[semi-extrinsic]

Wrt. noise: decibels (dB, "perceived loudness") are logarithmic in sound energy, so going from e.g. a single GTX 1080 at 47 dB to 8x GTX 1080 only increases the noise to 56 dB, which is noticeable but not really annoying, and very far from requiring ear protection. Recommendations for office spaces is that noise be kept < 60 dB IIRC.

Wrt. cases: I think a regular E-ATX compatible case should be enough, but it all depends on the motherboard, and those don't exist yet. Existing 8x GPU servers have been 4U rack mount dual socket affairs; you can also already get 7x GPU dual socket "EEB" motherboards and workstation style cases, but none that will do full 16x for all the GPUs.

[lorenzhs]

Your noise scale is off. 60dB is restaurant conversation level noise.

For comparison, Notebookcheck's system noise scale is 30dB=silent, 40dB=audible, 50dB=loud.

[semi-extrinsic]

Yup, sorry, my bad. 60 dB is definitely loud enough to be annoying. Still, 8 GPUs are not 8x louder than one, which was the main point.

[lorenzhs]

That's not the point. 80 dB isn't twice as loud as 40 dB, either, it's much more than that.

[kogepathic]

> Recommendations for office spaces is that noise be kept < 60 dB IIRC.

I'd quit if I had to work in an office space with 60 dB noise. That's like sitting next to a rack of 1U servers at "moderately angry bee swarm" fan level.

I personally cannot stand to be near a noise source above 40 dB for any extended length of time (more than a few hours).

But 60 dB... wow. Can't imagine how shitty that must be to work in for 8 hours per day.

[JorgeGT]

Seriously. Here in my country (Spain) the recommended maximum level for office spaces is 45 dB(A) of equivalent continuous sound level (NBE-CA-88 regulation, only in Spanish: http://www.ual.es/Depar/proyectosingenieria/descargas/Normas...)