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In the Forums... |
Posted: January 20, 2000 Written by: Dan "Tweak Monkey" Kennedy Stage 4: Desperate Attempts to Kill Sound If you really want to eliminate any more extra sound, it's going to either cost you some money or make your case ugly. Before you head onto those steps, check a couple little things. When you are not using your speakers, turn them off. This will eliminate static or line noise that can add to overall noise. Remove CDs from the CD-ROM drive when you're not using it. This prevents any spin-up (the most annoying CD-ROM noise). Put your case as far away from you as possible. This, too, should have been quite obvious. Sound Dampener If you were to put sound deadener, such as Dynamat, into your case, it would definitely cut down on some noise. However, it would also further insulate heat (bad), and it's ugly. You could even surround your case in thick carpet material, but that, too is quite ugly. So what can you do? Build a fort! Build a Fort This probably sounds very awkward and it might not make sense. I mean, is making your case quiet really THAT important? Well, if it is, you can build a fort. No, that's not a typo. It's a simple concept. What you do is build a sound dampener "fort" to enclose your PC case. It will look very awkward, but it beats gluing and taping crap to your nice pretty case, doesn't it? If you want to experiment with sound deadener, this is an easy and inexpensive method. Take a cardboard box that's larger than your case, and shaped in a similar fashion. It shouldn't be too much larger than your case, but it should have an inch or so of extra space in every direction (unless you plan to cut blow holes). If it has too much space around it and the space is open to the ambient air, it won't dampen sound very much. If it doesn't have enough space, the lack of ventilation could make the case heat up more than usual. If necessary, you can cut grated blow holes in your fort, too. Now, set the box up next to your case so it stands like a PC case. Look at your case carefully, then cut out spaces in the front of your cardboard "case" for the front drives to open, and cut the whole back side of the cardboard "case" out where the expansion slots would be if it was a PC case. If you want to dampen the sound even more, you could make swinging cardboard doors that you would only open when you want to remove a drive. Or you could just not cut out the front at all and simply lift the "fort" off your case whenever you wanted to put a CD or disk in. Maybe you could make a closed fort and only use it at night, or you could not cut open any parts except the blow holes, and simply run the cables under the bottom? Any way you choose to do it, it should help a bit. Just remember to account for some ventilation. You'll want to line the inside or outside of the cardboard box with old carpet, Dynamat, styrofoam, or something else that will dampen sound. Glue it, staple it, tack it, whatever. It should slip right over your case. If the fit is tight enough, it could eliminate quite a bit of sound! Okay, maybe I should have omitted this section. ;) Conclusion It's getting late. I'm going to hit those switches to kill the fans, and put the fort on my case so I can finally get some sleep. Thanks for reading! E-mail your comments here. Click here for a printer friendly version. |
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