The ISO Box thread

DeadPoet

DeadPoet

carpe diem
(this subject came out of the BUILDING A NEW DAW: What to buy and better yet, what questions to ask? thread, but i decided to give it it's own place)

Here's some pictures of my homemade pc ISO box. It's made out of
- 9mm (1/3") MDF. It was a 120x240mm (4'x8') sheet, cut for me at the home improvement store (but cut in a *very* bad way, one piece had a difference in width of about 1/2" between top and bottom ! -> next time I'm cutting it myself)

- a few wood laths (don't remember the size, would be about 1/2" x 1/2") to screw top, bottom and sides into

- wood screws, glue (used as 'caulk'), a few round plastic feet I had from a previous unfinished pedal board project, a door handle and some small hinges

- ventilation: 3 90mm fans and a 120mm fan (unused because of noise). I could replace these with panaflo or other silent fans. Better yet: in v2.0 of the box I think I'm gonna use 120mm fans -> less rotation/noise for the same amount of airflow.

- inside lined with 35mm (1 1/2") 'acoustic' foam. Unuseable as acoustic foam, but great to line the box with. Glued to all surfaces except the door.

Alright, I'll shut up and show the pictures...


Herwig

1st one: tha box, sitting under my desk...
 

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The box, opened. Left comp is internet/office pc, right is DAW.

(and yes, that's a custum A/C hole in the internet box :D )
 

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Detail of upper front right corner... notice carpenter tolerance :D :p :cool: :rolleyes: :eek:
 

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control central. The fans run on a standard 240AC transfo, switchable from 1.5 to 12V. Lowest setting moves no air, highest setting is too loud. 6V seems a good setting.

Inseide the box I attached molex connectors, looked cooler ... errr.. nerdier ;)
 

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Right side with air intake. Left side has outtake at top.

(V2.0 may have rackspace, and I might let the sides of the computers off for better airflow)
 

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Backside with service door (yep that's 4 usb cables, 3 video cables, 2 mouse cables, 2 keyboard cables, 2 power cables + the red/black power for the A/C, a printer cable and 2 H-bus cables for the soundcards :D :cool:
 

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Same picture with door open. V0.2 of this box had only the round cable hole, V1.0 included the foam-lined door ;)
 

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the iso box i built fora friend is just like that but we used 2 huge fans from Dell servers.. they move so much air yet they're quiet.. the inside is just like that but its 2-3 layers or carpet padding and we put some on the outside too...
and overall we used HDF not mdf just b/c we had some extra laying around
 
My question is - does it work?

I built something similiar (not as elaborate as yours) and in effect I think I built a 'computer noise amplifier' box.

:)

Seriously, almost like a putting a computer inside a big PA cabinet. My design might have been flawed though.

Did you take measurements before and after as to the noise attenuation?

Curious to know as this computer noise problem has plagued me for years now. I'm building my own solution to this at the moment, but it is far simpler than building an iso box like you have here.

Cool stuff.
 
I thought of building something like this, but most of my research revealed that I should not... at least, yet.

How well does it work?

Have you taken temp readings?
 
Hey poet - I'll be saying "I told you so" when, in a few months your processors burn and ruin the motherboards of both computer.
 
Alriht, I've been away two days... my replies


Emeric: yes it works. I don't have a Radio Shack audio meter, but the two audio meters at the side of my face tell me it works. When running the office box I hear a faint 'zzzzzzzzz', when running the DAW box alone I hear close to nothing. It's the birds outside that determine my noise floor at that moment ;)
Maybe a PA speaker enclosure is built to spread sound as effective as possible ?? ( just a thought)

Doug Quance & BPRecords: the office comp had motherboard temp readings of about 40-45° C. Version 0.1 of the box had no fans and when running both computers with the door closed, temperature rised quickly to above 70°C !! That's why I added the fans. The three fans seem to move enough air to get the temp of the office computer back to 45°C (this is when running both at a time)

My feeling is that if I would redo the box I would make some racks for the computers or some shelves and strip them to the bone to get even better thought of airflow inside the box (though dust would get to be a problem then).
Also when redoing I could make some ducts for the in- and outtakes, so I could redirect the air/noise to the front wall of my room (which has fibreglass absorption)


3des: that project looks a little drastic to me ... drilling holes in the floor :eek: :eek:

Well... like I said: it works for me, and I hope someone can find any value in this post.

Herwig
 
I think my problem would come from the fact that my tower has a total of 9 fans. By the time I built a box to handle the heat... I would be dealing with the issue of at least four fans on the box...

I'm leaning towards an air conditioned closet...
 
Doug: wow, 9 fans... that's a whole lot!!

The airconditioned closet is a dream of mine too. In my ideal studio situation, I'm thinking of a control room with A/C, but with a duct running under the desk/racks with an airstream into the racks (of which one would be a silenced rack, complete with plexi door) .... aaahhhh... nice daydream :cool: ;)


Herwig (changing/upgrading configurations tomorrow)
 
DeadPoet said:
Doug: wow, 9 fans... that's a whole lot!!

The airconditioned closet is a dream of mine too. In my ideal studio situation, I'm thinking of a control room with A/C, but with a duct running under the desk/racks with an airstream into the racks (of which one would be a silenced rack, complete with plexi door) .... aaahhhh... nice daydream :cool: ;)


Herwig (changing/upgrading configurations tomorrow)
Click to expand...
Yep, 9 of them. I couldn't believe it.

I had the system custom built, primarily for video editing, so it's not like it was MY idea for all those f&*$%ng fans!

If I had known they were going to "gold-plate" the system, I would have asked for some quiet fans! It sounds like a vacuum cleaner when I fire it up!

The system, without monitors or speakers, ran me around $5300... and the builder was very sensitive to temperature, so they put complete redundancy in the cooling dept. It's guaranteed to never overheat.

If I keep the system at my office (I'm still at odds with this) I think I might consider building "the box", as I don't have a closet to use, there.

Thanks again for the pix and description!
 
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