Shhh! Quiet Your Systems For Competitive Advantage

One way to answer that question is to make your box quieter than your competitor's. PCs are relatively noisy. And that can be a major irritation for users.

In this Recipe, I'll show you a relatively low-cost way to quiet your white-box systems. As an extra benefit, you'll also boost your systems' reliability, turning your commodity PC into a premium product.

Go To The Source

What's making all the noise? Physical moving parts. The loudest parts have to do with thermal management %96 keeping your systems cool. The next loudest is the hard drive.

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The main source of thermal-related noise are cheap, high-speed fans used to keep a systems' CPU and power supply from melting. The cure, of course, is to replace them with quieter fans. Oh, by the way, these quieter fans also move more air and provide better airflow management. This one substitution will make the biggest difference.

The quickest and easiest way to make this fix is to simply buy a kit. One good example is Fortron's Silent Solutions Kit for AMD from QuietPC USA. You may find other similar packages. AMD and Intel versions are rated for CPUs with processor speeds of up to XP3000/P4 3.06 GHz.

The Fortron kit includes a CPU cooler, power supply, and case fan. At QuietPC, the retail price is $86 plus shipping/handling. For detailed specs on the Fortron unit, see this PowerPoint presentation from the FSP Group.

Adding the case fan increases the airflow efficiency of the power supply and CPU cooler fan, reducing their back pressure, workload, and noise level. The power supply in this case has a fan covering the bottom of the case and outputs to a perforated rear grille with the usual power switch and AC jack. The CPU cooler is made of copper, which offers improved heat dissipation over stock, and has a larger fan that moves more air more quietly.

If you're a DIY fan, instead of buying a kit, you can, with some research, find a power supply, CPU cooler, and case fan with similar or lower acoustic noise specs. These parts will also cool down the internal PC components more efficiently than stock cooling will. I describe some of these options below, under the heading "DIY Options." But for now, let's stick with the Fortron kit.

Here are the Fortron kit's levels for both noise (in decibels, or dB) and airflow levels (in cubic feet per minute, or cfm):

The CPU cooler spec below also illustrates the tradeoff between heat-sink efficiency and required fan speed/airflow/noise:

For this Recipe, I used a 900 GHz AMD Duron processor on a PC Chips 810LR / PCB rev 5.0 motherboard.

My experience with QuietPC was very good, but the Fortron kit itself is not as helpful as it might be. QuietPC shipped promptly via UPS with no problems. One glitch: the packing slip instructs the customer to go to this Web page for more information, but there is no information on the page for this particular kit. As for the kit itself, while it arrived in a neat, attractive box, the instructions weren't that clear or useful. Maybe readers of other languages -- the instructions are also provided in German, French, and Chinese -- will do better.

I also found that four parts were missing, and that the box contained some extra parts. The missing parts were: mounting instructions for what appears to be a plastic duct for the case fan; thermal grease for the CPU cooler; case fan mounting screws; and a drilling template or dimensioned drawing for the case fan. The missing screws were particularly annoying, as it meant I had to make a trip to the local hardware store, bringing along the fan so I could figure out which screws would fit. The box also contained a package of what probably are screws for the P4 retainer. I ordered an AMD kit. This may have been thrown in by mistake instead of the missing case fan mounting screws.

Installation

The best way to install the kit is while you are building a computer. Simply use the kit components instead of what you usually use for CPU cooler, power supply, and case fan. Retrofitting works as well, though this article was based on my experiences with upgrading my personal workstation with the kit.

Let's get started:

Step 1: Make sure the contents of the box match the component list in the manual. As I pointed out earlier, this is not guaranteed. If parts are missing, you'll need to get them, either locally or from your original supplier.

Step 2: Install the new CPU cooler. If you're upgrading, seriously consider removing the motherboard from the computer case before doing the replacement. The AMD processor spring clip on this large, heavy heat sink is difficult to install.

Applying thermal grease properly is especially important when you're trying to quiet a PC. That's especially true in a PC that uses uses acoustic foam as a passive sound-suppressor. Doing this wrong makes a big difference in heat transfer. Use a thin coat of thermal grease. It should be barely visible. The only purpose for thermal grease is to fill in the small metallic voids and surface imperfections in metallic contact surfaces. Then attach the CPU cooler as usual using the spring clip (AMD) or the mounting screws (Intel).

If this is your first time installing an AMD heat sink, AMD offers these installation manuals for their Socket A chips and these installation videos.

Intel users can find information on installing CPU coolers in these Intel installation manuals.

Step 3: Install the power supply. Screw in the power supply. Plug in the motherboard power connector. Then plug in the connectors on the wiring harness where indicated.

If you're upgrading, first pull the old power-supply wiring . If you are not going to remove the motherboard before installing the chip cooler, install it while there is no power supply or wiring in place. Then, plug in the new power connectors. Then screw the power supply to the case.

Step 4: Install the case fan. You will need four 8-32 if your kit doesn't provide them. This also allows for the use of neoprene washers for vibration isolation. Add another 1/2-inch for the duct. If you don't have holes or punchouts for case fans or the right metal cutting tools, you will have to drill out a grille. (The Fortron manual describes self-tapping metal screws, which weren't provided. I used machine screws instead.) Drill size #29 or 3.5 mm is preferred; a 9/64-inch drill bit should work. (By the way, "8-32" is a standard size for screw fasteners; for more information, see this Sizes Inc. page on screw thread fasteners.)

Installation is easy if your cases has pre-drilled holes or punchouts for a 92-mm case fan. Just put in the fan, and screw it down. If it does not have the pre-drilled holes, click here to see a sample template.

The template is intended for a 1/4-inch drill bit for the intake holes. While a portable drill will work, a drill press would be faster.

That's it!

My Results

Now that I've shown you how to install the kit, you might wonder whether it's really worth it. I would say it is. The system I upgraded for this Recipe is noticeably quieter. While I did not have access to a SPL meter, I can say that I find my computer's noise far less distracting now. And as you can see below, the system actually runs cooler than it did with the stock equipment:

Temperature readings (machine temperatures from SiSoft Sandra 2004 or BIOS):

It's fairly obvious that this will work well with a much faster processor, since the CPU's temperature of 104 degrees F. indicates that the cooling system is overkill for my Duron 900. The faster the processor, the greater the level of heat that needs to be dissipated. This is why CPU coolers are rated for specific processor types and speeds. My processor could easily be running 30 degrees F. or more warmer without my being concerned about it. A 2.8G or faster chip probably would be running 30 degrees F. warmer.

That said, there were some glitches. The biggest was that neither fan tach readout works, even from the BIOS. Motherboards make available the speed in RPM of cooling fans via a tachometer readout on each fan, which can be read via the BIOS or various monitoring applications. This is why the connectors for fans are 3-pin instead of power/ground. Fan-speed readouts are an expected feature for modern fans and motherboards, so not working is worthy of comment. I'm not concerned about this in terms of performance; the temperature changes show the fans obviously work well. I can say the stock cooler that the kit CPU cooler replaced certainly provided a working tach readout. Also, neither Fortron nor the QuietPC vendor responded to my e-mailed questions about this.

DIY Options

While the kit is a great solution for a one-off project, if you're building large numbers of "quiet" boxes for customers, consider looking for your own component combinations. They will offer similar or better acoustic noise specs for less money.

Everything you add to a PC in pursuit of quiet will add labor and material cost. You can build a super-quiet PC, but can you sell it? The following are things to experiment with.

Improving air flow: Carefully route the cables to make it possible to get air moving where it needs to go. This will reduce fan loading and the increased noise that goes with it. You can move cards around the case if other considerations allow you to do so. Also, round IDE cables will further reduce wiring bulk.

Hard drive sound management: Some hard drives, like Maxtor's, have diagnostic/setup programs which allow choosing two or more noise levels. Select quiet mode, and your hard drive performance will suffer slightly. For the right customer, however, the tradeoff can be worth it. Also, QuietPC sells a hard-drive acoustic enclosure that bolts into a 5.25 drive bay.

Vibration isolation: Plastic screws and washers attached to things that vibrate like fans are good.

Acoustic absorption material: Acoustic foam can be used to further suppress noise. Remember, however, that this can interfere with air flow. Also, foam is a thermal as well as an acoustic insulator. Keeping heat inside a PC isn't a great idea. So make sure your thermal management is up to snuff before using foam.

Extreme thermal management: Techniques like water cooling, Peltier junction coolers, immersion in thermally conductive but electrically insulating solutions such as Fluorinert are used to by overclockers to keep CPUs from melting down. Some of these can be used in normal systems.

This might be worth experimenting with for customers like recording studios, acoustic analysis facilities, or other customers who need extremely quiet PCs. It might also be worthwhile for customers who run desktop PCs in hot weather where air conditioning is unavailable. These are people with special needs who might be willing to pay premium prices for this kind of performance.

Good luck with your quiet-computing solution!

A. LIZARD is an Internet consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has been writing for technology magazines and Web sites since 1987.

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