Quietness achieved!!
Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2004 4:10 pm
Well, I think I've finally achieved about as much quietness as I possibly can, without doing anything TOO radical or extreme. Unfortunately, the system still isn't as quiet as I wish it were, but then again, maybe I'm just wishing for too much... But subjectively, I'd still say this system is now at **LEAST** AS quiet as my old Pentium III system was, and a VAST improvement over what I started with. So I've decided this machine might now be as quiet as it can possibly get, and I'll now leave it this way. The following is my account of how I've achieved this quietness.
In the end, I finally decided to ditch my old Tricod computer case, and replace it with an Antec SLK1600. What a difference a case makes... With the old case, I tried just about EVERYTHING, and no matter what I did--even when I tried running a NOISY system, with my Coolmax's 120mm fan at full speed (for about 79.4 CFM) and a 32 CFM case fan, I just couldn't seem to get my case temperature below 34 degrees Celsius--that number became like a brick wall. In the end, I have come to the conclusion that that case was absolutely *HORRIBLE* for ventilation and cooling.
With this new Antec case, all I can say is: WOW!!! I have now been able to get the case temperature as low as 27 degrees Celsius, running on maximum cooling, before I did quiet mods. Now, it runs about 28-29 degrees Celsius, which I'm afraid I may just have to settle for as good enough. :'(
Needless to say, the first thing I did with this case was to remove the stock Antec SL300S 300-watt single 80mm fanned power supply, and replace it with my Coolmax Taurus CX-350 120mm fanned PSU that I had in the other case.
I am also hoping this will be the last ATX form factor system I ever build, since BTX is coming. (I hope, anyway. Now that the spec has been released, I'm pretty sure it is just a matter of time before we see implementations.) With today's ever-increasing heat dissipation requirements, I think it is high time the ATX form factor was on its way out. The ATX form factor just doesn't take into account today's higher-powered CPU's, nor does it really take into account that today's video cards and GPU's are sorely in need of a better cooling solution, as they are now sometimes producing almost as much heat as the main CPU!!!!
Well, enough ranting--back to my new case: suffice it to say, the critics are NOT kidding when they say the Antec SLK1600 is CRAMPED. It really was a chore getting all the components to fit in there, but in the end, worth it in my opinion. The case is REALLY nice, compact, and lightweight, too.
So in the end, this is my final setup:
Antec SLK1600 case
AMD Athlon XP 2400+ CPU (2.0 GHz clock speed, running at STOCK speed, NOT overclocked OR underclocked in ANY way.)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB SATA hard drive
Plextor PX-708A 8x DVD burner
Sony DDU-1621 16x DVD-ROM drive
Coolmax Taurus CX-350 35-watt PSU with 120mm fan
AcoustiFan AF92CT 92mm fan with temperature probe and sleeve bearing
Nexus AXP-3200 SkiveTek CPU cooler
MSI Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 video card with passive heatsink
Zalman ZM-NB47J passive northbridge heatsink
Other stuff not worth mentioning that doesn't relate to heat and sound output
Suffice it to say, cooling a hot system like this QUIETLY is *NOT* an easy challenge. While I admit that watercooling might be more efficient than air cooling, I felt that 1) it was too expensive, and 2) even if I could afford it, the idea of having WATER flowing around expensive electronic components like that makes me nervous, for some reason... (That's even though I know cars have been reliably watercooled using much the same kind of technology for hundreds of years now... So I guess I'm just paranoid.)
So this was my basic strategy:
1) Use as little forced-air cooling as possible. This meant using passive heatsinks where possible, and as few fans as possible. Those places where I couldn't do without fans, I tried to use ones that were as large and as quiet as possible. So now, I've got passive heatsinks on the video card and northbridge, and only 3 fans total: a 120mm fan in the PSU, a 92mm AcoustiFan with a thermistor (spinning typically at about 1500-1600 RPM), and a 70mm fan on the CPU heatsink, spinning at about 2400 RPM. I went with the Nexus SkiveTek AXP-3200 primarily because I wasn't sure that a Zalman 7000A would fit on my Soyo KT600 Dragon Plus motherboard, and the Nexus cooler is small and lightweight enough at 331 grams that I figure it is the next best thing. (Being only 31 grams over AMD's 300 gram limit for Socket 462, I figure there's virtually ZERO risk of it pulling off the socket.)
2) Try to ensure as few restrictions in the airflow as possible. To achieve this, I used only rounded cables, and as much as possible, I tried to keep all cables nice, neat, and tidy. To my absolute joy, I also found a nice tidy way to bundle up the unused wires from the PSU with a twist-tie, and I then stowed them in a little place inside the case between the PSU and the optical drives that almost looks like it was made especially for such a thing. I doubt my cabling could be any neater and tidier in this case. (I wish I had a shorter Serial ATA cable, but I figure that's a minor matter that I can fix later.)
3) I am using one of the quietest hard drives that the industry has to offer right now with the Seagate. hehe. I know a lot of people out there like to go further, and put their hard drives into noise-dampening enclosures and the like, but in general, I don't like this idea, mainly because enclosures also tend to make the hard drive run HOTTER, which is not good. The ONLY hard drive quieting solution I would consider (if my hard drive weren't already quiet enough) would be the Zalman ZM-2HC1 hard drive heatpipe cooler/vibration dampener, because it would actually offer some cooling. But even then, I would NOT consider it for this hard drive--it is quiet enough already, and 7200 RPM drives can generally run "naturally aspirated" as it were, as long as the case has adequate ventilation. The 10,000+ RPM drives are a different matter, however. There, having a cooling solution is practically a necessity... But that isn't me--at least, not now. (Someday I might get a 10,000 RPM drive, but not right now.)
4) I know a lot of "Silent PC enthusiasts" like to go even further, and dampen the noise of things like hard drive seeking, optical drive noise, etc., but in my opinion, I couldn't care less about momentary noises like that. To me, the only kinds of noises I can't stand are ones that are constant, like fans and hard drive motors.
5) Wherever I could, I tried to de-couple moving parts (like fans) from the case, using silica-gel vibration dampeners. To this end:
* the PSU was too tight in its bay for one, so I didn't decouple it. I initially tried dampening washers, but since the rest of the PSU box was in contact with rails, I decided in the end, it wasn't worth the effort to dampen it... The PSU fan runs so slowly though, I doubt it generates much vibration anyway. Also, if anything, the dampening washers seemed to make it slightly worse, I suspect maybe because the rest of the PSU was more able to vibrate against the rest of the bay... So I decided to go back to hard mounting in the end. Like I say, the bay is rigid enough, and the PSU quiet enough, that it doesn't make much difference.
* the AcoustiFan came with gel mounts, which seem like a tight fit in the mounting holes I've got in the case, but they work okay. This fan doesn't generate much vibration, either.
* the hard drive, though quiet, generates a LOT of vibration. Initially, the drive bay was resonating to the vibration VERY badly, generating noise that I found totally unacceptable. This is mainly due to a flaw in Antec's way of mounting the bay, in my opinion. Basically, there are three different bays, and they all slide on clips to each other. Then, they are kept in place with a single screw on each bay. They are NOT fixed to the front of the case, as you might think--this leaves them pretty much free to resonate very badly with the hard drive.
I didn't want to decouple the drive itself, because I know that HD's are in part cooled by their contact with the metal in the bay, which acts like a heat disperser. Luckily, I still found a way to solve the drive bay resonance problem very easily, by putting some silica-gel vibration dampening washers on the screws that held the bays together. You'd be AMAZED at what an extraordinary difference that made--it really was amazing, and proof that vibration dampening *IS* highly beneficial.
* The CPU fan, unfortunately, is now the loudest thing in the case. I don't know of any easy way to quiet it now though. Even though it is fairly quiet, it is noticeable over the other components in the system. Silent PC enthusiasts always like to attack the loudest components in their systems, which in turn typically causes another component to become the loudest thing--it is a fight that could possibly go on indefinitely... But I figure MY fight with noise must end somewhere... :'(
So what do you all think? Are there any non-extreme ways I could improve this system further?
In the end, I finally decided to ditch my old Tricod computer case, and replace it with an Antec SLK1600. What a difference a case makes... With the old case, I tried just about EVERYTHING, and no matter what I did--even when I tried running a NOISY system, with my Coolmax's 120mm fan at full speed (for about 79.4 CFM) and a 32 CFM case fan, I just couldn't seem to get my case temperature below 34 degrees Celsius--that number became like a brick wall. In the end, I have come to the conclusion that that case was absolutely *HORRIBLE* for ventilation and cooling.
With this new Antec case, all I can say is: WOW!!! I have now been able to get the case temperature as low as 27 degrees Celsius, running on maximum cooling, before I did quiet mods. Now, it runs about 28-29 degrees Celsius, which I'm afraid I may just have to settle for as good enough. :'(
Needless to say, the first thing I did with this case was to remove the stock Antec SL300S 300-watt single 80mm fanned power supply, and replace it with my Coolmax Taurus CX-350 120mm fanned PSU that I had in the other case.
I am also hoping this will be the last ATX form factor system I ever build, since BTX is coming. (I hope, anyway. Now that the spec has been released, I'm pretty sure it is just a matter of time before we see implementations.) With today's ever-increasing heat dissipation requirements, I think it is high time the ATX form factor was on its way out. The ATX form factor just doesn't take into account today's higher-powered CPU's, nor does it really take into account that today's video cards and GPU's are sorely in need of a better cooling solution, as they are now sometimes producing almost as much heat as the main CPU!!!!
Well, enough ranting--back to my new case: suffice it to say, the critics are NOT kidding when they say the Antec SLK1600 is CRAMPED. It really was a chore getting all the components to fit in there, but in the end, worth it in my opinion. The case is REALLY nice, compact, and lightweight, too.
So in the end, this is my final setup:
Antec SLK1600 case
AMD Athlon XP 2400+ CPU (2.0 GHz clock speed, running at STOCK speed, NOT overclocked OR underclocked in ANY way.)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB SATA hard drive
Plextor PX-708A 8x DVD burner
Sony DDU-1621 16x DVD-ROM drive
Coolmax Taurus CX-350 35-watt PSU with 120mm fan
AcoustiFan AF92CT 92mm fan with temperature probe and sleeve bearing
Nexus AXP-3200 SkiveTek CPU cooler
MSI Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 video card with passive heatsink
Zalman ZM-NB47J passive northbridge heatsink
Other stuff not worth mentioning that doesn't relate to heat and sound output
Suffice it to say, cooling a hot system like this QUIETLY is *NOT* an easy challenge. While I admit that watercooling might be more efficient than air cooling, I felt that 1) it was too expensive, and 2) even if I could afford it, the idea of having WATER flowing around expensive electronic components like that makes me nervous, for some reason... (That's even though I know cars have been reliably watercooled using much the same kind of technology for hundreds of years now... So I guess I'm just paranoid.)
So this was my basic strategy:
1) Use as little forced-air cooling as possible. This meant using passive heatsinks where possible, and as few fans as possible. Those places where I couldn't do without fans, I tried to use ones that were as large and as quiet as possible. So now, I've got passive heatsinks on the video card and northbridge, and only 3 fans total: a 120mm fan in the PSU, a 92mm AcoustiFan with a thermistor (spinning typically at about 1500-1600 RPM), and a 70mm fan on the CPU heatsink, spinning at about 2400 RPM. I went with the Nexus SkiveTek AXP-3200 primarily because I wasn't sure that a Zalman 7000A would fit on my Soyo KT600 Dragon Plus motherboard, and the Nexus cooler is small and lightweight enough at 331 grams that I figure it is the next best thing. (Being only 31 grams over AMD's 300 gram limit for Socket 462, I figure there's virtually ZERO risk of it pulling off the socket.)
2) Try to ensure as few restrictions in the airflow as possible. To achieve this, I used only rounded cables, and as much as possible, I tried to keep all cables nice, neat, and tidy. To my absolute joy, I also found a nice tidy way to bundle up the unused wires from the PSU with a twist-tie, and I then stowed them in a little place inside the case between the PSU and the optical drives that almost looks like it was made especially for such a thing. I doubt my cabling could be any neater and tidier in this case. (I wish I had a shorter Serial ATA cable, but I figure that's a minor matter that I can fix later.)
3) I am using one of the quietest hard drives that the industry has to offer right now with the Seagate. hehe. I know a lot of people out there like to go further, and put their hard drives into noise-dampening enclosures and the like, but in general, I don't like this idea, mainly because enclosures also tend to make the hard drive run HOTTER, which is not good. The ONLY hard drive quieting solution I would consider (if my hard drive weren't already quiet enough) would be the Zalman ZM-2HC1 hard drive heatpipe cooler/vibration dampener, because it would actually offer some cooling. But even then, I would NOT consider it for this hard drive--it is quiet enough already, and 7200 RPM drives can generally run "naturally aspirated" as it were, as long as the case has adequate ventilation. The 10,000+ RPM drives are a different matter, however. There, having a cooling solution is practically a necessity... But that isn't me--at least, not now. (Someday I might get a 10,000 RPM drive, but not right now.)
4) I know a lot of "Silent PC enthusiasts" like to go even further, and dampen the noise of things like hard drive seeking, optical drive noise, etc., but in my opinion, I couldn't care less about momentary noises like that. To me, the only kinds of noises I can't stand are ones that are constant, like fans and hard drive motors.
5) Wherever I could, I tried to de-couple moving parts (like fans) from the case, using silica-gel vibration dampeners. To this end:
* the PSU was too tight in its bay for one, so I didn't decouple it. I initially tried dampening washers, but since the rest of the PSU box was in contact with rails, I decided in the end, it wasn't worth the effort to dampen it... The PSU fan runs so slowly though, I doubt it generates much vibration anyway. Also, if anything, the dampening washers seemed to make it slightly worse, I suspect maybe because the rest of the PSU was more able to vibrate against the rest of the bay... So I decided to go back to hard mounting in the end. Like I say, the bay is rigid enough, and the PSU quiet enough, that it doesn't make much difference.
* the AcoustiFan came with gel mounts, which seem like a tight fit in the mounting holes I've got in the case, but they work okay. This fan doesn't generate much vibration, either.
* the hard drive, though quiet, generates a LOT of vibration. Initially, the drive bay was resonating to the vibration VERY badly, generating noise that I found totally unacceptable. This is mainly due to a flaw in Antec's way of mounting the bay, in my opinion. Basically, there are three different bays, and they all slide on clips to each other. Then, they are kept in place with a single screw on each bay. They are NOT fixed to the front of the case, as you might think--this leaves them pretty much free to resonate very badly with the hard drive.
I didn't want to decouple the drive itself, because I know that HD's are in part cooled by their contact with the metal in the bay, which acts like a heat disperser. Luckily, I still found a way to solve the drive bay resonance problem very easily, by putting some silica-gel vibration dampening washers on the screws that held the bays together. You'd be AMAZED at what an extraordinary difference that made--it really was amazing, and proof that vibration dampening *IS* highly beneficial.
* The CPU fan, unfortunately, is now the loudest thing in the case. I don't know of any easy way to quiet it now though. Even though it is fairly quiet, it is noticeable over the other components in the system. Silent PC enthusiasts always like to attack the loudest components in their systems, which in turn typically causes another component to become the loudest thing--it is a fight that could possibly go on indefinitely... But I figure MY fight with noise must end somewhere... :'(
So what do you all think? Are there any non-extreme ways I could improve this system further?