Intel DH77DF, finally a silent system
Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 7:45 pm
I finally built a truly silent system without going through a lot of trouble or using really special components. Even with really good/expensive silent components I've had issues with electronic noise (my DH61AG motherboard squeals some when doing I/O, my Seasonic X power supply emits a high tone when in standby). So I figured I'd share the components:
- Intel DH77DF Mini-ITX motherboard
- Intel 3570K CPU (2 cores disabled in BIOS to reduce peak power, make the codes stay at 3.8GHz turbo)
- Rosewill RCX-Z90-CP heatsink (copper core w/aluminum fins)
- Raidmax ITX-0907-BP enclosure
- Fortron FSP300-60GHS-R 80 plus micro-atx power supply
- Sandisk Extreme 240Gb SSD
- 2 sticks of Samsung 2Gb DDR3 1600 memory (CPU-Z says that they are running at 1.35V)
The two components that matter the most are the DH77DF motherboard and the FSP300-60GHS-R power supply, the rest of the components were just personal preferences. In my case, the FSP300-60GHS-R sits at the bottom and I remove its top cover and fan completely so heat rises up into the enclosure. Similarly I remove the fan from the RCX-Z90-CP (it rubs a lot so it's not quiet even at slow RPMs). Then I mount an Artic cooling 120mm case fan (Arctic F12) running at 5V above the CPU heatsink where the DVD drive would go. It provides airflow to the CPU, motherboard and FSP300-60GHS-R components while gently forcing heat out of the enclosure.
There is no electronic buzzing in any situation. Standby power is 1W, idle at the Windows 7 desktop driving a 1080P display and connected to gigabit ENET is 21W. Load w/2 cores at around 3.7/3.8GHz is a little over 50W. 4 cores w/graphics comes to around 75-80W. Audio output is perfectly clean as seems to be the case with Intel motherboards in general.
The FSP300-60GHS-R is a good power supply. I've had a pair of them running 24/7 with the cover and fan removed as I did here for about a year. At the low idle power of Intel's Ivy/Sandy Bridge CPUs I actually get about the same measured power as my Seasonic X PSUs (21W is only 5% of my Seasonic X's rated load, to low to be in its ~90% sweet spot).
Anyway, this system is silent with any acoustic dampening. And it is fast, I didn't have to make performance tradeoffs to get it to be quiet.
- Intel DH77DF Mini-ITX motherboard
- Intel 3570K CPU (2 cores disabled in BIOS to reduce peak power, make the codes stay at 3.8GHz turbo)
- Rosewill RCX-Z90-CP heatsink (copper core w/aluminum fins)
- Raidmax ITX-0907-BP enclosure
- Fortron FSP300-60GHS-R 80 plus micro-atx power supply
- Sandisk Extreme 240Gb SSD
- 2 sticks of Samsung 2Gb DDR3 1600 memory (CPU-Z says that they are running at 1.35V)
The two components that matter the most are the DH77DF motherboard and the FSP300-60GHS-R power supply, the rest of the components were just personal preferences. In my case, the FSP300-60GHS-R sits at the bottom and I remove its top cover and fan completely so heat rises up into the enclosure. Similarly I remove the fan from the RCX-Z90-CP (it rubs a lot so it's not quiet even at slow RPMs). Then I mount an Artic cooling 120mm case fan (Arctic F12) running at 5V above the CPU heatsink where the DVD drive would go. It provides airflow to the CPU, motherboard and FSP300-60GHS-R components while gently forcing heat out of the enclosure.
There is no electronic buzzing in any situation. Standby power is 1W, idle at the Windows 7 desktop driving a 1080P display and connected to gigabit ENET is 21W. Load w/2 cores at around 3.7/3.8GHz is a little over 50W. 4 cores w/graphics comes to around 75-80W. Audio output is perfectly clean as seems to be the case with Intel motherboards in general.
The FSP300-60GHS-R is a good power supply. I've had a pair of them running 24/7 with the cover and fan removed as I did here for about a year. At the low idle power of Intel's Ivy/Sandy Bridge CPUs I actually get about the same measured power as my Seasonic X PSUs (21W is only 5% of my Seasonic X's rated load, to low to be in its ~90% sweet spot).
Anyway, this system is silent with any acoustic dampening. And it is fast, I didn't have to make performance tradeoffs to get it to be quiet.