Antec Aria & Zalman 7000Cu

[ronjohn]

Anyone know if the 7K will fit in the Aria?

From http://www.silentpcreview.com/article146-page4.html and http://www.zalmanusa.com/usa/product/vi ... 3&code=005,
it looks like the 7000 has vertical clearance, but I'm wondering if it has the horizontal clearance.

Also, is the Aria still considered a good quet case? The Sempron 754 draws more watts, it seems, than the P4-2.8 in the SPCR review. Also, even "older" video cards seem to be pretty hot, so I wonder if that affects the noise.

Thanks,
Ron

[bishop]

I am pretty sure we tried that with an MSI 754 motherboard and it wont clear the power supply. the motherboard you use might make a difference, though.....

[ronjohn]

I am pretty sure we tried that with an MSI 754 motherboard and it wont clear the power supply. the motherboard you use might make a difference, though.....

Bah, I hate bad news.

[merlin]

I'd say even if it does fit, it'll be an extremely tight fit...I had a hell of a time getting a slightly smaller oem heatsink to fit inside the case...course now everything works great. I'm using a Socket A Sempron o/ced to 2ghz in my Aria and it seems to work extremely well. Noise levels are nowhere near silent though, I'd say it's a moderate noise level without any modifications. I hope they make an Aria 2 at some point with some better cooling features and quieter fans, but the current Aria is a perfectly good matx cube for a low-moderate power system imho.

[ronjohn]

Noise levels are nowhere near silent though, I'd say it's a moderate noise level without any modifications.

Can you be a little more specific there?

[jjm052]

I used to have an aria with the stock components listed in my sig (hot admittedly) and it was one of the loudest pc's I've heard.
Unless your using a low power machine with on board or very basic graphics you need a full size case with proper heatsinks, 120mm fans, aftermarket VGA cooler, suspended HDD etc in order to get the noise down to an acceptable level.
But I don't know what your planning to put in it and how quiet you want it to be.

[ronjohn]

I used to have an aria with the stock components listed in my sig (hot admittedly) and it was one of the loudest pc's I've heard.

Hmmm. My old Athlon-C system was pretty loud. I get your point, though.

Unless your using a low power machine with on board or very basic graphics you need a full size case with proper heatsinks, 120mm fans, aftermarket VGA cooler, suspended HDD etc in order to get the noise down to an acceptable level.
But I don't know what your planning to put in it and how quiet you want it to be.

General-purpose computing.

I've got a Shuttle SK41G now, and I really like the form-factor. When we bugged out for Katrina, it was trivial to disconnect the cables, "throw" it in a corner of minivan, and not have it take up any space. Now that we're in Dallas, the reverse was just as easy.

It's kinda noisy, though, and since the (only) hard disk is getting old and I'm starting to see the occasional error, I figure why not get a new system.

Silent would be really nice, but I'd settle for low noise.

[oldgeek]

Am presently running an AMD Sempron 754 3.1+mhz on an Abit KV-80 motherboard with a Zalman 7000.
Just clears the Aria power supply by about 1/4inch vertically,height is ok,but advise harddrive in left side location.
Very nice results for sound and temps.range 35-45c.
Would not advise for heavy gaming. OK for net surfing and as a music player.

[ronjohn]

Am presently running an AMD Sempron 754 3.1+mhz on an Abit KV-80 motherboard with a Zalman 7000.
Just clears the Aria power supply by about 1/4inch vertically,height is ok,but advise harddrive in left side location.
Very nice results for sound and temps.range 35-45c.
Would not advise for heavy gaming. OK for net surfing and as a music player.

Thanks. That's the mobo I had my eye on, too.

Using the on-board video?

[oldgeek]

ronjon
Have used onboard video,pretty good,very fast,lacks dimension in Links Golf.
Tried old GeForce 420,64meg, I had kicking around,gives 4x graphics and releases system memory.Much better in Golf.
This is second Aria & KV-80 put together. 1st was for a friend,Sempron 2.8mhz and stock cooling.Also pretty quiet.
Tried stock cooling in present Aria,wasn't satisfactory,fan too noisy,probably because of demand of Sempron 3.1mhz.,or just a noisy fan.Had Zalman with broken fan kicking around.Replaced fan with a modified Panaflo.
This Aria will probably go away when some friend or relative sees it.

My main box is an Antec P-180,e/w Asus K8NE-Deluxe mb,AMD A64 3000+,Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 heatsink,ATI Radeon 9800 e/w Artic Cooling video cooler,very,very quiet.

Good luck with your Aria and KV-80, if you go that way.

[Lo2]

Anyone know if the 7K will fit in the Aria?

Yes it does. Take the -Cu version if you can.
Here my HTPC.
If you put your hardisk under the 5'1/4 drive, it will be perfect for temperature: 44-45C in charge during my London summer.

[ronjohn]

Anyone know if the 7K will fit in the Aria?

Yes it does. Take the -Cu version if you can.
Here my HTPC.
If you put your hardisk under the 5'1/4 drive, it will be perfect for temperature: 44-45C in charge during my London summer.

Thanks. That convinced me to get:

• Antec Aria
  Abit KV-80 (has IEEE 1394)
  Sempron 754 2800+ 256KB cache
  Zalman 7000-Cu
  1GB RAM
  Maxtor Max III 300GB SATA drive