My new silent (almost there) NSK-2480 (many pics)

[yamahaSHO]

I had an NSK-2480 build that I initially wanted to use for HD DVD/BD and found that my X1650XT wouldn't accelerate the video and the CPU was almost maxed during movies.

Anyway, I made some changes for the better and here they are:

- Antec NSK2480
- GIGABYTE GA-945GCM-S2C
- Core2Duo E4500 w/ Scythe Ninja Mini
- Mushkin 2 x 1GB DDR2 RAM (PC5300)
- EVGA 9600GT SC
- Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 MCE
- LG GGC-H20L
- Seagate Scorpio 2.5" 160GB HDD
- Enermax Liberty 500w
- 2x Noctua NF-P12
- Samsung 32" 720P LCD HDTV
- Vista Home Premium


For the most part, this thing doesn't really make any noise. I went with a laptop HDD as my old Seagate Barracuda 3.5" was annoyingly loud. After sorting that out, I put in some Noctua fans and found that they now were the loudest part in my system. On high (motherboard control), they were WAY too loud. I now have the Low Noise Adapter (1100 RPM) and they have a nice whoosh to them. They are still the loudest parts in my case. I am going to try the Ultra Low Noise Adapter next (900 RPM).

Anyway, here are some pictures:





Suspended with 1mm Stretch Magic FTW! I can't hear this thing unless the case is open and I'm within a couple inches of the HDD.

[chahahc]

I put in some Noctua fans and found that they now were the loudest part in my system.

Interesting, I though the stock cooler on the graphics card would make the most noise.

Very clean build by the way. Me like!

[Krumb]

Looks really good, nice and tidy.

[seraphyn]

Interesting, I though the stock cooler on the graphics card would make the most noise.

Very clean build by the way. Me like!

Not yet, that cooler (when running at low rpm) is pretty silent. As soon as he silences his fans though, then it will be the loudest part. After that probably the PSU and then the fans again etc etc.

[yamahaSHO]

Interesting, I though the stock cooler on the graphics card would make the most noise.

Very clean build by the way. Me like!

Not yet, that cooler (when running at low rpm) is pretty silent. As soon as he silences his fans though, then it will be the loudest part. After that probably the PSU and then the fans again etc etc.

The PSU is louder than the 9600GT fan. It spins slow enough that there really is no noise associated with it. Once I slow the case fans down some more, I won't be able to really hear this thing outside of 2 feet.

[FartingBob]

That HDD mounting looks very elegant!
Id knock those noctuas down to 900rpm like you said. If the CPU gets a little toasty then keep the one directly next to the HS at 1100rpm, the other at 900.

[yamahaSHO]

That HDD mounting looks very elegant!
Id knock those noctuas down to 900rpm like you said. If the CPU gets a little toasty then keep the one directly next to the HS at 1100rpm, the other at 900.

For the money I paid and all the hype these have, they better get the job done at 900 RPM. Thus far, my Antec Tri-Cool fans are more quiet on their "L" setting and kept the case cool.

"FartingBob" = One of the best screen names I've seen!

[nitram_tpr]

Nice build, I will be building a rig very similar to this (Black Fusion case) and was wondering what it would look like internally.
Did your case come with a PSU, or was it a bare one? I am looking at using the PSU that comes with the Fusion.
I am also looking into replacing the case fans, I have been seeing a lot of people complaining about the Noctua's being too loud! I'm gonna give some Akasa fans a go, they are supposedly rated at 18dba, so hopefully they will be nice and quiet.

[yamahaSHO]

Nice build, I will be building a rig very similar to this (Black Fusion case) and was wondering what it would look like internally.
Did your case come with a PSU, or was it a bare one? I am looking at using the PSU that comes with the Fusion.
I am also looking into replacing the case fans, I have been seeing a lot of people complaining about the Noctua's being too loud! I'm gonna give some Akasa fans a go, they are supposedly rated at 18dba, so hopefully they will be nice and quiet.

I have had great luck with $4 Yate Loon fans undervolted. I have 4 of them in my P180B and they are quiet and CHEAP. I don't think I've heard anything on the Akasa fans.

Maybe tonight I'll try the Noctua's on the lowest setting to see if the money was wasted or not.

My case came with the 380w PSU, but I got such a good deal on my Enermax, I went ahead and bought it.

[KansaKilla]

nice, clean, and tidy. excellent suspension job. if you're really feeling frisky, you could snip out the grill behind the fans. that might cut down on the whooshing sound some.

[yamahaSHO]

I thought about doing that as well as that is exactly what I did on my P180B.




However, I have a 2-month old at home right now and in about a year, she'll be walking and getting into everything, so it's probably not a good idea.

[regis169]

Great pic and nice rig you've built there.

[dwilso35]

Very nice looking system and after seeing that you've finally made my mind up about a CPU cooler.
As mine would only be for viewing video and have no need for games i was gonna go for one of the new 780G boards and a low power, around 4800+, processor for price and quietness.
The thing that is sticking me that maybe you could answer is that i know you can select the hardware accleration option in Power DVD but if i select this option in Power DVD and then use Media Center to view the videos would the hardware accleration still be used?
I need to know because at my planned system specs the Hardware accleration is essential.
Also would there be room around those drive bays to suspension mount a 3.5" HDD?

[yamahaSHO]

Very nice looking system and after seeing that you've finally made my mind up about a CPU cooler.
As mine would only be for viewing video and have no need for games i was gonna go for one of the new 780G boards and a low power, around 4800+, processor for price and quietness.
The thing that is sticking me that maybe you could answer is that i know you can select the hardware accleration option in Power DVD but if i select this option in Power DVD and then use Media Center to view the videos would the hardware accleration still be used?
I need to know because at my planned system specs the Hardware accleration is essential.
Also would there be room around those drive bays to suspension mount a 3.5" HDD?

I'm not positive, but I think the PDVD settings only apply to PDVD. If MC uses hardware acceleration, then the video will be accelerated. If you're viewing SD from MC, then any current processor can take on that load.

Suspending a 3.5" HDD wouldn't probably close to impossible. You could suspend one under the optical bay if you wanted to.

Hope that helps.

[widowmaker]

I was wondering if you tried moving one of the fans to the intake and blocking off one of the exhaust grills. Perhaps that could give a little more airflow and ultimately lower temperatures or fan speeds. It just seems to me that the fan on the bottom right of that image would serve more useful at the top. Maybe even leaving the fans the way they are now except turn them around so they push air into the system.

[yamahaSHO]

I was wondering if you tried moving one of the fans to the intake and blocking off one of the exhaust grills. Perhaps that could give a little more airflow and ultimately lower temperatures or fan speeds. It just seems to me that the fan on the bottom right of that image would serve more useful at the top. Maybe even leaving the fans the way they are now except turn them around so they push air into the system.

I haven't played around with the configuration... I have the rear-side fan ducted to the CPU and the other helps with the case (HDD, motherboard, RAM) and I haven't had any temperature problems. Even in an enclosed cabinet (front door open), it stary very cool. When the CPU heats up, you can only feel the extra heat coming from the one fan it is ducted to.

I don't see a need to put a 60mm fan on the rear to push air in. Prefereably, I'd rather have less turbulent air passing though the case.

[blackworx]

Very neat and tidy - I like it a lot
Also very reassuring to hear the stock GPU cooler is so quiet at idle - I'm currently trying to decide on a graphics card.

[Modo]

Nice layout, yamahaSHO. Could you share the CPU temperatures you get with the Ninja Mini in this case? I used a TR SI-128 SE in my build, and though it does well, I suspect it could be even better with a different heatsink.

I was wondering if you tried moving one of the fans to the intake and blocking off one of the exhaust grills. Perhaps that could give a little more airflow and ultimately lower temperatures or fan speeds. It just seems to me that the fan on the bottom right of that image would serve more useful at the top. Maybe even leaving the fans the way they are now except turn them around so they push air into the system.

You can't do that. The 120mm fans take up most of the case height, ending almost directly on the bottom plate. The back houses all motherboard connectors, so it has much less room—a 60mm fan tops.

Besides, that intake along with the upper fan form a duct for cool air to move straight from outside the case, into the CPU heatsink, and out of the case. I don't think an additional intake fan would do much good. In such a small case, it might actually deflect some airflow away from the CPU cooler.

The other fan takes care of other components. The added airflow is invaluable if you use a graphics card with passive cooling. The hard drive also stays very cool.

[yamahaSHO]

Here are my temps... Keep in mind that I keep this in a fairly enlosed cabinet with just the front open.

[Modo]

And that's with limited airflow to the case? I guess my upgrade next year will include a new heatsink. Thanks a lot.

[Justchill]

hi,

great build, very good cable management; I will copy that!

Some remarks:

- the hardware could be chosen better
- Only 1 harddrive, what if you need more space to store movies etc..
- GPU is way too powerful, inless you want to play games

[yamahaSHO]

- the hardware could be chosen better

Are you serious?! Sorry I didn't know hardware wasn't a customer preference....

- Only 1 harddrive, what if you need more space to store movies etc..

I store my movies on a server.

- GPU is way too powerful, inless you want to play games

I've been playing Crysis on this quite often, does that warrant my video card?

[Justchill]

You say:

I had an NSK-2480 build that I initially wanted to use for HD DVD/BD and found that my X1650XT wouldn't accelerate the video and the CPU was almost maxed during movies.

that is another thing then playing crysis my friend. The 9600GT is a good choice for games.

For HD playback only I would have chosen another setup, but offcourse that's my opinion.

[yamahaSHO]

You say:

I had an NSK-2480 build that I initially wanted to use for HD DVD/BD and found that my X1650XT wouldn't accelerate the video and the CPU was almost maxed during movies.

that is another thing then playing crysis my friend. The 9600GT is a good choice for games.

For HD playback only I would have chosen another setup, but offcourse that's my opinion.

You can want all you want in YOUR OWN computer, however, I built this computer the way I wanted. I wouldn't have a HTPC that couldn't play games as a HTPC needs to be VERY versitile.

The X1650XT could play games rather well, so when I bought a card that would accelerate video, I did not want to take a step down in performance given a price range. When you say you would have chosen another step up for HD only, what are you taking a step up from, a X1650XT or 9600GT?

[PartEleven]

hi,

great build, very good cable management; I will copy that!

Some remarks:

- the hardware could be chosen better
- Only 1 harddrive, what if you need more space to store movies etc..
- GPU is way too powerful, inless you want to play games

Great job on passing judgement on another person's choice of components based on YOUR preferences

Get real. Not everyone has the same needs as you do, and if you actually bothered to read the posts in this thread you can see that yamahaSHO knows what he wants and put a lot of thought into choosing his components.

yamahaSHO: I see you put a block of foam in the HD compartment, just behind the front aluminum bezel. Is that for sound damping? Does that really help? It seems like the front bezel/panel already has a lot of material, so sound is not very likely to excape in that direction already. it seems like the biggest path for noise to leave is through the side fan vents or the top of the case.

[Xuestor]

Great build. I'm just curious why You chose the P12 fans instead of the S12? I'm just In love with the S12 and for me, the P12 is way too loud, (well, might be dramatic, it might just be 1-2 db, but my ears are the judge here )

Why not also cut open the fangrills to remove possible "airwhining"?

[Modo]

I'll jump in on this one. I've bought the S12 Noctua (1200rpm version) to try it in the same case. Unfortunately, I heard very pronounced whining sounds at medium speeds (between 500rpm and 1000rpm). This made the fan pretty much useless with automatic control, which is why I settled for S-FLEX 1200rpm fans. They provide slightly less airflow at similar speeds (enough of a difference to be felt by hand, especially at low speeds), but they don't whine.

[Xuestor]

I'll jump in on this one. I've bought the S12 Noctua (1200rpm version) to try it in the same case. Unfortunately, I heard very pronounced whining sounds at medium speeds (between 500rpm and 1000rpm). This made the fan pretty much useless with automatic control, which is why I settled for S-FLEX 1200rpm fans. They provide slightly less airflow at similar speeds (enough of a difference to be felt by hand, especially at low speeds), but they don't whine.

I gotta say that the S-Flex is a close second for me (or is it the Slipstream, It's the one that comes with the Ninja). They do have a more mellow sound to them, but I run mine VERY low (500-550rpm) and at that speed both the S12 and the Scythe are silent at 1-2 inches away, But I've had problems to start the Scythe at such a low voltage sometimes, it's a thin line there.

[yamahaSHO]

Great job on passing judgement on another person's choice of components based on YOUR preferences

Get real. Not everyone has the same needs as you do, and if you actually bothered to read the posts in this thread you can see that yamahaSHO knows what he wants and put a lot of thought into choosing his components.

Glad I'm not the only person who thought what he said was a little odd. "Better" is preceived differently for every person.

yamahaSHO: I see you put a block of foam in the HD compartment, just behind the front aluminum bezel. Is that for sound damping? Does that really help? It seems like the front bezel/panel already has a lot of material, so sound is not very likely to excape in that direction already. it seems like the biggest path for noise to leave is through the side fan vents or the top of the case.

I had some spare foam laying around an thought it couldn't hurt. I figured it could absorb any high frequencies from the HDD and it probably helps the air coming in around the HDD.

Great build. I'm just curious why You chose the P12 fans instead of the S12? I'm just In love with the S12 and for me, the P12 is way too loud, (well, might be dramatic, it might just be 1-2 db, but my ears are the judge here )

Why not also cut open the fangrills to remove possible "airwhining"?

I had never heard either at the time... Going strictly off of reviews, the newer style was touted to be much better. I don't think they're worth the money, but I had some store credit. The best thing about these fans is the bearing, IMHO.

I'm not removing the fan grills on this one. I've got a little one running around and this is well within reach.

I'll jump in on this one. I've bought the S12 Noctua (1200rpm version) to try it in the same case. Unfortunately, I heard very pronounced whining sounds at medium speeds (between 500rpm and 1000rpm). This made the fan pretty much useless with automatic control, which is why I settled for S-FLEX 1200rpm fans. They provide slightly less airflow at similar speeds (enough of a difference to be felt by hand, especially at low speeds), but they don't whine.

I gotta say that the S-Flex is a close second for me (or is it the Slipstream, It's the one that comes with the Ninja). They do have a more mellow sound to them, but I run mine VERY low (500-550rpm) and at that speed both the S12 and the Scythe are silent at 1-2 inches away, But I've had problems to start the Scythe at such a low voltage sometimes, it's a thin line there.

I've got 1,200 RPM SlipStreams in my other computer and they're probably my favorite fans as of now.

[Modo]

I can add from my experience that sound dampening material around the hard disk cage (including the top cover) helps quite a bit against seek sounds in this enclosure. Maybe I can hear the difference better since I put a standard 3.5'' drive in this box.