Possible move to athlon64, plus other upgrades for silence

nickhannah · Post by **nickhannah** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 4:26 am

Hi, I've been reading the site a lot lately, after realising just how loud my system is and wondering what I can do about it. I just recently bought a whole new pc, but I was on a fairly low budget, up until now. I use it mainly for games, so I cant sacrifice speed for silence, but I'd like to get it as quiet as humanly possible with high performance.

My current set up is:

Antec SLK37000BQE
Intel Celeron 2.4 D
SiS 661FX-M Motherboard
ELSA Gladiac 128MB GeForce 6800
Zalman ZM400B-APS PSU
Seagate Barracuda 7200 160GB
Samsung TS-H352 DVD-ROM
LG GCE-8526B CD R/RW
Some unknown brand 256mb DDR ram

I just bought the case and Zalman PSU, which have already helped a lot, but the stock cpu cooler really annoys me to the point where I look forward to turning my computer off at night just to stop the noise.

From here I have a lot of decisions to make. One of the options is buying a whole new motherboard/cpu combo, to make for easier cooling and better performance, especially considering I've been told my motherboard doesnt have the right mounting parts for anything other than stock coolers, but I'm not sure about that. After a bit of reading up on these forums this morning I'm thinking about the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum, or maybe one of the asus boards, an ASUS A8V Deluxe or something similar, I cant remember which one right now. It seems like socket 754 is the way to go for quiet performance, or am I mistaken? Cpu I am thinking Athlon 64 3200+ or 3400+, any suggestions would be great.

For cpu cooling I'd like to get a zalman CNPS7000 or 7700, whichever has the best performance and fits on this system. This is what my setup looks like at the moment:

I measured the distance between the top of the board and the bottom of the psu at 40mm, if any other measurments are needed though I could grab them easily. Here's how my heatsink/fan attaches to the cpu, for reference:

To silence the 6800 I'll probably get either the Zalman ZM80D-HP or themaltake's fanless cooler.

Price doesnt bother me too much, as long as I get a nice quiet/silent computer. Any help or suggestions would be warmly welcomed, and if anyone has any experience with SiS I'd like to hear it. Sorry if this is too vague, I'm just really tired. I'll update later with whatever details are needed, and if anything I ask has been aswered well elsewhere, just point me in the right direction. Thanks for all the help aready guys

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 5:25 am

nickhannah,

WELCOME TO SPCR!!!

You seem to be in the right direction with your Athlon64 choices. An Athlon64 platform is pretty easy to silence with your case + Zalman PSU. Via chipset motherboards look a bit lower on the price and frankly I'm happy with mine but the nForce3 boards usually pack a better bundle. Have a look at my rig in my sig. The case is similar and it's a Athlon64 3000+ (s754) system with a Zalman 7000 cooler.

Cams · Post by **Cams** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 7:51 am

I'd consider one of the S939 Winchester-core AMD64s - they have a smaller core than the S754s and so use less power and are easier to cool. In fact, I think the Asus and MSI boards you mention are actually S939 boards.

I'm planning my upgrade for after the new year and will probably go with the 3500+ Winchester - there's a big price hike from there up to the 3800+ so it seems to be round about the sweet spot, at least in the UK market anyway.

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 12:29 pm

I see no reason why you can't quiet your current system with a Thermalright XP-90 heatsink and a Nexus 92mm fan. Your motherboard has a standard P4 heatsink retention frame. According to Thermalright the XP-90 fits all known socket 478 motherboards.

Post by **MikeC** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 1:30 pm

After the HSF swap, you can move your HDD out of the drive cage and put it on a bed of thin foam on the bottom of the case, below your board. There's lots of room because of the MATX board. Use the foam that was in your motherboard box. Just place it down there for the time being, making sure it touches nothing other than the foam. You will be shocked at how much quieter the whole system will be all the time. Drive seek vibrations and hum? A thing of the past. And when you want to get more secure with the setup, just poke through the Storage sections of the main site and the forums. Read the stickies.

nickhannah · Post by **nickhannah** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 8:55 pm

burcakb: Thank you

Cams: what exactly is this Winchester business? I've never seen an athlon 64 listed as using a winchester core, does this mean that all socket 939 a64 chips are winchester cored?

Tibors: One of the main reasons I'm considering a whole new mobo/cpu so soon after getting this system is that if I include that, I have pretty much a whole, recent pc that I can sell to either of my brothers or a friend or something. Spare psu, case, monitor and what have you, which are no good on their own usually, but if I add this I might be able to sell it for an alright amount, allowing me to upgrage to something quieter and faster. Thanks for the confirmation about retention frame.

The review here makes the thermalright sound like a pretty attractive option. I guess it comes down to how much I might be able to get for the old computer and what it would cost to upgrade. Any opinions on the difference between cooling my current system with the thermalright verses the proposed one with a zalman (or anything else, for that matter)? With the zalman psu, and when I get a passive gpu cooler along with a quieter case fan (currently using the antec 120mm that comes with the case) the cpu should be the only real noise maker in the case.

MikeC: Sounds like a pretty good plan, glad I kept that stuff lying around

but wont that make heat a problem? I imagine styrofoam would insulate the heat a fair bit wouldnt it?

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 11:07 pm

From the reviews I've gathered that the XP-120 is the better cooler. However, a Winchester core CPU is one cool chip so cooling with a Zalman will not be a problem. Considering the rapidly dropping prices of the Zalmans, the answer seems obvious.

Post by **MikeC** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 11:15 pm

No, not styrofoam, that stuff will vibrate like crazy. I refer to the soft "loose weave" open cell foam. It usually is placed underleath the trace side of the mothboard PCB as a shock absorber.

Spod · Post by **Spod** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 12:44 am

Winchester is the code name for the 90nm version of the Socket 939 Athlon 64. Newcastle is the 130nm version. Winchester runs cooler at the same clock speed, and at lower voltage, and will also overclock better if you're into that sort of thing.

All socket 939 3000+ and 3200+ chips are Winchester cored. More recently built 3500+ chips are Winchester cored, older 3500+ chips were built on the Newcastle core. No other chips have been released on the Winchester core, so far. All socket 754, Athlon 64 FX and Athlon 64 3800+ and 4000+ chips are currently built on the 130nm process.

nickhannah · Post by **nickhannah** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 2:09 am

Thanks Spod, I am pretty sure that I'll be going with the 3500+ winchester and the MSI K8N Neo2 Plat, but it seems most places dont say whether the cpu is the 90nm or the 130nm version, is there any easy way to tell?

After reading round here a lot I've gathered that I shouldnt have any spacing problems with either the zalman or the thermalright on this motherboard, so everything looks good there.

MikeC, I found the stuff you mean, for some reason I got the idea in to my head that you meant the foam from my case box. Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely be using this once I've cut the rest of the roar out of this.

After playing hl2 for a while I can hear the noise from this thing up the end of my hallway, and it is still loud enough up there to be irritating.

Thanks everybody for your help, before I started reading this site/forum I had absolutely no idea what could be done, you guys are great.

Spod · Post by **Spod** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 5:17 am

The XP-90 fits on that board, but the XP-120 hits capacitors. I'm not sure if the CNPS-7700 will fit, but the CNPS-7000 should do. The XP-90 with an undervolted or temperature controlled Nexus is quieter, but the CNPS-7000 AlCu is much cheaper.

You can tell whether a 3500+ is 90 or 130nm from its product code - ADA3500DIK4BI for the Winchester version, ADA3500DEP4AW for the Newcastle.
It should be visible from outside the box, either on a sticker or by looking at the chip itself. I assume that OEM packaging will also allow the vendor to check that code for you without opening the packaging, if they're willing. Some vendors list that code on their website, so you don't even have to ask them.

nickhannah · Post by **nickhannah** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 2:52 pm

"The XP-90 with an undervolted or temperature controlled Nexus is quieter"

Which brings me to my next problem. Nexus fans dont seem to be available anywhere in australia. I guess with the xp90 it doesnt matter so much, since the 92mm panaflos sound like they'll still be good, but I guess since my range of 120mm fans is limited the xp90 might end up the better option anyway.

And Spod, you've nearly the same setup that I want, but you're using the NV Silencer. It's not too loud for you? I'd like to be able to use it to help exit some of the heat from the case, but I'd much rather have something I wont hear. How's it been working for you?

Spod · Post by **Spod** » Fri Dec 17, 2004 8:38 am

Check the thread in my sig for a full description, but the NV5 was pretty noisy until I fanmated it. After that it was fine. With a vanilla 6800, you should be able to cope with a passive cooler, if the ZM80D fits.

If you can't get Nexus fans, Globe are reported to be very good.