Click on the pictures to see a bigger version.
Here we go :
The case is an AOpen HQ-45, that I bought when I didn't know anything about quiet computers, and that I would never buy again. It came with a buzzy-whiny 250W PSU that was supposedly "silent", and that's since then been replaced by a 120mm Fortron.
It's not a looker, that's for sure
But I don't care much, as long as it's quiet. The case is lined with an acoustic foam named Gedicoustic. I'm very happy with this foam, it gets rid of the remaining noise from the undervolted fans.Now let's follow the airflow :
These little feet are there so that the intake fan can breath. The case sits on the same kind of carpet layer that you can see on the picture.
The intake fan is an L1A running at 6v (in serie with the GPU fan). The HD temp is between 39°c and 41°c , and much higher without this fan. The fan is held in place by the acoustic foam.
The hard drive is a suspended 60Gb 'cuda V. I had a hard time finding a cuda V, all vendors had 7200.7, but I eventually managed to get one. There is absolutely no way I can hear it through the acoustic foam, so I'm very pleased.
Here are the extensions cards. You will notice that the main graphic card (there are two of them) is ducted to a rear exhaust, more pictures coming.
The graphic card is a Leadtek Geforce 4 Ti4200, with an L1A at 6v and a cardboard duct. This helps cooling the case, as hot air from the GPU doesn't pollute it. The stock thermal paste has been replaced by AS3, and the card is overclocked to 280/585.
Here is the ducted CPU. The processor is a TBred 1800+, undervolted to 1.25v, and cooled by a Thermaltake volcano 7. I tried lapping the heatsink, and got an improvement of 0 (zero) degree (celcius
). The L1A is controled by a ZM Fanmate, and runs at about 7v. CPU temp while folding is around 47°c, at room temp = 27°c.
Here is the CPU airduct. It exhausts hot air from the CPU to the rear of the case. It's pretty ugly, but works perfectly as it prevents the PSU fan from speeding up. It's made of this material :
I bought 6 meters of this stuff for €8. I think I could build about twenty airducts with that
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Here is the duct intake, that's attached to the CPU hs. It's made of an old fan frame.
Now the duct exhaust. It's an L1A, soft mounted to the rear of the case.
Here you can see the rear of the case, where the hot air is exhausted. There's a layer of Gedicoustic on the wall behind the computer, to absorb the noise from the PSU.
Here is a rear view where you can see the GPU duct exhaust.
A few facts and numbers about this computer :
- I can only hear it at night when the room is very quiet. The loudest component is the PSU.
- Average temps (while folding) are CPU : 47°c, case : 35°c, HD : 40°c, room : 27°c.
- 10,000 3DMarks (sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less, average is 10,000).
- Once every week, the PSU begins to whine. I have to stop F@H, then it stops, and then I have to run a CPU cooling program for a few hours until I can run F@H again.
- This computer is on 24/7, it's very reliable.
- I recently added leds, so that I could know when the HD was reading/writing. When there were no leds, I used to turn the monitors off when I had friends come and visit me. When I told them the computer was on, they usually wouldn't believe me.
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