Antec Sonata (foamed) large pictures (updated)

Mr_Smartepants · Post by **Mr_Smartepants** » Mon May 05, 2003 7:25 am

Here's the link to my page with more pictures.

Updated to show cutout fan grill, taped up front bezel, silenced CPU fan shroud, rewiring job and front globe fan addition.
Note that the floppy cable is routed underneath the motherboard (hard to see).

Here's my FSP300PN modded with a Yate Loon low speed sleeve fan (RPM sensing wire plugged into CPU fan header for monitoring.

Here I've cut the sheetmetal under the front fan mount for more airflow while maintaining structural rigidity when not using hard drives in those slots.

aphonos · Post by **aphonos** » Mon May 05, 2003 7:49 am

Nice setup!

Why are you using a radar gun to check the speed of your computer?

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Mon May 05, 2003 11:48 am

It looks really nice. I was just wondering how much of an affect the foam had on the noise level. Also have you ever thought about cutting out some of the metal behind the front 120mm fan. I dont know if it would hurt the structural strength of the case, but im pretty sure it would help the airflow. Also you could tape/glue a little scrap piece of foam on the empty hardrive holder above your hardrive and maybe cut down on a little bit more hardrive noise. (I know I said this in another thread)

powergyoza · Post by **powergyoza** » Mon May 05, 2003 11:48 am

Yeah, the silent-pc police are gonna have to pull you over for doing 46 in a 50+ zone w/o WC.

Mr_Smartepants · Post by **Mr_Smartepants** » Mon May 05, 2003 10:55 pm

aphonos wrote:Why are you using a radar gun to check the speed of your computer?

Hah Hah! Funny guy! Actually, it's a SnapOn laser thermal sensor. It'll tell you what the temp is wherever you point the dot. In this picture, my Northbridge is 98*F.

GamingGod wrote:It looks really nice. I was just wondering how much of an affect the foam had on the noise level. Also have you ever thought about cutting out some of the metal behind the front 120mm fan.

Thanks.
The foam cut out all the fan noise completely!

I thought about cutting the metal between the round holes in front (making them slots) but my airflow is sufficient at the moment and cutting away some of the plastic lowered my core temps 4*F. I didn't want to weaken the drive cage too much anyway.
I haven't finished with the foam yet. I still have 2/3 of a sheet left so I'm going to cut it into sections, glue them together to make thick blocks and wedge them into the 5.25 and hard drive bays.

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Wed May 07, 2003 7:43 am

Ok about the foam. Does it fall apart, leave dust or anything like that? And if it does, could you use some type of paint type product, glue, spray or anything like that to keep it from falling apart. Also does anyone know if there is any risk of static building up in the case due to using foam?

Mr_Smartepants · Post by **Mr_Smartepants** » Wed May 07, 2003 12:22 pm

Yes this particular foam leaves fiberglass dust while you're handling it. But that's only the outer layers. The inner layer of Foam is very sturdy and leaves no dust as far as I can tell. The outer fiberglass layers are only paper thin and peel off easily so you don't actually need it. The fiberglass only keeps the foam rigid and from flopping around.
I haven't painted it so I'm not sure if it will withstand the chemicals but I'm fairly confident that the fiberglass layer will hold up to just about anything you can throw at it.
At this cheap price, how can you lose? It's thin enough that you can layer it with something else.

Since this is a synthetic fiber, I'm fairly certain that it won't generate any static that can't be disipated by the case.

Come on GG, don't you want to hear about the cool SnapOn tools we get to play with up here in balmy Iceland?

It snowed today!

GamingGod · Post by **GamingGod** » Wed May 07, 2003 1:14 pm

Lol it was like 90+ degrees here today, and I was out training in a 75pound vest.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Wed May 07, 2003 1:17 pm

Hello:

I order 5 of the 2'x2'x13/32" melamine sheets from McMaster Carr -- and they are backordered!

I orderd them 2 days ago and orginally they were to ship today, but the isolators that I also ordered at the same time, arrived today and the invoice now says they expect them to ship two days from now.

The isolators are very nice -- I have only put in 8 of them so far and things are already quieter!

Td_nw · Post by **Td_nw** » Wed May 07, 2003 9:15 pm

I may have gotten the last of the previous stock of the Melamine. I ordered 3 sheets and 2 sheets of the Volara the other day. Of course, it takes a week+ to get anything over here. Last I checked they were on the way. Unfortunately, all I get on the web site now is..

"Sorry, order information is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."

NeilBlanchard

for you or anyone else...

What are you going to use to makes this stick to the case?

Any plans on doing anything to the outside for the fiberglass dust?

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Thu May 08, 2003 7:08 am

Hello:

Radeonman wrote:How much of that stuff are you gonna use, neil? By golly, it's not like you have your own personal oil-dunked render farm like rusty or anything.

I've got three machines here in my home office, and I built one for my sister that needs to be a bit quieter...

I'll also comment here that anybody contemplating using a foam/sound dampening board should also be using fan isolators as well -- these things are great! And if the case ain't vibrating (from the fans) then it'll be a lot quieter! The foam sheets will likely help as well, but the fans and the case that they are attached to are on the outside of the foam, so a lot of this noise won't get damped by the foam.

aphonos · Post by **aphonos** » Thu May 08, 2003 9:57 am

Td_nw wrote:NeilBlanchard for you or anyone else...

What are you going to use to makes this stick to the case?

Any plans on doing anything to the outside for the fiberglass dust?

I recall Mr. Smartepants using a spray glue/adhesive to attach the melamine to his case. I'm wondering about the theory of giving the other side of the foam (the side away from the case wall) with a coat of spray adhesive, too, and letting it dry before spraying the case side and sticking it in. Why? Would a dried coat of spray adhesive provide a "barrier" (of sorts) to the fiberglass flaking off into the case? I can't imagine the extra layer of glue diminishing the sound properties of the melamine, since it is the middle foam layer of these sheets that is absorbing/blocking sound anyway?

What do you think of this?

aphonos · Post by **aphonos** » Mon May 12, 2003 8:01 pm

BUMP

aphonos wrote:
Td_nw wrote:NeilBlanchard for you or anyone else...

What are you going to use to makes this stick to the case?

Any plans on doing anything to the outside for the fiberglass dust?
I recall Mr. Smartepants using a spray glue/adhesive to attach the melamine to his case. I'm wondering about the theory of giving the other side of the foam (the side away from the case wall) with a coat of spray adhesive, too, and letting it dry before spraying the case side and sticking it in. Why? Would a dried coat of spray adhesive provide a "barrier" (of sorts) to the fiberglass flaking off into the case? I can't imagine the extra layer of glue diminishing the sound properties of the melamine, since it is the middle foam layer of these sheets that is absorbing/blocking sound anyway?

What do you think of this?

Mr_Smartepants · Post by **Mr_Smartepants** » Tue May 13, 2003 2:29 am

aphonos wrote:
Td_nw wrote:NeilBlanchard for you or anyone else...

What are you going to use to makes this stick to the case?

Any plans on doing anything to the outside for the fiberglass dust?
I recall Mr. Smartepants using a spray glue/adhesive to attach the melamine to his case. I'm wondering about the theory of giving the other side of the foam (the side away from the case wall) with a coat of spray adhesive, too, and letting it dry before spraying the case side and sticking it in. Why? Would a dried coat of spray adhesive provide a "barrier" (of sorts) to the fiberglass flaking off into the case? I can't imagine the extra layer of glue diminishing the sound properties of the melamine, since it is the middle foam layer of these sheets that is absorbing/blocking sound anyway?

What do you think of this?

I had posted a reply to this but it got lost somehow. Oh well.
Yeah, that's a good idea. I don't know why I didn't think about it earlier.
Spraying with a light coat of adhesive should bind all the "dust" together so it shouldn't shed. The only drawback that I can see is that the foam would lose some acoustic properties because it would lose it's porosity.

aphonos · Post by **aphonos** » Tue May 13, 2003 7:53 am

Mr_Smartepants wrote:The only drawback that I can see is that the foam would lose some acoustic properties because it would lose it's porosity.

[EDIT: PS. Thanks for your reply. Much appreciated.]

Do you think that would depend on how thick you sprayed on the adhesive? My thinking is that a light layer would still give you some of the peaks and valleys of the fiberglass, hence an uneven (slightly) surface to help diffuse sound.

Td_nw · Post by **Td_nw** » Tue May 13, 2003 7:50 pm

Thanks all for the replies.

Ok - I have been thinking (as my order has still not arrived - but Japan and the mail is like that.

)

What is the purpose of the fiberglass on the outside? How thick is it? Can I just remove a top layer and then not worry about it?

OR maybe add a layer of thin Velora foam on top of the Melamine?

L4177312 · Post by **L4177312** » Tue May 13, 2003 9:25 pm

the fiberglass covering gives the foam an outer shell for support. without it, the thing would be kinda limp. i dont think the fiberglass has any sound absorbing properties, but i could be wrong.

jgmille · Post by **jgmille** » Wed May 14, 2003 7:07 am

Just read all of posts regarding Mr_Smartepants install of Melamine. I ordered 3 sheets of it yesterday through their website (which is hard to navigate). I had also read some posts about people having a hard time getting the foam. I called shortly after placing my online order and talked with Janie Hubbard in Atlanta. She assured me that my order would be shipped same day. I paid for the overnight shipping and the grand total of three sheets was $21. Significantly less than other foam products out there. From what I have read, im sure I will have some leftover. Just wanted to share my good experience with McMaster. Now to see if it really shows up today.

Jason

Td_nw · Post by **Td_nw** » Wed May 14, 2003 3:36 pm

jgmille,

Definitely let us know how long it takes. I am still waiting for mine over here across the ocean, but I am cheap and went with standard delivery.

jgmille · Post by **jgmille** » Thu May 15, 2003 5:48 am

To update everyone. I chose the overnight delivery from McMaster. I received my three sheets of foam yesterday (received them in one day) and already have them installed. Dealing with McMaster was very easy. After talking to the lady on the phone, she e-mailed me a scan of my invoice with all the information. I don't believe they normally deal with smallish orders like these, but everything went we'll. I have the top and sides padded with the foam now and I think I can tell a difference. I am replacing my PSU and rear fan today with the Nexus and a Panaflo. Hopefully this will further decrease noise levels. I really don't have a way to measure, other than just listening. One question I do have for the pros here, is how to quiet a CPU Fan that has a side exhaust vent in the case. As I am making the case quieter all around, this seems to be the loudest. Here are my specs.

P4 2.4
1GB PC2700
80G Maxtor Diamond Max 9 (seems kinda loud, thinking about Seagate)
Apex TU-150 ATX Mid Tower Case (Melamine sides and top)
Nexus 300W PSU
Panaflo 80mm rear exhaust fan
ATI Radeon 9000 128 with small fan (not too loud really)

Mr_Smartepants · Post by **Mr_Smartepants** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 12:51 am

Edited original post with picture links since the hosting site went down.

ryboto · Post by **ryboto** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 11:56 am

I was looking around for melamine, and mcmaster-carr and silentsource looked to have the best priced stuff. I'm just curious though as to how well the stuff from silent source would work. The foam he sells is hushfoam attached to a sound barier....anyone know about it?

Mr_Smartepants · Post by **Mr_Smartepants** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 12:33 pm

I've heard from another thread that the smooth coatings on the convoluted melamine break down after a few years into dust. The melamine is OK but the coating is the problem. I can't remember where I read that but it was reported here somewhere. I think the problem was with the Sonex brand specifically though.

Mr_Smartepants · Post by **Mr_Smartepants** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:34 pm

Updated with more pics.
Hacked up some more sheet metal. Swapped the stock fan in the Fortron PSU with a low-speed variant Yate Loon on elastomer grommets. Also put another Orange Yate Loon (not pictured) on the rear exhaust instead of the Panaflo.
CPU temps are now up by 1-2C due to lower exhaust airspeed but it's still within tolerances.
The main improvement is the cut sheetmetal under the front fan mount on the HDD cage. This opens up a massive restriction to the fan and reduced turbulent noise. I don't have HDDs in those two slots so airflow is not impeded.

Both front and rear fans now run at 1000RPM when not gaming and the PSU fan runs between 1000-1100 RPM.

Overall, a worthwhile mod.

Now my Maxtor 120GB is the noisiest component!

It's picked up a nasty vibration that resonates the whole case. Time to upgrade to that 160GB Spinpoint.

Antec Sonata (foamed) large pictures (updated)

Antec Sonata (foamed) large pictures (updated)

I ordered 5 sheets

I've got three machines...

Melamine Foam from McMaster

Melamine Foam from McMaster