Planned Athlon64 3200+ System

CX23882-19 · Post by **CX23882-19** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 11:24 am

Hi,
I'm planning on building a quiet A64 system and this is what I have at the moment:
- Evercase ECE-4252 with Nexus Damp-Tek
- ASUS A8V Deluxe
- Athlon64 3200+ Winchester
- Scythe FCS-50
- Galaxy Glacier 6800GT AGP
- Nexus NX-4090 PSU

Everything except for the graphics card is bought already, but I'm concerned about reading complaints about the NV Silencer that the Galaxy card uses. Is it really that loud/annoying?

Sweendog · Post by **Sweendog** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 4:10 pm

Good luck with your build, it looks very similar to the one I'm working on now. There is a good review of the Arctic Cooling NV5 on a 6800GT here on SPCR: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article199-page1.html

They have some sound clips where you can hear it for yourself. I know its going to be louder than I would like, but I figure its the price I have to pay for the video performance this beast should produce.

Ciao,
Sweendog

ilh · Post by **ilh** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 4:48 pm

The VF700 works nicely on a 6800 GT and is an alternative to the NV5. I have no experience with the NV5 so I cannot make a comparison.

For me, the VF700 has the added benefit of cooling my NB47J on my nForce4 chip.

CX23882-19 · Post by **CX23882-19** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 10:10 am

I've decided to cancel my GeForce 6800GT order. Right now, I've got a Radeon 9800 Pro with the VGA Silencer, and at "Low" setting SPCR measured it at <18dBA and at "High" setting 32dBA/1m. With the 6800GT+NV Silencer 5 they measured 31dBA/1m.

I find the VGA Silencer on High very annoyingly loud, so I don't think that NV Silencer 5 is for me at all.

Sweendog · Post by **Sweendog** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 7:34 pm

I'm planning on putting my system together this weekend, I'll post so you can find out how it sounds. I'm betting (hoping) during normal, non-gaming use, I can leave the NV5 at ~7 volts with my fan controller, and it won't be too loud.

CX23882-19 · Post by **CX23882-19** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 11:58 am

The wrong board got sent to me - A7V8X-VM rather than the A8V-D (hardly similar at all!) that I ordered, so I've returned it and asked for a refund.

I've now got the opportunity to reconsider my motherboard choice:
- ASUS A8V-Deluxe
- Abit AV8
- Gigabyte GA-K8NS-Ultra939

At the moment the Gigabyte looks perfect... except for the noisy NB cooler. Would a passive cooler clash with ALL graphics cards or just those with an AC Silencer on it? I like the look of the VF-700; would this have the same issues, say, on a 6800GT?

CX23882-19 · Post by **CX23882-19** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 1:29 pm

A-ha! This baby looks like the one for me:
Epox EP-9NDA3+

Edit: No-one sells the 9NDA3+ in the UK (except for one but it was out of stock) so I settled for the cheaper 9NDAJ for £66. Does anyone even know what differs between the J and +; they share the same PCB and both have nForce3 Ultra using the NV Ethernet, which are the only things I was bothered about.

Chris.Day · Post by **Chris.Day** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 2:58 am

What would you recommend regards chipset/VGA cooling:

Right now, I've got a Radeon 9800 Pro with VGA Silencer rev3, and I'm happy with it on "Low". It looks like it might still clash with a passive chipset cooler even with 1 slots space between it. I've seen two revisions of this PCB too (which is the same on the 9NDA3+ and 9NDA3J), one has 6 PCI slots and the NB in line with PCI2 and another is as shown above with 5 PCI slots and the NB between PCI1 and PCI2.

I am considering getting a GeForce 6800GT. Is there anything that would fit on there and not clash with a passive NB cooler? (e.g. VF700?)

PS: CX23882-19 and Chris.Day are one and the same.

ilh · Post by **ilh** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 4:05 am

A VF700 doesn't appear it would clash much with an NB47J on this. At worst you'd need to bend some NB47J pins.

CX23882-19 · Post by **CX23882-19** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 5:19 am

I've got it all set up and it's reasonably quiet (pics later) but the Nexus NX-4090 is definately the loudest component. The PSU feels cool (it really cooked in the previous setup) so I should think that the fan is near to it's lowest speeds. I'm happy with the noise level, but I'd hoped for something a little quieter. Am I being unreasonable in considering the NX-4090 to be loud, or do my ears need to age a little.

As for the NB cooler, it was a whiny little thing, which was subdued considerably when the side panels were put on (but still too loud). It didn't actually seem to do anything worthwhile - the size of the stock heatsink combined with the air circulation from the VGA Silencer keeps it cool enough with the fan unplugged.

I did have one problem with the Scythe FCS-50 - the PCI slot bracket doesn't fit through the slot in the ECE-4252. I had to remove the knob and then remount it. Even so, I noticed that it knocks out the signal to my DVB-T card in the adjacent slot (due to interference being transferred across the brackets), so I opted to just remove the whole control from the bracket and stuff it up in an empty drive bay.

CX23882-19 · Post by **CX23882-19** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 2:41 am

I decided that the NB is a little too hot, so today I removed everything from the case and tried to remove the stock NB cooler. I undid the push pins and expected it to be easy to remove. It isn't. It appears to be glued onto the NB and will not easily come off with reasonable force (any more force will likely damage the board).

Does anyone have any tips for removing this whiny little thing?

Edit: I found a thread RE using a hairdryer. 5 seconds of heat and it came right off.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 4:01 pm

Chris, Can you loot any other boards for their, low profile passive NB heatsinks

I have an nForce 3 Ultra (check the Signature) with a low profile Heatsink on it so the fan doesn piss me off, and it doesnt clash with my VGA Silencer.

It seems to be cool, but I cant monitor the temperature, perfect stability.

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=21235

Hoping for more info.

Most sprung held, through the board NB Heatsinks are the same, if you can get one, clean it, and the chip, apply thermal grease, fit enjoy.

Andy

CX23882-19 · Post by **CX23882-19** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 11:20 pm

I settled for attacking the NB47J with a pair of pliers. On the EPoX board it is only nescessary to bend 4 or 5 fins over to make it fit under the VGA Silencer, with the added benefit that the remaining fins get air blown across them.

I'll put up some pictures when I get home tonight.