QUIET SYSTEM UPGRADES: Tell me which of my upgrade choices aren't right and what to swap them with.

[yacoub]

At newegg this totals out to ~$1048 shipped. I'd like to keep the total at or under $1k if possible. Trying to go with a quality PSU, quietly cooled parts, and no interest in SLI or anything else crazy/expensive.

I have a case I plan to reuse, and in my current system I have 1GB (2x512MB) of Kingston pc3200 DDR400 184pin ram I think i can carry over from my current system (A7N8X Deluxe 2.0 board) to the new Socket-939 board (please let me know if that's not true).

I want to upgrade my CPU and GPU, and, although it might look like I'm building a system to overclock, my actual goal is to run a quieter system by using a 3rd party cooler on the CPU that will keep it cooler and quieter and allow me to remove a case fan, and swap the remaining case fan with an L-1A Panaflo.

Bolded parts are updates due to your responses below!

Board: DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D - Retail

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice - Retail

HSF for CPU: Thermalright XP90C over ZALMAN CNPS7700-CU - Retail

Fan for HSF: Panasonic FBL09A12M-1A 92mm Fan (from Coolerguys.com or other site - newegg does not sell 92mm Panaflos)

HD: Western Digital Raptor WD740GDRTL 74GB - Retail
Adding some form of vibration isolation to harddrive.

PowerSupply: SEASONIC S12-500 ATX12V 500W PS - Retail over Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-480 ATX12V 480W PS - Retail

GPU: SAPPHIRE 100105U Radeon X800XL PCI-E Ultimate Edition - Retail (Review says it runs cool and very quiet compared to reference design).

Anything I should switch for another part? Anything left out that would help make my system quieter without adding lots of heat? (Gigabyte has an X800XL that is passively cooled but it's a friggin' OVEN of heat so I'm going with the quietest actively cooled X800XL.)

Should I go with a motherboard that doesn't have any active cooling fans on it? I believe the DFI LanParty boards have a fan on the northbridge which might add noise?

Thanks.

 

[Excelsior]

If you are going for total, or close to, silence, then yes I would get a MB that doesnt have active cooling.

Is that Antec Truepower quiet, cause some might would suggest a Seasonic. And if you do replace one of the fans witht he Panaflo (Do you have more than one case fan?), have a quiet PSU, and a mobo without a fan, then the Raptor would no doubt be the loudest component of your system, at least when it is actively reading or writing.

 

[Continuity27]

As far as I know, all nForce 4 motherboards have actively cooled chipsets.

Also, many of them put the chipset in a certain location under a video card, making some passive heatsinks unmountable. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[DerelictDev]

Yea i would get something other than the raptor hd. Maybe a seagate. You wont see much of a performance difference. (2,3 seconds in loads?)

 

[Continuity27]

Originally posted by: DerelictDev
Yea i would get something other than the raptor hd. Maybe a seagate. You wont see much of a performance difference. (2,3 seconds in loads?)

I'm a Raptor fan myself... so I'm probably not the one to trust..

I think using the Raptor as the system drive will show more than a minor improvement.. the Raptor is mainly better at rapidly dealing with very small files, due to its great seek times... that's great for an OS. I'd use slightly slower, bigger drives for data storage though.

But again, it's up to you in the end.

 

[KoolDrew]

If you really do want quiet I would get a Samsung drive, but the Raptor does perform a lot better so it is your choice.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Lose the Raptor. For the price of that drive you could get a pair of Seagates, twice the size each, and put them in a RAID0.

- M4H

 

[svi]

Does your case actually use 60mm fans? If so, you might want to upgrade it.. 60mm fans should be avoided at all costs for a silent computer, because they're more obnoxious than larger fans (higher-pitched whine) and put out relatively little air.

And yeah, go for a passively cooled motherboard. A good passive heatsink is more than good enough for a typical northbridge.

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew
If you really do want quiet I would get a Samsung drive, but the Raptor does perform a lot better so it is your choice.

Buy a pair of SATA Samsungs and RAID 0 them and you'll have performance + quietness. Samsungs are the quietest of all the major hdd makers.

 

[IEC]

One other thing - if you REALLY want silence, check out http://www.silentpcreview.com for the latest in the "Silent Front".

 

[mshan]

"HSF for CPU: ZALMAN CNPS7700-CU - Retail"

I've owned a 7000B AlCu, a 7000B Cu, and a 7700 AlCu and none of them were what I would consider quiet.

They have really nice heat sinks, but generic fans that produce a good amount of bearing noise. The 7700 was particularly horrendous, sounding like a WWI propellor plane, even at 5V.

If you have other components that are moderately loud, they get drowned out by the other noises and may then seem quiet / silent. However, if your other components are quiet to start with, their generic fans motors very quickly become annoying.

Also, what computer case were you planning to use? Antec 3000B (Amazon.com usually has them cheap) and a Seasonic S12 430 or above would be a nice combo (EWiz has had them pretty cheap in the past)

 

[theMan]

thermalright xp-90>>>>>>>ZALMAN CNPS7700-CU. the xp-120 will fit on your board too, and is SUPER quiet, especially since you can pick the fan. get a nexus 120mm with the xp-120

 

[yacoub]

Ah you guys are already a wealth of information! Thank you much!!

While I catch up, I'd like to answer/ask a couple things you've asked:

Regarding hard drive noise, in my current system the high-pitched whistle/whine of the Maxtor Ultra 60GB/8MB/7200rpm drive is pretty much the loudest sound and I find it annoying. Yes, the fans I have make some noise but the hd noise is the most obnoxious to my ears, if I had to choose one sound to remove.

Regarding fans, my current case I'm not sure the name of but it's a pretty generic looking case. I just realized I actually DON'T have any case fans in it (lol?) - just an L-1A on the Thermaltake CPU heatsink, a stock ATI-brand 9800Pro hsf, and the two fans in the Antec PSU. So my system is already pretty quiet... but the ambient air in the case is pretty warm since I have no case fans in it. =P

 

[Rike]

Recommended upgrades for quiet comps:

Other have said it, Samsung drives. :thumbsup:

FanMaster Fan Bus
It's easy to set up and easy to use. I have a total of 10 fans running in my case; 6 of them are on the bus (extra wiring required!). When I have everything on it's lowest setting, my 36 gig Raptor is by far the loudest thing in the system.

Thermalright XP-90 w/ 92mm Panaflo L1BX
When on it's lowest setting on my fan bus, it's silent.

Zalman VF700-Cu VGA Heatsink
Again, when on the fan bus at lowest, you can't even hear it.

Lightweight Vinyl Sound Dampening Sheet
OK, this is a little more hardcore. Basically, stick this stuff to the large panels of your case to keep them from vibrating in the audible range. Just be sure to put it in places that don't interfere with your parts or case function. Does it make a difference? I think so.

All of these things are part of my current rig and have worked well for me. If I had to do it over, I would definitely drop the raptor for a Samsung, maybe even two in RAID 0.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

If your hard drive noise pisses you off, decouple or suspend it.

(See SilentPCReview for a how-to.)

- M4H

 

[mechBgon]

I replaced the fan-cooled northbridge heatsink on my Asus A8N-E with a big tall passive cooler that I had left over from a different Asus motherboard. This is not a dinky heatsink (photo of one) but it got scalding hot. The fins were hot right out to their tips. It's in a case with two quiet 80mm exhausts plus the 120mm in the PSU, so it has a normal amount of crossflow in there.

:shocked: ~ ok, THAT was not a good solution.

I slapped on a ThermalRight NB-1 and it is quite loud too, if the fan is running at full speed. I'm powering it off the Fan-Only line on my TruePower 2.0, which shuts it up modestly well. You might look at http://www.endpcnoise.com for the 40mm Papst quiet fan if you get something that takes a 40mm fan like this ThermalRight does.

On the Asus, at least the southbridge is not in too bad of a place. Unless you have a really long card in a PCIe x1 or x4 slot, like some whopper RAIDcard, etc, you can have all the vertical space you want.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

If you plan on having only a 60mm fam for the case, you'll have serious heat problems. Consider an Antec Sonata II. It's much improved over the original, and it comes with a good, quiet PS. Immediately replace the stock fan with a Panaflo 120mm medium. Maybe 2. With this, add a fan controller. Stay away from temp controlled ones.

For maximum cooling with minimal noise, my pick are the Thermalright products. XP90, XP90c, XP120. Match it up with the 90 or 120mm Panaflo, plug it into the controller, and you're good to go.

Abit makes a decent 939 board with passive NB cooling. Make sure it's version 2, tho.

I have a Raptor, and it's absolutely NO louder than any other properly working HDD. However, it has the worst price/storage of any drive out there.


http://www.silentpcreview.com/index.php

http://www.htpcnews.com/

http://www.frostytech.com/index.cfm

http://www.quietpc.com/

Good luck.

 

[yacoub]

Awesome, thanks!