   Keeping my server up 24/7
  I have currently an old PC on my room which is being used as a Windows 2000 Server. It has serves as file server, webserver and soon also my MUD that''s in development. However, that thing is 3 metres away from my bed.As you can guess, leaving it on 24/7, 3 metres away from my head isn''t going to improve my night rest, not to mention that if I get used to the sound, I would have to take it down anyway since during the weekends my gf comes over.Moving it out of my room isn''t an option either, since I don''t have a wireless home network, and not planning to get one anytime soon. I also don''t want to invest into hardware, since it''s an old P90(Yes, a P90 running Windows 2000 and Apache :D). Are there any ideas on how to get the noise to go away? I was thinking of putting it into a cabinet or building a wooden casing around it. Ideas?Toolmaker   -Earth is 98% full. Please delete anybody you can. 
  When I do case modifications that involve noisey equipment (say, 2 or 3 delta fans?) I usually line the inside of the case with a very very thing layer of styrofoam (2-3mm), and then glue antistatic computer foam on top.(4-12mm)That doesn''t mean coating the inside with it however. You need to place the styrofoam and antistatic foam in places that wont interrupt airflow (not that it really matters considering it''s a p90)Re-arrange the cables using twist ties for optimum airflow. If you really want to get serious, you can do what I do, and lay down wiring pathways and using cable ties to set down the cables on their respective paths.Cover up any holes that you dont need for air flow. (missing drivebay panels, excess area around 5 1/4 inch bays, etc.)Clean your fans. And not just the blades, crack that mother open and clean the inside too. More often than you might think the actual source of an extra noisey fan is dust inside the fan, forcing the blades to spin inproperly. ;  Thx Raymondo As far as I can tell, the only noise is coming from the PSU cooler. I could clean it out, but then it would still make some noise. How do I take away that sound?Toolmaker   -Earth is 98% full. Please delete anybody you can. ;  HDD''s make noise too, if you have an old one its probly a source of some noise, i''de recomend gettin a new one. ______________________________________________________________"It takes all kinds."   -Adam CarollaMy Site;  my router is ~2meters away from my bed, and i still hear it, ive done some modifications to reduce the noise to some 5db but you will have to get used to it, there is no perfect solution what ive done:400mhz amd k6-2 with 196mb ram and a 5gb (maxtor) hd placed in a midi-tower (gfx is irrelevant  and only there for startup), tower filled with stuff that absorbs noise (some form of styrofoam). but dont block holes where the air is coming in and going out.ive also modded the cpu-cooler, ive replaced it partly with a bigger passive cooling grid and 2 fans that run on half of the speed the orginal one ran. that will reduce the noise there to half of normal. you dont need fans if your cpu can run on passive cooling alone, mine ran only 3-4hours without fans but it was so damn silent the hd is the most problematic part, it will run 24/7 and it has to be a good hd that dosnt produce much heat (you cant use ibm hds for this, they will burn after 2-3days), so my choise was a 5gb maxtor, produces nearly no heat and runs good enough for a server/router, but its very loud, so ive mounted it with springs in the air of a 5 1/2 slot.before this mod i was able to hear it without a problem @ some 50db (it is one of the old loud ones) but now i cant hear it!additionaly you can replace the psu fan with another one that is more silent (and has the same airflow), but NEVER reduce the power of the psu fan (that will kill your psu  ive tried it)and you can place some sort of carpet or boor where the air comes out (5-10cm away) to recude the noise that would be reflected by walls etc.i would make some pics of mine (so you could see what a mess it is inside) but currently i dont want to do anything with my router, it runs, its quiet enough and i dont want to move it (would mean offline)btw iam running win2k and it crashes only every 5-20days  (i know its a fault of the routing software + usb-wlan but i cant do much there) T2k ;  While getting one that fits might be a problem, I don''t see much of a problem replacing the CPU fan+puny heatsink with a larger heatsink. A P133 can run without fan or heatsink for sometime before overheating (I''ve done it before). If you open the case a little more so that you get fresh air on the CPU and the harddrive you can probably remove the case fan too if it exists. The PSU fan isn''t so easy to remove, you''ll probably need to buy a special one. For such a system you don''t likely need a lot (unless there is a lot in addition to MB,CPU,Video,HDx1,CDx1 you can likely use a 180W, check what PSU is currently in there). If the harddrive isn''t quiet you can either spend money to isolate it without overheating it, or you can just buy a quiet harddrive for likely the same price as a real harddrive silencing device (find a low dB [Seagate probably] 5400rpm 40GB drive) ;  Good point about the harddisks. So far I think I am going to do this:Clean all fans(I think it has a miniature CPU cooler, maybe I can get some cool ribs to replace it), open PSU and clean it from the inside. Insulate the inside of the case.What do I need to use to insulate the casing? And where can I get it?T2K, you mentioned something about spring mounted hard drive? What do you mean by that? btw, this PC has a Quatum Big Foot(ugh) with a 4.3 GB size(I think, not sure). How do I mount it like you did?Toolmaker   -Earth is 98% full. Please delete anybody you can. ;quote:Original post by Toolmaker  T2K, you mentioned something about spring mounted hard drive? What do you mean by that? btw, this PC has a Quatum Big Foot(ugh) with a 4.3 GB size(I think, not sure). How do I mount it like you did?uhm, dont know how to translate it correctly, one of these you need 4 springs, some 2-3mm thick wire (to mount the springs where normaly a cd-drive would fit) and a bit time to get it fixed (its not easy to get all 4 springs with tension to their endposition...) but once done the hd will float in the air and the springs will absorb the sound/clicks/movement...T2k ;  i think the easiest solution is to tell your girlfriend that you need to run this server 24/7 and if she doesnt like the noise then to go away ;  Fools! The real answer is Linux!Well, the discussion about the design of The Ultimate Linux Box 2001 has a chapter about Noise Control and Heat Dissipation. Might give some useful hints. 