If your PC is noisy

  • Thread starter Thread starter therage!
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therage!

therage!

Wicked Machine
Move it into your closet!

I finally snapped because of the noise level of my PC and moved it into a closet.
Man it's like night and day, what relief! I can now use a condenser mic in my room and not hear that horrible fan noise.

I had to pickup a USB, VGA and PS/2 extension cables but they were relatively cheap if you use a local shop and stay away from Best Buy.

I was concerned about my PC heating up in the closet but I only shut the door when
I'm recording with a mic. I'm sure if I left the closet door closed for hours it would really heat up but an hour or two is no problem. The temp only went up a few degrees after an hour, plenty long enough for me to do some vocal tracking! :)
 
about 2-3 years ago, i drilled a smallish circular hole into the wall between my home studio and put my PC into the adjacent closet.

the keyboard, and mouse extensions weren't expensive and i just got a 16ft usb cable a few days ago.
 
What about when your mixing? Could'nt the CPU noise affect your listening?
 
ZEKE SAYER said:
What about when your mixing? Could'nt the CPU noise affect your listening?
Hardly..tracking a quiet instrument or vocals is the only real concern. It would have to be pretty damn loud to be a problem for mixing.
 
ZEKE SAYER said:
What about when your mixing? Could'nt the CPU noise affect your listening?

Only in the sense that it's annoying and listening to that thing for hours on end gets on my nerves. Usually when mixing I've got my monitors cranked up enough I don't notice CPU noise too much.

When I get to building my studio downstairs I'm gonna put that noisy box in it's own room and even run an AC vent for it! :D
 
Get the 'puter outta there!!

I also moved the computer tower to the adjacent room with a couple of 2 inch PVC "grommets" through the wall, one for power cords, the other for Usb and audio cables. Got a Usb Cdrw so I don't have to leave the room to pop in a Cdr. It's great! Quiet, quiet, quiet.....



Now, if only there was a cure for my nose whistling......
 
I've been looking for a solution to a super noisy machine for some time now. I almost dove in to make ghetto switches to temporarily shut off the fans. But I guess that may be dangerous if you forget to turn them back on. Surfed onto this site today:

http://www.1coolpc.com/

I didn't even know stuff like this existed but it's a really good idea. You install a little controller with knobs into a 5.25" bay and it allows you to control voltage and fan speeds. Has neat little lights too.

i'm'
 
Just a thought...

I think I posted this somewhere else, but in any event, what about those desks that have a tall cabinet specifically for the tower. These have a door that closes on the PC. It's supposed to stay in there all the time, so they must be OK enough for ventilation. Also, you could glue some carpet rubber backing to the inside of the cabinet area, etc...

It's funny, because a digital system with a condensor picks up everything and puts it over a dead quiet background! When I was using tape, the machines always had fans and whatnot, but the s/n ratio with the tape hiss must have been louder than the motor/fan noise.
 
I simply got some low noise hardware in there. I replaced the video card with one that has no fan on it, then bought a Zalman (http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/intro.htm) low noise power supply and cpu cooler.

All I hear now is the harddisk spinning but there's rubber casings for that as well. it's almost silent now. I might stick it in some 19" rackmount casing one of these days (like those Carillon pc's they sell over in the UK) and get everything into a single flightcase.

I record my vocals and acoustic guitars outside the room where my pc resides anyway, only thing required for that was a longer mic lead and a wireless headphone.
 
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