• From: the centre of the universe
  • Registered: 2008-07-08
  • Posts: 377

Topic: quiet PCs again... how much noise to dual athlon systems make?

so - my old jet airplane sounding P4 based PC died permanently the other week, and I've been using my laptop for my main computer... anyway - don't really want to keep doing this, as I keep the laptop pretty bare of programs so its good for playing gigs with.

so - I want to buy a replacement desktop PC for my main PC. modern PCs like the core 2 duo and quad seem really quiet to me. but I don't need anything like the amount of power they have for what I do (no vstis here, just a bunch of HDD tracks, and some VST fx) really the P4 was still going fine for me, power wise... and I'd rather not waste $1000-1500-odd on a computer... I mean, if I have to I will..... but I'd just rather not.

Now, I can get an ok deal on an amd dual athlon 4400 system with a Thermaltake Tsunami Dream Case... it's not a new computer, but made with all good solid components and hardly used. so I'm pretty tempted.

but - are dual athlon systems relatively quiet? as quiet as the modern core 2 duo systems?

I know it's a bit of a "how long is a piece of string" question, but unfortunately I can't really go and hear it for myself before I decide to buy or not.

no-fi's Website

  • MrWho
  • hedonismbot
  • Offline
  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2008-07-07
  • Posts: 563

Re: quiet PCs again... how much noise to dual athlon systems make?

its not the cpu itself which makes noise, it's the cooling fan and the PSU which mostly make a PC loud.
so you just need to get a silent cpu cooler and maybe a silent PSU. there are many silent cpu coolers around, just look for some reviews and then get the right one for your cpu.

  • Registered: 2008-07-08
  • Posts: 1,077

Re: quiet PCs again... how much noise to dual athlon systems make?

actually, not the cooling fan of the Central Processing Unit NOR the Power Source Unit are responsible for the noise that can be heard from the typical Personal Computer. The noise that you hear is the violent fluctuation of air around the fan blades as they spin counter to air resistance.

The key to solving your problem would be the use of fanless coolers on your cpu and around other key areas (such as the system processor and harddrive racks). Fanless coolers come in a few shapes in sizes - for example, simply an array of intricate heat sinks, and a little bit more advanced - thermo electric cooling.

Second, if you will not need much computing power to do what you need, you may consider down-clocking the MHZ your CPU will run at, or using a system built around a popular fanless computer CPU - the Pentium III

Here is some further info for your journey into silent computing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_c … ve_cooling

  • rude66
  • robot des duivels
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  • Registered: 2008-07-07
  • Posts: 1,844

Re: quiet PCs again... how much noise to dual athlon systems make?

Poodle built one for me over a year ago, athlon based and an antec case. dead quiet, i don;t hear the thing at all. light years difference with my old pc.. and it cost something like 300 euro. and even running several vst's, it hardly even wakes up. plenty of power.
ask poodle, he's the master of silent machines..

  • From: the centre of the universe
  • Registered: 2008-07-08
  • Posts: 377

Re: quiet PCs again... how much noise to dual athlon systems make?

@rude: that sounds like exactly what I was wanting!
have you got the make/details of components used?

poodle! speak, please!!
:-)



@ratsnake:
I love the idea of underclocking! I tend to run VST fx plugins a bit, but no VSTis at all... really if I end up with a PC that has the same processing power as my old P4, I won't be unhappy. that can run plenty of processing for my needs.

no-fi's Website

  • rude66
  • robot des duivels
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  • Registered: 2008-07-07
  • Posts: 1,844

Re: quiet PCs again... how much noise to dual athlon systems make?

MSI K9ag neo2 board
AMD Athlon X2 +3600 (dual core 1,9 Ghz) CPU
2 Gb DDR-800 memory
Antec NSK4480 case (already has super silent psu in it)
Termalake TR2 R1 cpu cooler with Chieftec Yate Loon D90SM fan
Yu Loon Nexus 120 mm and Scythe stock low speed case fans

  • From: the basement
  • Registered: 2008-07-09
  • Posts: 387

Re: quiet PCs again... how much noise to dual athlon systems make?

I built a HTPC based on a passively cooled HFX chassi. Everything is cooled by the chassi which is basically two giant heat sinks. No moving parts except the hard drive which I will probably exchange for a Solid State drive to achieve 0db of noise.

http://www.hfx.at/index.php?option=com_ … Itemid=120

I need love

8 Reply by no-fi (edited by no-fi 2009-02-12 09:09:14)

  • From: the centre of the universe
  • Registered: 2008-07-08
  • Posts: 377

Re: quiet PCs again... how much noise to dual athlon systems make?

oooh! been doing some research - the antec NSK4480 looks like a really good case to start with for a system that's trying to be quiet... gets a fair bit of love in reviews, and is actually cheap.. most "quiet" cases I could see before this one  are scary $$... the cooler and fans look really good for the $$ too. will have to see what I can find in a cooler for C2D that's similar...

now thinking I might stretch to a newer lo-spec system to go with these quiet bits - I'm still checking motherboards, but will probably go core 2 duo processor, I think...


The HTPC things look very interesting, too. though seem to be more aimed at set top boxes rather than music studio PCs... @llcoolkm - was this for a music production PC or a media centre type device?

no-fi's Website

  • From: the basement
  • Registered: 2008-07-09
  • Posts: 387

Re: quiet PCs again... how much noise to dual athlon systems make?

no-fi wrote:

The HTPC things look very interesting, too. though seem to be more aimed at set top boxes rather than music studio PCs... @llcoolkm - was this for a music production PC or a media centre type device?

Media center so its probably not the best idea if you want to add lots of PCI cards, you need to use a riser card for that which could add latency on the PCI bus. Though there is the classic HFX box which is more of a regular full size box with the normal amount of space for PCI cards.

Pretty cool solution anyway for quiet computing, but a tad expensive (around 6-700euros for just the chassi parts).

I need love