Timeline of my second quiet PC buildup! New link to pics!!!

[Audiophiliac]

I decided to share the progress of my all new quiet PC build with this forum. I started today with the case mods. Cutting the grille openings out and doing some custom silicone fan isolation for the Nexus case fans. I will add more pics as I get further. I am taking my time and doing it right. I have an idea for HDD isolation and it should work really well. Here is a list of all the components that are going into it. Thanks for looking!

Silverstone TJ-04 case
Antec Phantom PSU
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum (nForce 4 ultra) motherboard
Athlon 64 3200+ 90nm
2 x 512MB Crucial Ballistix DDR400
Asus X300 128MB, 128-bit passively cooled graphics card
Plextor PX-716SA SATA DVDRW drive
Seagate 7200.7 Barracuda 120GB HDD
2 x Nexus 120mm case fans
Thermalright XP90 heatsink with NExus 92mm fan
3 x Zalman fanmate 2 for fan control
Zalman northbridge heatsink
lots of other odds and ends


http://www.hostdub.com/Audiophiliac_album01

[Audiophiliac]

Here is some more progress today. I sealed up all the holes in the front panel with aluminum tape on both sides. I got the Antec Phantom PSU in. It fits well and should have plenty of room to breath. I got the Plextor and the 5.25" covers on and aligned and fixed into place. I got some dense rubber foam from work and cut blocks to fill the empty bays. I also got some thinner foam rubber and stuck it to the side and top panels. I dont know how much this will help but it sure can't hurt. It is fairly dense so we will see. The silicone beads around the edges of the fans aren't quite set enough to mount yet so that will be tomorrow. You can see what I am thinking for my HDD mounting. Its not suspension but it should do the trick. I just cut some foam blocks to set the drive on. It will be directly behind the fan so heat shouldnt be an issue. I will secure it with some long zipties. Tomorrow I should be able to get it completed. Except for the floppy drive which wont be here til monday. I might not even install in permanently. Only if I need it for OS install (RAID drivers). But here she is. Still in pieces! More tomorrow!

[Mr_Smartepants]

Nice setup so far. I'm sure you have all this planned anyway but...
Don't forget to line the fan cutouts with c-strip/u-channel. Freshly cut sheetmetal can be dangerously sharp. Also, it looks like you might be able to stealth your power wires behind the motherboard tray somewhat.

Make it PURTY!!
We want pictures!

[Audiophiliac]

I got the front fan/filter mounted. I also installed the DVD drive and decided against a floppy and the I/O panel I bought. I like the look of it as it is. I should be fine with the ports on the back since I can get to them easy. And yes I smoothed the edges of the grille openings so they arent sharp. The silicone worked as I hoped it would. Isolates the whole fan with a bead of silicone all the way around the edge of the fan. I used the zip tie method to mount the fan. You cant see but the whole front of the bezel is open on the bottom. I will take final pics to show it. Airflow should be ok. I am now trying to hide some wires behind the mobo tray. Then I will start with the motherboard/CPU install. I need to go get some of those things that you ziptie stuff to...the little squares with slots in them...I cant find mine and Im ticked off! I might keep working tonight!

[Audiophiliac]

Well I couldnt find any ziptie blocks at 2 AM here so I quit for the night....This morning I got up and decided to assemble the motherboard/CPU/Heatsink/fan/RAM....it looks awesome! The XP-90 fits perfectly..I am glad I didnt get the 120. It would have been too big. The Zalman NB cooler barely clears the VGA card. Whew! That would not have made my day. I'll get more pics later this PM. Ballistix is sexy huh?

[Aleksi]

Looking good! Most people won't probably comment until they see the finished result, but judging by the amount of views people are tuning in.

[Chris`I]

Yup we are waiting in anticipation!

Looks good though

[Mr_Smartepants]

You know, I was thinking to myself that this could be a system I would build for myself...but then I looked at your selection of video card.
I have to ask, why did you build such a kick-@$$ system and then cripple it with the slowest PCI-Express video card ever? I gather you don't plan on playing any games?

[Audiophiliac]

Here is how she sits until monday night. Just have to secure the HDD in and do a lot of cable management. And Mr_Smartepants, I do not do any gaming at all so I didnt have a need for a high powered graphics card. If I was a gamer I would have gotten the SLI board and did 2 X850 cards or something crazy. I just don't have a need for super high end video right now. Later, I might upgrade. Hopefully she will be finished on monday night.

[matt_garman]

That's a really sharp-looking case... but how is the front ventilation? It looks like the front bezel doesn't allow for any airflow. In other words, where is your front 120mm fan going to get air to blow in your case?

[Audiophiliac]

good question matt_garman! It does appear that there isnt any provision for air intake. But, there is a void between the front panel and the bezel, I would guess 3/4 of an inch or more. The entire area is open in front of the fan and below. With the height of the feet where they are it should be ok. I am thinking of different feet to raise it a bit more. But I will let you know how it turns out for airflow/temps/noise when its done

[Nessism]

I'm considering getting one of these cases but the lack of airflow from the front has me worried. From the photos that I've seen, the intake slots on the bottom of the bezel are small and the USB header PCB blocks a good portion of the slots

I was thinking about relocating the USB header up to one of the 3.5 bays and then removing the small door to let in more air. Not sure it would work though because even the door is quite small.

Sorry if this sounds like a put down of your new rig. It's not intended to be. Your system looks great and thanks for sharing your progress!

Ed

[Audiophiliac]

thanks ness....I removed the I/O ports and the entire bottom of the bezel comes off with a couple screws. So the whole width of the case on the bottom is open. This is fine except the feet only sit the front of the case off the desk a little bit. So I am going to find some different feet and raise it up. Its not really a big deal because it will be sitting on the edge of a rubber mat on some cinder blocks. And I will sit it so that the front of the bezel overhangs the edge so it has plenty of air. I am not feeling much like working on it tonight and I left all my tools at work so I may not get anything done tonight. I am also looking for a nice keyboard and mouse to go with it. I am thinking of this kb: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 003&depa=0

it matches the case and I really dont need another wireless one. I have been thinking of using my Microsoft Intellimouse (the executive leather covered one) because it matches as well but me being me, I need a NEW one for my NEW PC! So I am actually looking into doing a trackball. I really this one: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 021&depa=0

but I couldnt find anywhere in town that has one on display to try. Plus it is like almost $100! But if it works as good as it looks, its worth it. Has anyone used either of those? Thanks! More later!

[ckolivas]

So I am actually looking into doing a trackball. I really this one: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 021&depa=0

but I couldnt find anywhere in town that has one on display to try. Plus it is like almost $100! But if it works as good as it looks, its worth it. Has anyone used either of those? Thanks! More later!

I don't know if you're asking about that particular trackball, or all trackballs. We have ones just like them at work on stations that wont fit a mouse. I hate them with a vengeance. My hand cramps up after using them for a short while...

[nick705]

It's certainly a nice-looking case... has the same sort of internal layout and modding potential as my SLK3700AMB but oh, so much classier....

Audiophiliac, I wonder if when you've got time you could include a close-up of the bottom of the bezel (with the bottom bit removed)? That's really the only issue stopping me from ordering one right now (or maybe the even prettier TJ02)... TIA...

I'm in the process of planning an almost identical setup, so much looking forward to the end result... especially interested in how you get on with passively cooling your nforce4 chipset...

[Audiophiliac]

you can see all the way up to the DVD drive. It is all open under there without the I/O ports and the bottom removed. The only problem I see is that the fron of the bezel has a lip on it that drops it down about 1/4" which would put it really close to the surface you had the case sitting on....thats why I mentioned some higher feet to raise it up an inch or so....Or just sit it on the edge of whatever you sit it on I will work on finishing the project tonight and show you all the final result. Thanks!

[nick705]

Perfect, thanks...

The opening still obviously looks a fair bit smaller than the swept area of the fan's fins, but I'm guessing that as long as the gap is wide enough to allow the air to accelerate smoothly through it shouldn't matter too much... it should be moving fast enough to replace the volume that the fan is able to displace.

That's just me theorising of course... no substitute for hands-on experience...

[Audiophiliac]

I think as long as I have the fans slowed down reasonably, the airflow should be fine. I am going to work on the box for a couple hours tonight and throw up a pic or 2. I might even fire it up and see how it sounds. I made a slipstream XP disc with the RAID drivers on it. I will see how that works.

[Audiophiliac]

Well after a couple of hours of ninja stealthing some wiring, here she sits. I fired it up without the fanmates in and holy crap those nexus fans are quiet! I am going to leave it for now without the fanmates and see how it sounds in the long run. I might "get used to it" and start hearing it more as time goes on but we will see. I mostly didn't want to try and hide more wires .

Here is my PSU cables hiding out behind the mobo tray...I left the floppy plug accessible for now in case I need it:



Here is my HDD mounting technique. I used some open cell foam and aluminum tape to secure it. It isn't going anywhere thats for sure and maybe the aluminum tape will help move some heat to the chassis? I doubt it will make any measurable difference but who will ever know?


And....here is the big picture! I am happy with the way it looks....I wish the fans didnt have the molex plugs.....I was tempted to remove them and I might down the road. But no window = no seeing them ...Let me know what you think! I am going to hook it up and see what happens! I'll post more in a while!


and if you want the high res one here is a link: http://www.hostdub.com/albums/Audiophiliac/DSC00310.jpg

[Mr_Smartepants]

Ooooohhhhh!
Aaaaaahhhhh!


Very nice indeed!

[Cams]

Wow! That's one of the neatest insides I've seen. It always amazes me how neat you folks can get those PSU cables. Mine are out the way of the airflow, but still, they don't look anywhere near as neat as that. Good job!

By the way, I thought the same thing about the Nexus fans and almost didn't fanmate the CPU fan. In the end though I did and it has made a difference.

Edit: By the way, does your motherboard not support dual-channel RAM? Mine does and uses DIMMs 1 and 3 in order to have the RAM in a dual-channel configuration. Not sure if it makes a difference, but you never know!

[Interitus]

Very nice build! I only hope mine comes together that well. I'll be getting all my Nforce4 items in a week or 2.

Edit: By the way, does your motherboard not support dual-channel RAM? Mine does and uses DIMMs 1 and 3 in order to have the RAM in a dual-channel configuration. Not sure if it makes a difference, but you never know!

The MSI Nforce4 boards use 1 & 2 or 3 & 4 for dual channel. His is running dual channel with the DIMMs as pictured.

[Audiophiliac]

Well it fired up and installed XP first try! Looks like the SATA drivers are only needed if you are trying to install the OS on a RAID array. The SATA DVD drive didnt have any trouble at all. I ran into a problem when I installed zonealarm...it rebooted and would reboot every time windows loaded....then sometimes it wouldnt boot at all....so I got into safe mode, removed zonealarm, and it works fine now....I will try again and hopefully it works. Other than that, everything is A-ok....I just need another desk, monitor, mouse, and keyboard so I dont have to keep switching everything over . I got a KVM switch but it doesnt like my mouse for some reason. But yeah....let me get the panels on and cleaned up and get some final pics for you guys! This was a fun build. This is a great forum! I will be around! Thanks for all the input and comments! Keep it up!

PS....I will be adding a seagate 400GB SATA drive soon for music storage....I was planning on adding more foam and stacking it on the first drive...what do you think? Or should I go ahead and do an actual suspension setup? The northbridge heatsink gets really really hot...I guess that means it is doing its job....the mobo software wont list the NB temp....it says "N/A"....I dont know why....but is there reports of problems with trying to passively cool the nForce 4 chipsets? Let me know! good night!

[Mr_Smartepants]

Edit: By the way, does your motherboard not support dual-channel RAM? Mine does and uses DIMMs 1 and 3 in order to have the RAM in a dual-channel configuration. Not sure if it makes a difference, but you never know!

The MSI Nforce4 boards use 1 & 2 or 3 & 4 for dual channel. His is running dual channel with the DIMMs as pictured.

Are you sure? I looked at the pictures of his board near the top and the DIMM slots are staggered (green-blue-green-blue). Normally the paired slots are the same color (green/green, blue/blue).

Dang, I can't believe I missed that!

[Cams]

I had exactly the same problem with ZoneAlarm on my new system - what version do you have? I did a system restore in Safe Mode.

And my SATA drivers were most definitely NOT recognised during Windows setup. Could be a chipset thing?

[nick705]

The northbridge heatsink gets really really hot...I guess that means it is doing its job....the mobo software wont list the NB temp....it says "N/A"....I dont know why....but is there reports of problems with trying to passively cool the nForce 4 chipsets? Let me know! good night!

Oh, yes...

The nforce4 chipset appears to run hotter than hades (at least in its Ultra versions and up). There's a few threads here, and also one on the Anandtech forum about the problems encountered putting a Zalman passive cooler on the Asus SLI board in place of the 8000rpm stinker.

The jury seems to still be out on whether the blue Zalman is up to the job, at least without some degree of active assistance from whatever source (and assuming it can be squeezed next to the graphics card). Many people are reporting it gets too hot to touch... it may still technically be within spec but it's much hotter than I'd be happy with. Needless to say, you'll have to pay *very* careful attention to airflow at the very least. I suppose stress-testing over time is needed for a definitive answer.

Xbitlabs fried the chipset on a passively-cooled Chaintech board (Ultra) when they were testing it, although some people here think the Zalman would have handled it better than the stock heatsink, especially without the torture tests it was put through. Still, Chaintech were worried enough to switch to active cooling for that particular board...

This problem is rather putting me off an nforce4 board at the moment... maybe when the technology's a bit less raw things will improve. I really can't see the logic in a tiny fan running at supersonic speeds... even if you can stand the racket, surely it's lifetime would be measured in weeks rather than months or years. Whoever came up with this "solution," I doubt it was an engineer...

[Audiophiliac]

I have an older version of ZA Pro...not sure which one...4.5? Its a hacked copy so Im not sure what the problem is. I am going to get the newest version today and try it. If it doesnt work, oh well....I guess I have to find a diffferent firewall...I just like ZA so much. Silent Mode on the PLextor drive works well. Just limits the read speeds and stuff so it doesnt get crazy. The MSI board has several different configurations to use dual channel memory in.....I am trying to find a link to the page on their site...here we go...cut and paste from the manual. Pics tonight!

DIMM Module Combination
Install at least one DIMM module on the slots. Each DIMM slot supports up to a maximum size of 1GB. Users can install either single- or double-sided modules to meet their own needs. Please note that each DIMM can work respectively for singlechannel DDR, but there are some rules while using dual-channel DDR (Please refer to the suggested DDR population table below). Users may install memory modules of different type and density on different-channel DDR DIMMs. However, the same type and density memory modules are necessary while using dual-channel DDR,
or instability may happen. Please refer to the following table for detailed dual-channel DDR. Other combination not listed below will function as single-channel DDR.



MSI Reminds You...
- Dual-channel DDR works ONLY in the 3 combinations listed in
he table as below.
- Please select the identical memory modules to install on the dual
channel, and DO NOT install three memory modules on three
DIMMs, or it may cause some failure.
- Always insert the memory modules into the GREEN slots first, and
it is strongly recommended not to insert the memory modules into
the PURPLE slots while the GREEN slots are left empty.
- This mainboard DO NOT support the memory module installed
with more than 18 pieces of IC (integrated circuit).


DIMM1 (Ch A) DIMM2 (Ch B) DIMM3 (Ch A) DIMM4 (Ch B) System Density

128MB~1GB 128MB~1GB 256MB~2GB
128MB~1GB 128MB~1GB 256MB~2GB 128MB~1GB 128MB~1GB 128MB~1GB 128MB~1GB 512MB~4GB
GREEN PURPLE GREEN PURPLE

[Audiophiliac]

that last table didnt come out with the right spacing....it basically says you can do dual channel with 1-2 or 3-4 or 1-4 (2 dual channel sets). And is there any other "better" northbridge heatsinks or heatpipes that will fit under my graphics card AND cool that bloody thing better? I am sure the Zalman at least does as good as the junk that came on it....but I would like to be as safe as possible. thanks

[Tibors]

Manufacturers are often not very carefull in mounting their NB heatsinks. I've read many reports of a too large blob of TIM only in the middle of the heatsink. So the first thing I'd try is reseating the stock heatsink with decently applied TIM.

Also from your pictures it looks like a Zalman NB heatsink would almost fit, so you would have to bend or cut only a few pins.

Oh, yes...

The nforce4 chipset appears to run hotter than hades.....

See this discussion.

Edit:
If you're still not comfortable with your NB temps after all that. Then have a look at the bird-house mod. That could solve your problem of how to mount the second HD and brings directed airflow to the NB and video card.

[Audiophiliac]

Well here she is. Sloppy pics but thats what you get for now . I made a "duct" to get some of the intake air to flow over the northbrige. So far temps are 34 CPU, 35 CASE (reported by MSI utility), and 26 HDD (Dtemp). Noise is about where my old machine was/is....so I will have to experiment with fanmates and see what I can get. I just really need to get the 400GB SATA drive so I can turn off this annoying USB enclosure with its fan...it is quiet but not quiet enough. Later!