Hi,

I have increasingly become more bothered about noise levels of my pc, which unfortunately I wasn't the most bothered when I first built this one, so I haven't started with the ideal anything for a quiet pc. I thought I would show you what I have done so far and see if there is anything glaringly wrong with my system!

The specs of my system is:
Core 2 Duo E7200 with an artic cooling freezer 7 pro cooler
4x1gb sticks of OCZ gold pc6400
GA-P35-DS3L motherboard
Ati HD4850 with Akasa Vortexx Neo cooler
500gb Samsung SpinPoint HD501LJ
320gb Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
Antec Sonata 3 case
Hiper 120mm case fan

Now what I have done so far is change the graphics card cooler to the Vortexx Neo as the standard one, well could only be described as a hurricane! I now have much better temps and run the coolers fan at 900rpm on the desktop and 1400rpm in games. When at 900rpm it is only just above being stalled, but it really is quiet at this speed and keeps the GPU at 60C.

From there I made the cardboard shoud as you can see in the pic. The standard earthwatts psu kept on ramping the fan up so I decided I would do a shoud for it. Really has helped so much, the fan hardly ever picks up any extra speed, plus I have removed the fan cover on the back to give the least resistence. This has increased the CPU temps by ~2C but its worth it.

Now the problem I have is the cpu fan keeps having to speed up to keep my cpu sub 50C on the desktop. Now I think this is because I don't have enough case flow. All I have is a single 120mm cheap fan running at 850rpm. Now I did some testing last night and I am definitly going to remove the fan guard on the back of my case as that is adding a lot of wind noise. Would also getting a higher quality fan allow me to move more air for the same noise?

Hi,
Nice mods to your setup !
For my E7200 overclocked to 3.2GHz, I only use a mini ninja without a fan. It works like a charm and I never see high temps. In my case, the Minja is in close proximity to the back exhaust fan (Noctua S12) and to the PSU fan (Sctyhe 120mm PWM), so it gets a decent amount of airflow.
You could try setting up the CPU fan to a fixed speed where it's barely audible and see how warm your CPU gets under load (It should stay cool, this CPU is not power hungry at all).

Like you said, I'd recommend changing your back exhaust fan to one on the recommended list. It'll be a major improvement.

What sort of temps would be alright for the e7200? Up to 60C ok?

60°C for the E7200 is on the high side for such a low power CPU.
I can check tonight what temps I have. It should be high since the CPU will have spent the day folding, but I'm quite sure it won't be higher than 60°C.

[EDIT : before I overclocked, the maximum CPU load temp I got was 45°C, using the Minja without a fan]

Well at idle I am keeping it around the 42-45C area. In games it shoots up more, though I am not the most impressed with my cpu cooler for quiet use. Also I did notice you have a cooler running graphics card which will probably be helping the ambient temps in the case.

Well I have cut out the rear grill, it has helped a bit more. Can have my fan 150rpm higher and it still be quieter than before! This will help my cpu temps even more. Here is a pic, just need to get a nice rubber surround for the fan hole and some rubber mounts for the fan itself. Now what 120mm fan should I get to go with that...



I have also decided to link my gpu fan to my cpu's temperatures in speedfan so the fan speed is auto adjusted. I decided that the cpu will heat up at the same time as the graphics card under usual games. Need to do some testing to make sure it will work well enough.

Have you tried to re-seat your heatsink? These temperatures are quite high.

I haven't done it lately. So you say 42C idling is too high? I know its not the best coolers though...

Also what is the best method for putting thermal paste on? Is it doing a cross shape and allowing the pressure to spread it? Last time I did it I spread it around first.

Well doing a little testing then and it seems that it is case airflow that is the problem. It hit 62C with the exhaust fan at 1000rpm, then when I increased it to 1400rpm area it reduced the temp down to 50C! So I really need a fan that can move the most without being too loud. Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1450rpm?

That's quite an improvement. Gentle Typhoon, Slipstream, SFLex, Nexus, Yate Loon, pick your choice. Any of these will be reasonably quiet at low revolutions.

Or maybe you should think about exchaning your CPU cooler. A Ninja comes for a reasonable price including a good fan.

might be an idea to try to open it up abit more in the front maybe? just a suggestion...

Ok, E7200 temp in speedfan 4.40 while folding is 58°C (ambiant 22°C)
Keep in mind that the CPU is overclocked to 3.2GHz.
That's with a fan less Mini Ninja.

Ahh so Yate Loons are decent? They seem a very reasonable price!

Wibla, May look into that to be honest.

frenchie, Hmm that is much better temps than me there.

You might also want to close up all those extra vent holes on the back of the case. You're likely sucking back in quite a bit of hot air through those. A bit of duct tape will do wonders to increase the amount of colder intake air you get from the vents in the front.

That's a good point, will look into blocking those and see how they affect temps.

Well another little update. I ordered a Yate Loon but it made lots of ticking noises so it is being swapped by the shop as we speak, got some soft mounts too for the rear fan to help. I have also decided to try a 120mm fan on the heatsink to see how it is. Well using the Antec Tricool (only fan I have spare at the moment) on the lowest setting I am getting idle at 40C and max is now only 55C. It is also quieter than before. So I will look into putting a decent 120mm fan onto it and holding it properly.

Still need to try blocking up the holes in the case to promote air being sucked in from the front. Plus the psu fan spins up still under gaming so will look into a replacement fan for that.

If it wasn't for the ticking, the Yate Loon would be very good! So I hope my replacement is decent.

FYI, Nexus are rebranded Yate Loons (at least the 120mm Nexus) with a resistor to slow them to 1000 RPM.

Where did you get the YLs from? Some shops sell Yates that are assembled by a middleman - they're still Yates but they're not as high quality and their noise character leaves something to be desired. In the US Petra and Danger Den are the only companies that sell real Yates. DD sells the open corner straight-blade model which is better for heatsinks/radiators; Petra usually sells the curved model that is just like the Nexus (exact same thing actually) but 200 RPM more. And they go for $5-$6.

edit: Oops! Remind me to check the date before bumping a thread! Sorry about that but hopefully I've given you some useful info

How do you like this cooler? I've owned several AC VGA Silencer's over the years and have always been impressed by how quiet they are. This looks similar.

It looks a little hard to find in the US.

Looks like a decent setup, goodstuff!

Sorry for a slow reply here! Well I went for 2 Nexus fans in the end, that way I knew they would be good and quiet.

I find the AC vga cooler excellent with the fan control, it really has improved my 4850 so much. I have overclocked too and it still handles the temps well. Was nice and easy to fit too.

Now my psu is the loudest by far. It gets so much quieter if I stop the psu fan spinning for a short time. I think I have an earthwatts 500 but with the delta fans. What shall I do? Swap fan or get a new psu?

Edit - I also got a Xigmatek S1283 aswell, much better at keeping the temps down without the noise!

Took some photos of my case now. I know its not that good a silent pc compared to others but its slowly improving, lol.