Looking for quiet Northwood case

[igxqrrl]

I'm building a Northwood system, and would like to ensure quiet operation. My
current Tualatin system is a bit loud for my liking, but I'm not familiar with the
dissipation characteristics of the P4 (I believe the Tualatin runs fairly cool).

My primary concern is keeping the system cool and quiet, though, and I'm willing to
underclock the processor if necessary to meet these goals. So my questions:

1) What temperature should I expect a 2.4 to run at with standard cooling
mechanisms (heatsink and fan I guess)

2) Are there 'quiet' cases, or just 'quiet' power supplies?

3) If money were no object, what would be the quietest cooling available for the
Northwood, short of active methods like liquid cooling?

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[Shide1]

I built a northwood 1.6a in the Fong Kai 320 case with an antec 350W ps. It is extremely quiet, and beleave me when I say that noise matters to me. I used the retail intel heatsink. The case has room for a 92mm in back and 120mm in front, but I am not using any case fans. There really is no need because temps are so low, and because the antec power supply has two fans. The box idles at 25c and load at 31c. I am also using a western digital hard drive which I can not hear at all in this case. You cannot even hear this thing on in a silent room.





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[KenAF]

There are some better cases for noise insulation at $$$....but I agree with Shide, Fong Kai are very good; you will be hard-pressed to find another case that will insulate noise as well for <=$100.

I would add a 120mm L1A to the front running at 5 volts to ensure positive pressure; for rear, simply use a low noise power supply like the new Antec series. With this case, you'll have very very low noise (assuming you have a reasonably quiet hard drive and use rubber grommets everywhere) and will be able to overclock the 1.6A to at least 2400MHz. When you upgrade to a 2.53 or 2.66 GHz P4, you can add a 92mm to the rear running at 5volts or 7volts, which should more than suffice for a P4 at 3.0+GHz.

Order the following:
- Fong Kai 320 (in beige or black)
- Rheobus, v2.0
- Panaflo L1A 120mm fan (2wire lead for use with Rheobus)
- Panaflo L1A 92mm fan (2wire lead for use with Rheobus)
- One of just-released Antec power supplies (Antec web site down so I can't link)
- rubber grommets to insert inside fan mount holes (you may need to drill case mounting holes with a larger drill bit so grommets fit)

Total cost: ~$200, or about $150 if you design/build your own rheobus

 

[igxqrrl]

<< There are some better cases for noise insulation at $$$....but I agree with Shide, Fong Kai are very good; you will be hard-pressed to find another case that will insulate noise as well for <=$100.

I would add a 120mm L1A to the front running at 5 volts to ensure positive pressure; for rear, simply use a low noise power supply like the new Antec series. With this case, you'll have very very low noise (assuming you have a reasonably quiet hard drive and use rubber grommets everywhere) and will be able to overclock the 1.6A to at least 2400MHz. When you upgrade to a 2.53 or 2.66 GHz P4, you can add a 92mm to the rear running at 5volts or 7volts, which should more than suffice for a P4 at 3.0+GHz.

Order the following:
- Fong Kai 320 (in beige or black)
- Rheobus, v2.0
- Panaflo L1A 120mm fan (2wire lead for use with Rheobus)
- Panaflo L1A 92mm fan (2wire lead for use with Rheobus)
- One of just-released Antec power supplies (Antec web site down so I can't link)
- rubber grommets to insert inside fan mount holes (you may need to drill case mounting holes with a larger drill bit so grommets fit)

Total cost: ~$200, or about $150 if you design/build your own rheobus >>




Thank you both VERY MUCH for the recommendation, that is exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks!