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A
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Akasa Pax-Mate Acoustic Absorption Mat Manufacturer:
Akasa
Corporation By
Dean Barker (1/17/2002)
Introduction There
have been several efforts made to lessen the obscene fan shriek of our
overclocked machines. First was the
more widespread adoption of Rheostats to manually adjust the speed (and volume)
or our fans. Here most recently,
Thermaltake’s Volcano 7 addresses the issue with variable speed and volume
from a more automated perspective. Both
of these approaches are novel but are less then effective.
This is because when the heat goes up, the fans get cranked up, either
manually or otherwise and you again have all that noise.
I have had friends cut up foam egg crates and attach them to the inside
walls of a case in an effort to absorb some of the excess racket.
This idea is far from a new one. Most
stereo stores have a “sound room’ with a type of foam on the walls to absorb
sound and keep the sound from leaving the room.
This “absorbing” or cushioning the pressure waves with the layers of
foam is quite effective. Akasa has
taken this thinking and applied it to the PC to come up with a neat and clean
excess sound solution. Enter the
Akasa's Pax-Mate Acoustic Absorption Mat. We
wish to thank Adrian at Lapicon
for sending us these sound mats to try out. The best place to start is to explain ‘sound’. The Webster’s Encyclopedia definition of ‘sound’ is: a vibratory disturbance characterized by longitudinal waves in pressure and the sensation stimulated in the organs of hearing by such a disturbance. How this works is that these pressure waves hit our ears and travel down the resonance chamber which increases the amplitude (loudness.) From there, the waves move to the eardrum which converts the waves into more powerful waves that move through the outer and inner ear via the cochlea that in turns stimulates a basilar membrane that in turn stimulates receptor cells on the Corti that converts the vibrations into electrical impulses that are then sent to the brain so that we may say “JEEZ!! That fan is too freaking loud!” The short of it is that sound is pressure waves. If you can lessen the pressure wave, you lessen the sound. Foam dampens these waves very effectively. Enter the Akasa Acoustic Absorption Mat.
The
Akasa Acoustic Absorption Mat comes in the traditional yellow, black, and blue
colored box that is Akasa’s trademark. Inside
you find four mats. There are two 14"
x 15.75" and two that are
7" x 15.75".
Akasa
has taken this thin but dense piece of foam and applied an adhesive to one side.
This mat (four mats per kit) is then applied to both sides, the top, and
the bottom of the computer case.
The
mat is reasonably thin. Not as is
the case with an egg crate mat! Because
of its slimness, it is easy to work with when mounting.
So there is no worry of interference with components and wires within the
case. To install it you simply peel
back the film covering the adhesive and carefully stick it in place.
It
is important to remember the adage; measure twice, cut once.
In this instance, it is measure twice and cut/stick once.
Because of the large surface area of the mat, it will be difficult to
remove it once it is installed without destroying the mat itself. The
only problem we had during installation was that we had to remove our hard drive
rack in order to get the mat mounted. Once
installed, the rack went back in without incident. That doesn't really
count as a problem
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All rights
reserved.
All pages Copyright © 2000 - 2008
by R. Dean Barker.
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