The end result:
And inside:
Probably the only thing slightly unusual is the pairing of an SLI board with a ATI card. This was just budgetary - I'm not interested in SLI, but the Asus SLI board was the same price as the newer A8N-E Ultra, and the X800 XL card seemed like a reasonable compromise between a cheaper 6600GT and the more expensive 6800GT.
No clearance problems here!
And my first attempt at soft-mounting a HDD.
So far, I'm really happy with the performance and quietness. I was using a fairly noisy P4 1.5/GF3 Ti200 PC before this one, so it's been a huge upgrade
.Here's the list of components and my results:
AMD 64 3500+ Winchester @ 1.36v, 2400 Mhz
Seems to be a bit difficult to find the 3500+ Winchester here in Australia at the moment. The first CPU I received was one of these newer Newcastle variants (ADA3500DEP4AS), manufactured week 7/05. I returned it, and luckily, the supplier was able to find a Winchester from their older stock. These recent Newcastle's reportedly overclock exceptionally well, but I preferred the Winny for its better thermal properties.
I'm running it slightly undervolted, and a modest 200 Mhz overclock. At 1.35V, it was slightly unstable at this speed, but at 1.36V, it's solid. The VCore fluctuates a bit on the Asus board - at 1.36V, it can be anywhere between 1.34 and 1.39.
Thermalright XP-120 w/Antec Tricool @ 4v
This was without doubt the most extravagent component along with the Nexus fans. I originally intended going with the Zalman 7700 Alcu, but was concerned about how quiet it would be, so splurged on the XP-120. Out here, it's well over double the price of the Zalman.
It's a superb product, and works well, but I don't think any HSF is worth 1/4 to 1/3 of the cost of the CPU. If I did it again, I'd probably just get the 7700 and run it at ~3.5V like some other SPCR members are doing, and still get adequate cooling.
I'm using the Tricool fan that came with the case on the CPU - rewired for 5V, and then at the medium speed setting. So it's probably at around 4V. Very quiet and subjectively, seems about the same as the Nexus at these speeds. I get 38degC in normal use, 45degC at load.
Asus A8N-SLI (1001 BIOS) w/Zalman NB47J
I had concerns about this board after ordering it (it's the non-deluxe version), as I discovered there haven't been any regular BIOS updates for it like the deluxe version. At the moment, it ships with the 1001 BIOS, and the only available update is 1002.3 beta. Whereas the deluxe is up to 1006 release and 1007 beta. I contacted Asus, and their response was that a new BIOS is in the works, but no indication of when it will be available. However, with my hardware, it's worked flawlessly so far. So I haven't had to try the beta version. Admittedly, I haven't tried to push the board very far yet.
I've read on other forums, some folks have used the deluxe BIOS on the non-deluxe boards successfully, so this was going to be my last resort option is I couldn't get it to work otherwise. They did also say though, that once running the deluxe version, it wouldn't go back to the standard one. This sounded kind of risky.
The stock chipset fan was noisy, as expected. At 5-6V, it was very quiet though and not discernable above the others fans. But I didn't have much confidence in it, and it was always very hot, and have read several reports of them dying within weeks of use, so swapped it for a NB47J. The 47J seems to work fine - it does get quite warm, and I wouldn't want to overclock too much without better cooling here, but at stock speeds or a modest level of overclocking, should be okay (I hope!).
I was planning to put a Nexus 92mm blowing over it, but it gets a little airflow from the VF700 and the intake fan, so seems to be alright without a dedicated fan. I don't have any means of actually measuring the chipset temps, so can't provide more concrete details here.
GeCube X800 XL PCI-E @ 420/510 Mhz, VF700-Cu @ 3.5V
Originally planned to get a Leadtek 6600GT Extreme and pair it with an Aerocool VM-101, but then heard about the XL and that it offered performance comparable to the 6800GT. In terms of price, it was right in the middle of the 2 GT's, and was at the upper limit of the price I felt comfortable spending on a video card. It also claimed a quiet 19.5db fan and single slot. So took a gamble, and thought it just might be okay without any modification...
Well, its an awesome card in terms of price/performance, but the stock fan, while very quiet at low speeds, had a bad clicking/vibration noise - sounded like constant HDD seeks. I thought it might have been vibrating against the PCB, but removed the fan from the HS and it still made the same noise. I suspect it's faulty, but I didn't want to RMA the whole package, as the card itself worked fine. So I replaced it with a VF700-Cu. No more clicking, but the VF fan isn't actually that quiet, even at 5V. So I'm running it at ~3.5V (via a Fanmate and a Zalman 12V->5V cable) and it's border-line acceptable IMHO, but is the noisest fan in the system. It cools well though, at full load, I get 53degC. Whereas, the stock cooler was maxing out at 57degC while ramping up the fan to a much higher noise level.
As you can see from the pics, its a VERY tight fit! I had to bend some of the NB47J fins and fan out the last 6 fins on the VF700. This provided about 1mm of clearance between them. They look like they're touching in the photo, but they arn't, but are very close. I think the X800 boards are slightly longer than the 6600GT's, so was fairly lucky here.
In hindsight, a 6600GT + VM101 wouldn't have fit on the A8N board with the XP-120. It looked like the m/board would have enough clearance, but I didn't realise quite how big the XP-120 actually is.
Corsair 2x512Mb VS DDR400 @ 436 Mhz
This is the RAM from my old PC. Works fine on the A8N board in dual-channel mode at the default 2.5-3-3-8 timings and is stable at 436 Mhz. I haven't tried to push it any higher yet.
Maxtor DM10 200Gb SATA
This was another gamble. Had originally selected a Seagate 7800.8 but was worried about the reports of how noisy they are. The DM10 has received some positive comments, so thought I'd try it. From what I've read in the forums here, it seemed that in quiet mode at least, it might be okay.
Idle noise is very quiet to me. If I turn it off but keep all the fans running, the system isn't noticably quieter. Seek noise is clearly audible, but I don't find it horribly intrusive. My previous drive was a relatively noisy IBM 60Gb and hard-mounted, so compared to that, its a huge improvement. I've never used a Seagate or Samsung though, so unfortunately I can't compare it to anything else. I'm curious to know how much better the Samsung could be.
I started with it mounted with the Antec grommets, but the seek noise was too loud and resonated through the case (and into the desk). I then soft-mounted it with some foam and elastic. This was a massive improvement. Temps went up a little and it now runs at around 36degC.
BUT, I can't work out how to set the AAM mode to Quiet. I've tried AMSet, FTool, ATITool and they all report that AAM is not available. Anyone had any success with this on the A8N-SLI??
LG 4163B DVD-RW
I couldn't decide between the Pioneer 109, NEC 3520 and the LG. LG was the cheapest, so I went with that. Seems to be fine - its definitely quieter than my old Lite-On 52x CD-RW drive.
Antec Phantom 350W
WOW!!! This PSU is amazing. I've read all the reports of problems with it, but really wanted to try it, so went ahead and got one anyway. Plus, Seasonic's arn't available here, so that didn't leave many quiet options - it was down to the Phantom or a Zalman or Enermax.
Apart from the possibility of failure, I was concerned about coil hum, and that it would be insufficient to run the rest of the hardware stably. But its dual-rail and has good max 12V outputs, and since I wasn't going to be using SLI, looked like it would be okay. I need not have worried, as its worked brilliantly so far. Totally silent - I can't hear any hum even if I put my ear right next to it, and everything has been 100% stable. It doesn't even seem to break a sweat - the casing is just slightly warm every time I've checked it.
Antec 3000B Case
I narrowed down my case choices to four alternatives - the 3000B, the 2650BQE, the CM Centurion 5, and the SS TJ04. I liked the look of the TJ the most, but was worried about the airflow without modding, and it was expensive compared to the others. So the 3000B was the easy choice. I'm happy enough with it - it looks okay and was good to work with. Would have liked a case that looked more classy, but its an easy and inexpensive option.
2x Nexus 120mm @ 7V
The other luxury component. I ended up importing 3 Nexus fans from Silicon Accoustics - 2x 120mm and a 92mm (which was planned for the chipset, but didn't get used in the end). There arn't many good choices for 120mm fans here - the Vantec Stealth is all that a lot of suppliers stock. I tried to find some GlacialTech SilentBlades but no-one I tried had them in stock at the time.
I've screw mounted the rear fan using some of the Antec drive grommets cut into halves, and mounted the front fan with corners of Velcro. This seems to work and I can't hear any vibrational noise.
I've got both on Fanmates, running at around 7V. Noise level seems to be around the same as the Tricool at 4V. One of the Nexus starts at 5V, the other needs around 6V to fire up.
Also, I used Arctic Silver 5 on the CPU, chipset and GPU.
Conclusion
Overall, I'm very pleased with the performance, quietness and stability of the new rig. I guess I've got the SPCR addiction now though - I can't help but wonder if I can make it any quieter
. I'd like to try a SmartDrive enclosure and some Acoustipack, but am probably hitting diminishing returns at this point, and because I'd have to import both products, not sure that the expense would be justified. I've considered having a go at cutting the fan grills out too, but I can't really hear any additional noise there, so not sure if this would make any difference.In retrospect, I can't say that I'd definitely change anything (other than a cheaper CPU HSF). So guess that's a good result. Maybe the video card - I probably could have settled on a passive Gigabyte 6600GT and lost that one slightly noisy fan.
I have to say though that putting together a quiet PC is not inexpensive. It cost about $420AUD (25% of the total of all the other regular components) for all the extras to quieten it down - by the time you factor in the cost of the HS's, the fans and the premium for a quiet PSU. The XP-120 and the 3 Nexus fans came to just over $200AUD on their own. But I think the result was worth the extra cost.
Before I go, I'd like to extend my thanks and appreciation to MikeC and everyone else at SPCR, plus all the members in the forums too. The information available here is invaluable.
Sorry for the LONG post... Hope its useful to someone out there. Cheers!
