PC DAW Hardware Tips
Grounding/Noise Issues (on the analog outputs)
I have tried all sorts of rational and near
rational things to eliminate hum,buzz,whine
and clicking sounds on the analog outputs from the
several DAW's I have built.
These tips all work but may or may not work
in your particular case!
All are safe for the PC if properly executed.
Please email me with any new tricks!
1. Ferrite Chokes - Adding clip-on ferrite
chokes to the the PWR cable going to
the motherboard from the PWR supply and to the PWR
cables going to each peripheral
(like the CDROM drive, AX44 unit, Harddrive etc)
This supposedly breaks off any
RF feedback /interference that can heterodyne down
to make audible noises.
2. Ground Strap - locate a pass-thru hole on
the motherboard (the holes the standoff
screws go thru to hold the board in the case) with
a ground island around it that has
enough area to solder a piece of stranded #20 or
so wire to it. Just a little tack solder
connection is fine. make the wire about 8 inches
long - long enough to let the other
end reach the card edge row where all the PCI
cards are screwed down. Add a lug to
that end and screw the lug down under the screw on
top of one of your card edges
(video card etc) This will insure a good solid
ground for the whole PC. You should use
a meter to confirm "ground" from this
island with the "ground" pins at the PWR supply
connector of the motherboard. The black wires in
front of the "lockdown bump"
are GND (pins 15,16,17) Best to remove all cards
(if not the whole motherboard)
to accomplish this.
(WARNING NOT FOR AMATUERS AT SOLDERING)
3. Ground buss - Add a piece of buss
wire(approx 8 inches) with loops placed so
they line up with each screw of each card in your
PC screw it down under each
screw on top of each card edge. This is especially
effective when added to the Ground
Strap! This will insure that all the cards are
properly grounded. Ideally this is not
necessary yet in many PCs, the cards have plating
or paint on that outfacing edge
(like the Yamaha DSP cards which have a heavy
black paintjob) so they do not
ground out properly to the chassis when you screw
them down. You can just sand
the area where the screw contacts the card and put
a toothy lockwasher on the hold
down screw and this will help insure a solid
ground connection. The buss wire is
nice since it grounds the cards together and only
one need be making good contact
for ALL to get grounded!
4. Faraday Shield - these are easy to make and
you only need one or two at the
most. Oaktag (manilla folder) material works great
for this. Just cut a couple of
3 1/2 inch by 6 inch pieces (any size that
fits for you) . Cover them with
aluminum foil, and cover THAT with clear or brown
plastic packing tape.
(MUST be totally covered so as to insulate and not
allow shorting stuff out!!!)
BEFORE you cover the foils with the tape, add a
ground wire of #20 or #24 or so
with foil contacting end stripped and flared out
so the tape will hold it to the foil
and give you a good ground. The other end gets a
lug so it can be grounded to
a card screw. Place these on either side of your
audio card or between your
video card (major noise maker!) and the rest of
the cards. they just sit between
the cards with no fastening needed. Don't worry
they will not move around!
Cooling /Venting
I am a major fan of liquid cooling! I thought
it was kind of extreme, but the
reduction in acoustic noise from the machine is
massive. I use the Iceberg 1
cooler from Ahanix This baby was easy to install and is super
quiet as well
as cooling the CPU very effectively. There are
several companies making
super quiet fans for cases but none of these is
TRULY quiet for a CPU
as the airflow requirements are just too great.
Look for the VERAX fans
on line if you want the latest in a quiet CPU fan
or case fan.