Quieting the old beast: upgrade help please

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Sufficient cooling?

Definitely!
5
71%
Only just..
1
14%
No way!
0
No votes
No idea?
1
14%
 
Total votes: 7

theycallmebruce
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Location: Perth, Western Australia

Quieting the old beast: upgrade help please

Post by theycallmebruce » Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:50 am

Short version:

1) Will 3 Scythe S-FLEX Ds at 800RPM (one on CPU heatsink, one front intake, one rear exhaust) be likely to provide sufficient cooling for the following system:

- Prescott 3.0GHz P4 with Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme
- Gigabyte 915P chipset motherboard
- Passively cooled 7600 or 8600
- 2x Hitachi FDB 500GB HDDs
- All mounted in a Thermaltake Matrix

Note that I am in Western Australia; our house is airconditioned but our little computer room with two people and two PCs can still get into the high 30s on a hot day (when it is in the 40s outside).

2) Will a 430W PSU cope with this load?

Thanks!



Slightly longer version:

My faithful old system is pretty noisy. I recently moved it into a new case with a 120mm rear exhaust instead of noisy old 80mm, cleaned out all the dust, and tidied the cables. This has already made a big difference.

Now I've identified the main sources of noise.

#1: CPU. Plan: replace stock cooler and fan with a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme + Scythe S-FLEX D

#2: Graphics card. My good old Geforce 5850 has done a good job for me, but it has a whiny little fan. I've been hanging out for a good card to come out to replace it. It's a real shame the 3850s are PCI express 2 only :( so looks like I'm stuck with a 7600 or 8600.

#3: Power supply: I think this is next noisiest, but I'll probably leave it be for the moment. It's the 430W PSU that came with the Thermaltake Matrix case.

#4: System fan: Stock 120mm case fan not too loud, but I suspect that it will become one of the noisier parts. Replace with 2x Scythe S-FLEX D (one exhaust at rear, one intake at front near HDDs).

tehcrazybob
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Post by tehcrazybob » Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:17 am

I can't comment on the choice of fans, as I don't have any experience with that. However, you might look at the faster Scythe fans; my understanding is that undervolting the faster models will get slightly better airflow for the same amount of noise.

If your current video card is good enough, why not just replace the cooler with a Zalman? That'd get rid of the whiny fan. If you're actually looking to upgrade, though, you'll be happy to know that PCIe 2.0 is fully backwards-compatible with earlier PCIe. As long as your motherboard has a PCIe slot, it'll work with the newest version of PCIe cards.

theycallmebruce
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Location: Perth, Western Australia

Post by theycallmebruce » Sat Jan 26, 2008 7:52 pm

If you're actually looking to upgrade, though, you'll be happy to know that PCIe 2.0 is fully backwards-compatible with earlier PCIe.
Awesome! Thanks crazy bob! :D
However, you might look at the faster Scythe fans; my understanding is that undervolting the faster models will get slightly better airflow for the same amount of noise.
Thanks for the tip. I'll have to reread the fans article. It seems somehow counterintuitive.

johnniecache7
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Joined: Wed Jan 17, 2007 8:10 pm
Location: Toronto - Ontario - Canada

Post by johnniecache7 » Sat Jan 26, 2008 8:24 pm

I do not know if you realize but the Radeon HD 3850, Radeon HD 2600XT comes in AGP. I am not sure if Accelero S1 Rev. 2 or Accelero S1 fits but it be good slient combo for you.

h*tp://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/01/07/sapphi ... 0_to_agp/1

alfhenrik
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Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2007 12:02 pm
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Re: Quieting the old beast: upgrade help please

Post by alfhenrik » Sat Jan 26, 2008 10:45 pm

theycallmebruce wrote:Short version:

1) Will 3 Scythe S-FLEX Ds at 800RPM (one on CPU heatsink, one front intake, one rear exhaust) be likely to provide sufficient cooling for the following system:

- Prescott 3.0GHz P4 with Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme
- Gigabyte 915P chipset motherboard
- Passively cooled 7600 or 8600
- 2x Hitachi FDB 500GB HDDs
- All mounted in a Thermaltake Matrix

Note that I am in Western Australia; our house is airconditioned but our little computer room with two people and two PCs can still get into the high 30s on a hot day (when it is in the 40s outside).

2) Will a 430W PSU cope with this load?

Thanks!
Hi,

I can't comment on the fans either as I am using Nexus, but as thecrazybob said, buy the 1200RPM one and undervolt them.

A 430W PSU should be able to cope with the system you described (just make sure it is a good quality PSU).

The short answer about the fans...

Yes I believe that 3 1200RPM Scythe S-FLEX (undervolted) should cope with your system.

The not so short answer about the fans...

I am in Brisbane, and today it was ~32*C, and my CPU (E6400 @ 8x390 with a Nexus fan on the HS and one on the rear of the case both at 800RPM) was idling around 45-48*C and 60*C when stressed, our house is NOT airconditioned so it's rather hot...video card (8800GT @ 650/1690/1900 with accelero S1 and 800RPM fan) idles at 50*C and 65*C when stressed, hard drives (with a Nexus fan at 7v) at 42*C.

Hope this helps.

theycallmebruce
Posts: 292
Joined: Sat Jul 14, 2007 10:11 am
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Post by theycallmebruce » Mon Jan 28, 2008 8:01 am

Thanks for the detailed info alf, that is useful!

Johnnie: AGP.. wow! My board doesn't have AGP though (it was when PCI express first came out, and most boards were still AGP.. the PCIe cards were all a bit priceier.. but I'm glad I went for the PCIe!). It was also one of the earlier socket 775 boards, and supported DDR and DDR2.. at the time DDR2 was overpriced but I recently swapped out the DDR for 2GB of DDR2 given how cheap it is now, and sold the DDR to a mate.

psiu
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Location: SE MI

Post by psiu » Mon Jan 28, 2008 1:24 pm

Maybe one of those new Scythe fan controller/temp monitors would be useful. "Kaze Master" available in either 3.5 or 5.25" versions, black or silver. 2 sets of temp/fan on the smaller, 4 on the larger. Voltages apparently range from 0V and 3.7-12V.

Of course, I don't know if you can find em there. All I know about Australia comes from Croc Dundee, Croc Hunter, Take Home Chef, and Dans Data.

theycallmebruce
Posts: 292
Joined: Sat Jul 14, 2007 10:11 am
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Post by theycallmebruce » Fri Feb 08, 2008 8:53 am

I went to town and bought a Zalman 6 channel fan controller (looks slick), five pack of 1500 RPM Scythe S-Flex fans (two installed), and a Thermalright U120X (not yet installed). Oh and a dodgy little Aerocool Easywatch LCD panel with temperature sensors.

Next, I am finally upgrading my video card with it's whiny little fan (Geforce FX5750 --> passively cooled Radeon 3850).

When done, I'll post some pics and results.

theycallmebruce
Posts: 292
Joined: Sat Jul 14, 2007 10:11 am
Location: Perth, Western Australia

Post by theycallmebruce » Sun Feb 17, 2008 6:49 am

Results: I'm very happy. Thanks silentpcreview! It's not silent, but quiet enough not to annoy me any more. My opinions on some of the parts:

Fans: Those Scythe S-Flex fans really are awesomely quiet, even at 1600 RPM. I'm running two of them at full speed, and they are audible, but so quiet compared to before. The one at the front of the case (for the hard drives) I'm running slower, and it is inaudible. At the moment, I've been experimenting with fan position. Once I've got it all mounted up properly, I'll get photos. I'm going to experiment with suspending one fan mid case on rubber bands.. we'll see how that goes.

Hitachi HDDs: I can now hear them! (after getting rid of noisy fans). They are 2x Hitachi 500GB. Not annoyingly loud, but audible.

Graphics card (Radeon 3750): Going from a Geforce FX5750 to a Radeon 3750.. a jump of four or five generations.. what a difference! The shagged out fan on my old card was the noisiest thing in my PC by far. Although, the pictures really didn't prepare me for how damned huge the new card is. It's a bit of a squeeze in my mid tower case. I had to move one of my HDDs to fit it.

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