SPCR

Hi, I'm trying to build a quiet Doom 3-capable system.

I'm thinking about replacing my (relatively) noisy Nexus NX3000 with a Silverstone fanless PSU. Now, I know this may mean I would have to get an undervolted Papst as an extra exhaust fan, but that should still be a net gain.

Also, for CPU cooling, I have a Papst at 12v and an Alpha PAL8045 (?) on a XP1700+ at 2 GHz. Works fine tempwise. From what I've learned, passive options are available, though, and even though using one might mean I'd have to stick another fan in there, if I could suspend it and undervolt it there would still be a lot to gain there, especially vibration-wise.

GFX: right now I have a radeon 8500 with a Zalman heatsink and an undervolted Papst. I'm thinking I should shoot for a 9800pro w/heatpipe instead.

As for drives, I'm using a suspended Seagate Barracuda IV 80Gb, which needs to be upgraded pretty soon. I'll just get another (larger) Seagate, as I understand the new ones are pretty quiet too.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

Wow, you're the first I've heard who had a problem with a Nexus NX3000 PSU. In fact, I thought a 12v Pabst would be louder that the Nexus.

Given your tight tolerances for silencing, an additional hard drive could be a lot louder. I would recommend what MikeC personally recommended to me. Get a large hard drive with an external USB2 enclosure and use it as needed (since you don't always need your hard drive all the time). The plus side is that you can move the external hard drive more than 1m away from you, reducing noise even further.

BTW, what's your case/exhaust fan? If you don't have one, you should since a completely fanless system is asking for hard drive trouble.

My beef with the Nexus is that it's really quiet on startup and for the next couple of minutes. You get 10 minutes of Doom 3 or whatever and then it's another story. Also, the type of sound that it makes (ie a high-pitch whiny noise) is extremely annoying even though it isn't necessarily loud per se.

And it's not any of the other fans or the HD, I excluded them systematically. Right now I have 2 intake fans and just the Nexus for exhaust - maybe that's taxing it too much? Perhaps I should just add an undervolted exhaust fan by the CPU to see if that can take a load off the Nexus?

Thanks for any help.

El_Duderino wrote:Perhaps I should just add an undervolted exhaust fan by the CPU to see if that can take a load off the Nexus?

That should be one of the first things you should try.

Do you have an unused 5,25" drivebay? Then search the forums for "PSU duct". That should give you idea's to isolate the PSU cooling from the airflow in the rest of the case. This is the best thread for that.

El_Duderino wrote:Also, the type of sound that it makes (ie a high-pitch whiny noise) is extremely annoying even though it isn't necessarily loud per se.

Would this be the actual fan or would it be the electronics? High pitch whiney noises are sometimes coil whine.

Definitely try using an undervolted exhaust fan. In nearly every computer these days, there is a rear exhaust fan, and it's one of the last fans to go when moving to a fanless system.

Ok, so I tried adding an undervolted exhaust fan right by the CPU. It might actually be working.

But I still hear that whiny noise from the Nexus, the type of sound is constant, but the volume is changing somewhat depending on what I do. For instance, when I'm reading a PDF document and holding the left mouse button down, the volume increases (weird, yep). I took that to mean it really has nothing to do with the fan in the Nexus... argh.

Again, thanks a lot... Now to find me a thread where they discuss coil noise...

Oh, and about that external hard drive thing. Good idea, but my current mobo doesn't have USB2. That doesn't really fly... :-/