My previous PC was a P4 2.8GHz Socket 478-based system that had a CPU fan that had a sound like a cross between a tornado and a banshee cry. Whenever I attempted to do any recording at all on my Tascam US428, I had to drag the unit as far as the USB cable would permit and then drag my mike to the far end of the living room, it was THAT noisy.
Recently, the CPU crapped out on me and I had to upgrade. I chose an Athlon64 this time, hearing that the stock CPU fans run much quieter. After some deliberation over my dwindling bank account balance, I decided to spend an extra $259 for an Antec P180 casing as well. Other than the CPU and mobo, the rest of the system was salvaged from my existing PC.
The set up of the PC was more complicated due to the multi-compartments and the fact that you had to route the power and hard disk cables from 1 compartment to another. But the main thing that impressed me and would interest readers in this forum is the care they took in ensuring a quiet PC.
1) PSU is mounted at the bottom of the case in a compartment shared with hard drives. The mounting is padded with rubber linings thereby decreasing vibration noise.
2) Hard drives are mounted with rubber washers (or grommets as they call it), decreasing even more vibration noise.
3) 3 120mm fans with variable speeds, extremely quiet
4) Casing panel walls are 2 panels of metal sandwiching what I think is plastic. Very dead sound when you knock on it. A solid thud as opposed to the high pitch clanging when you knock on most casing panels.
5) Front side of the CPU is closed by a door which subdues most sounds coming from optical drives. Some people don't like this due to access restrictions, but if you're anal about noise pollution, you'd accept this compromise
After setting it up, I needed to close my windows n turn off all fans to hear the quiet humming of the fans inside. And I had to crouch real close to the casing to do that. It's really quiet. I don't have any statistics to back me up on this personally, but there's a number of sites that do have reviews on that.
1) http://www.silentpcreview.com/article254-page1.html
2) http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1833165,00.asp?kc=ETRSS02129TX1K0000532
3) http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/cases/antec/p180/
All in all, I'm satisfied with the money spent on the casing. No regrets whatsoever. I guess some of you folks who are stuck on the PC platform for recording and audio processing as opposed to Macs (which I don't really find THAT quiet anyway) may find this interesting.
Recently, the CPU crapped out on me and I had to upgrade. I chose an Athlon64 this time, hearing that the stock CPU fans run much quieter. After some deliberation over my dwindling bank account balance, I decided to spend an extra $259 for an Antec P180 casing as well. Other than the CPU and mobo, the rest of the system was salvaged from my existing PC.
The set up of the PC was more complicated due to the multi-compartments and the fact that you had to route the power and hard disk cables from 1 compartment to another. But the main thing that impressed me and would interest readers in this forum is the care they took in ensuring a quiet PC.
1) PSU is mounted at the bottom of the case in a compartment shared with hard drives. The mounting is padded with rubber linings thereby decreasing vibration noise.
2) Hard drives are mounted with rubber washers (or grommets as they call it), decreasing even more vibration noise.
3) 3 120mm fans with variable speeds, extremely quiet
4) Casing panel walls are 2 panels of metal sandwiching what I think is plastic. Very dead sound when you knock on it. A solid thud as opposed to the high pitch clanging when you knock on most casing panels.
5) Front side of the CPU is closed by a door which subdues most sounds coming from optical drives. Some people don't like this due to access restrictions, but if you're anal about noise pollution, you'd accept this compromise
After setting it up, I needed to close my windows n turn off all fans to hear the quiet humming of the fans inside. And I had to crouch real close to the casing to do that. It's really quiet. I don't have any statistics to back me up on this personally, but there's a number of sites that do have reviews on that.
1) http://www.silentpcreview.com/article254-page1.html
2) http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1833165,00.asp?kc=ETRSS02129TX1K0000532
3) http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/cases/antec/p180/
All in all, I'm satisfied with the money spent on the casing. No regrets whatsoever. I guess some of you folks who are stuck on the PC platform for recording and audio processing as opposed to Macs (which I don't really find THAT quiet anyway) may find this interesting.
