Turning fan off in tower...

mindbend

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Ever since I got my first iMac (rev B) and heard (or didn't hear) how quiet that little bugger was, I can no longer stand computer noise of any kind. For those of you who don't have an iMac of any type, you don't know what you're missing. THEY DON'T MAKE ANY NOISE. It's amazing. I'm typing this on my purple rev B after installing the latest 80 gig seagate barracuda (rated the quietest drive available) and I have my head right up next to the thing. It might as well be an empty cardboard box. OK, I'm hyping it a teeny bit, but it's really really really really quiet.

Anyway, because of this new obsessiveness with quiet computers I've been toying with the idea of turning off the main fan on my DP tower. As far as I can tell, there are two fans in the thing. One giant fan that shoots out the back and then a little fan that pulls from the CPU. I "tested" this concept with an old Power Tower Pro. The thing had three fans in it and I ripped em all out. Six months later it still works perfectly though the two SCSI drives in it scream with noise in and of themselves.

Where was I? Oh yeah, would I be insane to turn that main fan off as long as I only have one drive there? I used to have four drives in it, but I removed three and put them in external firewire enclosures since I don't use them every day...again, the whole noise thing.

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Update:

I just popped the tower case while running to see where the really annoying noises were coming from and it turns out it's the little CPU fan. At least on this machine it's really whiny more so than white noisy. I suppose I could start by replacing it with a quieter fan.

How stupid is this idea? ... I have my tower positioned behind my desk in such a way so that the public can't really see it. What if I permanently leave the case open slightly, like 2-3 inches but turn all the fans off. Would that allow enough heat to escape on its own or does it need to be "sucked" from the machine at a more dramatic rate?

Help me end computer noise forever!!!

For the record, I bought the Applecare plan, so if I fry my CPU, this conversation never happened. ;)
 
Buy a much more expensive and quieter fan. If you fry your CPU daughter card, Apple will very happy with you for increasing their (and Motorola's) quarterly profits.
 
When you cook your daughter card you'll find out how efficient there Apple's; Apple Care and cust. service dept. are. Choice is yours a bit of noise or your bottom line...
 
Am I crazy or does anyone else besides me LIKE the hum of my 733 G4 Quicksilver tower. A soft "Whoooooooooooosssshhhh" along with an almost inaudible high pitch. I actually like it but don't like rooms that you can hear a pin drop. And I always sleep right next to it on full blast. Its kind of comforting to hear a computer is in the room.
 
The other G4 (466 MHz) in our office which uses basically the same case design is much quieter than my DP 1 gig. That level of noise I can tolerate and I guess I can sort of accept that people "like" the white noise even if I think it's absurd to be forced to constantly to listen to it...no options.

As I said, the DP1gig tower is too loud for anyone's standards unless you're nuts. I have a pretty big office and I can hear the thing loud and clear from forty feet away. That is NOT acceptable.

I can appreciate cutesy smart aleck answers as I like to dish them out myself, but what I'm really looking for is a real solution. Thanks to chem-geek for something approaching that.

I really hope the new towers are quieter as I'm looking to grab one for home. Those front vents better do the job.
 
Originally posted by reichmac
Am I crazy or does anyone else besides me LIKE the hum of my 733 G4 Quicksilver tower. A soft "Whoooooooooooosssshhhh" along with an almost inaudible high pitch. I actually like it but don't like rooms that you can hear a pin drop. And I always sleep right next to it on full blast. Its kind of comforting to hear a computer is in the room.

Me too! :)
And since I don't have a good alarm clock that I can look at at night - I usually just speak up "Computer, what time is it?" and it replies "It's 4:35 AM" (I don't let it sleep since the two pulsating white lights DO bug me, but not the fan noise). heh :D
 
If you have air conditioning and you're near a vent, you can duct the air into your tower.:p

You'd have to have the air conditioning on all the time though.;)
 
One more possibility... T H E S U P E R P O S I T I O N P R I N C I P L E

You could download AudioX 1.0 from http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/ and drop your microphone down by the side of your computer. Next, record the noise of your Macintosh when it's nice and hot, because they all have variable speed fans in them now. Now, run a a small cable from the speaker out in the back to an amplifier. Then connect a speaker to the amp, but remember to INVERT the wires to the speaker. Finally, set up QuickTime Player to loop your recorded noise file. Turn up the volume as necessary to cancel-out the noise of the Mac.
 
Chem Geek: There is a company that is actually selling machines that will do that for room noise. Unfortunately, a 10x12 room needs the $10,000 model. I saw a post about it on slashdot a month or so ago. I cant remember the company, but i will post it if i can find it.
 
Originally posted by Zeigan
Chem Geek: There is a company that is actually selling machines that will do that for room noise. Unfortunately, a 10x12 room needs the $10,000 model. I saw a post about it on slashdot a month or so ago. I cant remember the company, but i will post it if i can find it.

I think I read that one too, but I know the auto industry was experimenting with this about 20 years ago. Since we don't have cars with this technology, it probably wouldn't meet customer satisfaction within a reasonable price range.
 
And there are at least two types of phase cancellation headphones available to the public. One set is very bulky and used by flight ground crew, the other is smaller, but depends on a music source to really be effective. Maybe there are more options. This comment is irrelevant cuz I ain't wearing a set of headphones all day.

Anyone know the best source for highest quality, quietest fans available?

My other option was to put my tower in another room, but right now that room would be twenty feet away, which would add hundreds of dollars to my cable costs for cinnie display extender (actually an extension that long I think breaks a thousand bucks if you can believe that).
 
Originally posted by reichmac
Am I crazy or does anyone else besides me LIKE the hum of my 733 G4 Quicksilver tower. A soft "Whoooooooooooosssshhhh" along with an almost inaudible high pitch. I actually like it but don't like rooms that you can hear a pin drop. And I always sleep right next to it on full blast. Its kind of comforting to hear a computer is in the room.
My 867 G4 _IS_ a _bit_ louder than my old B&W G3 was, but the heat sink on the CPU is also about 4 times as big... So it is very clear to me what the fans (I was surprised to see more than 1) are doing.

In any case, I have an idiotic PC "server" with 3 cheap/loud fans. When I have it on and am talking on the phone, peole often ask me to talk quieter. I can't hear them over the noise, but they can hear me.

Like most things in life, all things are relative. get yourself a white noise machine (or one of those wave machines) and after a while the Mac will sound like nothing... Either that or move to the big city and you won't be able to hear you Mac over the din of traffic, sirens, people yekking... (Damn... I gotta move...)
 
Originally posted by Zeigan
Chem Geek: There is a company that is actually selling machines that will do that for room noise. Unfortunately, a 10x12 room needs the $10,000 model. I saw a post about it on slashdot a month or so ago. I cant remember the company, but i will post it if i can find it.
How about a Cone of Silence? ;)
 
Get a noise machine? That one takes the cake. "Solve" the problem by making it worse. I can't beleive I"m the only one who finds Mac tower noise uncceptable.
 
Just a friendly suggestion...

if you hate fan noise, never, and I mean never, consider getting the TiBook.

I practically have to have the A/C blowing straight at the back (where the A/C cord connects to the machine) in order to get the fan to shut off.

As it is, I have the book propped up with homemade pegs to allow for maximum airflow. Not particularly helpful...
 
Yeah, the TiBook has the fan on all the time, or at least it should. There's no real good engineering principle that should allow that heat throwing G4 to be put in an enclosure that small. It's insane really.

But the G4 is a pretty cool chip if it's not doing anything. If you do web surfing, e-mail, and other lightweight things, your processor usage probably averages less than 10%. In that case you probably don't need the fan.

I have a dual 450, and in a normal room under light usage, I can leave the case open for the CPU's to air cool. They got up to like 140F under hard usage like that, but they don't care. Normally, they get ~10F above room temp. no matter the usage.

So you can probably do it, but I think you'd be better with a quiet fan than no fan. Grab ThermoInDock or something and see what's up.

My G3 Powerbook gets up to ~155F before it even kicks on the fan, so different processors live by different specs. AMD Athlons are know to be picky, and don't like anything above 115F
 
Originally posted by TommyWillB
How about a Cone of Silence? ;)

The magical architectural gimmick from "Oath of Fealty"?

Copyrighted by Messrs. Niven and Pournelle, and purely fictional :)
 
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