I want to shrink and silence (and cool) my PC

[MrChad]

First off, my current system:

Athlon XP 1600+ processor w/ Thermalright ALX-800 and Panaflo 80mm L1A
Asus A7N8X Deluxe nForce 2 motherboard
2x256 MB PC2100 Crucial RAM
ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro video card
80 GB Seagate 7200.7 8MB PATA HD
27 GB IBM Deskstar 34GXP PATA HD
Yamaha CRW-F1 CD-RW
Pioneer DVD-116 DVD drive
Antec TruePower 430W power supply

All in all, not too bad for what I need. I don't game very much (making the video card overkill) and I don't overclock. I have made some effort to reduce noise (upgrading to Antec power supply, installing new heatsink / fan on processor), but my PC is still a bit noisy. My guess is that the IBM hard drive (which is almost 5 years old) is the culprit.

Here's what I'd like to do: I want to shrink my PC (by moving to a SFF case) and reduce noise (and maybe even some heat). I don't need the latest and greatest processor, and I'd like to keep my costs at or below $400.

So far I'm thinking:
* replace DVD and CD-RW drive with single DVD+/-RW drive
* remove IBM hard drive (possibly replace with external hard drive)
* move to small form factor case / motherboard
* replace processor with newer (and cooler) AMD processor

Does anyone have any recommendations for specific components? Any input is welcome.

 

[CraigRT]

Replace the HSF on the 9800 if you can.

It's not exactly quiet, and will help your overall system volume level a lot I think.

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: CraigRT
Replace the HSF on the 9800 if you can.

It's not exactly quiet, and will help your overall system volume level a lot I think.

Any recommendations? I've never replaced the HSF on a video card. Is it difficult to do?

 

[aatf510]

It's very easy to replace the HSF on a vid card. A 12-year old can do it with instructions.
If you want your PC to be quiet, you do not have to replace the processor, just get a better HSF for your proc. However, IMO, moving into a small form factor case would make "your quieter" project more difficult.

 

[bobalong]

Check this out

 

[biostud]

This might be a good GPU cooler

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: toattett
It's very easy to replace the HSF on a vid card. A 12-year old can do it with instructions.
If you want your PC to be quiet, you do not have to replace the processor, just get a better HSF for your proc. However, IMO, moving into a small form factor case would make "your quieter" project more difficult.

Actually, it should make it easier, he'll just have to deal with almost no expansion. The SHuttle XPCs can get by, not counting video card, on two fans (PSU and case exhaust), and neither really need to be all that powerful. The main thing to wonder is how loud is the video card? I would think a Panaflo L1A at stock spped (and for the ALX-800, it will need to be) and the TruePower PSU would be much louder than a BBA 9800 Pro AIW. Also, going SFF likely means he'll either lack a PCI slot, or not be able to cool it any quieter, or both (that Zalman does has a fan...)

For the OP:
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewforum.php?f=20
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