Forum Moderators: phranque
Performance - no complaints. The noise required to cool such performace? Mind numbing! The 5 cooling fans in this box, which is designed for home / office use, can only be compaired to sitting next to a raised floor server rack, or more plainly, an upright vacuume cleaner or hair dryer. It is quite apparent I will NEVER get "accustomed" to this constant noise floor, and my productivity has plummeted since purchasing this box. If noise is the penalty for performance, I'm beginning to wonder if my ol' Pentium 3 wasn't such a bad box after all.
I could understand having such noise while blowing through Grand Thief Auto Vice City or something like that, due to the processing power required. But the unbelievable noise also exists while sitting there trying to concentrate on wording of a business proposal in a word processor, or writing HTML code. How could the processor POSSIBLY need that much cooling to place letters on the screen and move the mouse cursor around! To get an idea of what I mean, turn the vacuum cleaner on, place it next to your desk, and watch your concentration flatline right before your eyes.
I can't be the only one in such a situation. Dell's discussion boards are FILLED with such complaints. Is this one of the new issues computer users will have face in the future?
[edited by: visca at 7:17 pm (utc) on Aug. 20, 2003]
My computer, which was pretty top of the line in February has three fans: The CPU fan, the video card fan, and the fan in the power supply (was an expensive "silent" one).
It runs so quietly that I have sometimes forgotten to turn it off because I thought it was already off. (With my old computer, I would listen to the fan noise to see whether it was on when I left my apartment.)
and were just added to impress people who would be impressed by such things
Captaffy, no professional PC builder puts fans in to impress anybody. If they are there the chances are that there's a good reason. This is a constant problem PC manufacturers have i.e. well meaning amateurs thinking they know enough to alter their PCs. They remove fans, burn out vital components and then blame the manufacturer for the fault.
Users add the odd PCI card themselves but do you know that professional PC companies put a lot of thought and planning into a model, including planning for airflow and optimising the PC to achieve a balance between fans pumping air out and not allowing the PC to overheat? Just because a PC put together by the local village idiot is still working you cannot compare that PC with a professional system built by people who know their stuff and who've worked out and planned everything from the calculation of total wattage of juice required from the PSU to the cubic feet of air that needs to be pumped through the PC (for a given room temperature).
Remove fans at your own peril. Oh yes, and try to avoid that capacitor when you are modding your PSU, it could kill you even with the power plug disconnected <sigh>.
Captaffy, no professional PC builder puts fans in to impress anybody.
I can't say I share your optimism there.
Just because a PC put together by the local village idiot is still working you cannot compare that PC with a professional system
In this case I would be said village idiot, and said village idiot's PC has been running without heat issues for almost eight months now.
Honestly, what do you think these "professionals" are doing? These companies that create gaming PC's exist soley because there are people who are too scared to put their own PC's together, or because people don't have time to put their own PC's together.
There are thousands of computers out there built by gamers that don't have 5-6 fans, and that are running just fine.
who've worked out and planned everything from the calculation of total wattage of juice required from the PSU to the cubic feet of air that needs to be pumped through the PC (for a given room temperature).
That would certainly impress the friends of those computer owners.
There was once a very expensive machine set up at an agricultural college which kept dying from the heat.
The vendor was a friend who I owed many favours to.
After looking at the machine, I removed all but one of the five original fans, applied magic duct tape to the right places.
No more deaths from heat.
+++
Manufacturers do not always know best.
A professional PC builder knows a darn sight more than the average "casual" assembler as evidenced by the large volumes of blunders, screw-ups and death defying risks we see in PCs that users/amateurs have done some work on themselves.
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village idiot's PC has been running without heat issues for almost eight months now
That does not make him the village genius :-) The fact that a particular PC is not crashing from overheating does not mean that it is optimised for performance or stability, does not suggest that the components are running within rated temperatures, does not do anything to indicate that the assembler of the PC had any more than the basic knowledge of using a screwdriver ...and some luck.
There are thousands of computers out there built by gamers that don't have 5-6 fans, and that are running just fine
Some of the keen games display a tremendous range of knowledge on PCs, components and optimisation. They'll list off for you the full range of Pabst and Zalman products complete with part numbers and prices. Many full-time "PC assemblers" wouldn't know a RAS latency from a CAS latency. So the fact that something is built by a gamer is neither here nor there.
That would certainly impress the friends of those computer owners
My general advice still remains, burn a component out and it probably won't be replaced under warranty, when in doubt go for more fans & a cooler PC rather than less noise, if you want quiet - get an expert's advice and if you don't have one handy then do some research on the net. And please, please, don't open a Power Supply to make any mods.
