Noise and Decibels
An air cooled asic makes around 75 dB at one meter. That is the level of a loud vacuum cleaner running without a break, around the clock.
What decibels are and how loud an asic gets
Decibels do not behave like meters: the scale is logarithmic. Adding ten points on that scale means ten times the sound power, and to the ear roughly twice as loud. So the difference between 65 and 75 dB is not cosmetic; it is the difference between a conversation in the kitchen and a vacuum cleaner at work.
The noise of an asic comes from the fans rather than the chips. Their speed follows temperature, which means your asic is louder in summer than in winter. In a heat wave the fans go to maximum, and that is when the neighbors find out about your hobby.
Noise drops with distance, though more slowly than you would like: doubling the distance takes off about six decibels. Two meters instead of one gives 69 dB instead of 75, and living next to it is still out of the question.
Hydro cooling and immersion settle the question physically, because no fans are left in the case. The noise moves outdoors, to the dry cooler, and out there it is easier to deal with: a wall, some distance, a night mode.
Quick reference table
| Air cooled asic | around 75 dB at one meter |
| Plus 10 dB | ten times more sound power |
| Doubling the distance | minus about 6 dB |
| Source of the noise | the fans, not the chips |
| When it is loudest | in the heat, at maximum fan speed |
What actually helps
Move the asic out of the living space: a garage, a utility room, a separate room. This works better than any enclosure.
An acoustic enclosure cuts the noise but gets in the way of the air. A badly made one raises the intake temperature, the fans spin up harder, and the noise comes back.
Break the vibration path: set the asic on rubber or felt rather than on concrete or on a table. Through a rigid base the whole apartment hums.
If living with the noise is impossible anyway, work out the numbers for hydro or for hosting at a site. That costs more, and it costs less than a quarrel with the neighbors.
Night noise limits in Spanish residential buildings are lower than daytime ones, and every municipality sets its own. Look the exact figures up in the local ordinance rather than on forums.
An example in numbers
One air cooled asic gives about 75 dB at one meter. Step back two meters and it becomes about 69. Put a second one just like it alongside and you are back at about 78: two identical sources add three decibels rather than doubling the figure. In an apartment none of these options saves you.
Related terms
Where to go next on the site
Hardware
- ASIC Miner knowledge base
- Antminer S21 tool
Numbers
Questions and answers
Can you put an asic in an apartment
Not an air cooled one. 75 dB around the clock has nothing to do with living space, and an acoustic enclosure does not remove the problem; it moves it onto temperature.
How much quieter is hydro
No fans are left in the case, so you can hold a conversation in the same room. The noise moves out to the dry cooler outside.
Do quieter fans help
A little, and with a risk attached. Fewer revolutions mean less air and higher chip temperatures, and you pay for that in hashrate and in the life of the boards.
How the terms connect
Every link in the chain is clickable. Orange marks where you are now.
Looking for an ASIC miner
The catalog holds 212 models. You can compare them by hashrate and by joules per terahash, then plug your own rate into the calculator and see what stays in your pocket.
Page written and checked by Denys Klimchuk. Updated .