http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/ Engadget Comments for HIS iClear claims to reduce noise, really just fills an empty PCIe slot http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 6:20AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 7:35AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 8:03AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 9:14AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 9:51AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 10:47AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 1:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/
Hey, I'm looking to buy some elbow grease, and... uh... headlight fluid?]]>Jun 26th 2008 6:10AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Are we talking fan noise? How could it effect that? Who would buy this?
WTF???]]>Jun 25th 2008 6:25AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/
...electrical noise you numpty!! :)]]>Jun 25th 2008 6:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 6:40AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 6:55AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/
Someone with a smartphone that can copy-paste please include a link for citation (I have an iPhone dang it)]]>Jun 25th 2008 8:13AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 10:28AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 10:30AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 1:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/
1: The card bus should provide two voltage "rails" to power devices on the bus. These rails are DC, one at a positive value and one at 0(ground.) These rails are used to power the devices. Power flows from the high one, through some load, to the low one. Imagine a store of water at the top of a contraption, a water wheel in the middle, and another store of water in the bottom.
When current is consumed from the rails, the voltages of the rails have a tendency to "dip." Imagine the upper store of water coming down slightly when tons of water is let out. When the rails dip, bad things can happen. Probably nothing you need to worry about, but it is a measurable phenomenon.
Capacitors store energy as unit charges(electrons, pieces of current) on two parallel plates at different voltages. Capacitors resist changes in voltage by dumping charge. Thus, a capacitor between ground and your positive voltage rail can reduce fluctuations in the rail voltage.

2: Current flowing through a wire creates electromagnetic radiation. Electromagnetic radiation can then float around in space, and cause current flow in another wire. This can be bad. If you have very fast transitions between no current and some current, you can expect more electromagnetic radiation, and more induced current elsewhere.
Ground planes(big pieces of conducting material attached to ground) can absorb electromagnetic radiation so that it does not penetrate to the wires on the other side. This is what Faraday cages do.

tl;dr version: It may not actually do anything useful, but it probably does do "something."]]>Jun 25th 2008 9:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/
And before anyone suggests analogue audio, if noise was a big issue you'd be using an external firewire or USB device anyway!]]>Jun 25th 2008 6:27AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 9:51AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 10:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 6:29AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 6:29AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 2:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 6:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 11:34AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 6:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/
I just bought a new PC, a barebone, with a GT 8800 graphics card, and I'm currently using the on-board sound input for my headset. Now, while I'm on the desktop everything is fine, but when I switch to WoW people have told me they get a lot of noise on teamspeak. So, my guess has already been that it's the graphics card and the on-board audio not playing well together. Of course the easiest solution will be just to buy a dedicated soundcard, but that iClear card might actually be onto something, though I can't tell if it actually works. But it's not that far fetched, and it being just some capacitors actually makes sense. It's not "doing" anything, just filtering interferences in the power circuit, or something like that ... and my limited hardware knowledge tells me that's exactly what capacitors can do.

Anyway, don't mock it until somebody at least tried it. If NewEgg wants someone to test it, I'ld be happy to do so ... I live in germany though ...]]>Jun 25th 2008 6:45AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 8:04AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 8:23AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/
And if you've got to stick a bunch of extra capacitors across your PCIe rails in order to operate your devices properly, it's time for a new motherboard.]]>Jun 25th 2008 10:39AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 11:09AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 6:46AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/
I'd say it actually does something more than just filling the empty PCIe slot. That would be filtering out the power. There are a bunch of motorized components inside a computer (hard drive, fans) that cause some awful noise in the power lines..

External sound cards sound better, in part because they don't share the power with any motorized device. So this would indeed help to the cause... Not alot, but, something is something (other than a slot filler)]]>Jun 25th 2008 6:51AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 6:53AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 6:53AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 6:54AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 12:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/
Some part of the bus noise eliminator?
]]>Jun 25th 2008 7:22AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/
At any rate it's not quite DC power yet, as it still resembles alternating current in a way, albeit an all-positive way. So what they do is they put a capacitor, usually about 5000uF (micro Farads), or 5 smaller 1000uF capacitors wired in parallel, or a larger number of even smaller ones so that their values add up to around 5000uF or whatever the designer calls for, between the output of the rectifier and ground.

what this does is when the wavy DC signal comes in, it charges up the capacitor until the wavy DC signal starts having a lesser voltage (remember, at this point the DC signal is wavy and varies from 5 to 0 volts, or 12, or whatever the power supply is making it into). As the voltage from the rectifier drops, the capacitor is charged up to the max that it had been, say in this case 5 volts. So as the rectifier drops in voltage, the 5 volt capacitor wants to start discharging so that it can maintain that 5 volts. It does this by releasing an arbitrary, and theoretically infinite, amount of current, into the circuit. This voltage will slowly decrease, as capacitors don't have enough energy to maintain 5 volts, so basically what you get is a smoother DC current signal, which instead of lookign like wavy hills, starts at zero as the power supply is turned on and then goes quickly up to 5 volts and gradually declines to about 4 or 4.2, depending on the capacitors, and then goes quickly back up to 5 volts as the recitifier's voltage goes back up to 5 volts.

That's how a power supply works. Any decent power supply does a good enough job of this. This card looks like it basically is a filter. Which is highly unnessesary for almost all applications. I tinker around with musical electronics, amps and so forth, and i can tell you that you can't hear any difference between types of filters that are within certain standard design tolerances. If you think you can, it is probably a placebo effect. Or you have a poor power supply.

This card is a lot of BS as long as you don't have the crappiest of power supplies.]]>Jun 25th 2008 7:28AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 7:35AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 8:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 8:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/
From a board point of view the purpose of the card, I believe, is to bring those decoupling capacitors closer to the PCI supply rails, these are 3.3V, the benefit will be those onboard audio chip, reducing those odd blimping hissing you hear on the headphones, cause by digital signal ramming about.

This is not unlike electronic test equipment that fits into the PC driven by software, on those, to remove any interference, additional isolated power supply is build onto the board.

It is plausible that such a simple application could work and be effective. ]]>Jun 25th 2008 8:16AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 8:18AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/
The reason you put caps on the board and the bus it is to provide energy that is closer to where it is being used canceling out the wire impedance.
(The capacitance on the power line is good [in this case] and on the ground line is bad - it is the inductance that REALLY kills you - think current change limiters) This is why you not only put small caps on the bus you put even more right at most chips.

Digital switching is really noisy. Every time you open a transistor you dump its power on the ground line - too many things switch at once and ground temporarily even raises just as the signal lines drop.

The theory is sound - augment the motherboard to add even more power storage/filtering to the pci-e bus (it should already have some). The other components can make the filtering even more active than just a cap. A big metalized plate in the rest of the board could also blog transmissive noise (no better than aluminum foil would - but hey).

We WANT this to be complete BS - and it may be - but the theory has SOME merit.]]>Jun 25th 2008 10:23AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/
The bit I really don't understand is why they need that massive piece of plastic just to hold 6 caps...]]>Jun 25th 2008 7:43AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/]]>Jun 25th 2008 7:51AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 1:36PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/]]>Jul 12th 2008 2:10PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/25/his-iclear-claims-to-reduce-noise-really-just-fills-an-empty-pc/Jun 25th 2008 10:43AM