Reduce noise in your PC (II): Shopping

Mar

02

Reduce noise in your PC (II): Shopping

In the first part of our odyssey in search of a computer that does not shred your ears, and your sanity, we pass some guidelines to follow. It is clear that a good cleaning or making sure the pieces are secure help, but need not be sufficient.

When home remedies do not give a result, the portfolio may start to shake. Most likely, the conflicting parts are defective or are of poor quality, so you do not choice but to upgrade your computer components to maintain a good balance between cooling and low noise . Either that or, as you have made us know your comments, go to solutions like the picture …

Let’s review, part by part, the hardware options quieter.

Power Supply The part that almost always causes noise and overheating problems, it is also the least importance is usually given when choosing components. To not drill your ears, you can go to trusted brands like Antec , Seasonic or Enermax . Always look for the larger diameter fan , which means more air flow speed and therefore less noise.

If you have more budget, fanless power supplies that operate on the basis of passive coolers are quieter option. Yes, only for big boxes and ventilation.

CPU fan

Is the component that reaches a higher temperature, so you need good cooling. Again, if your box is large and well ventilated, you can opt for a passive heatsink, but is more affordable a great fan of large, eight to twelve inches in diameter , with a normal-sized sink.

The liquid cooling is also an option, but that is not de facto quieter, but depends on the quality of the rotors.

Graphics card fan

You can apply the same criteria as for the CPU. However, current graphics cards have a problem to solve. Evolved over power and, therefore, in temperature, but leave the towers are still required ventilation space . There are external solutions to small, well-equipped, are almost imperceptible, but if you have a card from the upper middle range , almost always their own fan will suffice.

Drives

The Zalman ZM-2HC2 hard disk cools and dampens vibration and gnashing of heads

The easiest option if the budget is not a problem, is to remove all traces of mechanical components . Units SSD (solid state) for mass storage and flash drives (the common and cards and memory sticks) for removable media. However, this solution requires an outlay and sacrifices that not many are willing to accept for the moment.

So, as hard disks, you can choose to Western Digital as a benchmark in terms of silence, but the reputation of Samsung or Seagate in this regard still remains in some of their recent models. Yes, try that has a high cache to reduce disk access.

Case Fans

Nor should we go to these lengths …

Until recently it was thought that the best solution to reduce the noise in this aspect was not putting fans, and in fact was an optional item on many ATX towers, mostly low-end clone. However, the air flow is necessary from the lower front of the upper back, which requires a couple of fans, who should be the bigger the better . It would not hurt a dust filter that will ensure the lowest possible friction lock and. Nexus and Scythe are brands to follow in this section.

Box or tower

There are many factors involved in the dual noise / temperature can cause the PC case:

* The material on which the building is : not much difference in cooling between the aluminum and steel. However, aluminum enclosures, whether they are of low quality, more often amplify the noise of some components.

* Vents : The key is not that the more holes the better, but are located so as not to disrupt the optimum flow of air and noise comes out of a more indirect way possible.

* The placement of the elements : there are boxes that mount the power supply or hard drives near the base. Thus, the vibration produced is transmitted to areas of better suspension. In any case, the important thing is that the mechanical components are bolted best possible.

* Covers : aesthetically can be very good (some not so) but actually do nothing but increase the equipment’s moving parts and therefore, the vibrations propagate.

* Strength of closures : to be silent, a computer box to be the closest thing to a solid block. If open areas are not together firmly, the vibration of other items are spread further, creating a nasty hum.

Back brands like Antec or Zalman are most desirable to take into account these elements and not sacrificing too much on aesthetics and cooling. Another little help can install acoustic foam panels absorb noise, but they block the air vents, so you have to be careful with the high temperatures that can be generated.

Software Solutions

There are devices which are connected to the computer, controlling the power of the fans . They are affordable and fit, no doubt. But if you want something easy and cheap to handle these parameters through an application is the most logical. Today it is rare to find a motherboard without a software that regulates the speed of the fans. Still, for more control, you can go to free programs such as SpeedFan , who do very well their task.

After seeing what you can do and what you can replace parts to make your PC quieter, there is only focus on the territory of laptops, a section somewhat more difficult because they are very small devices that generate much heat. But that will not now but in our next issue. In the meantime, what brands and solutions we recommend for a computer to enjoy without thunder?

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