WIP Video Editing Rig (3700BQE w/ undervolted A64)

teutonritter · Post by **teutonritter** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 5:29 pm

I actually built this in Feburary, but only recently began modifying it for quietness.

Specs:

SLK3700BQE (w/ grills cut, front drive bay removed, and front holes taped up)
TruePower 330 (w/ grills removed)
Athlon 64 3200 Winchester @ 1.10v
Zalman 7000b @ 5v
Asus A8V
1GB Corsair Value
ATI AIW 9600XT (w/ Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer @ 5v)
Generic DVD Reader
Nec DVD Burner
WD800JB
(my video is stored on external hard drives)

All the cables are routed behind the motherboard tray.

I've also wrapped some of the wires in black tape to keep them tidy

My CPU is undervolted to 1.10 volts, with the following temps:

Idle:
cpu 33
mobo 27
hd 33

Load:
cpu 38
mobo 29
hd 39

My GPU doesn't have a temp probe, but as far as I can tell, the VGA Silencer is working well (though it's not exactly silent). The heatsink feels only slightly warm to the touch...

Here you can see the cut out grills and drive bays, and the HD waiting to be suspending (don't have elastic yet).

And here you can see the majority of the fans in the case, two in the PSU, one exhast, one on the CPU heatsink, and one of the graphics card (though you can't see it in this picture, maybe if I had zoomed out a little):

This computer is still pretty loud, though much quieter than before. The louding thing is easily the HD, which i'm going to suspend soon (hence the cut away drive cage). I might swap it for a Seagate thought, as a lot of the noise is not from vibrations. The case fan (default that came with the case) is pretty loud too. I might get a new one, since the fan can't be undervolted with a Fanmate.

To do list:

- Suspend HD.
- Either undervolt outtake fan or get a new one
- Remove/undervolt/replace one/two of the fans in the TruePower
- Place the computer on the carpet (right now it's on a wooden desk which I think is making things worse)

(I'm sorry the pictures suck, my computer room is kinda dark and I was using a camcorder's "picture" function to take the pictures)

EDIT: changed the hosting so you don't have to cut/paste the pictures anymore

roo · Post by **roo** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 4:04 pm

how did you undervolt your CPU?
I'm intending on undervolting an A64 as well, did you use crystalcpuid? or from the bios?

teutonritter · Post by **teutonritter** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 6:36 pm

From the bios

It's still all strange to me, as I used to be an overclocker.

I got this rig to 2.65 at one time... 1.52v... then again my noise level was outragous and my temps at least 15 degrees higher... lol.

More pics:

And here you can see the taped up bezel, cut front grill, and a peice of foam that I put in front to block some noise from the HD (which did become louder when I cut the drive bay out). You can even see part of the VGA Silencer.

Here is a shot of speedfan while running Prime:

2t2 crash · Post by **2t2 crash** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 10:16 pm

how has the athlon64/av8 combo worked for you?

teutonritter · Post by **teutonritter** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 2:42 pm

Very well, thank you.

I have the "Deluxe" version, and it undervolts quite nicely. I also like all the extras that come with the motherboard. It came with a couple of SATA cables, SATA power cables, and black IDE/Floppy cables (as seen in the photo, one floppy, 3 IDE). It also came with a few free apps, which is a plus (WinDVD, can't remember the others).

I wish it would include two intergrated firewire ports though. Although it advertises itself as having two, to use the other one you need to hook it up via the included bracket (seen in my photos, it right above the graphics card). This just adds unnecessary clutter. Firewire 800 would have been nice too, although maybe that's just me being spoiled by PowerMac G5's...

For the most part it's nice, though I would have liked a cooler colour! I think the orange/brown is really ugly. Black would have been nice...