Getting there

Show off your quiet rig.

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clive r
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 22
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2003 1:17 pm
Location: Bucks UK

Getting there

Post by clive r » Sun Apr 04, 2004 4:02 pm

Having lurked around here for long enough here are some pictures of the two systems I’ve built so far. Both are extremely quiet though not totally silent of course.
Thanks to everyone for all the input and ideas.

Image

System 1
Generic case/ Hama damping kit
Fortron FSP 300-60PN PSU
Gigabyte KT133 mboard/ 512MB RAM
Liteon 12/10/32 CDRW
AMD Tbird 950 MHz/ Zalman 6000AlCu/ Papst 8cm @6v
Barracuda IV 20gb, sidesinked, on foam from the box it came in
Panaflo 8cm L1A intake fan
Sparkle GEForce2 MX400 32MB passive

This system runs a bit hot (much cooler, and slower, with Duron) but no problems to date. I did cook my first hard drive in a SilentDrive enclosure (not recommended).
It is audible late at night but not distracting.

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Image

System 2
SLK3700AMB/ Acoustipack deluxe.
Plextor PX-320A DVD/CDRW
Aopen (FSP) 300-60PN PSU
Aopen AX4B-533-Tube mboard/ 768MB RAM
PIV 2.4 533 @1.3v/ Zalman 6500B AlCU/ Panaflo 8cm L1A @ 7v
2x Barracuda V 60gb suspended in modified drive cage
Panaflo 92mm L1A intake @5v isolated
Sapphire Radeon 9000 64mb passive

I built this from scratch as a silent PC using information from SPCR.
I do find the Antec case overlarge and quite resonant, but it does have excellent access and airflow. I cut the grilles out and sealed the gaps. Case temperature currently sits around 26º (20 ambient).
The Plextor drive is quiet and comes with Plextors own speed control utility. A firmware upgrade was required to make this work.
Undervolting reduces the CPU temperatures by a full 10-12º C (40-45º under full load). I’d originally planned a microATX but none of the boards seem to support this feature.
The PSU was a double surprise in having an LED fan fitted and a much more aggressive fan circuit than my other unit, so required some modification. Both are PFC models by the way. I ended up replacing the fan with a B30 NMB mounted on isolators with a resistor to slow it down. I plan to fit a pot in future to give some manual control.
The drive cage modification wasn’t too difficult and provides good isolation whilst maintaining airflow and still being easily removable (respect Aphonos). There’s room for 3-4 suspended drives too. The Barracudas typically see 30-35º.
The Zalman fan bracket is the next area for improvement. It has a penetrating hum, which in common with other resonance effects is only noticeable from certain angles. With a 92mm Panaflo fitted it positively flapped about.
Yes that is a vacuum tube. The board was a b grade item which I obtained for the price of the regular article. Sadly as others have found the board doesn’t in fact support Silenttek as advertised. It does sound very nice though.
A very quiet system, though audible late at night (and it is very quiet here). To give you some idea, if I sit half way between the pc and my audio system the static from the speakers is louder than the pc. :D
The wiring has been properly braided since taking the picture (for all you tidy case people..)

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