PC far far away = no noise

This is all I need on my desk

- USB hub
- monitor
- keyboard & mouse
- optical drive
- speakers
- PC on/off and reset buttons

Instead of trying to build a quiet PC how far away can I put it?

Far far away = no noise (not even in the same room)
Up close and personal = high noise

It's a simple theory and potentially very cheap. If I can do 5m then I'm going to move it under the stairs.

How far can you run a DVI monitor signal?

Do you think the PC on/off and reset will still work at 5m?

I'm fairly sure the USB will be OK and I may go BT wireless on the keyboard and mouse.

:crazy:

hmmm lets see...

- USB hub -
(Get a 7 port USB2 one)
- monitor -
(5m DVI cable)
- keyboard & mouse -
(MS Elites are nice and they are usb with shut down buttons)
- optical drive -
(Usb2 drive casing with a nice DVDRW in it)
- speakers -
(USB? or you can get a 3.5mm jack and extend the cables)
- PC on/off and reset buttons -
(On keyboard)

5m USB cables are silly money. Basically the USB signal needs boosting every few metres so any extension lead needs a box of tricks to amplify the signal.
heres the one Maplin sells, but its £20 :eek:

if you're any good with electronics its not to hard to knock up a momentary switch with some two core wire, shouldnt be much more than a quid all in.

Most (newer) motherboards have a power on by keyboard feature.

You could use a Firewire Optical drive as Firewire can be used with 4.5m cables and even longer (10m AFAIK) in some cases :).

In fact you could probably get some kind of Firewire USB hub (I think some external HDDs come with this) to plug all your peripherals into.

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Originally Posted by ed^chigliak

Far far away = no noise (not even in the same room)
Up close and personal = high noise

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Also, if i could extend the cables by about 20-30m then i could put it in my garage :D far away and in the cold air :)

Also i think i remember hearing somewhere that you can use ethernet cables to carry USB over long distances, but i may be wrong :P

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Originally Posted by yamangman

Most (newer) motherboards have a power on by keyboard feature.

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I'm just curious - I don't want my PC far away or anything, but the only PC I've ever seen a keyboard power on feature with is a 10+ year old macintosh. What button might it be to press? I've not seen anything like this in my mobo manual, so does mine do it (see sig)?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ajbrun

I'm just curious - I don't want my PC far away or anything, but the only PC I've ever seen a keyboard power on feature with is a 10+ year old macintosh. What button might it be to press? I've not seen anything like this in my mobo manual, so does mine do it (see sig)?

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Check the bios settings :). That's where my settings for keyboard on are.

I have it on mine (Abit AV8), take a look though your BIOS it's probably in there somewhere.

Also, i found something to extend the USB cables up to 50m, far from cheap though, £89 for a two port version :O

Must also be WiFi and Bluetooth solutions, neater but rather expensive.

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Originally Posted by turkster

Check the bios settings :). That's where my settings for keyboard on are.

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I couldn't find any mention of the word "keyboard" or similar in the BIOS at all. It's not a problem - just wanted to know :).

I've seen and heard of many motherboards that have it, but the 3 i've used were an old Epox KT166 motherboard, the Leadtek K7NCR18D series (PRO-II) and the Asus A7N8XE-Deluxe. They all allow various combination of keys to be pressed.

USB has around 3 meter limit, monitor cables can be extremely long although the quality will degrade as distance increases, especially when its at a high resolution and/or high refresh rate - you'll start to see ghosting and the colours won't be as vibrant.

The ammount of boosters and cable extenders your going to buy you could afford a decent quiet fan cooler (£30), Zalman heatsink for your graphics card (£20) and 7V your case fans ... all done :)

The only reason i would do it is for high performance cooling without the noise, but your probably better of getting some kind of phase change cooling if your going to be moving it a long way, it'll probably cost you over £200 for all the cabling etc.

The amount of money I would save each time I upgrade by not using quiet components makes me smile just thinking about it. Quiet PC components are expensive and silent PC components are insanely expensive.

Compare the price of graphics cards with heatpipe cooling vs stock cooling. thermaltake? volcano vs thermalright XP120. Evercool? fans vs silenx. CWT PSU vs antec fanless. No fan bus. No vibration decouplers for the HDDs. No sound proofing materials.

I don't mind having a play around with some cables. The PC's a hobby of sorts and everyone knows hobbies are all about spending large amounts of money on stupid stuff. I think that pretty much justifies the cost.

Edit: I just found this...
5m USB2.0 active extension cable £12
http://kryton.clickandbuild.com/cnb/...dCategoryID=24

What happens if you use a USB cable without a regenerator over 3 metres then? does the bandwidth just tail off or does it stop working? like FM radio below 32.6 dB or whatever

Ebuyer
1x D-link Dub-h7 USB 2.0 7-port Hub £18.84
2x Ebuyer USB Active Repeater Cable 2.5MTR £4.99/££9.98
1x Belkin Pro Series VGA Monitor Replacement Cable 5m £2.40
2x Belkin Pro Series USB Extension Cable A-A 1.8m £1.40/£2.80
Cart Total: £34.02 ex VAT

I can try the 1.8m extension before or after the USB repeater. I can also try daisy chain the repeaters. I'll use my CRT Iiyama hence a VGA cable.

Remote power could be a problem. There are keyboards with power off, sleep & wake keys but I don't see any power on functionality. It's of secondary importance so I'll ignore this aspect for now.

Suprisingly cheap and I was going to buy a USB 2.0 hub anyway.

Success :)

Finally I have a quiet computing environment. Certainly a worthwhile investment IMO. In the end I decided to locate the PC by the front door in the entrance hall since it's basically unoccupied space with easy access.

Cables are routed under the carpet simply follow the wall round from one room to the next and all I had to do was take the door off to facilitate lifting the carpet. I can only just hear the PC with the door closed.

Next job is to move the PC from topside and locate it below the floor between the joists. It's dry, well ventilated and cooler.

My mobo has a power on by keyboard setting. I cant say iv ever managed to get it to work tho. Despite that its still a nice idea. be useful if u can put the PC in a closet or something. (provided there is enough aitflow)

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Originally Posted by yamangman

Most (newer) motherboards have a power on by keyboard feature.

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hehe yep,but not necisserally new ones btw, my ECS ELITE K7S5A has that feature.... so does my ASUS A7N8X-E DELUXE:devilish:

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Originally Posted by Nemeliza

My mobo has a power on by keyboard setting. I cant say iv ever managed to get it to work tho. Despite that its still a nice idea. be useful if u can put the PC in a closet or something. (provided there is enough aitflow)

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not insulting you but have u made sure the jumper on the motherboard is set to have the power on by keyboard function enabled,and obviously the bios setting too.

Have you thought abouth the ethernet option ?

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Originally Posted by |{££|"

not insulting you but have u made sure the jumper on the motherboard is set to have the power on by keyboard function enabled,and obviously the bios setting too.

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None taken - i really didnt put much time into trying...it was more of a 'oooh that option looks nice, let me see if it works.......<<nothing happens>>...oh well thats me.' :p

but now u hav mentioned it ill check that jumper thingy me watsit.

Pretty sure all the motherboards I've had have had keyboard power support. In my curent Epox 8RDA+ it's under Advanced Chipset Features, I think. TBH I've never used it, I leave my PC on 24/7, with my previous keyboard which had a power button I would occasionally hit it by accident which would be a bit annoying, especially if I'd just captured the flag:rolleyes:.

Rich :¬)

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Originally Posted by Apex

Have you thought abouth the ethernet option ?

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Hi

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but what is the ethernet option ?

Ta :)

I used phone cable to extend a usb cable by 10-15m and it works fine for anything that has its own plug like my printer, but wont wont for my scanner which is powered over usb.
My bluetooth and sd adapters worked on it as well
I've never tried my logitech wireless k/b and mouse with it, but i'd expect they would work as well.

the only reason i can't move my pc away is because of the vga cable, as im not sure what to buy...

any ideas anyone?

Here is an analogue D-SUB Belkin Pro monitor extension cable 15m

http://www.savastore.com/productinfo...0249549&pid=44

Lindy do gold plated monitor cables up to 50m but they cost a fortune. If you have a digital cable to a TFT then I sugest you google for a digital extension cable instead.

Build a partition in your room with plasterboard walls and make a hole through which to put cables, and have the PC case on the other side

:D

Do you really need to turn the PC off all that often? - probably easier to leave it on all the time. Only thing I'd worry about is how hot it will get under your stairs if the space is limited. When aircon fails at work, the 2 servers in boxroom size space send room temp to 35 degrees within an few hours.

I can tell you we use a DVI to svga adapter at work which pumps a perfectly good sgnal over 7 metres to a roofmount projector. No idea whether this translates to perfect DVI to DVI signal though.

Sounds like a good plan though overall.