How To Make Your PC Silent

A Silent PC is a computer with reduced noise emission levels. Common uses are video editing, sound mixing and domestic installations. The Apple G3 Cube had few moving parts and was near-silent in operation.

Computers have two main sources of noise:

* cooling fans
* hard disk drives, particularly fast-access drives with high spin speeds (10,000rpm and above)

Means taken to reduce sound increase in complexity as the sound level reduces.

At the most basic level a sound insulated case will reduce noise noticeably. Replacing the fans with slow-speed large diameter fans on anti-vibration mounts is often the next step, followed by anti-vibration mounts for the disk drives. The power supply may be replaced by one with a low-noise fan. This combination typically yields noise levels of around 21dBA, around the background level of a quiet room.

Further reductions in sound involve measures such as replacing fans (especially CPU fans) with liquid cooling.