Antec NSK3480 help me find silence

Aloz · Post by **Aloz** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 1:00 pm

Hey guys.

I got a Antec NSK3480, and I need to make the thing pretty quiet.

Hardware:
1. CPU Intel Q6600 / E5200 (Might be moving some hardware around)
2. Onboard grahpics - silent
3. Faulty PSU, lots of coil whine when it is providing low power and the fan is very loud.
4. Case fan, not too bad but up for replacement ideas.
5. Harddrive is getting swapped out for a SSD - silent.

So, I have on my shopping list for PSU a Nexus value 430 - I hear this fits well and is also pretty quiet.

I quite like the idea of having one case fan at the rear and just a big beefy heatsink with perhaps some tunneling for that fan to reach the heatsink, I say this becuase to me, less fans is better but I have not come into contact with any of the current day "silent" fans.

This computer is located in a bedroom, mostly the load is 0, spotify (music) and a remote desktop session is it - the odd time I fire up very old counter strike game.

I know there is alot of posts about this case, but it is hard to pick out the best information from all the posts.

Please, any advice is welcome.

JamieG · Post by **JamieG** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 2:07 pm

My suggestions:

CPU heatsink (essential for a quiet system): Thermalright HR-01+ (if you go with the Q6600, you might want to put an undervolted fan on this heatsink, but you should be alright with no fan for an E5200, given the proximity of the rear fan). For the Q6600 option, you might want to consider the Scythe Mugen 2, which has a pretty good stock fan.

Rear exhaust fan: Nexus Real Silent or Scythe Slipstream 800rpm. Add a Zalman fanmate to undervolt this fan to a quiet level, and use some rubber grommets to mount the fan instead.

CPU fan (if needed): Nexus Real Silent or Scythe S-Flex 1200rpm, plus another Zalman fanmate (or use voltage control on your motherboard's CPU_FAN header), or Scythe Kama PWM maybe.

Otherwise, swap the two side panels on the NSK3480, so the one with the CPU intake vent is on the other side of the case behind the mobo.

Also, cut out all the fan grills to increase airflow (which means you can turn your fans down just a little more).

Other than that, you should be pretty good. If you want to cut out some cable management holes in your case as well, check out the General Gallery section of the forum for some ideas from owners of the same case.

Wayne Redpath · Post by **Wayne Redpath** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 10:36 pm

I use only one fan in the upper chamber of my P180 case. The upper chamber has only a GA-945GCMX-S2 mainboard e/w IGP and E2220 CPU. The Scythe 120mm PWM fan does double duty by both getting the heat away from the CPU and moving room air through the chassis. The fan is mounted on the Scythe Ninja on the side adjacent to the rear chassis fan location and blowing towards the rear of the chassis. I've found that the CPU fan can be quieter with a less annoying noise character with the fan sucking from the heatsink instead of the turbulent air crashing into the heatsink. A 2.5 cm (1 inch) duct made out of a 120mm fan with the guts cut out is mounted on the rear chassis fan location. The CPU fan and the duct align well enough for most of the air to exit the chassis. The distance between the fan and the chassis grill gives the turbulent coming off the fan blades time to moderate before hitting that nasty cheap steel stamping rear grill.

teejay · Post by **teejay** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 11:06 pm

I'm currently building two NSK3480s, both with an E5400 cpu and a Ninja heatsink. I am considering mounting the rear case fan in reverse (i.e., have it blow inwards from the back), thus providing direct cooling to the cpu, and potentially also delivering some airflow to the motherboard. I'm a bit worried about the integrated graphics (G41): neither the rear case fan position nor a fan on the Ninja will result in airflow over the motherboard heatsinks (or the hard drive for that matter). Perhaps I will install an undervolted 92mm fan in the lower front position as a safeguard measure. Is there any way to monitor temperature sensors for the igp?

Btw, I am a bit disappointed about the noiselevel of the stock powersupply: it is by far the loudest component in these machines (one built, one to go), which I did not really expect. My main comparisons are the Enermax modu82+/pro82+ line of power supplies.

Wayne Redpath · Post by **Wayne Redpath** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 7:50 am

teejay:

=> depending on your reverse fan system configuration instead of drawing room temperature air past the vicinity of the mainboard components you could be blasting them with CPU heated air
=> if you don't also reverse the PS fan then some of the intake air will be preheeated by the PS and I suspect you possibly will not have any gain or a negative gain
=> some have added a filter at the exit of the output of the 80mm PS fan to improve the noise character of the exit air but that is still an interference with the UL/CSA/... certified safe design of the PS

Aloz · Post by **Aloz** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 8:15 am

Thank you for all of your input.

I will be buying these parts in the next couple of days

If you guys have any more input, please do share.

Thank you.

victorhortalives · Post by **victorhortalives** » Sat Dec 26, 2009 10:04 am

teejay wrote:I'm currently building two NSK3480s, both with an E5400 cpu and a Ninja heatsink.
Btw, I am a bit disappointed about the noiselevel of the stock powersupply: it is by far the loudest component in these machines (one built, one to go), which I did not really expect. My main comparisons are the Enermax modu82+/pro82+ line of power supplies.

IMO the only good thing about this case is its size and shape. Both the PSU and the fan are poor quality.

I've used it for a number of systems in the past with a Silverstone passive PSU in the top cabinet.
An ideal location for this PSU as it gets some convective cooling without any added noise.

At the moment it has a m-itx mobo/SSD/Pico PSU combo in it with the only moving part being the slow turning 120mm Scythe SFlex fan at the back.

I'm going to keep this case - even if there are better m-itx cases to come.