The computer noise level depends alot on what country you live in. Here in Finland my G5 runs very silently in the winter but in the summer the noise level rises to observable level, sometimes very noisy too if the room temperature is over +27 celsius. Usually in the winter the room temperature here is about 18 - 20, so the computer runs very silently. The noise level changes because the fans are temperature controlled. Earlier with my PC I didn't think about the noise levels and the fans were always running at the same speed. The G5 cooling is not optimal (because the noise level may rise very much if the fans kick in when doing something cpu intensive job and the room temperature is high) but the noise levels are very low in the winter. However now I understand those people who live in Spain or in some other warm country and say that the G5 is a loud machine. That's true if your room temperature is always over 25 or something like that.
To build a quiet PC, you need:
-As big processor heatsinks as possible with large fans which can be set to lower speeds
-A power supply with big 12cm temperature controlled fan, Fortron for example.
-8-12cm extra fans connected to 5V voltage.
-low noise harddisks
-a heavy duty case for the computer. Avoid the cheap sheet metal cases. If you can find a heavier case, it won't resonate like the cheap ones. For example the powermac G5 case is made of so thick aluminum, that the harddisks cannot make it to resonate at all.
|