How to create a silent work environment?

I would like to set up a new work room for me. And I want it to be as quiet as possible. What should I do about my PC? I don't need physical access to the PC.

I would favour putting it into another room and just have the three monitors, keyboard and mouse at my desk, so I don't even hear the disks. Is that possible? What is the farthest distance the other room could be away?

Other options?

Solution 1:

You can get 25ft. DVI cables. You can also get DVI repeater boxes for ~$100.

You could also build a little insulated box with exhaust fans going out your window.

Solution 2:

It's a bit of a hassle to have your actual machine too far away from you. Assuming you're willing to go with silencing:

• Put your machine under your desk, towards the back of the wall.
• Prop up foam blocks or carpet padding behind the computer to absorb sound reflecting off the wall. This is more effective if your PSU fan is the noisemaker.
• Don't leave a CD in the CDROM drive. They spin up noisily every once in a while.
• Recent SATA's are fairly quiet. If your hard drive is old, it might be worth it to upgrade for space, speed, and noise.
• Remove all fan grills, if you can keep pets and children away. The fan grills rattle, contribute to resistance, and cause white noise.
• Tape up all holes not necessary for airflow including empty slots in the back. They don't contribute to cooling and sound escapes from them.
• I find those side CPU fan holes to be mostly useless, so I usually tape that too and remove the fan if the CPU already has one. Use Speedfan to make sure your CPU doesn't go over its maximum temperature (usually around 70C).
• Eliminate redundant fans: if you have both an intake and an outflow fan, remove the intake: it's at the front and will make more noise.{1}
• PSU and graphics card fans are usually the loudest. Buy a quieter PSU, 80-plus if you can. Find a quieter fan for that graphics card or opt for a less powerful, fanless one.

Refer to Silent PC Review for more quieting tips.

{1} Some people also find negative case air pressure to be more efficient for heat removal as well, but that's arguable.

Solution 3:

Might be worth it to invest in a really nice pair of noise-canceling headphones. That will help with other ambient sound that might still be present, even with your PC silenced or in a different room.

Solution 4:

SSD, a quiet power supply and a huge passive cpu cooler works really well for me.