I have finally found the best way to completely silence your computer, no matter what kind of components you’re running, what kind of cooling solution you’re using, or whether you’ve built or bought your machine.
If you hate computer noise as much as I do, keep watching.
What I Tried
After many years of trying to out extremely expensive cooling solutions like water cooling, or limiting performance to the max heat the biggest passive cooler could achieve, or even some combination of the two (anyone remember the Zalman Reserator passive water cooling tower?), I finally came to realize one simple truth. And that is that it is impossible to put a completely silent computer on your desk that is both powerful and and not completely ridiculous in terms of price or concept.
Even the masterfully crafted Mac Studio, which I had dubbed as the king of silent computers, isn’t completely silent. And even if you make a computer without audible fan noise, you always run the risk of coil whine or electrical noise, which is almost impossible to eliminate.
So what’s the solution?
The Concept
For this, we have to turn to the famous saying that goes something like: “If a tree falls in the forest and no one’s around to hear it, does it actually make a sound?”
The solution is surprisingly simple: move your computer into another room, at least as far from you as you need to completely not hear it.
But how exactly can we do this?
At first I considered if some kind of remote streaming tool would work, but I quickly dismissed it. Not only would there be some lag, but any kind of software solution would be complicated and only works after the computer is already booted. You would still need to have a monitor, keyboard and mouse next to the PC for setup and troubleshooting.
How It Works
The simplest solution then, is to not introduce any additional things to complicate the situation, but to simply make the cables you already use longer.
Let me show you. Here is my PC located in my closet. There 4 important cables connected to it, although only 3 are mandatory.
Firstly the power cord. Now, most closets may not have a power outlet, which means you’ll need to get a long enough power strip and route it into the closet for power.
Secondly, the display cable, which for me, is this 50 foot fiber optic HDMI cable, which I have plugged into my LG C4 42” TV that I use as a monitor. I’m able to use the full 4K UHD resolution at 144 Hz refresh rate that the TV supports without an issue.
Third is this 50 foot active USB extension cable, which I have connected to a USB hub on my desk. Actually, this is a USB switch, which allows me to switch my connected peripherals between my closet PC and a Mac Studio, but you can just get a USB hub instead if you don’t need to switch between 2 computers.
The important thing here, however, is to get a powered USB hub or switch, especially if you intend to connect more than just a keyboard and mouse. This particular USB switch I have is powered and it supports my audio interface, this SSL 2 Plus, which runs both my speakers and 2 microphones.
Those 3 cables are the mandatory ones to make this setup work, but there is one more optional one I’m using, which is an Ethernet cable, which I have hooked up to a switch that ultimately connects to my in-wall Ethernet network.
By the way, I do have links to everything I’m using in the description.
How Well Does It Work?
So how well does this solution work? If I’m not stressing my GPU, which is a RTX 5070 Ti, I simply cannot hear the computer at all, even with the closet door open.
If I close the closet door, most of the noise is even hidden under full load, but there is something else to worry about if I do that, which is that the closet gets a bit warm. That’s why it’s still important to buy efficient components where possible, but you don’t need to worry about paying super premium prices for quieter versions of most parts, like the Noctua versions of graphics cards that can cost hundreds of dollars more. In the long run, this means you can save thousands of dollars over time.
Besides keeping a look out for efficient PC parts, the other thing I’d recommend is using fan control software like Fan Control to modify your fan speeds and prevent things from getting too loud under load, which means not needing to close the door as often, reducing the heat being trapped, or not needing to locate your PC in a farther away room with even longer cables.
As for me, I’ve finally found the ultimate solution to silence my PC, and it will continue to work when I upgrade my computer in the future. You know, if prices ever come down to a reasonable level.
