A quiet hackintosh build

Seawane · Post by **Seawane** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 11:24 am

Hello everybody

first, these are my specs:

Cooler Master 631S Mystique
Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3
AMD Phenom 9500
A-data 4Gb kit DDR2 800Mhz
Sapphire HD2600XT DDR4
Xigmatek S1283 Red Scorpion
AC Accelero S1 Rev. 2
1 x Nexus D12SL-12 120mm fan
1 x Nexus DF1209SL-3 92mm fan
1 x Noiseblocker XL1 rev.3 BlackSilent 120mm fan
1 x Cooler Master 120mm blue LEDs fan
Evercool fan controller
Akasa Paxmate
320GB Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD322HJ (Leopard)
320GB WD (Windows 7)
Enermax Modu82+ 425W

Running Mac OS X 10.5.4 retail, updated to 10.5.6

I've been reading here for almost a year, and the site has been really helpful for me. It wasn't that easy to make my computer quiet, cause I started wrong. When I decided to build a desktop, I didn't thought about noise at all, cause for long years I've been using only laptops. I didn't know what case to buy, and I should've done more research. I chose this one strictly on looks. But with the stock coolers and crappy PSU the system was loud! I needed to do something, cause I could here it even with my headphones on.

Then I started upgrading slowly and I finally have a really quiet/almost silent system. When I changed the stock coolers of the CPU and GPU, the PC was quiet. For a minute I thought it was silent. But then I got used to it and it was again irritating. Then I changed the fans and soft mounted them. There was an improvement, but I wasn't happy. The next things were the hard drives. I managed to mount them on their places with some elastic and that also did a huge impact on the noise, especially when seeking. I got myself a dremel tool and cut the mobo tray so I can route the cables behind it. I put some Akasa Paxmate, mostly to cover the holes and make it look cleaner. It doesn't make any difference in the noise.

At that point, the noisiest part was the PSU(some FSP cheap model). I changed it's fan but I wasn't satisfied, and decided to buy the Modu82+. And this was my biggest problem. Because of the way AM2 clips work, you can only place the S1283 heatsink in such an orientation, that it's fan is blowing up right into the PSU. And with the Modu it was a problem. The heat from the CPU was going right into it, making it speed up it's fan. With 20C ambient, in the winter, it was going 800-1000rpm. Which is not that quiet. I wanted it to stay at around 500rpm. Probably it's best suited to be mounted in the bottom of the case, where it gets fresh air. I was really unhappy with that, and I was sorry I didn't get a P182 for example. But the thing is, that I really like my case, the design. It's one of the prettiest cases and it really fits well in my home. And then I decided to get the dremel and cut a hole for the PSU on the top. And the result is ~530rpm, even with load.

This was all good, except the temperatures of the CPU. Without the PSU sucking it's heat, the whole case was getting warmer and the exhaust fan couldn't keep up. The thing is, that the intake fan sits in front of the HDD cage, which blocks most of the air. And what gets past through it, goes to the video card, which heats it and then it goes to the CPU's heatsink. As a result the CPU was idling at 40C+. So I got a 92mm fan, put it in the 3.5" bay, sealed around it and the problem is gone. Now the CPU idles at 33-34C and goes to around 40C under load. The video card i really cool and it's like 25C cooler than with the stock fan and it's passive.

The last thing I did was cutting the grills in front the intake/exhaust fans, which lowered the woosh sound and improved the airflow, which resulted in lowering speed of the fans more.

At last I am satisfied with the result, the system is silent during the day and slightly noticeable at night. I need a SSD or at least a 2.5" HDD, to make it quieter, but it's still great, especially compared to when I started. The only thing I might do is get rid of that stupid HDD cage.

Here are some pictures

Rebellious · Post by **Rebellious** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 12:14 pm

You can run Mac OS on AMD Phenom?!

PS: That cooler points the wrong way on AMD mobos, Sunbeam CR-CCTF Core-Contact Freezer, wuld be bettah

Seawane · Post by **Seawane** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 12:52 pm

yes you can

and thanks for the advice, but I can't find this cooler here in Bulgaria, I'll have to search for it in online stores.

viscaria · Post by **viscaria** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:15 pm

The side of your case looks just like a MacBook Pro lid, nice! How did you do the Apple logo? It looks to clean to just be a sticker.

BTW, I am working on a hackintosh build right now. Are there any OS X tools you can recommend for monitoring / controlling fan speeds and temperature monitoring?

Seawane · Post by **Seawane** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 1:41 am

it's a sticker. But it really looks good.

As for the temp monitoring, I don't know of a working solution, at least on AMD. The only temp I could get is for the HDDs. An external controller with temp readings will be best, I think.

Zenphic · Post by **Zenphic** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 6:19 pm

The Mystique 631 looks much better than I remember. Good job!

Seawane · Post by **Seawane** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 10:59 am

Thanks

Meanwhile I did a small update with HUGE impact. The fan is spinning really slow, and it's totally silent, temps are down also. Great cooler!

Zenphic · Post by **Zenphic** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:16 pm

Is that a Mugen 2? How better/worse are your temps versus the Xigmatek S1283?

Seawane · Post by **Seawane** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 2:48 pm

yes, it's a Mugen 2. Temps are like 3-4C lower at idle and 7-8C lower at load. And the impressive thing is that the fan is starting at 200rpm and goes to like 500rpm at load

budong4585 · Post by **budong4585** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 6:41 am

wow, this is this the power of athlon or AMD....or just a super computer..

very cool

Zenphic · Post by **Zenphic** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 12:05 pm

Seawane wrote:yes, it's a Mugen 2. Temps are like 3-4C lower at idle and 7-8C lower at load. And the impressive thing is that the fan is starting at 200rpm and goes to like 500rpm at load

Awesome. I think I'll get getting a Mugen 2 instead of the Xiggy then. It packs some good value since it comes with a good fan and decent mounting hardware.