Modding Using car audio dampening on PC case... your experiences?

So I'm building up a Yeong Yang server cube as a home fileserver using unraid to serve my media centre.

I bought a Fractal Design's R2 but its really too tall to be sat under my desk so opted for the more tucked away friendly YY cube.

Since the noise side of it is a major thing i've opted to use some dampening kit normally targeted towards the car audio world.

I know from doing my own car audio install the stuff works a treat in the audio environment in a car but i wondered if anyone has used any in a PC case. I've used some PC case specific kits and always been disapointed so i wondered -

Has anyone tried using any car dampener kits yet?

 

Something like DynaMat is going to be a hell of a lot denser and as a result weightier than the basic foam that's used for case dampening. I'd say that it'd probably work well (sorry I can't speak from experience as requested).

 

No problem, just general opinions welcome

Its Damplifier Pro i'm using.

 

sound deadening is sound deadening. no reason it wont work.

 

Not entirely. Car stuff is much thicker and denser than the stuff that is available for our PCs (which is merely foam). It should work far better, theoretically.

 

my point was if it will dampen sound in a car, itll dampen sound in a pc

 

Agreed 100%. The only problem I ca see is that sometimes it come with a silver metallic top side, this could cause a problem so I'd be careful about getting to close to the mobo or anything electrical.

 

Its does indeed come with a foil top - Black foil actually so looks nice

Actually motherboard tray is dampened on the rear so nothing should be able to short there. Otherwise it should be pretty eacy to setup the PC as i've not given the case 100% cover - just where i think it works well.

 

IIRC, the metallic foil can generally be peeled off without much trouble. its usually glued to the insulation with spray glue. it might be a good idea to take it off anyway as its designed to prevent IR heat from escaping.

 

I find the problem with sound deadening in PC's is that is good for stopping panel rattle, but as the case is full of holes, fans etc, it's not an ideal thing to stop noise escaping from.
The thing is, the way I see it, is a good case should be made from a decent thickness of metal and put together well enough not to rattle.

 

Wicked_Sludge - Removing the foil isn't gonna happen lol, maybe its something you'd need to see to appreciate but the base is incredibly stickly. Would be a nightmare to peel off.

I'm hoping a combo on dampening, low rpm fans and suspended hdd's will keep things pretty noise free.. I'll try and dig the case out tomorrow for some photos

 

Quick Teaser photo before its built. Hopefully oer next few days ill get some hardware in it

 

It's true that sound deadening/damping works in both PCs and cars. There are some differences, though. You have (simplified) two types of noise/vibration: High frequency and low frequency.

The dampening products for cars concentrate mainly on dampening low frequency vibration. The only way of damping low frequencies is basically weight. The heavier a material is, the better it will dampen noise. Having a sheet that consists of multiple materials with different density will also help because you will also eliminate resonance.

In Computers you also have high frequency noise. Usually from fans and motors in hard drives, but also in some cases from vibrating coils. This kind of noise is best eliminated by absorption. This is what the foamy stuff is for. The foam basically just transform the sound into (unnoticeable) heat.

Using the asphalt stuff with tin foil on top will dampen low frequency noise well, but doesn't help at all with high frequency noise. The best stuff to use is some asphalt sheets with foam on top.

The disadvantage with both, but mostly with the foam, is that they will trap some of the heat inside the case. With enough fans this isn't much of a problem, though.


Nice choice of case, BTW. I really want one of those...

 

Thanks for that, hopefully the good description will be useful for other seeing this too.

Im actually lookinh info a foam barrier too. The company which make the damplifier product ive used also make a foam barrier. Think its luxury liner.

My maun aim is to stop case vibration caused by fans and hdd. Im using hdd suspention mounts to help sort the hdds, and the mass loading with dampening will hopefully sort the case vibration.

Ill report back once i get things built up

 

In my experience, sound matting has never really done anything.

If I were you I'd spend the cash on some decent fans and a load of anti-vibration mounts for said fans and your hard disks.

 

Dense sound matting is great for shielding noise, and the film reflects sound well which isn't a good thing in a pc case without another absorbent layer...
There are all these big air vents on any decent case, so the noise still has plenty of easy ways out, which can negate using the sound matting!

With suspended or soft rubber mounted hdd's and soft rubber mounted fans, there won't be any significant transmitted vibrations for the matting to prevent either.

Soft foam is good for absorbing noise, so you can line the case and even the ducts with that stuff, but even after all that work difference is minimal

Powerful heatsinks and silent fans however = Cheesecake.

 

Stiffening your panel will drive the panel resonance up in frequency. Adding mass to the panel will drive the resonance down. More mass and a lower frequency means that the panel vibration amplitude will be smaller. Adding mass doesn't just dampen vibration. To increase actual damping you want to have a lossy surface or similar construction. Gluing a sheet of foam or leaded rubber to a panel will produce a thin layer of friction that will do the damping. The actual material will affect what kind of vibration arrives at the damping layer. Foam will work best for high frequency noise and the glue bond will also dampen more the higher the frequency is.
I agree with what has been said above. Eliminate source noise and forget about lining the case.

 

I guess I'll have to wait and see how things turn out. The case is already lined and practically ready for the hardware to be installed.

Just need to get my hands on a few quiet fans but theres plenty of info on the forum so sure i'll find something suitable.

 

Make sure you've got nice heatsinks on everything first! And good case venting so inlet and exhaust fans won't be needed.
If things can be cooled passively = no fan + zero noise, or it will at least mean you can get away with using a slow = silent fan on the heatsink.
Don't forget that all fans and hdd should be rubber mounted to prevent noise.

You don't have to get fancy new fans, most big pc fans are silent when run slowly. You can slow them down using things such as bios, or a fan controller, or just hooking up diodes to them. There is the 7v wiring trick, which isn't the "proper" thing to do to a psu, but many including myself have run fans silently like this for years and years without issue.

 

lol, many a man including myself on the 7v trick Only moved away from it when i setup a t-balancer on my watercooled setup.

I've got rubber mounts (the long ones you pull thought) for the fan mounts, a rubber seal think for the PSU (although to be honest it makes naff all noise anyway) and the CPU runs nice with the stock intel fan. I've got a much larger heatsink i could use to run with a 120mm fan but i'm gonna try it with the stock kit I have and see what result i get.