SPCR

And the Nexus PHT 3600, just got it! And.... it is not quiet enough. Step in the right direction, for sure. Also got a Samsung SATA drive, 120 gig, 8 cache. I have been interested in quiet comting since PC Power and Cooling was the ONLY company that even offered a "quiet" power supply. That was about 1996. I just decided to jump in in a big way, hence the Nexus Breeze case, etc.

BTW, I bought the PC Power & Cooling power supply, and it was not quiet enough

I have finally found my home on these boards as I have read around zand see other who hate extraneous sound as much as me! Of course, although I do not overclock, I require a stable and cool computer too, and that is what makes this all so interesting.

I have found on these boards that I can under volt the case fan and chip fan with a Zalman fanmate or such and think that will be my next step. My Breeze case is quite the change from my current computer, a slightly modded Shuttle SB51, wow!

Thanks for listening, I'll look forward to seeing you all around the boards, Six Feet Under is calling me now!
DB

quietguy wrote:And the Nexus PHT 3600, just got it! And.... it is not quiet enough.

Where is the noise coming from? How many fans does it have, btw?

Can you post some good pictures of the case, inside and out? Seeing your setup and the guts of the case can help people see what might help make it even more silent.

Sure, I'll see about the photos. I am still moving my stuff over so must do that type of thing when time permits. There are 3 fans altogether. 2 120mm and the chip fan for the Nexus HS. I think it is the chip fan that creates most noise. Informal testing of the 120mm's are that they are really nice and quiet. Informal testing consists soley of sticking my ear practically in the fan First 120's I ever had, they are the way to go!

OK, now that I have lived with this case for a bit, and gotten over the fact that it is new and not my old pc, I am beginning to actually like it. It sits right on my desk about 3 feet from my ears. Sometimes, it just blends in with the refrigerator noise and I can hardly tell it is on, even as I use the computer. I STILL want to try the Zalman fan. Have heard on this board it will be cooler and QUIETER. Shoot, that is my reason for living. I am just not at all sure that it will fit

So, for now, the Nexus Breeze gets 2 thumbs, pretty much up! I was missing a motherboard standoff and some documentation. And, I have not yet gotten the firewire to work. Could be the case, cable or mainboard, I'll keep trying.

One thing for sure, I REALLY like the orange 120mm fans, VERY quiet. I recommend them.

Thanks for listening. If this thread should be in another forum, please feel free to move it. I was not sure where to post it at first.

DB

How are your temps doing?

Right now chip is 33, other zones are 30 and 31, as per Intel Active Monitor. They have been higher, it is abouty 68F room temp now.

I am going to try Artic Silver 5 when I get the time. I think I may have put too much paste on. This may help compensate for when I drop the voltage on the chip fan to 7 or 10.

It really is getting pretty easy to live with this case.

This is a really great board, thanks for your time,

DB

Hmm...how are your drive temps bearing up? It seems from the pictures as though the drive cage receives no direct airflow at all...is it really as bad as it looks...?

Well, darn, I have no way to measure the drive temps. That is something I would like to do. I think the sirflow is not that bad although the cages do not really get any of the direct airflow, this is an unusual case and I am kind of hoping the engineer's had a pretty good clue.

Nice WARM air is coming out of the power supply, so heat IS being removed, and that is the bottom line.

DB

Long time lurker but first post......

I've just brought a Breeze for my desktop pc.

I already have a Nexus psu in my htpc so i thought that this would be a step in the right direction from the existing full tower case with an old enermax 365w psu to get it a bit quieter and hopefully lower the motherboard temps a little. The rest of the pc is a p4p800 with 2.6 clocked at 3.13 p4 - stock cooler, ati 9500 and a seagate barracuda 120gb drive, dvd and dvdrw, modem and tc card.

With no intake or exhaust fans, just the psu the board used to run at about 45C and the chip about 40C at idle. Having transplanted everything to the new case it seems to be much the same, be it ever so slightly quiter, I suspect that the next things to change will be the fan on the agp card and the HSF.

The case can be had from novatech http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... NEX-BREEZE for £95. Considering the psu is nearly half of that on its own I think that its reasonable value. The alternative that I considered was the Antec Sonata but decided on this one base on the 120mm psu that I was already happy with in my htpc.

Welcome to SPCR !

Please, please, please, oh please, post your hdd temps.

You can use DTemp, available from the links on this site to see your hdd temps.

We've all been very envious of the Breeze but with reservations about hdd ventilation.

Aside: Yup, those 120mm fans are really great

33C, for the HD, been on all day, but no load. I only have one Samsung SATA 120 gig with 8 meg cache in there. I have always only had one hard drive in my computers so I NEWVER have toi worry about temp. Air here is about 75 F, not A/C. Kind of humid, too.

I hope this helps.

After living with this for awhile, I really do like it. The only noise I hear is the Nexus Chip fan, which is not real noisy at all, but not dead silent either.

I got a Zalman control so I CAN turn it down, but chip temp goes up to about 40+ C, which is where it is now, funnily enough. I usually hangs around 33-37 C. The near silence whhen I DO turn it down is truly wonderful, and made me think about getting the Zalman Reserator, which I hear is VERY Silent!

33C !!!! Incredible! Wonderful. Oh Nexus, we're not worthy!....

As for your CPU temps they're quite all right, don't worry. Check the load temps after running CPUburn for an hour or so. That's the important part.

And considering the quiet you're enjoying, I'd say get a Zalman CNPS7000 instead and turn it waaaay down and include a resistor to get it down to 710 rpm. You'll be in silent heaven.

Darn, I'm jealous. *picks up calculator to calculate case shipping costs* *gasp*

I was never worried about HD temp. And I worry about everything I bought this for $240 with free shipping. 2 weeks later the price came down to $200 with free shipping. DAMM.

The CPU can get around 50 maybe even a bit more when I am doing a virus scan and stuff like that. Still, that is well within specs, and Intel warranties it anyways ))

Thanks,

DB

Well actually you should have!

The only troublesome design point of the Breeze is that the HDDs are not in the way of the airflow. You've probably screwed your hdds to its mounts. The really die-hards here go for suspension which throws up hdd temps like crazy. I saw 55C and rising on my Seagates with my Sonata without a front fan.

You might get away with hardmounting with the Breeze though. It already has dampening applied.

*looks at the hole in wallet, curses fate yet again.....*

If you are worried about the drive temps in the Nexus Breeze case, SPCR has a theoretical solution for you.

There is plenty of space below the lowest harddrive position.
* Suspend your HD a la Aphonos. See here.
* Sidesink it with extra long sinks sticking out the back. As in this article. So the sidesinks will reach above the bottom fan.

I am going to do a FULL virus scan. I have 350K files on this computer approx, so that will do some work.

I will then post the temp. Not being in the airflow is not a big deal if the case is very cool inside anyways. I think this is the case. No pun intended

So, back to report in a hour or 2, when scan is done.

DB

Full scan, drive churning for an hour straight, never got over 33C. It is a cooler evening, room temp about 65F.

That's the story! Still want that reserator !!!

DB

hey quietguy, thanks for the post. (i'm originally from massachusetts as well [newton], if that's what 'MA' means and not mauritania!) have you had any more thoughts on the case, now that you've had it for a while? two things i'm wondering: how easy is it to open the side panel, and is the front panel made out of metal or the dreaded plastic?

i'm looking to buy a really nice case but, you've heard the refrain before--i don't want to pay a lot of money! right now it looks like it's between the nexus breeze and the V-Tech EC-7105 which i found in another discussion in this forum (thanks, bluefront!).

i will spare readers the gory details of how my last few weeks have been spent (wasted, more likely...) looking at literally hundreds of cases and barking up the wrong treees (i keep telling myself it was a 'learning experience'). if anyone has a suggestion on a good alternative to the above two, i'd appreciate it. obviously, every case has its pluses and minuses and one just has to settle on something. but both of these cases have major drawbacks. my criteria:

1. cost without psu not more than ~$120 (that's US $. i assume there are many commonwealth citizens out there--in which case, hello to my fellow & sister colonists!!)
2. good aesthetics--that means no cheap plastic (redundant phrase?) front panel or other cheesy-looking touches. silverstone and lian-li are obvious choices but they tend to be either too expensive or, see next item
3. must be quiet--my impression is that using 120mm fans exclusively or almost exclusively will do the trick, hence my hesitation with the V-Tec
4. must cool adequately--i'm only going to run an Athlon XP 2400+ (T-bred B core), one hdd & no agp card, but i would like to have the ability to upgrade down the road. what's more, we keep the house pretty warm in the summer (81 deg. F [27 deg. C]). hence, my hesitation with the Nexus
5. must have exposed bays so that i can put fancy doodads on it. check out this cool hdd activity meter, for an example. (if anyone knows of a similar doodad for cpu activity, please let me know.)
6. preferably, would have a side panel that comes on and off easily. the antec 160 was an excellent candidate, but that damned plastic front panel, as happened so many times before, threw me off.
7. preferably, has been reviewed in a reliable forum, like SPCR or anandtech, where noise and temp are quantified and, preferably, compared with other makes

thanks in advance for any thoughtful, reliable advice folks can give.

--david levy
washington, dc

I added a Zalman 92 mm fan and heat sink. It fits PERFECT!!!!! with 1/10 inch to spare. I got the copper and alum one because it is lighter.

Quieter, and cooler. What more could anyone want )) WOWOWOW