Soundproofing

drjolt

I'm interested in methods of reducing the amount/type of noise coming from my case that don't involve removing or modifying any of the hardware within. Have any of you tried the various foam/matting products on the market, or similar home made solutions?

hussey

I bought stuff from marx-comp's for about 22euro, on my last pc (which was V noisy) .. it worked fairly well.

Gyck

I've found that attaching strips of draft excluder on surfaces that screw together work very well, especially if you leave most of the screws off your case like I do...

Inspector Gadget

...you should contemplate the heat dissipation situation in your PC. Most types of sound insulation are also pretty effective thermal insulators, so don't forget that cladding the inside of the PC could result in it running a lot hotter, if quieter, than it did - especially if you're using either an AMD or higher-end Intel CPU and/or lots of RAM and/or a fan-cooled graphics card - most PC components are quite intolerant of prolonged heating, in my experience :-D

However, I believe that Akasa make a rubber matting called Paxmate that's supposed to be pretty good...

HTH,
Gadget.

drjolt

After doing some research - searching google groups for solutions people had come up with before computer-specific kits were on the market - I decided to go down the DIY route.

For €14.50 I obtained a roll of closed cell foam [A camping mat] in Argos and a quantity of adhesive [Evo-Stick] in Atlantic.

Cutting pieces of roughly the right size and gluing into the correct positions required application of pencil and ruler to measure and mark the case, and a small paintbrush to apply the adhesive in accordance with the directions.

Finally, I refitted the panels and trimmed the pieces down to fit with an X-Acto type knife.

It took me maybe four hours in total, working slowly and carefully (I am not strong with the mod-fu), and I reckon my results are at least as good as with a commercial kit, at a lower cost - my case is a Supermicro SC-760 and most commercial kits are described as containing enough to do a mini/midi tower case.

Current temps:
CPU: 57 [Ripping & Ogging a CD]
Case: 36
HDD1: 37
HDD2: 38
HDD3: 37
HDD4: 36
HDD5: 36

Gyck

Ah, you can't beat a bit of diy!

That sounds better than my other suggestion: try using the blue foam used for roof and wall insulation. It's probably too thick, though I think I've seen stuff down to an inch thick. I'm assuming that excesses of that kind of material may cause overheating problems...

Inspector Gadget

Originally posted by drjolt
...my case is a Supermicro SC-760 and most commercial kits are described as containing enough to do a mini/midi tower case...

Well, if we had known you were putting this stuff inside a case big and hefty enough to pull double duty as a nuclear fallout shelter, I suppose we would have offered more alternatives? :rolleyes:

Gadget

drjolt

...a case big and hefty enough to pull double duty as a nuclear fallout shelter...

It's full, too :cool:

I reckon the main component of the remaining noise is airflow, I might look into some kind of fanbus/thermal control setup.