shuttle heatpipe....who's not using it ? (!)

[lodog00]

I got annoyed with my shuttle's noise, and decided to create my own cooling system for it.

I removed the heatpipe, and attached a regular cpu cooler (Swiftech MCX4000 and TMD fan) to the CPU and modded the exhaust to use a standard 92mm fan. I'm going to add a side intake probably on the right side, opposite of the AGP area, and close to the memory/drives (just enough space for an 80mm or 60mm fan...)

I haven't tested my system yet (waiting for another HD to use for this "leftover" pc) but hopefully it will cool better and QUIETER than the heatpipe system.

Now....who else has modded their shuttle to a more "conventional" cooling situation (standard HS, exhaust in the back)? Did it lower your temps?

The biggest heat producing areas are definately the drives and the GPU area, especially if using a soundcard like an Audigy or other PCI card that gets fairly hot. The PSU also produces a LOT of heat. Has anyone come up with a way to provide better cooling for these areas, aside from getting cooler drives ?

If the whole thing works....then the next thing I'm gonna try is to stick a Zalman cnps7000 in there.....that thing weighs more than the case!

 

[tokamak]

ive been thinking about buying a shuttle (or maybe the new biostar) for quite a while now. its not helping me make up my mind that some people say theyre whisper quiet, and some say theyre too loud. i need something that i can leave on while i sleep - dont want to spend a lot of effort/time/money modding something, either....

 

[Kremus]

Most of the people that say they are loud did not install the heat pipe system right. My SN41G2 does not get that hot and does not make alot of noise. When installed correctly it should keep your CPU at about 34-39 degrees C. Some people have replaced the fan out with varried results.

 

[lodog00]

the heatpipe was installed properly, and temps were kept low. But these things are still too loud, IMHO because they chose to go for an 80mm fan and not a 92. After my mod, I can see that a 92 would easilly fit in this case, but the heatpipe WOULD have to be modified slightly.

This thing was louder than my current system now, and was in fact louder than any computer I've ever had, and that, except the one I once built that had two high speed sunon 120mms....

 

[tokamak]

i rest my case.

 

[geecee]

Most of the people that say they are loud did not install the heat pipe system right. My SN41G2 does not get that hot and does not make alot of noise. When installed correctly it should keep your CPU at about 34-39 degrees C. Some people have replaced the fan out with varried results.

Hmm. I have the heat pipe installed (correctly i'm fairly certain) in a SS51G, with a 2Ghz P4 (Northwood)and arctic silver. The onboard CPU temp monitor never has the CPU below 43 degrees C, even idle. After some heavier use, it can jump as high as 48, which is the temp I have the BIOS set at to kick up the fan speed. Then, it gets somewhat loud. Just out of curiousity, are my temps kind of high? I know the SN41 is an Athlon system but I thought they were supposed to run hotter than P4s. The other case sensor usually reads around 36-39 degrees C.

Also, since I don't use a floppy in this system, has anyone seen a 3.5 inch bay cooler? I've seen 5.25 ones quite a bit but not any 3.5s.

Oops forgot to give the rest of my system (to help determine appropriate temps):
120GB 8MB WD HD
NEC 1100A DVD+RW
1GB Kingston (ValuRam, cheap stuff)
Ti4200 64MB (no OC)

I've read that the front of the system, where the drives and the RAM are, can get rather toastier than the onboard sensors would indicate.

 

[xizor]

tokamak:

i disagree with lodog00, xpc's are no louder than normal mid ATX cases. that's a misconception that many people get when they hear that a shuttle is too loud. for my 2 xpc's, the hard drives are both the loudest things in the case.

some xpc's have had troubles with bad 40mm fans in the PSU which caused a whining sound, the source of most noise complaints. I believe they are using updated PSU's in the newer models that don't have this problem.

As for the 1 80mm case fan, its pretty average, but its easy to replace w/ a TT Smart Fan II, Panaflo or Papst fan that suits your tastes.

The newest Intel chips run very hot normally, part of having a high performance Shuttle is living with high temperatures. I see very few complaints of users with SN41G2 or SN45's that their system is too hot. Running components at higher temps "decreases their lifespan" according to some articles, but its more likely your system will be totally obsolete before it would die.

 

[LennyZ]

My SB61 runs 38c at idle,48c max when running seti.
i run my fan on high all the time,it's quiter than the case it replaced.
SB61
P4 2.6 800fsb
1gb hyperx pc3500
120gb wd drive with 8mb cache
radeon 9700 pro
Lite-On dvd+/dvd- burner

 

[lodog00]

It's true, the shuttle probably is no louder than an average mid-atx case, but I never did think the average pc was "quiet".

My P4 2.6C is in a Lian Li PC68 and the loudest thing in there is the stock P4 fan, only because I can't install my zalman chunk o copper yet (the mounting blocks broke )

The shuttle fan is as loud or maybe a little louder than that stock P4 fan I would say.

So yeah, it's not delta high speed loud, but it still got on my nerves, lol. Mainly if I had to sit near it, otherwise, it wasn't too terrible.

I'll see what happens once I finish the PC, but considering the 92 is quieter than the 80, and the swiftech w/ the TMD is almost nonexistently silent, then I don't think I'll have a problem with noise at least. Perhaps even better if a Zalman can fit....

just waiting for that HD.....

 

[karmasalad]

Different people have different tolerances for noise. Simple as that.

Also, you have to consider what other components a person is running in his/her system. An individual who says he can't hear his Shuttle fans might be running a whiny WD hard drive and/or GPU fan that masks the case/PSU fans.

Again, different tolerances. Noise is highly subjective.

I haven't any first-hand experience with a Shuttle box, but the folks over at SPCR don't recommend them for quiet. That's all I need to know.

 

[jdsemler]

Another thing to keep in mind is that you can go into the BIOS and tell it at what temperature the fan should kick into high speed. I'm not sure what the default is, but I can imagine that if it was set to be high speed all the time, someone could mistake the system to be "loud". My desknote makes more fan noise than my XPC.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I have the SN45G with the ACHME and the whining fan noise is exactly how I'd describe mine, but it's definitely the exhaust fan and since it's a HTPC and I'm across the room with the 5.1 on I'd never know if I didn't hear it during the initial setup and install (I can hear it during boot up but it's barely audible from the distance). I would definitely swap out the exhaust fan if it were my main system though, but no way would I exchange the heatpipe becasue it works great as a cooling solution even with my 2400+@2700+ speed, CPU temp 41c idle-49c heavy load.

 

[ultimatebob]

Funny, my SB51G is fairly quiet. Even with a 2.53 Ghz P4 in there, the system never gets above 45 degrees C, and the fan has never kicked itself into high speed mode after the system was booted.