My First "Silent" Computer
Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 8:54 am
This is not my first attempt at obtaining silent nirvana. I previously had an Athlon XP 2500+ (OC'ed to 3200+). Man was that thing loud. Four high speed 80mm fans mounted at the front, and one very loud, hot and generic power supply. (Let's not forget the stock HSF, either.)
After having used that for about eight months I decided my next PC was going to be quiet, dagnabbit!. After much deliberation I ended up with this;
Antec SLK3000B
Athlon 64 3200+ (OC'ed to 2.6Ghz)
Abit AV8 Pro (mmm, passive chipset cooling)
1Gb OCZ Premier
2x Seagate 7200.9 80Gb SATA RAID0
Radeon 9200SE
Thermaltake Big Typhoon
Topower 420w fanless PSU (better known to SPCR readers as E-Power Lion)
This was reasonably quiet, but the resonance created by the HDD's, plus the case fan and Big Typhoon was driving me nuts.
Then news of the Core 2 Duo's imminent release reached my ears, and I started to get that itch. You know the one.
"It wouldn't do to be caught with outdated technology, now would it?" I asked myself. "I can always use more speed". "Whats a few hundred bucks matter anways?!?" Bye bye computer...
Two months and a very empty bank account later I have this;
Core 2 Duo E6300
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (Passive)
1Gb Geil PC6400 (5-5-5-15 @ 1.8v)
2x Seagate 7200.10 250Gb SATA RAID0
Nvidia 128Mb 6200TC (Passive)
Samsung DVDRW
Antec Neo HE 550w
Thermaltake Big Typhoon
Antec SLK3000B
1x Antec TriCool
1x 120mm from an old generic PSU
What a difference. It's cooler, quieter and it's faster.
Here are some preliminary pictures presented for your delectation.
Yeah, I know, my elite cablegami haxor skillz suck.
Anywho, this was quiet but still not quiet enough. I decided to try suspending the HDD's. It virtually eliminated all case resonance, and reduced the seek noises significantly.
The BIOS on the DS3 also allows for dynamic fan speed control, which I have enabled. The Typhoon's fan now spins at 585 idle, and around 800-900 under load. Currently the only source of noise left is the generic 120mm fan I pulled out of an old power supply, and most of that is turbulence. With it turned off, the system makes only the slightest of noise. Even the sound of my breathing is louder. Finally! Peace and quiet!!
The best part of all this is I can get this lack of noise even with the CPU overclocked to 3.08Ghz, and undervolted to 1.318v. Truly astonishing.
Idle temps are 27-30C, load 46-48C.
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k202/ ... SProof.jpg
After having used that for about eight months I decided my next PC was going to be quiet, dagnabbit!. After much deliberation I ended up with this;
Antec SLK3000B
Athlon 64 3200+ (OC'ed to 2.6Ghz)
Abit AV8 Pro (mmm, passive chipset cooling)
1Gb OCZ Premier
2x Seagate 7200.9 80Gb SATA RAID0
Radeon 9200SE
Thermaltake Big Typhoon
Topower 420w fanless PSU (better known to SPCR readers as E-Power Lion)
This was reasonably quiet, but the resonance created by the HDD's, plus the case fan and Big Typhoon was driving me nuts.
Then news of the Core 2 Duo's imminent release reached my ears, and I started to get that itch. You know the one.
"It wouldn't do to be caught with outdated technology, now would it?" I asked myself. "I can always use more speed". "Whats a few hundred bucks matter anways?!?" Bye bye computer...
Two months and a very empty bank account later I have this;
Core 2 Duo E6300
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (Passive)
1Gb Geil PC6400 (5-5-5-15 @ 1.8v)
2x Seagate 7200.10 250Gb SATA RAID0
Nvidia 128Mb 6200TC (Passive)
Samsung DVDRW
Antec Neo HE 550w
Thermaltake Big Typhoon
Antec SLK3000B
1x Antec TriCool
1x 120mm from an old generic PSU
What a difference. It's cooler, quieter and it's faster.
Here are some preliminary pictures presented for your delectation.
Yeah, I know, my elite cablegami haxor skillz suck.
Anywho, this was quiet but still not quiet enough. I decided to try suspending the HDD's. It virtually eliminated all case resonance, and reduced the seek noises significantly.
The BIOS on the DS3 also allows for dynamic fan speed control, which I have enabled. The Typhoon's fan now spins at 585 idle, and around 800-900 under load. Currently the only source of noise left is the generic 120mm fan I pulled out of an old power supply, and most of that is turbulence. With it turned off, the system makes only the slightest of noise. Even the sound of my breathing is louder. Finally! Peace and quiet!!
The best part of all this is I can get this lack of noise even with the CPU overclocked to 3.08Ghz, and undervolted to 1.318v. Truly astonishing.
Idle temps are 27-30C, load 46-48C.
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k202/ ... SProof.jpg