Project: "Night Wind"

IceWindius · Post by **IceWindius** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 6:24 pm

Evening gents, thought i'd post a link to a worklog I have in progress for my newest project: "Night Wind'' Feel free to comment with suggestions, ideas or questions.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=896025

miyagi · Post by **miyagi** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 7:33 pm

nice drive mounting

ONEshot · Post by **ONEshot** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 8:33 pm

Why did you use the Stealths? I think if you even so much as sniff this forum , you'll sense the unworthiness of this fan in a quiet case.

By the way, you might want to cite where you're getting a lot of those pictures.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 5:43 am

Nice work so far!

You should think about posting a slightly rewritten* version of that here in the SPCR Gallery, it would make a pretty decent "how-to" sort of feature.

*I'd remove all those hot-links to the various copyrighted photos that you've included in your [H] postings. At least that's a bit of a violation of "netiquette", and at worst, some of the larger companies certainly wouldn't appreciate you using their own pics to illustrate your article.

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 6:00 am

Haven't we seen some of those pics before? And some of the comments about disk drives seem quite dated (IBM sold its disk drive business to Hitachi a couple years ago) and Western Digital drives made in 2005 with FDB are much better than previous models.

The drive mounting system using the Sonata trays seems similar to the one I posted here about a year ago:
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=10450

But it would work even better if the screw mounts from underneath had foam cushioning, and the foam itself is a too light to absorb much shock (although I am sure it does a good job isolating the drives).

x1m · Post by **x1m** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 1:55 pm

Regarding the HDD suspension using elastic wire: I urge you to reconsider this idea.

Suspending HDDs in this manner will severely reduce performance (up to one-third, or worse) and in the long term may actually be harmful to the HDD.

The solution I used was to mount aluminium U-brackets to the sides of each HDD. Then I attached smaller pieces of U-brackets to those brackets, with rubber rings between them, so that there's no metal-to-metal contact. Those latter U-brackets are then used to mount the entire contraption in a 5.25" bay.

This way, the HDD is virtually silent (except for seeking noise and such), yet performance is not impacted, plus the drive is cooled even better (the U-brackets act like heatsinks).

That seems a bit of a large claim to me.

miyagi · Post by **miyagi** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:58 pm

that's because it's verbal feces.

IceWindius · Post by **IceWindius** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 12:42 pm

Project "Night Wind" is completed. I would personally like to thank the awesome guys at SilentPCReview for making this dream come true. At long last I dont have a farking jumbo jet next to me when im trying to game, play music or surf. Thanks to everyone for their input, suggestions, ideas and previous modding expertise. Its been a very informing process building my first truly silent case and i've learned alot as a result.

Again, the noise reduction has been insane following your guys steps, I simply cannot believe the difference.

For the entire worklog and final pictures, go here

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=896025

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 5:11 am

IceWindius wrote:Project "Night Wind" is completed.

Very nice looking setup homes!

Techno Pride · Post by **Techno Pride** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 5:17 am

to replace the power and hdd leds, basically you just pull out the original ones and push new 3mm ones in by hand (fingers)?

tay · Post by **tay** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 5:28 am

Very nice!

IceWindius · Post by **IceWindius** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 9:11 am

Techno Pride wrote:to replace the power and hdd leds, basically you just pull out the original ones and push new 3mm ones in by hand (fingers)?

Yep, antec cases have been doing that for years, makes it really easy to swap out LED's.

flyingsherpa · Post by **flyingsherpa** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 9:12 am

nice project.

my one question is why you would take the time to paint the optical drive faceplates, but leave the tray fronts white?!? i'm guessing you didn't know that those come off very easily: with the pc powered on, eject the tray. the fronts pop up and off. i've done this to several drives without damaging them. you can paint them just like you did for the face plates and then pop them back on.

actually, you need to pop those off to even remove the face plates. hmmm. maybe you painted them without removing them and just masked everything off?

IceWindius · Post by **IceWindius** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 9:14 am

flyingsherpa wrote:nice project.

my one question is why you would take the time to paint the optical drive faceplates, but leave the tray fronts white?!? i'm guessing you didn't know that those come off very easily: with the pc powered on, eject the tray. the fronts pop up and off. i've done this to several drives without damaging them. you can paint them just like you did for the face plates and then pop them back on.

actually, you need to pop those off to even remove the face plates. hmmm. maybe you painted them without removing them and just masked everything off?

Actually, they ARE painted. The bottom one is painted white while I left the Plextor one alone as I liked the black shiny plastic bar on the bottom of it, but im more then capable of painting it, I just didn't feel the need. I've painted several drives by taking the faceplates off. MUCH easier then masking the entire drive and trying to paint it without ruining it.

Mockery · Post by **Mockery** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 12:12 am

Awesome. Great glossy paint job, I can see your house!
Now i feel inspired to do something to my own sonata.

For some reason, I cannot load the page at HardForum. What controller thingo is that, in between your optical drives?
(and do you like it, or would you get something else?)

Techno Pride · Post by **Techno Pride** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 6:33 am

thanks.

how about the annoyingly bright leds next to the usb ports? can they be replaced as well?

IceWindius · Post by **IceWindius** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 7:23 am

Mockery wrote:Awesome. Great glossy paint job, I can see your house!
Now i feel inspired to do something to my own sonata.

For some reason, I cannot load the page at HardForum. What controller thingo is that, in between your optical drives?
(and do you like it, or would you get something else?)

Its an Aerogate II and I like it alot. Very stylus yet functional at the same time. Looked at alot of different controllers and this one just fit the bill nicely. Only thing I grip about it is the stupid metal tabs that attach to the case are aluminum and flex to easy making it hard to stay in place

IceWindius · Post by **IceWindius** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 7:25 am

Techno Pride wrote:thanks.

how about the annoyingly bright leds next to the usb ports? can they be replaced as well?

There actually not that bright, I believe Antec actually wired up a resistor in later versions of the Sonata to reduce brightness and mine has one. If there that annyoing to you, yes they will require stripping and soldering to replace.

omega_1 · Post by **omega_1** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 12:09 pm

well ive said it on fm, and ill say it again, that is one hell of a nice pc...looks and i bet performs like a beats, congrats.

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Wed May 04, 2005 10:38 pm

IceWindius wrote:
Techno Pride wrote:how about the annoyingly bright leds next to the usb ports? can they be replaced as well?
[...]yes they will require stripping and soldering to replace.

No they don't. The leads of LED's are just pushed into a two pin plug.
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... 833#176833

IceWindius · Post by **IceWindius** » Thu May 05, 2005 9:12 am

Hmmm thats odd, cause mine don't have them. Antec apparantly changed them.

IceWindius · Post by **IceWindius** » Sun May 15, 2005 10:36 am

PROJECT UPDATE: INTAKE AREA MODIFICATIONS

I have recently completed intake modifications on "Night Wind" to dramatically increase my intake airflow on the system. Below is link and some pictures of what I have done

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=896025

GUNNER · Post by **GUNNER** » Sun May 15, 2005 10:46 am

What's the grill addition do to the noise level?

tay · Post by **tay** » Sun May 15, 2005 11:10 am

Go with a black grill. The shape of the grill holes isnt nice enough for white IMO. Awesome fit n finish though.

Rene · Post by **Rene** » Sun May 15, 2005 11:10 am

GUNNER wrote:What's the grill addition do to the noise level?

Air flow maybe? I've been playing around with doing something like that myself with my sonata. How is it working out? any improvement in temps? Do you get much noise coming through the grill?

IceWindius · Post by **IceWindius** » Sun May 15, 2005 11:53 am

Rene wrote:
GUNNER wrote:What's the grill addition do to the noise level?
Air flow maybe? I've been playing around with doing something like that myself with my sonata. How is it working out? any improvement in temps? Do you get much noise coming through the grill?

The purpose was for airflow as the case was still sufficating to much as a result of 3 exhaust fans and not enough air intake. Now the fans are moving much more air and my temps have dropped around 2c. I can't tell any difference in noise output, my Seagates are pretty quiet thanks to the foam mounting.

BrianE · Post by **BrianE** » Sun May 15, 2005 12:09 pm

I like the colour scheme you have for the rest of the case, and I think it really looks great, but I agree with Tay that the grille should be black instead. White seems too contrasting to the other colours IMHO.

But if YOU like the white, then stay with it of course, because that's what really matters!

IceWindius · Post by **IceWindius** » Sun May 15, 2005 12:19 pm

BrianE wrote:I like the colour scheme you have for the rest of the case, and I think it really looks great, but I agree with Tay that the grille should be black instead. White seems too contrasting to the other colours IMHO.

But if YOU like the white, then stay with it of course, because that's what really matters!

I see your point but sorry, I like white personally and it goes with the graphic on the left side of the case and my drives. Its about pleasing me, not you

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Mon May 16, 2005 10:50 am

Kick Ass...........

You need more than just a pat on the back, Antec take note, Black/Blue Cases, with improved intake ventilation.

That gives me an idea or 2 to do to my Sonata (cutting, not the paintjob).

Andy

toNka · Post by **toNka** » Mon May 23, 2005 9:57 pm

Awsome!
Just a few points/opinions...
1) I'd paint your mesh intake grill black
2) I'd paint the optical drive's tray bezels black too (so each drive is black/blue)
3) Get some C-channel trim around that back exhaust fan cut out
4) Replace the Cooler Master fan with a Clear Blue Yate Loon
5) Give the system to me as a sign of appreciation for all my good advice

All in all, GREAT JOB!