Vibrations caused by the mechanical components within a PC may cause very loud noises when certain subsystems are being used. Component vibrations are also carried throughout the system case, which often produce a rattling noise. Hard drives Hard drives continually spin at high rates, and are a constant source of vibration. You might think that you could combat this problem by selecting a drive with a lower rotational speed, but that wouldn't fix anything. Some hard drives are just plain noisy, even if they rotate at lower speeds -- and, of course, lower rotation speed means poorer performance. A cheap solution is to place hard drives in an enclosure. But the problem then becomes excess heat, because fast-spinning drives can become quite hot. Molex makes the SilentDrive enclosure, which is used to quiet noisy hard drives, but some drives produce too much heat to be used in these boxes. A better solution is to buy a hard drive with noise reduction built in. For example, Seagate has created the IDE Barracuda ATA IV drives, using what it calls SoftSonic Fluid Dynamic Bearing motors. These are ultraquiet drives that do not sacrifice performance. The drives in this series are all 7200-rpm Ultra ATA 100. Seagate rates its 80 Gibabyte and 60 Gigabyte Barracuda IV drives at 24 dB(A) idle, 28 dB(A) quiet seek, and 33 dB(A) performance seek. Its 40- and 20-GB versions are rated at 20 dB(A) idle, 24 dB(A) quiet seek, and 30 dB(A) performance seek.
Maxtor's DiamondMax Plus 740X series drives deliver good performance, quiet operation, and are 7,200-rpm Ultra ATA 133 drives. These drives are available with standard ball bearings or with fluid dynamic bearings. Maxtor calls the fluid dynamic bearings Quiet Drive Technology Plus, and this version of the drive has a 27 dB(A) idle and 32 dB(A) normal seek mode average rating. Despite recent bad (and sensationalistic) press due to problems with its 75GXP model, I still have a very favorable opinion of IBM's Deskstar IDE drives. I find them to be reliable, and they are certainly fast for 7,200-rpm ATA 100 drives. IBM also offers a free download of the IBM Feature Tool utility, which you can use to change the drive's Automatic Acoustic Management settings to the lowest acoustic emanation setting (Quiet Seek Mode),making them quiet enough to use in low-noise PCs. Actually, most, if not all, current hard drive manufacturers offer low-noise hard drives. It is just a matter of going through the specs and finding one that will fit your needs for speed and capacity. A good source of information is StorageReview.com. CD-ROMs CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, and CDR-Ws can be extremely bothersome due to their motors spinning and changing speeds often. On many drives, the noise generated by this action is much more noticeable when the drive reaches top speed. Keeping your system silent while accessing a high-speed optical drive will be your toughest challenge. Unless you access CDs or DVDs frequently, this should not be a major problem. You can attempt to use slower drives or use software utilities that can slow down certain drives. Here are a few drives that you may want to try:
- Hitachi's GD-7500 DVD-ROM is a good-quality 12x DVD-ROM. It operates quietly except when it is transferring at 40x.
- BTC's BDV 212B is a 12x DVD that can read CDs at 40x. Although the manufacturer claims that it has low operation noise, it doesn't give any solid numbers.
When system manufacturers become truly serious about providing low-noise PCs, you will see a standardisation of sound-level measurements. Until that day comes, unfortunately, the goal of the quiet PC system that is inexpensive, powerful, and uses no fans is unattainable. However, new low-noise components, though costly, will allow you to build a PC that is quiet enough for any environment.
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