Building a Silent Workstation

The purpose of this paper is to describe how to build a silent workstation. By silent, I mean inaudible in an office with a closed door, or in a suburban home. These are locations with fairly low background noise levels (40dBA - 45dBA). Lowering the noise level of a computer, especially a high-performance computer, to be inaudible under these conditions is a significant task. Keeping the component temperatures low enough to deliver a long life can be even more difficult.

1. Components
2. Assembly
3. Temperatures
4. Noise
5. Performance
6. Mounting the SSD
7. Alternate Motherboards
8. Alternate CPUs
9. Painting it Green
10. Issues Encountered

Last updated - September 3, 2009

NOTE: This web page is a Work-In-Progress. It is NOT complete.

Noise

The noise level from this system is low ... VERY low. In the Workstation setting, we can't hear it beyond a few feet, during any of the performance benchmarks. This system is quiet enough that we can't measure it with any degree of accuracy. When switched to the Server setting, the noise is noticeable, but not bothersome.

When the W3520 CPU was undergoing peak load tests, the fans became obvious. Under normal workloads, this is unlikely to occur.

It should be noted that noise is subjective. What one person finds silent, another person may find objectionable. It depends on the person and the environment.

Performance

All benchmarks are to be performed with the components specified on the Components page. The memory will be three modules (6GB). The reason for running with only three modules was to allow the X5550 to run the memory at DDR3-1333 speeds. The processor will be as specified in the benchmark (three different processors were tested).

The Vista Experience Index of this system came in at 5.9. At this time, that's the highest possible rating, so it doesn't really say all that much about the system's actual performance. What it does say is that the various performance aspects of the system are fairly well balanced, and that there's no single item in the system that should cause it to be slow.

The OS for the following benchmarks was the base release of Windows Vista 32-bit, with the appropriate drivers for the motherboard installed. No additional patches or service packs were installed.