I can’t stand constant, droning noise. It’s distracting, stressful, and it might even make you sick. One day I got fed up with the constant fan noise from my PC, I searched for a new machine that would be completely quiet. Little did I realize that there’s an Internet subculture devoted to silent PCs, and one of its proponents is the Silent PC Review (SPCR).
The site has a special section of “SPCR Certified Silent PCs,” and the most silent computer those connoisseurs of quiet have ever found is a tower PC made by boutique computer assembler Puget Systems. The SPCR site calls Puget’s Serenity PC “the quietest computer system we have ever reviewed or even lai d hands on, and probably quieter than any PC will ever be, short of one with no moving parts and zero electronic noise.” Concerned that Puget Systems is also one of the sponsors of that SPCR site, I vowed to test this quiet PC myself, and see if it lives up to its billing.
When I contacted Puget Systems in hopes of testing such a silent system, its CEO told me he’s just put together a smaller system he calls the Serenity Mini that’s even quieter than its full-sized brother. In an anechoic chamber, the Serenity PC measured a super-quiet 11dB, and Puget says this mini system is 1dB quieter, at 10dB. I had to check this out. A few days later, the Serenity Mini arrived, with its “mini-tower” case that’s by no means miniature, measuring about 17″ tall.
The object of this exercise was to find a PC with the fastest processors and finest components inside that can still scream without making a single sound. Of course, yo u can find other...
