Quiet PCs… shhh

The advent of PCs in the living room has spawned a new breed of tech maven — the silencer! — a growing group of dedicated hobbyists whose sole quest is to choke out every last whiz and pop generated by your hapless PC. SilentPCReview.com founder Mike Chin says the most annoying sounds are the whines and hums from spinning parts and vibrating metal or clicks from defective fans. However, gentle whooshing tends to fade into the background 'cause "it's the sound of trees, it's the sound of waves" (and coincidentally the sound of bubbling bong water, eh, Mikey?). So if submerging your running computer in a fishtank of mineral oil (yes, permanently) or spending $1,200 on a 70-pound computer case to go from whisper-quiet to Nirvana-inducing "normal breathing" sounds reasonable, then this might be the hobby for you — or maybe some implant therapy could help.

[UHF @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

It's Orac from Blake's 7, the original fairy lights in fishtank computer.

www.blakes-7.co.uk/chars/orac/orac.shtml

[GadgetGav @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Or just pick up an Apple Cube from Ebay...

[Rob @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Is that a Bong in the background?

[joshxfoo @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Looks more like a (homemade?) hookah than a bong to me.

[Tom Karches @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

How about cutting a hole in the wall and putting the PC in an adjacent room? Would make accessing the CD-ROM drive a bit inconvenient, though.

[ben the pirate @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

frankly any advance that allows me to make delicious, fresh fries to nibble while at the computer is nothing but fabulous

[iomatic @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Get a Mac?

At least, yes, you can use that PC for what's it's meant for: frying foods.

heh.

PC-apologists are 'tards! Nyah nyah!

...

[Narphorium @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

hehe, all that work to silence his PC and he does nothing with the old CRT. Humming CRT's are my biggest pet peeve.

[Bong @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Or, you can put your computer (computers) in another room and run wires through to a wall jack where your monitor, keyboard and mouse would connect.

[Adam @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

#8: Agreed. Although as long as a monitor has signal, I'm usually ok.

I work in TV, and I've often walked into a production truck with over 100 monitors scattered through the truck. If ONE is powered on with no signal going to it, I have to hunt it down and kill it. I can't stand it. !!

I'm still waiting for my $249 10.2ghz liquid nitro cooled wristwatch PC.

[Xent @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Wow, this is just coming in NOW? this has been an art at hardforum.com and has no right to be reproduced in this sort of fashion as a "new" discovery, people have been modding and using sound insulation in PCs forever... the current choice for best insulation is celiling tiles panles from lowered ceilings if there isn't any acryllic window, and regular foam insulation if there is.... I, for one, am offended

[gra @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

talk about frying your computer.lol