almost silent Athlon XP system

Show off your quiet rig.

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ceraf
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2004 6:39 pm

almost silent Athlon XP system

Post by ceraf » Sun Sep 25, 2005 7:53 pm

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.


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cAPSLOCK
Posts: 224
Joined: Fri Sep 16, 2005 11:06 pm
Location: Switzerland

Post by cAPSLOCK » Sun Sep 25, 2005 11:41 pm

How about putting the HDD in behind the intake case fan like the rest of the world, and then getting rid of that *evil* slot fan :wink:

ceraf
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2004 6:39 pm

Post by ceraf » Mon Sep 26, 2005 1:45 pm

i tried that before, but the hard drive seemed to run cooler at the back, as well as quieter since my computer is under my desk

ceraf
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2004 6:39 pm

Post by ceraf » Sat Oct 08, 2005 4:15 pm

Update:

Made a suspension for the hard drive, mounted in one of the 5¼" bays. Noise is pretty much the same.

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Filias Cupio
Posts: 81
Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2005 7:53 pm

Post by Filias Cupio » Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:01 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.)

ceraf
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2004 6:39 pm

Post by ceraf » Tue Nov 01, 2005 2:06 pm

update: now that it's winter I decided to remove the front intake fan altogether. My ambient temp is usually about 16-19 C.


took out the suspension and moved the hard drive back to the bottom of the case because of cooling issues.

miyagi
Posts: 36
Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2002 7:24 pm

Post by miyagi » Wed Nov 02, 2005 6:59 pm

switch the fan on your CPU heatsink around so it sucks out, or change the fan in the case door to blow in. they're sucking in two different directions and are thus totally inefficient.

also, the exhaust fan is surplus to requirement if you have the door-fan setup correctly.

ceraf
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2004 6:39 pm

Post by ceraf » Mon Nov 14, 2005 12:30 pm

there is no fan on the case door.

i'd smack myself if i ever ducted two fans together blowing or sucking against each other =P

pangit
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 445
Joined: Wed Feb 05, 2003 1:48 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Post by pangit » Mon Nov 14, 2005 3:24 pm

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.

ceraf
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Aug 07, 2004 6:39 pm

Post by ceraf » Mon Nov 14, 2005 6:25 pm

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.

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Wonder what i should do with that big empty space at the bottom...

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