Journey to a Silent MicroATX Gamer

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Olaf van der Spek
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Re: Journey to a Silent MicroATX Gamer

Post by Olaf van der Spek » Fri Dec 26, 2014 7:45 am

NCASEdesign wrote: Right. But I'm saying it's potentially beneficial to have the GPU intake facing towards the CPU, as it was with BTX. Beneficial for space efficient designs at least.
How would that be more space efficient?
Depends how the case is designed and if you want to be able to have fans in front of the GPU. Installation can become difficult with longs cards if there's too little extra room in the case - I addressed this in the design of the M1 by having a cutout in the front of the chassis which allows you to sort of "parallel park" the GPU during installation. The longest Strix models are ~288mm, but I'd go with support for 12" (305mm) cards.
Isn't straight down the simplest way to insert a card? No extra space required.
Less viable as a low-volume premium product though, unfortunately.
Unfortunately indeed. How come no existing case manufacturer is interested in such designs?

MikeC
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Re: Journey to a Silent MicroATX Gamer

Post by MikeC » Fri Dec 26, 2014 10:30 am

quest_for_silence wrote:I'm not glad to see that my feelings about the Carbide 240 were not that much groundless (maybe you did remember, Mike).
Yes I do remember: After that discussion was when I requested the Air 240 sample. You were right; this case has too many flaws.

NCASEdesign
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Re: Journey to a Silent MicroATX Gamer

Post by NCASEdesign » Fri Dec 26, 2014 11:20 pm

Olaf van der Spek wrote:
NCASEdesign wrote: Right. But I'm saying it's potentially beneficial to have the GPU intake facing towards the CPU, as it was with BTX. Beneficial for space efficient designs at least.
How would that be more space efficient?
Let me clarify: it would allow for more compact designs that effectively deal with the warm exhaust of open-cooler (i.e., that use one or more axial fans) video cards, because you could have exhaust fans directly behind (and parallel to) the card where they can work with the GPU's airflow by pulling the exhaust directly from the sides of the card. Open-cooler GPUs are anti-SFF due to the fact that they don't deal with their own waste heat. They just dump it in the case, so you need a case airflow layout that can effectively deal with it, ideally without heating everything else up in the process. The best layouts cooling performance-wise are not space efficient.
Olaf van der Spek wrote: Isn't straight down the simplest way to insert a card? No extra space required.
No. The vast majority of cases have a flange or lip (required for structural reasons and/or side panel fastening) that the GPU will have to clear when it's installed. The distance between the front and rear flanges on the M1, for example, is only 283mm, yet the case can accommodate cards up to ~320mm long (note as well the card specs typically don't include the bracket in the length, which adds 13.3mm). The cutout at the front of the chassis not only makes installation easier, but allows for cards to extend right up to the front panel (see this pic). People were doing this mod on the Silverstone SG05/SG06 to get 10.5" cards to fit in the case (example).

khaakon
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Re: Journey to a Silent MicroATX Gamer

Post by khaakon » Sat Dec 27, 2014 8:20 am

NCASEdesign wrote:Regarding the GPU at the top in the concept I showed above, I wonder what you might consider the optimal arrangement to be then.
Could you make some internal baffles/ducts that directs air towards the graphics card area from top front fan? Removable or even adjustable, there's an engineering challenge...
And you may consider moving the top front fan further inside the case, and still make ducting to have it take air in from the front. All a bit much maybe, and i guess proprietary - but think of all the good a well positioned 120mm fan would do inside the case for some air streaming along the top, and out the back hopefully.

Pigbristle
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Re: Journey to a Silent MicroATX Gamer

Post by Pigbristle » Tue Jan 06, 2015 4:42 am

With the new m-itxhttp://www.guru3d.com/news-story/gigaby ... -card.html graphics cards now available. Do you think making a specific m-itxhttp://imgur.com/bqJ4cpG made air 240, would be better cooled option?

MikeC
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Re: Journey to a Silent MicroATX Gamer

Post by MikeC » Tue Jan 06, 2015 9:03 am

Pigbristle wrote:With the new m-itxhttp://www.guru3d.com/news-story/gigaby ... -card.html graphics cards now available. Do you think making a specific m-itxhttp://imgur.com/bqJ4cpG made air 240, would be better cooled option?
Most of those short "mitx" 970 cards look too tall to fit in the Air 240. I could be wrong, but the way those heatpipes stick up... I also am dubious that a single fan atop a small heatsink is enough to cool a 970 quietly. My experience with the Zotac 970 and the huge 3-fan Arctic suggests otherwise.

Mopar63
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Re: Journey to a Silent MicroATX Gamer

Post by Mopar63 » Mon Feb 16, 2015 9:45 am

Stumbled across this article after dealing with this type of build last night. I want a quiet gaming rig and decided to go mATX for the build. I looked at the Node 804 and the Arc Mini R2, I have both cases and after doing a test build in each I chose the Arc. The Node had play on the motherboard try, did not like that and did not seem to create as clean of a build as the Arc.

I am using two Cougar Vortex Black PWM fans in the front with the using, for now a Thermaltake PWM fan on the bottom as an intake plus a Water 3.0 Cooler on the rear as exhaust with a single fan. I left the top without fans and the filter in place, removed the front filter.

I chose a bigger processor for my build using an i7 4790K and teamed that with an Asus Z87 Gryphon, the Armor creates the look I am going for in the end, a "Black Out" theme. I also chose the Gryphon due to Asus having better fan control and thus was able to more fine tune my fan speeds. The only drawback I have found is with the "assist" fan that is used with the Armor kit. The fan does not seem to make much noise but I figure any little bit would help.

Now unlike you I hate a little heat with my system by running a Sapphire Vapor-X 290X but not as much as you might think. Under 3DMark Firestrike Demo looped for an hour the video card never got about 70C, the CPU never got about 40C and the system stayed very quiet, I could begin to hear it but it was far from loud.

One of the considerations when it comes to a silent PC that I never hear discussed is the environment it will be used in. Here, in my man cave this system has a light noise to it. In the family room however the system is all but silent. At a LAN event it would be silent.

I have attached a picture, I still need to replace the bottom fan and the radiator fan with Courgar Vortex PWM Blacks like on the front and I will paint the three slot covers so they are black to finish the them. I am even considering a mod of the VaporX to turn the blue areas into black.

Image
Last edited by Mopar63 on Tue Feb 17, 2015 4:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

xan_user
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Re: Journey to a Silent MicroATX Gamer

Post by xan_user » Mon Feb 16, 2015 5:54 pm

Welcome to SPCR!


(can you please shrink the pic? thanks)

Mopar63
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Re: Journey to a Silent MicroATX Gamer

Post by Mopar63 » Tue Feb 17, 2015 10:57 am

So last night was the Black Outs baptism under fire, so to speak. I had been playing Inquisition for about 5 hours when I realized everyone was in bed. The house was utterly silent and my work computer shut off. So I took off my headphones to stretch and realized that was system was barely audible. It was not perfectly silent but so quiet I had to concentrate to hear it. Checking system infor the GPU had maxed out at 70C and the CPU was at 41C for peak.

Perfect :mrgreen:

Mopar63
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Re: Journey to a Silent MicroATX Gamer

Post by Mopar63 » Mon Mar 23, 2015 6:02 am

Have since replaced the two Thermaltake PWM fans with Cougar Blacks, also switched the motherboard out, like the onboard sound of the Gigabyte Z97MX-Gaming 5 better. Also the Asus board was having issues booting, required a reboot when the initial boot hung as well as the fans ramping to 100% on boot up, both problem gone with the Gigabyte. Result is a slight noise reduction in the build so I am right where I want to be, awesome gaming performance and you cannot hear the rig.

Zenphic
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Re: Journey to a Silent MicroATX Gamer

Post by Zenphic » Mon Mar 23, 2015 12:05 pm

Has anyone gotten their hands on an Aerocool DS-Cube? The rubber on the hard drive rails is underwhelming, but the case offers a nice amount of features for its size, including a large intake fan and a top-panel cover. It's also nice how the case comes in a variety of colours.

http://www.aerocool.us/ds/ds_black.html

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