Low cost quiet EATX case possibility

rcassettyjr · Post by **rcassettyjr** » Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:04 am

I am in the process of building a dual quad xeon workstation. It will sit on my desk in my office (which I share with other employees) and it needs to be as quiet as possible. It does not have to be totally silent but I want to keep the noise down as much as I can. I am building this on an extreme tight budget as it is all coming out of my pocket. I bought an Intel S5000XVNSATAR Motherboard for $116 (EATX dual socket 771) and a pair of Intel Xeon L5310s for $155. I picked up four 1G FBDIMMs that will work with this mainboard for $29. I am going to use a passively cooled Nvidia NVS290 PCIe card which I picked up for $20. I have the PSU and drives already so there is no cost there. I still need to buy a case, HSFs for the xeons, and a fan for the ram and case. I am operating on a $550 budget. I plan on using a pair of Noctua NH-U12DX HSFs for the xeons, a Noctua NF-R8 for the FBDIMMS (I will be adding another 4G of ram later so I need a good fan for these), and a Noctua NF-S12B FLX for the rear of the case. The fans will run $180 leaving me only $100 to cover the cost of the case.

I started looking for a simple EATX case that would fit in my price range. I found this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811160033

Its $102 shipped, its mid sized so it will fit on my desk nicely, and I like the simple design. I know that making a machine quiet has a lot to do with what you put inside so I am spending more on the fans and less on the case. Am I wrong about that? I will have an optical drive and 2 hard drives to start with. I will eventually replace one with an SSD when funds allow. I figure I could insulate all 3 of them with some bicycle tube between the drive and case to dampen vibrations. My only concern with this case is all the vent holes in the side panels. There are sets of holes on both sides of the drive bays with a pair of 92mm fans that are supposed to cool the drives. I don't think I will need them as I only have 2 drives and they don't seem to make much heat in the current machine. There are also 2 large sets of holes over the processor area and video card area. Could I just cover all the holes in the case sides and cool the whole case with a pair of 120mm fans (one in front or on the bottom and the normal one in the rear)? I have read that the more holes in the case sides, the more noise that comes out.

Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks

Bob

rcassettyjr · Post by **rcassettyjr** » Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:05 am

MFG link if it matters

http://www.chieftec.com/sh-01b-b-b.html

Post by **MikeC** » Wed Jan 06, 2010 9:20 am

Welcome to SPCR, Bob.

Your premises about a quiet PC are basically correct, but perfection is in the details.

There are lots of quiet PSUs to choose from; that should not be hard to choose. Noctuas are very expensive fans; I'd switch to budget models like low speed sleeve bearing Yate Loons (which are basically the same as the SPCR lab Nexus reference fans). You need the $ for the best CPU cooling solution & maybe quieter HDDs.

The main challenge, I think, will be to cool those CPUs quietly. There seems to be very little space for heatsinks. In fact, the board looks set up to use those low profile high fit density heatsinks which require very high speed 60-80mm fans blowing aross the board. Not good, especially if the server is one that will see steady high CPU loads. What are you planning to use here?

Oh, I see -- those expensive tower Noctuas. They will have to be set up so the fans blow up or down -- not good for keeping the PSU fan from speeding up. It might work... Maybe you can find a way to mount the fans to blow front to back -- in a push/pull config through both heatsinks.

And your existing HDDs will probably be a significant source of noise as well.

As for the side vents, if they are not needed, just block them with something as simple as black paper report covers. My guess is that you'll need all the help you can get to cool those CPUs quietly on that board.

rcassettyjr · Post by **rcassettyjr** » Fri Jan 08, 2010 10:15 am

Temporarily I am going to use the stock coolers until I have the money for the expensive fans. They seem to be the only aftermarket socket 771 setups I found that had any reviews. Do you know of another mfg that makes good 771 HSF combos? I saw the yate loon fans but no HSF combos.

I am mainly concerned about the case right now as that is going to be my next purchase. Do you think the case I proposed above is a good candidate?

Thanks

Bob

Post by **MikeC** » Fri Jan 08, 2010 11:27 am

Case seems fine tho I have no hands on experience. It looks sturdy tho only hands-on can really tell.

Chris Chan · Post by **Chris Chan** » Fri Jan 08, 2010 11:45 am

Would you be able to use two tower heatsinks that don't have the short sides sealed? I see the NH-U12DX's sides are about a third sealed. And then blow a fan from the side of the heatsinks? Here's a picture that shows what I mean.

Of course the fan would have to produce lots of static pressure - a 120x38 would probably be required.Absolute noise level might not be as much of a consideration because the fan would be buried in the middle of the system.

Also, have you considered using less expensive fans than Noctua? Yate Loon or Scythe for example. I remember when Noctua fans were first introduced, there was forum chatter that the blade design would produce very little static pressure. This runs against workstation cooling conventional wisdom that uses high pressure thick fans.

EDIT: Oops, in the image I wrote HSF when I meant HS.

Post by **MikeC** » Fri Jan 08, 2010 12:05 pm

Chris Chan's drawing is exactly what I meant when I wrote.... "Maybe you can find a way to mount the fans to blow front to back -- in a push/pull config through both heatsinks. "

rcassettyjr · Post by **rcassettyjr** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 5:32 am

Ok I think I follow what you are saying. You seem to be suggesting that I buy a couple of tower heatsinks without fans and then add a cheaper fan to it which will save me money and push the heat in a better direction. Interesting idea. I will see if I can find just heatsinks for the 771 xeons. The NH's were the only ones I had found when I searched before because I was always looking for HSF combos. I will check it out and see what I can find.

I was originally going to use a pair of stock intel socket 604 copper HSFs (with the standoffs machined from 10.25mm to 8.75mm) until I got the aftermarket fans but I came across a pair of factory aluminum ones for a few bucks so I ordered them. They will work temporarily until I have the good ones. Everything came in except the HSFs and the video card so I put the processors and ram in the board and hooked up the psu. I wanted to make sure it would at least POST in case I had to return a part. The Intel 5000XVN has a series of POST leds for the board and error leds for each stick of ram and each processor. I set the 604 HSFs on the xeons with the board suspended above the bench so the copper was directly on the top of the processor and fired it up. It fired up fine and according to the POST LEDs it went straight into BIOS setup (as it should being new). I quickly shut it off so it would not get hot (total run time was less than 30 seconds). I picked up one of the copper units and touched the processor to see how hot the xeon got. Needless to say I now have less of a fingerprint as it burned it off. I am surprised it got that hot that quick. At least it works and the skin will grow back.

What works good to polish the top of processors (to remove pencil marks and skin)? LOL

Thanks

Bob

Chris Chan · Post by **Chris Chan** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 3:45 pm

rcassettyjr wrote:What works good to polish the top of processors (to remove pencil marks and skin)? LOL

That's called lapping. A quick web search on "cpu lapping" led me to this article:
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=82

rcassettyjr · Post by **rcassettyjr** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 6:19 am

I finally got my hands on some coolers and fans. I picked up a pair of Thermalright True Black 120 (Rev C) coolers, with xeon bolt through kits, and a pair of scythe SFF21e fans.

I was looking at your diagram and trying to figure out if that would work for me. The coolers do have open sides but the tubes would interrupt the airflow. Closing in the top would be no problem as they just clear the side of the case by 1.5mm.

I was just wondering why you would want to close off the faces of the coolers. Wouldn't it be beneficial to pull more cool air in though them instead of just through the rear fan?

Thanks

Bob

Chris Chan wrote:Would you be able to use two tower heatsinks that don't have the short sides sealed? I see the NH-U12DX's sides are about a third sealed. And then blow a fan from the side of the heatsinks? Here's a picture that shows what I mean.

Of course the fan would have to produce lots of static pressure - a 120x38 would probably be required.Absolute noise level might not be as much of a consideration because the fan would be buried in the middle of the system.

Also, have you considered using less expensive fans than Noctua? Yate Loon or Scythe for example. I remember when Noctua fans were first introduced, there was forum chatter that the blade design would produce very little static pressure. This runs against workstation cooling conventional wisdom that uses high pressure thick fans.

EDIT: Oops, in the image I wrote HSF when I meant HS.