What does YOUR computer spot look like?

[planet10]

Originally posted by mrfeedback
Dave, I think you made previous comment about running dual monitors.
I have never tried it, so what is the usefullness of this ?.

Eric,

More desktop for one, a place to put your palettes (Photoshop, Illustrator, Vectorworks). I have been using dual monitors since i 1st got the 24" B&W for my souped up Mac SE (1987). Once you have worked with two (on the Mac it is a continuous desktop with the only seam being the physical visual discontinuity of the bezels on the monitors) you cannot go back to one -- at least not without geting quite frustrated and slowed down.

Multiple monitors have been inherent in the Mac architecture since the Mac II and you can add as many as you can find room to plug cards in (which would set a limit of 8 on one of the newest G4s)

dave

[jleaman]

or you could go out and buy a matrox dual head the newest one supports 3 moitors too. : O ) agp also.

[sonnya]

like my old G400 Dual Head!?

[dorkus]

of the computer setups i've seen, my favorite hardware are the dual-proc G4's (sweet), mefinnis's SGI monitors (hot, my friend has two of them), and jwb's Aeron chair (very comfy! esp. good if you've been sitting too long, keeps your bottom from getting sweaty). jwb also seems to have a nice previous-generation Samsung monitor (190T?). good stuff.

Matrox video cards rule, best image quality you can get. i have a dual-head G400 MAX, perfect for work. sucks for gaming, i use a GeForce 3 Ti500 for that.

i'll post a pic of my very pedestrian setup shortly. its only distinguishing feature is that it's very quiet - i spent a lot of time and trouble making sure of that. i can't stand computer noise! i have two boxes, a almost silent 24-7 web/email/server pc, and a gaming/work machine that's a little noisier but still very quiet. i chose parts that were reasonable in terms of heat dissipation, so all fans are low-speed - very important since my computer is in the living room w/my hifi setup.

below is a pic inside my silent box... no fan on the P3-933, i removed the matrox video card fan and used a 80mm Panaflow to blow up on it, sitting on top of my SB Live card with wire nuts and blue tack. the power supply fan was replaced with a Panaflow as well - extremely quiet, like 23dBA i believe. i also have expensive Papst fans that are rated at 19dBA in the other machine. hard drive is a Seagate Barracuda IV, only 24dBA noise. altogether the machine emits a very faint hum, inaudible from a couple meters away. i had a catastrophic HD failure last year so i also have a backup disk, it's in an external fanless FireWire enclosure and only spins up as needed (bi-weekly backup while i'm at work), so it's silent most of the time. all in all i like my setup a lot.

[BrianGT]

Originally posted by dorkus

below is a pic inside my silent box... no fan on the P3-933, i removed the matrox video card fan and used a 80mm Panaflow to blow up on it, sitting on top of my SB Live card with wire nuts and blue tack. the power supply fan was replaced with a Panaflow as well - extremely quiet, like 23dBA i believe.

What is that blue stuff that you used to attack the Panaflow to your video card?

--
Brian

[dorkus]

> What is that blue stuff that you used to attack the Panaflow to your video card?

oh yeah i forgot to mention - it's blue tack, same as what i use for posters and my speaker stands. along with some wire nuts to prop the fan up.

the fan in the picture is actually not a Panaflo, it's an Enermax fan with thermal control... it got swapped later for a Panaflo tho, which vibrates less due to the "hydro bearings."

another important noise factor was the case itself, which is an older Dell Dimension case with some damping. the HDPE cladding over metal really helps damp vibration and reduce noise leakage compared to an all-metal case - the plastic Dell cases tend to be very quiet. my other case is bigger and almost as quiet, it's a Fong Kai that i lined with foam and other damping materials.

[BrianGT]

My computer won't get quiet no matter what I do. The problem is my seagate ultra2scsi cheetah 10k drive. It is the version from 2 years ago, and is quite loud. I also have an older barracuda 7200rpm ultra2scsi drive. These combined with my cpu fans on my dual processors, case and power supply fan, this machine is unbearable to sleep in the same room with.

--
Brian

[Circlotron]

Originally posted by BrianGT
My computer won't get quiet no matter what I do.

I've been thinking about draping a piece of sheet lead over the top of mine. Actually, a layer of carpet or similar first to stop conducted vibrations, then the lead. It would absorb any radiated sound. Lead is very inelastic, very low Q resonance-wise. If you hold up a sheet of steel and tap it with a hammer it rings, tap a sheet of lead and it sounds completely different.

[mhennessy]

Wow! I thought that noisy computers were just another one of my strange personal hang-ups! Good to see that you guys also appreciate quiet working...

For my part, I build simple 2-transistor control circuits to slow down the fans. These work extremely well, and are easy to build. If I get the chance, I'll post some schematics and pictures at the weekend.

Amusingly, you can hear the fan in my main machine speed up when you do anything complicated!

I've also had some success with damping materials - my main machine has a noisy PSU that I haven't had a chance to replace yet (I don't mess with the insides of power supplies!) - adding some self-adhesive bitumen material has helped enormously

Finally, have a look at QuietPC.com for products that should help

Cheers,

Mark

[SkinnyBoy]

You can also run the fans off 7volts rather that using the full 12. This is done by utilisting the voltage difference between the 5 and 12volt rails... Not sure which is positive (I think it is the 12volts) and the 5volts is used as ground... yeah, thats right...

Also, I had the idea of putting the computer "box" seperate from the screen. "MY" house has wooden floors, so the idea was to but the compuyter under my room, with the CDrom and floppy external upstairs.... lots of wires, and I'd have to hack a hole in teh floor... but, hey, its not my house..