RoGuE's Silent gaming rig
Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 9:50 am
Hey SPCR!
yep, I'm a noob to the forums. I've been reading this site religiously for the past year now, I am SUCH a fan. I just wanna take a sec to thank Mike Chin and the "staff" for producing such an informative and well done site.
I'm at work now so no pics at the moment, but later tongiht ill edit in my rig pictures.
I started out focusing solely on performance. When I built it and turned it on..my new computer sounded like a loud, humming, wind tunnel. Since day one, it's been an ongoing project to make it as quiet as I could...and I think it's been a sucess.
BASELINE:
e8400 OCd to 3.6
ASUS p5q running at 1600Mhz FSB
2gb of GSkill memory @ 1066 mhz
EVGA 8800GS <- overclocked the sh*t out of it
320 WD hdd, 500 samsung
all wrapped up in a Smilidon Raidmax case. (NOT SILENT AT ALL IN STOCK CONFIG!!!!!!!)
win xp pro sp3 / Ubuntu 8.10 dual boot
Silencing efforts:
+ Arctic Cooling freezer 7 pro
+ Zalman GPU cooler (forget the model number and im lazy)
+ removed all 80mm fans from operation.
+ suspended HDDs with bungie cables! ( this was the BIGGEST improvement becasue it elimintaed the pulsing and case resonance I was hearing 24/7)
+ cut open a big hole in the side panel for a 120mm Scythe slipstream 1200 rpm (controlled by speedfan from 0-1000 rpm)
Results:
@idle: virtually in-audible even in the quietest of rooms. scythe fan is set to undervolt to 0 rpm to improve life of the fan and pull in less dust while its idle most of the day (it is a negative pressure system when the fan's on..and just about 50/50 with it off.)
@gaming: gpu fan spins pretty fast so there is a quiet but annoying tonality to the computer while I'm gaming. I'm OK with this becasue I use headphones for my games, and can't hear a damn thing. The scythe fan took out a HUGE portion of the noise because it cools the gpu as well and it replaced a fast/loud 80mm annoyance.
Thanks for reading!
yep, I'm a noob to the forums. I've been reading this site religiously for the past year now, I am SUCH a fan. I just wanna take a sec to thank Mike Chin and the "staff" for producing such an informative and well done site.
I'm at work now so no pics at the moment, but later tongiht ill edit in my rig pictures.
I started out focusing solely on performance. When I built it and turned it on..my new computer sounded like a loud, humming, wind tunnel. Since day one, it's been an ongoing project to make it as quiet as I could...and I think it's been a sucess.
BASELINE:
e8400 OCd to 3.6
ASUS p5q running at 1600Mhz FSB
2gb of GSkill memory @ 1066 mhz
EVGA 8800GS <- overclocked the sh*t out of it
320 WD hdd, 500 samsung
all wrapped up in a Smilidon Raidmax case. (NOT SILENT AT ALL IN STOCK CONFIG!!!!!!!)
win xp pro sp3 / Ubuntu 8.10 dual boot
Silencing efforts:
+ Arctic Cooling freezer 7 pro
+ Zalman GPU cooler (forget the model number and im lazy)
+ removed all 80mm fans from operation.
+ suspended HDDs with bungie cables! ( this was the BIGGEST improvement becasue it elimintaed the pulsing and case resonance I was hearing 24/7)
+ cut open a big hole in the side panel for a 120mm Scythe slipstream 1200 rpm (controlled by speedfan from 0-1000 rpm)
Results:
@idle: virtually in-audible even in the quietest of rooms. scythe fan is set to undervolt to 0 rpm to improve life of the fan and pull in less dust while its idle most of the day (it is a negative pressure system when the fan's on..and just about 50/50 with it off.)
@gaming: gpu fan spins pretty fast so there is a quiet but annoying tonality to the computer while I'm gaming. I'm OK with this becasue I use headphones for my games, and can't hear a damn thing. The scythe fan took out a HUGE portion of the noise because it cools the gpu as well and it replaced a fast/loud 80mm annoyance.
Thanks for reading!