Twin Lian Li's,all SCSI. Priority-quiet,looks & wire mgm

[epiphane]

Howdy All

Since I learned so much from this site, I thought I'd post the fruits of all that schooln'.

I've always used 2 puters...1 for online & the other for fun stuff, mainly graphic & photo work. This keeps the graphic system mean & lean since it's not encumbered w/ the garbage that's needed for web use. It also keeps it free from nasties. Although I like puter games, I've just never got around to playing them on my system. U'll see this reflected by the type of vid cards used. Until now, I had the system connected by a crossover cable & LAN. With both puters now USB friendly & cheap thumb drives available, I've disconnected the LAN & use a thumb drive to transfer files between them.

btw...I've tweaked the images to be dialup friendly.

Here's the BEFORE pic. Yes, they were NOISY.The tall guy is the graphic one. As it recently had it's internals upgraded, most of the changes were enclosure related.


The little guy was a Intel P2-400 w/ a ASUS mobd w/built-in SCSI. It was getting a tad long-in-the-tooth even for surfing so it got both hardware & case upgrading.

Having dual-output vid cards along with monitors w/ dual inputs, makes it possible for the system to share monitors as well as keybd & mouse. This does away w/ an image-deteriorating switchbox. That's dual 21" CRT monitors.


I have Kybd & mouse extension cables coming up from the puters (they're the ones coming from the left) between the desks. All I have to do unplug the mouse & kybd cables (coming from the right)from one set of extension cables & connect them to the other set...btw...they're hot-plugable.


Here's AFTER the entire project was done. The online puter is on the left.



Both systems kept their CD players/writers, floppies & HDs.

Let's start w/ the online puter part of the project.

Got a Lian Li PC-6070. I found it's feet had rough plastic edges on the bottom which made it a bear to slide. Simple solution was getting these Teflon furniture sliders from Home Depot...almost like it's on wheels now. They work on carpet as well as hard floors.



I didn't need the 2 front fans as I had quieter means of getting air. It's running a Intel P4-2.4GHz btw.


Removing the fans allowed a nice opening for the air to cool the SCSI 7,200 rpm HD. The HD is suspended with Stretch Magic- 1.88mm.


To get more air for the HD, I relocated the speaker which was underneath the HD cage.


Easy to make an opening as it was already perforated w/ small holes.


I wanted to do some nifty wire-management to help w/ the air-flow (this sounds better then admitting I'm anal). To hide the PSU wires they needed to be lengthen.

Here's the original wire along w/ the 2 extensions which came from old PSUs.


The AUX wires lengthen.


The longer wires allowed me to hide them behind the mobd. Notice the cutouts made at the top right & center. One was the exit for the wires & the other was made to reach the mobd.


The wire entry cutout.


This tool makes striping wires easy. Lot's better than the kind that comes w/ electrical kits




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[Volkswagen]

there is no page 2

[epiphane]

Hey VW...give a guy a break

I'm writing it as we speak!

Oh well, I work better under pressure...I can see it's gonna be a long night.

Cheers
Peter

[Felger Carbon]

The wire clamps in the photo of the bottom of the mobo plate look interesting. Different sizes and shapes. Nylon-looking, although I'm guessing it's some other plastic. What are they, and where did you get them?

[epiphane]

The wire clamps in the photo of the bottom of the mobo plate look interesting. Different sizes and shapes. Nylon-looking, although I'm guessing it's some other plastic. What are they, and where did you get them?

Yea, there're kinda cute, eh? They came in handy. I saw them on Mc-C's site & bought them on the chance I might find use for'm. Used both sizes.

Info:
7565K61 CABLE MOUNT, SELF CLOSING CLIP, .25" MAXIMUM BUNDLE DIAMETER

7565K62 CABLE MOUNT, SELF CLOSING CLIP, .50" MAXIMUM BUNDLE DIAMETER

Under 4 bucks for a pack.

Cheers
Peter

[epiphane]

I spent lots of time on this PSU mod & broke the warranty for no perceivable decrease in noise. The Antec PSU was already pretty quiet but being impressed with what some folks did on this site, I thought I'd give it a go.

Removed the mounting screws of both the exit & the larger entry fan. Since I wanted to make use of the larger fan to draw air away from the CPU I made sure that it was pointed down towards the CPU.

In went the VIBRATION DAMPING FAN MOUNTS from McMaster-Carr. Everything looked nice & ready to go.


WTH ?...so...I get rid of any vibration of the fan touching the outside of the PSU, but now have the fan touching the PCB board inside?!?#%


Oh well, at least the larger fan was easier to do & didn't seem to interfere with any internal components.

While I was working on the PSU, I noticed the ridge running around the outer shell. I happened to glance at the Stretch Magic which I was using for the HD suspension. A very dim light bulb went off in my head.

Humm...earlier I tried to add some rubber tape around the PSU but found that the it was too tight a fit to slide into the case. So I tied the Stretch Magic around the shell as well as on the case rails where it rested. It was so tight that I had to spread some Vaseline on the SM to get the PSU in.




Did it help? I like to think so, but what do I know.

I used the old aluminum case to cut out some sheets to attach to the new one for filling in areas.

The LL case had 4- 5" & 3- 3.5" openings. I only needed 2 & 1 respectively.


I used the included empty drive covers on the inside as well as the above mentioned sheets on the outside (in addition there's the door covering that).


This paint for the CD player & floppy matched the case exactly. The tape was used for covering the many holes in the case as shown in the previous image.


This tape was great for those areas that had little clearance for vibration dampening to fit in. Pictured is the CD player. I had to coat the tape outer facing side with Vaseline to get the player to slide into the case.


In place of the 2 front fans, I used one fan (@ 7v) which was more inside the case & soft mounted it. This served several cooling functions.

1. It draw air in from the bottom front of the case.

2. Air cooled the HD on the way to the fan.

3. The fan was turned up towards the video card heatsink which had it's noisy little fan removed.

4. Part of the air flow goes past the vid card, over the chipset heat sink (it's fan also removed) & makes it's way to the CPU.


That's the SCSI card with the CD & HD cables on the lower left. The Matrox vid card is at the upper left.

Used the ol' Zip Tie & ULTRA-SOFT POLYURETHANE SHEET from McMaster-Carr mounting technique.

The bracket came from some older case. Also visible is part of the HD suspension.

The HD cage. The bright aluminum part was added to provide more holes for stringing the Stretch Magic.


The standard Intel CPU cooler was changed later to the Zalman shown in the first photo (the one where Bob is installing the vid card)


Looking up at the PSU & the rear case exit fan which is running at 7 or 5v's...(I forgot which)


Rear view.


I wound up using 2 MELAMINE FOAM SOUND ABSORBING CEILING TILES, 24" X 48" X 39/64" from Mc-C.

I hot glued some together to make blocks to fill inside spaces w/in the case.


In they go.





I cut 2 sheets of Melamine for the sides. They stay in with pressure. & r easy to remove when the side doors come off.




That does it for the online puter. I'm torn between popping in a DVD & doing some midnight HT viewing or finishing this post with the 2nd puter.

I'll see what Netflix sent me & decide. If I don't finish this tonight, as r governor has said..."I'll be back!"



...CONTINUED ON PAGE 3.....

[El Doug]

one question - how is it you have 2 cats and your carpet remains so clean?

[epiphane]

The wire clamps in the photo of the bottom of the mobo plate look interesting. Different sizes and shapes. Nylon-looking, although I'm guessing it's some other plastic. What are they, and where did you get them?

I just realized that there were more clamps in that pic then the ones I previously mentioned (the little guys in the center).

The 2 long ones (one is top center in the pic)r for clamping IDE cables but sure came in handy for the PSU work.

Info:
5 Flat Clamp 2in X 3/8in - White (FLATCLAMP-L) = $1.95
from Performance-PCs.com

The one on the top left is a slot type I had laying around.

Hope that answers u'r question.

Cheers

[Shadowknight]

A very neat and well documented project. You need to do a couple of more things, primarily replacing the CPU heatsink, but overall very nice.

[epiphane]

A very neat and well documented project. You need to do a couple of more things, primarily replacing the CPU heatsink, but overall very nice.

Thanks for the compliment ...regarding the CPU cooler, this is what I wrote on Page 2:

"The standard Intel CPU cooler was changed later to the Zalman shown in the first photo (the one where Bob is installing the vid card) "

...I know....it's late..

Cheers
Peter

[epiphane]

one question - how is it you have 2 cats and your carpet remains so clean?

Boy...u hit the funny bone there my friend.

Thanks for the comment about the clean rug...it'll make my Spousal Unit real happy....let's just say we do a lot of vacuuming & we buy a new rug shampoer every so often.
I wish we only had 2 cats.
I better make this short & the pics real small so the moderators don't get too mad...I can always plead the "Newbie Stupidity Defense" angle!!

We r strong believers in the "No Savings At All Economic Plan". IE, as soon as any money makes it way into r savings account, by some dumb stroke of luck, a sick/injured/dieing animal crosses r path. We're selective however...we accept no animal unless it's guaranteed to have at least a 4 figure veterinary bill attached.

Anyway besides Bob & Boo, here's the others (only Boo & Pixie r related btw)

Jazz Moe

Panther Pixie

Willie (the Pitbull) & Bob


Note to moderators..I'll make up for this OT post with page 3 & 4, OK?

[slashdotcomma]

keep it up!

[epiphane]

keep it up!

Which..throwing more money at animals or continue posting??

I passed on DVD watching so I'll continue posting a while.

Thanks for the encouragement.

Cheers
Peter

[epiphane]

For the higher powered graphic puter (Intel P4- 3.06 GHz, OC'd to 3.33) I choose a LL PC-V1100 case. I first started looking at the inverted layout when I saw the Antec 180 reviewed here.

Although both cases came w/ Noise Dampening Material attached to the panels I wanted to use even more potent dampening methods w/ the graphic puter then I did w/ the online one. Instead of using MELAMINE I got a AcoustiPack Deluxe v2 pack from Endpcnoise.com

Although I really liked the air-flow of the V case, it did have me do some serious head & eye rubbing to figure out the best way to run the wires.

On to it...started by removing the rear Intake fan grill.


Did the same fan mounting as before.


this stuff came in handy again


The fan is mounted. The PSU wire slot (bottom left) is too large. It gets filled in later.


One of these came w/ both cases. They direct exhaust PSU air out the back. I didn't want to use them as I figured the back pressure would increase the noise.



I did find another use for one of them. I needed some means of directing air to the upper part of the case....similar to that inside fan I used on the online puter. However, here the vid card HS faced away from the air flow. Also, it's a Matrox Parhelia which was gonna get a harder workout then the Matrox G400 MAX. I still wanted to get rid of it's little fan w/o removing the stock HS. the result of that endeavor is shown later.

This ghetto air-duct started by cutting up the air duct which attaches to the previously mentioned rear intact fan.


The modified PSU duct was caulked into place inside the fan duct.


It all made for a tight fit. A little Polyurethane cushioned it from the blower exhaust fan.


The HD cages have a nifty mounting system but I knew my noisy 15k & 7.2k rpm HD's needed something quieter.


I removed the plastic mounting sliders from the 1st cage & used SM 1.88mm for the main Seagate 15k rpm HD.



I couldn't get the 2nd cage out to remove the rails w/o removing the mobd. By that time I had installed & removed it far too many times already & gave up on the idea. That HD contains my last 2 partitions which only get accessed infrequently anyway.


The result is that the 15k HD can not be heard, but the 7.2 one (which is much older & noisier) sends a little THUNK noise through the case w/ each seek. With all the padding the case has, it's a mellow tone, but it's still there.

this shows the application of the thinner AcoustiPack material being applied to the top of the case over it's oem damping material.



till tomorrow (hey, it's tomorrow already)....night all.

...CONTINUED ON PAGE 4......

[epiphane]

View of the outside, case rear. The large exhaust blower fan uses the perforated holes of the case as a fan guard as well as screw holes for mounting. Didn't need the fan guard feature & also made an opening (top right) for the Zalman fan controller wire.


Angled the fan to clear the "custom air duct" below. That's the SCSI card w/ CD & HD cables. Also shown at the top is the rear USB ports that came w/ the Gigabyte 8IHXP mobd. btw..really love the quality of that GB board so I got the same for the smaller puter. The chipset HS (gold in color) is shown after removing it's fan. Explained later is the funny looking vid card HS.


Visible at the bottom is how I covered up the unused half of the PSU wire cutout. Leaving it open would have screwed up the nice PSU air flow. Used some aluminum from the old case.



Everything in place. On the left r the Plextor SCSI CD players, CD writer & foam block from the acoustic pack.


Stop laughing! It really works!
Directing air onto the vid card (via that hacked up air duct) didn't cool the Matrox Parhelia enough for use w/o it's fan. Not wanting to risk removing the oem HS & installing a more efficient one, I pulled out one of my many old HS's that came from discarded PSUs. I found one that fit PERFECTLY. It was the exact width & pressure fit onto the vid card HS with just a firm push. I bent the top down a tad to catch some air.


This tape was applied to the plate which holds the PSU to the outside of the case...btw...this feature of the 2 LL cases is one of those little quality things that u don't realize u get when u pay the top bucks for the LL's. It allows easy placement of the PSU. I had to think hard before spending the $ for these units. After working w/ them however, it was money well spent. If I amortize their cost over the length of time I'll have them (5 or more yrs probably) they're a fair price.


Since I didn't want to repeat the mistake of remounting the PSU as I did w/ the first puter, I elected to just slide some of that rubber tape between the fan & shell. The fan was mounted w/ plastic grommets instead of metal screws anyway. This Zalman PSU only has one fan ...had to look a while to find a older PSU w/ an AUX connection & one fan. 2 fans would have created more noise w/o improving air flow.


Used some MELAMINE to stuff in the spaces around the floppy.


Hot glued the foam in place.


The black foam blocks came w/ the AcoustiPack.


Some wire management shots.


The 2 gray wires r the front USB ports. Had to make a small notch (lower center) on the mobd backing plate ridge.


In addition to the AcoustiPack, from Mc-C I got some 5692T498, FLAT SOUND ABSORBING FOAM, ADHESIVE BACK, SKINNED SURFACE, 1" THK, 54"W, 1'L.
The AcoustiPack runs out pretty quickly so this stuff came in handy.


Applied some to the left side of the PSU.


The left side panel with it's oem padding & some additional AcoustiPack applied on top.


The more noise-critical panel was the right one. It faced the inside components as well as where I sat in relation to the puter. I used both the thinner & thicker AcoustiPack material. Notice how the added damping goes further along the edge than the oem stuff. I think this made a big difference on both panels. The oem damping left a gap around the entire panel which would have allowed noise to escape. The additional material did make replacing the panels a tad more difficult.


By the time I got to the rear air intake muffler, I was running out of time & patience. Had I more of both, I would have used wood instead of the foam board.... no diff in noise control but it would have looked prettier.


Fund this shelf liner at Home Depot...sure looked like aluminum.


A fan view of the inside showing the flap of thin AcoustiPack material used as a noise baffle.


Looking from the outside towards the baffle.


My PSU exhaust muffler was a Fan Duct - 120mm (DUCT120) = $4.99 from Performance-PCs.com. It conveniently pressure fit onto the small pegs surrounding the PSU fan.




I hot glued some MELAMINE as noise baffles inside the fan duct. I shouldn't have bothered. The PSU fan seems to stay at it's lowest rpm because of the good intake air flow. I can't hear it running, even w/ my ear next to it. The duct was needed however. It directs the warm exhausted air away from the intake above it.


A final shot before closing it up.


After placing the online puter in it's spot (to the left) I determined that noise was bouncing off the bare wall & wood surfaces surrounding it. I hot glued MELAMINE on those surfaces. I was pleasantly surprised when it resulted in a measurable (to my ears) noise decrease. Since the graphic system was more exposed I used the better stuff to accomplished the same thing for it. That's the thin AcoustiPack damping on the left & the Mc-C stuff on the top & rear



Finally done!


Was it all worth it? .....YES!...I'm happy with the results. Both puters r VERY quiet. Although the graphic one has more fans, it has the same noise level as the smaller one.

Let's see....how can I give u folks an idea of the resulting noise....

When we got my wife's little DELL (P4-1.4GHz, only used for email & WORD), I was impressed at how quiet it was. I could hardly hear it. Standing at the opposite end of the room, it's inaudible. These LL's are as quiet. It's only when both r on that they become audible across the room.

The noise I hear when I'm at my desk is a faint pleasant hollow WHOOSHING sound. Maybe a combination of WHOOSH & HUM. I couldn't be happier. They aren't audible at all when listening to CDs on my open-air headset.




Comments or questions welcomed.

Cheers
Peter

[Aleksi]

Hi Peter,

your thread is one of the most enjoyable general gallery threads I've read in a long time. Nice pictures, nice text and nice mods. Thank you for taking the time to put it all together.

[Shadowknight]

Given the in-depth nature of this thread, I think you should submit it to MikcE for one of the System articles on the main site.

[jaganath]

Wow, this is one image-heavy thread! I think it should have a warning in the title for people on dial-up (of which I am not one).

That said, your photos of Bob (or is it Pixie?) your cat "installing" the AGP card are sooo cute and frickin' hilarious! I admit it, I'm easily amused.

[JimX]

Excellent!

[epiphane]

Gosh darn folks.....thanks for the kind words.

I know it's image heavy...they're all edited down to pretty small sizes but taken together, they do add up. I got them down to where they'd be attractive & detailed for the broadband people but quick loading enough for the others. I hope that the dialers feel it's worthwhile to start loading the page & come back after having grabbed a java or brew (depending on the time of day).

jaganath..
Bob is kinda sensitive so I'll just say that u thought he looked cool, leaving out that u laughed.....seriously...it seemed like he was mimicking me in doing that...he provides us w/ lots of photo opts...the Einstein of the clan.

Cheers
Peter

[JazzJackRabbit]

Awesome job, but seeing all the effort and trouble you went to silence your Lian-Li's I'll be damned to even think of buying another aluminum case...

[epiphane]

Awesome job, but seeing all the effort and trouble you went to silence your Lian-Li's I'll be damned to even think of buying another aluminum case...

Thanks Rabbit
...yea, the project took lots longer than I first thought. Not only did the noise & cosmetic part turn out to be more time consuming, I ran into all sorts of hardware issues w/ the SCSI cards as well as software problems. Several times I walked away for days.

My biggest motivator was my wife..."WHEN ARE U GOING TO CLEAN UP THAT MESSY WORK AREA & PUT THE COMPUTERS BACK TOGETHER?!?!" The cats sure liked it though, they had a daily competition to see who could destroy the most small parts laying around.

Thankfully, I think this setup will last me for several years. That's one of the reasons I went w/ quality components.

Cheers
peter

[jfeldt]

Epiphane, your attention to detail and clever organization is an inspiration to myself and other silent slobs everywhere.

I also liked the way you presented the story and the photos were good.
Thanks for posting.

Jason

[raziell]

great job man....

[epiphane]

thanks guys

Cheers

[Ralf Hutter]

Props for using the old-fashioned "embossed" Dymo labels! 40 year-old technology gets this Luddite's heart all aflutter!

[epiphane]

Props for using the old-fashioned "embossed" Dymo labels! 40 year-old technology gets this Luddite's heart all aflutter!

I AM NOT ALONE!!

Not only is it 40 yr old technology, the labels were made by a 40 yr plastic embossing tool! I'm so glad u liked that. It gave me the opportunity to unleash this guilt I've been carrying all these yrs....finally, I can unburden this weight I've been dragging behind me!

I am still using an embossing gun that I bought for several dollars when they first came out. I remember it was an expensive purchase for me back in the late 60's (or maybe it was the early 70's ??).I made sure I got the cheapest one. I was a young'n at the time & thought it was really BOSS.

After reading u'r message, I had to take this pic...figured u'd get a kick outta it. Tell u one thing...they sure don't make plastic like that anymore.



Cheers
Peter

[ijgs]

Hi there, I just wanted to say that as the (semi-proud) owner of a Lian-Li PC-65 you've given me loads of inspiration. I was just telling my good lady the other day that I was considering replacing it because it's so DAMN LOUD! (I've heard quieter air-con units!!!)

However, now I've seen your modification/build quality (and some outstanding cable management) it's made me realise that maybe I can shut the damn thing up! I'm happy with what's inside the box (a not especially new system - probably about 5 years old now) but it works and I can't see any point in upgrading massively.

I'd also like to point out that I inherited the case, rather than shelling out for it - if I'd known it was going to be such a noisy thing I'd never have considered it. Still - it's nice an roomy inside, so I'll have plenty of opportunity to explore all the mods I've read about on here!

Will post stuff when I get there!!!

regards to all, and keep up the good work!!

Ian

[Chris Chan]

Congratulations on both the cute cat pics, and the impressively involved silencing job!

>My biggest motivator was my wife..."WHEN ARE U GOING TO CLEAN UP THAT MESSY WORK AREA & PUT THE COMPUTERS BACK TOGETHER?!?!"
That is my mom, too.

[Fat_bloater_dave]

Hah that was cool, a nice read at 6:30 in the morning. Good work on the silenceing you realy went the extra mile.