Yay! Silence!

[Plekto]

Okay, not really complete silence, but here's the mod:

-1 Zalman Cooler. Efficient but hellishly noisy.
-1 Stealth Fan. Run. Run far away. This is anything but "stealth".
-1 Antec "low noise" fan. As if. Toss in garbage.

Before - easily 45db. 39C motherboard Idle, 43 load. 53C CPU Idle, 67 load.

+1 Ninja
+1 Ninja Fan
+2 S-Flex 1200 Rpm fan
Fans at 12V. Intake and exhaust to be throttled down to 9V soon.

Now, closer to 30db thanks to the very thick steel Antec case.
37C motherboard Idle, 40 load. 48C CPU Idle, 62C Load. Returns to cool after a load in under ten seconds. Impressive.

Only 5 degrees cooler, which is expected as the Zalman *is* a efficient cooler. Easily 3-4 times less noisy. I'm more than pleased. Highly recommended. Just a nice low level hum that's hardly noticeable. The refrigerator two rooms away is about as loud as this is from two feet away. I might undervolt the fans to 9V all around and deal with my previous higher temps.



P.S. My only gripe was that the Ninja didn't come with a metal backplate considering its weight. I'll probably get a zip-tie tomorrow to support it from the top rail near the power supply, just in case the thing ever get bumped hard.

[rivet]

Which version of NiNja do you use? My rev. B isn't cooling my CPU quite well, it is quiet though. Thanks.

[Plekto]

It's the Rev B.

It needs a fan on it of at least 25-30CFM. The idea with the Ninja is to keep close to stock speeds but at really low noise. It's not like the Thermalright IFX-14, which can be run "passive" by using that gap to suck air through with only the exhaust fan.