Nice & quiet...and cool too!

[Acme]

I've been lurking around these forums for awhile and I'm always impressed by how you guys are cranking your machines up to incredible speeds and using phenomenally imaginative solutions to cool them back down. I've built quite a few machines in the past few years for myself and others, and I always try to incorporate some of these neato cooling solutions that I read you guys talking about. Well, recently I came to a major life epiphany and realized that since I don't really care about overclocking my machines, I don't really need the super-duper cooling that you guys build in to yours. And the jet engine roar of the various machines in my office at home really sucks. Between my machines and my wife's machine, things are rather loud in there.

So I set out to build a quiet machine for a change, mostly just to see how quiet I could get one. I bought one of those infamous ECS mobos and a XP 2000+, and then I got in on that Antec case deal from SVCompucycle a few weeks ago -- so the case is very small (another first for me since I usually use mids). I haven't quite gotten to where I feel comfortable with totally passive cooling (although I'll probably try that next), so I bought an Arctic Cooling Super Silent Pro TC for the HSF, and then I ordered a couple of the ThermaSense 80mm Variable Speed case fans from PCP&C. Standard DVD drive and 80gb 7200 HD with rounded cables.

I got all the stuff in and put it together last night. HOLY COW this thing is so freakin' quiet!! It makes about as much noise as one of the new Dells. And my temps are still very reasonable, quite low actually (I'll post specifics if anyone cares).

So I'm back at the office today and I just placed an order for four more ThermaSense 80mm fans from PCP&C and I'm going to order a few more of the Arctic Cooling HSFs to replace the fans in the other computers in my office. And then I'll FINALLY be able to use the speakerphone for work conference calls without having to mute it to keep people from hearing the loud room.

Just wanted you guys to know, in case anyone else was thinking of going the quiet route...

Acme

 

[BoomAM]

Cool (pun intendid)
I`ve gone about making my pc quiet&cool as well.
Thermalright SLK-800+Silent YS-Tech 80mm(27CFM, 20dBa), 5 Silent YS-Tech 80mm, rounded cables, Thermaltake Crystal Orb @7V, Zalman Passive HS on MoBo.

If you want it to run even quieter, then get a silent PSU cos they make alot of noise, replace the Vid card fan with one of those new Zalman Heatpipe Passive Coolers & get some of that sound proofing stuff(dunno how good it is though).

 

[godmare]

Originally posted by: Acme

I got all the stuff in and put it together last night. HOLY COW this thing is so freakin' quiet!! It makes about as much noise as one of the new Dells. And my temps are still very reasonable, quite low actually (I'll post specifics if anyone cares).
Acme

Of course we care! bring on the specs!

 

[deerslayer]

Gotta love a cool quiet computer

Love to see some stats on how cool it's running!

 

[Acme]

Okay, here's a cooling-newbie question for you then -- what do you use to obtain cooling information at a "full load"? I've never had to care about this before. What software does that kind of test?

I ran 3DMark2K1 and got a 6842 on the first run (needs some tweaking) and then immediately checked temps and had a 25C system /52C processor.

Acme

 

[Davegod]

I think people use a app like Prime95, loop some CPU benchmarks or there's the burn-in module of Sisoft SANDRA...

25 & 52C odd temps - system/case temp is excellent but CPU is a little hot, especially given the low case temp. 52C at something like load temps (since you'd just benchmarked) isnt worth worrying about though, for comparison my 2400 sitting at 35C system, 42C cpu, CPU going up 2C under load. Cant directly compare different mobo temp readings though, point is to illustrate case & cpu temp relative to each other on my setup.

 

[SWScorch]

Nice. I decided a little while ago that I dont need a blazing fast computer, since I rarely game any more, and I too set about on a quest to make my computers quiet. My server is almost completely silent. This is what it has:

Fong Kai FK-320 (a very nice, well insulated case)
Alpah PAL8045 with Panaflo L1A
one 92mm Panadlo L1A blowing cold air directly over the heatsink
one 80mm no-name fan 7-volted to exhaust hot air at top of left side panel
one 80mm no-name fan 7-volted to cool the hard drive
and the PSU fan, which is very quiet.

The loudest part of the system is the hard drive, a Maxtor 60GB which makes an audible whine, but thats not too annoying. This is a 1Ghz Athlon, BTW, and runs around 44 most of the time.

My main system is still louder, but I can dial the fans down at night. I have a:

ThermalRight AX-7 with YS Tech variable speed fan
Enermax 120mm variable speed exhaust
Panaflo L1A 80mm intake
NMB low-speed 80mm intake
and the Antec PSU fans.

At full bore it is quite loud, as the YS Tech fan puts out a high whirr at full speed. But when I drop both that and the Enermax 120 to 60% or so, it becomes quite tolerable, and my CPU (An AthlonXP 2000) has never gone above 57 C, even with my room around 75 F.

I don't need a quiet computer since I used to fall asleep with a Delta screamer yelling next to my ear every night, but the white noise that my computers make now is far less intrusive than it was before.

 

[godmare]

Originally posted by: Davegod
I think people use a app like Prime95, loop some CPU benchmarks or there's the burn-in module of Sisoft SANDRA...

25 & 52C odd temps - system/case temp is excellent but CPU is a little hot, especially given the low case temp. 52C at something like load temps (since you'd just benchmarked) isnt worth worrying about though, for comparison my 2400 sitting at 35C system, 42C cpu, CPU going up 2C under load. Cant directly compare different mobo temp readings though, point is to illustrate case & cpu temp relative to each other on my setup.

Yeah, but just sounds like AMD's garbage stock HSF