How to make your computer quieter. Silent computer. How to choose a silent computer: step by step instructions We select a "cold" processor

Silent gaming computer

Computers of the SILENT series are designed by HYPERPC experts for those who want to hear only what is happening in the virtual world, without being distracted by extraneous sounds. Special cases and components made it possible to make the PC work almost silently.

Silent computers

The quietest system units

Ultra-quiet computers HYPERPC SILENT are built on the basis of special soundproof cases, video cards with silent operation technology, fanless power supplies and energy-efficient processors cooled by quiet coolers. All this complex of measures ensures almost silent operation even when gaming in games with average system requirements.

Special Enclosures

Complete soundproofing - perfect silence!

The quietest and most powerful PCs The use of special noise-absorbing materials inside the case, as well as advanced engineering solutions in the field of airflow optimization in conditions of maximum system closeness, provide a significant reduction in the noise level produced by the cooling system of both the case itself and the components of a silent computer. Special screwless fastening systems for drives and drives largely dampen noise and vibration associated with the operation of these components.

Quiet video cards

ASUS STRIX and MSI GAMING Silent Graphics Cards

High Power with Minimal Noise The STRIX and MSI GAMING series graphics cards feature a unique cooling technology that keeps the fans off until the CPU reaches 65°C. With the processing power of the GeForce® RTX 20-series, such heating is only possible under heavy workloads. At medium loads, the fans are off, heat is removed and dissipated by 10mm metal tubes. This solution not only makes it possible to assemble a truly silent computer, but also significantly extends the life of the fans. Another advantage is that less dust gets into the case.

Passive power supplies

Passive cooling, complete silence

Passively cooled computer Fanless computers are built with energy efficient components that optimize computing to reduce power consumption. The use of power supplies with passive cooling contributes to a significant reduction in the overall level of system noise, especially in high-load modes. The HYPERPC SILENT series uses 80 PLUS PLATINUM high efficiency PSUs. Seasonic Platinum Fanless power supplies are manufactured using fanless technology. For its implementation, the unit efficiency was increased to 90%, and heating was reduced. Heat is removed by aluminum radiators. Separate connectors are provided for connecting components, and the permissible deviations of electrical parameters do not exceed 2%. By optimizing the operation of the unit and components, a fanless computer consumes less power than a conventional computer.

And so hello everyone, this story is for the contest "Tell me about your technique."

One evening, sitting at the computer at home, I suddenly realized how loud my system unit was making noise. It was an old black box, without side walls for better cooling, an intel core i5 and a small orange zalman on it, which twisted fast enough and made quite a lot of noise.

And so I decided it’s time to change something in my life, and then many of you will say: “if you want silence, buy a laptop,” but I’m not looking for easy ways, and I don’t need a laptop at all. Approaching the ear to the system unit standing on the floor, I determined that the first thing to do was to deal with the cooling of the processor. After reading the forums, it was decided that for silence, small fan speeds are needed, and since the fan spins slowly, a large radiator is needed. Having gone through the forums and the assortment of several online stores, I chose the largest, slowest and at the same time not expensive Thermalright HR-02 Macho processor cooler, which then cost me 1800 rubles. Whatever you imagine it to be, it is a large square half the size of a car battery, its dimensions are 140x162x129 mm. This is what it looks like on the motherboard.

I took the quiet from the store, installed it, and realized that it was necessary to change the case of the system unit, because the cooling radiator stuck out on the side behind the dimensions of the system unit by 2-3 centimeters, since its height is 16 cm, and it is not possible to close the side cover. I sat down to choose a silent case, reading forums and searching online stores gave results, I chose the Zalman Z11 Plus case for 2400r, since it had a window on the side, the cooler had to fit 100%. Another trip to the store ended with the fact that I brought home a huge box in which there was a Darth Vader, because that's what this case is called because of the expanded ventilation holes.

Putting everything together and pressing the power button, I was extremely upset, I got a monster noisy like a server rack. Many will say that I'm exaggerating, but no, the Zalman case fans made just an unrealistic amount of noise, anyone who has ever been in a server room can imagine the noise. After turning off all the case fans, I finally understood what to strive for. Deciding not to leave the system unit "without breathing" and replace the noisy Zalman's case with something completely quiet, this time I knew what I wanted and which way to look, the choice fell on Noctua NF-S12A ULN, which at that time were 550r each and a Zalman C1 Plus fan speed controller bar for 900r, and two more small fans 150r each for the power supply, walk like that.

I bought it, assembled it, turned it on, and realized that yes, this is exactly what I was trying to achieve. For a week, nothing foreshadowed trouble, but one evening I realized that the system unit was buzzing, and there was nothing else to buzz except for the hard drive. Having lifted the system unit in my hands, the buzzing stopped, but I can’t keep it on my hands all the time! I decided that the point was in the place of contact between the case and the floor, that is, in the plastic legs, a thin layer of foam rubber was placed under the bottom, but this did not work, I began to experiment with mounting the hard drive, the experiments also did not give a result, the hum continued and acted on nerves. An idea came to my mind, what is vibrating? Correct body! I went to a car audio store and bought two sheets of vibroplast, this is such a foil with a thick layer of plasticine on it, it is used to soundproof cars. Having glued the walls of the case with vibroplast from the inside, I turned on the computer, the hum remained, everything was in vain.

It was decided to go to the end because a lot of effort, time and money had already been spent. The last step to evening comfort was the purchase of an SSD hard drive, three years ago, but in other matters, as now, such drives were expensive, and there is not much memory on them, which means you need to take two drives, one SSD for fast boot and system operation, and the second low-speed and therefore silent HDD. Once again visiting the "red with the letter U" online store, they bought Kingston KC300 120GB SSD for 3700r and WD Green 5200 for 1000r. I went, bought it, installed it, turned it on, and oh yes, finally, a month of fighting noise gave a result, the system unit works a little louder than a laptop and is only audible at night in silence or during games when the fans are running at full speed. This is how I made myself a silent system unit, thanks to everyone who read to the end.

Is it possible to assemble a completely silent office (home) computer that can easily cope with Internet surfing, working in office applications, viewing and listening to multimedia and at the same time would be cheap? Let's try!

What makes noise in modern computers?

The first step is to find out which components make noise from the PC and how to replace them with silent ones.

The main "noisy" elements of a conventional PC include:

CPU cooler
Fan on video card
Fan in the power supply
Hard drives (HDD)
Case fans
Coolers on the motherboard

Tasks on the way to a silent computer

To build a silent PC, we need to get rid of all the fans in the system unit and replace the moving parts with fixed ones.

Our to-do list is as follows:

Get rid of the cpu cooler
Get rid of the power supply cooler
Use a storage device with no moving parts

We select a "cold" processor

In powerful gaming computers or PCs designed to work with graphics or video, the hottest element is the video card. In our case (in a budget PC), the hottest component is the CPU.

In the specifications of their products, processor manufacturers indicate one important parameter for us - heat dissipation requirements ( thermal design power, TDP). MaxTDP clearly indicates how much maximum thermal power the system that cools this processor should dissipate. This value can be used to judge how hot or cold a given processor is. The smaller this parameter, the less heat the processor generates during operation, which means that the better for our case.

So, we need to find the "coldest" processor from the most available today, i.e. with the lowest TDP. From the entire arsenal of INTEL processors, less powerful processors of the Celeron G series, as well as models with the prefix "T" in the name, fall into the "cold" category. At the time of assembly (silent and cheap PC), we saw processors INTEL Celeron G1850 and Celeron G1840 with a TDP coefficient of 53. We opted for the first model, the G1850.

We select a radiator with the most suitable power dissipation

To get rid of the fan cooler, we need to find a heatsink that can handle the cooling of our 53W CPU. Of all the models we looked at, we liked the radiator Arctic cooling Alpine 11 passive cooler . Its power dissipation is 47 watts, which falls short of our 53 watts. However, there are practically no alternative budget options.

Passive CPU cooling system - ARCTIC Cooling Alpine 11

Will the processor we have chosen with such a heatsink overheat? It depends on many factors. In the case of regular operation of the CPU without a constant load of 100%, it will not overheat, but it is important for us to make not only a silent, but also a reliable, stable PC. What can be done in this situation? Is it possible to somehow reduce (limit) the heat dissipation of the processor so that our heatsink cools it quietly? Yes, and in this situation there are several ways to solve it.

How to limit CPU heat dissipation?

Let's start with the fact that the heat dissipation of the processor depends on several parameters - it is proportional to the clock frequency and the square of the voltage at which it operates. In other words, the most effective way to reduce the operating temperature of the processor is to lower the core voltage. Unfortunately, this method belongs to the category of undervoltage (downclocking) and is not possible on our processor. However, we can freely control the second parameter - the processor clock speed. It is this method that we will use to limit the heat dissipation of our processor - lower its clock speed.

To determine how much to reduce the processor clock speed, we need to calculate the efficiency percentage of the heatsink Arctic cooling Alpine 11 passive when the processor cools down Intel Celeron G1850 . Taking into account the fact that our heatsink does not reach the full cooling of the processor by about 10% (53 W versus 47 W), we dare to assume that the processor frequency will have to be reduced by 10-20%. In our case, the loss of 10-20% of processor performance is not critical. From 2.90 GHz, the frequency will decrease to 2.30 GHz, which will not affect the work with office applications and Internet browsers.

Thus, we solved the first important task - we got rid of the cooler on the processor.

How to get rid of the cooler in the power supply?

The second important point, after getting rid of the cooler on the processor heatsink, is the question of how to remove the cooler from the power supply. Are there silent PC power supplies on the market? Yes, there are such blocks, but they are much more expensive than their noisy counterparts. Also, such blocks cannot boast of high power, which in our case is not critical. Passively cooled power supplies use a large heatsink instead of a fan. Having searched for offers in the vastness of online stores, we opted for the block Fox ATX-500 BT. We think that the power of 500 W is more than enough for us. There will be no discrete video card and other powerful consumers in our system.

Quiet Computer - Passively Cooled Power Supply

Here is the second problem solved!

Silent hard drives - SSD

SSD (solid-state drive) are solid-state drives based on NAND flash memory. SSDs replaced conventional HDDs a few years ago due to their main advantage - speed. In addition to speed, SSDs differ from traditional hard drives in their silent operation, as they do not have moving parts. SSDs are also smaller and lighter than HDDs. In addition to the advantages, solid-state drives also have disadvantages - this is a relatively high price per gigabyte and a smaller resource. However, the latter statement is debatable, since modern models of solid state drives have a guarantee of up to 10 years.

SSD - "silent" HDD replacement

For our silent PC, SSD is the best option. As an available model, we have chosen SSD Silicon Power S55 Slim for 120 GB. We chose the most affordable model on the market. For solving office tasks, the resource and performance of this model is more than enough. At work, we carried out synthetic testing with the program CrystalDiskMark and got the following results. Pretty good for a budget SSD. I was very pleased with the speed of working with 4K blocks in random reading and writing. It is this characteristic that determines how fast the disk will work in Windows.

The final stage is the selection of the remaining components and assembly

To build and run our ultra budget and silent PC, there is very little left - to choose the right motherboard, RAM and case.

We chose the missing parts based on the principle “the cheaper the better”, but despite this, we tried to choose high-quality components from reputable manufacturers.

So what we got:

PC detail	Name	Price, rub.)
	TOTAL	14632
Motherboard	MSI H81M-P33 Micro-ATX	2801
CPU	Intel Celeron G1850 2.9 GHz	2644
Radiator	Arctic Cooling Alpine 11 Passive Cooler	750
RAM	SAMSUNG 4GB DIMM DDR3 1600MHz	1218
SSD	Silicon Power Slim S55 120 GB	2756
Power Supply	Fox ATX-500BT	2650
Frame	Aerocool Corporate Series CS 100 Advance	1558

Summing up the intermediate result, we can say with confidence that the computer turned out to be really budget-friendly, even despite the current dollar exchange rate. The total cost of the assembled budget and silent system unit was less than 15,000 rubles. It remains to be seen how stable the whole thing will function.

Silent PC Testing

All written "theory" above, before the final conclusions about the success of the project, must be ruthlessly tested in practice. Tests should show to what temperature limit the CPU can heat up at a constant maximum load (100% load) and how stable (without errors) it will work. The temperature reached must not exceed the temperature allowed by the manufacturer for this model.

For processor Intel Celeron G1850 the specification Tcase temperature (maximum allowable temperature on the case) is 72 °C. For stress testing the efficiency of the cooling system, we have chosen the program Prime95 and launched the most "heavy" test for half an hour. We monitored the CPU temperature using the program Open Hardware Monitor. It was possible to choose other similar software for these purposes, but this would not change the essence.

CPU Stability Testing - Silent PC

So, what we have: the processor was loaded at 100% for 30 minutes, 25 tests were successfully passed, there were no errors or warnings. Excellent! What about our temperature?

The maximum temperature to which the processor heated up during stress testing was 68°C, which is 4 degrees less than the allowed one. Note that the processor worked at a frequency reduced by 20% - 2300 MHz. The minimum temperature (at rest) was about 40 degrees. The processor reached its maximum temperature in the first 20 minutes of operation.

Results and conclusions

Now, of course, we can say that the theory has been confirmed in practice, which means that it is possible to assemble an absolutely silent and at the same time budget computer. Calculations in the selection of the radiator did not disappoint. Despite the constant maximum load, the Celeron G1850 processor with the selected heatsink operates within the allowed temperature limits. But this mode of operation does not threaten the office (home) PC. In the case of normal office work, the processor never reaches long maximum operating modes, but only occasionally can receive such a peak load. In our experience, we can say that the average temperature of the processor when working on this PC was 45-50 ° C. In any case, no matter how this PC is used, it will not overheat. It is fair to say that such reliability of operation would not be possible without a decrease in rated frequency processor. At the standard frequency for this model, the temperature at a continuous maximum load would exceed 72 ° C and would reach 80-85 ° C.

This is what our ward looks like from the inside:

Assembling a silent and budget PC - inside view

This PC has been working for almost a year in 24/7 mode - stable, convenient, affordable, and most importantly - quiet!

Silent computer to buy.

Fortunately, for those who feel sorry for wasting their time building a silent PC on their own, there is a good alternative - to buy a ready-made and proven solution. As a rule, the selection of components is often not as simple as it seems at first glance. When assembling our PC, for example, we could not find a suitable heatsink in Moscow stores to cool the processor. I had to reduce the clock frequency, albeit in a small, but detrimental to performance. Difficulties in selecting components for a silent PC are due to the continuous process of technology development, the change of generations of processors, the release of new types of RAM, and also the very specifics - only recently people have appreciated all the advantages of a quiet PC.

So what can we offer?

One of the major drawbacks of today's high-performance home and office PCs is their characteristic annoying, monotonous and annoying noise. Who among us has not encountered this problem, especially if we had to work at night? Here, the indignation of the wife or parents (each has their own headache) is added to the hum of the computer, who cannot fall asleep because of the noisy PC, and ... however, then everyone has their own scenario. This noise interferes with both gamers and those who like to watch a movie on a computer or listen to music. It is not easier for those who spend 8 hours a day behind such a PC in the office.

Where does the noise come from

During the dominance of 286-, 386- and even 486-th processors, the problem of noise was not so acute. Clock speeds were meager (by today's standards), and the processors did not require active cooling, not to mention other motherboard chips. Hard disks have not yet been able to rotate so quickly and “rustle” their heads, and therefore did not heat up. And no one suspected that video cards can also heat up. In those years, fans were not installed in computer cases at all, and therefore it was possible to understand whether the PC was on or off only by the power indicator, that is, computers were basically silent. However, that was a long time ago and now few people remember those happy times.

As the clock frequencies of processors and other microcircuits of the motherboard increased, power consumption inevitably increased. It is difficult to deceive the laws of physics, and these very laws say that the power absorbed by the microcircuit is directly proportional to the square of the voltage and the clock frequency. Therefore, if we want to increase productivity by increasing such frequency, then we will inevitably increase the absorbed power. As a result, of course, the heat dissipation of the microcircuit also increases. And if you do not take measures to remove this heat from the computer case, then overheating will inevitably occur - with all the ensuing consequences. For example, modern processors The 3GHz Intel Pentium 4 generates over 80W of heat. But in a computer, the source of heat dissipation is not only the processor - the northbridge of the chipset, and memory modules, and hard drives, and the power supply itself, and, of course, the video card, which today is a kind of computer in a computer, with its own graphics processor and memory. That is why in all modern cases there are regular places for installing fans designed to remove heat from the computer case. There can be up to 10 or even more such fans in one case. Judge for yourself: a fan on the processor, a fan on the northbridge of the chipset, a fan on the video card (or even two), a fan or two in the power supply, and additional fans installed on the front, rear and side walls of the case. Some cases allow the installation of up to 7 (!) additional fans. And everything would be fine, if not for one circumstance. Every fan is a source of noise. Actually, everything that rotates makes noise, and this noise can be amplified by the computer case itself due to resonance.

power supply fan;
CPU cooler fan;
fan on a high-performance video card;
additional fans in the case of the system unit;
fans installed on the motherboard;
disk drives;
hard drives;
case design of the system unit, which amplifies vibrations from rotating components.

How to solve the noise problem

It would seem that the problem is really unsolvable and noise cannot be avoided with high performance. However, not everything is so hopeless. Silent and at the same time high-performance PCs are not a myth. Some foreign companies began to specialize in the production of cooling system components for silent PCs, while others began to specialize in the production of silent PCs.

But on the Russian market, this niche is still free: if there are companies specializing in the production of high-performance and at the same time silent PCs, then there are not so many of them.

An example of a company that produces cooling systems for silent PCs is Korean ZALMAN (www.zalman.co.kr). Not so long ago, this company released an entire platform for the Zalman TNN-500A absolutely silent PC, which is a case with a completely passive cooling system. The case itself acts as a huge heatsink, and the heat sink from the PC components is carried out through this heatsink using heat pipes. Everything would be fine, but... this case is not yet available on our market, and its cost exceeds $1,300, which is comparable to the cost of a high-performance PC. However, there is a way out - to assemble a silent PC on your own!

Of course, the problem is not as easy to solve as it might seem. The whole trick lies in the correct selection of the components of the cooling system. That is, with the right selection of the case, power supply, motherboard, hard drive cooling system, video card and processor cooling system, you can create a really silent, but at the same time high-performance PC! So, let's go through all the stages of choosing components for a silent PC.

Frame

Choosing a case for the future silent PC is one of the most important tasks. Unfortunately, our markets sell a huge amount of junk from unknown manufacturers, in which everything rattles and resonates.

First of all, you need to understand that a beautiful body and a good body are far from the same thing. You should not "sink" on any glass windows in the case or on completely transparent "aquariums", and also evaluate the case by the effectiveness of the front panel.

The second important point case must be a product of a well-known company. noname products should be immediately excluded from consideration, despite the attractive price.

Look inside the case. A silent PC case should have 120mm fan slots: one in the front for a fan that blows air to cool the hard drives, and one in the back for a fan that blows warm air out of the case.

Another feature of the case that you need to pay attention to is the hard drive bays. Structurally, such compartments can be made in the form of a basket rigidly attached to the chassis of the body.

The seats for hard drives must be equipped with rubber dampers to prevent direct contact of the hard drive with the chassis of the case. Such dampers dampen resonating vibrations, which further reduces the noise level (Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. The presence of rubber dampers eliminates resonating vibrations that occur during the operation of hard drives

Well, the last important detail is the presence of holes for air intake from the front panel.

Chassis fans

Since we are talking about fans installed inside the case, let's talk about them in more detail. Fans come in three sizes: 80-, 92- and 120mm. The most important characteristics of a fan are rotational speed and airflow, measured in cubic pounds of air per minute (CFM).

It is clear that the larger the diameter of the fan, the higher the air flow it creates, all other things being equal. That is, if you take 80mm and 120mm fans, which will rotate at the same speed, then the 120mm fan will create more airflow. It is also true that a 120mm fan will have a lower rotational speed for the same airflow. That is why 120 mm coolers are also called "low-speed". And the lower the fan speed, the less noise it makes - after all, the level of noise generated by the fan is directly dependent on its rotation speed.

Now it becomes clear that a case for a silent PC should have two seats for 120mm fans, since they are the ones that are quiet.

The fans themselves are connected directly to the motherboard, and when purchasing the fans themselves, you need to make sure that they have exactly three, and not two wires. The third wire is a control wire, which allows you to adjust the fan speed using temperature sensors. If the fan has only two wires, then it will always rotate only at maximum speed!

Another recommendation for fans is that special speed controllers should be used. An example of such a regulator is the FAN MATE 1 regulator from ZALMAN, which can be bought at any computer market.

Hard drive cooling system

The next important point is the organization of the hard drive cooling system. Of course, ideally, such a system should be passive, that is, have no fans at all. An example of such a system is the ZM-2HC1 hard drive cooling system (Fig. 2), manufactured by the already mentioned ZALMAN company.

This system is designed to fit into the 5.25" bay of a PC case (Figure 3) and cool a 3.5" hard drive. To do this, the hard drive is rigidly clamped between two massive aluminum plates interconnected by a dozen copper heatpipes (heatpipe), and the entire structure is attached to the compartment (necessarily with the tubes up) on four rubber shock absorbers that do not have a through metal rod.

In addition to the fact that such a system does not have a fan (noise source), rubber dampers can reduce the noise of low-frequency vibrations caused by insufficiently good balance of the spindle with magnetic pancakes. A system of copper thermal pipes together with massive aluminum plates forms a heat dissipation surface of about 400 cm2, which is quite enough to cool ordinary disks.

However, such a system also has a drawback. The fact is that such a system is installed in a 5.25-inch bay, which, in principle, should be free. If the PC has two hard drives, then the second one will have nowhere to install.

Another option for a hard drive cooling system is to use stock hard drive slots and an additional 120mm cooler that is installed in front of the drives and blows cold air. If you plan to install two hard drives, it is highly desirable that there is free space between them for another drive. In this case, the passing air flow will provide the required heat dissipation.

As already noted, when organizing a cooling system for hard drives, it is necessary that the fan has a triple wire. This will allow you to adjust the fan speed depending on the temperature inside the case.

Motherboard

Choosing the right motherboard is essential to building a quiet PC. The motherboard itself is not a source of noise (the fan that is sometimes installed on the northbridge of the chipset does not count), but it is the motherboard that controls the temperature and can control the speed of the fans.

Therefore, a board is needed that can perform temperature control and control the speed of the fans. For example, many modern motherboards allow you to adjust the processor fan speed in the BIOS depending on its temperature: if the processor temperature is lower than the set temperature, then the fan speed decreases.

In addition, the board itself must have at least three three-pin fan connectors. One of them is used to connect the processor fan, the second controls the speed of the chassis fan, and the third is used to connect the corresponding power supply connector.

If there is a fan on the northbridge of the chipset, then it must be replaced with a heatsink with high fins (Fig. 4).

Of the well-established motherboards with advanced monitoring tools, we can name motherboards from ASUS, Intel and Fujitsu-Siemens. The boards of these companies do not have a fan on the northbridge of the chipset, so you don't even have to change it.

Fujitsu-Siemens motherboards deserve special attention, which were initially focused on the creation of silent PCs.

Power Supply

The power supply is often the unrecoverable cause of noise. The fact is that power supply manufacturers place one or two (and sometimes three) fans in them, which create quite intense noise, which is difficult to deal with - after all, turning off the fans or soldering a resistor into the power circuit to reduce the rotation speed is fraught with negative consequences. Therefore, there is only one way out - to buy a good, initially quiet power supply.

Such quiet power supplies include Super Tornado 350/400 or Super Silencer 460 power supplies from Sea Sonic Electronics (www.seasonic.com), which meet the ATX v 1.3 standard and are designed for an input voltage range of 100 to 240 V. Consider the features of these power supplies on the example of the Super Tornado 350 model (Fig. 5).

A distinctive feature of the Super Tornado 350 power supply is the presence of a quiet 120mm fan located on the underside of the power supply and working to suck hot air out of the PC case. The speed of rotation of this fan changes depending on the temperature. At a maximum rotation speed of 2500 rpm, the fan generates an airflow of 70 CFM, and at a rotation speed of 1500 rpm, the airflow is 40 CFM. For comparison, a traditional 80mm PSU fan produces a similar 40 CFM airflow at 3500 RPM, more than twice as fast as a 120mm fan (Figure 6). ).

Rice. 6. Comparison of traditional 80mm and 120mm fans in power supplies

Noise reduction is achieved through the use of proprietary technology S2FC (Smart & Silent Fan Control). With this technology, the fan speed does not increase linearly with the ambient temperature, as in the case of a traditional fan control scheme, but adjusts to the external temperature in such a way as to provide sufficient cooling at the minimum rotation speed (Fig. 7).

Particularly noteworthy is the structure of the ventilation holes in the power supply, which are made in the form of a cellular structure resembling a honeycomb. This shape of the holes prevents the formation of turbulent air currents and associated noise.

Compared to conventional power supplies, for which the power correction factor (PFC) is about 50%, in the Super Tornado 350 power supply it is 99%, and the efficiency (ratio of output power to input power) reaches 80%. For example, when the input power is 441W, the output power is 300W, and 141W is converted into heat. In this case, the efficiency of the power supply is 68%.

In conclusion, we add that a convenient braid for wires is supplied with the power supply, which allows you to optimize the placement of wires in the PC case.

Video card cooling system

As already noted, one of the sources of noise in modern PCs is a 3D video card, which is traditionally equipped with a powerful fan, or even two. The only way to get rid of the noise created by the fans of the video card is to change the stock cooling system. There are practically no options in this case. Silent video card cooling kits are produced only by ZALMAN. The latest model of such a cooling kit is the ZM80C-HP (Fig. 8).

Rice. Fig. 8. Appearance of a video card with a standard cooling system (left) and with a ZALMAN ZM80C-HP cooling system

The ZM80C-HP can be used on graphics cards that have mounting holes around the chipset. The cooling system uses two massive aluminum radiators, located on both sides of the video card and connected by a copper heat pipe.

With a weight of 325 g, the ZM80C-HP cooler has a dispersion surface of 1200 cm2.

If high-performance modern video cards are used, then a special low-noise ZALMAN ZM-OP1 fan must be used together with radiators (Fig. 9).

Rice. 9. ZALMAN ZM-OP1 low-noise fan (left) and its installation on a video card

Processor cooling system

Among the huge variety of CPU coolers, preference should be given to specialized low-noise devices. One of the best (if not the best) coolers today is the ZALMAN CNPS5700D-Cu (Figure 10) or the newer CNPS6500-Cu and CNPS7000-Cu.

In the CNPS5700D-Cu system, the heatsink is made entirely of copper with radially diverging fins. The total area of all radiator fins is 1270 cm2.

Above the heatsink is an 80mm variable speed fan. The minimum rotation speed is 1700 rpm and the maximum is 3100 rpm. At the minimum rotational speed, the noise level is only 20 dB (the threshold of sensitivity of human hearing is slightly higher), and at the maximum speed it is 34 dB.

To control the fan speed, a special regulator is used, which is included in the circuit between the fan and the connector in order to connect the processor fan to the motherboard.

The processor cooling system is completed by a special plastic casing that acts as an air duct. The fan works to suck hot air from the processor, and this air is removed through the shroud from the case.

In the CNPS7000-Cu CPU cooler (Fig. 11), the radiator with radially diverging fins is also made of copper, but the total area of all radiator fins is 3170 cm2 and the weight is 773 g. Above the radiator is a variable speed fan. The minimum rotation speed is 1350 rpm, the maximum is 2400 rpm. The FAN MATE 1 regulator (Fig. 12), which is included in the delivery set, is designed to adjust the rotation speed. At the minimum rotational speed, the noise level is only 20 dB, and at the maximum - 25 dB.

Assembling a PC

so, after a short digression into the theory, let's get down to business and start assembling our silent PC. First of all, let's define the configuration. Since we are talking about a home, and therefore, a multimedia and gaming PC, from the very beginning we will set the condition that this PC must have two hard drives combined in a RAID level 0 array, a processor with Hyper-Threading technology support and a frequency of at least 3.0 GHz @ 800 MHz FSB, 1024 MB DDR400 RAM, motherboard based on Intel 865 or Intel 875 family chipset, powerful graphics card, eight-channel (7.1) sound card such as Creative Audigy 2, DVD burner or combo drive. Based on the conditions set, we chose the following PC configuration:

processor: Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz;
motherboard: Abit IC7-G (Intel 875 chipset);
video card: Gigabyte GeForce FX 5950 Ultra (256 MB);
RAM: DDR433 (four 256 MB modules);
disk subsystem: two Seagate ST3120023AS SATA drives combined into a RAID array using an Intel 82801ER SATA RAID SATA RAID controller (ICH5R);
sound card: Creative Audigy 2 ZS;
optical drive: NEC DVD-RW ND 1300A.

As you can see from this configuration, the system is really high-performance and meets the requirements of a gaming and multimedia PC. The only question is how to make such a system silent or almost silent.

To create a silent PC, we chose the Yeong Yang YY-5601 case (Fig. 13) manufactured by the still little-known company Yeong Yang.

The Yeong Yang YY-5601 model is made of 0.8 mm thick steel, so it weighs more than an aluminum case. The interior of the Yeong Yang YY-5601 case is made to a very high standard; all edges of the body are either rounded or rolled.

The 5.25-inch device rack accommodates up to four devices, which are fixed without a screwdriver using special snap-in rails supplied with the chassis for all four devices. It remains possible to rigidly fasten the rails in the rack with screws, but most likely this will already be redundant, since the rails snap into place quite rigidly and fix the device very well. Above this rack there is one seat for a floppy drive. At the bottom of the case there is a rack for installing hard drives, the maximum number of which can be up to five. Although this stand is riveted to the body and is not removable, it is very convenient to work with it, since it is oriented not along the body, but across. This solution allows you to easily remove and install hard drives. In addition, when installing a hard drive, it faces the user with its interface, which makes it easy to connect and install jumpers. Hard drives are also fastened without a screwdriver - using guides that are somewhat different from guides for 5.25-inch devices. Firstly, these guides have a slightly different form factor, and secondly, special rubber gaskets are provided in the mounting holes to prevent microvibrations of the devices. To attach the rails to the hard drive, special unthreaded screws are supplied in the kit, which are inserted into the holes cut in the rails. There is space for a 120mm fan in front of the HDD rack, and there are special shutters on the front of the case that can be closed or opened, and manually set at a certain angle, allowing the user to independently adjust the ventilation. There is also a special removable dust filter located immediately behind the shutters. The cooler is installed without a screwdriver, for which special plastic mounts. In total, it is possible to install two additional fans in the case, the second of which (also 120 mm in size) is located on the rear wall of the case under the power supply. In addition, a special air duct is located on the left wall of the case, which removes hot air through the side wall. The length of this air duct can be adjusted, which allows you to remove air from the processor heatsink itself.

The Yeong Yang YY-5601 power supply was equipped with a Sea Sonic Super Tornado 350 power supply.

As already noted, the basis of the PC was the ABIT IC7-G motherboard. Let's note right away that it has no special advantages in terms of creating a silent PC over other boards based on the Intel 875 chipset. The board has a sufficient number of connectors for connecting fans (for the processor fan and northbridge and three connectors for additional fans). However, of all the connectors, we needed only three: to connect the processor fan, to connect the power supply connector and to connect the 120mm fan that cools the hard drives.

The BIOS of the ABIT IC7-G motherboard allows not only monitoring the temperature and fan speed, but also setting the processor fan mode. However, if you use the ZALMAN CNPS7000-Cu cooler, this BIOS feature is clearly unnecessary.

You can also download a monitoring utility for the ABIT IC7-G board from the ABIT website, which shows the current temperature and rotation speed of all fans in the system, and also allows you to adjust their rotation speed. However, as experience with this utility has shown, it is absolutely useless and does not actually regulate the fan speed, and the displayed temperatures clearly do not correspond to reality. Therefore, such a monitoring utility can hardly be considered as a help in creating a silent PC. Moreover, the board has been slightly modified: the heatsink with a fan built into it, installed on the northbridge of the chipset, has been removed (except for the generated noise, it is of no use), and a standard heatsink has been installed in its place.

The cooling system of our PC included the following components:

ZALMAN FAN MATE 2 fan speed controller (for controlling the CPU cooler fan);
cooler for ZALMAN CNPS7000-Cu processor;
cooler for video card ZALMAN ZM80C-HP complete with fan ZALMAN ZM-OP1;
two heatsinks ZM-2HC1 for hard drives.

Of course, the vital question arises - how much will such a cooling system cost?

In this case, we can only talk about approximate prices, since the price is determined by the conscience of the seller. In the Moscow market in April, prices were as follows:

ZALMAN CNPS7000-Cu 1400-1500 rubles;
ZALMAN ZM80C-HP 650-800 rubles;
ZALMAN ZM-OP1 200-250 rubles;
ZALMAN ZM-2HC1 700-800 rub.

In total, we get that the entire cooling system will cost 3650-4150 rubles, that is, about 130-150 dollars must be added to the cost of the system unit.

And now, after the computer is assembled, I would like to understand - was the game worth the candle?

We turn on the power and ... we learn that the computer has turned on only by the power indicator and by loading the operating system. The computer is not audible at all. No, of course, you can hear the hum of the fans, but for this you need to stick your head into the system unit itself. However, in real conditions, such a PC is not audible. In order not to be unfounded, we measured the noise level of the assembled PC. For this, a CENTER 322 sound level meter was used (Fig. 14), which was installed at a height of 120 cm above the floor and at a distance of 50 cm from the system unit (in the center).

The natural background level was 30 dBA (corresponding to complete silence). The noise level of the assembled PC measured under such conditions was 32 dBA. For comparison, we note that a typical office PC under the same measurement conditions creates a noise level of about 40-45 dBA.

And so hello everyone, this story is for the contest "Tell me about your technique."