[mythtv] Quiet/Silent PC for Myth

Drew Bernat abernat at zathras.net
Thu Jan 30 13:30:06 EST 2003


On Thu, 30 Jan 2003, Larry Matter wrote:

> And lastly, vanity weighs in.  I cannot find a small (and cheap) case that
> I like for micro ATX platforms.  Add to that the task of finding low
> profile cards, and it gets even harder.  And then there is noise.  Trying
> to make an AMD based system "silent" will be quite a chore I think.

I just wanted to chip in a few comments.

I recently put together a MythBox, and with a quick resoldering of my IR
circuit it's actually working quiet well (i.e. wife can use it ;). It's
also fitting in perfectly with our living room, and is almost silent. If
there's conversation in the room, or even a car driving by outside, it's
inaudible.

First, specs:
KT333 motherboard (fullsize, meant to be microATX but I screwed up)
Athlon 1700
Seagate Barracuda IV (80GB)
Geforce2 MX (noname)
SB Live (onboard sound was desynching)
Leadtek Winfast TV2000XP CanWeAddSomeMoreLabelsOnPlease
Old 300 watt power supply from another machine

And it runs almost silently. And here's what I did:

First: ugliness. I didn't want another PC case in the living room, and
the really slick microATX cases were just too pricey. So I built one, out
of oak and oak plywood. I now have an endtable with a DVD-ROM faceplate in
the front :) Another alternative is to get a cabinet or somesuch and stick
a case inside.

More importantly, heat and noise. Last I checked, my processor was holding
steady at 105F, and there are no components that I'm particularly worried
about. I'll break down the parts and say what I did.

Processor:
  Check out www.silentpcreview.com and take a look at the heat sink
section. I bought the big hunk-o-copper HS (umm... err... Thermalright
SLK800). It's huge all right. I topped it with a low-flow, low-noise
Panaflo 80mm fan. Almost no noise from the fan, and massively less than
any machine I run.

Hard drive:
  The barracuda IV's are almost silent to begin with, and I suspended mine
from a web of elastic. This decouples vibration noise from the case. Data
point: I forgot to demount the HDD when I was sanding the case (oops!) but
when I put my hand on the drive I couldn't feel any vibration, though the
case was buzzing a fair amount from the power sander.

Power supply:
  Power supply fans can make a fair amount of noise. I pulled the cover on
the PS (BE CAREFUL DOING THIS since you can electrocute yourself but good)
and blew the dust out. That helps. I also replaced the noisy 80MM fan with
a quieter one, hacked to run at 7 volts. Basically, I snipped the +12 and
ground leads to the fan, ran the wires outside of the PS, and plugged them
into the +12 and +5 lines of a disk drive power connector. Much less
noise, but if you do this make sure there is enough airflow. In my case,
since the PS doesn't suck hot air from the CPU, it's good enough.

Case venting:
  I bought a 120MM Panaflo low-flow fan. Man, that sucker is _HUGE_. It's
running at 7 volts (as above, +12/+5) and exhausts for the case. The air
that comes out is barely warm.

So it is possible to silence an AMD system. I spent about $70 in bits and
pieces to do it (HS at 50, two fans at 10 each), but I think it's worth
it.

Drew

-- 
Drew Bernat                                                __ ____
abernat at zathras.net                                         |  | |
http://www.zathras.net                                         | |


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