quiet windows box?

[soundhack]

I'm looking to replace our aging Dells, and less than reliable Compaqs in the studios here. I was wondering if anyone had a recommendation for a quiet, mid-capacity Windows box? I am especially interested in machines with little or no fan noise, as I have 4 computers in the editing room.

Thanks....

[markpar]

Noise on PCs pretty much comes from two (maybe three) places: the CPU fan, the power supply fan and possibly the graphics card fan.

CPU fans are the most notorius for being noisy but they are easy (and cheap) to replace. $30 will get you a quiet, quiet CPU fan. Power supply fans are harder to replace, since they are an integral part of the power supply itself. You'll have to get a new power supply in that particular case. It's uncommon for a graphics card fan to be really noisy, but it does happen. I'm not sure about replacements for those, though.

Having said that, I like Dells. I have 'em at work and one at home and I think they're pretty quiet. Nothing like my other PC at home which sounds like a hair dryer when it's on due to a really noisy CPU fan.

I would get the computer you need, performance-wise and then replace the CPU fan if it's too noisy. CPU fan noise is, in my experience, the most common cause of "man that computer's loud" complaints.

-mark

[soundhack]

I'll check out the current Dells, the ones we have in the studio now are as loud as vacuum cleaners (Dell Precision 610 w/ dual CPUs).

Another question then: are there any PCs with no fans at all (besides laptops)? I would love to get something in there that's as quiet as our Mac Cube. Performance is not that important, as people use these mostly for 2 channel editing.

[ottokbre]

why don't you just remove the fans?
so long as they are in a cool area you should be fine.
cool CPU's can really clock hard, and the inverse is true too.
maybe have a tech under-clock your CPUs and pull all the fans.

[cassembler]

Well, if you're looking for a turnkey solution Carillon audio made my PC, it's quiet (not inaudible, but waaaay better than my desktop PC). Not cheap, but rackable and plenty of options.

http://www.carillonusa.com

[soundhack]

those carillon boxes look great!! thanks...

[newnumbers]

have you seen those water cooling systems?
i really know nothing about them (except for the fact that they exist). i've seen some before - there's some tubing that runs through your case. seems interesting. i always wondered what kind of liquid they use.

sorry i couldn't really help out.
good luck.

[soundhack]

i looked at the liquid cooled boxes (they use water). i saw a couple people mention that leakage can be a problem - and i decided not to pursue it...

[DeafinONEear]

soundhack,
I am a proud liquid cooler, have been for a couple of years, and have never had a leak in my box. If you do it right you have nothing to loose and everything to gain, including a kick ass, really quiet box.

Honestly, I think everyone using PC's should know how to build them from scratch and you, as and audio engineer, owe it to yourself to learn how to put them together... you can have an amazingly powerful box, built to your specifications, for much much much less than a prebuilt box.

Just take some time to learn up on it and you should do fine.

www.hardocp.com
www.anandtech.com
www.tomshardware.com
www.arstechnica.com

those will help you get started.

[cassembler]

Yeah, I would never think about buying a whole new PC, except in this case where our investor insisted on premium quality components, and I thought, "well shit! Thos Carillon systems look bad ass, and the racking & quiet components would cost the difference it would take me to build a new system... hmmmm."

Easy choice for me!

But building a PC is a whole new gratifying experience, as stated in the above post.

[DeafinONEear]

and if I had to do it over again and had a bit more money, I would do the EXOS.

But I would find a way to satalite it, of course.