Quiet System

[Steven Martindale]

At 01:28 PM 10/17/00 -0700, you wrote:
>Steven Martindale wrote:
>> Hmm, could always offer to trade parts for a pentium 100 system for a
>> working quiet system..  :>  (Well, see if I can get it working first)
>
>What exactly is in a "quiet system"? Even if you
>underclock/undervoltage the CPU so you can get away with next to no
>fan, you still have the HD turning some number of RPMs right? (this is
>where lower performance HDs will pay off - lower RPMs means lower
>pitch means lower percieved volume)
>
>The quietest system I had had a single Maxtor HD and was actually
>overclocked, but cooled by a water-cooled peltier element.

Well, my purely objective answer for what I want in a quiet system would be
a computer that didn't keep me from falling asleep at night.

Oh, that's a subjective answer?  :>

Well, I've got the old parts partially put together.  Would have done more
today but ended up with to much else happening.  It's looking promising, at
least if it will boot once the video card is in and a monitor hooked up.
I'm wondering if the harsh noise I remember wasn't the power supply but the
original hard drive.  Or perhaps something not snuggly mounted, since it
seems to be running pretty quiet.

Anyway, the parts:  Cheap socket 7 motherboard (no frills, non-integrated
amptron board, no built in sound/etc), an ISA sound blaster 16 clone, a two
port seriel card (originally purchased so I could use a modem and mouse at
the same time, the board only had one seriel port built in), a 4.5 gig (if
I'm remembering correctly, about to turn in for the night and don't feel
like pulling the box back out and opening it up) fujistsu 3.5 hard drive
Fry's was offering at a discount when they decided to drop the model.  Soon
to get added, a 2 MB S3 Virge based video card (yeah, I know, the
3d-decelerator, it was however at the time a step up from my 1 MB "Oh,
surely you'll be happy running your monitor at no more than 640x400) VGA card.

I don't plan on loading the box up with drives and doodads, less moving
parts inside it, the quieter it ought to be.  And cooler, which reminds of
one of the things I noticed shortly before moving to my celeron system, the
heatsink/fan on my p100 is only working as a heatsink, the fan doesn't spin
(it's got a pass through connector to tap into one of the 4-pin power
supply cables, which is connected).  Can a pentium 100 be run safely on
just a heatsink?  Well, this one was for a few months minumum.  Who knows,
I hardly even ran it with the case open till I got to playing with it
towards the end, for all I know the fan never worked (or maybe the noise
was the fan failing..)

I can say one thing though.  Whoever invented those brass thumbscrews needs
a medal.  Hmm, and whoever created the KVM switch, though I must say those
are a little more expensive than I expected.



Oh, anyone know where I could look for any kind of details on an Intel OEM
motherboard?  So far I haven't had luck searching Intel's website.  The
original dealers invoice simply identified it as an "Intel Triton OEM
motherboard".  It's an AT board, socket 7, there's a rectangular socket
next to the cpu socket (30 pins arrainged 2x15, I think but am not certain
that it's labelled VRM), 5 ISA, 3 PCI (I believe with one shared ISA/PCI
slot).  The only ID number I can find, silkscreened on the middle top
"INTEL 824301 VER:B"

It was working fine last I knew, only reason I thought of switching to the
other board I have is that I have no documentation for this one.