etc.
- http://www.ltsp.org/contrib/fanless_howto.html
- This is one of the many FAQs from the
Linux Terminal Server
Project, which specializes in diskless workstations and
the servers they use. The fanless FAQ has a tantalizing
mention of a 100W PSU by TK Power that was designed for 1U
rackmount cases and is fanless. For building a
modest PC with a VIA C3 processor, a
highly-integrated motherboard, a single hard
drive, and perhaps a CD-ROM drive, 100W is probably
sufficient. A fanless PSU is veryvery appealing to
me....
- http://www.viahardware.com/c3pc_1.shtm
- 1st page of 2 page article on building a FlexATX system from
scratch. page 2 is quite intersting with cost breakdown &
total: $290 for all hardware and VIA C3 CPU.
- http://www.viatech.com/jsp/en/products/C3/C3_silent.jsp
- Part of VIA's propaganda on the C3. Includes some useful
recommendations for specific quiet HDs, PSUs, heat sinks.
- http://home.swipnet.se/tr/silence.html
- Whole boatload of "silent PC" info, gotta wade through it, but
lots of good recommendations and links can be found in there.
- Windows software like Rain et al.
-
- Linux: http://noflushd.sourceforge.net/
- In combination with aggressive hdparm settings ... more useful for battery life in
portables than noise, but they're related topics.
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Silent-PC/
- Good mailing list archives, but you gotta wade through lots of
stuff just like any other list archive. Gotta deal with yahoo
groups ads, too.
- http://www.silentpcreview.com/
- Lots of good stuff. I haven't yet read all the the advice
here, but I am working on it.
- http://staff.washington.edu/gray/silentpc.html
- Hey, here's a guy who wrote up his experiences making a quiet
PC. He has a couple of chapters to his story, one from
October 2000 and one from April 2002.
- http://www.the-labs.com/NoNoise/
- Decent collection of links, if a bit small compared to other
collections I've seen. All the links appear live, though,
which is always A Good Thing.
Unorganized Links and Sometimes Wacky Stuff
Here are some of the reviews of the
Shuttle SV24 barebones
system that I read before purchasing one. As I described above,
my idea of "quiet" and most of these reviewers' idea of "quiet" are
not the same.