2 Iterations of a Lian-Li C2Q System *UPDATED: C2Q to C2D*

jwoolen01 · Post by **jwoolen01** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:33 pm

I recently upgraded after the July 22 price cuts. I picked up a Q6600 from newegg.com for $299 before they began charging $375. About 3 weeks earlier, I grabbed a Gigabyte P35-DS3R. I was juggling getting an E6850 or a Q6600, so I wanted a board that would handle either. After some assessment of my computer usage, I chose the Q6600.

The major components in both iterations are:

CPU: Intel Q6600 2.4GHz (undervolted to 1.075v)
MB: Gigabyte P35-DS3R-F4
HDD: Samsung T166 HD501LJ
HDD Enclosure: Scythe Quiet Drive (with AcoustiFeet on the bottom)
VGA: Gigabyte GV-NX79G256DP-RH GeForce 7900GS
RAM: Kingston KVR667D2N5K2/2G
SOUND: M-Audio Revolution 5.1
PSU: Seasonic S12 430 (with Yate Loon D12SL-12 undervolted to 5v)
VGA Cooling: Thermalright HR-03 (with Nexus DF1209SL-3 undervolted to 7v)
CPU Cooling: Scythe Ninja SCNJ-1100P Rev.B

The first iteration was housed in a modified Lian Li PC-7A. It had one Yate Loon D12SL-12 undervolted to 5v as an exhaust fan. To simplify cable management, I used an LG GSA-H62N because it has an SATA interface.

I wasn't as comfortable with the PC-7A as I was with the PC-V1000, so I moved the system into a PC-V1000A Plus II. One Nexus D12SL-12 undervolted to 5v is serving as the intake fan in the rear of the chassis. In this iteration, cable management was made easier by using an LG GSA-H42N because it has a PATA interface, and I already had an 6" round IDE cable (which I forgot to add before I took these pics).

I took this last pic for anyone who wanted a closer look at the clearance between the Ninja, northbridge heatsink, and the RAM. It ended up with the RAM being the focal point.

Another reason I went back to the V1000 is that it has great cooling capacity with minimal airflow. I can still run the Nexus at 5v with the Q6600 installed.

Idle:
Tjunct (Tcore): 40(25)C 38(23)C 38(23)C 43(28)C

Load:
Tjunct (Tcore): 65(50)C 61(46)C 61(46)C 65(50)C

Temperatures were obtained using OCCT/Speedfan and Core Temp.
Not great temperatures, but well below the operating limits of the CPU.

jwoolen01 · Post by **jwoolen01** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:44 pm

Installed the IDE cable on the LG.

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jaldridge6 · Post by **jaldridge6** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 8:50 pm

does the v1000 plus whatever have those circular cable holes cut in by default?

you ever find a way to stop the v1000 from rattling with optical drives?

Maudio makes damn fine soundcards. Much much better than creative Xfi junk.

I think the pc70 looked pretty damn nice, but, whatever

I REALLY want a pc-a09b. Good lordy.

derekchinese · Post by **derekchinese** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 9:41 pm

nice rig!

Very nice to see that the quadcore can be undervolted and cooled passively at stock speeds. Have u always ran the seasonic with a 5V fan? Under full load, is the air exiting the PSU quite warm?

Excellent work and congratulations on your silent pc!

Derek

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 1:50 am

That Lian Li case looks totally awesome. And I love how you've done your cooling with reversing the "exhaust" fan and make it intake and same tme use Ninja as pseudo passive to cool quadcore.

jwoolen01 · Post by **jwoolen01** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 2:49 am

jaldridge6 wrote:does the v1000 plus whatever have those circular cable holes cut in by default?

you ever find a way to stop the v1000 from rattling with optical drives?

Maudio makes damn fine soundcards. Much much better than creative Xfi junk.

I think the pc70 looked pretty damn nice, but, whatever :roll:

I REALLY want a pc-a09b. Good lordy.

I added those holes using a drill with a 1" hole saw, and covered the edges with some channel molding i got from performance-pcs.com.

I did find one way of keeping the case from rattling, which sucks directly, and that is to limit the rotational speed of the drive. If you leave rip lock intact and never burn above 8x, everything is rosy. Also, the pc-7 resonated when the drive speed was high. It sounded like someone blowing air into a 20 oz. bottle

derekchinese wrote:nice rig!

Very nice to see that the quadcore can be undervolted and cooled passively at stock speeds. Have u always ran the seasonic with a 5V fan? Under full load, is the air exiting the PSU quite warm?

Excellent work and congratulations on your silent pc!

Derek

I've run that seasonic at 5v for over a year and a half now. The air gets warm, but not very warm.

jaldridge6 · Post by **jaldridge6** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 8:13 am

did you see this post?

http://silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=42023

apparently, duck tape can do wonders for the side panels of some lian li cases. maybe you could do something similar with the v1000?

XanderH · Post by **XanderH** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 9:47 am

Nice sys!

Can you post some more temperatures, the chipset-temp for example? I guess there's very little airflow, with only one intake...

Fayd · Post by **Fayd** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 9:59 am

thejamppa wrote:That Lian Li case looks totally awesome. And I love how you've done your cooling with reversing the "exhaust" fan and make it intake and same tme use Ninja as pseudo passive to cool quadcore.

that lianli case is set up by default for that mode of operation.

jwoolen01 · Post by **jwoolen01** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 6:43 pm

Here's a screenshot of the load test after the temperatures stabilized (roughly 30 minutes). This time I used 4 instances of prime95 with small ffts (stress cpu) to load the processor. I also replaced the Nexus fan with a Yate Loon (still at 5v). The 4 prime95s caused the CPU to get hotter than OCCT.

Below are the load and idle temps, with the load to the left and idle to the right.

XanderH · Post by **XanderH** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 3:39 am

Those temps look very nice!

What's the "Temp1"-temp in SpeedFan?

jwoolen01 · Post by **jwoolen01** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 4:15 am

The system (chipset) temp.

jaldridge6 · Post by **jaldridge6** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 9:13 am

just curious, what did you do with your s3-945/e4300/8600gts/black v1000 setup?

jwoolen01 · Post by **jwoolen01** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 9:33 pm

jaldridge6 wrote:just curious, what did you do with your s3-945/e4300/8600gts/black v1000 setup?

I parted ways with it in order to build this one. In the next few months, I'll be making some changes to this setup too. I plan on installing a vga card that will allow me to run the hr-03 passively that also doesn't require power input. I'm also looking at adding either an asus xonar or an auzentech prelude. I may even step down from this Q6600 for a CPU with lower TDP. It's by far the hottest chip I've ever run. I'm just whimsical like that.

jaldridge6 · Post by **jaldridge6** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 10:45 am

probably shoulda just kept your passive gigabyte 7600gt and the e4300. is there any reason you needed a quadcore?

jwoolen01 · Post by **jwoolen01** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 1:17 pm

Just wanted to try one to see what all the fuss was over. It makes a big difference in video/photo manipulation. Problem is, I don't do that as often as I used to. Thought the new juice would rekindle the passion, but it didn't. My main goal is a cool, quiet pc.

I'll be reverting to a Celeron 420 (Conroe-L) until I get the Q6600 sold. The celly runs VERY cool. I can live with it in the mean time.

Update: Sold the Q6600. E6750 on the way.

jaldridge6 · Post by **jaldridge6** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 9:19 pm

phew, I'm glad you're not going to put a crummy $40 processor [celeron 420] in such a nice case on such a nice motherboard. The E6750 should be perfect.

8600gt is probably the card for you. You can probably run that passive with the hr03 and get back to your two fan optimal setup.

jwoolen01 · Post by **jwoolen01** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 2:37 am

That's exactly what I was thinking. As soon as I get this 7900GS sold, I'll be looking into getting a 8600GT. I'm a very light gamer, and occasionally I'll watch an hd clip or two, so it fits the bill nicely.

The celly isn't that bad, but it's just a place holder. It would be perfect for a low powered passive setup.

jwoolen01 · Post by **jwoolen01** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 4:47 pm

I finally got all my up/downgrades completed. I took some performance hits in raw CPU and GPU power, but my system now reflects my everyday usage. I'm also back to 2 fan operation (one chassis, one psu).

Heres what's different:

1. Q6600 replaced by E6750
2. Gigabyte 7900GS replaced by XFX 8600GT
3. M-Audio Revolution replaced by Auzentech X-Meridian
4. Replaced Nexus D12SL-12 with Yate Loon (for higher CFM with 5v)
5. Improved cable management.

The voltage setting on the E6750.

I replaced the stock op-amps on the X-Meridian with some LM4562NAs.

Switching to the 8600GT allowed me to run the power cable for the DVDRW behind the MB tray.

The XFX 8600GT with a Thermalright HR-03 installed.

The end result.

XFX 8600GT idle temperature.

XFX 8600GT load temperature.

I also added a new input device: a new Apple keyboard.

Steve Teixera · Post by **Steve Teixera** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 2:23 am

nice update,
do you have the new cpu load and idle temps?

do you clock the 8600 down in 2d?

Perhaps you can also add some info about your c2d experience so far with the e4300, q6600 and the e6750? was the e4300 slow for any application?

jwoolen01 · Post by **jwoolen01** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:33 am

Idle temps:

Load temps:

For my computing needs, the E4300 was just as adequate as the E6750 and the Q6600. I was even able to use my computer comfortably with a Celeron 420. The main usage of my computer at the moment is web browsing, iso building/burning, music, and occasional gaming. Occasionally I encode a video file either with DVDShrink or CCE. That's where the difference comes in. The Q6600 was incredible in that regard. It distanced itself from the dual core processors. With the Celeron, patience was required. The gaming experience was best with the E6750. I was still able to play TRA @ 1280x1024 at decent framerates even with the Celeron.

Undervolting was the best with the e4300 and the Celeron 420. I was able to get both of these chips to run on 0.975v. The Celeron of course was the coolest, maybe the coolest CPU I've ever owned. The E4300 and G0 E6750 also ran very cool. The E6750 didn't undervolt as low as the aforementioned CPUs. I was only able to get it to 1.1125v. I was also able to undervolt the Q6600 to a voltage similar to the E6750. I can't remember right off what that was.

If I were a video encoder/heavy multimedia processor, I'd get the Q6600. Truthfully, the E4300 probably suits my needs best, but with the prices falling the way they did, I had to give the upper realm a try. I had to see what the original AMD killer (Conroe @ 2.66GHz) and quad core were like. If I only wanted to surf the web and listen to music, which is what I do most of the time, I'd be perfectly happy with the Celeron. It could easily fit into a passive setup.

As for the 8600GT, I ended up going back to the 7900GS. The loss of framerate isn't worth the power consumption trade-off. I may decide to underclock the 7900GS in 2D mode.

elec999 · Post by **elec999** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:24 am

You have really inspired me to make my q6600 silent. Amazing work and setup.
Thanks

jwoolen01 · Post by **jwoolen01** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:30 am

It can be done, probably much easier with the G0 revision. I had the B3. I'd like to see how cool the G0 would run, and its minimum stable vcore.

2 Iterations of a Lian-Li C2Q System UPDATED: C2Q to C2D

2 Iterations of a Lian-Li C2Q System UPDATED: C2Q to C2D