Hello,

This is my first post. I've been lurking on the forums and decided to quiet/cool down my PC. Currently, according to MBM5, my CPU is running @ 50C and case @ 43C. I run two instances of Folding@Home (hyperthreaded) pretty much 24 hours a day.

I built my system a little over a year ago, and it's pretty loud. My system specs:

Antec Performance Plus PLUS660AMG w/Antec TruePower 330W PSU
Lite On 52x24x52 CDRW
Lite On XJ-HD166S/XJ-HD165H 16X DVD-ROM
WD "Special Edition" 120GB 7200 RPM EIDE HDD
Asus P4P800 (non-deluxe) mobo
P4 2.6C Ghz socket 478 - 800 Mhz FSB
1 gig Crucial PC3200 RAM
SB Audigy 2 internal
ATI AIW 9700 non-pro
ATI 7000 (I fly a lot of Flight Simulator 2004 and this drives additional monitors for various 2D functions)
D-Link DWL-520+ PCI 802.11b adapter
Stock intel P4 heatsink/fan, ATI 9700 fan, and Antec case fan (on the side); stock flat IDE cables

I've made some discretionary $ on eBay and have about $200 budgeted for this project. Right now I'm considering:

Endpcnoise.com:
Arctic Silver 5 ($5.95)
Zalman ZM-2HC2 Silent Hard Drive Heatpipe ($29.50) (I have a free full size drive bay)
CNPS7000-ALCU for P4 ($27.00)
NX-3500 Nexus 350 Quiet Power Supply ($69.00)
(2) 24 inch black rounded Ultra ATA133 IDE cable ($15.90)
UV Reactive green molded floppy cable ($5.95) (I don't care about the color, but it's what they have)
Sub-total: $153.30

Quietpcusa.com:
AF80CT AcoustiFan 80mm ($18.65)
ACVGB Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer V3 ($21.95) (I have a free PCI slot next to my AIW 9700)
Sub-total: $40.60

Total (before quietpcusa shipping, endpcnoise shipping is free over $150): $193.90.

Basically I'm just looking for input about my choices, whether I can find a better value elsewhere, etc. I've been reading a lot the past few days and this seems like an appropriate setup for my system. Thanks for your help!

N12345

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much at stage about rounded cables. Instead it would be worth focusing on the fans and the noise that they create. So consider:-

1. Quiet case fans - Nexus, SilenX, Acoustifan, Panaflos, Pabst etc (get the right model / model numbers) - load of info on the forums - use Search.
2. Fan controller
3. Perhaps getting the 4090 over the 3500 PSU.
4. Passive cooling the graphics card. The Artic is probably alot quieter that the stock fan but I don't think it that's 'quiet.'
5. Sound dampening material.
6. New HDD (the Zalman will help but it won't cure the WD's whininess)
7. Passive cooling the northbridge (if its not passive already).

For your VGA silencer, you should get them from www.svc.com. They usually have it cheap, and if you sign up for their newsletter they have these 9.99 deals.

Save yourself the money on rounded cables; just get flat ones and learn how to fold them. There are much cheapter 80mm fans. www.bestbyte.com has them real cheap, www.jab-tech.com has japanaflos. You can save a buck or two by getting Ceramique or AS3 instead of your AS5.

Moved to the System Advice forum

Looks like a pretty good list, but I'll make a few suggestions:

Skip the Zalman HDD thing, it's not that effective. HDD vibration & noise reducing methods - ranked has some good alternatives.
Skip the rounded cables. Do as ONEshot suggests and stick with the flat ones you've already got. Check out Ralf' rigs in the gallery for examples of what is possible with flat cable "cablegami".
With a card that hot, the Silencer is probably a good choice. Its noise will be below the rest of the system, and it'll get all that heat out of the case.

Thanks for the replies! I'm still deciding on what exactly I'm going to do, but I appreciate the timely and helpful input.

N12345

I quieted my system today with the above parts and advice. All I can say is "wow". Thanks for the help! Of course, soon I'll be on the quest to an even quieter machine...

if you want to take things further the one omission I am surprised no one picked up on (since it is relatively cheap) is no acoustic damping foam to improve damping qualities of your case - think you may find that is the "icing on the cake" if you apply it! Plus it is easily improvised if you do not want to spend out for professional stuff...