Quiet PC project, Phase One - Success!

[NewbieCanadian]

Hey all,

I've finished the first part of my quest for a 20 dBA rig, and it's a success! Everything's running at pre-mod temps or lower (!) and it's noticeably quieter.

w00t.

Nothing too mod-crazy here, just aiming for a quieter, more attractive machine in my P.O.S. $35 case.


PART ONE
================
- Replace 40mm Northbridge fan with Zalman heatsink - ~25 dBA -> 0 dBA = SUCCESS
- Replace 60mm Thermaltake heatsink fan with adapter + 80mm Vantec Stealth - ~ 31 dBA -> 21 dBA = SUCCESS

PART TWO
================
- Replace 80mm Sunon heatsink fan and 80mm Sunon case fans with 80mm Vantec Stealth fans - ~ 32 dBA -> 21 dBA
- Carve out pressed fan grilles from case body, replace with low-restriction fan grilles - greater airflow

PART THREE (undecided)
================
- Carve 80mm top blowhole for use with Vantec Stealth
- Carve 80mm side blowhole aimed at HSF, for use with Vantec Stealth

Just gotta wait for the last two Vantecs to arrive by mail, and borrow a Dremel from someone.

If all of that works - time for a window and some quiet-HD enclosures!

*grin *

Thanks to all for your advice - more to come as the project continues!

 

[dinde]

if u really want quiet, dont add a fan on top or on the side, and dont add a window.
all this will increase noise.

 

[RalfHutter]

Originally posted by: dinde
if u really want quiet, dont add a fan on top or on the side, and dont add a window.
all this will increase noise.

Listen to dinde, he's right.

 

[jagr10]

I don't think there's such thing as a quiet pc anymore.

 

[chiggachu]

do windows make your case louder??

 

[dinde]

well, it really depends. my case is made of fairly thick steel. if u add a window, they are thin and plastic so sound will go through it much easier.

 

[Bv3]

Yeah, my case is thin aluminum so when I put in a window it made it a little quieter if I'm sitting to the side where the window is.

 

[Bonesdad]

Since you want to add more fans, I assume your temps are not as cool as you like...what is your case/cpu temp after the above mods? Do you need the extra fans?

I have a fan blowing in right over my CPU, lowered CPU temps by 3 degrees. I dint have to cut it tho, it was there

 

[NewbieCanadian]

Okay, fine, the window was a bad idea... *grin*

Since you want to add more fans, I assume your temps are not as cool as you like

That would, in fact, be my only motivation for adding more fans. I'm running an Athlon 1.4 under a Thermaltake 6cu (aka POS) heatsink, so my CPU temps are 8-10 C higher than I'd like.

I'm currently at 27/45 running Win2K, Winamp and one browser window. I'm guessing ambient room temps are around 20 C, so it's mostly the chipset that has me dissatisfied.

I figure I can either drop $50+ (CAN) I don't have on a quality heatsink, or spend an hour with a Dremel installing fans I already have. Given the choice, I'm inclined to try adding a side intake fan aimed at my HSF, in the hopes that fresh, cool, filtered air directly into the heatsink will drop my chipset temps.

After that, it seems to make sense to move the 80mm Stealth I currently have as a rear exhaust up top as an exhaust blowhole - logic suggests that this would remove more hot air from my case more thoroughly than my current rear exhaust.

I've seen several examples of people foregoing the traditional "bottom-front-intake / mid-rear-exhaust" model in favour of a "side-intake / top-exhaust" setup. Seems workable?

Any thoughts / suggestions?

 

[Cerb]

I don't think there's such thing as a quiet pc anymore.

There is, just not with tons of fans. I've made a few near silent PCs, and I plan on using what I know of them to make mine silent.
Evercase E4252--heavy top and side panels. The side fan has a rubbery ring that keeps the side from vibrating.
Enermax/Antec PSU. Not quiet, but several models are close enough. I can take a 'whirr' of air.
Enermax adjustable case fans dialed down, Enermax thermal control fan, Panaflo L1A, and I'll try some NMB Ultra Quiet fans (since I can get 5 for $11+s&h, I'm going to ).
From royally screwing it up myself (though not as bad as it was stock), and learning by playing a bit while building and repairing, I've learned the following on quiet stuff. It's annoying that it will cost me around $300 now, but if I had done any of this when I upgraded, it would have been around $50 , as now I must replace parts rather than getting different ones.

* Heavy but small case, like the Evercase, some Palo Altos, and most Min Maw towers.
* The Min Maw are quiet due to haveing big plastic side panels, but other than that, they are average [tower] cases. I do love their desktop cases, though. I can't find pictures of the side panels, BTW, so don't know if all models have plastic ones or just the series used by MicronPC.
* I have a case of what used to be my friend's HP...it's a µATX mini-tower with the PSU on the side (which is why it has gotten no use!)...but it's as heavy as some of the full towers near it. Also a Compaq that was almost identical (except for the places where they could have made it a good case but cut corners--in several places by not cutting the case--it had room for a real ATX supply, FI, but the space wasn't cut for the fan and switch). It ran quietly, and had plastic feet on the inside (the same ones that are usually on the bottom of office shelves and such) pushing firmly against the case's cover.

* Few fans. PSU exhaust, CPU (and a big slow one for that), and exhaust above the CPU.
Maybe an intake near the HDs,and this should probably be a quiet fan at 7v, as HDs need colling, but 3-4 CFM is good enough to keep most of them luke-warm.

* Alternatively mount the HDs (grommet or enclosure--suspension has a few drawbacks). Some of the old school PCs (either the gateway 2000 or compaq workstations...they were both non-ATX original pentiums) quieted the good old WD HDs with a special screw I've yet to see again (had a tamper-proof torx head that was very thin with a rubber washer underneath that couldn't be removed from the screw).
* You can get the evercase drive cage and stand w/o the case at Newegg.
* If grommets won't be your thing, you can get enclosures that work well. Suspension is always there, but has a few potential problems.

* Get a Zalman HS for the video card. Even fanless, the flower type works well. While I haven't seen it myself, I've heard only good things about their heatpipe models as well.
* Your other option is to get a nice 1U cooler and affix to the card--but the Zalman heatpipe cooler can be gotten for just over $20 now, so why bother?

* Pray that one day we can have cases like Dell's: plastic to absorb the vibrations, and great design on top of it.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Originally posted by: chiggachu
do windows make your case louder??

hehe.... Yeah my system when running Windows has about 6x the hard drive activity compaired to running Linux, so it is a LOT louder with Windows

 

[chiggachu]

Grrr...you Anandtechers take things so literally...too damn clever....

Originally posted by: Fallen Kell

Originally posted by: chiggachu
do windows make your case louder??

hehe.... Yeah my system when running Windows has about 6x the hard drive activity compaired to running Linux, so it is a LOT louder with Windows

 

[T9D]

..

 

[Cerb]

That's why I bought an intel. They run much cooler, I think that's the first fight in the battle. So I only have one front fan and one back fan and have them hooked to fan adjusters so they are running even slower (so even quieter than 20db). I have my CPU fan adjusted all the way down. Plus my CPU fan is a zalman that pulls the air away and blows it out the case (helps temps a lot). My 2.4 ghz is super quiet and runs less than 40 degrees.

Actually they don't run cooler. That has been false since the Palomino. The TBirds were some hot mofos, though.
The same HSF and case fan setup will result in similar cooling on an AMD setup of equivalent performance.
A 2800+ [/b]can[/b] be cooled by an $8 cooler...I just don't want to be in the same room. I will definitely admit that Intel has it with the retail HSFs, though.
We just have too many people around here focused on looks, and who can take loud noises, IMO .
The Evercase I am going to switch to can be well cooled by 3 fans: front intake (for HDs...a 120mm will fit, so that can be silent), rear exhaust (going NMB Ultra Quiet or Enermax adjustable at lowest), and PSU exhaust. The benefit from adding fans is minimal, unless you really care about those extra few degrees. I personally wouldn't get the Zalman flower, as in reviews, it seems to have toruble w/ low airflow and high ambient temps (even when other heatsinks do fine), and my case's ambient temp will reach and/or exceed 100ºF in the summer.