My Phenom 965 - Quietish rig

[gcwebbyuk]

PROCESSOR - AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition C2 Stepping @ 3.6GHz 1.375v
MOTHERBOARD - Gigabyte MA790XT-UD4P F7
RAM - 8GB Corsair XMS3 Dominator DDR3 PC3-12800 (CMD4GX3M2B1600C8) - (4x2GB)
GRAPHICS - Gigabyte HD4870 1GB - replaced cooler with Zalman Z-Machine GV1000
AUDIO - Asus Xonar DX and Logitech X-230 2.1 Speakers
HARD DRIVES - 2 Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 HDDs
CPU COOLING - Zalman CNPS9900NT with Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
CASE COOLING - 2 x Scythe S-Flex SFF21E 120mm fans
FAN CONTROLLER - Scythe Kaze Server
CASE - Coolermaster Elite 330 with Corsair HX620 620w Modular PSU
CONTROLS - Logitech Wave Wireless Keyboard & Mouse Set - Antec Veris Multimedia Station
OS - Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

I am using SpeedFan to control the Zalman CNPS 9900 NT CPU fan, and PhenomMSRTweaker to keep the heat/noise to a minimum. It is currently set at 18x (3.6GHz) with 1.375v for P0 (performance) and 4x (800MHz) with 0.85v for P1 (powersaving).

I am only using one temperature sensor on the Scythe Kaze Server as it was such a pain to fit them worthwhile places, may try again at a later date, in the meantime the only one is mounted about 1mm below the GPU fan (zip strapped to the fan cable). It doesn't run on auto, but at least gives me some idea of temps, although HWMonitor or ATI Catalyst give better results.

I am getting average idle temps of 30c with load (Prime95 small FFT test for ten minutes) of 55c, although normal working temp is 40c ish. GPU idles at around 30c and goes up to 60c ish under full screen (1920 x 1080) burn in using FurMark.

I have also added some dust filters from Nexus Case Fan Filters (http://plug-ins.net/product.php?product ... age=1&js=y) taped to the inside of the case to cover the side vents.

Front:

Inside:

New Nexus Vented PCI socket covers:

Rear, now fitted with wire protector, also both 120mm Scythe fans are mounted using Nexus rubber fan mounts and rubber anti-vibration surrounds:

Front intake fan, very messy cut job due to using snips rather than a dremmel, rear is in a similar state, but doesn't have a bar across the middle with the power and reset buttons messing up the air flow (to be continued):

The messy side:


I am planning on doing some modding with a dremmel at some point, maybe cutting out a roof slot for a 120mm fan, and also cutting away the rear (right side) panel next to the PSU to make routing the cables a little easier.

I will also tidy up around the grills that I cut away with tin snips for the two 120mm Scythe fans.

[Note: all photos apart from the first were taken before fitting the Veris, so there is a little more cabling inside now, but not too much more]

Any comments or further suggestions would be aprreciated.

[Wayne Redpath]

"further suggestions"

<envy>NICE RIG!</envy>

further suggestions about what???...what's bugging you???

[bonestonne]

Ha, quad core with 8gb of RAM...looking very familiar (albeit the AMD counterpart to my monster.

I have all the cables that go to the front panel secured down along the rear back panel edge, keeps them tame and out of the way.

Also liked hearing you taped up the side vents. the domed one over the CPU is more annoying to me, I wonder if i could get a replacement side panel like the other side and just use that...

viewtopic.php?t=42469
^my box, if you're interested in what i've done with the case....the cutting around the exhaust vent is very sloppy...i should really take a dremel to it, but i don't want to take it all apart...

cheers on the case! don't see many at all

[gcwebbyuk]

Nice rig!

Will have a full read through your post in detail later

As for the case side with the dome, there was a version of this case that had a window on that side panel as an option, but I can't find it as an aftermarket option, must have been a one off.

I am not one for bright LEDS etc, but a window panel that had been tinted very dark black might look quite stealthy so that you can "just" see the CPU and GPU LEDs.

The dust covers on the side panel tidy it up a lot, not sure if they have buggered up the air flow, but the fact they were designed as dust filters "must" mean they were designed with airflow in mind

Your comment on not wanting to take case apart to dremel is the same reason I used snips (other than not having a dremel, but will be buying one). At some point I will dismantle it all and dremel it and tidy it up.

I did consider spraying the silver metal inside, and back panel black to give it a nicer overal look.

[gcwebbyuk]

Just a few questions, why did you originally zip strap the lower fan and not use the actual mounting point on the case?

That Accelero S1 seems pretty good - do you reckon it would be comparable to my Zalman GPU cooler? It has a fan, and it has to run at 1700rpm minimum, so the Accelero S1 would cut some noise.

Am thinking of mounting the hard disks with rubber mounts too - but in the standard place still.

That Scythe fan is mental! Too big for me though as am sure it would cover my four RAM slots. I had a Zalman CNPS10x quiet in there originally but due to the way it mounted it covered 2 slots


Do you worry about heat from the Accelero S1 blowing on your sound cards? I have my Asus in the PCI-E slot behind the graphics card, as was concerned it would get a bit warm.

[gcwebbyuk]

Adding a little sound deadening this afternoon...

Just found a bargain, which wife is just collecting for me:
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... 65626#dtab

http://www.dynamat.com/zooms_common_spe ... treme.html

It's not for pcs, but its pretty much the same contents as the dynamat extreme computer kit, just in two 10"x10" squares rather than six 4"x10" strips: http://www.dynamat.com/zooms_computers_ ... r_kit.html

And for £5.00 instead of £15 its a bargain!

At least I can put some on the side panel and the bottom panel, and then maybe a bit creative with the rest...

Will upload pics when done...

[gcwebbyuk]

Unfortuantely they were out of stock of the Dynamat so gave us this at the same price:
http://www.vibeaudio.co.uk/products/antivibe/

Fitted it in a few areas where I guessed it would be best, mainly the two side panels.



I also fitted it to the other panel, but only where the cables were not hanging to avoid any shorting out! I also covered the backs of the motherboard mounting screws with electrical tape just to be sure. I didn't get chance to take a pic, and don't want to take the side of as it was a to get on. I will take more pics when I maybe add the roof fan...

I then used the couple of off-cuts to put on bare parts of metal that may rattle, namely above the PCI slots:

And then under and to the side of the front fan.

Just need to see if it affects temps / noise now. I have heard good and bad things about the reflectiveness of the material affecting temps - time will tell.

[gcwebbyuk]

Well I was going to have a lay down and listen to some music on my quieter pc (am recovering from spine surgery so should really be resting! ) but couldn't stop till I had it finished as much as I could today...

...Inside Right panel, the bulge near the back is where the case has a recess on the outside to help you grip it to remove:


Small offcut added below front fan:


Small offcut next to front fan:


Finally, rather than take a dremel to the roof of the case, I followed advice to try once more and fit a fan in the 5.25" bays - so I have used the fan from the CNPS10x Quiet CPU cooler which I bought and then wouldn't fit. It is zip strapped in place, and has two blobs of Blu-Tack underneath to add some vibration absorbtion! Will see how it works:


Right that really is it now for a while - off to have a rest before dinner...

[bonestonne]

my GPU idles (and games) between 33 and 38C...those two Delta cards can easily take that without a problem. The fan also blows upwards towards the GPU rather than down towards the Delta cards.

I also don't have any of the PCI slots vented (I used to keep the Accelero vented PCI slot in, but took it out because it just let dust in).

I have my hard drives (now 3) evenly spaced out in my case, awaiting for another one (soon to add 1TB).

One thing i noticed with my case is that the exhaust fan rattled like a monster. after i used rubber mounts to replace the screws, it was like night and day. I used rubber fan mounts pulled out of tossed Dell towers at the local dump...I'd find the soft mounted fans, grab the fan mounts, toss the fans back, and put the plastic baffle in the plastic recycling (no sense in tossing what can be re-used).

The toolless PCI bracket is actually handy, and i've noticed that mine doesn't rattle at all, but the PCI blank covers do rattle around on the mobo tray, but nothing a small folded up piece of paper can't take care of.

i wish i scored on a modular PSU, but tucking unused cables up above the optical drive is just as tidy.

i've been thinking of testing the waters with the HR-05 SLI on my southbridge, just for fun, but I don't really have $30 to spare on one...

But about your graphics card, i would say the backside would probably be warmer than the side with the fan, but all the cards do have pretty high heat tolerances, I can't say I'm too worried about anything.

[gcwebbyuk]

Had another moment of madness with the snips and increased the PSU cable tidy hole as it was too small to get my cables through.

It was done with snips so not very "clean" so covered it with some electrical tape just to make it a bit less sharp, and also to shield it.

Front:

Back:


I then worked through re-dressing the cables to give a bit better airflow from the top fan through to the CPU cooler.
Front: it doesn't look like much of a difference, but the cables are now well out of the way of the airflow from the new fan


And now the VERY messy rear, all held in place with electrical tape


Before doing all this messing I had left the system running a Prime95 small FFT - max temp is still 55c, but after leaving the system to idle it had dropped from 30ish to 26. This could be also due to the change to Artic 5 TIM yesterday and it starting to set, or the fan could be working...

[bonestonne]

I would probably suggest just looking at what cables need to go where in your case, and then see how much slack they have to be hidden. From the looks of it, you could probably hide a lot of the cables behind the hard drive cage, and along the edges of the case.

You could rotate the front intake fan so the wire comes out on the other side, run it up through the back...but i'm just anal for those little things.

What's your noise level like? or, what kind of tone do you get from your case?

[Monkeh16]

I also fitted it to the other panel, but only where the cables were not hanging to avoid any shorting out! I also covered the backs of the motherboard mounting screws with electrical tape just to be sure.

How exactly do you short out insulated cables and screws which are already in direct contact with the chassis (which is grounded.)?

[gcwebbyuk]

Good points well made, I did those changes at 1ish in the morning. I spent a further hour fiddling with another little "mod" which I won't post pics of till later, but it involves Blu-Tack, an Intel CPU cooler mount, and an 80mm fan. I went to bed after dreaming of how I can improve it!

The whole thing was kind of a botch job between what I had before and tidying the PSU main cables.

I am going to tidy up the moduluar side of the PSU cables and attempt all the others, possibly today.

Noise level is ok, its just pc is sat half a meter from my ear (on the desk) so noise level is high on my agenda, but I reckon I am 95% there.

To give you an idea I can hear the hard drive chatter a fair bit louder than the fans, its just if I turn the PC off, I can tell a difference in sound - so it's not "silent"

I have the fans at the following rpm now:
CPU: Min-950rpm Max-1150rpm - controlled by speedfan
GPU: 1710rpm as low as it can go
3 x Case fans 990rpm

As for the shorting out - well you can never be too sure - and it took less than a minute.

[Tyr Antilles]

Very nice rig you have here gcwebbyuk, congrats.
One observation though, I noticed you have the HDD's right one over the other with very little space left between them. What temps do you currently have on HDD's??? I placed sometimes two hard drives in the same position and the temps went so high that I was afraid to not burn them. When I moved one of them one place up, they kept running almost cold, both of them, so, check if is not better to leave ventilation space between them.

[gcwebbyuk]

HDDs are really cool compared to say my laptop (although that has drives designed to be used in hot enviroments).

Max temps I have seen so far are 34c

One seems to be always 4c lower than the other, not sure which is which in HWMonitor though, am guessing the cooler one is the top drive.

One is used as my main drive, while the other is used for Acronis True Image Home 2010 as a NonStop Backup drive, so similar to a RAID array, but I can roll back to older files if necessary. Haven't had to do a restore yet, so not sure how good it is, but fingers crossed! (Plus I have used Acronis Server solutions for my servers with clients before and never had a problem)

[Tyr Antilles]

34C are good. This should be ok, but for better ventilation the drives are usually placed with space between them, especially in a case like yours where the space between HDD's is very thin.

Interesting Backup system, I used Norton Ghost 2003 some time ago, and after that Drive Image XML when I was working on other company. Both these programs can make a backup on demand, a compressed archive split on several files that can be saved on DVD's, but I never worked with a non stop backup system.

[gcwebbyuk]

Trouble with splitting the drives is it's a bit limited with space, especially with the 4870 being so long and having it's power connectors on the end. I feel that the card almost splits the case in half.

Maybe I will invest in a new case at some point to give me some more room.

[gcwebbyuk]

By the way, my burn-in process for the Artic Silver 5 is:

Have 2 copys of toast.exe one named as toastB.exe
Run toastB.exe 24/7 to give a 25% load on CPU
Have two scheduled tasks that run within half an hour of each other:
Task 1 - run toast.exe
Task 2 - use killtask to kill the toast.exe process

So basically, on the hour toast.exe starts, adding an extra 25% to CPU usage (now 50%) and warming up a little more, then after half an hour the task is killed, and takes the CPU back to 25% load. The CPU then has another half hour before the whole process starts again.

This keeps the PC quiet enough, and usable enough for me to carry on using it for other stuff like surfing the web, checking emails, listening to music or watching films

So far with that little lot running max CPU temp has been 52c and minimum 27c (which was before I started with toastB.exe - so idle).

[gcwebbyuk]

By the way, my next upgrade (in the region of £50-£100) is either going to be a Corsair H50 cooler, guessing it would reduce the noise???

Either that or a new case - this one was a bargain (£25) so am thinking something a little better. The RC330 is quite small really for a highish end CPU and GPU.

I have never built a pc in this form before, usually they are basic business PCs which I use AOpen H450 Micro ATX cases, sound isn't an issue in a business environment as there is so much else going on in the room, you don't notice the hum of a PSU/Case/CPU fan.

Any recomendations on a cool/quiet case, or should I spend the money on replacing the Zalman CNPS9900 with the H50?

[gcwebbyuk]

Final bit of case modding:

Extended the cut I made by the PSU to allow my modular cables through and did a little more messing about, you don't even wanna see the back, and I am not taking the panel off again to take a pic - thought it would never go on! It's basically covered in electrical tape to hold it tight to the case.

Well here is the front:


I also had to cut some of the anti-vibe stuff off the back panel as it wouldn't allow the panel to fit, so used the bits I had cut off on the roof and floor of the case.

Time to let the TIM set and see how low the temp gets and how quiet it gets....

[bonestonne]

that's not bad at all...at least from this side...

Just tidying up the fan controller is left

with a 90 degree end, I think you could put a drive all the way at the top of the cage...

to each his own. Since it's AMD, i'm a little unfamiliar with good heatsinks that face the back...there is the Scythe Ninja, but then you have the heatsink base which "faces the wrong way".

I'm not much for watercooling, so i can't say I know much about the H50.

[JamieG]

Suspending your HDDs would be my suggestion for your next bit of work - it's cheap too! With a bit of clothing elastic and some P-clips, you could suspend your 2 HDDs vertically in that HDD cage area somewhere, or even horizontally in the 5.25 inch bays under your DVD drive and fan controller.

As for CPU coolers, the Corsair H50 wouldn't be ideal for your case, as you get less than optimum results if the H50 is mounted with its fan as an exhaust, as you then are sucking hot case air through the radiator to cool it. Similarly, if you mount the H50 as an intake fan, you are messing with the normal front to back airflow of your case, as the H50 will be pushing hot air into your case.

My suggestion would be to find a quieter AMD-compatible cooler that mounts the proper way. From memory, these include the Noctua NH-U12P, the Scythe Mugen 2 and the Zerotherm FZ120 Zen (although there are certainly others). No guarantees that they will not interfere with your RAM slots though, particularly if your RAM's heatspreaders are tall (I can't tell really from your pictures).

[gcwebbyuk]

Right I think this is the last mod I do now before buying a bigger case.

I have replaced the Nexus mesh PCI slot covers with the dust filter from the 5,25" bays that are now in use:
Inside

Outside


After a test last night (insomnia again - didn't sleep till 5.30am ) I found that the most noise was actually coming from the hard disks - its more the standard hard disk fan type noise rather than the tick.

I am unable to suspend my hard disks as there is no space in the 5.25" bays, so I have tried this idea - wrap a thick elastic band around the drive to act as some sort of vibration resistance between the drive and the drive cage:


I then took some of the foam packing material from my Corsair PSU and wedged it in next to the drives to try and seperate them from the actual side panels - worth a try:


After promising myself I wouldnt take the right side panel off again, I went for it! Here it is (note this photo was taken before screwing back in the hard disk screws on this side):


And with more foam padding in place:


During my insomnia I took my old original xbox to bits. This involved removing the rubber feet to get to the screws. I then thought maybe supergluing these to the bottom of the hard plastic case feet might be a similar idea to swapping them for rubber feet (cheap and simple to do, but I had these available, so worth a try):


They have also raised the case up off the desk slightly too, so maybe more airflow up under the front panel (very little I expect, but every little helps!)

I removed my attempt at a second GPU fan, it didn't seem to do much use.

The only real thing I could do is to tidy up the cuttings around the fans as they are still messy from doing it with snips rather than a dremel. But I think that can wait!

I need to rest now and get over my surgery - oh and for a pic of my neck mod - (2 level Anterior Cervical Discectomy):

[JamieG]

How about trying suspending your HDD's vertically in that drive cage? Here's a few examples that I could find in the HDD Suspension thread in the Silent Storage sub-forum:

Antec Titan HD Suspension

6mm Shock cord
1/4 washer
1/2 washer
superglue to keep washers from sliding


Cable ties between drives and cage


Close up shot


2 x L1A @ 5v for cooling

Thanks to everyone for all the inspiration in this thread!

I rigged up a suspended drive in an Antec 300 case. The drive bays aren’t wide enough to keep the drive horizontal, so I oriented it vertically. I only expect to ever need one drive anyway. I used good old StretchMagic.

It was difficult to tie the knots under tension, i.e. after feeding the cord through the slots. So instead I borrowed an idea from a few pages back. I cut off a double length of StretchMagic and tied it up before installing it, then fed the doubled cord through the slots and holes. To prevent the ends from slipping back through again, they loop around some short lengths of aluminum rod. Wooden dowels or bits of a pencil would work just as well.



(bigger pic here)

As expected, an amazing difference in sound. While transferring data to the new system, I had a second drive mounted in the traditional manner. It was sooo much louder.

My servers new hd suspension.... stretch magic FTW!

(Apologies for re-posting large pictures).

Hopefully with a bit of work you might be able to do something similar. Best of luck with your recovery!

[gcwebbyuk]

MMMM am liking that!

Looks a pretty good idea.

I ran OCCT with my new setup, side panel on, and fans in the normal operating mode, I now get these results:
CPU: 29.4c - 59.5c (up 1c at idle - same load temp)
GPU: 33c - 64c (down 1c at idle - down 3c at load)

The GPU changes may be to do with me using the semi-auto setting on my Scythe Kaze Server, I have the GPU fan set with a temp probe just in front of the card. If it's temp rises by 5c then it will increase the fan's speed to bring it back down again. Previously I had all fans on manual apart from CPU which is controlled by SpeedFan.

While I was meddling earlier I took off the heatsink at the end of the 4870 (think it's the FET heatsink). I removed the TIM and applied AS5 and put the heatsink back on. Since then my MEMIO temps in GPU-Z have come down by 1-2c - this could be conicidence, as I am not sure what that heatsink covers, and which sensor in GPU-Z it relates to

I later added a couple more temp probes from the Scythe Kaze Server, one out of the case, so I can monitor room temp, and the other controlling the rear exhaust fan, mounted between it and the CPU cooler. I have set it on semi-auto, so that standard speed is the same as I had before, but if the temp rises by 5c, then it will increase in speed (as per the GPU).

Unfortunately the previous temps posted, I wasn't sure of the room temp, but am guessing it was about the same.

The room temp during the following results was 22-23c
CPU: 30C - 59.5C (+1.5 C on idle - guessing this can only be that room temp was higher as no other changes had been made to the case, and minimum fan speed was the same as before)

GPU: 32c - 63c (down 1c at idle and load)

So the two don't quite match up - CPU up, GPU down, I will leave the TIM to set for a further week and then try running the same test again.

Edit: possible reason for increased CPU is I could have maybe knocked the CPU cooler while fitting the temp probe...

I will consider this idea of mounting the hard disks though although the rubber band and foam padding seems to have cut down a little on the HDD noise.

[gcwebbyuk]

Out of interest, the stretch magic you used, what thickness was it, and how much do you think I will need to mount two drives?

[gcwebbyuk]

No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get the hard drives to sit vertically in the 3.5" bay without interfering with the graphics card, so out with that third fan and in with 5.25" bay suspended drives:


Believe it or not, but my idle temp dropped as low as 25c!

Time will tell as to how quiet suspending the drives will make the pc, but I think maybe removing the drives from in front of the lower case fan may have opened up the airflow as the case was designed to be used - possibly.

I will run OCCT test tomorrow, now my hands and back ache from working on the pc - so off to bed!

[gcwebbyuk]

I had to install a spare 80mm fan blowing air over the drives as they started getting into the +40c mark, and didn't fancy leaving them running and getting hotter (was unsure of how hot that bungy cord can get before smoking!)

Stupidly while fitting the fan, I caught the end of my thumb in the blades - and yep, I had the fan running at the time, didn't think to turn it off even though my Scythe fan controller was cms away! Quite a bit of blood later, and it was fitted, drives dropped to early 30s straight away. I have reduced the fan from thumb cutting 2500rpm to 1450rpm and it's nice and quiet.

OCCT run today with room temp at 20c gave these results:
CPU: 28c - 58c
GPU: 29c - 58c

So all very workable, due to the drives not blocking the GPU cooler, the MEMIO temps dropped masively from 90+c to early 60s!!! Not sure how important the MEMIO temp is though.

Thing is the case still isn't silent . It's quiet but not as quiet as I would like, and as I tend to have it running overnight in my bedroom I want it quieter.

It still seems to be the drives that are making the most noise though, even suspended.

To give you an idea, with all fans at their standard setting (low temp) I can still just about hear the hard disks. Its not the chattering noise, it's the continuous whine - or wooshing noise - similar to a fan which is why I originally thought it was fan noise.

If I turn the two scythe fans up over 1000rpm you start to hear them rather than the hard disks (Seagate 7200.11 1TBs).

Basic settings for fans are:
Zalman CNPS 9900 NT: 926 rpm - speedfan increases as necessary
Zalman GV1000: 1650 rpm - Kaze server increases as necessary
Rear Scythe S-Flex: 900 rpm - Kaze server increases as necessary
Front Scythe S-Flex: 900 rpm permanently
80mm HDD fan (forget brand/model at mo): 1450 rpm permanently

Next plan is splash out on a new case - a Coolermaster 690-II Advanced.
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?o ... &Itemid=61

It covers a lot of bases for me:
* plenty of fan mounts
* drives mounted in quick release anti vibration cases, and can be removed if not needed to increase air-flow
* black interior - was going to paint mine at some point
* SATA hard drive mount on top - I can remove my "backup" drive and mount it only when running a backup
* SSD/2.5" drive bay mount - can easily use my 500GB spare WD5000BEVT as a data drive if needed
* bigger than the elite 330 - so more airflow hopefully, (guessing I won't get the split case issue I have now with the long 4870 card in the middle as the case is a bit longer)

So any thoughts on this?

Do you reckon I can get it much quieter than my current setup? Or would it be a waste?

[Tyr Antilles]

Nice, you did a great job there. Now about the cooler master case, is a good one and with very good ventilation, but i am not sure it will be an improvement from a noise standpoint, because is a very open case.
Look at this review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKlf0YATzBo
or better this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed4RC6r2 ... L&index=31

[gcwebbyuk]

Ordered the Coolermaster 690-II Advanced today - should be here tomorrow

Not sure if I will be modding a case costing nearly 4x what I paid for the RC330 though, but it has all the mods I would want anyway - and more!

I did try using spare laptop drives I had - sound was a lot quieter, you couldn't even hear the pc was on when you walked in the room, only noticed when you were within a metre of the pc. But it was much slower, so sticking with the 3.5" drives and hoping the case will be a bit quieter....