Silent PC rig?

[dmel75]

Anyone know of a good silent pc rig for a mame cabinet capable of running all the roms at good speed? Currently I have an AMD pc with an older AGP Radeon in it. It runs everything perfectly and I like the power of the 3D card for when I play around with N64 emulation and other PC games but the CPU has a fan, the graphics card has a fan and my case has a fan. I've disabled the case fan but it's still the loudest thing in the room. I don't have a lot of money to spend on say a Mac Mini or something extravagant like that but I was wondering if you all knew of a good mobo/cpu combo that did not need much cooling.

[Franco B]

I'm no expert (by any means) but cant you get near silent fans?

Failing that turn your speakers up 

<Cue someone who knows what they are talking about>

[TheDriver]

I'm no expert (by any means) but cant you get near silent fans?

Failing that turn your speakers up 

<Cue someone who knows what they are talking about>

You can indeed get low noise fans/psu etc. if you want to go real silent cut out the fans altogether and go for water cooling, certainly never seen that on a cab before but could put your costs up.

And as Franco B say's just turn the volume up you will not notice them!!!

Regards.

[pmc]

Here's a wikipedia page on the topic. There are other sites dedicated to quiet/silent PCs too. It looks like there are several things you can do.

My MAME PC is fine inside the cabinet but my main computer is loaded with fans and hard-drives and it sounds like a jet. I think that I too am going to do some work to silence it...

-pmc

[nuka1195]

Dell PC's are the quietest I've heard or not heard. They usually have pretty good deals.

The gfx on the lower end models are onboard, so you may want to upgrade that, wouldn't be necessary for mame though.

[JC]

If you're building a new PC, the rule of thumb is to use components that use less power, because they will generate less heat, therefore you will need less airflow and consequently your system will be quieter. If you're tweaking an existing system, there are a few specific things you can do to improve airflow and reduce noise levels.

There are some excellent CPU air coolers available for about $50, as well as case coolers for around $5. These are nigh silent. There are also passive cooled solutions you can add to your existing video card.

A fantastic resource for building silent PCs is silentpcreview.com. I highly recommend their reviews and product comparisons.

I consider myself an expert on air cooling so feel free to send me a PM with your setup and I can give you some specific advice.

Cheers,
JC

[DrFrag]

There's no computer fast enough to run all the roms, so I'll assume you mean most of them.  For a completely silent solution, there's a huge case by Thermalright that uses only heatpipes.  But it costs something like $1000, so that's kind of extreme.

Those points aside, my recommendations are:

Try to get a "silent" case, like the Antec P150 (aka SOLO I think).  It's made from thick steel with some kind of rubber padding that cuts down on noise.  They're heavy, but muffle the noise.

Avoid using any fans smaller than 120mm.  They make a *lot* of noise.  I mentioned the Antec P150  - I should point out it only takes 80mm fans on the front.  That's not so good.

Try to get a motherboard that uses heatpipes instead of fans for the chipset cooling.  I know some Gigabyte motherboards do, I'm sure there are plenty of others.  Check the product photos on manufacturer web sites.

Aim for a Core 2 Duo CPU.  They use less power and generate less heat, so there's less fan noise.  I guess the low end CPUs like the E1200 should be the quietest.  If you need more power, the E8200 uses a 45nm design and runs pretty cool.  Underclock your CPU if you like.

For your graphics card, if you're not going with onboard, get one with passive cooling.  I'm using a GeForce 8500 and it doesn't even need a fan.  Just make sure there's case airflow going past it.

For hard drives, fewer is better.  Western Digital have released a 640GB drive that only has 2 platters, which should mean less noise.  I believe there's a single-platter 320GB drive available or available soon.

Make sure you have good cable management in your case, and set your airflow to run from the lower front towards the upper back (in general).  Connect any case fans and PSU fans to motherboard headers, so the heat sensors can run them slower when possible.

I've found many retail processors with heatsinks don't have the thermal paste properly applied.  So if you know what you're doing (or know someone who does), then remove them and reapply your own thermal paste.  Better heat spreading means better cooling, so the fans don't have to spin as fast.

There are a few other things you can do like mount your hard drives on rubber grommets, but I personally can't tell the difference.

If that all sounds like too much work, see if you can get hold of one of those slim form factor office computers (Dell and HP make some, I think).  They run pretty quiet.

Don't be afraid to use low-end name-brand components.  They're often slower, and therefore cooler and quieter.

[Ginsu Victim]

My MAME PC is fine inside the cabinet but my main computer is loaded with fans and hard-drives and it sounds like a jet.
-pmc

I hear ya! I have a total of seven fans in my main system. I can never hear a word my wife says.....or maybe that's just me being me.....

[SavannahLion]

DrFrag is probably the only one that mentioned it, but I'd like to go into greater detail about it.

Avoid using any fans smaller than 120mm.  They make a *lot* of noise.  I mentioned the Antec P150  - I should point out it only takes 80mm fans on the front.  That's not so good.

The bigger the fan, the more air they move. That much is obvious. What a lot of people seem to forget to realize is that a nice big fan can run at a lower RPM to move the same amount of air as a much smaller fan running at a much higher RPM. This translates into the most obvious, much less noise.

Now, think about it. You're not building a PC with tight space requirements. You're building an arcade cabinet with enough room to fit six and a half clowns in. Why restrict yourself to using the traditional 80mm and 120mm fans? Go for broke and get 300mm or larger fan. Work out the airflow arrangements and mount that sucker.

Watch your voltage and amperage requirements though. I've purchased my fair share of fans that I thought would be drop-ins on some projects only to find they need some oddball (for a PC) voltage. They all ended up working fine, just the time it took for the additional circuitry.

[RetroJames]

Not sure if your cabinet is enclosed yet but I have a similar setup. PC is below the monitor in a cut corner dynamo cab. The thing is loud as can be but once I put the cabinet back on, the plexi over the monitor, and got locks for the coindoor, it purrs like a kitten.

[stan2323]

Go with water cooling and put a small frig next to your cab, to hold uh beer.  Then put the water resivor, over sized, in the frig and run the water lines into the cab.   

Wonder if it would work

[BORIStheBLADE]

I'll echo the larger fans at lower speeds will be silent for sure. You don't need alot of fans for a MAME machine too.
-Get a graphics card that is passive cooled. ( the fans on them are louder than case fans)
-Dampen the hard drive some how/try to get a low RPM hard drive.
-get a power supply with a 120mm fan or a passively cooled power supply.
-Stay away from hot running cpu's.

[Minwah]

I use a 'silent' PSU which does have a fan, but it only comes on if really neccessary (and it is quiet when it does).

The CPU fan is quite noisy but at least I have a manual speed control so I can get a balance between noise/cooling.

I've noticed lately the HDD noise is pretty noisy at times...I might try to improve that by using some rubber between the HDD and brackets to help stop the sound travelling through the actual cabinet.

[Stub]

I am thinking of using my cab as my main media storage. I am getting a 5 disk ESATA RAID to protect all my media. I had planed on putting together a water cooled system to keep the noise down. I did not think to consider HD noise itself...

[Katana Man]

Yes, you really need to check out http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/
They have the most active web site and forums on this topic by far.

The single most effective way to reduce noise is larger fans.  All cases I build now use 120mm fans (sometimes I'll go as small as 92mm for the CPU).  There are a lot of nice cases out there that offer 120mm fans in the front AND rear.

Check out my post on Low air resistance, low fan speed, low noise technique.  There are links to many projects that I did with various cases like these:

[pmc]

The single most effective way to reduce noise is larger fans.  All cases I build now use 120mm fans (sometimes I'll go as small as 92mm for the CPU).  There are a lot of nice cases out there that offer 120mm fans in the front AND rear.

Simple question: How do you mount a 120mm in a standard case meant for 80mm? In your pics it looks like you just mount across the space meant for two 80mm fans. Is it that simple? Do the holes line up?

My CPU fan (Cooler Master I think) is rattling like a sonofabitch so I need to do something about that too. I didn't know you could put a 120 on there... how's that mount?

-pmc

[pmc]

My MAME PC is fine inside the cabinet but my main computer is loaded with fans and hard-drives and it sounds like a jet.
-pmc

I hear ya! I have a total of seven fans in my main system. I can never hear a word my wife says.....or maybe that's just me being me.....

Hmmmm... extra benefit I didn't think of. I usually just keep turning up the radio until she goes away. Maybe I should order a bunch of extra cheapo 80mm sleeve bearing fans....
 

-pmc

[Lilwolf]

btw, there are some processor heatsink/fans that are designed for low sound.  look around and you will find some with big, slow fans over a big finned heatsink.  30 bucks - 50 bucks and you can get a good solution.

but take note.  your power supply ALSO has a fan in it.   Silent Power supplies can be MUCH more expensive (300 bucks in some case). 

I did a oil power supply myself (submerged my power supply sans fan in oil).... has been working for years.  I use this for my silent pc in my jukebox.  NOTE:  There is BAD oil creep.... it was a fun project, but if you go this route, let me know.   You need a good way to stop all oil coming out of the power supply. 

[Stub]

Like

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtufuXLvOok[/youtube]

[Katana Man]

Simple question: How do you mount a 120mm in a standard case meant for 80mm? In your pics it looks like you just mount across the space meant for two 80mm fans. Is it that simple? Do the holes line up?
-pmc

Some cases can be modded to allow for 120mm, like I did with my Chenbro 611 or Supermicro 750:
Chenbro 611 project


Supermicro 750 project


But, save yourself the trouble, as there are many new mid tower cases that accept two 120mm fans.  Here is a thread I started for Cases with 120mm fans.  At the time of this thread's popularity, there was only around 8-10 choices.  Now there are many more to choose from.  Newegg allows you to search for cases with two 120mm fans. Here is a direct Newegg link to those cases. (Make sure they have one 120mm in the front, and one 120mm in the rear).

A word of caution, get a case with JUST TWO 120mm fans, or be prepared to modify the case to seal off any extra fan holes.  2 fans (one in, one out) is the most efficient way to move the heat out.  Many times, the cases with extra fans unecessarily move too much air forward or create negative air pressure.  The front fan (blowing in) should also run slightly faster than the rear fan. This is desirable to keep the balance properly (remember, the power supply fan is blowing out), and maintaining positive air pressure keeps the dust from entering into your DVD drives.

[pmc]

Some cases can be modded to allow for 120mm, like I did with my Chenbro 611 or Supermicro 750

But, save yourself the trouble, as there are many new mid tower cases that accept two 120mm fans.

Ahhh... I get it. OK, I got my answer. I wasn't sure if it was as simple as using a 120mm in an existing standard case or not. Thank you for the detailed answer. I'm following your links and learning a bunch.

-pmc

[Katana Man]

Yeah, there truly is a lot to learn on how to make quite PC's.  But once you learn it, you'll always build future PC's like this.  Sitting in a chair, you cannot hear my PC's.  The slight hum of the florescent lights are louder    You have to look to see if there are any lights on, or bring your head down next to it. 

The future will use solid state hard drives which are silent, shock proof, handle temperatures better, no moving parts, faster, and don't produce any heat. I've already used two in the past and love them.  Windows 98 booted in 5 seconds, literally.

[RayB]

it purrs like a kitten.

It shouldn't be making that much noise. 

I've debated adding sound-proofing foam inside mine. I think I posted a thread about this 2 years ago.