My system;
Athlon 1.33Ghz underclocked to 600Mhz, running at 1.40V.
CPU Fan: Silverado 50 MkII, which arrives on monday, planning to run it at 6V. It will replace my current CoolMaster WRAAAAAAA[tm] fan.
HDD: A Western Digital, 40Gig's
MB: ASUS A7V133 (with no northbridge fan)
PSU: CodeGen @300W.
So.
I'm about to build a tree case insulated with 4cm or so thick dampening material.
Case dimension: 60x50x30 (cm), with perhaps a couple additional cm here and there.
Inside I will put nothing but the PSU, the MB, and one HDD, where each component lies on antivibration material (rubber-silicon-foam).
But before building I'm wondering if this will turn redundant?
The case will after all have two holes (air in/out) where sound will escape, sure a damped maze might help but how much?
Further more, when browsing my system spec. it's surely apparent that I'm kinda new to the concept of silent computers, so insights beyond the case building part would be really nice.
Edit: cpu vcore & hz
on the right track?
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Devonavar
on the right track?
Last edited by tonsil on Sat Feb 08, 2003 2:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
with your case building u need to focus on how you are going to get cool air into the case and hot air out of the case, most built quiet cases I've seen have a non-direct air path into the case, ie, the noise can't just go straight out it has to bounce round a bit....
also u might try to focus on the noise your Codegen PSU and the WD HDD's are going to make... maybe swap the fan in the codegen PSU and cut out the metal stamped grill...
There's heaps of stuff on this forums about that and on this stie as well, good luck, and remember that the sound damping material helps but it's not a silver bullett
also u might try to focus on the noise your Codegen PSU and the WD HDD's are going to make... maybe swap the fan in the codegen PSU and cut out the metal stamped grill...
There's heaps of stuff on this forums about that and on this stie as well, good luck, and remember that the sound damping material helps but it's not a silver bullett
> dampening material helps but it's not a silver bullett
It never gets easy, does it?
I figure I'll start building the case without thinking about dampening in/out air take. That can be taken care of outside the box anyway.
And yeah, the wd and psu propably makes alot of sound when getting the silverado. btw, is the silverado really that loud runned at 6V? It seems some people aren't that fond of it.
It never gets easy, does it?
I figure I'll start building the case without thinking about dampening in/out air take. That can be taken care of outside the box anyway.
And yeah, the wd and psu propably makes alot of sound when getting the silverado. btw, is the silverado really that loud runned at 6V? It seems some people aren't that fond of it.
I have a Silverado that I ordered from Europe back when they first came out. At the time, it was definitely the quietest, best-performing off-the-shelf solution available. The two blowers mounted on it are (I believe) Nidec Gamma 28 blowers, which gained notoriety as VGA and chipset coolers back in the BX days. Noise-wise, they're louder than quiet 80mm fans, but quieter than most 60mm fans. The fact that there are two of them doesn't help the noise level.
Nowadays, the Silverados are no match in terms of silence or performance for Zalmans or the Alpha, Swiftech, or Thermalright 80mm heatsinks. You'll probably be much happier with it than your current solution, but I certainly wouldn't have recommended it.
Nowadays, the Silverados are no match in terms of silence or performance for Zalmans or the Alpha, Swiftech, or Thermalright 80mm heatsinks. You'll probably be much happier with it than your current solution, but I certainly wouldn't have recommended it.
Underclocking an athalon 1.33 GHz to 600 MHz in order to get some peace and quiet, and yet are putting in the loudest hard drives known to man? Double bonus points for the massive underclock, but that hard drive really needs to go. If it were a matter of price... Sell me the silverado, use a panaflo on a stock cooler (1.33 GHz to 600 MHz? Does that even need active cooling?), and get yourself a Barracuda
Single CPU, Single HDD... Can I assume a single CD-RW drive? With those low, low specs you could probably use a much smaller PSU than 300W. You could probably find a disposable 150W OEM ATX PSU and an old 400W AT PSU at a swap meet for 20 dollars, then swap the heatsinks from the 400W into the 150W drive. Either way, your power requirements are probably going to be floating around the 100w level, where most 300w PSU's are inefficient. Plus, if you decide to go fanless on a 150w PSU and it doesn't work out, you're only out 10 bucks. Do the math yourself, of course, an equivalent P3 system would konk out at about 75w... with that CPU and motherboard you may be adding 50w or more.
You have specs sheets, I'm sure. High-quality (heavy!) low-power cheap PSU's exist, and are a great thing for silence.
Have you thought of making a double-hull case? Not only would it be incredibly unique, but it would help with wood's inherint acoustic transmission and reflection properties. Remember, they make guitars out of it for a reason... I wouldn't make a wood case without some sort of absorption material, and I would go out of my way to make the insides as irregular / pitted as possible to diffuse reflections. Just the insides, of course.
Single CPU, Single HDD... Can I assume a single CD-RW drive? With those low, low specs you could probably use a much smaller PSU than 300W. You could probably find a disposable 150W OEM ATX PSU and an old 400W AT PSU at a swap meet for 20 dollars, then swap the heatsinks from the 400W into the 150W drive. Either way, your power requirements are probably going to be floating around the 100w level, where most 300w PSU's are inefficient. Plus, if you decide to go fanless on a 150w PSU and it doesn't work out, you're only out 10 bucks
. Do the math yourself, of course, an equivalent P3 system would konk out at about 75w... with that CPU and motherboard you may be adding 50w or more. You have specs sheets, I'm sure. High-quality (heavy!) low-power cheap PSU's exist, and are a great thing for silence.
Have you thought of making a double-hull case? Not only would it be incredibly unique, but it would help with wood's inherint acoustic transmission and reflection properties. Remember, they make guitars out of it for a reason... I wouldn't make a wood case without some sort of absorption material, and I would go out of my way to make the insides as irregular / pitted as possible to diffuse reflections. Just the insides, of course.
> but that hard drive really needs to go
I got the silverado today and the WD is certainly the loudest component now, what an awful highpitch noise! :^)
> 1.33 GHz to 600 MHz? Does that even need active cooling?
I tried to run it with a simple heatsink, no good at all! It turned very hot in a second or two, I barely had time to shut the comp. off.
> Single CPU, Single HDD... Can I assume a single CD-RW drive?
And dvd, but why have them connected when not being used? ..but you got a good idea there, I'll do some search in the garage for 150W PSUs.
> I wouldn't make a wood case without some sort of absorption material, and I would go out of my way to make the insides as irregular / pitted as possible to diffuse reflections.
Regarding the case, it's really not that much left to dampen when the WD goes. I think it will be pretty easy to achieve silens, with a proper case (double-hull sounds interesting!).
> Just the insides, of course.
Well my room is full of diffusers allready, so yes :)
Another comment, from Justin_R;
> Nowadays, the Silverados are no match in terms of silence or performance for Zalmans or the Alpha, Swiftech, or Thermalright 80mm heatsinks. You'll probably be much happier with it than your current solution, but I certainly wouldn't have recommended it.
A heatsink from Alpha/Swiftech did cost the same as the silverado, and I would still need a fan to them..
The silverado does the trick for me, the noise it does produce, though, will be no match to damp out.
Thanks for all your insightsful comments!
I got the silverado today and the WD is certainly the loudest component now, what an awful highpitch noise! :^)
> 1.33 GHz to 600 MHz? Does that even need active cooling?
I tried to run it with a simple heatsink, no good at all! It turned very hot in a second or two, I barely had time to shut the comp. off.
> Single CPU, Single HDD... Can I assume a single CD-RW drive?
And dvd, but why have them connected when not being used? ..but you got a good idea there, I'll do some search in the garage for 150W PSUs.
> I wouldn't make a wood case without some sort of absorption material, and I would go out of my way to make the insides as irregular / pitted as possible to diffuse reflections.
Regarding the case, it's really not that much left to dampen when the WD goes. I think it will be pretty easy to achieve silens, with a proper case (double-hull sounds interesting!).
> Just the insides, of course.
Well my room is full of diffusers allready, so yes :)
Another comment, from Justin_R;
> Nowadays, the Silverados are no match in terms of silence or performance for Zalmans or the Alpha, Swiftech, or Thermalright 80mm heatsinks. You'll probably be much happier with it than your current solution, but I certainly wouldn't have recommended it.
A heatsink from Alpha/Swiftech did cost the same as the silverado, and I would still need a fan to them..
The silverado does the trick for me, the noise it does produce, though, will be no match to damp out.
Thanks for all your insightsful comments!
Where are you located, and from where did you buy your Silverado? In the US, the Silverados are very hard to find, and when you do find them they're (in my experience) more expensive than a better-performing Zalman or Thermalright (with a fan). For example, see http://plycon.com. Maybe in Europe prices on the Silverado are more in line with its performance.tonsil wrote:A heatsink from Alpha/Swiftech did cost the same as the silverado, and I would still need a fan to them..
The silverado does the trick for me, the noise it does produce, though, will be no match to damp out.
I'm from sweden, bought it from www.whynoi.se.
I could find one more site selling heatsinks/fans in sweden: www.overclockers.se, but with limited supply.
I could find one more site selling heatsinks/fans in sweden: www.overclockers.se, but with limited supply.
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frequencies
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2003 4:02 pm
- Location: Växjö, Sweden
try www.gtek.net/ or www.kylning.com
Lower wattage PSU isn't going to help you with the noise. Its how much you consume that heats up the PSU. I would recommend sticking to at least 300W no matter what your config is unless you plan to dump the PSU in a year or so too as silent PSU do cost extra. (exception of Zalman which I can't recommend yet as there still are stocks out there which has high freq coil noise under conditions). If you are willing to go through the luck of drawing stuff I think pcclub has Zalman at about $50.
The problem is, if PSU overloads and doesn't shut down correctly (which is the case with some PSU in Tomshardware guide) you are risking your entiresystem. (and chance of overload is much higher with lower wattage ones). Due to some bad power and cheapo PSU (before putting UPS in), I've managed to already burn one motherboard, 1 memory chip, and a HDD. (this is with regulated power strip thing which obviously can't do too much)
The problem is, if PSU overloads and doesn't shut down correctly (which is the case with some PSU in Tomshardware guide) you are risking your entiresystem. (and chance of overload is much higher with lower wattage ones). Due to some bad power and cheapo PSU (before putting UPS in), I've managed to already burn one motherboard, 1 memory chip, and a HDD. (this is with regulated power strip thing which obviously can't do too much)
Haven't had time to fool around with my psu's yet, and I think I will not.
frequencies, posted interesting links, where zalman, nexus and papst psu's are for sale, so I'll go with someone of them when my pocket thinks that's a good idea..
Anyhow, I've started to build the case and it will be huge :)
80x60x50. That will govern for about 10cm of dampening on each side (with less on the bottom).
When it's ready (when I've found suitable dampening materials), I'll see if I can put up some pictures and tell if it made any difference :)
frequencies, posted interesting links, where zalman, nexus and papst psu's are for sale, so I'll go with someone of them when my pocket thinks that's a good idea..
Anyhow, I've started to build the case and it will be huge :)
80x60x50. That will govern for about 10cm of dampening on each side (with less on the bottom).
When it's ready (when I've found suitable dampening materials), I'll see if I can put up some pictures and tell if it made any difference :)
Good precautionary advice about overdraw, but lower-power PSU's do generate less heat at lower power than do high-powered PSU's. It's about maximizing the efficient range of PSU power conversion, or some other such technical jagon. I'm getting a voltmeter in in a few days, and will have to try seeing the difference in draw across the same system with low, med, and high power PSU's.jinu117 wrote:Lower wattage PSU isn't going to help you with the noise. Its how much you consume that heats up the PSU. I would recommend sticking to at least 300W no matter what your config is unless you plan to dump the PSU in a year or so too as silent PSU do cost extra.