I am quite proud of the parts I managed to cram into my NSK1480 (see sig). I slowly aimed to kill each stock noise-generating part with new ones as follows:
1) Replaced PSU fan with Noctua NF-R8. My warranty is void, but I tore out the terrible 80mm fan cooling the 350W PSU, and managed to shoehorn in a normal 80mm fan. Huge reduction in noise from this alone. The slim PSU is a tad underpowered but as it is reportedly made by Seasonic and is 80+ I am hoping it holds up (which it has for almost a year).
2) Replaced stock tri-cool fans from Antec with Noctua NF-R8s and Scythe S-flexes. The Scythe fans are a huge disappointment; I had two of the 80mm 1000rpm fans which were fantastic for several months until they started buzzing. I RMAed them, but Scythe could only offer the 2800rpm versions as replacement. These ones push a lot of air but buzz horribly, even with undervolting. The Noctuas age much better; they are worth the premium.
3) Replaced stock intel cooler with Scythe (Big) Shuriken. My Q8200 has a plain Shuriken and the exhaust fan is sufficient to cool it. I haven't tried that yet with my i5 2400; the 120mm slipstream fan on the Big Shuriken I installed on the i5 is extremely quiet so I don't really mind; for some reason Scythe has excellent sleeve-bearing fans but horrible ball-bearing ones, and the orientation+size of my case precludes using them for exhaust (no 80mm sleeve fans, and I'd mount them horizontally).
4) The video card was extremely tricky. The HD 5750 isn't a super-fast card, but it's much faster than typical slim cards, and the only comparable nvidia competition is the GTS 450. There are no aftermarket slim/half height coolers around, and the stock cooler had terrible 40mm fans. I took out the fans and used a Silenx 60mm fan (the largest which would fit in my case) mounted with rubber bands to the video card, but this wasn't a very safe long-term solution, and the fan, while not buzzy, was still a tad noisy for me.
I recently bought a used HD 4830 for my living room PC (in a much roomier Lian-Li A04) and was impressed by the Arctic Cooling S1 (rev 2). I found it on sale for $20 at NCIX so I bought another one to try using for the NSK1480.
Obviously it is far too big to fit into a slim case as is but I read that the heatpipes could be gently bent to fit. The result was the following:
I was extremely afraid of breaking the heatpipes but with slow/gentle bending it eventually bent into a C-shape. It was very long so I had to route cables through one of the two empty 3.5" drive bays (my two SSDs are in a 2.5"-3.5" adapter allowing both to fit in one bay).
After booting up, I made sure my temps didn't go crazy (since I could have mounted it poorly). Fortunately, nothing bad happened and I idle at about 50-55C, and peak at just under 90C according to CCC. This is comparable to the stock heatsink with either stock fans or the 60mm silenx. I have lost all of my other pci-e x1 slots but it's not a big deal for me.
I hope some of you find this remotely interesting
1) Replaced PSU fan with Noctua NF-R8. My warranty is void, but I tore out the terrible 80mm fan cooling the 350W PSU, and managed to shoehorn in a normal 80mm fan. Huge reduction in noise from this alone. The slim PSU is a tad underpowered but as it is reportedly made by Seasonic and is 80+ I am hoping it holds up (which it has for almost a year).
2) Replaced stock tri-cool fans from Antec with Noctua NF-R8s and Scythe S-flexes. The Scythe fans are a huge disappointment; I had two of the 80mm 1000rpm fans which were fantastic for several months until they started buzzing. I RMAed them, but Scythe could only offer the 2800rpm versions as replacement. These ones push a lot of air but buzz horribly, even with undervolting. The Noctuas age much better; they are worth the premium.
3) Replaced stock intel cooler with Scythe (Big) Shuriken. My Q8200 has a plain Shuriken and the exhaust fan is sufficient to cool it. I haven't tried that yet with my i5 2400; the 120mm slipstream fan on the Big Shuriken I installed on the i5 is extremely quiet so I don't really mind; for some reason Scythe has excellent sleeve-bearing fans but horrible ball-bearing ones, and the orientation+size of my case precludes using them for exhaust (no 80mm sleeve fans, and I'd mount them horizontally).
4) The video card was extremely tricky. The HD 5750 isn't a super-fast card, but it's much faster than typical slim cards, and the only comparable nvidia competition is the GTS 450. There are no aftermarket slim/half height coolers around, and the stock cooler had terrible 40mm fans. I took out the fans and used a Silenx 60mm fan (the largest which would fit in my case) mounted with rubber bands to the video card, but this wasn't a very safe long-term solution, and the fan, while not buzzy, was still a tad noisy for me.
I recently bought a used HD 4830 for my living room PC (in a much roomier Lian-Li A04) and was impressed by the Arctic Cooling S1 (rev 2). I found it on sale for $20 at NCIX so I bought another one to try using for the NSK1480.
Obviously it is far too big to fit into a slim case as is but I read that the heatpipes could be gently bent to fit. The result was the following:
I was extremely afraid of breaking the heatpipes but with slow/gentle bending it eventually bent into a C-shape. It was very long so I had to route cables through one of the two empty 3.5" drive bays (my two SSDs are in a 2.5"-3.5" adapter allowing both to fit in one bay).
After booting up, I made sure my temps didn't go crazy (since I could have mounted it poorly). Fortunately, nothing bad happened and I idle at about 50-55C, and peak at just under 90C according to CCC. This is comparable to the stock heatsink with either stock fans or the 60mm silenx. I have lost all of my other pci-e x1 slots but it's not a big deal for me.
I hope some of you find this remotely interesting
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