Soundman2020 - Studio Design Forum

Hi everybody,

I'm going crazy thinking some ways to tame my computer tower's noise. It's mostly from PSU fan, which I recently replaced by a brand new one and improved a lot, but days have passed and now I can't avoid thinking the new one isn't silent enough, haha.

How do you deal with this issue?

Putting the computer into another room beside my studio isn't possible.

Something I'm considering is to build is some kind of cupboard into which my computer should be, likely the "Isobox" ones, but I'm afraid of excessive heat into there, and I don't know how much better would be adding some fans into there to force air to flow, since it would be adding some more noise sources, but maybe there is a way of circulating air between some traps, sort of HVACs silencers, what do you think?

I'm open to hear your thoughts.

Cheers,

Eric

Sounds like a good idea. You could build a silencer round the entire computer with two convoluted paths, one for the air supply and another for air exhaust. If you work out the airflow required for the computer I suspect it wouldn't have to be that big. The calculation methods in Rod Gervais book for dissipation of heat applied to the computer power - approx 400W ? - would tell you all you need to know to calculate the required duct cross section area.

I have read about people who have built iso cabinets for thei computers. Many mention including multiple fans with speed adjustment, like in the photo-link so that the noise can be kept to a minimum.

Mix that with jennifer's suggestion gets you an iso silencer box with a large enough duct cross section for the airflow that the fan speed can be slow while pushing or pulling enough air through.

To, the logic of Jennifer's suggestion is, as we have learned with silencer boxes, that air can easily be routed round corners but sound like to travel in straight lines.

Don't forget Sorbothane feet to dampen any noise from the computer flanking to the silencer box.

Hi Jennifer, Starlight!

Great suggestions! It seems sort of what I had in mind.

I'll be showing you the making process. I hope it would be inspiring, since it sure is a common problem!

Thank you very much!

Eric

Hi
It’s been many years since I built a PC, but when I did the products from QuietPC.com were fantastic: low noise fans, speed controllers, hard drive sleeves etc.
Worth checking out
Gareth