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I've got kind of a tough decision here, regarding cases/quietness

M

MDesigner

Platinum Member
I'm building a new rig very soon. I'm trying to decide what to do as far as the case goes. Lately I've just been buying retail box Athlon CPUs, and using the stock heatsink, slapping it in, and booting up. Works fine, really. But this time around I want something even more quiet than usual.

For my new rig, I'm considering the new Antec Sonata II case, and line this inside the case:
http://www.quietpcusa.com/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=8&Product_ID=298&CATID=6

ripping out the Antec PSU and eBaying it, and getting a 500W FSP PSU. I might stick with the retail Athlon64 X2 CPU + heatsink, unless someone can convince me I'm better off getting OEM CPU and getting the heatsink separate and doing the whole Arctic Silver thing.

Or, I could just get a different case altogether.. (insert your suggestion here).. no PSU, so I can just buy the PSU separately. Any ideas? Thoughts/suggestions?
 
Antec SLK3000B > Sonata II. Doesn't come with a case so you save a bit of money on that.

The stock HSF that comes with the X2 4400+ CPUs and higher (and all Opterons) is excellent, performing on par with the XP-90.
 
Why is the SLK3000B better than the Sonata II?

Anyway, doesn't matter.. the SLK3000B is too tall 🙁 The space I put my case in is tight.. my Sonata v1 just barely fits and it's 16.7" tall.
 
I agree with the above. The Sonata II is prettier but as a starting point for a quiet PC the 3000-B (<$50. shipped from Provantage.com) is just as good and you get to choose your own PSU. The Acoustipak for the SII would likely fit the 3000 as well but I doubt you'd get your money's worth from it. Most review sites don't show a lot of benefit from that type of treatment. The secret to a quiet PC is to use reasonably quiet accys like fans and drives to begin with. Isolate vibration sources from the case itself (use the rubber pin fan mounts rather than the silicone gasket type for example) and create indirect paths from sound sources to your ear - items like the Silverstone PSU muffler might be useful in that regard. A couple of squares of Sonex mounted on the wall(s) nearest your PC might help as well.

. Perhaps you might want to look at cases like the Arctic Cooling Silentium series or the Nexus Breeze as a starting point rather than trying to do your own from scratch.

Some reviews have commented on how spooky it is to start up a Silentium-housed system - it seems like nothing is happening and then, blip the OS startup screen appears. While others don't seem to agree - I think that the PSU and/or case fans in that review had received damage in shipping somehow. The xbitlabs.com review looks to be well done and even-handed.
. But the Silentiums do limit your options a bit re the power of the system they will contain because of the way the PSU is modified. Fortunately they start with a top-notch, Seasonic unit, so most levels of rig can be accomodated with no problem.

http://www.svc.com et al. carry the Silentium line but the Nexus Breeze is much harder to find at a reasonable price.

If I didn't usually have at least three HDs in my system at any given time, I'd be seriously considering a Silentium for my next case.

.bh.
 
It's always better to create less noise to begin with rather than try to muffle noise that's already been created, thus I wouldn't recommend any noise muffling/damping products as I believe the money better spent on components that start out quieter or cooler running.

The case is a good place to start and the SLK3000B mentioned by Howard is a good choice. I don't remember if it came with any fans, but if not then get some "quiet" 120mm fans for it. Any number of fans can be quiet on a fan controller, but you can just get a Nexus "Real Quiet" fan and be done with it. A pair of those fans in this case would be more than a match for the Sonata II at a lower price, thus you wouldn't have to hassle with trying to pawn off the bundled PSU that you don't want to use.

For PSU head over to SilentPCReview.com and see what they say. Though many people will argue, if you just don't want to hassle with thinking about choices or doing the research, just get a Seasonic S12 series PSU and be done with it.

For CPU cooling, spend $45 on a Scythe Ninja passive cooler and pocket the extra $45 that you would have spent on the Sonata AcoustiPack kit. Since the heatsink doesn't generate noise, nothing to dampen. 😉 Perhaps use that extra $45 for a video card HSF to replace stock, such as whatever current Zalman or Arctic Cooling unit fits your card.

Last thing is hard drive. I believe the SLK3000B has rubber grommets for the HDD bays which will dampen most of the sound from modern fluid bearing HDDs (which is pretty much any being sold today). Sometimes you'll encounter a HDD that is excessively rough. I had a Samsung 160GB like this - normally known to be very quiet but somehow it was unbalanced and would get the whole case buzzing. If you have such a hard drive you need to either completely soft-decouple it from the chassis or just get a new drive because it is impossible to adequately dampen those vibrations. Some manufacturers will let you RMA a rough spinning drive. I RMA'd a Maxtor once because it was exceptionally rough spinning, and they accepted that reason.
 
Originally posted by: Zap
It's always better to create less noise to begin with rather than try to muffle noise that's already been created, thus I wouldn't recommend any noise muffling/damping products as I believe the money better spent on components that start out quieter or cooler running.

The case is a good place to start and the SLK3000B mentioned by Howard is a good choice. I don't remember if it came with any fans, but if not then get some "quiet" 120mm fans for it.
Click to expand...
Comes with one 120x25 Antec Tri-Cool fan which isn't bad by any means.

 
Well, the SLK3000B won't fit in the ONLY space I've got right now.. so I may have to just get the Sonata II.

However, the main noise concern I have is the two eVGA GeForce 7900GT cards I'll have in there. The CPU I can keep quiet just fine. And what about the power supply? In another thread, I've determined I need a 600W power supply. I filled out the eXtreme PSU Calc and came up with about 450W.. requiring about 37A. But none of the 450Ws can output 37A.. so I wound up with the FSP FX-600GLN.

So uh.. I'm not quite sure what to do at this point.
 
Originally posted by: MDesigner
Well, the SLK3000B won't fit in the ONLY space I've got right now.. so I may have to just get the Sonata II.

However, the main noise concern I have is the two eVGA GeForce 7900GT cards I'll have in there. The CPU I can keep quiet just fine. And what about the power supply? In another thread, I've determined I need a 600W power supply. I filled out the eXtreme PSU Calc and came up with about 450W.. requiring about 37A. But none of the 450Ws can output 37A.. so I wound up with the FSP FX-600GLN.

So uh.. I'm not quite sure what to do at this point.
Click to expand...
Get aftermarket coolers for the video cards.
 
The Sonata II is fine. It just doesn't have as good as airflow as the SLK3000B.

You can quiet the 7900GT with an aftermarket heatsink. Look at some Artic Cooling and Zalman coolers. They're well respected by many silent pc enthusiasts and are great performers.

As for the PSU, Seasonic seems to be the recomended choice as for silence goes.
 
OK, so for the 7900GT cards, I remove the fans and install an aftermarket heatsink.

For the PSU, I can look at Seasonic..but it has to have enough power output for the two 7900GT cards, two SATA drives, 2GB RAM, a couple PCI cards, a few USB devices, etc.

And for the CPU.. http://www.quietpcusa.com/acb/showprod.cfm?&DID=8&CATID=3&ObjectGroup_ID=32
Lots of options there, but I have no idea which is good. There are a few Scythe Ninja CPU heatsinks. I'd need to look at unbiased reviews to pick something out. Plus, there's always the off chance that these huge-ass HS's don't fit in the case or on the motherboard properly because something else gets in the way.
 
OK, so for the 7900GT cards, I remove the fans and install an aftermarket heatsink.
Click to expand...
ARCTIC COOLING Accelero X1
Since it takes up 2 slots, you'll need to find out if it can fit on your SLI setup.

For the PSU, I can look at Seasonic..but it has to have enough power output for the two 7900GT cards, two SATA drives, 2GB RAM, a couple PCI cards, a few USB devices, etc.
Click to expand...
I honestly think this will be enough to power your PC.
SeaSonic S12-500 500W
But if you want to spend the extra money, the next model up is this.

Finally for the CPU:

ZALMAN CNPS9500 LED 92mm
 
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