Just for kicks, I got a new power supply for my computer along with a new cpu fan for the purposes of noise reduction. The unit I was replacing was a very budget one and I replaced it with:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009Q56N...9699691-8824438
My computer is much quieter!! If you are like me and are around a computer a lot or your computer is in a room that you hang out in a lot, I'd recommend considering changing out the power supply if your computer is more than a couple years old or a budget oriented brand... much nicer energy.
I'm sure my original power source was relatively noisy, but the new power source makes my computer *much* more silent than Mrs Yoda's old Dell and a tad quieter (?) than Grandma Yoda's new Dell. It makes me wonder if I had put more cash into it, if I could have cut the noise another notch? Probably... In retrospect, I would have done so, but I'm very happy with what I got in the meantime.
I think there's an article on the Internet, "how to buy a computer power supply" to make sure it's compatible.
Full Version: I just updated my computer's power supply
I built my own computer and put some thought into making it quiet. It's definitely worth it!
After working many hours on a noisy old sun workstation that sounded like a helicopter it was heavenly.
Easy ways to go about this:
- Go with bigger fans that turn slower. For the power supply, case and cpu, big fans rule!
- I found a found a copper heatsink to replace the fan on my graphics card.
- It's fairly trivial to find switches to lower voltages on most fans.
- If you aren't a gamer you can sometimes getaway with underclocking.
There are some pretty crazy homebrew water cooling systems out there on the web.
Then of course there is the most taoist of computer practices: shutdown! The quiet is so good!
After working many hours on a noisy old sun workstation that sounded like a helicopter it was heavenly.
Easy ways to go about this:
- Go with bigger fans that turn slower. For the power supply, case and cpu, big fans rule!
- I found a found a copper heatsink to replace the fan on my graphics card.
- It's fairly trivial to find switches to lower voltages on most fans.
- If you aren't a gamer you can sometimes getaway with underclocking.
There are some pretty crazy homebrew water cooling systems out there on the web.
Then of course there is the most taoist of computer practices: shutdown! The quiet is so good!
I picked up an HP desktop not too long ago, its nice and quiet...quite the opposite to my 5 space rack my big machine downstairs is in...
kewl.
hmmm... my computer is quiet but not inaudible... what HP do you have?
pavilion 1410...quiet, but not inaudible 
there's enough background noise at my god forsaken condo that I dont normally notice it running.
there's enough background noise at my god forsaken condo that I dont normally notice it running.
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