My first build *updated*

natethegreat · Post by **natethegreat** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 11:48 am

This is my first attempt at building a "reduced noise" gaming/folding rig.

case pic

System specs:

Antec P180 Case
DFI Lanparty UT NF4 SLI-DR Expert
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester (Thermalright SI-120)
1GB OCZ EB DDR PC-4000 Dual Channel Platinum
eVGA 256-P2-N515-AX GeForce 7800 GT (NV Silencer 5 Rev.3)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KS 320GB
NEC ND-3550A Dual Layer DVDï¿½RW Writer
Sony DDU-1615 DVD-ROM
Cooler Master Real Power 550W
Zalman ZM-MFC1 Fan Controller
Windows XP Pro SP2

All the fans are CoolerMaster TLF-S12-EB sleeve bearing fans. System is currently overclocked to 2610 MHz and folding its little heart out

Update:
Well I was happy with this rig for a while, but I knew it could be more quiet -and now it is

I decided to lose the overclock, it really wasn't doing that much for me anyways... It is now undervolted to 1.20v. All fan grills were removed and edges lined with rubber u-channel (Thanks for the links Ralf

). Swapped out all Coolermaster led fans for Orange Yate-Loon D12SL-12's. Back fan was mounted with foam-rubber weatherstripping and zipties and I mounted the upper level intake at the back of the 3.5" cage with zip ties (it helps keep the passive Zalman sink from melting

). I wasn't going to swap out the PSU fan but after I got all the Y-l's in the case I was shocked at how loud the power supply was, so it got it's own Yate-Loon also. The DFI maglev fan was removed and a Zalman passive sink was installed. The biggest letdown of the origonal build was the Arctic Cooling NV Silencer, it started rattling about 1 month after installation and continued to get worse until I could not stand it any longer. Replaced it with a Zalman VF-900 and couldn't be happier. The intake CPU and exhaust fans are all run by a Zalman fan controller and are run at the lowest setting allowed, the VF-900 is set up on one of the 5v/12v switches and runs at 5v. Here are my temps at a full load of F@H x 2 Temps I never though that my computer would be this quiet, thanks to everyone at SPCR and on the forums for your ideas, information, and inspiration!

Pics of updated rig:

With side panel off:
http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/518/dsc01587uh3.jpg

Back view:
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/2623/dsc01593ma5.jpg

Front view:
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/7679/dsc01597mh0.jpg

Passive NF4 clearance:
http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/8949/dsc01602kc5.jpg

New system specs:
Antec P180 Case
DFI Lanparty UT NF4 SLI-DR Expert
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester (Thermalright SI-120)
2 x 1GB OCZ EB DDR PC-4000 Dual Channel Platinum
eVGA 256-P2-N515-AX GeForce 7800 GT (Zalman VF-900)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KS 320GB
NEC ND-3550A Dual Layer DVDï¿½RW Writer
Sony DDU-1615 DVD-ROM
Cooler Master Real Power 550W
Zalman ZM-MFC1 Fan Controller
Windows XP Pro SP2

vertigo · Post by **vertigo** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 12:36 pm

Aren't those fans too bright? I find my led fan has a pleasant glow at 5v but at 12v it was too bright. Those fans you have are extra-bright.

natethegreat · Post by **natethegreat** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 1:10 pm

They have not bothered me yet, as I dont have a window in my case so all I see is a blue glow behind the case... They do dimm down pretty well with the Zalman fan controller.

spolitta · Post by **spolitta** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 1:27 pm

my experince with P180 was that the front intake wont do much, it only lowered my passivly cooled NB by 3 or 4c. I think you will have a better result moving that intake fan into the lower chamber.

nice build.

natethegreat · Post by **natethegreat** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 1:56 pm

Thanks

My hdd is sitting at 27°C right now so I don't know if a fan down in the lower chamber is going to help much... Did putting a fan in your lower chamber lower your psu's fan speed?

spolitta · Post by **spolitta** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 12:23 pm

well depends on your PSU, but general speaking a fan in the lower chamber will keep the PSU cooler so it wont ramp up under load. You might want to do some experiments on your own.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 4:59 pm

Those yellow sleeved cables are awesome. Excellent cablegami.

natethegreat · Post by **natethegreat** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 6:05 pm

jaganath wrote:Those yellow sleeved cables are awesome. Excellent cablegami.

Thanks, as this was my first build I had a lot of fun sleeving all the cables and putting the rig together

spolitta wrote:well depends on your PSU, but general speaking a fan in the lower chamber will keep the PSU cooler so it wont ramp up under load. You might want to do some experiments on your own.

I have put all kinds of loads on this rig: currently a 30% overclock, 2x prime 95(large FFT's), 2x superpi, looping 3dmark, and my personal favorite, two instaces of F@H . During all these different kinds of stress testing I have never once heard the psu ramp up. Now I will say the the noise level of this psu is absolutly unacceptable for a silent pc. Besides the chipset fan the psu fan is the next loudest component in the rig, but thanks to the cases practical design I don't think the psu is getting very hot down there (and it helps that is cold around here this time of year

)

djnotepad · Post by **djnotepad** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:25 am

how is the WD 320GB working out for you? Any benchmarks on that to compare with the 8MB cache 320GB model? I'm thinking about getting that same HDD or the 2500KS which is the 250 GB 16mb cache model

natethegreat · Post by **natethegreat** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 3:40 pm

djnotepad wrote:how is the WD 320GB working out for you? Any benchmarks on that to compare with the 8MB cache 320GB model? I'm thinking about getting that same HDD or the 2500KS which is the 250 GB 16mb cache model

I ran the long test of HD Tach for you. Pic

swaction · Post by **swaction** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:00 am

I think we must be on the same wavelength with the yellow sleeving!!

Nice build!

natethegreat · Post by **natethegreat** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 12:38 pm

Original post updated with new info and pics. Let me know what you think

tempeteduson · Post by **tempeteduson** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 1:44 pm

Excellent. What size sleeving did you use for the fans? 1/8"?

natethegreat · Post by **natethegreat** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 1:53 pm

tempeteduson wrote:Excellent. What size sleeving did you use for the fans? 1/8"?

Yep, the fans were sleeved with 1/8" cable sleeving and 1/4" heatshrink.

raziell · Post by **raziell** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 9:23 pm

what is your temp?

natethegreat · Post by **natethegreat** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 5:01 am

raziell wrote:what is your temp?

I included a screenshot of my temps in the updated part of my post, but here it is again: Temps

cmthomson · Post by **cmthomson** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:34 am

natethegreat wrote:I included a screenshot of my temps in the updated part of my post, but here it is again: Temps

What program is that reporting the temperatures and voltages?

zoob · Post by **zoob** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:47 am

cmthomson wrote:
natethegreat wrote:I included a screenshot of my temps in the updated part of my post, but here it is again: Temps
What program is that reporting the temperatures and voltages?

Looks like Motherboard Monitor

natethegreat · Post by **natethegreat** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 12:31 pm

Yep, its mbm

A regular over a dfi-street has a pretty good thread on getting it configured just right for DFI boards:

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6798

My first build updated

My first build updated