Silencing cases was Re: [mythtv-users] Ahanix D.Vine cases

[Maarten van den Berg]

On Wednesday 21 April 2004 15:25, PAUL WILLIAMSON wrote:
> >>> mythtv at ultratux.org 04/20/04 06:17PM >>>
> >
> >Don't know about those cases but in general, the bigger the fan is, the
> >quieter.  I am currently at the point that, whatever the case, I make an
> >effort to hack / dremel / saw a hole for a 120mm fan into it. To hell with
> >small fans, and the cases that require them...!
>
> So it a 120mm fan with the ball bearing silencers worth it?  I've been
> looking for a nice backend case so that I can put it into my rack with all
> my other a/v gear.

It depends... It even depends on what your question means. If you are asking 
about finding a case designed for 120mm fans, then good luck. I've only seen 
them in server equipment, think Dell, Maxdata, Compaq... And if your question 
means "can I go ahead and hack a big hole in my case" then I'd reply that you 
will need good tool-skillz foremost, your case must be suitable (a big enough 
open spot) and you will have to take note of the aerodynamics (which in very 
simple terms means always abide by the lower-front-IN upper-rear-OUT flow)
(in the case of a typical towercase that is)

As an aside you might like to know that ball-bearing fans are NOT the most 
silent. Ball-bearing versus sleeve-bearing means choosing your compromise. 
Ball-bearing fans have a prolonged lifetime, but sleeve-bearing are quieter. 
Not that the difference is big, mind you.

> >Then to make it really quiet you also have to buy silent fans (papst are
> > good) and / or slow it down with a fancontrol (or simply a 4.7v
> > zenerdiode is what I use) You'll have to monitor the temperatures, of
> > course.
> >My athlon 2600+ is now at 43 degrees celsius which I think is reasonable.

> Would making a front-end network boot with a flash card hard disk
> work?  I've thought about how to make the front end even more
> silent since that's what I'm most concerned about.  I could really care
> less how loud the backend is - it's in a far away area in my basement.
> Network booting would present me with options to configure multiple
> front ends quite easily, and duplicate them for more locations even
> quicker than I can now.

Every bit helps, of course.  In the meantime, in my experience the parts that 
make the most noise are definitely in the order PSU, CPU-fan, [GPU, when 
applicable], harddisk. (I'm not even mentioning CD's or DVD's, some of the 
high-speed models resemble a helicopter-sound more than anything. :-(
So if you start silencing a system, the harddisk is not the most obvious 
candidate to start wth.


> Paul