Melamine Foam Sound Proofing for the Computer Case
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| After hunting around for a manufacturer which offered some kind of sound proofing product for computers the only one I could find was... |
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Testing and Results
A small piece of Melamine Foam
was also placed on the top of the case as best we could. Since Antec rivet the
top part of the SX1030B in place, it is difficult to get in there, but not
totally impossible.
The bottom sheet of Melamine
foam was positioned in much the same way after the little clips which hold the
drive bay slides were removed.
Lastly, since the front fan
intakes were not being used with a fan I positioned a small section of Melamine foam in the
opening in the bezel to absorb some sound there. Rather than doing some
complicated cutting for a piece of Melamine Foam on the inside of the case I
simply cut a piece to fit between the bezel, and used some painters masking tape
to hold it firmly in place.
The system we were testing
this foam on is a Pentium 4 rig, and we did drop in a honeycomb PCI slot cover
at the rear of the expansion bay to create an air intake area for the case.
However, with only one case fan at rear being used, and one completely open fan
port at the rear we were a little concerned about the fans stressing out, or
straining to pull air in through the cracks. Ultimately though, the bottom
honeycomb PCI expansion slot cover took care of the intake well enough as there
were no sounds of straining fans when the case was closed up.
Installation is really
straight forward, and the material easy to work with.
I could have added a lot more of
the thin white foam to cover every square inch of exposed surface on the inside
of the case but didn't. I was really only interested in placing it in the most
accessible areas with large sheets so I could get a feel for the sound
absorbency of the material.
The Test Environment
 Before the Melamine sound absorbing
material was added to the Antec SX1030B case some measurements were taken of the
ambient sound levels in the room, and in close proximity to the case itself.
These results, which were
obtained with an Omega HHSL-1 sound level meter (range 35dba-130dBa), are shown
in the chart below, along with the results after the Melamine foam was
installed. The sound meter was located approximately 8" away from the case for
the front/side/rear noise measurements.
Case temperatures were
recorded with an HH501DK digital thermometer by placing a Type-K thermocouple in
the center of the case. The basic system thermal specs are as follows: Pentium 4
1.5GHz system, GeForce 3 Video card, (3x) 7200RPM hard drives, (2x) CD-ROM's,
one PCI card and 431Watt Enermax power supply.
| Melamine Foam Test
Results |
| Measurement |
Before |
After |
| Ambient Sound Level: |
47.4 dBa |
40.6 dBa |
| Front of Case: |
54.2 dBa |
49.7 dBa |
| Side of Case: |
53.3 dBa |
47.5 dBa |
| Rear of Case: |
58.5 dBa |
56.1 dBa |
| Internal Case Temp.: |
27.9 (C) |
29.3 (C) |
| Ambient Temperature: |
22.4
(C) |
Keep in mind that a in most
acoustic tests a drop of 3 dBa is hard to notice to the average human ear, but
anything more should be easily perceptible.
As far as our little Antec
case goes, the results are good, but not as significant as I had hoped to have
seen. I'll probably try adding a few more pieces of Melamine foam, or perhaps
another type of acoustic barrier to dampen the sound further in the near
future.
For now, the ambient room
sound level has dropped about 6 dBa, which is pretty good, and on closer
inspection, the noise levels from the front and side of the case have been
reduced by roughly 4-5 dBa. The sound levels vary slightly depending on how high
up the case the meter is, so all measurements were made at the center line.
I didn't
expect to see any reduction in the level of noise eminating from the rear of the case, so I
was pleased with the 2 dBa drop, no matter how small it really may be. Case
temperature rose only about 2 degrees (C), even though the front intake was blocked off
by a piece of the sound absorbing material. I would guess that the
dual fans in the Enermax power supply have a lot to do with keeping things
cool inside the Antec case, and the extra intake we installed at the base of the
expansion bay was sufficient.
I wasn't
able to measure the noise frequencies before or after the modifications, but
suffice to say, that with the decrease in noise level, the case is
also less high pitched than it was previously. Some more modifications
will be necessary to get the noise levels down further, but considering the cost of this Melamine
Foam material, it does offer a quick way to experiment with what works, and what
doesn't.
Update: After
a few months of working with the system we were able to drop the
noise levels down further by swapping out the AVC Sunflower heatsink in
favour of a Zalman CNPS6500B-Cu cooler and pulling out the rear case exhaust fan
entirely - remember though, the powersupply has two fans, one at rear and one
just above the processor which aid in case exhaust. Noise levels are a few dBA
lower, and the large 92mm fan used with the CNPS6500B-Cu heatsinks is pretty
quiet on its own.
Other Resource and Articles you might also find
interesting:
Frosty's Silent PC
Project (samples of acoustic material types, low-noise product links, more soon)
FrostyTech Custom Cooling
Projects
Computer Maintenance: Spiral
Cable Wrap
Noisecontrol Magic Fleece Sound
Absorbing Material
Cooling Fundamentals: Ball Vs.
Sleeve Bearings
Cooling Fundamentals: Dusty
Computers
Page 1: Melamine Foam Sound Proofing for the Computer Case
Page 2: Testing and Results
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