almost silent Athlon XP system
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
almost silent Athlon XP system
Specs:
- Athlon XP 1800+ TBred B
- Asus A7V8X-X
- Western Digital 100 GB HDD
- Kingston PC3200 256MB, Hynix PC2700 256MB
- ATI Radeon 64 DDR (yup, one of the first old Radeons that came out)
- Enermax Noisetaker 375 (non-Active PFC model)
- Generic ATX Case
- Thermaltake Silent Boost K7
- Thermaltake Smart Fan II
- Zalman F1 Fan
- Generic slot blower fan
Mods:
- I cut a 90x90mm hole on the side door that ducts directly to the CPU fan. I also cut out the restrictive grills for front and back fan mounts.
- All fans, except the TT Smart Fan II, run on about 5V. The Smart fan is manually controlled to cool the hard drive when needed, but it's very loud. Since it clicks at low speed, I'm going to get another fan.
- With a lot of work with bridge-cutting/filling on the CPU, I managed to change it into a Mobile chip to be able to change the multiplier in windows using CrystalCPUID. I also changed the voltage range to 1.3V-1.5V instead of the original 1.5V-1.7/8. I changed the FSB to 166MHz and lowered the multiplier to 9x, and I change it when needed. The TT Silent boost heatsink base was lapped.
- The Radeon stock fan was whining and dying out on me (it's been about 5 years), I removed it and slapped on an old Socket7 Pentium heatsink with a quiet 40mm fan. I took cooling a step further by underclocking the core and memory to 162MHz, although not much of a step down from 183MHz. Oh well, I tried. =P
- The hard drive was always the source of heat after the CPU, so I put it on the bottom of the case with vertical screws to rest on a couple sheets of foam. Not the perfect noise killer, but better than it touching the metal case bottom directly. I grounded the hard drive with a wire connected to the case. I also flipped the slot fan and placed it near the hard drive to exhaust hot air out. I was thinking of making an airflow passageway from the intake to the hard drive in the future.
- One problem is cable clutter...probably caused by the numerous and some stiff cables from the Enermax PSU, and the short case.
Any comments/suggestions are welcome.
- Athlon XP 1800+ TBred B
- Asus A7V8X-X
- Western Digital 100 GB HDD
- Kingston PC3200 256MB, Hynix PC2700 256MB
- ATI Radeon 64 DDR (yup, one of the first old Radeons that came out)
- Enermax Noisetaker 375 (non-Active PFC model)
- Generic ATX Case
- Thermaltake Silent Boost K7
- Thermaltake Smart Fan II
- Zalman F1 Fan
- Generic slot blower fan
Mods:
- I cut a 90x90mm hole on the side door that ducts directly to the CPU fan. I also cut out the restrictive grills for front and back fan mounts.
- All fans, except the TT Smart Fan II, run on about 5V. The Smart fan is manually controlled to cool the hard drive when needed, but it's very loud. Since it clicks at low speed, I'm going to get another fan.
- With a lot of work with bridge-cutting/filling on the CPU, I managed to change it into a Mobile chip to be able to change the multiplier in windows using CrystalCPUID. I also changed the voltage range to 1.3V-1.5V instead of the original 1.5V-1.7/8. I changed the FSB to 166MHz and lowered the multiplier to 9x, and I change it when needed. The TT Silent boost heatsink base was lapped.
- The Radeon stock fan was whining and dying out on me (it's been about 5 years), I removed it and slapped on an old Socket7 Pentium heatsink with a quiet 40mm fan. I took cooling a step further by underclocking the core and memory to 162MHz, although not much of a step down from 183MHz. Oh well, I tried. =P
- The hard drive was always the source of heat after the CPU, so I put it on the bottom of the case with vertical screws to rest on a couple sheets of foam. Not the perfect noise killer, but better than it touching the metal case bottom directly. I grounded the hard drive with a wire connected to the case. I also flipped the slot fan and placed it near the hard drive to exhaust hot air out. I was thinking of making an airflow passageway from the intake to the hard drive in the future.
- One problem is cable clutter...probably caused by the numerous and some stiff cables from the Enermax PSU, and the short case.
Any comments/suggestions are welcome.
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- Posts: 81
- Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2005 7:53 pm
[quote]All fans, except the TT Smart Fan II, run on about 5V. The Smart fan is manually controlled to cool the hard drive when needed, but it's very loud. Since it clicks at low speed, I'm going to get another fan. [/quote]
Likewise - a big disappointment. I used the manual control, turned it fully down, and it was still way to loud. I'm intending to get a replacement at some point, but for now I'm running it through a Zalman Fanmate, and I've turned it down to the lowest setting which still allows it to spin on startup. In this configuration, it is very quiet. (I haven't had your low-speed clicking.)
Likewise - a big disappointment. I used the manual control, turned it fully down, and it was still way to loud. I'm intending to get a replacement at some point, but for now I'm running it through a Zalman Fanmate, and I've turned it down to the lowest setting which still allows it to spin on startup. In this configuration, it is very quiet. (I haven't had your low-speed clicking.)
I reckon you've still got far too many fans in your system. Get rid of that slot blower fan if you haven't already done so. putting the HDD near the front of the case where there is some airflow (even without an intake fan) will be more than sufficient to cool it.
And take the fan off the Radeon! Your passive Pentium HS will be more then enough to cool it. Gosh I'd be surprised if that thing is even warm to the touch!
Tidy up those cables and you'll improve the airflow a lot, particularly near the HDD/video card.
Also if you tape over any case holes that are not directly aiding cooling you will get more concentrated airflow, which should help.
And take the fan off the Radeon! Your passive Pentium HS will be more then enough to cool it. Gosh I'd be surprised if that thing is even warm to the touch!
Tidy up those cables and you'll improve the airflow a lot, particularly near the HDD/video card.
Also if you tape over any case holes that are not directly aiding cooling you will get more concentrated airflow, which should help.
thanks for the suggestions. I removed the slot blower and radeon fan. Surprisingly enough, the heatsink was actually quite warm to the touch. Should be cool enough for the winter, though.
I moved the hard drive to the front of the case and placed it in a sideways orientation. Tried to clean up the cable clutter a bit, but still too many wires. The shielded ones are stiff, and i have a shorter case too =(
I also noticed that the cpu fan had a slight buzzing sound too...i guess it's time for a fan replacement soon.
Wonder what i should do with that big empty space at the bottom...
I moved the hard drive to the front of the case and placed it in a sideways orientation. Tried to clean up the cable clutter a bit, but still too many wires. The shielded ones are stiff, and i have a shorter case too =(
I also noticed that the cpu fan had a slight buzzing sound too...i guess it's time for a fan replacement soon.
Wonder what i should do with that big empty space at the bottom...