1st quiet PC (gaming) advice

Elvellon · Post by **Elvellon** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 3:20 am

I'm planning to build a new PC when 8800GT's become common (Jan-Feb?), that'll be my first quiet computer and I need advice.

Priorities are:
Very quiet
Good performance, but don't mind minus 10-15%
No overclocking
Balanced for gaming
Not extreme price (~1K$ without the quiet solutions)

The relevant parts go something like this:
Core 2 Duo 2,2-2,6 GHz (4 or 6 series)
GeForce 8800 GT
WD Caviar SE16
Zalman ZM-460

Scythe Ninja (Plus rev. b) controlled by Q-Fan
Scythe Quiet Drive
Cooler Master RC-690 case
Case fans (stock ones swapped out): Scythe SlipStream 800 rpm at: front, back, side@video, top@cpu; maybe also bottom, 2nd top.
Arctic Cooling Accelero X1

My questions are:
- General critique?

- How many of the case fans are needed, maybe the Ninja can go passive with 2 case fans near it?
- Unsure of the GF cooling, though the situation may change in the following weeks, like the new stock cooler, passive solutions etc.

Krazy Kommando · Post by **Krazy Kommando** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 4:28 am

looks like youve got most of it sorted out. just a few queries though... why a zalman ZM460? you would be better off with a corsair VX450 or VX550, or a seasonic S12 550. also, id suggest swapping out the accelero X1 for an accelero S1. oh, and you probably dont need all those case fans. just stick one in the front and one in the back and that should do it

ivan2006 · Post by **ivan2006** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 5:28 am

I have the ati 3850. I have never heard such a quiet graphics card in my life. Its widely available. The gt is not. Just a tip.

Elvellon · Post by **Elvellon** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 6:54 am

Krazy Kommando
I should have mentioned that I live in Russia and have less choice in hardware than US or EU residents. Besides, I want to buy everything at 1-2 shops, even thinking of using the "premium assembly" service of one of them.
PSUs: both shops combined have only InWin, Cooler Master, TT and a few Zalmans.
GPU coolers: I'm scared of running the 8800 passive

. Here's their selection of coolers - 1, 2.
Case fans: OK, 6 of them are too many, I get it

.

ivan2006
The 3850 is probably too slow, 3870 is OK, but the GT is best, and Accelero X1 is said to be inaudible anyway.

Need more opinions

, also about passive CPU / GPU.

Krazy Kommando · Post by **Krazy Kommando** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 3:28 pm

ah, fair enough then mate. the zalman PSU is probably your best bet then. as for the gfx cooler, you dont have to run the 8800 passive with the accelero S1. what most people seem to be doing is strapping a slow 120mm fan to it in order to provide that cooling 'safety net'. and besides, isnt it always cold in russia?

you could also unplug the gfx card fan during winter when its heaps cold, and just have it plugged in during summer when its warmer

Elvellon · Post by **Elvellon** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 3:07 am

OK, so how do you strap/glue/whatever a 120x120 fan to the Accelero S1?

seraphyn · Post by **seraphyn** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:55 am

Tie wraps, you wrap it through the fan mounting holes and then between the aluminium of the S1.

Elvellon · Post by **Elvellon** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 6:02 am

Thanks everyone then!

Delta_42 · Post by **Delta_42** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:55 am

I'd try the 8800GT on stock cooling before you pay for an additional cooler, the fan is pretty quiet under normal useage.

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:34 am

you must have been born during the air raid

Myth! · Post by **Myth!** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:27 pm

round his way he's known as Delta Screamer

Elvellon · Post by **Elvellon** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:18 am

OK, now that I've probably found an Antec reseller here in Russia (yay!), another part of my epic quest

.
This time it's a puzzle - cool a C2D (up to 3.0) with Ninja plus 8800GT with S1 in Antec P180 with the least amount of 120mm 800rpm fans.

I think three or even two of them are OK, but where to put 'em? (clickable)

Ideally it would be 2+6, 6 blowing semi-directly at the video card and also being an intake, and 2 likewise, semi-directly through the Ninja and being an exhaust. Is this achievable or should I wait for 45 nm dualcores and/or stick with active cooling on the video card?

Looking for suggestions.

P.S. I love SPCR!

FlorisNielssen · Post by **FlorisNielssen** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:34 am

Probably 1 instead 2.
3: definitely not, if you're not going to use 2. (You could also block it off with some books or something, to block the noise.)

5-6-7: If you use 6, you've got a good chance you can run the S1 passively, because 6 is close. The HD's are cooled (were you planning to place them in the lower or upper drive bay?) by 6 anyway. If you don't take that chance (I don't know how hot a 8800GT gets... Looked it up: 200W..

I'd place a fan on the S1.), I'd bet on 5+7.

I'm not going to say something about the ninja and your CPU, because I know too little about the last.

Good luck!

Elvellon · Post by **Elvellon** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 9:15 am

HD: Probably 2.5" in Scythe Quiet Drive 2.5 (again yay!) or just a bare 3,5" in the lower chamber.
8800 GT dissipates around 110W of heat, definitely not 200W!

Man, if this all works out, then I'll have 2+1 (PSU) hardly audible fans in the system, passive mid-high-end CPU and GPU and an inaudible HDD! Talk about noise vs performance

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 10:53 am

new intel E8xxx series has come for sale in Finland (so it should be availeble there aswell). You really should look one. All the reviews seem to praise new Wolfendale.

yamahaSHO · Post by **yamahaSHO** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 2:15 pm

Delta_42 wrote:I'd try the 8800GT on stock cooling before you pay for an additional cooler, the fan is pretty quiet under normal useage.

Under normal usage (IE 30% fan speed) the 8800GT is quiet. With that level of silence, my 8800GT ran 59C at idle. With the fan cranked up over 40%, it just got louder and louder.

After playing Crysis for about 45 minutes, my 8800GT topped out at 58C (lower than stock idle for me) and I am running a Passive S1. Depending on how warm the house is, I've seen the idle temps for my S1 anywhere from 39C to 42C.

Although I don't have a fan directly attached to the S1, I do have a P180B with the middle case fan blowing across the cooler from front to back. I generally run the fan on the lowest setting my Zalman fan controller will let me, with the filter in place and the door closed (grill is cut out though).

I think a passively cooled S1 will get the job done provided there is good case flow. If you don't like the temperatures with it passive, as stated above, you can strap a fan to it. The nice option is that you can use a fan of your own choice.

Just for reference in my P180B (top fan is removed and covered/sealed):

If you run a Scythe Ninja, I would recommend getting the Thermalright bolt-thru kit. I have a Ninja Mini on my bedroom HTPC and found my temps to be a tad high (45C idle). I added the bolt-thru kit and now it's about 26C idle on an E4500.

walle · Post by **walle** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 2:43 pm

yamahaSHO wrote:I have a Ninja Mini on my bedroom HTPC and found my temps to be a tad high (45C idle). I added the bolt-thru kit and now it's about 26C idle on an E4500.

Thatâ€™s quit a drop there, Scythe really need to sober up and sort out their flawed mounting system, nothing new, its been stated time and time again. however; I have never seen such a drop in temperature before and if adding the Thermalright bolt-thru kit was all you did then its obvious that they are severely holding back their own products potential while using those darn pushpins; apparently more so than I previously thought.

yamahaSHO · Post by **yamahaSHO** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:07 pm

walle wrote:
yamahaSHO wrote:I have a Ninja Mini on my bedroom HTPC and found my temps to be a tad high (45C idle). I added the bolt-thru kit and now it's about 26C idle on an E4500.
Thatâ€™s quit a drop there, Scythe really need to sober up and sort out their flawed mounting system, nothing new, its been stated time and time again. however; I have never seen such a drop in temperature before and if adding the Thermalright bolt-thru kit was all you did then its obvious that they are severely holding back their own products potential while using those darn pushpins; apparently more so than I previously thought.

I guess I should be more honest, however, not far from what I stated earlier... It orginally dropped to about 29-30C with just the mounting kit (still considerable). I then lapped the processor and added a duct to get the additional few degrees off.

It's technically passive as it does not have a fan attached, however, the case fans are so close, it has the same or better effect (no blow-thru).

zorrt · Post by **zorrt** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:12 am

Delta_42 wrote:I'd try the 8800GT on stock cooling before you pay for an additional cooler, the fan is pretty quiet under normal useage.

I'd agree unless you like to look at low temps (like I do). Stock cooling IF you adjust the fan settings (rivatuner) temps are fine. Only time when it gets real noisy is during gaming but hey, it adds to ambience sounds in the game so who cares aye.

Elvellon · Post by **Elvellon** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 7:34 am

Thanks for lots of info with nice pics!
I'm definitely getting a Scythe retention kit along with the Ninja if I can.

As for the "gaming can be louder" thing, a lot of my concern for silence comes from my brother playing at night in headphones, in the same room where I sleep

.

Elvellon · Post by **Elvellon** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 5:45 am

Final (I hope) advice needed:

Given an Antec P182 with 3 fans at ~20dBA each, as tested by SPCR (back exhaust, middle intake/gpu, inside PSU), when will the noise improvement become useless between these kinds of hard drives:
1) 3,5" WD Caviar GP in the bottom chamber,
2) 3,5" in a 5,25" bay in the top chamber with Scythe Quiet Drive,
3) 2,5" in the bottom chamber with SQD 2.5" (model a non-issue noise-wise

)?
And will there be safe temps with 2)?