Very quiet A64 SOLO

[zoob]

Specifications:
CPU: Athlon 64 3000+ Venice (Topless)
CPU Heatsink: Zalman 7000 AlCu @ 5V via Fanmate
Motherboard: MSI RS482M4-ILD
RAM: OCZ 2x512 MB PC3200EL
Video card: XFX 7600GT w/Aerocool VM-101
Case: Antec SOLO
PSU: Seasonic S12-330
Hard drives: WD 250GB JD
Optical drives: LG 4120B

Temperature Data:

GPU temps look to be at steay state. Also the CPU temp bounces around 56-59 C when I monitored it during the stress test.

Energy Usage:
Added August 14, 2006
AC measured with a Kill-A-Watt, DC interpolated using efficiency curve of the S12-330 from the SPCR article.

Idle: 70 W AC | 50 W DC
CPU 100% Load: 105 W AC | 82 W DC (ORTHOS - Stress CPU with Gromacs Core)
CPU+GPU 100% Load: 125-128 W | 101-104 W DC (RTHDRIBL + ORTHOS Gromacs Core)

This means the S12-330 is a good choice for this system. From the SPCR review: "The fan remained very quiet until just above 150W load" which is around where this system sits under full load. A different PSU for consideration would be a Fortron Zen 300W for its higher efficiency, but they are not readily available in Toronto.

Pictures:
Front and rear... nothing special besides the clipped fan grille. I used electrical tape since I do not have any U strip.


Here is my topless 3000+. An awesome overclocker for which I no longer require (Used to do 2.7 GHz on air). LBBLE 0515FPMW. It took about 20 minutes with my swiss army knife... I figured if I lost this chip, it wouldn't be a big deal since they're so cheap now anyway


Electrical tape for protection... just in case.


Mounting the VM101 was easy as usual, however this XFX 7600GT had an unusual piece of metal that needs to be removed.



Nothing special... looks like every other graphics card with a VM101


Overview of the system. Note, I mounted the hard drive backwards to make it look "clean". No intake fan as HD temps have never been an issue in my experience. I also hate PSU cables... I tried to get my hands on an Antec NeoHE 430 for a duct mod, however they don't seem to be readily available in Toronto unless I buy a P150.




Look how close the case fan is to the VM101


Notes:
- The system is VERY quiet, some fan noise which I believe to be the S12-330.
- The WD 250GB JD idle noise is noticeable in this system when about 1-2 ft away. Turning on AAM helped reduce seek noises so that they are *very* faint and difficult to hear.
- Taking the IHS off the CPU resulted in no noticeable temperature drop. It was reading (unusually?) high, ~59 C full load (CPU+GPU) with the IHS on, and continues to read the same temperatures... Unfortunately I do not have any other motherboards to test this with. It is still perfectly stable. Looking at the IHS contact, it was pretty good to begin with so the only gains I would get would be with better cooling. Also unfortunate is that I do not have a thermometer in this place to measure ambient temps.. Suffice to say, this system is 100% stable even during the worst heat waves of 40 C with humidex of 45 C
- The floppy drive is NOISY. I purchased a Mitsumi branded card/floppy reader. The LG 4120 is better for DVD playback than the BenQ DW1655 I have in my own machine.

Overall, I am very satisfied with the performance and noise of this system. A few things I wish I had changed:
- Swap out the RS482 board for the GF6150 MSI board for some light overclocking/undervolting
- Use a Ninja and VM102
- Have some U channel
- Select a higher model S12 PSU for larger heatsinks/less noise
- Tried a WD Scorpio or Seagate Momentus.

Justifications on why I haven't changed the parts:
- The ATI board runs cooler than the nForce board (from my experiences with nF4 at least)
- A Ninja would be overkill for the 3000+ seeing as the Zalman @ 5V is essentially inaudible and is capable of pushing a bit of air onto the VM101
- The S12-330 is perfectly capable, and I'd be paying for a tiny decrease in noise. I do have a Phantom 500W laying around, but I also have to fit into budget (Phantom being nearly 4 times the cost of the 330)
- Laptop SATA hard drives are difficult to find in Toronto

[jaganath]

Interesting fan blade shape on the rear case fan...what model of panaflo is it? Good job on the rig BTW, IMO anything more than the S12-330 would have been overkill.

[sanse]

thought only girls could get topless.

i also want a topless rig.

[ultrachrome]

Nice assembly.

How much cooling improvement did you see after removing the heat spreader?

[zoob]

Thanks guys. Much more positive response to this build rather than my gaming P180

The fan is an old OEM Panaflo that I had lying around waiting to be used in my yet-to-be-purchased-over-two-years water cooling setup. Now I have only one left.. argh. Panaflo FBK-12G12LH, as seen in the old rigs of Ralf Hutter: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=6127 (bottom of the page)

I saw no improvement in cooling after removing the heatspreader. Check the notes section of my post!

[tempeteduson]

Nice build. How's the LG drive working for you noise-wise? I'm thinking about trying one.

[james111]

Not bad... but you can do better...
Just by looking at your system, it'd already be too loud for my tastes.

[jaganath]

Just by looking at your system, it'd already be too loud for my tastes.

Well, for most casual silencers they hit a brick wall noise-wise when it comes to 3.5" hard drive noise, most people aren't prepared to take the price/performance hit of 2.5" drives and haven't got the time to make their own enclosures/can't afford to buy expensive retail ones, so you get a law of diminishing returns the further down the dB scale you go.

[silon]

zoob. im using the same card and id like to know if you have temp readings [min & max] for the core with the stock cooler and the new ones too?

btw i think that 'unusual piece of metal' is called a backbone and it *helps* prevent the card from bending.

[zoob]

The LG drive is pretty quiet during DVD playback. Enough that it is a non-issue when I want to watch a movie. On the BenQ DW1655 it's terrible and I usually end up ripping the movie to my hard drive and then watch.

Newer LG drives are no longer the 41xx series, but H10A/N or whatever. Reviews lead me to believe they are not of the same quality as their older drives (cdrlabs.com for more indepth reviews). I have no first hand experience with the LG H10 series drives.

I'm planning on building an even quieter rig later down the line when I free up some space/money. This will make use of my Phantom 500W (currently under my bed), and either an enclosed 3.5" drive or suspended SATA laptop drive.

Idle temps of this system (fairly cool 26C ambient according to weather network.. again, I have no thermometer to tell my exact room temperature): CPU @ 40 C, GPU @ 57 C.
Unfortunately I have no temperature with the stock cooler. I only had it on long enough to verify the card is in working condition before I modified it (seems to be the way with most of my hardware )

Ah, makes sense regarding the piece of metal... I'd keep it on, however it was interfering with the heatpipes on the VM101. If I were to watercool (or use a huge CPU heatsink on it), I'd imagine it'd help reduce the card bending quite a bit. The metal piece is very stiff.

[androgeny]

Is that panaflo hard mounted onto the case??

[zoob]

Is that panaflo hard mounted onto the case??

You're right... and you just reminded me that I do happen to have four rubber softmount whatever you call them in my drawer... will put them in sometime later

[zoob]

Updated with energy consumption figures.

I also realized that using rubber gromets would make the case fan touch the VM-101 so I opted to stick with the hard mount.