Keeping the computer quiet

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I have an old Antec 19" rackmount case. It has no acoustic treatment as such but all the mounting points for drive bays, case fans etc are on rubber grommits.

I spent probably 1/3 more buying good akasa cpu and case fans than I would buying stock parts and it runs near silent. I have to get on my knees and put my ear to the case to hear any sound come from it.

I think it's a mix of having a good case with damped mounting points, low acoustic noise fans, graphics card with a heat sink rather than a fan. Do your homework and find parts like hard drives and dvd burners that have acoustic levels printed in the spec sheet.

Save yourself the hastle of building a silent box to put your PC in, it will only generate more heat and put stress on your system when you are heavily into a mix. Heat = cooling = noise.

Get a dual or quad core cpu that is fast enough to run your studio without over clocking it, this too only produces more heat which in turn requires more cooling and generates more noise..it's a bit like getting the perfect ingredients to bake a cake.
 
It's a 3 Ghz dual core, so I don't think I need to OC it. Also got 4 GB of RAM. My laptop system was a 2.16 dual core with 2 gigs of RAM, so this is like heaven compared to that. I suppose heat could be a bigger issue with the new case I have, but I don't think it'll be that big a deal. I always get huge heatsinks for my processors just in case (I've fried processors in the past by being cheap, so now I'm paranoid). I'm gonna take care of that video card sooner or later; it's a fairly cheap fix.
 
Shut if off and track in analog! HEHEHE!! No really, I have been told you can buy aftermarket fans that are very quiet. Or if nothing else, put the computer in another room.
 
Here is what I did. I built an aircooled and soundproof enclosure under my console for 2 computers out of 3/4" black Melemine. Each have their own seperate "air supply" plenum with 2 fans to pressure load the airspace around the computer case, and each computer has their own PS fans to draw in the air. To remove the hot air, there is another "exhaust" plenum with 2 "slot fans" that send the air through a baffled exit chamber. Each computer is physically isolated from each other, and decoupled from the enclosure via 4 highly resiliant(vibration absorption) compression isolators. Actually, they are white rubber bottle "corks":D. The enclosures are lined with 1/2" thick Owens Corning 703 rigid fiberglass to absorb high frequency sound. The baffled supply plenums are also lined with 703, as well as 2 foam decoupled fans.

Each front opening has a Smoke Plexiglass door with seals for access to the drives. The sealed back is removable via draw latches, and has 2 sealed cable exits.

Each computer enclosure also has an adjacent rackmount for interfaces etc.

The whole enclosure case is also mounted on neoprene vibration decouplers to keep any modal vibrations from entering the steel framework of the console and thus transferring to the floor membrane(the console legs which are cable chases, bolt into a platform)
It works great. Don't hear a thing.:)

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Let me know if you want to see construction pictures.
oh, one final pic to show it in use.
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fitZ
 
Sheeeeesh, that's intense dude. I think I'll just try to quiet it down as is... My temporary solution is to through a mattress pad over it when I'm recording :)
 
thebigcheese said:
Sheeeeesh, that's intense dude. I think I'll just try to quiet it down as is... My temporary solution is to through a mattress pad over it when I'm recording :)
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Yeah, Fitz has been building that studio for 5+ years now and I've still to hear a song come out of it. He could probably have bought a really nice silent case from antec for the same $$... some people build studios to make music, others build studios....and then just keep building them.

:D
 
LemonTree said:
Yeah, Fitz has been building that studio for 5+ years now and I've still to hear a song come out of it. He could probably have bought a really nice silent case from antec for the same $$... some people build studios to make music, others build studios....and then just keep building them.

:D
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:D

Wait 'til he turns on the PCs and finds out they induce electonic noise into his mixing console!!!

I would never put a pair of ANY power supplies (not to mention the PC's hard drives) directly under a console like that.
His console pres might end up screaming with noise! :eek:

Hopefully, he tried it out before building....
 
Yeah, Fitz has been building that studio for 5+ years now and I've still to hear a song come out of it.
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Excuse me? Show me the fine print where it says I have to share my recordings with you or anyone else.:rolleyes: BTW, where were you when I didn't have time or the money to finish my studio? I was raising kids, holding down 2 jobs, and doing what ADULTS do to support their FAMILY.

Wait 'til he turns on the PCs and finds out they induce electonic noise into his mixing console!!!
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Perhaps you would like to discuss your hypothesis with the one who tweaked, modded and tested my complete system. It just so happens that my brother in law, who IS a STUDIO TECH, and Computer Systems specialist(20 years maintaining and installing secret Military communications encryption equipment, computer systems and highly secret antenea systems as well as the special test equipment and then became the top Computer administer for the Dept of Reclaimation, and built his own studio in 1984), decided to move to my city when he retired. He lived with me for 4 months, and while here, went through EVERY piece of my gear. Tested, repaired, modded, rewired, installed correct electrical distribution system and even helped install the computers after modding THEM. You don't have a clue. Actually, he thought my setup was rather unique. Maybe he'll address your concerns personally, although when shown them, I believe his expression was......:rolleyes:

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Bristol Posse said:
you couls replace the case with one by antec which are designed for quiet computing.

whether you do that or not you should also look at the following:


An after market CPU fan such as a Scythe or Zalman is often quieter than the stock intel or AMD one.
Mount the Hard drives with silicone buffers to cut down on vibration transfered to the case
Mount the case fans with silicone gromets instead of screw to cut down on vibration
Replace stock case fans with after market ones like Silenex or Scyth
Get Zalman Fan controls to be able to slow down case fans with hardware.
get an older type of video card (Gigabyte Nvidia 8600 GT springs to mind) that dose not use a fan at all
Make sure the air intakes on your PC are unobstructed and dust free as possible
Keep the internal wiring as tidy and uncluttered as possible to ensure good airflow over the components that need cooling
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+1 for all of that.

Antec Tri-cool fans are my favorite. Very efficient and whisper quiet at the low speed. I've got two in front of my drive cage, and one in the back.
I also run Zalman fans for the cpu as well as gpu.

I would say that the power supply is the least likely offender. Psu companies have been very good about this in recent years. But it's easy enough to put your ear around the case to see which fan(s) are the loudest.

Imo, damping material for a case is way down the totem pole of effectiveness. Definitely do this last.
 
RICK FITZPATRICK said:
Perhaps you would like to discuss your hypothesis...
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It's not just a hypothesis....
Maybe you got lucky in the positioning...but bring a good size power supply near audio circuits, especially preamps, and you can get a lot more hum/noise from your console than normal.
Did you ever notice how most decent consoles have their power supplies separate and usually at a distance?

I tried once using up the space under the console for some additional audio gear...it seemed like a good idea...all that wasted space.
When I turned everything on, I thought I had bad AC or something...then when I moved the additional gear away from the console...the noise disappeared.
I didn't need a lot of test equipment and what not...it was just a simple A/B comparison.

PS
I have a degree in Electronic Technology, been doing IT work for about 15years now...and I’ve been a studio rat for 30 years.
There...new we both dropped our pants and measured. ;)

Not sure what you're getting so defensive about....you know, there's a reason your setup is unique. :)
 
he bites every time
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hey lemon, bite this. ya oughta tell your ma to quit using that blue lipstick. It smears around your zipper. Bet your dick looks like a smurf.:)
 
It's just a matter of replacing as many noisy parts as you want with quality parts, usually the fans. you can also noise dampeners to the inside of your case. They help.
 
This is what I got.

Antech 190 case. It has 3 120mm case fans with 3 speed settings. Set to the lowest.
Fanless video card (an ASUS job based on nVIDIA chips).
Corsair HX1000 PSU has a dual ball bearing 140mm fan (rated at 17db noise up to 500W power draw).
Zalman 9500 CPU fan, set to run at the slowest setting.

It is wisper quiet.
 
Agreed it's all in the case and the components. Nothing rated over 17Db in my build which is less than the self noise of a lot of common studio mics.

You don't have to isolate your computer in a shed at the bottom of the garden with its own HVAC system these days. Just take the time to seek out the components that are noise rated in their specs.
 
I usually just turn the thing off, since I either record with a standalone or tape. :)

Back when I tinkered more with the DAW, I kept the PSU box outside the studio and ran cables under the doors. That's often the cheapest and easiest way to totally eliminate the sound. There is also the option to buy or make a fancy isolation box, but that could be very expensive or a great labor, as we have seen!

Also, I do record in other places than just the studio room. Portability of a recording rig opens up a lot of great possibilities in terms of other spaces to record in. Heck, I have to move my recorder upstairs just to record the grand piano.

Cheers,

Otto
 
i got a case from

http://www.paqt.co.uk/

and i can honestly say its the only pc i have ever had that can qualify for is it switched on ?

you can heart it as soon as you start it up but by the time its into windows whisper quiet its so quiet i can now hear the transformers on my guitar xt pro humming.

unfortunatly its in the uk dont know if he ships to america

you could try water cooling the cpu chipset and graphics card this would only leave you with a fan or two in the case and hard drive noise to address also make shure to never leave a cd in the drive this can lead to another excess noise.
 
The fans your using look pretty massive. How are things working out. Are the computers keeping cool?
 
Water cooling isn't that much quieter because then you have to deal with pump noise.

Yes, it stays quite cool. Even running at 100% for several days it never got even close to overheating, so I'm quite happy with them. Anyway, my computer has been pretty quiet except for that GPU fan I've been to cheap to upgrade, so I think we can consider this solved. I think I'll close the thread so people don't still think I'm wondering...
 
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