My first silent build (Solo/C2D)

mattcoz · Post by **mattcoz** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 3:24 am

First off I would like to thank SPCR and everyone on the forum, I've learned a lot on here and I couldn't have done this without you guys.

You can see the specs in my signature below.

Here are the parts I purchased:

My soft-mounted 92mm Nexus fans for the front panel.

My soft-mounted 120mm Yate Loon fan and Corsair HX520 PSU:

My Thermalright Ultra 120 and 120mm Yate Loon LED fan mounted on my Core 2 Duo E6400:

All the parts assembled, including the Sapphire X1950Pro Ultimate w/ Zalman VF900:

Powered on for the first time:

The intake and exhaust fans are being controlled by the motherboard with a speed of about 1000rpm. The CPU fan is at full speed because the motherboard can only control 4 pin fans, I'll have to figure out what to do with that.

It might not be up to the silence standards as some people here, but it is a huge difference from my last PC. I built it years ago when I didn't know any better, just went for the case with the most airflow. It was called the Tornado 1000, and the name was very appropriate.

acyf · Post by **acyf** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 6:53 am

nice build...pretty similar to what i'm gonna build in the near future...how're the temps btw?

wpb · Post by **wpb** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 8:57 am

Very nice build.

You'll notice a difference in noise if you slow down your fans. All of my fans are less than 700rpm and the cooling is fine with a modest overclock on my e6300. You probably already know this, but you can slow your CPU fan by undervolting it with a Zalman fan controller. My other 2 case fans are controlled by my D975XBX MB. Hopefully you can slow down your other fans via your MB.

Ken5d · Post by **Ken5d** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 10:58 am

mattcoz wrote:The CPU fan is at full speed because the motherboard can only control 4 pin fans, I'll have to figure out what to do with that.

You're definitely not the only one with this problem. If you search the forums (especially "Fans and Control") for 4-pin pwm, you'll find:
viewtopic.php?t=37164
viewtopic.php?t=35814
viewtopic.php?t=36410
viewtopic.php?t=27427

and many others. What you'll find is that some motherboards allow you to use a 3-pin fan in a 4-pin socket, and control its speed via dc instead of pwm. cmthomson's post indicates the P5B Deluxe should be one of them with such a BIOS option. The downside is, you might hear the fan clicking as a result.

Another choice is to buy a 120mm 4-pin PWM fan. The choices seem to be limited to one or two JMC models, but that's what I plan to do (in part because I don't think the motherboard I'm getting will control a 3-pin at all).

Very nice build and great pics! Thanks.

wpb · Post by **wpb** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 3:57 pm

Looks like Zalman has a 4-pin HSF. Newegg has it here.

Ken5d · Post by **Ken5d** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 4:09 pm

wpb wrote:Looks like Zalman has a 4-pin HSF. Newegg has it here.

It's 110mm instead of 120mm, but that's close enough.

However, I don't think they sell it separately, do they? I think there are other HSF combos that include 4-pin PWM fans, but the only 120x120x25 fan (that I know of) that you can buy by itself is from JMC.

However, I did recently run across a Panaflow 120x120x38 that I think is a 4-pin PWM (haven't had time to verify it).

By the way, for anyone reading this, be very careful when reading specs. Just because it has a 4-pin connector, doesn't mean that it's a PWM fan. A lot of fans come with a 4-pin molex connector -- definitely not the same thing!

nemo · Post by **nemo** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 4:14 am

why dont you just unplug your cpu fan and go passive? you seem to have enough airflow and the best cpu heatsink there is so there shouldnt be any problem with that.

waltereo · Post by **waltereo** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 3:14 pm

What is the price of your system before tax ???

Thax

mattcoz · Post by **mattcoz** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 4:21 pm

acyf wrote:how're the temps btw?

The temps are very nice, at full load the CPU only gets up to 52c, and that's with a 50% overclock. I'll post some screenshots later on.

nemo wrote:why dont you just unplug your cpu fan and go passive? you seem to have enough airflow and the best cpu heatsink there is so there shouldnt be any problem with that.

1. I'm overclocking so I want the active cooling.
2. I really don't even notice it usually, it's quiet enough to make me realize how loud the fan on my DLP TV is.

waltereo wrote:What is the price of your system before tax ???

Around $1250 after shipping and tax, that doesn't include the monitor and mouse/keyboard that I already had.

gksam · Post by **gksam** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:27 pm

mattcoz wrote:
acyf wrote:how're the temps btw?
The temps are very nice, at full load the CPU only gets up to 52c, and that's with a 50% overclock. I'll post some screenshots later on.

nemo wrote:why dont you just unplug your cpu fan and go passive? you seem to have enough airflow and the best cpu heatsink there is so there shouldnt be any problem with that.
1. I'm overclocking so I want the active cooling.
2. I really don't even notice it usually, it's quiet enough to make me realize how loud the fan on my DLP TV is.

waltereo wrote:What is the price of your system before tax ???
Around $1250 after shipping and tax, that doesn't include the monitor and mouse/keyboard that I already had.

Looks nice. I have a similar system. However, as somebody else mentioned, you may not need the CPU fan.

I have a C2D with Gigabyte DS3. 7900GTO, 150gig raptor, 2*1gb, E6400 overclocked at @ 3.2ghz (1.375V). I have just a rear exhaust fan at 5V (nexus 120mm), and Ultra120 on the CPU.

Thats all I have. Other than the powersupply fan of course (Seasonic 430W), and the 7900GTO fan (which as people report here is very very very quiet). About 34oC idle, 55oC load.

Byakko · Post by **Byakko** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 2:03 pm

My question is since the Corsair PSU is right next to the CPU, doesn't it make it hotter, therefore making it noisier? If you say your CPU temps are ~50c, isn't the PSU intaking 50c air?

I'm just confused since I read the article on the Corsair PSUs and the ambient temps are much lower than 50c. And the review states that PSU fan speeds/noise level is dependent on temperature, so shouldn't 50c be pretty hot?

ryboto · Post by **ryboto** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 4:35 pm

Byakko wrote:My question is since the Corsair PSU is right next to the CPU, doesn't it make it hotter, therefore making it noisier? If you say your CPU temps are ~50c, isn't the PSU intaking 50c air?

I'm just confused since I read the article on the Corsair PSUs and the ambient temps are much lower than 50c. And the review states that PSU fan speeds/noise level is dependent on temperature, so shouldn't 50c be pretty hot?

Just because the cpu core is at 50C doesn't mean that the air is that exact temperature. The heat exchange surface area is quite large therefore the heat being removed from the cpu is spread across a large surface. I'm having a hard time with thought processes after a half day of homework, so excuse me if that isn't a clear enough explanation. Basically the heatsink system, and heat transfer to the air would have to be completely devoid of thermal resistance...since there are thermal resistances, it's very difficult to cool a fully loaded processor to ambient temperature using an air cooler, so it's just as difficult for the heat sink to transfer the full heat of the cpu to the air.

So, the psu isn't getting 50C air, it could be 10-15C above ambient, but not that hot.

My first silent build (Solo/C2D)

My first silent build (Solo/C2D)

Re: My first silent build (Solo/C2D)