New silent build - dual core + 7900 GT on Sonata II

defaultluser · Post by **defaultluser** » Sun May 07, 2006 6:56 am

Got myself a pretty solid upgrade last month:

Antec Sonata II (was going to get a P150, until I saw the issues with the powersupply and Asus boards)
Asus A8N5X (VERY cheap, but VERY loud)
X2 3800+ w/retail cooler
2GB Corsair XMS
XFX 7900 GT

The system performed perfectly out of the box, and performance was excellent, but I was dismayed at the noise from the 6000 RPM chipset cooler on the motherboard, and the "miniature vacuum" cooler on the XFX board. Both were hideously loud.

But luckily, Newegg can ship most stuff to me in a day. Picked up the following:

Zalman vf900-Cu heatpipe video cooler
Zalman passive northbridge cooler

So, here's the result:

Sonata II, minus the stupid ductwork, because it doesn't do anything useful. Tri-speed exhaust fan is set to low, and is virtually silent.

The passive northbridge sink is cooled by a Scythe 120mm 800 RPM liquid bearing fan (33CFM) drawing in air from the front (far right). Virtually silent.

Passive northbridge heatsink, with plenty of clearance. Pain in the ass to install properly, but it was worth it:

Zalman cooler on 7900 GT. Even easier to install than my old vf700-Cu. I keep it on the lowest setting (silent):

So, the system is now QUIET. Given 22C room temperature, and full load of Prime + SuperPI + 3dmark 06:

IDLE TEMPS:

CPU: 34C
Northbridge: 25C
7900 GT: 42C

LOAD TEMPS :

CPU: 52C
Northbridge: 41C
7900 GT: 50C

OVERCLOCKING:
I'm running the 7900 GT at 540 / 790, and the 3800+ at 2.4 GHz, stock voltage. Still stays well below 60C, and the northbridge is only at 45C. I am kind disappointed: the board is cheap, and cannot handle 1200 MHz HT speed, so I had to drop the multiplier to 4x. I could probably get more out of the processor, but at this point it is not worth it.

All quite reasonable for a low-airflow, low-noise system. The CPU speed is throttled by Cool 'N Quiet, and the fan is controlled by Q-fan. Idle speed is 1100 RPM, full-load speed is 2300 RPM (fan's full speed without Q-fan is ~3500 RPM). The retail cooler is kinda loud at full speed, but with Q-fan it is quiet even at full-load, so I'm going to keep it.

This system is even quieter than my old one, even though it uses more power. Yay for quiet air cooling progress!

GebissetDK · Post by **GebissetDK** » Mon May 08, 2006 6:58 am

Nice system!

Regarding the Asus A8N5X, I've used a Zalman Fanmate to lower the chipset fan to about 50% of the initial speed, and this has made it much more silent. I can still hear a very faint whine if I open the case, so I've thought of replacing the fan with a Zalman passive chipset cooler. You say that it is tricky to install it - in what way? - More tricky than a VF700-ALCU?

Congrats on getting a quiet AMD boxed cooler

Mine was loud even using Asus Q-Fan and the X2 3800+ at stock volt, clock and Cool 'n Quiet.

PS: I have almost the same setup as you (except for the graphics card), and I haven't had a single problem with the Neo HE 430 PSU in the P150, so I'm guessing your system would have worked also.

defaultluser · Post by **defaultluser** » Mon May 08, 2006 8:08 pm

What I mean by "tricky" is that it comes with these two metal arms, and has two "tracks" that you install them into.

This is more difficult to install than other Zalman heatsinks because you have to size them to fit your motherboard. Thus, you have to do a trial-and-error process lining up both metal arms with the holes on your motherboard, all while avoiding the components on the motherboard (because the arms are METAL).

Because the arms are on screw joints, they are hard to secure, so when you mess with one, you invariably mess with the other. It just means you have to make small adjustments

Of course, you can use my install as a cheat sheet, so it should be a lot easier:

The right-side metal arm was tough because it is right up against an inductor. You can't see the arm in the picture, but you can see the inductor. It doesn't quite touch the inductor, bit I added a little electrical tape just to be sure.

The left-side metal arm was a tough fit because the fan header is right there.

So, obviously you can make it work, but you'll have to take a little time getting it just right.

I can take more pictures if you need them.

defaultluser · Post by **defaultluser** » Mon May 08, 2006 8:14 pm

And, are you serious that your AMD retail fan is LOUD with Cool 'n Quiet + Q-fan?

Mine is almost dead silent at 1200 RPM. Are you sure Q-fan is working?

You can also force it to work at a lower speed by raising the Q-fan target temperature in the BIOS.

GebissetDK · Post by **GebissetDK** » Tue May 09, 2006 7:27 am

defaultluser wrote:And, are you serious that your AMD retail fan is LOUD with Cool 'n Quiet + Q-fan?

Mine is almost dead silent at 1200 RPM. Are you sure Q-fan is working?

You can also force it to work at a lower speed by raising the Q-fan target temperature in the BIOS.

Yes mine was loud but I must admit that I've since updated the BIOS and maybe the old BIOS wasn't functioning correctly with Q-Fan. It sure does now as my Artic Cooling fan runs between 800 and 1200 rpm (idle, load). My CPU target speed is default (69 C).

The Zalman heatsink install looks ok. I think I'll manage once I get around to it

It looks a bit like the install of the old Zalman HP80 graphic heatpipe cooler.

defaultluser · Post by **defaultluser** » Sun May 21, 2006 6:56 pm

Update: I've discovered (to my dismay) that the Antec TriCool on low isn't enough for overclocked stability (processor is at 2.4 GHz, and the video card is overclocked).

Unfortunately, Oblivion is a LOT PICKIER than any other game I own with my overclock. Even with fans throttled up, I have to back down the overclock to 520 core, 720 memory. Still good, but not as impressive as before.

When I throttled up the fans, I found the Tricool is quite a bit louder at medium, and that is not acceptable...

So, I was so impressed with my 800 RPM Scythe liquid bearing fan that I picked up another one at 1200 RPM (49 CFM) to replace the TriCool exhaust. Paired with a fanmate, I've been able to tune it to about the same airflow as the TriCool on medium, but with much less noise.

So now, the system is slightly louder, but nothing serious. Still quieter than my last computer

niels007 · Post by **niels007** » Mon May 22, 2006 1:10 am

As you say, even with the fans spinning faster you had some issues with Oblivion. Your temperatures are very cool so this means that the problem isn't in the cooling but in the card just not being 100% stable / artifact free at those speeds. Its not a cooling issue!

If you get a Scythe ninja heatsink you can rely on the rear casefan to cool your cpu and you'll loose a lot of noise. Good chance you can run both 120mm fans at 800 rpm or less, and that vga cooler at lowest fanmate setting..

the last few mhz of gfx or cpu overclocking are never worth the extra voltage / cooling requirements imo.