SPCR

I wrote this post for my blog, so please excuse the extra explanations I inserted. I know you guys know all this.

Building a quiet and energy efficient PC has been on my To-Do list for some time. Since we needed a new family computer and I was in dire need of a new “projectâ€

Welcome to SPCR!

Is there a large fan in the side of the case, or is that just an opening? You could use some hook & loop straps to bundle up the cables and try to route them out of the air flow.

You temps sound better than they "need" to be -- can you turn the fans down slower and/or eliminate some of them? Did you try the stock EnerMax fan? Is it noisier than the A/C?

Thanks. Yes, the Sharkoon Rebel9 has a large 240mm fan on the side, I disconnected it because it made a slight grinding noise which irritated me. Also the other 120mm case fan supplied by Sharkoon was crap. So basically I could have gotten the cheaper "Economy Edition" of the case.

I don't think the fans can run much slower? At least I was not able to set the Asus BIOS so it would be less than 550 RPM. Which of the 2 fans would you disconnect? I wasn't sure if the PSU will be okay without any fan at all?

I tried the stock Enermax fan. It made a slight grinding noise like the bearing was not 100% okay. I opened up the PSU, put a new Artic Cooler PWM fan in there and connected it to the Articl Cooler case fan I was using. So its now 2 fans daisy chained to the single mainbord PWM fan connector.

What are you checking the CPU temps with, Asus Probe? Be aware that the Brisbane core cpu's have a borked DTS. So the Asus software (and BIOS) are reading the motherboard thermal monitor I think--actual core temp is likely higher.

I've been using Coretemp, and then I add in the offset to show me a core temp roughly 5C over the reported CPU temp...should be enough to alert me to anything horribly wrong and be roughly accurate.

edit: nice looking pics too. And thumbs up on the M3A78-EM I have that board too. I love that it has just about everything under the sun on it. Could you imagine how much that board would've cost 5 or 10 years ago? It would've been like $500!!

I checked the temps with SpeedFan, reported the same ones as Asus Probe though. Maybe Asus fixed the error with on of the latest BIOS updates or a recent version of Asus Probe?
The M3A78-EM IS great for this price, couldn't ask for more!

Coretemp shows like 10 degress Celcius less on mine? What's up with that. The BIOS and SpeedFan say 40 degrees, Coretemp says 30. Which is right? If it really is only 30 I might as well turn off another fan

pilatius wrote:I checked the temps with SpeedFan, reported the same ones as Asus Probe though. Maybe Asus fixed the error with on of the latest BIOS updates or a recent version of Asus Probe?
The M3A78-EM IS great for this price, couldn't ask for more!

pilatius wrote:Coretemp shows like 10 degress Celcius less on mine? What's up with that. The BIOS and SpeedFan say 40 degrees, Coretemp says 30. Which is right? If it really is only 30 I might as well turn off another fan

Yeah that's the problem. Asus and Speedfan are pulling the temp from a separate thermal sensor (although it's unclear to me if it's on the mobo or the CPU) whereas Coretemp reads the DTS readings for each core on the CPU--unfortunately in the Brisbane cores these sensors give inaccurate readings.

Mine appear to be low (that's the general direction it seems to go) and I have adjusted the offsets to run about 5C higher than the CPU temp PC Probe gives me. My temps are about the same with the BE-2300, though it will soon be a 5050e as well

Yeah that problem with the thermal sensor is a real pain in the arse. My 4800+ has a problem with that too. At idle temps the sensor values seem pretty sensible, but at higher temps the readings are way too high.

Although it is wrong, it does seem to be consistent in the error, so for mine I know that if Everest reports over 100 degrees C, that means it will lock up soon.

theycallmebruce wrote: Although it is wrong, it does seem to be consistent in the error, so for mine I know that if Everest reports over 100 degrees C, that means it will melt down and sink Australia into the sea.

fixed.

psiu wrote:

theycallmebruce wrote: Although it is wrong, it does seem to be consistent in the error, so for mine I know that if Everest reports over 100 degrees C, that means it will melt down and sink Australia into the sea.

fixed.

wtf?

psiu wrote:

theycallmebruce wrote: Although it is wrong, it does seem to be consistent in the error, so for mine I know that if Everest reports over 100 degrees C, that means it will melt down and sink Australia into the sea.

fixed.

HAHA QFT

I too have the M3A78-EM (it rocks!) and an AC PWM fan. Using Asus Qfan, set the startup temperature to the highest value (48*C) and the full speed temp to the highest temp (75*C?). My AC 120mm pwm back fan runs ~600rpm idle while the AC freezer 64's fan turns ~800rpm idle at those settings.

I'm curious to know- under load does your PSU heat up and expel alot of hot air, so much so that the motherboard control (which is separate from PSU thermals) cannot cool it properly? Do you ever feel hot air coming out of the PSU under load? I'm considering a fan swap in my PSU and was wondering if I should daisy chaining another one of those AC fans.

No, i haven't noticed that yet. The PSU stays reasonably cool. Then again, I'm really not drawing much power. There's no external graphics card, so I'm mostly between 50 and 70W on a 385W PSU. I think it's bored most of the time and doesn't get a chance to heat up.
Also, the stock fan was rotating at 500 RPM always, the box it came in said it would only turn up further on a pretty high load. The fan I put in the PSU now is at 535 PM, so it should be about the same.

pilatius wrote:


So, what do you think? Any ideas to improve this?

I think vibefixer like this would be perfect match for that particular sharkoon: http://www.sharkoon.com/html/produkte/z ... ex_en.html
I am using those in two of my builds and they do excellent job. I am planning to obtain more of these in near future.

Your attachment seems to VibeFixer III which is inferior towards original VibeFixer.

I doubt that this vibe fixer is "inferior". It does a pretty good job. All I hear are the slight mechanical noises from inside the HD, which can't be helped.

Scythe Quiet box on Sorthobane would eliminate as much HDD noise as possible without going on SSD or 2,5 drive.

Hi, thanks for sharing your new computer built, really enjoyed reading about your computer build. that's a great collection of components I'm pretty much about to buy a similar parts myself.

Interesting bit of info about the power supply. They used their own special type of fan, and there is a question mark about replacing the fan. But it's useful info that the power supply will work when the main fan has been disconnected, so if you need to replace this than you can do what you have done and run it off the motherboard. Rock on.

thejamppa wrote:Scythe Quiet box on Sorthobane would eliminate as much HDD noise as possible without going on SSD or 2,5 drive.

Or on foam like I have