December 22, 2003 (Computerworld) --
It was like working next to a jackhammer. Every time the home-built PC in my three-computer home office was turned on, it shattered the relative quiet with roaring cooling-fan noise. I had to shut the PC down when I was talking on the telephone in order to hear the person on the other end of the line. The screaming fans could even be heard in the living room, one floor below. Something had to be done. An online search uncovered a multitude of sound-reducing replacement components, from case fans to power supplies to insulating kits. By swapping out parts, I was eventually able to reduce the roaring sound of the PC by more than half, restoring my sanity. By the Numbers Sound is measured in decibels (db). A 10db reduction cuts the loudness of a sound by more than half, according to acoustics computation. To measure the noise in my home office, I used a Bruel & Kjaer North America Inc. Precision Sound Level Meter Type 2203, equipped with an octave filter to take sound readings from 21 inches away. The meter was set to use an A-contour sound filter, which eliminates inaudible low frequencies and provides readings more closely aligned to those experienced by the human ear. The sound level in my office with all the PCs off is 23db—about the same as the noise level of a quiet living room. But when the home-built PC was turned on, it pumped up the volume to 45.5db, roughly comparable to the constant hum of a refrigerator. And it was even louder when the hard drive was spinning during searches for data. That was where I started. After I installed quiet parts, the sound level with the once-noisy PC idling came down to 31db, which is about the same as a soft human whisper. The change was dramatic—now you can barely hear the PC, even if you put your ear right next to it. The Quiet Begins To get the drastic sound reduction, I installed major parts and made minor modifications, such as adding rubber vibration-insulating feet for the midtower case. Other things had to be uninstalled. First to go was the stock Antec Inc. 300-watt power supply. In its place, I tried out two different units—a 350-watt model from StarTech.com USA LLP and a 300-watt power supply from Nexus Technology BV. But neither replacement unit had much of an effect on the sound of the PC; it turned out that they were overwhelmed by noisier parts. Next, I swapped out the stock cooling fan for the Athlon XP 1700 processor from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. In its place, I installed
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