Quieting a Silverstone TJ-06 system

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ldan86
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Joined: Wed May 31, 2006 6:23 am
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Quieting a Silverstone TJ-06 system

Post by ldan86 » Wed May 31, 2006 7:17 am

A few months ago I build a system with the following components:
Athlon 64 X2 3800+ with a Zalman CNPS 7000B
Asus A8N-SLI
Gainward ULTRA/1980PCX TV-DVI (a 6600GT@500Mhz) with a Zalman VF700-Cu @ 5V
Seasonic S12 380W
Maxtor 6V250F0 + Samsung SP1614N
everything in a Silverstone TJ-06 case with the 80mm and the wind tunnel removed, 120mm fans @ 7V. All cables routed through the free space on the other side of the case.

The fun began when I replaced the whiny litte chipset cooler on the mainboard with a Zalman ZM-NBF47 (http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/vie ... 0&code=014). Now, as soon as I start any 3D application the GPU temperature quickly goes up to about 115°C and rising, when the GPU is idle it's about 65° warm (compared to <40°C idle and ~60°C at load without the passive northbridge cooler). Although the card doesn't produce any visible errors and doesn't crash the system, I think 115° is way too high... The CPU always stays below 40°C thanks to the two 120mm fans. Of course I could simply increase the voltages to the fans but in my opinion the computer's already loud enough as it is.

Does anyone here have any idea how I could solve this problem without further increasing the noise from the computer? Do you think the problem could come from the fact, that the GPU cooler airflow points inwards and does not push the hot air from the chipset and the GPU out of the case? At this point I'm even considering changing the case or go for water cooling. Could any of those result in an decrease in both noise and temperature? Do you have any other ideas how I could quieten the system further without roasting the components?

I hope I don't ask for the impossible :? Thank you for your answers!

fastturtle
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Location: Shi-Khan: Vulcan or MosEisley Tattonnie

Post by fastturtle » Sat Jun 03, 2006 12:21 pm

Definately need to check the new HS on the northbridge and ensure it's seated correctly with enough thermal compound. Very important and sounds like a good part of the problem.

You also state that it seems to run cooler w/o the new zalman so I'd suggest test it w/o any cooler. If temps stay reasonable, either forget the damn thing or at least install the stock HS for safety reasons but w/o the fan.

Next I'd see about flipping the GPU fan so it pulls instead of pushes air. You should get better cooling results as it's going to move the same amount of air but w/o fighting direction of heat flow.

Final thing would be pull the HSF from the GPU and recoat with fresh thermal compound and reseat with flipped fan and see if that makes big difference.

ldan86
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Joined: Wed May 31, 2006 6:23 am
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Post by ldan86 » Mon Jun 05, 2006 2:41 am

Thank you for your answer, fastturtle!
Definately need to check the new HS on the northbridge and ensure it's seated correctly with enough thermal compound. Very important and sounds like a good part of the problem.

You also state that it seems to run cooler w/o the new zalman so I'd suggest test it w/o any cooler. If temps stay reasonable, either forget the damn thing or at least install the stock HS for safety reasons but w/o the fan.
When I installed the sink I thought I'd already had used way to much thermal compound than neccessary. The northbridge sink also gets very hot, so I think the connection between the chip and the sink is not the problem. Completely removing the heatsink and not cooling the chipset is not a good idea. As far as I know, the nforce4 can get extremely hot. I usually get network and drive controller failures within 5 minutes of not using any heatsink, if Windows even starts up. Using the stock HS without a fan won't work either. The one preinstalled on the A8N-SLI is basically just an 40mm fan on some sort of holder.
Next I'd see about flipping the GPU fan so it pulls instead of pushes air. You should get better cooling results as it's going to move the same amount of air but w/o fighting direction of heat flow.

Final thing would be pull the HSF from the GPU and recoat with fresh thermal compound and reseat with flipped fan and see if that makes big difference.
Flipping the fan sounds like a nice idea to me but I've absolutely no idea how this could be done with the VF700. I've searched the forum but I didn't find anything on flipping the fan on an VF700. Has anybody done something like this before?
Reseating the GPU heatsink seams to be a good idea, maybe something went wrong when I reinstalled the graphics card after installing the northbridge sink. I will do this as soon as I have some better thermal compound...

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