Can you vibrate a computer apart with a subwoofer/speaker?

[Con]

I've had this idea of building a computer inside of a speaker, and instead of using the mesh covered speakers as fans, I've been thinking about attaching them to the motherboard as the centre speaker, or use a separate sound card (usb) to make it a separate audio device, like for VoIP.

 

I thought about making sure the speaker is significantly under-powered so that it doesn't constantly vibrate the internal components of the computer, but that it's loud enough for use as a surround or voice call speaker.

 

I was just wondering if you could vibrate a computer to death, maybe make the RAM come loose and cause crashes, even though the plan is the mount the motherboard to the back of the speaker, directly underneath/behind the magnets of the speaker components. Maybe SO-DIMM wouldn't shake apart?

 

Let me know if you're aware of any problems that vibrations can cause to a computer, and it's fans and other components. It may use solid state drives apposed to mechanical, and it might have an optical disk in the speaker as well.

[failblox]

This doesn't seem like a very good idea to me, sorry. It may work for a little bit, but I think components will get damaged relatively quickly over time compared to if you built a computer in a regular case.

[Electronics Wizardy]

It should be fine.

 

Do't use like dual 21 subs, but otherwise your fine.

[Con]

Just now, failblox said:

This doesn't seem like a very good idea to me, sorry. It may work for a little bit, but I think components will get damaged relatively quickly over time compared to if you built a computer in a regular case.

I see, I may just stick with plan B, to take the speakers out and use them as fans.

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, Con said:

I see, I may just stick with plan B, to take the speakers out and use them as fans.

Should be fine as there are amps built into speaks that will work for decades.

 

A good subwoofer won't shake the box.

[19_blackie_73]

well there's only one way to find out...  

[Con]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Should be fine as there are amps built into speaks that will work for decades.

 

A good subwoofer won't shake the box.

My main concern isn't the box shaking from being loud, it's the sound waves themselves. Ever been to those indoor raves where the sound waves vibrate your whole skeletal system? Well, I'm trying to imagine what it would be like for the insides of a computer to be directly behind it and if some connections could come loose from being vibrated too much.

[rmurad38]

The physical vibration probably wouldn't hurt the components, as powered subs have been around forever with amplifiers inside. An optical drive however could very possibly have issues as heavy vibration could cause it to "skip"

 

What may be the most harmful, especially with non-solid state storage would be the gigantic magnet on the Subwoofer driver itself.

[Con]

1 minute ago, rmurad38 said:

The physical vibration probably wouldn't hurt the components, as powered subs have been around forever with amplifiers inside.

What may be harmful, especially with non-solid state storage would be the gigantic magnet on the Subwoofer driver itself.

I suppose. I have seen that motherboards go through vibration tests before they're shipped anyway. And yeah, I was wondering what parts of a computer would be magnet friendly. I guess I shouldn't put a floppy disk drive in there either.

[byalexandr]

Not likely to happen no.

[un4givn85]

i would be wary of the magnetism as well

[ThinkWithPortals]

16 minutes ago, Con said:

 

You can vibrate basically anything to death. Mechanical HDDs would be at risk due to their moving parts (not suitable for vibrations) and the massive magnet inside a sub. Fans would also be an issue, and I'd worry about using a big air cooler on the CPU, that swaying around could put a lot of stress on the socket.

[Tech_Dreamer]

pretty sure it's relatively safe, you need to watch out for the wofer magnet(s) erasing the harddrives & the general vibrations shaking the  power connections loose overtime when you're working on something critical & it goes off without a warning & presuming the weight from the CPU cooler(assuming big) & GPU along with the sound vibrations could weaken the motherboard

[Maxxie]

Short answer, no. Long answer would involve a discussion about resonant frequencies of the different components. Only thing you need to be careful about is air movement. Subwoofers move a lot of air, so just make sure that everything is secure. It doesn't sound very practical though, as you'll probably end up with a shitty speaker and maybe even a computer with a limited lifetime because of the magnet in the speakers.

[johnt]

Don't forget, they put processors and flash memory in everything... even cars. It's unlikely your subwoofer is going to cause more vibration than a 4,000 to 8,000 lb rolling bounce house.

 

The biggest issue is the hard drive. Make sure you use an SSD inside the cabinet. However, outside the cabinet, even my dual 18-inch subs can't take out my external 2TB WD drive. It still keeps going.

 

It sounds a lot worse than it really will be. Do it if you want to experiment, have fun, and try something new. Plan and budget for unexpected issues (just like with any project), and don't sweat the details.

[johnt]

Oh and make sure you make a build log. I would follow 

[carsonwen]

Sounds good. But you MUST have some kind of shielding on your amplifier and use shielded drivers. Otherwise, you will have an unbearable amount of interference. I had placed a home theater subwoofer next to my pc, and it basically whines all day long.

[spwath]

Hold on, some issues.

 

Cooling?

How?

Any holes you put in the speaker will negativity effect sound, and volume.

 

Same issue for the Io.

[Ahoy Hoy]

I think your biggest concern is nothing to do with sound and more the fact that speakers use magnets and you want to build a computer next to a massive magnet

[johnt]

3 hours ago, spwath said:

Any holes you put in the speaker will negativity effect sound, and volume.

It's called a port, bro 

[spwath]

7 minutes ago, JohnT said:

It's called a port, bro 

You could be creative and use existing ports, if there were two, as intakes and exhausts.

[johnt]

20 minutes ago, spwath said:

You could be creative and use existing ports, if there were two, as intakes and exhausts.

The OP didn't really mention what components he's trying to put into a speaker, but if it's something relatively "low power" like i5-6000k series with modest OC and a GTX1060 stock, he should be fine with one port. Or I don't know it will probably result in a 1 to 5 C increase in temps.

 

Hmm I just realized the OP said he wants to put this in a speaker... I thought he was trying to stuff this into a subwoofer. Speakers use significantly smaller magnets, so why others are tripping about that makes no sense. But dang that is going to be one massive speaker to house an ATX mobo and GPU. I don't even think that could fit in my center speaker and the drivers they came with.

[carsonwen]

Shielded speakers will completely solve the magnet issue. As for the heat issue. You cannot drill holes into a speaker box as they need to be airtight or close to it for the sound signature to be maintained. They technically also need to maintain the same internal air volume... so a pc inside would certainly affect that. But the volume thing will only change the low frequency tuning slightly. So you could put the pc inside, it would need to be boxed, like a air tight section that is placed inside the speaker cabinet, and it would need to have ventilation and fans out of the back or side of the cabinet. So basically you isolate the pc section and ventilate it.

[carsonwen]

you really in the end, just end up putting a small form factor pc case into your speaker cabinet...

[straight_stewie]

20 hours ago, Con said:

 

I've had this idea of building a computer inside of a speaker, and instead of using the mesh covered speakers as fans, I've been thinking about attaching them to the motherboard as the centre speaker, or use a separate sound card (usb) to make it a separate audio device, like for VoIP.

 

I thought about making sure the speaker is significantly under-powered so that it doesn't constantly vibrate the internal components of the computer, but that it's loud enough for use as a surround or voice call speaker.

 

I was just wondering if you could vibrate a computer to death, maybe make the RAM come loose and cause crashes, even though the plan is the mount the motherboard to the back of the speaker, directly underneath/behind the magnets of the speaker components. Maybe SO-DIMM wouldn't shake apart?

 

Let me know if you're aware of any problems that vibrations can cause to a computer, and it's fans and other components. It may use solid state drives apposed to mechanical, and it might have an optical disk in the speaker as well.

 

• Speakers vibrate, alot. While you will surely be able to find or build machines that are resistant to this, there will definitely be some problems. Stress/time = failure.
• Speakers are basically gigantic magnets, and computers hate magnets, so take that one however you want. 
• Attaching a computer to a speaker in any way will reduce the sound quality of the speaker (it will change all sorts of T/S values all around). 

All of the above means that you can do this, but if you do all you will be left with is a shitty sounding speaker and a computer that will either break immediately or will break soon while experiencing many crashes and drive failures due to large and constant magnetic field fluctuations.