My sound-absorbing computer box
We all know how irritating it is with computers that sounds like jetplanes. We also know how irritating it is to turn off computers because you need to sleep. Then you have to wait for incredible amounts of time (like.. several minutes! :-) ) for the computer to get ready when you need to compute in 30 seconds in the morning.So.. what's the solution? You may try buying expensive silent computer cases like "The Whisper" from Lap Power, if you live in Sweden. You may also build your own computer box where you put your computer. That's what I've done. It's cheaper, and sometimes the results gets better.
Here's a xfig drawing of the box. I hope you find it as
amusing as it was to draw it :-)
Some remarks:
- The fan I use is a standard 80x80 millimeter computer case fan. It has a 3 pin connection and is connected to the computer via a long cable I've designed just for the purpose. Since it's a 3 pin fan, I can track the spin of it, and have an alarm if it stops running.
- Adapt the direction of the door to what fits best in your location.
- I have a lot of sound muffling material inside the box. On the walls, the floor, the "roof" and elsewhere possible.
- There is a reason the hole for cables are shaped as it is. Try to figure it out ;-)
- The fan is attached to the box via some rubber, to prevent sound from travelling to the box. I got the rubber from my fathers old SAAB 900 - the carpets on the floor is very good for the purpose.
- As you can see in the figure, there are no dimensions at all. That's up to you to adapt to your own computer case.
There are other approaches to the problem. Here is one of them.