quiet ATX mid-Towers

[Ulf Zimmermann]

On Fri, Jun 18, 2004 at 11:05:04AM -0400, Greg Pavelcak wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 18, 2004 at 07:39:25AM -0700, zera holladay wrote:
> > Under a kind suggestion, I am re-submitting this
> > e-mail with a different subject.  The old message was:
> > 
> > Hello, I am looking for a very quiet ATX mid-tower and
> > I was wondering if anybody has a suggestion or
> > recommendation.  My hard disks produce the most
> > decibels at the most annoying frequency -- it?s not a
> > bad fan.  I am an EE student using FreeBSD, so a quiet
> > computer is very important to me.
> > 
> > -Zera Holladay
> > 
> 
> It seems that noise is an issue for more and more people now-a-days. If
> you go online and google for "quiet computer case", you'll probably find
> some places that make cases with noise reduction in mind. Antec, for
> example, makes some. Note that you'll pay a premium: probably over $200
> for a quiet tower.
> 
> If you think the hard drives are the main culprits, you might just try
> getting some rubber washers between them and your case to reduce
> vibration. That might be difficult in the 3 1/2" bay, but you can get
> kits to convert your 3 1/2" devices to 5 1/4" for a couple bucks each
> and add rubber washers to your heart's content.
> 
> Finally, you don't say what kind of drives you use, but if your pc is
> generally only being accessed by you and not several people
> simultaneously, then you can pass on high RPM SCSI drives. They are
> incompatible with noise reduction goals.
> 
> Also, I don't mean to play list-cop, but I don't think this is a
> -hackers topic, so I have responded to you directly and moved the thread
> to -chat to keep it on the lists for additional replies.
> 
> Good luck.
> 
> Greg

I can recommend the Antec Sonata case, you can usual buy it with a 380W 
power supply for like $100-130. I have it at home with two drives in it
under my desk and I don't hear a thing from it. The case uses a 120x120mm
fan in the back, which makes it pretty quiet.

-- 
Regards, Ulf.

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Ulf Zimmermann, 1525 Pacific Ave., Alameda, CA-94501, #: 510-865-0204
You can find my resume at: http://seven.Alameda.net/~ulf/resume.html