xp-120 (active/passive) vs stock AMD X2 4600, nsk2400 review

Steep · Post by **Steep** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:10 am

I've built a very quiet HTPC based upon the great advice on this site. Thank you.
Below is a report of observed temperatures at load for my configuration.

Antec NSK2400 case
SeaSonic S12-430 ATX12V 430W Power Supply
ASUS M2NPV-VM Socket AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6150 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard (Abit NF-M2 unavailable)
Two YATE LOON 120mm Case Fans - D12SL-12 ("forward-most fan" locked at 5 volt, "rear-most fan" bios-controlled)
Western Digital Scorpio WD1600BEVS 160GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Notebook Hard Drive
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+(65W) Windsor
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300)
Hauppauge PVR-150 TV tuner
Thermalright xp-120 CPU heatsink (with Thermalright AM2 (rev B) bracket) (Arctic Silver 5)
with and without Yate Loon D12SL-12 120mm fan.
VS Stock AMD Heatsink/Fan.

Ambient Temperature: 22.5C
CPUBurn + Hot CPU Tester Pro 4
PVR-150 actively tuning/disk caching.
Ambient Conditions: Suburban house with the family asleep and no AC/heat running. As quiet as the house can get.

Stock AMD Heatsink/Fan
Temp: CPU 50C
Comment: Somewhat loud, mid-frequency clicking noise emanating from CPU fan, case fans very quiet.

XP-120 fanless
Temp: CPU 69C
Comment: System seemed stable at this temperature, and very quiet. BIOS-controlled case fan at RPM comparable to 5 volt fan.

XP-120 fanless with "rear" case fan set to full throttle via SpeedFan, ~1400 RPM
Temp: CPU 57C
Comment: Computer is significantly louder, but the Yate Loon has a low-frequency 'whoosh' noise that isn't terribly unpleasant.

Different day: Ambient Temperature: 23.5C
Other conditions the same.

XP-120 with 120mm Yate Loon
Temp: CPU 62C
Comment: CPU Fan and BIOS-controlled case fan reported to be operating at VERY low RPMs. Less than 400 RPM for CPU fan, and less than 600 RPM for bios-controlled case fan. The system is extremely quiet. By "extremely" quiet, I mean the following:
Extremely Quiet #1: With a Dell Latitude D800 notebook (idle) on one side of a 10' room, and the NSK2400 on the other side. I am ~1 meter from the NSK2400 and ~2 meters from the laptop. I can not hear the NSK2400 because the laptop noise is drowning it out.
Extremely Quiet #2: From ~1 meter, I can not hear the NSK2400 with the Hunter ceiling fan turned on. The ceiling fan makes a very quiet electrical "whir" noise that drowns out the NSK2400.

XP-120 with 120mm Yate Loon at full throttle (via SpeedFan)
Temp: CPU 45C
Comment: Case is still somewhat quiet. The increase in noise level is a lot less noticeable compared to the case fan running at full throttle.

XP-120 with 120mm Yate Loon CPU and 1 case fan both set to full throttle
Temp: CPU 43C
Comment: Not much of a difference in temperature, and the case fan noise is a lot more perceptible than the CPU fan noise.

Summary:
The XP-120 is a heatsink that I've seen highly recommended for the nsk2400/Fusion cases, so I thought others might be interested in this data.
With the ASUS Cool N Quiet + Quiet Fan technology enabled, the stock cooler keeps the AMD chip running cooler, but it's definitely noisier. The noise increase wouldn't be that bad if it were a constant sound like a 'whoosh' or a 'hum', but my AMD stock fan had an irregular noise which is a lot more annoying. While the CPU temp is 12 degrees hotter with the XP-120 + Fan, it looks like the system can capably cool itself should it decide to throttle up the fans.

Eventually, I'll have an HD tuning card and some type of passively cooled Geforce 8600/8500 in the system and I'll see what effect the addition of those cards has.

ghia · Post by **ghia** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:21 am

What about the Seasonic PSU.
I find mine to be extremelly loud, and it's the only fan in my system (and not ramping up ever)

Steep · Post by **Steep** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:34 am

ghia wrote:What about the Seasonic PSU.
I find mine to be extremely loud, and it's the only fan in my system (and not ramping up ever)

With the case cover off and about 1 meter away, the system makes a quiet hum and I can't distinguish whether the noise is coming from the Yate Loons or the PSU (or the notebook drive). I have to put my ear about 16 inches away from the Seasonic to be able to differentiate its noise signature from that of the case/cpu fans. It doesn't seem loud to me, but unfortunately I don't have any nice tools to be able to give you a quantitative measurement.

jimmyfergus · Post by **jimmyfergus** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:01 am

... if you don't mind a little soldering: I wired up 2 of the Yate Loon fans into one header - I only took the rpm signal from one fan (one isn't connected), but connected the power wires in parallel. It seems to work well, so now the BIOS controls both case fans.

Unfortunately, the kernel I'm using doesn't allow me to find out my CPU temp, otherwise I could provide comparison with my cheapo AC Alpine 7 cooler on my X2 3800 65W. All I know is it's inaudible and stable and doesn't feel particularly warm.

I went from the 2 tricool fans on low (noticeable noise), to trying a single Yate Loon (much quieter), and my HDD jumped from 26C to 32C, then I put in the other YL (little noisier), and it's down to 28C.

vg30et · Post by **vg30et** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 7:01 am

jimmyfergus wrote:... if you don't mind a little soldering: I wired up 2 of the Yate Loon fans into one header - I only took the rpm signal from one fan (one isn't connected), but connected the power wires in parallel. It seems to work well, so now the BIOS controls both case fans.

For those who are too lazy to solder, here's another option:
http://www.svc.com/3pinyadapter.html

Just be careful not to hook up 2 power hungry fans or you may overload the motherboard header.