quiet computer for recording room

3rd_harmonic · #1 12-02-2008, 07:45 PM

Anyone have a recommendation for a computer with a VERY quiet fan and disk that can be running in a small room without making noticable noise while recording ?

sdelsolray · #2 12-02-2008, 07:56 PM

G4, G5 or Intel iMac.

Doug Young · #3 12-02-2008, 08:01 PM

Macs do tend to be quieter. I had a "Silent PC" built a few years ago, but when I upgraded to the newer chips, the fans needed were really noisy. It was never really "silent", but it was pretty quiet, tho not as quiet as a Mac. You can look at some of the gaming sites, where they get into water cooling and so on and get a machine that's darn near silent, other than the noise of hard drives. That gets expensive, and I just get nervous about water running inside my computer. But after all the effort I put into mine, I found a better - if somewhat obvious - solution. Move the computer to another room. A couple of extender cables, and you have a truly silent setup.

3rd_harmonic · #4 12-02-2008, 08:23 PM

I like the Macs I've used. Maybe I'll take my daughter's and get a new one for her. I just need it for 2 channel audio recording and web stuff so her old one might be fine for me.

But a KVM extender might be the right answer too. Thanks for reminding me of that approach.

deltoid · #5 12-02-2008, 09:36 PM

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/...kstations.html

zenpicker · #6 12-03-2008, 12:07 AM

The extender approach is fine, and I've tried two others, also fine:

1. I put a little old Centrino-based Dell laptop next to me in the bullpen and networked it to the big DAW beast in the other room, just using a router. The laptop was nearly silent and I just use it to run a remote desktop (using freeware VNC) on the recording PC. Worked great. (Tip: If using Windows, don't try this with a wireless access point, as wireless cards seem to mess up ASIO drivers in my experience, causing stuttering audio. Stick with an Ethernet cable.)

2. More elegantly, I picked up a Frontier Tranzport unit, which is just a little control surface that talks to a USB transceiver plugged into your computer. With this very cool gizmo you can stop, start, play, record, punch in, drop markers, arm tracks, change track gain levels, etc., all without being anywhere near the PC. It gives limited visual feedback so it's not as good as sitting in front of the actual monitor, but I find it to be quite sufficient and flawless to operate. One of the better investments I've made. Doesn't work with all audio software, though - read up on it before buying.

ukeforever · #7 12-03-2008, 12:53 PM

I second putting the computer in another room.

Yoder · #8 12-03-2008, 09:09 PM

There are a lot of very quiet machines out there, especially if you go with the liquid cooled box. I have 3 Winblows machines and will build another one here shortly, a new aluminum MacBook, and 2 iMacs...my vote goes with the Macs.

If you can afford it, get a 15" 2.8GHZ MacBook Pro, it will go a long way, plus it comes with GarageBand. If want better software then you can get LogicExpress or Logic Pro. I am teaching Logic Pro next semester, so the school bought me a personal copy of it...total kick butt and very easy to use compared to Pro Tools or Cubase.

If the MacBook Pro is too much, then check out the iMac. Great quiet computers. You may want to wait until after the Mac World show this Jan, since they may be upgrading it...maybe i7 Intel and Snow Leopard.

ohwell · #9 12-03-2008, 09:38 PM

I spent a bit of money to build a very quiet computer using the quietest fans and power supply I could find (see silentpcreview.com for the latest and greatest hardware). If it has fans and traditional hard disk drives, it's still going to make noise. There are only two solutions:

1: Buy an expensive sound proof box - in addition to the money you're already spending to make your pc quieter

2: Spend $50 to get a DVI extension cable for your monitor and a USB extension cable for your keyboard & mouse and keep the pc in another room.

The money you spend on #1 is money you can't spend on other gear. A cheap LCD monitor is about $100 these days maybe even less on craigslist. If you split the signal to your monitor you can work with your PC from two locations, have a quiet recording room, and keep the room from heating up in the summer.

mudbean · #10 12-04-2008, 10:58 AM

Mac Mini.

mud

ljguitar · #11 12-04-2008, 11:05 AM

Hi 3rd H...
I operated a small studio for 8 years with a tower and two active external hard drives...which were located outside the recording room (via a pass through in the wall). All we had in the room with us was a monitor and keyboard/mouse. Well the tube-preamps and firewire interface were with us too, but those don't generate noise.

This permitted us to record to external drives and none of that ''noise'' leaked into the room.

You could extend and run cables under doors, and accomplish what we did. Then it really would not matter how noisy the computer is (unless it sounds like a Mack Truck).

Poetmonk · #12 12-04-2008, 07:11 PM

I use a mac pro and it's dead quiet, I record right next to it with no problems at all.

rick-slo · #13 12-04-2008, 10:41 PM

Lots of choices in very quiet computers. I have one from these guys: http://www.shop-sonica.com/

tgm · #14 12-05-2008, 09:59 AM

I recently built a computer for my father that's even quieter than the one I have in recording space.

Antec Sonata III case (the Sonata line is super quiet and if you wait you pick them up for under $100)

Intel CPU - AMDs generally run hotter in my experience, and since cooling is important, fan noise is an issue.

An "Arctic Cooling freezer Pro" CPU fan is great (and you can get them for AMD or Intel processors). They have a monster heat sink (which is key) and the fan only spins when it needs to, and at the RPM required. Most of the time, it won't spin at all.

Hard drives are now the noisy part of my rig, but the latest generation of Seagate Baracuda was almost noticeable in my dad's PC.

Honestly though, if you're buying prebuild, Mac is probably your best bet. Laptops are also relatively quiet compared to desktops too (a 5400rpm will be quieter but slower than a 7200rpm hard disk). And if you have an existing PC that's too loud, consider getting a CPU fan. It's probably the loudest part of your system right now and you might be happy with just that reduction.

Check out newegg.com for parts. They're great.

RonS · #15 12-07-2008, 01:39 PM

I had a different need for a quiet PC (other than recording). I replaced the fan with one like this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118019

Each CPU will have a different configuration so you need to make sure you get the right one. Also these fans are big, make sure you have enough room.

One convenient thing is I can control the speed of the fan with software and monitor the CPU temperature. I could make it dead quiet, but I wouldn't recommend that for long periods.

Today's Macs are Wintel boxes, so they are not any quieter than a PC.