And now for something slightly different...

Twigathy · Post by **Twigathy** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 7:48 am

SPCR has made me spend all my moneys!

Well, heres some pictures of what i've come up with based on the know-how gathered from these forums. The system here is:

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum with Blue Zalman Northbrige, trimmed to fit
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
XP-90 with 90mm Nexus
Nexus 4090 PSU (120mm fan)
Nexus 80mm Exhaust
Nexus 80mm Intake
Gigabyte Geforce 6600GT Silentpipe
160GB Western Digital in Cooldrive 6 (Fan disabled)
80GB Seagate ST380021A on foam at bottom of case
200GB Western Digital 2000JD (SATA), Hard mounted but quiet anyways
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4040B LG DVD Burner (Noisy, almost never used

As you can see from the pictures, my case isnt very tidy at all. The big white tube going from the top of the case serves two purposes, firstly it stop the flimsy £10 case from vibrating and also it serves as a coduit for power cables to get from the top of the case to the bottom. Not the best solution, i know, but it works. My most recent purchase was the Gigabyte 6600GT Silentpipe, its absolutely amazing! This thing idles at around 60C (Remember that I am always folding@home, so the case temp is normally quite warm). After running rthdribl for about an hour, the temperature goes up to around 75C, with minor fluctuations of a degree or two.

As for CPU temperatures, I tend never to see my idle temp, at a guess its around 35-40C. When loaded, folding@home for SPCR for example, depending on ambient conditions and how the CPU's sensor is feeling, load temps are between 45 and 50C, highest i've ever seen is 53C during a heatwave of 32C room temperature (yeah, im not american...I dont have AC or experiance hot weather that often, ok

)

The blue zalman northbridge heatsink kicks ass, certainly a lot better than the original cooler on the k8n neo2. I had to trim down to size 2 of the fins to make it fit properly with my graphics card, this wasnt very difficult at all. You may notice that one of the hard drives is [shock, horror] HARD MOUNTED!! Well, its one of the newer batches of western digitals and its very very quiet. So that doesnt matter.

The side panels on my case have these retarded holes that let noise and air out of the case, not the best kind of thing for a silent computer. I covered these with 2 spare motherboard anti-static bags and some sticky tape. Woohoo, less noise! Some parts of the case have a tendancy to resonate, so when the case is on, I stick the whole thing on top of a base of foam to dampen any resonance to stop it getting through to my desk.

Overall it works very well, the whole thing is so quiet that I cant usually tell if its on. The whooshing sound that all hard drives seem to make is clear only with your ear close to the case. The three fans that are hooked up to the cooldrive 6 fan controller / hard drive cooler / blingifier are set to 1000rpm (Fan below graphics card), 1250rpm (80mm next to CPU) and ~1300rpm (92mm on the XP-90).

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the wonderous advice! Without you, I'd still have vantec "Stealth" fans which are complete CRAP. And now for the pictures. All are 640x480 and below 100kb, but you can click on them for a bigger version

. If any of you here need image hosting, www.uploadthis.co.uk is my website and you are all very welcome to use it!

And now for the images! Please excuse the un-cablegami'd wiring. My case has nowhere to hide the damned things.

The lovely Nexus 4090 PSU

My DIY Hole covering

Some of the mess at the top of my case (Cooldrive and DVD burner)

Three nexus fans in close proximity

The graphics card / Northbridge cooling Nexus fan of doom!

The lovely passive 6600GT from the side on

My case, complete with nasty ass wiring and a white tube

Handle on top = easy to carry =

Post by **MikeC** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 9:10 am

Thanks for the show and tell.

I know you say it doesn't matter, but I bet you'll hear the difference if you suspend the 2nd drive.

But this is why I am posting: What's the white tube for???

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 9:14 am

he big white tube going from the top of the case serves two purposes, firstly it stop the flimsy £10 case from vibrating and also it serves as a coduit for power cables to get from the top of the case to the bottom. Not the best solution, i know, but it works.

Twigathy · Post by **Twigathy** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 9:34 am

hmm, I might have a go at hard drive suspension actually. Or just put the drive into one of the free 5.25" bays and lay it on some foam. I have to say, its very very quiet but there is a very very faint high pitched noise coming from one of the hard drives.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 4:36 am

You should clean the dust out of your CPU heatsink. You'll probably find that your temps will drop a bit.

Twigathy · Post by **Twigathy** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 3:09 pm

I hadnt actually noticed that dust. Thank goodness for high res imagery, eh?

toNka · Post by **toNka** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 8:31 pm

Any picture of that "Blue Zalman Northbrige, trimmed to fit"?

Twigathy · Post by **Twigathy** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 5:03 pm

Sure, heres one. I took it just now (2am) so the lighting was poor and blurry because I suck with a camera

Might do a better one for you in the morning!

Still....

Wedge · Post by **Wedge** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 10:30 am

How did you chop those 2 prongs off? What did you use to do it with?

toNka · Post by **toNka** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 11:00 am

I got some needle nose pliers and bent them back and forth till they broke off. A hack saw might work better. They're easy to break, soft metal. Make sure you file them down after cutting/snapping them.

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 11:54 pm

a basic sabre saw + metal cutting blade is pretty cheap,about the cosy of one Nexus 120. You can trim a zalman,add a blowhole,get rid of the 3 1/2" drive bays-seems anyone thinking of case mods would have this basic tool.

Twigathy · Post by **Twigathy** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 12:47 pm

Actually, I used a slightly lower tech method of....wire cutters. I didnt bother sanding them, although I should have done because they are pretty farking sharp right now!