My attempt at a quiet pc

swiftynz · Post by **swiftynz** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 6:43 pm

I had to give my case and PSU to my little brother (long story), and thus needed a new one to replace it. After doing some extensive reading on this fantastic site, I decided to purchase an Antec SLK3000B and Enermax noisetaker PSU.

The Enermax wasn't my first choice, since I really wanted one with a 120mm intake and no 80mm exhaust, but I also wanted an ATXv2 PSU so I can use it when I upgrade to A64, and all the 120mm psus I could see were ATXv1.3 (except the ultra-expensive OCZ and Antec neopower).

The case was even harder, as good cases are quite hard to come by in New Zealand (everyone seems obsessed with the cheap steel cases that come with rubbish power supplies, or the noisy bling bling thermaltake cases). To get a decent one you have to pay a premium. The Antec SLK3000B seemed to be really highly regarded on here, and despite costing NZ$163 sans PSU, there really wasn't any other good option.

The specs of this PC make quite sorry reading and it is rather dated now, but it does what I need and plays games well enough when I want to:
- Athlon XP 2500+ AQXEA 0322 (Barton, unlocked) @ 1800mhz/200fsb, 1.40V
- Thermalright SLK800 cpu heatsink
- Abit NF7-S v2.0 w/ Zalman NB47J on northrbridge and an old i440BX heatsink on the southbridge
- 2x512mb Geil Value DDR400
- Powercolor 9700 Pro 128mb w/ Zalman 80C-HP w/ optional fan
- 120gb Seagate 7200.7 8mb PATA
- 250gb Seagate 7200.8 8mb SATA
- Enermax noisetaker 420W
- Old Pinnacle PCI TV Tuner
- Secondary Realtek PCI NIC
- Pioneer DVR-109 DVDRW flashed to A09, silentdrive enabled
- BTC 52x CDRW
- 3C 13-in-1 memory card reader
- Floppy drive
- 2x120mm case fans, stock Antec in front on low, Evercool Aluminium 120mm in rear

Pic:

There are a few more pics of the case (mostly without my components in) here.

Now the accoustic details. There are 7 sources of noise in the case:
1: Enermax 420W noisetaker PSU: I've actually been rather impressed with the noise level of this. By all accounts it's a very efficient PSU and not much heat is coming out of it at all. The fans stay at a pretty low speed, I'd estimate they're getting 5V or so. I don't see the need to replace them.
2: CPU fan: Can't hear it at all. It's an ADDA sleeve bearing fan that came with a Chieftec case @ 5V. Very slow, practically silent. It remains to be seen how long it will last.
3: Zalman fan on the 9700 Pro: Again practically silent. It's running off the motherboard fan header and I've used speedfan to slow it to 1%. It's much quieter than using the supplied Zalman adaptor which supplies it with 5V. There is a slight bearing chatter audible when your ear is right next to it, but other than that it's inaudible.
4: Evercool 120mm rear case fan: This fan is running at 5V with a rubber mounting pad, and grommets on the screws. It is very quiet, but not silent. It provides pretty good case airflow and is spinning slow enough that I can see the blades moving around so I don't think I really want to slow it down any more. There is no bearing chatter or motor noise that I can hear, just a very low woosh sound which is not unpleasant.

5: Stock Antec 120mm fan in front: This was loud enough to be audible from outside the case (even on low) so I unplugged it. I think I'll need to undervolt it a bit.
6: 7200.7 120gb: Not the quietest of hard drives but not bad. The motor has quite a high pitched sound, seeks are pretty quiet though and the rubber grommets dampen them even more.
7: 7200.8 250gb: This drive has a loud seek noise that was quite annoying in my old case. The grommets of the SLK3000B do a good job of dampening the seeks, and the sound is no longer annoying. In fact I quite like being able to hear when the hard drive is working. This drive is quieter than my 7200.7 when idle, and it is a lower pitched sound which is more pleasant. I would actually say the motor noise is pretty close to a Barracuda IV 40gb, and I'm quite happy with it. Both my drives have "Product of Singapore" on the sticker.

I would love to get a Nexus 120mm fan to replace the Antec, but the only nexus fans we can get here are 80mm ones. They cost NZ$45

, and I'm not paying that price, it's a joke quite frankly! Another Evercool Aluminium fan would be an option, but they're not cheap at $32, and don't fit in to the plastic frame. I'd have to use cable ties to mount it which wouldn't be a bad idea I guess.

My two hard drives are the noisiest components in my case, followed by the noisetaker PSU. I'm pretty happy with the overall noise of the system, it is a low hum and makes for quite a pleasant ambient noise. If it was under the desk instead of sitting beside me I think I'd struggle to hear it during the day.

I know it's nothing special, and certainly not a silent computer, but it is very quiet and I'm happy with it. So thanks SPCR for all the help, even if you didn't know you'd given it.

<edit> forgot to post temps:
CPU: 32°C idle, 40°C after 10mins of prime95
7200.7 hard drive: 34°C (will have to assume the 7200.8 is similar, speedfan won't report its temp since its on a silicon image PCI SATA controller)
Case: 24°C
It's winter here at the moment and the room temperature is probably a bit below what it normally would be.

swiftynz · Post by **swiftynz** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 8:06 pm

Update:
Those temps were hogwash. I restarted and suddenly the cpu was at 52°C idle, the heatsink was hot to the touch. I decided the SLK800 wasn't really coping with such a pathetic amount of airflow, so naturally I undervolted a bit more. It's now running at 1700mhz (200x8.5) with 1.30V. The temperature has been constantly dropping since restarting at the new clock speed, even under a prime95 torture test. It started at 50°C and is now at 46°C, where it seems to have stabilised.

<edit> Changed the cpu fan for a Vantec Stealth, the Adda fan wasn't providing enough airflow @ 5V. Stealths are not the quietest fans in the world, in fact this one is quite bad, but it does have some other advantages over the ADDA. It's ball bearing so should last a lot longer, and it has a 3-pin header which means I can control it via speedfan. At 1% it's pushing more air than the ADDA fan, and it's still near-silent. I think I'll take the better cooling, longevity and control over the silence of the ADDA.

liquid_celica · Post by **liquid_celica** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 9:30 am

you look like you have a decent amount of airflow. Thermal paste properly applied? Even your adda fan should have provided enough airflow since theres a 120mm providing exhaust.

swiftynz · Post by **swiftynz** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 4:38 pm

I think you might be on to something there. The clip for the SLK800 has become a little loose and it's quite easy to twist it. In the past I've always used as little amount of thermal paste as possible by spreading a very thin layer over the core, but maybe it needs some more since the pressure is not as good as it used to be?

liquid_celica · Post by **liquid_celica** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 9:53 am

any good news with the adjustment of the thermal paste and the heatsink?

swiftynz · Post by **swiftynz** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 7:06 pm

Unfortunately no, it didn't really make much of a difference. I cleaned off the old paste (which was quite new), applied some fresh stuff making sure that I used a bit more and reseated the heatsink. I think my load temps went down a degree or so (with the stealth), which might translate to 2° or so with the adda. Still within the margin of error though really.

The Evercool 120mm ball bearing fan is actually making more noise than I thought at first, noise which I may have wrongly attributed to the power supply. It sounded ok at first but is starting to bug me now, and I think I need to look for a new fan (sleeve bearing this time).

Fan choice is limited as I mentioned before, but do you think this fan would be better? It's also an evercool, model EC9225L12S.

Or maybe slowing down the aluminium one more would be a better option... would it be ok to run off the motherboard header? It's rated at .38A which gives 4.56W, a figure that concerns me a bit. The EC9225L12S is just 0.09A which gives 1.08W... much less power.

Cheers.

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 7:44 pm

To quiet the evercool - undervolt it to ~3.5v, or whatever the MINIMUM voltage you need to guarantee it boots at startup. It won't be Nexus quiet, but it will be quiet. I was amazed my computer was even quieter after I installed the Nexus, and I already thought I had a computer suitable as a DAW.

liquid_celica · Post by **liquid_celica** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 9:16 pm

what's interesting here is that you're only running a 2500 xp. I've seen several 2500 xp that show about an average of 34-39 degrees celcius. That's very odd.

Are you getting your measurement through the bios or from MBM5 or something similar to that. I would be very surprised to see your NF7 reporting the 53 degree temp.

autoboy · Post by **autoboy** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 10:47 pm

you could just have a motherboard that overreports the temperature. I have my folks' old hp that used a palomino xp2000+ and a nforce motherboard that would report temps into the 70s. I tried every heatsink i had on the damn thing and determined that the motherboard was just majorly overreporting the temps. I tried the same xp2000+ in another board with the same heatsinks and it showed temps of 45C under load. The hp was always stable so i just gave up and lived with the high reported temps. Eventually i gave up on the board though cause it was not undervoltable and had a crappy hp bios on it. If your computer is stable don't worry about those high temps.

swiftynz · Post by **swiftynz** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 3:25 am

I'm getting the temp measurements through speedfan/MBM5. I thought this would give the same reading as the bios?
Abit have altered the calibration on the temp sensor quite a few times through bios releases, and I do remember that the reported temps jumped by 10° or so after one of them. At one stage it was watercooled and I was getting temp readings below ambient... hence why they changed it I'm guessing.

The temps with the ADDA fan did concern me, not just because it was reporting in the mid 50s but because the heatsink was rather hot to the touch (I could only just hold my finger there) and I could barely feel any airflow coming from the fan. So I don't think the temps it's giving are toooo inaccurate - as a ballpark figure it's probably not bad.

Thanks for the responses, I will have to look at undervolting this evercool fan.

Interitus · Post by **Interitus** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 12:02 pm

The Evercool 120mm ball bearing fan is actually making more noise than I thought at first, noise which I may have wrongly attributed to the power supply. It sounded ok at first but is starting to bug me now, and I think I need to look for a new fan (sleeve bearing this time).

I've owned 3 90/92mm Evercools and 2 120mm Evercools. The Aluminum ones in my experience are extremely directional sensitive. Try rotating the fan in your hand while it's running and you'll see what I mean. Most of mine ran the best if the label appeared upside down, where if I put the label right side up they would click/buzz etc...