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A quiet PC is a personal computer that makes little noise. Common uses for quiet PCs include video editing, sound mixing, and as home theater PCs. A typical quiet PC uses quiet fans and hard drives and energy-efficient parts. more...
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The term "Quiet PC" is used subjectively and there is currently no standard definition for what constitutes a "Quiet PC". However, a general definition accepted by most is that the sound emitted by such PCs should not exceed 30dB when recorded 1 m away from the computer.
Causes of PC noise
There are two main causes for PC noise. One is mechanical friction noise generated by micro motors and fan bearings as well as vibration noise from low quality chasis and improper assemblies. The other main cause is electrical noise generated by electrical coil parts used in motherboard and power supply.
Noise in personal computers has been increasing with increased computing power and number of transistors on a single die (integrated circuit). More transistors translates to more power consumption, and consequently higher heat. This results in a requirement for faster-rotating cooling fans. Also, motor rotation speed for hard disc drive (HDD) and Optical disc drive (ODD) have been increasing for faster data processing with technological advances in micro motors.
The noise issue had received wide-spread attention with AMD's early Athlon CPUs and Intel's Pentium 4 Prescott core CPU known for its excessive heat and bundled fan noise running on high RPM. With the introduction of Home Theatre PC (HTPC) concept, the excessive heat and noise problem, that had been mostly confined to the overclocking community, has come to the attention of the general public.
There have been two main approaches to solve noise problems for personal computers in home or office environment, especially for Home Theatre PCs (HTPC). One is improving bearing technology or cooling parts design & material to decrease friction, thus noise. Another approach is to reduce the heat generation at its origin by using energy efficient parts and decreasing transistor unit size in microprocessors.
By the laws of physics, higher rotation (usually marked in RPM) causes higher bearing friction, thus more noise, given the same bearing technology. By the same laws, a higher electrical current will cause more heat through resistance than a lower current in a wire of the same resistivity.
Silencing methods
Common silencing methods include:
Replacing fans with low-speed, large-diameter fans with low bearing and motor noise. Larger fans can move more air per revolution than smaller fans.;
Replacing the power supply with a quieter model. The two main considerations, from a noise-reduction point of view, in choosing a power supply are fan quality and AC/DC conversion efficiency. Efficiency is important because the less heat that is produced the less work the fan has to perform.;
Replacing heat sinks with more efficient models. This often entails the use of larger copper or aluminum heat sinks which may incorporate heat pipes.;
Replacing hard drives with quieter models. Hard drives can also be replaced by solid state devices like compact flash or networked file systems like NFS.;
Replacing fans with passive cooling solutions where possible, such as fans on motherboards and GPUs.;
Covering the case with sound insulation material such as foam or fiber mat, although this method has limited effectiveness. The material can (because of its weight) dampen case resonance, and can also absorb some high-frequency sound. It can also have the undesirable side-effect of reducing air flow due to its bulk, and therefore be counter-productive by increasing the need for active cooling.;
Mounting fans on anti-vibration mounts.;
In energy-hungry computers, water cooling may be necessary for quiet operation. Older water pumps sometimes can make systems noisier than air-cooled, low-power computers.;
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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