[sdiy] OT: The best ways to silence a PC?

[Peter Grenader]

Tim Ressel wrote:

> Fan noise is in the higher frequency
> range which is easier to get rid of. The simplest way
> to get rid of noise is to drop the PC into a big box
> lined with acoustic foam. Two problems: heat and
> cables. 


This is a knotty problem.  Don;t form-fit the enclosure around the machine.
Give it plenty of breathing room, plus plenty of ventilation. I made a
really cool thing to put my mac into once.  the entire back was open, i
thought this would be enough - but the thing kept crapping out - literally
locking up on me because it was overheating and the PSU was folding back.
What I was doing wrong was leaving the exhaust vents on the back open, but
covering the intake vents that were on the side, so the air flow went to
crap 

 If you make this form fitted, you will need to allow for a path for air
directly at the chassis vents.  Problem is, this is where the fans are and
where the noise is coming from!  Putting a hole there may kill the sonic
filtering, but making it form fit and not doing it may not allow it to
breath AND the foam over those areas will  discolor from the dirt being
sucked into it from the air flow.

When I worked at Tandon Corp, I designed a really cheap, really effective
burn-in rack for our hard drives which was basically a Metro rack enclosed
in plexi glass with a bunch of power docs to connect a bunch of drives to.
The thing would heat to close to 90 centigrade by just running them in their
own heat!

Now, this was like 20 drives - but the vents on your machine are there for a
reason.  Without them, you might as well disconnect the fan because at that
point, all it's doing is contributing to the heat.

Peter