1/22/2008
The Computer in the Kitchen
I did a bunch of stuff to the computer I keep in the kitchen (it's the one I'm relegated to when the kids are here). I yanked out the 2.6 GB hard drive that had Xubuntu on it and set the 9+ GB one that had Ubuntu Fiesty Fawn on it which I think I had installed back a year ago. I got Fiesty all up to date then did an upgrade to Gutsy Gibbon. That took much of last night while I was sleeping.
I was rather displeased with how noisy the thing was so I did three things that lowered the noise level of the machine (especially the last thing I did). First I swaped in a Zalman CPU cooler for the Spire cooler that was on there. The Zalman has a bigish fan that spins slower and a huge copper heatsink that splays out like flower. That didn't make much difference. Next, I disconnected the case fan which I don't believe was neccessary. Didn't help much. Lastly, I realized that the real noise maker was the power supply. It was on old 250 watt Allied number that was blowing a lot of air with a small fan which is a recipe for excess noise. I looked around the house to see what PSUs I had that I could swap in and found this Okia 350 watt puppy that I had picked up at a thrift store for most likely no more than $5 (I don't specifically remember buying it but I wouldn't have spent more that $5 for something I had no immediate use for). After swapping it in and powering up it was obviously much quieter and had a less irritating sound. Even so, it is not silent. I wouldn't mind getting one of the near silent PSUs they have at ZipZoomFly.com or Newegg.com, but it is not a big priority right now.
I was rather displeased with how noisy the thing was so I did three things that lowered the noise level of the machine (especially the last thing I did). First I swaped in a Zalman CPU cooler for the Spire cooler that was on there. The Zalman has a bigish fan that spins slower and a huge copper heatsink that splays out like flower. That didn't make much difference. Next, I disconnected the case fan which I don't believe was neccessary. Didn't help much. Lastly, I realized that the real noise maker was the power supply. It was on old 250 watt Allied number that was blowing a lot of air with a small fan which is a recipe for excess noise. I looked around the house to see what PSUs I had that I could swap in and found this Okia 350 watt puppy that I had picked up at a thrift store for most likely no more than $5 (I don't specifically remember buying it but I wouldn't have spent more that $5 for something I had no immediate use for). After swapping it in and powering up it was obviously much quieter and had a less irritating sound. Even so, it is not silent. I wouldn't mind getting one of the near silent PSUs they have at ZipZoomFly.com or Newegg.com, but it is not a big priority right now.
