New Silent Build - Solo - E8400 C2D - Passive Video, etc.

gabeyd · Post by **gabeyd** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:48 pm

Specs:

Antec Solo case
Corsair VX450 power
Gigabyte EP45-UD3R motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.6GHz stock voltage
Xigmatek S1283 w/ stock fan Bios speed controlled
8G G.Skill DDR2 PC6400 4-4-4-12 @ 1.9V
Gigabyte GV-R485MC-1GH ATI 4850 Passive Video
2x Western Digital WD6400AAKS 640G
Nexus 120mm Rear Exhaust Bios speed controlled
Nexus 92mm intake x2 at 5V
LiteOn iHAS120 DVD+-RW
Generic internal card reader

I built a duct to cool the video card, since it's design sort of expects a side case air input, and the Solo has none. Instead, I'm ducting the air from the back of the case to the side of the video card. It's built out of some packaging cut to fit. This works great!

angelkiller · Post by **angelkiller** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 9:05 pm

Wow, that's a nice build!

Excellent component selection. What kind of temps are you getting? (especially on the 4850)

gabeyd · Post by **gabeyd** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:03 pm

angelkiller wrote:Wow, that's a nice build! Excellent component selection. What kind of temps are you getting? (especially on the 4850)

Idle:
CPU Cores 37/37 C @ 2.4GHz 1.1V
4850 GPU 46 C @ 500/960

FurMark + Orthos at the same time (for 20 min):
CPU Cores 54/54 C @ 3.6GHz 1.25V
4850 GPU 76 C @ 640/960

Temps read with ATI CCC and Core Temp 0.99.3.

The Nexus 120 Exhaust fan runs at ~800RPM the whole time (this most affects the GPU temp), and the CPU fan runs at ~1000 at idle, but the BIOS turns it up to 1250RPM at 100% load (or some CPU temp?). I thought the BIOS was controlling the Nexus too, but it doesn't seem to do anything other than 800RPM - though that is about 9V, so it is lowering it from 12V defalut. Don't know what it takes for the BIOS to raise the case fan speed...

The Xigmatek fan is NOT silent at 1250 RPM (or even 1100), but it is nearly silent at 1000RPM. The Nexus is, of course, nearly silent at 800RPM.

So, maybe my first upgrade to my brand new system will be a new CPU fan to replace the stock Xigmatek...

What is a safe Core temp (read with Core Temp) for a E0 stepping E8400. Core Temp says Tj.Max is 100C, but that can't be right...

I assume with a Orthos Max of 54C, it would be safe to put a bit slower fan on the CPU.

sNNooPY · Post by **sNNooPY** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 11:46 pm

Whow, this is really a beautiful build.
I especially like the passive 4850.

roilev · Post by **roilev** » Tue Dec 02, 2008 1:45 am

Hey gabeyd, your system pretty much matches mine. Case setup is similar too.

The default Xigmatek fan is loud at full speed (1500 rpm), but at below 1000 is very quiet, below 700 rpm I can't hear it at all.
Keep in mind, that this fan is made for static air pressure, so you can't replace it with fan with less pressure (as most of the silent fans are).
I tried with Scythe Ultra Kaze 1000rpm and Noiseblocker BlackSilentFan XL-1 instead, but they have to spin faster to match the original fan airflow, and even if they are quieter than the Xigmatek, running them faster against the air barrier of the sink fins, makes them louder than the original fan.

I doubt you will do any harm to your CPU if you run it at 80 oC, and with this great sink, you will hardly reach these temps even running fanless - the exhaust and PSU fan will create enough airflow. Mine (overclocked to 3600 too) hardly reaches 75 oC fanless, under CPUBurn.

If your motherboard supports it, you can keep the Xigmatek cooler off on idle, and slowly turn it on when the CPU get hot. Unfortunately my motherboard doesn't want to slow the CPU fan under 1000 rpm under any circumstances. Probably a kind of foolproof protection, I suppose.

HammerSandwich · Post by **HammerSandwich** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 4:22 pm

I'm sure you can slow your fans. Don't worry about absolute temperatures; they're a red herring. Use CoreTemp in delta mode to find the temp limit when the system starts generating Prime95 (or similar) errors. Then add enough fan to stay 5-10C below the critical limit, and you'll be good to go.

Wibla · Post by **Wibla** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 6:43 pm

I thought I read in the SPCR test of the Xigmatek that the Nexus @ 1000rpm was more effective than the Xigmatek fan @ full speed? was I mistaken? hm...

AgustF · Post by **AgustF** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 8:26 am

Nice build and a good graphic card you have.

8GB of Ram , just curious why? Are you using CAD applications or heavy 3D animation work?

Else cheers ..

gabeyd · Post by **gabeyd** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 7:09 pm

8G because why not? It's only $50 to go from 4G to 8G, and then I never (well, never say never) have to worry about running low on memory.

I don't do any major graphics stuff, but I will have Firefox, Thunderbird, Photoshop Elements, Outlook, AcdSee, and various other things all running at the same time....

whisper · Post by **whisper** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 8:35 pm

I wonder, would your ducting be more effective if you disabled the front case fans?

Nice build!

gabeyd · Post by **gabeyd** » Wed Jan 28, 2009 9:25 pm

whisper wrote:I wonder, would your ducting be more effective if you disabled the front case fans?

Probably, but it seems to be more than effective enough, and I want some air moving across the two hard drives too...