Why spend an extra $200 on quiet and $400 on cooling when you can just put the whole box in the beer fridge? Think about it - it's not as silly as it sounds and you can get a good small fridge for $80. Only problem is that you got'er make sure you get a quiet fridge.

condensation (and sublimation) would probably make that a bad idea.

Though there are companies that make enclosures for computers; they cost more than making them quiet in the first place. Though you can make the computer quiet AND put it in an enclosure. AND you could also move it further away and get long cables (*may be expensive for certain types of cable).

2- Lots of info at

http://www.silentpcreview.com

Glenn, that's a great link. I did not get the quitest, fastest, best deal PC, but I am a happy customer. The computer sits on top my desk 3 feet from my ear, I can hardly hear it over the urban noise where I live.

I'd suggest that a utility such as MotherBoardMonitor should be installed so that you can monitor the actual CPU and case temperatures. Then it's just a question of installing or removing fans to put the temps where you want them.

For years my PC case didn't have any fans at all, just the power supply fan pulling air through. That worked fine until I began seriously overclocking my processors. Last year I added a slow-turning fan in back, and everything is still very quiet and temps are reasonable.

The stock CPU fan is often noisy, since it's tiny and runs at high speed. There are many aftermarket air coolers at www.anandtech.com that use larger and very quiet fans while providing much better cooling for overclocked processors.

Finally, look for power supplies that use a large, slow-turning fan on the bottom of the supply, rather than a small noisy fan in the back. Also makes a big difference.

At my office, I put the computer in another room and run the cabling through a hole in the wall. Been doing that for years (three offices) and there's no better solution.

I also like using Motherboard Monitor and using the larger, slower case fans.But Since most of the noise usually comes from the CPU fan and the Northbridge fan (if so equipped), I disconnected the NB fan (after checking my motherboard forum found it was not really needed), I purcahsed a Zalman cpu fan with big copper fins and larger fan blades. The clincher is that my mother board (MSI) supports a fan utility where you can manually adjust fan speed. I leave it at LOW setting - very quiet - until I do a render, at which time I turn it up to FULL. I watch the Temp guage and see an 8 to ten degree diff.


If I were to build a new box I might try one of the ASUS boards that relies more on Heat-Pipes.

My prior system had 9 fans--including the video fan and the northbridge fan, case fans, etc.

Now, I have a water cooled system with dual radiators. I use a Liam Lee case with 12 hard-drives, 4 DVD burners, a portable HD tray, and a casette tape to MP3 convertor. It is packed to the hilt with equipment.

I have a pump that circulators coolant to the processor, the graphics card and the northbridge fan (eliminating three of the loudest fans). I then have three large fans (one to pull air out the back, another to blow air over my cards and another to pull air into the case in the front and help cool the harddrives). I have two radiators in a row that the back fan pushes air through on exhaust. I also have a 'finned" resevoir inside (the fins further drop the temperature). My system only increases 3-6 degrees during full rendering.

Most of my noise comes from so many harddrives and the few fans left, but it is about 1/2 as loud as before.

Note: This was a BIG project and not for the technically weak hearted--but it is much quieter and runs very cool.

Check out the PC Equipment Page on my web site. It gives you all the specs for my QuadCore system that is very quiet. To make it even quieter, you could get a graphics card that doesn't have a fan but the card I selected had a variable fan speed and I keep in on low. Other than that, the Antec Sonata case, large single cooling fan, and Zalman cooler and the key to a quiet and cool system.

~jr