Quiet PC - possible?

A computer today has become an integral part of home interior, and its use in the evening or night time is by no means something exotic. 

And if the office PC noise in principle not critical, then at home the noise of fans and drives can be quite annoying. So I was thinking long ago about how to make your computer completely silent. Not "less noisy", but completely silent, excluding its moving parts at all. About how this is possible, I would like to talk in more detail. 

Sources of noise 

Consider noise sources inside our PCs and how to combat them. I must say that it will focus on fundamental techniques, essentially precluding the internal moving parts. Everything else, including pasting shell foam or other materials, installation of more expensive fans, remote controls and more - is only half-measures. They are, firstly, often give only a temporary effect (from personal experience, almost every fan still starts to make noise somewhere within six months of use), and secondly, you still do not make your computer truly silent. 

Power Supply unit 

This is the hardest part in terms of heat. Inside the power supply has powerful MOSFETs, which scatter a lot of heat. Theoretically, cooling can be passive - if large enough heat sink may well be sufficiently dispersed naturally. But only "theoretically" because in reality, fan less power supplies found in the sale failed. They are, like, and there, on sites dedicated to hardware, you can even find reviews of these power supplies. In the names of these units differ marked fan less, but it seems that the Russian shops they simply did not deliver. Many sellers even large computer stores had never heard of such (one of the sellers stubbornly trying to convince me that such a thing is impossible), and the demand for fan less-blocks are small, because the buyers of them simply do not know. 

Hard Disk Drive 

With disks the situation in recent years has improved markedly. On the one hand, there were memory cards and flash drives are quite big (16-32 GB), which may well allow them to install the system and a basic set of programs. On the other hand, appeared much more "full" solid state drives SSD-volume 128, 256 and even 512 GB, which is quite possible to compile more or less valuable in terms of disk space your computer. The only question is price, which is still several times higher than the same volume ... By the way, a good bonus SSD-drives is noticeably higher speed, compared to conventional. 

Video card

If we talk about completely silent system, it is about the 3D-games of the last generation have forgotten - all top-end graphics cards are equipped with powerful enough coolers, and sometimes two at once ... If the game does not play or merely the old "good" Counter-Strike and other games 3-4 years ago, the situation is much easier to find a video card with passive cooling is no problem. 

Processor 

Here is difficult to make any recommendations for different models of processors may have different heat dissipation. Of the modern good results show Intel Atom, usually used in laptops, though no one bothers to install them in a desktop computer, sales have motherboards with these processors. Among the CPU cooler you can find passive, for example Thermal take Sonic Tower, they are distinguished by a large heat sink and, of course, no fan.

Alternative

In the above methods describe how to replace components of their more "soft" counterparts. More fundamental is the replacement of all units in a more specialized, the market is the solution, and this type. 

Water cooling

We can say that this method is very popular among fans of various exotic. Probably, if you want to combine more or less performance for gaming PC and still have a low level of noise, it is possible that water cooling would be an acceptable option. In other cases you can do more familiar options. And, as experience shows, in the home are enough pipes, valves and gaskets, which periodically flow and require attention. Adding a few more totally do not want to, in addition, totally silent, such a system still will not. 

Super massive Corps

Another approach to passive cooling of the computer - a massive housing (weighing about 25 kg), which at the same time and the radiator to dissipate heat away. Heat the tube going in one package, transfer heat from heating elements to the body. The lack of such a solution - a high price. For example, only one building of this type, produced by Zalman, worth more than $ 1000. Some fans make such housing itself, which requires a workshop and skills in working with metal, so that this method does not suit everyone. 

Embedded Computers

Another solution is to use industrial embedded computers. These devices are small and the complete lack of moving parts, but, unfortunately, quite a weak processor, in most cases, having the clock frequency of 200 MHz. Hard drive in these computers do not, but there are USB-connector, allowing you to plug a flash card or SSD-drive, and usually there are audio, network connectors and optional wireless modules. Of course, as a home "entertainment" this computer does not work, but as a mini-server for background downloading files or working with e-mail may well be useful. The main disadvantage - relatively high price, such as computers Ebox sold at prices ranging from $ 200 (for the younger model with a 200 MHz processor) up to $ 1000 for a more powerful model. 

"Smart" devices

Some devices, while not a full-fledged computers, however might well be part of its functions. For example, modern media players or routers may well be in the background, "upload" music or movies with torrents, working with a completely silent. 

Conclusion

As it turned out, despite its apparent simplicity, the decision of the noise problem PC is not so trivial. In principle, all the modern computer components can theoretically be replaced by the quiet. But in practice it is difficult, and fraught with difficulties, or order and purchase, or with too high a price. As written by Stanislaw Lem , in an ideal technique should not have moving parts, but still we must admit that the massive computers to such a stage of development had not yet reached (but if not important issue is financial, then get the house completely quiet computer can be even now). Although, of course, recent trends to reduce heat generation processors and the development of solid-state drives very happy, and it is hoped that such technologies will become cheaper. 

As for my personal choice, then the next several years, my compromise solution - an ultra compact mini-computer, is using a dual-core Intel Atom processor with low power consumption and passive power supply of 65 watts. The noise emitted by such a system, according to perceptions about twice lower than on a conventional PC. This computer is only slightly more expensive than the usual "personal", but at least twice to three times cheaper than its completely silent counterparts. This, alas, is not ideal, the noise at night still audible, but much quieter than before, so that some progress is really visible.