Last advice on quiet system

maarten · Post by **maarten** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 9:49 am

I'm about to buy my first system where I'm really gonna pay attention to the noise, since my last system was just about as much as I could take.

So maybe you have some "last minute" suggestions?

P4 2.8c 800FSB HT
Asus p4c800 Deluxe
2x 512 mb DDR400 Apacer
Zalman 7000Cu (will it cool enough on the slowest setting?)
3x Maxtor 80gb SATA 8mb (quiet enough? I heard it's quieter than the Cuda's)
Radeon9700 AIW or 9800 AIW (will the Zalman passive cooler fit on an AIW card ???, quite important question)
2x60mm papst FL (rated at 16dB)
120mm A-Open silent 350W PSU (same quiet fan as the Fortron it's based on I hope?)

for the case I was thinking about the D.Vine4 or Accent HT200S (both same case) but it's turning out to become the second most expensive item in the system...

So tell me, is this really worth the money... I mean is it everything you expected it to be (for those who bought it)

Zhentar · Post by **Zhentar** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 10:05 am

okay, dunno about the mobo fan, but you can always buy a passive cooler there if neccesary.

I know little about that HSF so I can't really comment there, but getting it at least reasonably quiet should be pretty easy.

Maxtors have a rather loud seek click and no AMM enabling utilitie, though there's no whine.

I think the AIW's tv tuner will get in the way; but just a regular CPU heatsink can be mounted on a video card with a bit of work if you don't need many PCI slots

Harry Azol · Post by **Harry Azol** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 10:12 am

I would ditch the maxtors.. they are relatively LOUD

carlitosz · Post by **carlitosz** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 10:16 am

hmm, i woudnlt go with the Zalman. Go with the Thermalright SLK900 and about those 60mm fans what are they for?

aphonos · Post by **aphonos** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 10:16 am

maarten wrote:Radeon9700 AIW or 9800 AIW (will the Zalman passive cooler fit on an AIW card ???, quite important question)

Searched forums on Zalman and AIW. Here's one of the results. It will fit, but no data on how it will work. ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 9700 with Zalman ZM80A-HP

maarten wrote:2x60mm papst FL (rated at 16dB)

Careful that 60mm fans don't cause either too much whine or too little CFM. A 16dB rated 60mm fan will not be blowing much air at all. I know other's have said that Panaflos are hard to come by in Europe, but I'd try to move up to 80mm fans and check the recommended components and try to find one of those fans near you.

efcoins · Post by **efcoins** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 2:21 am

3 SATA drives ?
All the SATA motherboards I know of will only take 2

I agree 60mm fans are too small

I only know one good PC shop in Belgium, can I ask where you are getting the bits from ?

maarten · Post by **maarten** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 7:34 am

to answer all the questions you've been asking along with the help you've been giving:

* the mobo is passive cooled allready
* I selected the maxtors because of the seagate's lower performance and conflicts with the PSU's making weird sounds
* I am not a modder, so I don't know about that heatsink on the vga card, if the passive version fits, I'll use that and apperently it will fit.
* I've checked the Thermalright SLK900, what fan would you use with that?
* 60mm fans are for case (depending on what case it will finally become, these were the quietest 60mm fans)
* The southbridge ICH5 chip supports 2 SATA devices, the Promise chip supports 2 additional SATA devices in RAID. Actually it's getting quite common, most boards support 4 SATA devices.

carlitosz · Post by **carlitosz** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 10:03 am

I will recommend any fan, i personally have a noiseblocker, but i have heart excellent things about papst and panaflos. Go 92mm not 80mm.

carlitosz · Post by **carlitosz** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 10:05 am

heard. sorry lol

maarten · Post by **maarten** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 11:02 am

Clearly the D.Vine case is going to become to expensive to get to belgium.
Some alternatives I've seeked out are the iStyle from Nexus, or the Matrix from SkyHawk, towers unfortunately... but they might be able to fit a tight spot I've got left open... going to do some calculating on that matter tomorrow. Anyway, the iStyle supports one 92mm fan, the Matrix supports three 80mm fans. Probably better to go for the 80mm's for noise purposes I think ?

Would a 80mm papst at lowest setting be okay with the SLK900 and a 2.8c Pentium?

DavidG · Post by **DavidG** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 11:05 am

maarten wrote: So maybe you have some "last minute" suggestions?

P4 2.8c 800FSB HT
Asus p4c800 Deluxe
2x 512 mb DDR400 Apacer
Zalman 7000Cu (will it cool enough on the slowest setting?)
3x Maxtor 80gb SATA 8mb (quiet enough? I heard it's quieter than the Cuda's)
Radeon9700 AIW or 9800 AIW (will the Zalman passive cooler fit on an AIW card ???, quite important question)
2x60mm papst FL (rated at 16dB)
120mm A-Open silent 350W PSU (same quiet fan as the Fortron it's based on I hope?)

I built my new system last week from similar specs.
P4 2.6/800
Asus P4P800
Zalman 7000 AlCu
Seagate drive
Sonata case.
Radeon 9200 (no fan)

With the CPU fan at lowest setting I'm getting 25/40 C temps with an ambient of about 28C.

The system is quiet but not silent. If you listen you can hear the low pitched noise of the fans.

I don't think you'll have any problem with the Zalman heat sink at low settings. The Thermalright SLK900 was my original choice, but I went with the Zalman simply because it is an integrated one piece solution. I'm not recomending one over the other, I think you'll get good quiet results with either.

I'd worry more about the Maxtor drives.

Enjoy your new system.

maarten · Post by **maarten** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 11:41 am

So the main concern are the drives... seems these maxtors are not as quiet as I've read? I quote:

Hot Hardware
"We didn't compare the drive to every disk in our lab but the DiamondMax Plus 9 SATA drive, has quieter spindle and read head acoustics, than either the Western Digital SE or Barracuda V drives we tested"

Anand Tech
"What is perhaps more impressive than at first glance, is Maxtor's "FDB" Motor technology that this drive is built on. "Fluid Dynamic Bearing" is what the acronym stands for and it's safe to say that it delivers some of the quietest 7200 RPM operation we've heard in a drive to date. "

Both sites also state that it's an over 40% better performer in RAID 0 mode compared to the Cuda V.

So you can see my confusement here... Also I'm a bit worried some of you are "carried" by Seagate's reputation to give it the upper hand in silent operation; has anyone owned both drives ?[/b]

DavidG · Post by **DavidG** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 11:55 am

Not the new generation of Maxtors. Seems you've done your research, I'd trust the reviewers that have both drives in front of them. Hopefully this means we'll be "seeing" quieter performance from all of the vendors.

maarten · Post by **maarten** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 2:53 am

Ok, so I'll go with the maxtor drives...
The PSU is everybody seems to be perfectly happy with from start

And the other components seem to be in the right direction..
A tower case will JUST fit the spot, even if it's not the best place I would like to have my case, it'll work fine and save me a lot of money.

So one final thing to decide is the heatsink and fan; either the Zalman 7000Cu or the Thermalright SLK900 with a Papst 80mm fan rated at 14dB at 1500rpm... I guess that if the Zalman can handle the temp., the SLK900+papst will probably also be able to handle it but with a little less noise 14dB vs 20dB ... So I'll guess that's also sorted out

Thanks for your help everybody!

Last advice on quiet system

Last advice on quiet system

Re: Last advice on quiet system

Re: Last advice on quiet system