4 ms·

I used to own an ancient Sun SparcStation with a Barracuda 10k RPM disk, and the noise it made was just ... too much. It sounded like a combination of a fighter

by krylon 5y ago

I used to own an ancient Sun SparcStation with a Barracuda 10k RPM disk, and the noise it made was just ... too much. It sounded like a combination of a fighter jet taking off and a dentist drilling into my skull. Fortunately, that machine supported diskless operations, which was painfully slow, but ... that machine was painfully slow anyway (by 2005 standards), and it was part of what I liked about it. Years later, I ran into a CAD workstation with a 10k RPM disk drive, and the noise was just ridiculous. I was so certain it had to be a fan until my coworker replaced the disk drive, I felt rather sheepish afterwards. I sometimes miss good old HDDs, because you could tell if they were busy just by listening. But considering the godawful noise the really fast HDDs made, SSDs are a blessing.

louwrentius 5y ago
Younger generations have absolutely no idea how much noise a computer of that era made, even if it didn't have a 10,000 RPM drive. And most people accepted it.
- jaynetics 5y ago
  Thinking back it seems as if the user's needs were much less central back then, and as if each component was trying to win the contest for your attention. CD-ROM: wrrroooooo HDD: sssrrrrrrrr clankclankclank ssssrrrr PC-Speaker when pressing too many keys: MEEEEP Modem: booooob, boop beep boop beep boop boop bli blu bri bru brrriiiiii BWANG BWANG BWANG KCHHHHHHHHH
  - alphabettsy 5y ago
    Yea. They sounded much more like machinery than the mostly solid state wonders we have today.
- MrYellowP 5y ago
  I loved when my 386, with two harddrives, turned on. It sounded like a turbine was ramping up! :D
TacticalCoder 5y ago
> I sometimes miss good old HDDs, because you could tell if they were busy just by listening. But considering the godawful noise the really fast HDDs made, SSDs are a blessing. Oh indeed! I used to run my HDDs in soundproofed enclosures (a company was selling those back in the days) but of course it would make them overheat. So I'd cut a square hole in the HDD enclosure (and through the soundproofing foam inside the enclosure) and then I'd put a large but quiet fan on top of the HDD. This worked great, for years. Having owned silent computers like the Commodore C64 / C128 and Amiga the switch to the early ultra noisy PC was particularly painful to me. So back when "silent PCs" weren't a thing I made my own: I'd run fans at 7 V instead of 12 (by using the 12 V and 5 V pins to create 7 V), I had my neighbor (electrical engineer) create me a device I'd put into all my PSUs that'd turn the PSU's fan off when the heat wasn't too high (back then this didn't exist: but I wanted one anyway so I had my neighbor "invent" one and I'd then replicate it in all my PSUs) and... When I found these HDD "quietening" enclosures, I ordered so many the company asked me if I wanted to become the official importer for the Benelux area : ) I'd have super quiet "panaflo" fans shipped to me from Japan and I'd replace all my PSU / CPU / tower fans with these quiet fans. So basically I had quiet PCs before it was a thing. Nowadays I just buy Be Quiet! PSUs / fans and a well insulated tower and I'm a happy camper. Things got way quieter : )

by krylon 5y ago

louwrentius 5y ago

Younger generations have absolutely no idea how much noise a computer of that era made, even if it didn't have a 10,000 RPM drive. And most people accepted it.

jaynetics 5y ago
Thinking back it seems as if the user's needs were much less central back then, and as if each component was trying to win the contest for your attention. CD-ROM: wrrroooooo HDD: sssrrrrrrrr clankclankclank ssssrrrr PC-Speaker when pressing too many keys: MEEEEP Modem: booooob, boop beep boop beep boop boop bli blu bri bru brrriiiiii BWANG BWANG BWANG KCHHHHHHHHH
- alphabettsy 5y ago
  Yea. They sounded much more like machinery than the mostly solid state wonders we have today.
MrYellowP 5y ago
I loved when my 386, with two harddrives, turned on. It sounded like a turbine was ramping up! :D

TacticalCoder 5y ago

> I sometimes miss good old HDDs, because you could tell if they were busy just by listening. But considering the godawful noise the really fast HDDs made, SSDs are a blessing. Oh indeed! I used to run my HDDs in soundproofed enclosures (a company was selling those back in the days) but of course it would make them overheat. So I'd cut a square hole in the HDD enclosure (and through the soundproofing foam inside the enclosure) and then I'd put a large but quiet fan on top of the HDD. This worked great, for years. Having owned silent computers like the Commodore C64 / C128 and Amiga the switch to the early ultra noisy PC was particularly painful to me. So back when "silent PCs" weren't a thing I made my own: I'd run fans at 7 V instead of 12 (by using the 12 V and 5 V pins to create 7 V), I had my neighbor (electrical engineer) create me a device I'd put into all my PSUs that'd turn the PSU's fan off when the heat wasn't too high (back then this didn't exist: but I wanted one anyway so I had my neighbor "invent" one and I'd then replicate it in all my PSUs) and... When I found these HDD "quietening" enclosures, I ordered so many the company asked me if I wanted to become the official importer for the Benelux area : ) I'd have super quiet "panaflo" fans shipped to me from Japan and I'd replace all my PSU / CPU / tower fans with these quiet fans. So basically I had quiet PCs before it was a thing. Nowadays I just buy Be Quiet! PSUs / fans and a well insulated tower and I'm a happy camper. Things got way quieter : )