Quiet System Idea

bsoft · Post by **bsoft** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 12:42 am

I've decided to replace my Shuttle dustbuster with a quieter Athlon 64 system.

Goals:
- The system must be cheap. I already have a Seagate 7200.7, a passive GeForce 5200, and some DDR. I'm looking to invest no more than $400 to get a system (not including the $290 I'm going to spend on the Gigabyte passive 6800).

- I want excellent performance.

Some noise is acceptable, so long as it is low in frequency and has the quality of white noise (e.g. bearing noises are out, but some turbulance is acceptable).

Here's what I've got.

Athlon 64 2800+ "Newcastle"; socket 754. It's 130nm, so it's not as cool as the "Winchester" A64s. It is, however, clocked farily low - and it's cheap at $125.

Zalman CNPS-7700-ALCU. It's only $5 more than the 7000 and has much greater surface area. Hopefully, using Cool-N-Quiet, I can turn off the fan at idle and run it at 5V when it is needed.

Antec SLK2650-BQE. I don't want to do hardware modding, nor do I want to invest a lot of money in a case. I'd go for the 3700 but I'm not too fond of the size or the cost. The 2650 is a bit tighter (not really a concern) but it has the same faceplate, PSU, rear fan grill, and 120mm fan as the 3700. It doesn't have the evil sideways HDD bays. I've heard that there are problems with optical drives making noise, but I rarely even use my NEC burner.

DFI LanParty UT NForce3 250gb. It has CnQ, SATA, and everything else I want.

Total: $327.99

Any suggestions?

ONEshot · Post by **ONEshot** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 12:52 am

You're forgetting some pretty important details:

Fans
Method of controlling said fans
PSU
HD Mounting
Whatcha gonna do about the grills in the side panel?

Its late so I can't really go off on a list, but all of those can be found via the Search.

Jan Kivar · Post by **Jan Kivar** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 8:07 am

CNPS7700 might not fit, depending on the placement of the socket on the motherboard. Zalman's list says it'll fit, which means that it doesn't interfere with the GFX card with basic cooling. If the card has a plate at the backside, then it might be incompatible.

PSU could also be in the way, especially if you're getting a SLK2650.

Cheers,

Jan

bsoft · Post by **bsoft** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 10:40 pm

Jan Kivar wrote:CNPS7700 might not fit, depending on the placement of the socket on the motherboard. Zalman's list says it'll fit, which means that it doesn't interfere with the GFX card with basic cooling. If the card has a plate at the backside, then it might be incompatible.

PSU could also be in the way, especially if you're getting a SLK2650.

Cheers,

Jan

Is the CNPS7000 similar in build quality and performance? If it is, I might just go for that and avoid the compatibility problems altogether.

bsoft · Post by **bsoft** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 10:53 pm

"Fans"

I was thinking of running the stock Antec 120mm fan at 7V. According to the SPCR review, it's pretty quiet.

"Method of controlling said fans"

The Zalman comes with a "fanmate" that allows it to run at a lower voltage. I was thinking that I'd run it at 5V. The motherboard can switch off the fan when the CPU is cool enough. Hopefully, with the voltage and clock reduced Cool-N-Quiet mode, the fan can be shut off altogether when the system is idle or mostly idle (web browsing, word processing, etc.)

"PSU"

Again, I was thinking of keeping the stock Antec. I'm not looking for super-silent here - it's more the quality of noise that bothers me with my current system. If it ends up being a problem, I'll invest a bit more money and get a Seasonic or even one of the Antec fanless PSUs.

"HD Mounting"

The 'Cuda doesn't bug me in my current system with all the fans off, and it has direct mounting to aluminum. I might go for something more exotic (bungee mounting, etc) later on.

"Whatcha gonna do about the grills in the side panel?"

Don't know. Leave them for now.