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Current
Noise Control Solutions
What's
been available so far?
Over
the last few years a variety of products have been developed to
control/minimise PC noise. Notable among these are Zalman's own
"flower" CPU heat-sinks and VGA heat pipes, Acousti
Products' sound absorption lining, and cases
like Antec's Sonata. The CPU heat-sinks (CNPS6000/7000)
provide a much larger area for dissipation of processor heat and
therefore need a much smaller/slower fan to achieve the same CPU
temperature reductions. The VGA heat sink (ZM80-HP)
is a monster heat-sink that replaced the graphics card's heat-sink
+ fan
combination. It enveloped the graphics card to provide 20 times
the surface area for heat dissipation and could often be used
without a fan cooling it down. The Acoustipack lining inside the
case acted as a barrier and prevented some sound from getting out
of the case. And the Antec Sonata was built to have a similar
lining inside the case to act as an acoustic block. Other
developments included hard disk grommets to dampen vibrations from
disks, hard disk enclosures to minimise sound leak, low noise PSUs
from manufacturers like Enermax and motherboard heat sinks and
fans.
There
are also several low tech and common sense solutions - like using
larger fans. An 80 mm case fan will need to turn at a much faster
rpm than a 120 mm fan to pump the same amount of air. Like for
like using slower 120 mm fans in the place of 80 mm fans will make
for less noise. Ensuring your PC is stable on all four feet, and
not wobbling, does help. As does making sure everything is screwed
down tight and your side panels aren't vibrating against the case
body.
Some
of the problems with existing solutions
As
specialists in the manufacture of quiet PCs we get to try all
these components ... and then some. Not all of them live up to
expectation and there are numerous unknown traps. Some examples:
Hard
disk enclosures: Many are badly designed and allow the  hard
disk to over heat. Some have fans built in to circulate air over
the hard disk (which defeats the purpose as those fans generate
noise). Other hard disk solutions involve the suspension of the
hard disk in a rubber sling. The simple task of turning the PC
bottoms up causes the hard disk to fall out of the sling. Why turn
the PC bottoms up? Because couriers do a lot worse and the PC's
gotta go through the couriers at some point.
VGA
heatsinks: These are cumbersome, take ages to put together,
are very heavy (over a kilo sometimes). Further, as the graphics
card is taking the full weight of this item it's not ideal for a
PC that's going to be moved. If the PC is bouncing about in the
back of a courier's van (and sometimes upside down) the stress on
the graphics card will have it pop out of the AGP socket.
Acoustic
lining/barrier mass with foam: Very nice products when you can
line the complete inside of the PC. It's almost impossible to
achieve this in real life. When you stick the lining on the side
panels you've got to leave a 1-2" border for where the
side panel slots into the main body of the PC. Then there are
nooks and crannies that can't be lined for a variety of reasons
and the rear of the front panel is almost impossible to access on
some cases. The most effective of the acoustic lining products
are, as you would expect, the thicker ones but when you use the
best ones you'll line your side panels and find that they don't
fit onto your PC anymore. However, for cost vs effectiveness the
acoustic lining is difficult to beat.
More
on current solutions
The
TNN 500A case description and details
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