Silence Case, Isoraxx or quiet pc?

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2003 11:15 pm

oops, dbl post!

<small>[ October 24, 2003, 09:51 PM: Message edited by: PlugHead ]</small>

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2003 1:39 pm

Plug-in, Please plug it in before you put your computer in it and give it a listen in a dead quiet room and report back to us. I'm curious how loud it is by itself since it contains fans. To me the biggest benefit of the Silence case is that it could be used for any computer that you may buy in the future. Once I get my parts in I'll install them and report back here as well.

Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2003 9:49 pm

Well,

The silence case still makes noise: about 1/2 what my G4 makes, and with the doors shut, I don't hear anything but the case fans. I have a very small CR, so any fans are noticable - my AD8000 and DA7 both have fans, and they are out in the open - the silence case makes about the same amount of noise as these 2 together, and they both are fairly quiet, tho the AD8000 is louder than the DA7. Elias said to put an egg crate on the back if it is close to, or against a wall (which mine is) to avoid vibration/rattle, so I'll try that tomorrow...

IMNSHO, it a better option than fan replacement for the computer - this case will have a longer life in a studio than any computer: one thing I didn't know was how deep the unit is - it sticks out 6 inches past my desk Sad

cheers,

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2003 9:46 am

In my long years of experience, Seagate HD's are the way to go for a quiet PC. They are by far the quietest I have seen. WD are also OK, but a tad more noisy. Forget the rest.

You can order HD enclosures but they are a bit of a pain to install (it's a long story, just believe me). Nevertheless, the certainly help if you don't want to replace your HD's. But then again, HD's are almost cheaper these days than the HD enclosures.

Once again, I got my systems very quiet with
1. Enermax power supply with dual fans
2. Zalman CPU cooler
3. Seagate HD's

I can track vocals right next to the mixing desk now - that's all the silence I need.

And again (as mentioned before), www.directron.com is a good and reliable source of all of the necessary things.

Good luck,

MisterBlue.

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2003 9:47 am

Quote:

Originally posted by PlugHead:
Well,

The silence case still makes noise: about 1/2 what my G4 makes, and with the doors shut, I don't hear anything but the case fans. I have a very small CR, so any fans are noticable - my AD8000 and DA7 both have fans, and they are out in the open - the silence case makes about the same amount of noise as these 2 together, and they both are fairly quiet, tho the AD8000 is louder than the DA7. Elias said to put an egg crate on the back if it is close to, or against a wall (which mine is) to avoid vibration/rattle, so I'll try that tomorrow...

IMNSHO, it a better option than fan replacement for the computer - this case will have a longer life in a studio than any computer: one thing I didn't know was how deep the unit is - it sticks out 6 inches past my desk Sad

cheers,

I think a lot depends on the individual here. I think anyone who is building a new computer should face the noise problem from the start of their project by choosing parts that are as low noise as possible such as fans, heatsinks, hard drives and power supplies and using decoupling techniques. Where there's a will, there's a way as they say. A computer already has one box and built properly it shouldn't have to require two. Obviously a G4 is not build with low noise considerations. I would be more excited about the silence case if it was dead silent. My thought is that with 100.00 (or less) worth of parts one should be able to silence a computer pretty much to the same degree as the more expensive Silence Case. I may very well be wrong. I just received my parts yesterday so I'll let you all know the results. I like to experiment, research and tinker with stuff. If you are not like minded then the Silence Case might be the way to go.

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2003 7:16 pm

My Isoraxx is not "dead" quiet. You can hear the fan as a very soft whirrr, and by the way, the fan speed is adjustable to minimize even that.

I think the issue is not just self-noise of these racks, but what type of noise they make, compared to what kind of noise they are preventing.

I know my UltraSCSI recording drive, my G4 itself, and back-up firewire drives can put out a lot of fan noise, but the biggest problem is when actually recording a quite obnoxious grinding and clicking is added to the usual noise floor from the SCSI drive. The Isoraxx completely eliminates the "unacceptble" drive noises. The little bit of fan noise it gives in return is much easier to deal with (if even necessary) with noise reduction software. But I almost never find it is audible on my recorded tracks.

You could always add some additional baffling to the rear fan vent too, if you want to really get dead quiet. I haven't found it necessary.

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