well, the power supply needs some air flow. if you add fans and vent slots, you can have many fans run slow so they don't make much turbulence/noise. there are variable speed fans, and you can run say a 24v fan at 12v, move maybe 1/4 the air but at slower speeds and with less turbulence. a high performance drive in one of those machines will likely need some cooling, i'd suggest removing the bezel, and if necessary a slow fan again. fans with fewer blades are less efficient but more quiet, i've got some old 3 blade 5" fans that are nearly noiseless, you might still be able to find such fans, or like i said slowing them down helps.
some fans will be more quiet, even at low speed, check the ratings. honestly, you probably want more vent holes (larger will be more acoustically quiet, but radiate more electrical noise...), slow down the power supply fan and maybe reverse it so it blows in, and one or two large fans run slow added. the fan for the pci cards can probably be unplugged or replaced/slowed down. turbulence is the issue, so you want slow air movement (in terms of linear velocity) and smooth surfaces to reduce turbulence, removing redundant fan guards like you sometimes see when one is on the power supply case and another on the plastic case are also bad, remove one of them. of course you can always put the computer in the closet or build a sound proofed box for it, so long as you manage the heat and air flow properly. if you really, really want a quiet machine i'd put it in another room and use long cables or build it a sound proofed box with vents that go through foam or fiberglass lined vent hose (commercially available for more quiet air venting in heating systems etc.). with well shielded audio cables, not run close to any other cables, longer cables should not be a problem at line levels. alternately, you can get a usb imic (though i've heard mixed reviews of the imic, and i haven't tested mine much) or similar usb digitizer to keep that part far from the computer, but close to your source. also, a slower processor will need less cooling, and less power meaning less draw from the power supply and less cooling for that, limiting yourself to one hard drive as slow as reasonable will also help, and of course some hard drives are much, much more quiet than others. hopefully, i got the right "q" word, i hate that about english... webster was an evil man! Gerald Wilson wrote: > > Folks, > > I'm trying to build a quiet desktop machine for some audio work. > > A problem with many recent machines is that they generate so much > energy that they need many fans, which means more noise and yet more > energy. I want a machine with PCI slots and minimal moving parts. So > far, I'm leaning towards: ----------- -- Unsupported OS X is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Unsupported OS X list info <http://lowendmac.com/lists/unsupported.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive <http://www.mail-archive.com/unsupportedosx%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
