Sonata mods

Syphon869 · Post by **Syphon869** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 12:12 am

cmcquistion wrote:I have some case mods for the Compucase LX-6A19, which is almost identical to the Sonata.

You can find them here.

Another SLK3700 clone...?

cmcquistion · Post by **cmcquistion** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 6:40 am

Syphon869 wrote:
cmcquistion wrote:I have some case mods for the Compucase LX-6A19, which is almost identical to the Sonata.

You can find them here.
Another SLK3700 clone...?

Yes, it is also sold under the name "D8000"

xilles · Post by **xilles** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 8:07 am

theres a rubber grommet from the drive cage that was there , i cut the grommet in half and used a regular screw to hold it.. and there is about 1/2inch between the drive and the side of the case

polaris · Post by **polaris** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 3:40 am

Hey, first time poster, long-time listener

I've been building machines for years now, but never have I had such an amazingly quiet box as the Sonata. I know there's probably more ways to quiet it down, but even as it is, I am very impressed.

My next opponent in the CPU fan, which I plan to go the Zalman route, most likely.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 6:09 am

polaris wrote:Hey, first time poster, long-time listener

I've been building machines for years now, but never have I had such an amazingly quiet box as the Sonata. I know there's probably more ways to quiet it down, but even as it is, I am very impressed.

My next opponent in the CPU fan, which I plan to go the Zalman route, most likely.

polaris - WELCOME TO SPCR!!!

Glad you're enjoying your system, hope we can help make it even quieter.

Seal · Post by **Seal** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 9:30 am

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS POLARIS!!!!

i dont know what it is but lots of people that join these forums have always been longtime lurkers.... me included hehe

polaris · Post by **polaris** » Thu Mar 04, 2004 12:16 pm

Thanks everyone. I know it was a couple weeks ago that I first posted, but I've been busy!! The system's been great, but I think I will be looking into that cpu fan soon. The only concern now is clearance, seeing as how the Zalman combos look pretty big.

bomba · Post by **bomba** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 8:17 am

You've likely already figured it out from your SPCR browsing but I can confirm that the Zalman 7000 fits fine in my Sonata, atop a ASUS P4P800dlx mobo

polaris · Post by **polaris** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 4:33 am

bomba wrote:You've likely already figured it out from your SPCR browsing but I can confirm that the Zalman 7000 fits fine in my Sonata, atop a ASUS P4P800dlx mobo

That's good. I'll have to pick between that and the Nexus then. They both look promising, and both have to be better than the stock leaf blower.

Tawcan · Post by **Tawcan** » Sat Apr 03, 2004 2:50 pm

Questions for Tom Brown

1.) How much temp increase did you notice with the sound damping material installed?

2.) I noticed that you didn't cut the stamped fan grill at the back. Any particular reason?

sorenbro · Post by **sorenbro** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 6:23 am

I don't know if you have tried removing the case side, but in my Sonata it reduces the CPU temp by 5 degrees.
SilenX 350W PSU
GF4 ti4400 with Zalman HP80A
2.4Ghz P4 with Zalman CNPS7000cu @ 1200rpm
Papst 120mm fan @ 675rpm

WoberT · Post by **WoberT** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 2:50 am

I just called my local computer store and ordered a Sonata case =D has been searching for a case for some time now and decided on a Sonata after reading the forums.. the only problem I have now is what heatsink I should choose for my XP2400+ .. either a Zalman ALCU 7000 or Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2 which can be run at 13, 18 or 24dB.

Tom Brown · Post by **Tom Brown** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 9:09 am

Tawcan wrote:Questions for Tom Brown

1.) How much temp increase did you notice with the sound damping material installed?

0 C

Tawcan wrote:2.) I noticed that you didn't cut the stamped fan grill at the back. Any particular reason?

I hadn't thought of removing the grill because it doesn't look restrictive. It probably adds turbulence at higher fan speeds, though. Does anyone have experience with removing the grill? Gains?

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 5:49 pm

Tom Brown wrote:
Tawcan wrote:2.) I noticed that you didn't cut the stamped fan grill at the back. Any particular reason?
I hadn't thought of removing the grill because it doesn't look restrictive. It probably adds turbulence at higher fan speeds, though. Does anyone have experience with removing the grill? Gains?

I kept the grills on my BQE for the same reason. It doesn't seem that they'd be detrimental at the slow speeds I run my fans at.

-HOWEVER-

On of the Aussies with a BQE cut out his vents ans said he got either lower temps, or less noise, or maybe both, I just don't remember.

akaidiot · Post by **akaidiot** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 2:23 pm

chylld wrote:hehehe i wrote up a diy report on all the mods i've done to the bqe, mikec is in the process of preparing it for publishing on spcr. but i think it'd be good if we could get a collection of mods for a single case and then combine it into a single diy report just for that case..

and btw mikec: can you make this thread sticky / a diy report or something, i keep finding myself referring back here

what happened?

kinda OT: I'm doing the ARM-Stealth-PC-systems-PSU-drill-holes-in-the-top-and-duct-mod, with my BQE and MikeC's first-hand modded SS400A3 PSU, any words on that? tips, links or whatnot..?

Also...... 5-0 against Bulgaria! EC goldmedal next stop! Sweden - the brazil of Europe!

davidstone28 · Post by **davidstone28** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 11:11 am

Not sure if this counts as an 'offical mod' as such, but if you install a 120mm behind the drive cage, and another 120m on the side of the Sonata - about 0.5-1.0 inch from the where the cables plug into the HDDs (so that air is blowing into the drive cage, along the length of the HDDs), you can get a huge temperature drop.

My experiences are that even my the Tom Brown mods to the front bezel, sufficient air still doesn't get into the HDD cage area, simply because the side mounts for the HDD are too restrictive. Basically, airflow into that area is absurdly poor.

I used 2 x Nexus 120mm fans and HDDs temps on my 2 SATA drives dropped from 44/45 degreesC to 31/34 degreeC. 10 degree temperature drop!!! Obviously the downside this is that you can use your side panel (or alternatively, you have to cut blow hole into it).

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Mon Nov 08, 2004 3:26 pm

I've had another Sonata mod idea. For reasons explained at the very end i'll not be using this mod but it might come in handy for someone else.

It's basically a mod to supply fresh air to the PSU without ducting. Requirements are a lot of case cutting and foregoing the use of the exposed 3.5" bays and lower 5.25" bays. But then again, who uses floppy drives anymore?

As you all know making a PSU duct on a Sonata isn't trivial. There's the front door to worry about. You could use the side Antec holes but they let out way too much EMI, draw in unfiltered air and let out noise.

The basic idea is to funnel fresh air from the usual front intake. For that, one must first get rid of the extremely restrictive drive cage, make provisions to actually funnel the air into the PSU area.

Although I did the drive cage removal part, I only took an explanatory pic of the 3.5" drive bay mod.

I will be suspending my drives from a drive bay sled that'll go into the top slot. This setup will naturally block air into the 3.5" bay but someone who rests their hdds at the bottom on sorbothane or uses the lower drive bay for hardmounting could explore this possibility.

Links:

Drive cage brutalism

This ensures that plenty of air can come into the case. The opening is large enough to accomodate a 92mm fan.

and the conduit to funnel air into the upper parts of the case That's a 92mm Panaflo. One could drill holes into the two small raised thingies on that bay to mount the fans and cut open the area in between.

Add to this setup a ducting mod that runs along the support bar into the 5.25" drive bay, tape up the holes on both sides of the 5.25 bay and you have an L-shaped PSU duct.

As I said, I'll be using a cheap & easy suspension so I won't be able to use this mod but who knows? maybe someday I'll dream up a better suspension mod and actually go ahead with this.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 8:24 am

burcakb wrote: I will be suspending my drives from a drive bay sled that'll go into the top slot.

That's what I did on my BQE. It makes it real easy to setup/install/remove the suspended HDD.

Brain · Post by **Brain** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 9:52 am

Thanks for the picture Ralf, I think that's the way I'm going to go, too. I was thinking of removing the whole cage, but just cutting it up seems to be a better option.

BTW, what's that stuff you've used to cover those sharp cutting edges of the cage? Is it just the plastic covering from a wire or something more special?

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 12:59 pm

Brain wrote:BTW, what's that stuff you've used to cover those sharp cutting edges of the cage? Is it just the plastic covering from a wire or something more special?

It's the same rubber "U" channel that I use to dress the cut-out fan grills with. It's really cheap and I get it from Bestbyte.com. You can also get it from McMaster.com, it's PN 8510K11. Bill at MNPCtech.com may also sell it.

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 2:45 pm

Great metalwork Ralf.

The reason I didn't do away with the whole drive cage is that I might want to use the rail locking holes at the sides for future suspension projects. And I do intend to suspend my hdds sideways. My current cutup leaves me one rail at the top like yours, another one at the bottom (for a raised & hardmounted setup if I like it, and a whole set of holes in between to thread bungee cord.

While my metalwork is nowhere near as neat as Ralfs, all edges are smoothed out; I probably won't shed any blood there

x1m · Post by **x1m** » Fri Nov 26, 2004 3:39 pm

V.nice thread. Made me want to attack my sonata right now

akelsall · Post by **akelsall** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 4:35 pm

This is s stupid question, but how do you install the front intake fan on the sonata? I tried to work it out, but there are no screw holes (infront of or behind the air filter) and no signs of clips or retention or anything. What's more, I can't see how there is even room for a 25mm fan in the front.
Am I missing something or is there an australian version of the case with no front fan mounting?

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 6:08 pm

akelsall wrote:This is s stupid question, but how do you install the front intake fan on the sonata? I tried to work it out, but there are no screw holes (infront of or behind the air filter) and no signs of clips or retention or anything. What's more, I can't see how there is even room for a 25mm fan in the front.
Am I missing something or is there an australian version of the case with no front fan mounting?

The front "intake" fan actually mounts on the innermost side of the HDD cage. It's not so much an intake fan as it is a "recycle the hot case air" fan.

Jordan · Post by **Jordan** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 6:32 am

akelsall wrote:This is s stupid question, but how do you install the front intake fan on the sonata? I tried to work it out, but there are no screw holes (infront of or behind the air filter) and no signs of clips or retention or anything. What's more, I can't see how there is even room for a 25mm fan in the front.
Am I missing something or is there an australian version of the case with no front fan mounting?

Like Ralf said it mounts behind the HD enclosure. In the screw set bag you received with your Sonata there are 4 more clear fan plugs that go through the HD enclosure and through the fan holding it in place and helping to absorb vibrations. This only works with certain fans though and didn't with my Nexus RS's so I just used blutak to act as a spacer and used cable ties to hold the fan in place.

It's not so much an intake fan as it is a "recycle the hot case air" fan.

I think the only reason for adding the 120mm fan is if you're worried about HD temps. I have 2 Samsung P80s in that are so I feel more comfortable even with the tiny ammount of airflow the Nexus @ 650RPM gives. It really makes a difference to HD temps.

stighenning · Post by **stighenning** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 8:41 am

Tom Brown;
I must say - thank you for posting pics!
The greatest way to see/understand how it looks.. and also by you describing how it worked/did not work is great!

Thumbs up for u!

Mr_Smartepants · Post by **Mr_Smartepants** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:40 pm

Here's another mod I don't think I saw listed here. Cut the sheetmetal between the HDD sleds to free up airflow through the front fan mount.
Also if you use a 120mm fanned PSU (like I do), you could cut the rear PSU support ledge so that it doesn't impede airflow to the PSU fan.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 10:51 pm

Mr_Smartepants wrote:Here's another mod I don't think I saw listed here. Cut the sheetmetal between the HDD sleds to free up airflow through the front fan mount.

I think I saw it at another site that was linked from one of the posts here. The author of that post also went through much effort to seal it in such a way that air can only come in the front, then through the HDD bay and front fan, and then to the rest of the case, and don't get recirculated internally.

By the way, what happened to all the melamine foam in your case?

Mr_Smartepants · Post by **Mr_Smartepants** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 12:01 pm

I had to take it out to get some room for my dremel tool. It's back in there now.

I've also fitted some eggcrate foam in the top 5 1/4 bay and to the inside of the side door. Also fitted to the wall behind my computer desk. Nice improvement. Does nothing for the HDD vibration though, it vibrates the whole desk now and resonates all the way up the stairs.

I'll try putting some foam under the case feet to absorb some of the vibrations.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 11:07 pm

Mr_Smartepants wrote:I'll try putting some foam under the case feet to absorb some of the vibrations.

Maybe some Sorbothane will work better if your computer is on a hard surface and not carpet? And while you're at it you can try HDD on Sorbothane in sled.

I bought 4 sheets of foamed melamine after reading your original post on the subject. Still haven't gotten around to using it *sigh* I did line practically all the accessible surfaces (and some not so accessible) with polymeric mastic, but they don't seem to be doing much for sound reduction.