SPCR

Hello SPCR readers! First I'd like to thank everyone on the boards and the people at SPCR. I got many a great idea from you. And now, here is my rig. It's nothing fast, it's very quiet but not silent.

case: Enermax CS10181
cpu: Athlon 1.8
mb: A7V133C
video: TNT2
hd: Seagate Barracuda 40gb, Seagate Barracuda 80gb



So you may be asking yourself why I used this case. The answer is simple, I like how it looks. When this thing arrived in the mail, I had no idea just how big this case is. It's big.


As you can see there are 2 slots that house the 80m fans. Bad air flow. I fixed this by removing the hd drive rack.


Here it is removed. Also, while I was at it I got to work on removing ever other thing that had no particular use.


I then built this simple but functional hd suspension, aluminum and rubber tubing from Home Depot. I tried riveting this thing on but it was not strong enough so I bolted.


Now with no way of mounting the fans, I built these fan duct thingys out of plexi. I used hot glue to asseble it. The "tape" at the top of the pic is 3m insulated wire tape. I wrapped it around the housing where it will contact the metal case. The white stuff on the outer edge is double sided tape. This stuff is very very strong. It is used in RC car's to mount servos. I use it here to mount the fans.



Here it is mounted on the case. As you can see, my thought process was to mount the fans as far from the front of the case as possible to reduce noise.


I blocked all the vents with that clear plastic stuff that products get packaged in. You know the stuff? The packaging that's hard to open and you can cut yourself on if you're not carefull! Anyway, I mounted it with hot glue. This will then get covered with acouti stuff. Why bother? I didin't want dust sticking to the exposed acousti stuff adhesive.


Next I built heat sinks using aluminum U channel.


Here it is mounted on the drive and the drive on the sling.


This thing is a duct that will direct fresh air from outside the case to the PSU.


Here it is mounted. The PSU is mounted upside down so its venting from the top.


I began to realize that plexi bounces sound real easy like. So I unsulated and damped it.


Mounted, never to come off again. I think..


this is the PSU fan with foam shock absorber mounted to it with hot glue.


Here it is mounted to the outside of the case (mounted with servo tape). It's outside becase I didn't like how close it was to the components on the inside. When a fan is too close to something, it creates turbulance, and that creates noise and bad airflow. I don't know.. maybe it was a silly idea.


Shrouded (mounted with servo tape)


More shrouding and dampening and servo tape. The lower shroud covers the exhaust fans. I completely cut out the punch holed grate and built housings similar to that on the front of the case.


Damped, Nuff said.


PSU "suck hole", not to be confused with "blow hole". I cut a hole and put that circular grate on.


Exhause fans mounted.


blocked front grate thing with plexi to stop noise from escaping and cut a larger hole at the bottom.



This is a wiring diagram to the switch I installed. It switches my fan controller from 5v or 12v. With 5v switched on, i can control a range between 3.7v and 5v. With 12v switched on, I can control between 8.6 and 11.6. I ended up keeping it set at 5v anyway. So what was the point? I don't know.



See that little thing sticking out next to the power and hd led? That is an external switch I built. It seemed silly to me to open the door each time I wanted to power up my machine. Anyway, it pushes through to the actual power button. Used 1 lego part, hot glue and the rest spare junk lying around.


Door open.


Closed


Inside


HD's sitting happy, snug and vibrationless.

The finished rig weighs a wopping 54.4 lbs. Should have mounted wheels..

Done!

Looks good! Temps? And which foams did you use?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but did you seal off the intake for the main body of the case?

Yes, very nice indeed! That's some clean DIY engineering, too.

@sthayashi: I did a double-take when I saw that step too, but look again: he enlarged the opening at the bottom of the case, so the intake fans still get air.

Wow, very extensive, well-thought out project, cleanly executed! Too bad we can't all hear it. It does seem like a lot of fans for a modest system (thermally speaking) -- 6 altogether?

that is truly amazing!

how warm is that PSU exhaust? (just general answer)

r2fugu, that is some very fine work you have done there. Excellent ideas and execution. Thank you for posting this project and for sharing your good ideas with us.

HammerSandwich - Looks good! Temps? And which foams did you use?

I started out with acoustipack deluxe but didn't have enough to cover the whole case. You guys were using melamine and polymeric mastic so I gave that a try. The rest was foam products purchased at american science and surpluss. In the end, I would have gone completely with melamine and polymeric mastic, only becase I would have liked to spend less. I still think acoustipack is the best though.

Hey folks, I'll get back to you later. Right now I gotto run, sorry.

MikeC, I was looking for the posting tips page but couldn't find it. It give examples of how different posting code.

r2fugu wrote:MikeC, I was looking for the posting tips page but couldn't find it. It give examples of how different posting code.

Here's the link. It's the link on the lower left side of the "posting" page that says "BBCode"

Looks great, r2fugu.

yeah that looks very well thought out.

sthayashi wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but did you seal off the intake for the main body of the case?

You are correct. I did make a larger vent hole at the bottom of the front cover but I wish now that I made for better air intake. Some project for the future maybe.

MikeC wrote:Wow, very extensive, well-thought out project, cleanly executed! Too bad we can't all hear it. It does seem like a lot of fans for a modest system (thermally speaking) -- 6 altogether?

Yes, many fans, 6. The 2 front intake are running at the lowest possible voltage. The 2 exhaust are running at 5v. The cpu fan is running at about 1/25 speed. I'll get back to you with actual temps later. I can say that the air out the back is warm. This is due most likely to poor air intake. If I could do it all again, I'd remove the 2 front fans and make a larger/more intake vents. Maybe up through the bottom of the case under the hd's. While I'm on the subject, I'd also remove the 2 back and replace them with one 120mm. The funny thing is that the most noticable sound from the front of the case is the psu intake vent on the top. To get an idea quiet it is, I can only hear an airy sound late at night when there are no other ambient sounds.


Now that it's done, I can think of many things I could improve on. The one thing that stands out most is cost. I think I could have built an even quieter pc for half the cost.

Why not cut a 120 mm hole to the bottom of the case, under the HDD:s, or
somewhere in the front? You could get a filter for it too to prevent dust.

Actually, I did think of placing a 120 at the front after I had mounted the 2 80's. I thought to myself, Why did I do all that cutting everywhere just to mount a bunch of 80mm fans? Anyway, I've decided if I do anything now, it will most likely be to remove all the fans except the cpu and ps fans. Then I would fit a 120mm to the back. And on the side panel I would completely fabricate a new one with modders mesh as MikeC suggested. I wonder how loud my hd's would be after that? Maybe I'd need to dampen them.. I would also like to get a fanless psu but I've already got this Zalman, which in my opinion is not that quiet. I don't know.. My wife and I just had a baby so I wonder where I'll find the time.

Very well done. I can easily see how it's heavy to move. I really like the work you did with the aluminum strips. However I am more enamored with your hard wood floors .

wow, i love the completeness of the pictures and explanation.

looks like you did your homework and designing the lego part for the power button was great looks/sounds like your computer is pretty quiet, i'd just leave it for now... baby more important congrats!

That is sweet....

My mum thinks Im obsessed with PC noise because I bought a couple of Zalman things and some quiet case fans, I'll have to show her this

Very nice

I littered my living room for about a month with this stuff. My wife started to get antsy about the mess. We've got a really small apartment so my stuff took up about 1/25 of it. My landlord who lives down stairs thought I was renovating the place every time I had to cut something. She finally called up and asked what I was doing. I'm definitely obsessed. I'm already thinking of my next one.

PretzelB - Very well done. I can easily see how it's heavy to move. I really like the work you did with the aluminum strips. However I am more enamored with your hard wood floors .

I ended up drilling a hole in the floor by accident don't tell my landlord

Very nice work there!

Especially like the home made hard drive suspension method.

Hrm.. What is the point of the shrouds? What do they do?

ONEshot wrote:Hrm.. What is the point of the shrouds? What do they do?

-The clear plastic shroud that attaches to the PSU? It feeds cool outside air to the PSU which keeps the thermally-controlled fans in the PSU from ramping up.

-or-

-the aluminum channel bolted to the HDDs? This acts as a hetsink to cool the drives.

ONEshot - Hrm.. What is the point of the shrouds? What do they do?

The plastic shroud Ralf is refering to is the one inside the case. I think the ones Oneshot is refering to are the external ones on the back of the case. These are supposed to deflect/absorb the sound that the fans make. They were more a test than anything else. The result is that they don't do all that much to dampen the sound since the only sound the fans make are an airy sound. If anything, they may increase the airy sound If I ever get back to modding the case again, I will most likely remove the external shrouds.

In my experience, I've noticed that fans don't like to be postioned such that air flow is limited. To best test this theory; next time you have a loose fan connected to a power source, hold your hand in front of it and then bring it in closer to the fan. You'll hear the fan whine louder as your hand gets closer. You'll also hear more of an air turbulance sound. If your fans are too close to something which limits the air flow, it doesn't matter at that point what the rated db is.

nice work!

Can u say u cant hear it from a foot away?

and man dude, and and ralf fold ribbons to good!

~RaNDoM

Late at night when all is quiet, I can hear it from a foot away.

The secret to ribbon folding is using longer ribbons!

Two more questions : About the PSU, I thought that the fan just sucks... why did you mount it upside down? And Second, you said that that suckhole is loud? Does anyone have any solutions for this? I was contemplating using a PSU duct like you did, but you said it was loud. Now I'm lost... Anyone help?

Hello all, haven't been here in a while. Been really busy at work.

ONEshot, The PSU is mounted upside down because the vent (which is hard to see in the pic) extends to the bottm of the PSU enclosure. So most of the air would have been sucked from the bottm. I turned it upside down so it sucks from the top. The fan itself not all that bad in my opinion. It's when a psu fan starts reving to higher speeds, this is when any fan can get noisy. The suckhole I created on the case isn't loud, I should have phrased that better. I should have said it's loud compared to silent. Still its hard to get an idea of how loud it may be If I were to do it all again I would have done it the same but made the suck hole bigger. Hope this answers your questions.

You should cut the sides of the front out like you did to the bottom. It would be similar to the Evercase 4252.

R2Fugu.... The plexi ducts are a great idea, but wouldn't pointing them up be a better idea in order to get the hot air to rise out and help w/ airflow?

The warm air would accumulate in there because it likes to rise no?

Your case is awesome by the way... i wish i was that handy