Choosing right Antec case and 120mm fan(s).

zenith · Post by **zenith** » Wed Jan 26, 2005 8:41 am

I already have these components:

Aopen i855GMem-LFS microatx motherboard
1,8Ghz Pentium-M processor
MSI GeForce 6600gt AGP graphics card (NX6600GT-VTD128)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 160GB S-ATA hd
NEC 3520A DVD-RW

I'm going to buy a:
Antec True 350 Phantom fanless PSU
Sunbeam Rheobus fan-controller

The Pentium-M processor will be passively cooled and I've already made up my mind about the PSU (although it's quite expensive). I don't want a actively cooled PSU because I want simple control of all fans in my system. Need the ability to turn them down while at sleep and an easy way to exchange them, that's why I'll get the rheobus.

Anyway, the most difficult choice is the case. My old system was in a Chieftec Dragon alumina case, and it always has this rattling from the side door. Very irritating. I have narrowed down the choices to Antec SLK2650BQE, Antec Sonata or Antec SLK3700BQE. I've also read a great review of the SLK3000B, but can't find this case in stores where I live (norway)

In this case I'm going to mount either one or two 120mm fans. I've got a choice between Papst 4412F2GLL (18db, 70 m^3) or Papst 4412FGL (26db, 94 m^3)). I think that maybe one 18 or 26db at the back would suffice, but I'm frankly not sure. I might be better off with two 18db fans, one in front and one in the back?

Bear in mind that sooner or later I'll throw out the fan on the MSI graphic card because it right now sounds like an airplane. I'll probably need better airflow by then. Haven't found any good solutions for this card, except the thread which mentioned the Aerocool VM-101. Can't find this cooler at the time being, so I'll look around.

zenith · Post by **zenith** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 7:24 am

I think I'm going to do this really simple. I just found a place where I'll be able to get an Antec 3000B case. It's so much cheaper, so I'll probably go for it. I don't like the vent in the side-door (since I'm not going to use it) but it's a small issue. Also the plastic fan holder in front might pose a problem (I'm going to use rubber grommets), but it shouldn't be difficult to drill four holes.

Also found a supplier of Nexus real silent fans, so if either of the two Pabst fans don't work as expected I'll probly get one or two of these.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 8:13 am

zenith wrote:I don't like the vent in the side-door (since I'm not going to use it)

Seems like the duct might work out nicely if you're planning on passively cooling your CPU. It would give you a direct cool air intake right above your CPU and probably wouldn't let out much, if any, noise due to the lack of a cooling fan on your CPU. I'd experiment with it a bit, you can always chuck it if it doesn't work out.

zenith · Post by **zenith** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 7:12 am

Ralf Hutter wrote:Seems like the duct might work out nicely if you're planning on passively cooling your CPU. It would give you a direct cool air intake right above your CPU and probably wouldn't let out much, if any, noise due to the lack of a cooling fan on your CPU. I'd experiment with it a bit, you can always chuck it if it doesn't work out.

Thanks for great advice, didn't consider the duct might actually do something good in my setup. Just ordered a SLK3000B and an Antec Phantom 350 PSU. Really looking forward to test the system.

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 7:27 am

zenith,

since you'll be cooling both your CPU AND your PSU passively, I'd suggest a positive pressure setup so as to make sure SOME airflow goes to the PSU. Especially if you duct the CPU.

zenith · Post by **zenith** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 7:35 pm

burcakb wrote:zenith,

since you'll be cooling both your CPU AND your PSU passively, I'd suggest a positive pressure setup so as to make sure SOME airflow goes to the PSU. Especially if you duct the CPU.

After you mentioned this I've spent some time reading about positive pressure. I'm not afraid to experiment so I might give this a try. I'm going to order a couple nexus fans and one papst. Putting a higher rpm papst in front, and a nexus in the back might work. Got to try it both ways though, from my experience a fan in front can be quite audible.

City4United1 · Post by **City4United1** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 12:13 pm

My plans have been on hold since before christmas. The old plan was to do something with a mobile barton. I'm now looking at the i855GMem and thinking that it may be worth the premium for the low power.

I read somewhere that the supplied HSF was very quiet. Did you try this? Was it too noisy?

I will be following your progress (assuming that you keep posting!) with interest, as I may be going down this route myself.

Sizzle · Post by **Sizzle** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 1:05 pm

I am simuliar to you, here is what I am doing.

Antec 3000B
Phantom PSU
P4 2.8 Northgood (wood)
Intel 875PBZ mobo

2x Papst 4412's the 26dba 55cfm model, running at 7v for intake and exhaust.

1 Papst 4412 18dba model from PC Silent, running at 7v on my Thermalright XP-120.

I will let you know how this runs. I am waiting for a few more parts. I have Acoustipak in there covering the side holes, but I may cut them out just to see how the performance is.

zenith · Post by **zenith** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 6:24 pm

City4United1 wrote:My plans have been on hold since before christmas. The old plan was to do something with a mobile barton. I'm now looking at the i855GMem and thinking that it may be worth the premium for the low power.

I read somewhere that the supplied HSF was very quiet. Did you try this? Was it too noisy?

I will be following your progress (assuming that you keep posting!) with interest, as I may be going down this route myself.

I never tried the supplied HSF, but I won't mind giving it a go once I have a replacement i855GMem since the first one failed: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=18365 Anyway, my plan to use a micro-atx case wasn't very good (more or less a disaster).

Right now my greatest concern is if my Phantom PSU will be reliable :/ After reading several threads about it failing and random reboots...hmm.

I should have most of my parts during this week (or maybe next), and I surely leave some feedback here once all of it is assembled. That's the least I can do

zenith · Post by **zenith** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 6:33 pm

Sizzle wrote:I am simuliar to you, here is what I am doing.

Antec 3000B
Phantom PSU
P4 2.8 Northgood (wood)
Intel 875PBZ mobo

2x Papst 4412's the 26dba 55cfm model, running at 7v for intake and exhaust.

1 Papst 4412 18dba model from PC Silent, running at 7v on my Thermalright XP-120.

I will let you know how this runs. I am waiting for a few more parts. I have Acoustipak in there covering the side holes, but I may cut them out just to see how the performance is.

Great

I have ordered a couple nexus real silent 120mm fans though, but I'm pretty sure I end up with at least one Papst 26dba fan.

zenith · Post by **zenith** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 4:49 pm

Oki, at least I have an assembled and working system. I've had a problem mounting a Zalman 6500 heatsink on the motherboard, and had to send the motherboard back to the webshop for testing (I thought at first the MB was broken). Anyway, they tested it and it worked fine with the stock cooler. Still, I was unsure if all components did go well along so I agreed to send both my 6500 heatsink, P-M 1.8Ghz and 2x Corsair modules for further testing.

Sigh, time passed the webshop took it's time and they told me the 6500 heatsink didn't make proper contact. They charged me for all their trouble and shipped back all the components last week. Over a month ago since their first shipmnet.. Well, lesson learned, my fault

---

Anyway, right now I'm not running the CPU passively. I've been testing my setup with the stock cooler and I have to say, the system runs darn quiet

Currently I have the components as listed above, but I've made some small changes:

- VF700 Zalman cooler on the MSI 6600GT AGP graphics card. It runs at 5V and seems to be stable and indeed very quiet. I was qoing to buy a Sunbeam, but after I read that the Zalman supplies 5V at minimum it turned out to be a safer choice. The LEDs are less bright too.

- Zalman ZM-MFC1 fan controller. It's very nice, but make the door bulge a little out when closed, cay 2 -3 mm. Not a big issue anyway.

- Only one exhaust fan on rubber mounts, Papst 4412FGL connected to the fan controller. It's very quiet at 5V. The damn fan doesn't report rpm speed. I think you need a 4412F2GL for that. Another lesson learned.

Just in case I have a couple Nexus 12cm fans laying around. I tested one of them as the exhaust fan. At 12V I can subjectively say it moves more air more quietly than the Papst at 5V.

Back to the stock cooler. It's quite interesting. At full speed the 7cm fan runs at about 2000rpm and is the most noisy component in my system. But, the BIOS has some nice features for fan control. You can actually either set down the fan speed in % of full speed or even activate a setting that it only turns itself on after the CPU reaches a certain temperature and then runs at _full_ speed.

AOpen also supplies a software tool for fan control and overclocking. This piece of software is IMHO quite crappy at the moment. One difference from the BIOS settings is that you actually can set the fan to not run at full speed when it reaches a set temperature. I'm quite confused why the fan settings differ, oh well. And one "small" bug, once you exit this tool the damn fan ramps up to full speed no matter _what_ you set it to in the BIOS.

Anyway, I've settled down for 1000 - 1300 rpm for the CPU. Without load the system temperature is 35C and cpu stays at 31 - 32C. I ran cpu burn-in for 12 hours and max temperature for the cpu was about 45C and system 37C. I have to note that the stock cooler was shipped from my webshop already attached. I have no idea what kind of thermal compound they used.

I haven't done any testing with passive cooling yet, but I have bought a Zalman CNS7000B-AlCu. I'm still waiting for Arctic Silver Ceramique thermal compound which will probably arrive in about two weeks :/ I have to say, as of now I'll probably end up with the stock cooler anyway. One catch is that the fan is 7cm, not a very common size if I would need to replace it.