Ah,bliss.......:)

iskra · Post by **iskra** » Thu Jan 16, 2003 5:25 pm

hi everyone,thanks for all the ideas and research from this forum,it's
helped me a lot

I'm a musician and use my PC for recording.After spending enough on
fans etc to buy two watercooling systems,I thought I'd have another
try at quietening it down after getting rid of my wretched maxtor
d740x ballbearing HD which sounded like a jet taking off after about
2 months (worst buy ever!).Here's what I did eventually:

1.Bought a barracuda IV 80 Gb after reading this forum!

2.Decided to leave the side of the case open,I could then ditch my
12v intake and outtake panaflo La1s (I have an athlon xp2400,and the case was too hot to run them at 7v).Temps are a bit better with the side
off than when I had it closed with the two LA1s.

3.Put a fan at 7v blowing *in* on the psu.I've always thought that
drawing hot air out over the psu is ridiculously inefficient.I put a
Young Lin 80mm cheapo fan in there,it's maybe a risky thing to do
but it's been running OK for 18 months and hasn't blown up yet!
In fact it seems cooler to the touch.The PSU is a quiet pc 300w,
but it was very noisy as the case was so hot that it ran at full
speed all the time.

4.One panaflo LA1 on the cpu heatsink.I kept my aluminium Taisol,
rated to 1.2 Ghz athlon,the xp2400 is actually 15C cooler than
my old Thunderbird 1.2 under the same conditions! It's a 60mm
heatsink,I made a flat adaptor from the inside back of a CD case for
the panaflo.

5.Put the Barracuda on the bottom of the case (thanks for the idea!),
on one of the bits of foam it ships with (very handy

)

6.I've two more Young Lin 80mms at 7v,one on the intake (blows on
the HD),and another on the outtake,once again blowing in rather than
out,it provides some more cool air for the cpu,drops the temp about
3C.I got these fans a year ago,they're really good at 7v,quiet and
more airflow than the panaflos at that voltage.Cheap too,but I can't
find them anywhere now.

It's really quiet! I live by the sea and the noise of the waves with the
window closed is louder than the PC.The main thing is there's no
turbulence,and no beating resonances of same-model fans slightly
out of phase (very irritating).The loudest sound is the 12v panaflo
on the cpu,if I hadn't already overspent I'd try an slk-800 with an
80mm at 7v,it would halve the remaining noise at least.But it's
quieter than I ever thought I'd get it,and with a very powerful cpu
too.I'm even overclocking a bit! Temps are case 28C,cpu 60C load,
which is fine,it still heats my room in the winter

The HD is only
at 36C,although it feels hotter to me.

So thanks for the ideas and inspiration,I'm feeling calmer sitting
here than I have for years!

TomG · Post by **TomG** » Thu Jan 16, 2003 11:12 pm

How are you measuring the temp of the HD?

Thanks

iskra · Post by **iskra** » Fri Jan 17, 2003 3:24 am

http://www.hddtemperature.com/
there's a freeware version at the bottom of the page.It works if
you have a S.M.A.R.T. compatible HD.

PlayDead · Post by **PlayDead** » Fri Jan 17, 2003 6:42 am

iskra wrote:The PSU is a quiet pc 300w,
but it was very noisy as the case was so hot that it ran at full
speed all the time.

I have the same problem with the quietpc 400W PSU- it's running at full speed due to the temperature (sub 50 degrees Celsius, 1.4Ghz T-bird, Zalman CPS6000), and is the main source of noise from my system. Now, if I could just lower the temperature enough for the PSU fans to slow down...[/quote]

ChiefWeasel · Post by **ChiefWeasel** » Fri Jan 17, 2003 8:19 am

Maybe look into some kind of duct, to duct cool outside air, straight to the PSU intake, like Leo did here? Though you'd prolly need a separate system exhaust fan if you do this...

crisspy · Post by **crisspy** » Fri Jan 17, 2003 11:39 am

Congrats iskra. It's sure is nice when it finally works out. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

powergyoza · Post by **powergyoza** » Fri Jan 17, 2003 11:55 am

Nice mods there iskra. It seems like all your fans are intakes and the exhaust air is coming out the open side of your case.

Bliss is right. I wish I could feel bliss. Then again, I wish I could live closer to the sea and hear the water. I don't think I'll ever stop modding. If I bought a Barracuda instead of a D740x myself, I wouldn't need to work so hard at quieting the bugger.

iskra · Post by **iskra** » Fri Jan 17, 2003 3:09 pm

Thanx guys

powergyoza,if your d740x is anything like mine,you'll never get rid of
that damned noise! I was getting headaches because of the tension it
was causing.I'm going to wait a while,use it for backup and RMA it in a
few months time,maybe there's a chance they'll send me a better
model.I've seen a couple of posts at Storage Review where people
have got a replacement just because of the noise.

powergyoza · Post by **powergyoza** » Fri Jan 17, 2003 7:39 pm

iskra wrote:Thanx guys
powergyoza,if your d740x is anything like mine,you'll never get rid of
that damned noise! I was getting headaches because of the tension it
was causing.I'm going to wait a while,use it for backup and RMA it in a
few months time,maybe there's a chance they'll send me a better
model.I've seen a couple of posts at Storage Review where people
have got a replacement just because of the noise.

I got a substantial noise reduction with my 3/8" thick rubber boxes, but now (probably because 1] my hearing is becoming better trained, and 2] my expectations are escalating) I'm noticing that some of the whine still penetrates that. I believe in "never say die" so I'm gonna keep working on it. I won't give up on you Maxtors!

Post by **Rusty075** » Fri Jan 17, 2003 10:27 pm

My D740X is totally inaudible after being sandwiched, sidesinked and suspended. Are you sure you got the FDB version? I'd double check the model numbers.

powergyoza · Post by **powergyoza** » Sat Jan 18, 2003 3:21 am

Rusty075 wrote:My D740X is totally inaudible after being sandwiched, sidesinked and suspended. Are you sure you got the FDB version? I'd double check the model numbers.

I have the BB model. I've updated my sig to reflect that.

iskra · Post by **iskra** » Sat Jan 18, 2003 6:10 am

Yes,I've got the BB version too,they're notorious for the racket they
make.I'd had a bog-standard maxtor previously that was fairly quiet,I
didn't expect that this one would scream quite so much.It's Quantum-
designed,I think,so that would explain it.I had a quantum once that
sounded like a coffee-grinder

iskra · Post by **iskra** » Sat Jan 18, 2003 3:05 pm

Well,I couldn't leave it there,it was quiet,but.....(I expect you all know the
feeling

).So I took out the two 7v fans on the intake and outtake,and
replaced the 12v panaflo on the cpu heatsink with a Lin Young at 7v.
Now it is *very* quiet.Also very hot! The HD temp is at 44C,and the
cpu 55C idle,65C load.So I'll get something to heatsink the
sides of the HD,and maybe get a new cpu heatsink,although it seems
quite stable at these temps.
So there's now only 3 noise-producing elements:the hard disk, the
cpu 7v fan and the psu 7v fan.And it's the psu fan that's the "loudest"
(you can't really call something that's virtually inaudible "loud",but I
know it's there,it's the turbulence from blowing into the psu box).
But really it's as quiet as I need,the ambient sound from the elements
is a lot louder.I now have a room littered with unused 80mm fans and bits
of wiring that I've taken out of the PC!

powergyoza · Post by **powergyoza** » Sat Jan 18, 2003 4:10 pm

OMG - like me, you've caught the silent pc bug! The only thing I can do is encourage you to mod some more. Like you, I had the same problems with a noisy PSU. I made some drastic changes to mine an it helped - http://forums.silentpcreview.com//viewtopic.php?t=2842.

As for the temps of your CPU and HDD, I'd say you're safe, but if it were me, I wouldn't go much hotter. You'll need a better heatsink in order to undervolt your fans further. Also consider remove any remaining obstructions to airflow - especially fan grills. IDE and FDD cables can be rerouted/reoriented to minimize blockage.

I would also say that you'd need to put the side panel back on as well. That blocks sound really well. You'll need to rethink your fan arrangement accordingly.

Happy modding!

iskra · Post by **iskra** » Sat Jan 18, 2003 5:24 pm

thanks for the suggestions,powergyoza,those mods on the psu are
great!

Yes,I have the bug again,I had it a year ago,but my tbird
1.2 ran so hot it was very hard to get temps down enough.The 2 things
that made the difference this time were getting the barracuda and the
xp2400,the HD is super-quiet and the cpu runs cooler.I really think
I have to leave the side off,putting it on increases temps by about
8C,therefore I would need case fans again and it ends up even
louder! I could maybe put a panaflo at 7v or even 5v on the HD,and I
think the cpu temps would be acceptable with an slk-800.Although I
have to say that through errr.......user error (I forgot to plug the fan in!),
this chip has been up to 90C in bios and survived.I'm always wary of
the temps reported by the MB,my last MB had the tbird at 62C load,and
with the same cooler and fan this one reports 75C! The hottest thing is the
chipset,you can barely touch the heatsink on it,but the temp as reported
is 24C.It's all very stable though,I run it 24/7,often at load,so it just
needs some finishing touches to get the temps down a bit.Thanks for
everyone's help here,it's a goldmine of information!

iskra · Post by **iskra** » Mon Jan 20, 2003 9:17 am

OK,final update (I know I'm being a bore here

)
I got a volcano 9 to replace the cpu cooler,temps are now down
10C or so,so it's 55C load,which is OK by me.I'm still using the
Lin Young 80mm at 7v,the volcano smartfan is way too loud even
at minimum (nasty low-pitched buzzing).
I made an adaptor to give me two 7v and two 5v fan connectors in
case I want to play around with more fans later,and tidied the cables
up.
And I put the psu fan on 5v,then took the psu out of the box and
put it on the floor next to the case,I'm not really happy running it at 5v
in the case,it's just too hot.Seems very cool outside though,and is
virtually inaudible.
So it's a very inelegant solution,but very cheap! Everything is under
a table,with the open side of the case away from me,and the psu
behind the case.Only three sound-producing elements,the cpu fan at 7v,
the psu fan at 5v,and the barracuda on a bit of foam,which is the loudest,but it's so quiet it doesn't really bother me.And if there's a breath of wind outside,I can't really hear anything at all.So I'm happy!