Hello all,

Thought I'd share my, now, very quiet rig.

Specs:
Antec P180b - top blowhole covered with foam
SeaSonic S12+ 650W
Gigabyte DS3Pro with Thermalright HR-05 NB Cooler
Intel E6400 with Thermalright Ultra-120 and Nexus fan @ 45-55% through Speedfan
4Gb Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4
Inno3D 8800GT 512Mb w/ AC Accelero S1
1xScythe Kama Bay fan (800RPM) on Accelero S1
Pioneer DVR-212D SATA Burner
1x500Gb Western Digital WD5000AAKS
1x750Gb Western Digital WD7500AACS
Nexus Real Silent 120mm fan (rear between 45-55% through Speedfan, HDD fan at 7v)
Scythe Kama Bay

Stock Inno3D 8800GT.


Stock cooler removed from the card.


The 8800GT all cleaned up (a little fuzzy, sorry).


RAM Sinks attached (it seems that they are stuck on there pretty good, guess I'll have to wait and see).


AC Accelero S1 waiting to be installed.


AC Accelero S1 installed on the card.


Scythe Kama Bay fan attached to S1 with 4 zip ties (simple).


Card installed in my computer.


The WD bros. WD5000AAKS furthest in and the WD7500AACS.


Another shot of the S1 installed in the case.


And another one (it takes up a whole lot of space, luckily I don't have any other expansion cards I need to install).


Temps: (idle/load, ambient ~29*C)
CPU: 44*C/65*C

VGA (Stock cooling) -
GPU: 65*C/80*C
Ambient: 48*C/58*C

VGA (S1 Passive) -
GPU: 58*C/77*C
Ambient: 48*C/61*C

VGA (S1 + Fan @ 800RPM) -
GPU: 50*C/59*C
Ambient: 44*C/49*C

Sys and Storage Drives: 38*C/45*C


Did some testing with overclocking my CPU to 3.1Ghz @ 8x390 (The DS3P seems to have an issue with runnning 4Gb RAM @ 800Mhz 4-4-4-12 timings).

CPU-Z and Speedfan


Load Temps


Loaded CPU/GPU by running through Crysis Benchmark on High and Medium.

Comments/Critique welcome.

Thank you for looking.

I say you sell all 4 wd 250gb hds and be the first kid on your block to own a tb drive

Well I have been thinking of getting a 250Gb and a 500Gb Samsung to get rid of most noise...but a shortage of funds and being lazy I haven't come to doing it yet.

Well, I've been using my new monitor for a day or so now and I must say that it is a pleasure using my computer now. Can fit so many windows at one time that it is much easier to multitask now. Although flipping the monitor to portrait made me dizzy...(may have been all the beer I had though).

No comments at all?

I dunno why so few people responded....

Anyways, you have an awesome system! OC'ed C2D, Ultra Xtreme, passive X1950Pro X-fire, and only Nexus and Scythe fans to cool it!

Very cool! I do have a couple of questions. 1) How is the noise from the 650W Seasonic? 2) How are the temps on your X1950's? 3) How do the X1950's perform in X-fire at 1920x1200? 4) Does Speedfan work with your mobo? 5) Are your HDD's really loud?

Sorry for asking so much.

1. It's not too bad, I haven't yet heard it when sitting at the desk (I have to put my ear just outside it to hear it.

2. Idle ~45*C and Load ~65*C (Ambient ~20*C)

3. They perform quite well, runs most games smoothly at that res.

4. Speedfan can control the 2 4-pin fan headers (running my Nexus Top and Rear fan between 45%-55%) but cannot control the 3-pin fan header (running 800rpm Scythe fan so cannot hear the fan at full tilt).

5. The HDDs are currently the loudest part of my system, they are noticeable if I concentrate when not sitting next to the computer, but I can live with them (for the moment, until I can fund upgrading to 2 500gig Samsungs)

My pleasure answering your questions

UPDATE:

Yesterday I finally received my new Voltage Regulator Heat Spreader Module (hmmm...silly name, but it explains what it does ) for my X1950 Pro's, who were experiencing VRM overheating before yesterday.

Ran 3DMark 2006 and temps topped out at ~70*C and a score of ~9000, so I am happy now.

Now I just have to get inspiration to get rid of my RAIDs and just run two hard drives instead of 4 and see if this reduces the sound/noise coming from the lower chamber of the case. (At least until I upgrade to 2 500Gb Samsungs)

Thanks for looking.

I DID IT!

I finally made my machine silent enough at idle that I cannot hear it unless I really, really concentrate on it.

I moved from 4x250Gb WD's to 2x250Gb WD's last night as the hard drives were too loud. They are still not totally silent but they get muffled by the case so I can barely hear them from where I sit.

Now I'm just waiting to get a 500Gb Samsung T166 to upgrade my current 250Gb storage drive. Hopefully this will get the noise down a little bit more.

Thanks.

get rid of the first 3 pics and put the benQ pics on top

Is that true for all Hard Drives thru RAID?

Pics rearranged and temps for hard drives updated.



I'm not sure but I believe so, or at least that's what all information I have found on forums has said.

hey man, you got almost all black everything. all you need now is a DAS KEYBOARD and you'll be ub3r ville.

Hehe yeah that is true, all black even the keyboard and mouse actually. Now I just need a black desk and then paint the walls black

rofl

Well, I have made some upgrades to my system, the most significant one being upgrading my X1950Pro Crossfire to an 8800GT 512Mb, and I must say that it was well worth it.

Now I can play any game I want (except for Crysis, but I'm not too fussed about that as I don't really play it) on high at 1920x1200 with out any problems. The stock cooler is currently running between 30% and 40% via RivaTuner, it is slightly too loud at 40% and therefore I am replacing it with the excellent AC Accelero S1 and putting the fan that came with my Kama Bay on it at 800RPM (should keep it nice and cool).

I have also replaced my 4x250Gb WD's with 1x500Gb WD5000AAKS and 1x500Gb Seagate 7200.10 (this is currently the loudest part in my system, although with the door closed on the P180b I have to put my ear right next to the case to hear it, and hence will be replaced by a new WD7500AACS in the near future.

All these changes should hopefully satisfy my goal for silence, as currently I can just hear the hard drives if I really concentrate.

Pictures will be updated once all upgrades have been completed, hopefully by next weekend or so.

Hello,

Finally got everything installed, I have updated first post with new pictures.

My computer is now very quite, unless all windows are closed, TV is off, pedestal fan is off, I cannot hear it.

So it's a bliss now, I have achieved my goal...a powerful, but barely audible, gaming machine that will last me for a long time (at least a couple of years).

Thank you SPCR and forum members for all your guidance and suggestions.

Hey,

First post for an ancient lurker on these boards .

I'm thinking about a similar setup for my next computer.

I do unfortunately have expansion cards I need to fit in.
Would it be possible for you to put a fan on the upper drive bay and none on the s1 and see how that airflow works out and report it here?

if not, thx for the info so far.

Aelek

Hey Aelek,

No worries, I disconnected the fan that is on the S1 and put a Antec TriCool on Low at the front of the case in front of the videocard (not attached to the upper hard drive cage).

Ambient temps ~25*C

VGA Temps (idle/load)
GPU: 52*C/70*C
Amb: 43*C/54*C

Hope this helps you buddy.

You haven't put the heatsinks on the graphics card VRMs. They're the sets of square blocks to the right of where your heatsinks are.

If you look at your stock cooler you can see where it's shaped to line up with them.

The pics below are of a 8800GTS 512mb showing where they ought to go. The 8800GTS 512mb has one more set than the 8800GT but you can see the imprints of the VRMs in the stock white thermal pads. You don't get enough heatsinks with the Accelero S1 so I used some spare Zalman aluminium and Akasa copper ramsinks for the VRMs.


8800GTS 512mb with cooler removed showing stock TIM application

You have to be careful with the three at the bottom right of the card. It took me a few goes to make sure that the ramsink doesn't touch anything else on the card.


8800GTS 512mb with ramsinks fitted

WR304 wrote:

I posted on another forum that I put heat sinks on the VRM's and it was pointed out to me that the Arctic Cooler S1 instructions online states that they are not needed. I thought it was best to put them on anyway, because why would they have thermal pads from the factory.

Arctic Cooler S1 instructions for 8800GT/GTS: http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=147&data=7&disc=

Also the stock thermal pads leave a lot of greasy residue and the chips need to be cleaned very good to stick the new heat sinks on. Arctic Cooler said to use an eraser? I used an alcohol cleaner.

D'Oh, must have been concentrating on other things when sticking on the heatsinks yesterday...stuck them on the wrong parts.

Fixed now...


Thanks.

Yeah that helps, thanks.

70 is a bit hotter then i'd like to se really. I was hoping for something more like 65 max. On the other hand it's not a problem. The card should be able to handle that easily.
And sticking the fan closer to the heatsink might help as well, specially at low flow rates.

Aelek

70 is still lower than the stock cooler so it'll handle it easy and I didn't see any major temp rises on any of the other components in my computer, btw it got to around 80 on the stock cooler in similar ambient temps...it's summer here in Australia so it's rather warm, so you may get better load temps than what I got with the fan attached to the case instead of on the heatsink.

Thanks.