Unfortunately, it tends to be more difficult to replace PSU fans than the clip-on CPU ones, and it might be a job that involves soldering. The reason many musicians don't hear any improvement when using 'silent' products is because they'll often start by replacing CPU fans, and silencing their already quiet hard drives in Silent Drive sleeves - but if the PSU is the problem, you simply won't hear much difference by doing this. In most cases, this will be the PSU (Power Supply Unit) fan, since this is the primary way for the heat generated by your CPU, other motherboard components, hard drives, graphics cards, and indeed the PSU itself, to be extracted from the rear of the case, while pulling in more cool air via the front panel vents. The first step when trying to silence the noise from your computer is to determine which is the noisiest component. So this month, I'm going to briefly revisit the subject and offer some guidelines to those considering the various 'silent' products now available for eliminating computer noise. However, there's still a great deal of discussion about the most effective ways to reduce mechanical computer noise, and people complain that some of the products don't make any difference. Since that time, numerous companies have sprung up to cater for the demand, and manufacturers are now releasing a wider range of related products, ranging from rubber washers to complete silent PC cases like the Acousticase from Quiet PC ( which I mentioned in April's PC Notes. At the time, this was very much a DIY approach that I'd been experimenting with, as very few commercial products existed for the specific needs of musicians trying to use a microphone in the same room as their computer. Way back in SOS May 1997, as part of my first ever PC Notes column, I discussed the delights of silencing your computer by installing Papst temperature-controlled fans to replace the existing ones, mounting your hard drives on rubber grommets to cut down vibration, and fitting bitumastic pads to deaden case vibrations. When Björk sang "it's oh so quiet", she probably wasn't referring to her PC - however, this month we survey the current options in the world of computer silencing, report on the release of a generic ASIO driver for WDM-compatible audio devices, and enjoy Rightmark's Audio Analyser 5. With a selection of new features and higher resolution FFT tests, Rightmark's Audio Analyser 5 makes checking your soundcard's performance an even more pleasurable experience.
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