Quiet !COOL! P4 3.2 System Advice

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Matt^
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jun 06, 2004 6:22 am
Location: England

Quiet !COOL! P4 3.2 System Advice

Post by Matt^ » Sun Jun 06, 2004 7:25 am

Hello everyone :)

I'm a newcomer to SPCR, and have been avidly (and thoroughly) trawling the boards for all information about silencing and cooling pc's.

Can i just say what a fantastic board and community this is! I really respect the advice given here, and can see there is a wealth of knowledge to be tapped. :wink:

Anyway, i am putting a high end pc together to be used as a workhorse for 3d animation. It needs to be fast, cool (=stable), and as quiet as possible so i can sleep with it on while its rendering. Therefore absolute silence ISN'T a priority (e.g water cooling) as long as its nicely quiet.

Temperature and stability however IS a priority.

Ok, this is the list of what i'm planning on getting so far..

P4 3.2 Northwood 800fsb
IC7-MAX 3 Mobo
Chieftec BX case
2x Geil 1GB 3200 400mhz Value Ram
Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro
1x Raptor 36GB SATA
2x Maxtor DiamondMax 200GB SATA
Enermax Noisetaker 470w PSU
Zalman CNPS7000A-ALCU HSF

Nexus 80mm Case Fan x 4
or
SilenX 80mm Case Fan x 4


PSU: Ok, i've decided to go for the Noisetaker PSU. I was originally going for the Tagan 480, but after hearing about the clicking problems and reading shathal's many informative posts, i've gone with his advice and chosen the Noisetaker.

HSF: This i'm 90% sure of. I know the 7000A is a good HSF. Question is, is it good enough to cool a 3.2ghz Northwood? :? The other alternative is a Thermalright SP94 with maybe a SilenX 92mm on, but that beast is 590g!! Surely if i take my PC anywhere, it could damage the cpu/mobo? What do you think? :shock:

Case Fans: Now, in terms of fans i really don't know what to do. The chieftec case will probably only support 5x 80mm fans (the latest revision has 2x 120mm front and back, but its unlikely this version is available in the UK yet).
So, 4x Nexus fans are £43. 4x SilenX fans are £55. Are the SilenX worth the extra money? I've read they have the best dBa/CFM ratio (at least for 80mm fans). I've ruled out AcoustiFans because they would be £60 for 4. So the price doesn't warrant the difference. And i've ruled out Panaflo because i can't be sure if i can get the Japanese versions. What about an aluminium Evercool (Titan) 80mm?

Also, do i NEED 4x case fans?

Anything else i need? Northbridge cooling?

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated :)

Apologies for the essay length.. lol :oops: :lol:

Ralf Hutter
SPCR Reviewer
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Location: Sunny SoCal

Post by Ralf Hutter » Sun Jun 06, 2004 12:07 pm

Hi Matt^ - WELCOME TO SPCR!!!

First off, go with the Asus P4C800E-Deluxe rather than the noisy Abit board. The Abit's got a fan on the NB as well as that silly fan cooled plastic tunnel. The Asus board is passively cooled and probably more stable than the Abit board as well.

I'd go with the SP-94 over the Z-7000 for your heatsink. The SP-94 cools better than the Z-7000. The SP-94 bolts onto the mobo so it's weight isn't much of a concern.

As far as case fans, well you'll just have to play with that. I used a Cheiftec Dragon (BX with a different bezel design) with a 3.0GHz P4 for a while. Three Panaflo L1A fans at 7 volts were enough for me, 2 on the rear as exhaust and one on the front to cool the drives. I experimented a lot with various numbers and types of fans as well as fan voltages too. The best combo I came up with was the 3 L1A's at 7V. You can certainly try foru fans if you want, you may have some extra case heat to remove with that vidcard and it probably won't add to much to the overall noise level.

As for the brand of fan, I can't help you because I've not had experience with any 80mm fans recently.

azmo
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2004 1:21 am

Post by azmo » Mon Jun 07, 2004 2:04 am

i'm new here myself

(i) might want to make sure the hard drives are silent. are the wd and maxtor you're considering nearly as quiet as a hitachi or seagate?

bought a new system and the cheap 160gb 7200 seagate in it is very silent (when not seeking, anyway, would need an enclosure to make that go away), but the older 80gb maxtor, 120gb wd i tried to put in were loud enough (constant whine on both even when not seeking, probably from age?) that I decided to put them in my server and access over the network instead

(ii) got the noisetaker 470w as well. the plastic enclosure for the wires is annoying in my small case, but I can only barely hear the fan in silent mode (runs at ~736rpm avg). very satisfied.

(iii) not sure how silent the silenx or nexus case fans are, but you might be able to not use them at all if you have air conditioning like I do. with the stock (older model) intel hsf running at 2000rpm my cpu idles at 27-30c. 40-49c in games. i just leave the side of the case off and let the air conditioning (or cool night with window open) do the work. (rendering heats up the CPU more than games, so might not be feasable, but even "silent" fans are annoying to me now after running the system without them)

(iv) once your computer is as quiet as mine the radeon fan sounds loud, might want to get a fanless sapphire or coolermaster vga

azmo
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2004 1:21 am

Post by azmo » Mon Jun 07, 2004 2:27 am

er, realized i meant samsung, not hitachi after looking at this page:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article29-page2.html

Matt^
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jun 06, 2004 6:22 am
Location: England

Post by Matt^ » Mon Jun 07, 2004 3:51 am

Thanks for the replies guys. Although now you've got me wondering about changing things i thought i'd settled on! :D

I'm unsure about the motherboard. Every review i've read gives the IC7-Max 3 the highest accolades. Obviously they won't be concerned about noise... but is it really that noisy? What about an Aopen AX4SPE-MAXII?

I shall go for the SP-94 now after your recommendation, thanks Ralf :)

Hi azmo, i have no idea about the noise level from the HDD's. I'm assuming the Raptor will be pretty noisy, but as long as its only when accessing, it shouldn't be too much of a problem (hopefully!).
Unfortunately i don't have air conditioning (in UK, so generally not needed ;) ). I agree the radeon may be the loudest thing in the case (depending on motherboard..) so i'll see if its acceptable, and if not, stick a VGA cooler on later.

Now i'm wondering about PSU's again.... does anyone have any experience with the SilenX 550? SilenX stuff seems to be getting some very good reviews..

Bluefront
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Post by Bluefront » Mon Jun 07, 2004 4:11 am

I'll put in a plug for A-Open boards.....the one you mention has great specs. The Silent-tec fan control system is extremely useful, can be configured many ways. My A-Open board (reviewed by SPCR) has worked flawlessly since I got it. I'm seriously considering the Aopen AX4SPE-MAXII as my next board.

Bistro
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Jun 02, 2004 10:31 am

Post by Bistro » Mon Jun 07, 2004 4:55 am

I have to ditto Ralf's suggestion on the motherboard. I've been using the P4C800-E and its the most stable board I've ever used...hard to see how they will improve on this one.

shathal
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Location: Reading, UK

Post by shathal » Mon Jun 07, 2004 6:33 am

Another support for the SP-94 - the mounting mechanism is actually damn stable, so nothing to worry about :).

As for mounting an Aluminium fan on the critter - unlikely, be perfectly honest, if they're anything like the 120 mm fans. I've only got the 120 mm fans, so I'm speaking only with the experience I have with those - but I suspect the 80 mm ones are little different.

Firstly, there's the weight (they weigh a LOT for their size) ... I'd rather add a plastic fan to the ThermalRight SP-94, to be honest. Then there's the size - the frame is MASSIVE (a "normal" 120 mm fan holder couldn't hold the aluminium 120 mm fans).

If you don't want to go with a Panaflo L1A (what country you're in anyway?), Maybe a Papst fan might be an option? Though I'd suggest a 92 mm fan, to be honest, rather than 80 mm.

If you're in the UK (and stating GBP's helps that assumptio), you may want to talk SPCR's very own Dorothy (user account - jafb2000). Her www-pages are here:

www.stores.ebay.co.uk/panaflofan for fans, books & other items
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dorothy.br ... anaflo.htm (Direct)

She's the one I got my Panaflo L1A from, and it's not a clicky sort (may have been just my luck - don't know - or I'm just deaf to it). Have a chat with her, she might be able to sort you out mayhap. :)

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