Hey all, After having my uber overclocked 1800+ machine going for a while now, im pawning that off to my brother in a quest for more silent computing. I have decided to stick with athlon XP for now until nforce4 becomes more mainstream and i have enough to fork out for a PCI-E gfx card and a nice 939 AMD64. So here is what my system will be on tuesday (currently waiting for a few bits from OCUK): Antec Sonata w/ Acoustic foam kit Antec truepower 380w PSU Stock 120mm outtake @ 7v Vantec Stealth 120mm intake @ 7V AMD 2500+ Mobile barton Abit NF7-S v2.0 Zalman CNPS-7000Cu w/ fanmate R9800 XT w/ Artic Cooler VGA Silencer Rev3 Misc PCI cards 52x32x52 burner 2 x WD800JD 80gb sata drives as 160gb RAID 0 array 1 x WD 120gb ATA100 drive as backup drive (automated nightly backups) Now so far im still waiting for the acoustic foam kit, but as it stands its definately quieter than the rig in my sig. My NB fan is loud and buggered so i need to replace that, preferably with a silent jobbie - i also think my zalman is one of the loudest parts in there along with my 120gb HDD (the 80gb drives seem much quieter). So i have a few questions: 1) can anyone reccomend a nice silent NB cooler that i can use on my NF7-S bearing in mind i have a CNPS7000Cu which hangs over the NB a little ( i prolly got a minimum clearance of 30mm) 2) Seeing as im gonna be overclocking slightly less this time around, should i stick with the CNPS7000Cu and just lower its rpm's a bit? or should i go for something else? 3) How much quieter will one of those silent drive enclosures make my 120gb drive? 4) any other case quietening tips? Ive never embarked on a quest for silence before, so advice from those who have already travelled down this path would be much appreciated Cheers
First of all telling us the names and models of items would be easier on us. With for a heatsink i would go with the thermaltake silent boost then lap it to get better preformance out of it, they are pretty queit compared to alot of heatsinks out but there may be better i just havent tryed them. As for case fans im a fan of panflo's but i hevent checked the stats on them lately so i dont know if they are any better. About the NB cooling i dont think you really need it i have a abit NF7 with stock NB heatsink and it runs fine with my barton 2500 oc'ed to 2.1 ghz (i could go more but i dont want to risk stability on my system). Are you planning on OC'ing the graphics card to becuase if not then you dont rlly need a new cooling system for that in fact by putting on a diff system you might make it a bit more noisy but i have never tried. Pretty much every thing else looks awsome.
What names and models have i failed to include? Also, this is not a system that i plan to buy - it is one i have bought already the VGA silencer is way quieter than the stock sapphire cooler My NB heatsink is actually dying (bearings are b0rked) so i need a new one anyways, so i figured id try and get something passive. As for the case fans - they are one of the quietest things right now, so im not gonna change them until i can hear them over everything else (sort out the noisy things first). Thanks
Zalman make the best passive NB 'sinks. If it doesnt fit, you could always hack off the tops of any prongs that interfere with your CPU heatsink. I probably would just stick with 7000CU. If you haven't already, lapping it should cancel out some of the temp increase from dropping the fan speed. (w00t 101st post! missed 100...)
^^ agreed you will need to trim some pins off the zalman passive 'sink. (i have a 7000 and an nf7-s too ) It should cool pretty well as there is heaps of airflow around the NB thanks to the Zalman. Infact, the mosfets on my board stay very cool even at 2v, thanks to my Zalman .
Yeah, i was thinking of going with a zalman passive jobbbie The 7000Cu is a bloody good cooler, i will try lapping it a little - any good guides to lapping your heatsink? when i get the foam kit in there i'll have a better idea of what, if anything, needs quietening some more. I also wonder how much of the noise is the PSU, i can get much quieter ones from the likes of Akasa, Zalman, and Qtechnology (i could get a passive tagan if i have 100 quid lying around). Its kinda hard to test
Indeed - I have a friend who's done just that. A few minutes with a hacksaw and all is well I'd stick with the 7000 at least until you work out what overclock you want to stay with - 5V through the fanmate does make it as near to silent as you're likely to get without watercooling, while still having good OC potential. Try it and see if it's stable at your desired clockspeed before going for something else.
you could also try a duct mod directly from the sidepanel straight to the Zalman. The case temperature could get quite high running the case fans at low speed (The sonata doesn't have the best airflow either ), the a duct mod could bring down temps by a huge margin
The silentdrive jobbies are great Takes almost ALL the noise away from me 120 WD (it was VERY noisy for some reason) Have removed the front section of it now to get some airflow/cooling over the hdd and still theres no noise off it. Those 380w antecs (come stock with the sonata i presume) also get quite noisy when hot and under load. Its not like uber loud, but does get noticable....
"Vantec Stealth 120mm intake @ 7V" If you're so set on these, use a pair - i can send you them but it's REALLY advisable to use SilenX fans. As to keeping it quiet in there, go passive where possible, and if not passive, nice and low RPMs. I'll also be going on that quest soon, but i'll be a little more of a nutcase about it .
Thanks for all the reply's guys! this is really helpful I will prolly go for one of the zalman jobbie's for my NB then - which would you reccomend? Could you please point me toward a pair of 120mm fans that are quieter than the Vantecs? i dont have my heart set on them really - just had one kicking around. you reckon the SilenX are good? I definately plan to hang on to the CNPS7000Cu so i'll grab myself a NB sink and make it fit, then get my system happily tweaked, then turn the fans down as far as i can with it still being stable on burn in tests. Cheers
well the SilenX ones put out the same amount of airflow as the vantec ones do at full rpm - with one noticable difference. 14 dba anyone?
i'd have to say they're pretty good, just look a little bland. Besides, what's stopping you from buying a cheaper/better PSU and swapping fans?
SilenX are great, but the psu's are a tad overpriced... as Tulatin said, just get a decent psu, and if its too loud swap out the fans for some quieter ones.....
Too bad you're not on my side of the pond or i'd do the PSU work - and make it modular for you - cheap.
yeah, stuck in jolly old england im afraid. i was actually thinking of getting one of those PSU's with a single 120m fan that will give me a bit of case airflow too
If you havent gotton the WD drives id get something else. They are nasty loud. In a regular case you would not notice but in a silent system its like whoa wtf. The samsung spinpoints are highly regarded for being silent and cool. You wont have to mess with them at all or spend more money on special HD cases that would flush 50 or 60 dollars down the toilet like you would if you used the wd. Vantect stealth vans are anything but stealth. The stock 120mm that actually comes inside on the back of the sonata isnt bad at all especially at 5 volts on the rubber sticks it ships with. Have a look see in the reccomended section at silentpcreview.com