Hi,

I'm considering building a silent yet quite powerful small desktop pc.

At the moment, my suggested configuration looks like this:



Is the fan on the ISK 300-150 easily replaced with the noctua?
Anything else I'd need to take into consideration?
How silent would this be compared to say... a mac mini? I'm still heavily skeptical when it comes to HDDs, I've never had one that I'd consider silent (idle noise always being an issue, even with my Samsung F1 in my HTPC, easily heard all across my 40sqm living room).

I posted some of my observations with this case here:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/vi ... 500#500500

You'll have to replace the power supply fan to get it quiet, but really, you're better off replacing it with an external adapter if possible. I have no idea what fans are best suited to replace the stock PSU -- didn't want to pull off the "void if removed" sticker over one of the screws to open it.

Notebook hard drives are basically inaudible in a desktop case in my experience -- especially if elastic mounted. You won't be able to elastic mount in this case, but I imagine it'd be pretty quiet. You can always go the SSD route.

Cheers, I guess your system ought to run a fair bit warmer than what I'm considering?

If I'd change the CPU fan I'd probably change the entire cooler. Not sure if it's possible to cool this CPU passively in a case this small.

Will have a look at going the external PSU route, but I doubt it'll fit in my budget.

Started looking into this external AC-DC + internal picoPSU business. Would 120W setup be sufficient for what I'm considering? Also, would it make sense to go with the ISK 300-65 and pull out the internal PSU instead since it's a bit cheaper than the ISK 300-150?

Would one even need a case fan or would a CPU fan be sufficient? Would it be better to try to go with just heatsink, no CPU fan, and a 80mm case fan?

Darnit, now I'm interested in going external+pico PSU for my Antec NSK-2480 HTCP as well...

Question, why not go with the ISK300-65 and keep the internal PSU? SPCR has tested the PSU with a GF9300-G-E+C2D E7200 build and it worked fine. The H55ITX+i3 530 should have roughly the same or lower power consumption.

Well, sure! If it's feasible I'm all for it. I've never tried to build a small, low power system before so all this is new to me. It'd be cheaper and more "elegant".

What happens if the power supplied isn't quite enough? It feels odd that a 65W PSU should be enough for a CPU rated at 73W.

For underpowered PSU's, usually your system will just fail to boot.

Keep in mind the 73W TDP is for cooling guidelines and has a fair amount of CYA. It also covers both CPU and IGP. The H55 chipset has a TDP of 5.2W. I couldn't find TDP for the GeForce 9300 chipset, but I've seen 12W quoted for the ION. Adding up the figures, you're looking at a system TDP of 78.2W for the H55+i3 530 and 77W for the GF9300+E7200.

SPCR has a review on the Core i5-661 which is a 87W TDP part with IGP running at 900MHz instead of 733MHz.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1013-page5.html

Thanks. I guess total system power comsumtion will be decent even if the CPU is rated at a higher TDP (compared to a c2d) since the CPU also contains the GPU etc.

What would be the best way to go about building the kind of system I'm after? Starting with a plain ISK 300-65 and stock PSU and CPU cooler and replacing stuff only if needed?

Sounds fine. Besides, it's darned difficult to find an LGA-1156 compatible, low-profile CPU cooler at the moment, anyway. Xigmatek supposedly has a good one but I don't think it's hit retail shelves yet.

You might want to get yourself a Kill-A-Watt or similar, though. At $20, it's a pretty good investment.

Thanks! Might go for an external dvd burner though, that way I could use it with our newly bought netbook as well. Or not, it's more expensive.

Now I'll just have to figure out how to go about actually purchasing this stuff at the best price available. Will see if I can find any good German online retailer, those are usually much cheaper than the Swedish ones

Splendid feeback btw! If anyone else has anything to add, please do, I don't want to screw up here

Have you tried checking prices? In the US, it seems you can get USB external slim DVD drives for the same price as internal ones (~$50).

Oh yeah, in case that power supply doesn't cut it, you might want to get one from electrodacus. He has a thread in the Deals section of the forum.

Hey stefancrs, did you ever end up building this PC with the 65w PSU? I'm also thinking of a low power i3 530 + IGP + SSD + Zotac H55-ITX.

Let me know

I placed the order (slightly altered, nothing significant though) just now. We'll see how that 65W PSU will cope... I hope for the best

Btw to the fan question - considering the fan mount looks like exactly like it was in ISK300-65, then it is relatively easy. Just unmount the fan holder, replace the fans (use screws) and put it back.

The only thing you had to take care of were the fan cables if you use 2 fans. Btw with 2xNoctua R8 the end result was this :


With fanmate set at minimum the system is pretty much inaudible and still can handle Atom+ION very well, i can't say how will it cope with S1156 system :


Note: i replaced the HDD with a unused SSD, because HDD was the biggest noise source in whole setup.

FWIW, my stuff has now arrived. Will start assembling tonight.

very interested in how your build pans out... i myself am looking to build an isk-300-65 system with an i3/zotac h55. only difference is i'll probably be going the SSD route (cheap 30gb OCZ). very curious if that 65 watt brick will be able to handle everything along with a slim cd drive. keep us posted!

on a side note, anyone know how the i3 graphics compares to the nvidia ion 9400? faster/slower?

I went for an external drive instead (that I can use with my netbook as well). But it's powered via USB so I doubt the system would have any issues with an internal drive.

So far so good though, Windows 7 installed just fine. But the case fan is a bit noisy even at its lowest speed. Haven't been stress testing the system yet. Also I kind of expected the HDD to be a bit more silent, but it seems I always do. I can't hear any idle noise though so I don't think it's much of an issue.

One issue though, all the screws for the HDD are a wee bit too long (or the holes in the drive too shallow), not properly tightening the drive to the bay (maybe 0.5mm space left or something), so I guess I'll have to get some rubber or something to fix that.

But so far, the system hasn't been acting up on me. Seems the stock CPU cooler is fairly silent as well. The case fan from Antec is easily the noisiest part in the system.

80mm case fan recommendations?

The review here on SPCR recommends dual 80mm Noctua R8 fans. Haven't tried them myself, but it they come highly regarded.

The Nexus Real Silent 80mm fan is another option, depending on how you orient the case. If the mobo is sitting flat so the fan is on the side, this is fine. If the case will be standing on its side with the fan on the top, I'd go with the Noctua.

There are not a lot of good 80mm and 92 mm fans - at least if you want to both (a) move air, and (b) move it quietly. There are many fans that can do one or the other. These appear to be the only ones that can do both:

The only good 92mm appears to be the Noctua. Their 80mm is not so good.

The only good 80mm appears to be the Scythe s-flex.

I would be pleased if someone can correct me on this. But I think I am right.

I will probably want to have it standing, behind my monitor, so I might have a go at the Noctua.

Not sure if I should go with two or one fans though, I'll probably buy two and try with just one of them first, and return/install the second as needed.

BTW, is there any advantage to NOT having the CPU fan in "thermal cruise mod" with a high goal temperature instead of just having it manually set to the lowest speed?

How do you mean this ? My two 8cm Noctuas are absolutely impossible to hear @ 800RPM in this case, and i'm normally can't stand any noise when i go to sleep - but i don't hear these fans at that speed. An ATOM 330/ION system with no active cooling except these two noctuas and temps are :

CPU Temperature: +37.0°C
GPU Temperature: +43.0°C

That looks good for noiseless cooling, no? Of course a i3 system will use more power and will need a better cooling, but even at max RPM they were pretty much quiet, even if not totally silent.

BTW, will buy a cheap (about 20 bucks) watt (and whatnot) meter today, will report back with numbers.

"There are not a lot of good 80mm and 92 mm fans - at least if you want to both (a) move air, and (b) move it quietly. There are many fans that can do one or the other. These appear to be the only ones that can do both: "

So I have no doubt that the Noctua 80mm is quiet, and probabaly a good match for an Atom, as would be a nexus 80mm no doubt. It is just if you need both quiet, plus more air flow, the only good choice I have found is the Scythe s-flex 80mm. That's all.

Though the Enermax Magma 80mm might be interesting to experiment with.

The s-flex is much cheaper than the noctua (which, frankly, is quite expensive). Do they supply any form of aid in adjusting speed, like noctua does? Or do you have to get a controller or something yourself, or just pick the right fan to start with?

No aids.

You can select from a wide range of models from 1000rpm to 2800 rpm for 14 to 40cfm:
http://www.scythe-usa.com/product/acc/0 ... etail.html

1000 rpm is pretty slow for an 80mm.

Otherwise you need to supply your own fan controller to give your self some elbow room to experiment with different speeds. See:
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/ ... 75bb85cc3b

Well, it seems the Scythe S-Flex and Karma Flex series are fairly unavailable in Gothenburg (and I don't want to order them online), so nevermind that.

I do however think I have a fan controller in my HTPC to spare, it's mounted in a full-height slot but can probably be modded somehow, if I need it.

For now, it seems the Noctua NF-R8 is the best option available to me.

BTW, on the Zotac H55 board the lowest CPU fan speed (stock cooler) seems to be around 900rpm (I don't remember exactly).

If that turns out to be not enough, you can always get the Noctua 92mm fan and use it with a 92mm to 80mm adapter in the place of an 80mm fan.

You think it will have a lower airflow than the stock Antec one at its low setting? That's what I'm using now.