Next step on noise reduction on reference P182 i7 Build

[quad]

OK, here's my story, hope it's in the right sub-forum. Built a new rig out of the reference/recommended SPCR kit, migrated my XP installation to it, and made a PC that's way quieter than older PCs. I can only hear it when in the same room (2x3m), and not at the door. But the next stage is to make it a bit quieter, and here I need your advice. What's the logical next step in ease and price?

Build: Case - Antec P182, with fan switches for the tri-cools
PSU - Corsair HX 520
Mobo/RAM - Asus P6T Deluxe, Corsair 3gb ram
CPU - Retail i7 920
Drives - 2 x 1TB Samsung F1, Intel Matrix RAID with 0 + 1 partitions
GPU - Powercolor PCS 4670, not passive
HSF - NH-U12P SE1366, dual fan
Optical - 2 x drives, LG (pata), Optiarc (sata)

Configuration: Both HDD drives are in the lower cage in the P182, an air gap in-between. Opticals are in the top two slots. Cables fairly neat routed round the back. Noctua fans in horizontal position in push-pull, venting to rear. Antec P182's fans are all on minimum, and the Noctua's are using the ULNA adapter (5v, 900 rpm), on the mobo headers.

Optimistic overclocking: The chip can take 3.8Ghz with raised voltage, load temps of 61C using the Noctuas direct (12v). Switching to the 5v only raised temps by 6C, but made it quieter. 100% Load was stable @3.8GHz on Win7 but doesn't seem to be on XP.

I don't game much, hence the graphics card. Full CPU load likely to be on media encoding. I don't mind some noise, otherwise I'd have chosen dual-core chip here. I guess even with choosing kit known to be quiet, I'd expect something just slightly more close to laptop quiet. My tinnitus agrees the noise shape isn't annoying, just the quantity could be tweaked. HDD noise doesn't bother me as much as the fan sound.

I'd be happy to have a slightly clocked setup at idle on quiet, and let fans go louder on max o/c under load. Sadly none of the fans are PWM controllable by the Asus board's Fan Expert app. Putting an ear to the insides, it sounds as if the Noctuas are the loudest bits, with the Antec Tri-cools less invasive. I really can't isolate the sound on the GPU fan or the PSU over the other noises.

What would you do for the next steps? I haven't yet explored the sounds of the box with the Tri-cools to OFF as yet.

Some options:
1. Lower Antec fan to off, just PSU fan to control airflow down there
2. All Antecs to off, and live with the higher temps on load
3. Accelero on the GPU to make passive
4. Regular drive bay fan controller on all fans
5. Replace the Tri-cools with Scythe (or other) units
6. Replace Noctua fans with alternate
7. Replace Noctua heatsink altogether
8. Acoustifoam stuff on certain areas

I'm loathe to do 6/7, as the Noctua kit cost a pretty packet. Other ideas I'd considered were having only one of the Noctua fans running when not loaded, or removing one completely. The install guide reckons the second fan decreases temps by 3-5C @12V.

Sorry for the essay, I'd appreciate some input on which options I should explore first, and which to concentrate on later if unsatisfied. What do the experts say?

[JamieG]

1. Lower Antec fan to off, just PSU fan to control airflow down there
2. All Antecs to off, and live with the higher temps on load
3. Accelero on the GPU to make passive
4. Regular drive bay fan controller on all fans
5. Replace the Tri-cools with Scythe (or other) units
6. Replace Noctua fans with alternate
7. Replace Noctua heatsink altogether
8. Acoustifoam stuff on certain areas

About your suggestions - here is what I would do in your position:

1. Yes, remove the lower Antec fan. Just make sure you tape up all the exhaust holes around the PSU with duct tape, so the only exhaust in the bottom area is through the PSU fan.

3. Accelero on the 4670 would be a very good idea.

5. Replace rear exhaust with a Scythe Slipstream or Nexus fan and undervolt it until it is quiet. Replace the top exhaust with a Scythe S-Flex 1200rpm fan and undervolt it to about 7V. Use rubber mounts for the rear exhaust fan. Just use some Zalman fanmates to do the undervolting and dial the fans in to a quiet speed. For some further experimenting, you could do a check of your CPU temps using both fans, then unplug the top exhaust and block off this area to see if they change much. You might not need a top exhaust after all (but the i7 920 is pretty hot, so you might not be able to do this). Perhaps it could be best used with my other suggestion C below.

8. Acoustipack is the last resort, so hold off on that at this stage.

Some other random suggestions from a fellow P182 owner:

a) suspend your hard drives. There are various ways you could consider doing this. I only have one HDD in my P182, so it wasn't too hard to do. You might have more issues with 2 HDDs, or at least it will require a more complicated solution. Do a forum search to get some ideas as to what might work for you. You might have to suspend one HDD in the lower chamber and one HDD in the middle chamber, unless you go with some of the more complicated suspension solutions I've seen here.

b) I don't think you need two fans on the Noctua cooler. Despite what the manufacturer's info says, I recall one review showing that it only saved 1-2C on CPU temps, which is not a big deal for the extra noise the fan might cause. You could re-use the second fan as a rear exhaust instead of a Scythe or Nexus perhaps.

c) If you are still not happy with your CPU temps, buy a Scythe Kama Bay for the three DVD bay slots if you can live without 2 optical drives. You may not need the included fan, it just can serve as an intake area. Alternatively, if you want to keep both drives, just remove the drive covers and metal slots in the two empty DVD bays and zip tie some modder's mesh and a dust filter in there.

d) If your GPU temps are too hot for your liking with the Accelero, put the middle HDD cage back in with a fan on the end - the removed 2nd Noctua from your CPU cooler could work fine to push a little airflow over the Accelero.

e) If you are comfortable with making mods to your case, you could cut out the fan grills on the rear exhaust and middle and lower intake grills (behind the two dust filters) to increase the airflow a little.

[Soulstorm]

You cannot control non-PWM fans with the PWM controller, you need PWM compatible fans like the models from Arctic Cooling & Nexus & Scythe. Your fans are all regular fans that can be controlled only via voltage (the 3 pin normal headers on the motherboard, the 4 pin header is for PWM).

I was in the same situation as you are, i needed a dead-silent rig at idle and under light load (browsing/listeting to music etc.) that could be a tad loud under heavy load (rendering in 3DsMax and gaming)
So i bought 3 PWM Arctic Cooling fans (they are cheap), 1 for the Scythe Ninja 2 and 2 for the intake/exhaust (Thermaltake Soprano case), daisy-chained together on the CPU PWM header.

At idle my fans stay at ~400rpm (dead-silent) and under heavy load go up to 900rpm (silent, and their maximum speed is 1500rpm so i have enought head-room even for a solid oc), using Asus Q-Fan, profile : Optimal. Max temps of 60 degrees per core (a quad, Q9550), and 64 for the GPU (9800GTX+ with and Accelero S1).

So my advice would be to buy some PWM fans (AC/Nexus/Scythe/ they have different speed variations, see what models suits you the most), an Accelero S1 for the video card.

Also some of the advice given by JamieG would be very useful, like taking down (cutting) the grills (and increase airflow by maybe 25%) and suspending your hardrives if their noise bothers you.

[quad]

Thanks JamieG & Soulstorm for your suggestions!

I will take your advice, and have a prod and play soon. I've just had a small back injury so I can't stretch it for a couple of weeks, and of course poking around a PC case involves a lot of moving around. Not counting moving a heavy beast such as a P182 from under a desk!

So in the meantime, I'll look into alternate PWM fans, Zalman fanmates, and the Accelero HS for GPU. Once I can move around a bit more, I'll play with the setup and post my findings!

[garazh]

I will take your advice, and have a prod and play soon. I've just had a small back injury so I can't stretch it for a couple of weeks, and of course poking around a PC case involves a lot of moving around. Not counting moving a heavy beast such as a P182 from under a desk!

tell me about! i've already broken 2 plastic hooks on both side covers of the p182. because last week i opened and closed them too often.

i got a similar system (in my sig). first thing, i've done, is to change the case fans to scythe. besides i've bought a scythe "kaze master" fan controller to be able to make the fans even slower.

however, first, i don't like too much extreme - i overclocked my i7-920 only up to 3.2GHz. second, i got a fanless videocard - and pretty weak. it's enough for my purposes - i don't play videogames.

so, fully loading the CPU by prime95, i've got its temperature around 58-59C (viewtopic.php?t=53376) with the scythe case fans. and i could BARELY hear my computer.