4 ms·

Completely Silent Computer

30 points by ductionist 8y ago

chris_va 8y ago
Original discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17075489 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17075489
logicallee 8y ago
hey isn't there some kind of inert (non-conductive) oil you could fill the whole thing with that transfers heat better than air does? if nothing needs to be moving in there then viscosity etc shouldn't matter. it just shoudn't leech into or out of anything and be chemically inert in the relevant ways. most oils are pretty cheap and probably every little bit matters in this kind of setup. removing components would be pain though. (everything oily).
- rolleiflex 8y ago
  This is what you're looking for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrJreUX3TCk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrJreUX3TCk And yes, it does work - but it's a maintenance nightmare, since oil can eat some types of plastic that are commonly used, especially at their seams.
- analog31 8y ago
  Don't try this at home, but in a past life I worked with a powerful laser whose pump source was a xenon lamp bathed in water, including the high voltage terminals. The water had to be purified to the point of being nonconductive. Since there's no such thing as perfectly pure anything, the system did exhibit some gradual corrosion.
userbinator 8y ago
This computer makes no noise when it starts up. It makes no noise when it shuts down. It makes no noise when it idles. It makes no noise when it’s under heavy load. It makes no noise when it’s reading or writing data. I've used completely silent computers before --- some laptops --- and actually found the experience rather unsettling --- to me the fans, the soft humming/whining of the CPU voltage regulators, and the grunting of the hard drive all give subtle cues as to what's happening with the system at any given moment. Without them, I have to spend extra effort looking at the indicators (if any) or monitoring apps. The white noise is somewhat comforting too. There are certainly people who like the silence, but I prefer the extra feedback; I wonder if it's related to how I'll easily get nauseous in a car that's too quiet and has a very soft suspension, but have no problems if I can hear the engine and "feel" the road.
cptskippy 8y ago
I have yet to encounter an electronic device that doesn't emit a high frequency whine at some point.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  I've never heard my iPhone make an audible noise that I didn't trigger.
  - cptskippy 8y ago
    The iPhone 6 I have for App testing does when charging. Some devices do it at certain display settings or under certain loads. Modern Smartphones are virtually silent 99% of the time but invariably they'll all whine at some point. I am the type of person who is unsettled until I pinpoint the origin of a sound and my partner will find me with my ear against the wall tracing a drip or creak in the house. I guess I must also still have some high frequency hearing left because I can still hear every electronic device hum at least under certain conditions.
  - ProfessorLayton 8y ago
    If you listen closely, you can hear touch ID-based phones make an audible sound when you place your finger on the sensor.
lostmyoldone 8y ago
Tips on getting rid of coil whine? Because that's literally the only sound I hear from my computer unless it's heavily loaded. Most annoying is an intermittent whine when it's idle. Loud enough to hear from the other end of my - admittedly small - apartment.
- IronBacon 8y ago
  The drastic approach: finding the culprit and replace it. Years ago I had a combination of MB and PSU that produced an annoying whine. Putting a different PSU model eliminated the noise. Sometimes it's the combination of GPU and PSU, YMMV. The thinkerer approach: find the noisy coil and bury it with a generous amount of hot glue or some other similar dielectric material. You are trying to reduce the coil "vibrations" and dampening the noise. Personal anecdote, both mine and my sister's Dell XPS 13" (9333 model) have an annoying coil whine that is really evident on quiet rooms, in a normal office environment I can't hear them tho. From what I've read online recent XPS models still have that defect. Baffling, a lower specs Latitude 15" that was provided to me in a previous job didn't had any. In my case an user has solved the issue disconnecting the audio speakers, don't recall if it was one of them or both, if someone is interested the post is somewhere in the Dell support forum.
etaioinshrdlu 8y ago
5 years ago I built the highest performance gaming rig I could using entirely fanless parts. It got very hot to the touch and probably was rather bad for the chips long term. The electrical whining was terrible! You could hear all CPU and GPU activity depending on load. Now I use a macbook and it's far less irritating...
vbezhenar 8y ago
IMO proper huge slow fans are silent. No need to compromise.
amluto 8y ago
> It’s totally silent — 0dB. Sigh. Totally silent is -∞dB. 0dB just means that it matches the reference volume, which is nominally the threshold of human hearing. (And the definitions vary depending on whether it's dbA, dbC, or something else.)
- Ao7bei3s 8y ago
  Don't be overly pedantic. As inaudible to human hearing is exactly what the author meant, 0dB (implicitly relative to anything reasonable) actually matches the intent better. Also 0dB (relative to no matter what) is closer to the machines actual noise output than -infty dB (think high frequency hum emitted by the PSU and similar).
  - amluto 8y ago
    Since the OP didn’t talk about coil whine at all, I would guess that the actual SPL was well above 0 dbA.
zadwang 8y ago
About 10 years ago I purchased a Dell mini 10 laptop that has no fan and SSD. I was satisfied with the silence. Now the closest I could find is intel NUC. With Linux and proper fan control it is quiet (no fan turning) most of the time - almost all times. And I kind ma like the fact that the fan is there just in case. The noise from the environment is the major issue for me now.

30 points by ductionist 8y ago

Original discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17075489 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17075489

hey isn't there some kind of inert (non-conductive) oil you could fill the whole thing with that transfers heat better than air does? if nothing needs to be moving in there then viscosity etc shouldn't matter. it just shoudn't leech into or out of anything and be chemically inert in the relevant ways. most oils are pretty cheap and probably every little bit matters in this kind of setup. removing components would be pain though. (everything oily).

rolleiflex 8y ago
This is what you're looking for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrJreUX3TCk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrJreUX3TCk And yes, it does work - but it's a maintenance nightmare, since oil can eat some types of plastic that are commonly used, especially at their seams.
analog31 8y ago
Don't try this at home, but in a past life I worked with a powerful laser whose pump source was a xenon lamp bathed in water, including the high voltage terminals. The water had to be purified to the point of being nonconductive. Since there's no such thing as perfectly pure anything, the system did exhibit some gradual corrosion.

userbinator 8y ago

This computer makes no noise when it starts up. It makes no noise when it shuts down. It makes no noise when it idles. It makes no noise when it’s under heavy load. It makes no noise when it’s reading or writing data. I've used completely silent computers before --- some laptops --- and actually found the experience rather unsettling --- to me the fans, the soft humming/whining of the CPU voltage regulators, and the grunting of the hard drive all give subtle cues as to what's happening with the system at any given moment. Without them, I have to spend extra effort looking at the indicators (if any) or monitoring apps. The white noise is somewhat comforting too. There are certainly people who like the silence, but I prefer the extra feedback; I wonder if it's related to how I'll easily get nauseous in a car that's too quiet and has a very soft suspension, but have no problems if I can hear the engine and "feel" the road.

cptskippy 8y ago

I have yet to encounter an electronic device that doesn't emit a high frequency whine at some point.

saagarjha 8y ago
I've never heard my iPhone make an audible noise that I didn't trigger.
- cptskippy 8y ago
  The iPhone 6 I have for App testing does when charging. Some devices do it at certain display settings or under certain loads. Modern Smartphones are virtually silent 99% of the time but invariably they'll all whine at some point. I am the type of person who is unsettled until I pinpoint the origin of a sound and my partner will find me with my ear against the wall tracing a drip or creak in the house. I guess I must also still have some high frequency hearing left because I can still hear every electronic device hum at least under certain conditions.
- ProfessorLayton 8y ago
  If you listen closely, you can hear touch ID-based phones make an audible sound when you place your finger on the sensor.

lostmyoldone 8y ago

Tips on getting rid of coil whine? Because that's literally the only sound I hear from my computer unless it's heavily loaded. Most annoying is an intermittent whine when it's idle. Loud enough to hear from the other end of my - admittedly small - apartment.

IronBacon 8y ago
The drastic approach: finding the culprit and replace it. Years ago I had a combination of MB and PSU that produced an annoying whine. Putting a different PSU model eliminated the noise. Sometimes it's the combination of GPU and PSU, YMMV. The thinkerer approach: find the noisy coil and bury it with a generous amount of hot glue or some other similar dielectric material. You are trying to reduce the coil "vibrations" and dampening the noise. Personal anecdote, both mine and my sister's Dell XPS 13" (9333 model) have an annoying coil whine that is really evident on quiet rooms, in a normal office environment I can't hear them tho. From what I've read online recent XPS models still have that defect. Baffling, a lower specs Latitude 15" that was provided to me in a previous job didn't had any. In my case an user has solved the issue disconnecting the audio speakers, don't recall if it was one of them or both, if someone is interested the post is somewhere in the Dell support forum.

etaioinshrdlu 8y ago

5 years ago I built the highest performance gaming rig I could using entirely fanless parts. It got very hot to the touch and probably was rather bad for the chips long term. The electrical whining was terrible! You could hear all CPU and GPU activity depending on load. Now I use a macbook and it's far less irritating...

vbezhenar 8y ago

IMO proper huge slow fans are silent. No need to compromise.

amluto 8y ago

> It’s totally silent — 0dB. Sigh. Totally silent is -∞dB. 0dB just means that it matches the reference volume, which is nominally the threshold of human hearing. (And the definitions vary depending on whether it's dbA, dbC, or something else.)

Ao7bei3s 8y ago
Don't be overly pedantic. As inaudible to human hearing is exactly what the author meant, 0dB (implicitly relative to anything reasonable) actually matches the intent better. Also 0dB (relative to no matter what) is closer to the machines actual noise output than -infty dB (think high frequency hum emitted by the PSU and similar).
- amluto 8y ago
  Since the OP didn’t talk about coil whine at all, I would guess that the actual SPL was well above 0 dbA.

zadwang 8y ago

About 10 years ago I purchased a Dell mini 10 laptop that has no fan and SSD. I was satisfied with the silence. Now the closest I could find is intel NUC. With Linux and proper fan control it is quiet (no fan turning) most of the time - almost all times. And I kind ma like the fact that the fan is there just in case. The noise from the environment is the major issue for me now.