How to reduce the noise of your computer

The noise made by our computer has become increasingly worse in recent years. As the amount of features and speed has increased, the heat of the computer has also increased thus requiring effective ways of cooling it down with the use of fans. All of this means one thing: increased noise.

We are all different individuals and some of us can tolerate noise more than others. The willingness to spend money to buy effective hardware is directly proportional to the level of our 'intolerance'. The more we dislike the noise made by our computer, the more we are willing to invest some extra money to reduce it. Example: I personally cannot stand the noise made by computers, even if they are a few meters away from me. Therefore, I don't mind spending extra 200 or 250 $ to reduce the noise by 80%; it is a sum that I gladly spend. However, other people would find that even spending 10 $ is totally unacceptable. We all use different parameters.


1. Power Supply. The first rule is that of buying a high quality power supply, certainly not the mediocre ones sold with most cheap cabinets. For 'high quality power supply' I mean power supplies from good companies such as Enermax Noise Taker, or Zalman, or Nexus, which are all about 100 USD (much more expensive than power supplies that most people have). You'll benefit in two ways: the first is that the noise made by the power supply will nearly disappear; the second is that the voltage to the motherboard and other devices will always be even/constant thus reducing the risk of crashes, sudden reboots or odd interrumptions of the operating system (or of devices which will not last as long as they are supposed to, starting from the Hard Disk). Enermax power supplies are really good in terms of quietness (despite having two fans. The second fan helps to cool down the CPU, and therefore at the end it reduces the overall noise of the pc); Zalman power supplies, in addition to being very quiet, have a steady voltage even when the CPU is working hard.

2. Fans and Heatsinks. The CPU fan is, together with the power supply, the first source of noise. The 'boxed' solutions offered with the processors are just decent. It is much better to replace with something of better quality, so to reduce the noise nearly completely the noise made by this source. An excellent one is the Zalman CNPS7000A-AL/CU, or Verax P16cu (the latter is more expensive, more quiet, but less efficient). The first one is incompatible with some mother boards, whilst the second is much more expensive. There are other very good choices, such as the Heatsinks Swiftech MCX4000 (or Swiftech MCX478-V), or otherwise the cheaper (but equally valid) Thermalright SLK947U (or SLK900U) to pair with a quiet fan of 80 or 92 mm (really good results). There are of course lots of other interesting ones, but be careful when you choose (especially with cheap ones).

part two-->