Silent Computing: Can You Hear Me Now?
When you turn on your computer does it sound like a 747 taking off from JFK?
It's a fact of digital life. Modern computers run hot. As CPUs become stuffed with more and more of transistors (soon to be counted in the billions) they generate lots of 1s and 0s and even more heat.
The RAM used in the motherboards that support these sizzling CPUs gets faster it adds yet more heat (some of the newer RAM chips have heat spreaders or cooling fins). Many new video cards run hot, too.
After a while your computer seems like its part oven. In order to keep their systems from melting away, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have been forced to add fans to their cases - cheap ones and plenty of 'em.
Fahrenheit vs. Decibels
All these fans do cool off much of the heat, but for every degree you save in Fahrenheit you pay back in decibels—according to some reports, the sound is equivalent to that of a very busy, very loud city street.
As New Yorkers, we're always looking to save space wherever we can. Computer-based media centers represent a terrific way to consolidate your CDs-ripped-mp3s collection, a DVD and CD player and digital photo slide shows. But if that computer is made with low-grade, noisy fans, you are not going to enjoy it.
Other Cooling Choices
There are some alternate cooling choices out there, and we do mean out there, like these very elaborate water-cooling systems.
One guy actually built a computer inside the freezer compartment of his refrigerator. We think these solutions, while fascinating exercises in engineering, not to mention having too much time on your hands, ultimately smack of overkill.
They also cost quite a lot more money than you might expect, some of them running as much as $200. There are more conventional, less expensive solutions available.
Learn More
Entire websites are devoted to what is called "silent computing", filled with carefully researched and tested choices of heat sinks and fans, all of which create a much quieter environment in your apartment than even the top-of-the-line systems from Dell or IBM.
Generally, these quiet fans are a little bit more expensive than their noisy counterparts, but not by so much that you'd do more than raise an eyebrow, especially considering what it saves you in decibels.
And you don't lose anything in the Fahrenheit department either; in fact, many of these fans cool off your system even more efficiently than the noisy ones, saving you a small bit of change along the way.
Updated: November 18, 2005