Success - Thanks to SPCR!

heddhunter · Post by **heddhunter** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 6:19 am

I finally got my system "quiet enough" last night, thanks to the advice of folks on SPCR.

Asus A8N-SLI
Asus A-50GA 500W Power Supply
AMD 64 X2 4200+
eVGA GeForce 7900 GT
3 7200 RPM PATA HD's (various sizes)
ATI HDTV Wonder
RME Audio DIGI9636

As you can see from the RME card, I do pro audio work, so having a quiet system is essential for critical listening. I also like to play games though, hence the GF7900. I recently put the new mobo, PS, CPU and VGA in my old Antec case but was disappointed at the buzzy humming whine noise. I share my office with a guy from Apple and his dual G5 and dual Intel Mac towers put my rig to shame with their low noise - both of them together were quieter than the sound of my system.

Thanks to advice from SPCR's articles and helpful forum posters I am happy to say that my machine is now extremely quiet. You have to stick your head pretty much on it to hear anything.

Antec P180 - great looking case, good solid feel, very stylish, and good sound deadening. On its own though it wasn't enough.

Zalman northbridge heatsink - I replaced the tiny 6000rpm mobo chipset fan with this heatsink. Helped a little.

Zalman VF900-CU VGA cooler - THIS was the secret weapon. Once I swapped out the eVGA's stock fan for this, the noise dropped almost to nothing. I still haven't bothered to upgrade the AMD's stock fan in fact.

I use Cool 'n' Quiet and the Asus Q-Fan to keep the AMD stock fan revs low so I imagine that helps a bit, but even with the CPU under load I haven't noticed any appreciable increase in noise.

I'd send pics but it's just a regular P180 with some ugly wiring... the power supply leads are not long enough to route super cleanly, so there's a big knot of stuff cable-tied in the middle. PATA drives don't help the situation either.

Anyway, temps are fine (I'm not a crazed overclocker so I don't need ultra-efficient cooling) and most importantly, it is QUIET.

Thanks!

natethegreat · Post by **natethegreat** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 5:07 am

As you can see

See what?

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 6:19 am

I can see it allright, using my imagination. There are enough photos of that Antec case around here, that everyone should know what they look like.

I can't imagine that stock CPU HSF being quiet enough, however.

MonsterMac · Post by **MonsterMac** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 9:10 am

looking good - glad you're happy.

n00btard · Post by **n00btard** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:16 pm

I've become so numb to the noise output of the stock cooler on my eVGA 7800GT, I can't hear crap from the case when I stop the fan with my fingers...