Silent Multitaskin/Gaming PC

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ATWindsor
Posts: 285
Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:53 pm

Silent Multitaskin/Gaming PC

Post by ATWindsor » Sat Jun 13, 2009 5:49 am

I have the following setup planned.

Antec P180 or eventually buy me a p183.
MB MSI X58 Pro-E
Intel Core i7 920
Thermalright HR-01 Plus with some fan.
VGA: Some AMD 4770 or 4890 variant.
Accelero S1 GPU cooler.
Seasonic M12D 850W, eventually the Enermax Modu 625, but its hard to get a hold of here in norway.
DDR3 6x2048MB , probably Kingston Value.
HDD Intel X-25-M SSD

It will be used as my main rig, for multitasking, and also som gaming. I want it to basically be silent. Today i have a Setup with the reserator 2, an hitaci 250 inside a nexus damping box and a seasonic 430. The seasonic is pretty quiet, so if the new rig can be kept under that level, i am satisifed (frankly, i have difficulty even hearing the PSU when the case is under the desk), however i would like the new setup to be more quiet than the reserator, and the HDD.

Price isn't completly irrelevant, but silence is more important. The choiche of GPU is more down to what kan be run stable and still quiet rather than price. The 4890 seem to have similar power requirements as the 4870, and from the 4850 and down the 4770 seem to give about the same performance for less power. That is the reasoning between the huge difference in proposed GPUs.

The CPU-cooling should be pretty ok, just slap on the heatsink and a very low rpm-fan.

I guess i have 5 main concerns.

1. The GPU, how high can i go, and still have it quiet?
2. Will northbridge cooling be a problem?
3. Six pieces of ram, do i need to be concerned with heat on the RAM? (no overclocking)
4. The seasonic PSU is nice, but pretty darn expensive here in norway.
5. Unplanned noise, what about coil whine and similar "suprise noise sources", anything to be on the lookout for?

Any feedback is welcome.

RaptorX
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Location: Earth

Post by RaptorX » Sat Jun 13, 2009 8:31 am

Get a Sapphire HD4850 Vapor-X. I think it's one of the quietest video cards with stock air cooling and the temperatures are great: max 66C (on 30% fan duty cycle) in FurMark with very little case cooling.

Antec SOLO case and Nexus fans are also highly recomanded (I use them as well).

ATWindsor
Posts: 285
Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:53 pm

Post by ATWindsor » Sat Jun 13, 2009 8:34 am

Hmm, i am on a general basis a bit sceptical to stock non-passive-coolers. Is it really that quiet? I guess its more quiet than the usual solutions, but they are pretty noisy.

AtW

ATWindsor
Posts: 285
Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:53 pm

Post by ATWindsor » Sun Jun 14, 2009 10:43 pm

Is the 4890 Vapor-x as quiet as the 4850-model? I also notice that is seems to have other cpacitors, does that mean that it will not suffer from coil-whine? THe cooling solution is alse a bit uniqe, does this mean that it will be problematic to change to a accelereo s1 on the vapor-x, should i decide to do so? Here er som info about the layout of the board:

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews ... porx/3.htm

AtW

Lawrence Lee
SPCR Reviewer
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Post by Lawrence Lee » Mon Jun 15, 2009 11:48 am

You won't be able to get a S1 on a 4770. The GPU position is too far to the left.

ATWindsor
Posts: 285
Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:53 pm

Post by ATWindsor » Mon Jun 15, 2009 1:28 pm

Lawrence Lee wrote:You won't be able to get a S1 on a 4770. The GPU position is too far to the left.
Dammit, that is a bummer. I was pretty set on the 4770 now, and evetuelly upgrading the GPU later, due to the difficulity of cooling the 4890. Do you know any coolers that do fit, wich are effective? And as a side question, is coil whine a problem on the 4770?

AtW

thepwner
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Joined: Sat Mar 07, 2009 12:19 pm
Location: US

Post by thepwner » Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:49 pm

Maybe one of thermalright's GPU coolers would fit a 4770, I don't know though.

speedkar9
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Location: Toronto, Canada

Post by speedkar9 » Mon Jun 15, 2009 6:43 pm

You'd have to mod the S1 to fit the 4770- chop off 1" from the left end of all the fins.

However the 4850 might be able to be cooled passively, and an S1 also fits...

ATWindsor
Posts: 285
Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:53 pm

Post by ATWindsor » Mon Jun 15, 2009 10:27 pm

speedkar9 wrote:You'd have to mod the S1 to fit the 4770- chop off 1" from the left end of all the fins.

However the 4850 might be able to be cooled passively, and an S1 also fits...
Hmm, is that an easy mod to do? I might be trying that, seems like a bit of a waste to use the 4850 when its more expensive, uses much more power, and only performs marginally better.

AtW

thejamppa
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Post by thejamppa » Mon Jun 15, 2009 11:20 pm

I just got on my hands Arctic Cooling L2 Pro, same cooler Sapphire HD 4670 GDDR4 uses. Its Asymmetrical and rated up to 100W's / HD 4850. It was cheaper than Accerlero S1, smaller.

As its Assymmetrical, it will fit on thos GPU's that are not middle of PCB but towards left side, like HD 4670. While HD 4770 is not on official compatibility list, HD 4770 uses standard screw holes. And due shaping L2 pro it should go easily.

I haven't been able yet to test cooler, but it has 3-pin and 4-pin connectors for PCB and 12v / 7v adaptor for Molex. I just decided to give slight input those who think alternative cooler for HD 4770. Its too bad that Cooler doesn't have 2-pin connector.

daveconn41
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Location: UK

Post by daveconn41 » Tue Jun 16, 2009 12:01 am

speedkar9 wrote:You'd have to mod the S1 to fit the 4770- chop off 1" from the left end of all the fins.

However the 4850 might be able to be cooled passively, and an S1 also fits...
With one intake (Noctua S12 at 800rpm~), and one CPU fan in the case (also at 800rpm~) my 4850 under an S1 overheats (in the sense of forced sleep mode). Might be bad contact, I need to try to reseat - but the S1 gets burning hot and CCC reports 75-85c load.

ATWindsor
Posts: 285
Joined: Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:53 pm

Post by ATWindsor » Tue Jun 16, 2009 8:42 am

daveconn41 wrote:
speedkar9 wrote:You'd have to mod the S1 to fit the 4770- chop off 1" from the left end of all the fins.

However the 4850 might be able to be cooled passively, and an S1 also fits...
With one intake (Noctua S12 at 800rpm~), and one CPU fan in the case (also at 800rpm~) my 4850 under an S1 overheats (in the sense of forced sleep mode). Might be bad contact, I need to try to reseat - but the S1 gets burning hot and CCC reports 75-85c load.
Thanks for interesting info, although i won't need to run it passive, as long as i can run it silent, I guess 300-500 rpm should be impossible to hear, and should be quite a lot cooler than nothing at all.

How about nvidias offerings? I had more or less dismissed them due to higher power draws on load, but are they easier to cool? (maybe the can take more heat or something?). If so, they can be an alternative.

AtW

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