SI-97 and Nexus 92mm Success

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 9:12 am

Well I've succeeded in quieting down my computer. A Zalman northbridge heatsink helped a lot, the SI-97 is phenomenal, and the Nexus 92mm is silent. I have the Nexus 120mm on the rear, and no front intake.

I wanted to share my experience/success here becuase I came here, lurked, and this place ultimately helped in my decision making process, so here is my offer of thanks

And I know that SI-97 reviews are hard to come by, it being fairly new and all.

Antec slk-3700bqe
Albatron KX18dpro
2500+ Barton, sometimes I like to bring it up to 3200+, not really necessary though
Sapphire 9600xt ultimate
AS Ceramique
PC-3200 Kingston 2x256
WD 80gb & 120bg The 80 gb idles at 32 and peaks at 41, the 120gb just kinda likes to chill (haha, chill) at 29 and 32.

My next step in quieting will have to be the power supply. it idles at about 1300 rpm, but revs up to 2000 and gets louder there. Its just the stock psu that came with the SLK-3700bqe. I'm thinking just a fan swap (i'm really liking these Nexus's right now). Please feel free to offer any suggestions.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/ ... 240004.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/ ... 240003.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/ ... titled.jpg

hope those pics show up............... oh yeah, they did

**ADMIN EDIT FOR BIG PICS (read the posting guidelines)

DG · Post by DG » Thu Nov 25, 2004 9:30 am

What is the ambient temperature of the room? Do you have AC?

Jojo540 · Post by **Jojo540** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 10:02 am

One more question, what is the voltage of the Silentboost and the Nexus?

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 11:11 am

Well it's winter here, just got our first snow last night, so no AC. Ambient is 70F so 21C.

The silent boost (certainly not silent) was at stock voltage. It says rated voltage of 12v, started voltage 7v here http://www.xoxide.com/thsibofork7a.html

I guess I dont really understand what that means. The nexus 92mm and 120mm are also both at stock volatges, both 12 volts. The 120mm is actually just a tad bit, like a hair louder than I would like so i"ll have to figure out how to do that voltage mod.

I also forgot to mention that I was afraid that the Zalman NB47J wouldn't fit with the SI-97, but the SI-97 does clear it by a few mm on my mobo.

Jojo540 · Post by **Jojo540** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 11:53 am

So we can say that both, Silentboost and Nexus where in the same conditions 12V, so you won 2°C with the SI-97.

Which thermal paste do you use?

Sorry for so many questions, but I have now a Silentboost, and plan to buy a SI-97, it's the reason why of my interest in your results

soujir0u · Post by **soujir0u** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 1:10 pm

Well I got a SI-97 too and here are my results.

Installed with Arctic Silver 5 and the included shim (I've heard that not using the shim gives 3-5 degress Celcius lower temperatures). Load temperatures are induced with Prime95 torture test.

Chenbro Gaming Bomb
Seasonic Super Tornado 400W
Abit NF7-S with NB47J
Athlon XP-M 2600+ w/SI-97 and Papst 92mm@7V
Radeon 9600Pro with NB47J
120mm Papst Case Fan@5V

Ambient - around 25 degress C. It's almost summer here so temps are starting to get higher.

CPU at 220x10 (2.2GHz) - 1.45V
Idle Case Temp - 30
Idle CPU Temp - 39
Load Case Temp - 33
Load CPU Temp - 44

CPU at 240x10 (2.4GHz) - 1.68V
Idle Case Temp - 35
Idle CPU Temp - 54
Load Case Temp - 40
Load CPU Temp - 59

PSU Fan never ramps up even at load. Noisiest component is actually the Papst fan, but its silent if I turn the voltage down to 3V (which it does start up at).

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 2:19 pm

I used the Ceramique on both the SilentBoost and SI-97. Belive me, uprade to the SI-97 and a quiet fan like the Nexus or one of your preference, and you will be running cooler and a lot, lot quieter. And I am using the copper shim also on the SI-97 right now.

sourji0u, is thaht Seasonic Super Tornado 400W a good investment? I've seen some good things about on here, and something a little bit quieter than the Antec sl350s (I think it is) would be nice t have.

Jojo540 · Post by **Jojo540** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 3:49 pm

Badger wrote:I used the Ceramique on both the SilentBoost and SI-97. Belive me, uprade to the SI-97 and a quiet fan like the Nexus or one of your preference, and you will be running cooler and a lot, lot quieter. And I am using the copper shim also on the SI-97 right now.

I plan to upgrade to a SI-97 and mod it, making new clips to use it with a Globe fan 120mm only in the summer time, over 25°C ambient.

In winter with 21°C ambient I'll try to use it fanless, I have 2*120mm Globe fan (one in & one out) and a 120mm PSU fan.
Today with these 4 fans (including Silentboost) running at 6V, my CPU is 30°C on idle.

I run an Athlon XP2600, undervolted at 1.17V and underclocked at 964Mhz.

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 3:49 pm

Badger,

WELCOME TO SPCR !!!!

That looks like a very good setup. Once you take care of your PSU and find a way to suspend your hdds, you'll have a very quiet system.

That "a tad bit, like a hair" noisy 120mm fan will become very nice as soon as you go below 10V. You can do a 7V mod, if the airflow becomes too low, you could get or make an inline resistor. The one Nexus sells will take it down to 10V or so they claim.

Don't know about the Tornado but the Silencer that Mike modded for me with a 5V Panaflo M1 is the best thing that happened to that computer.

I'd guess the Tornado to be equaly good. Now I know why Mike has been preaching high-efficiency PSUs

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 4:04 pm

Thanks for the welcome burcakb.

Quick question, I was just fiddling around with the stock Antec 120mm to change it from 12v to 5v, and it works, and is quiet but not moving much air so I'm seeing as I type that my temps are up a few degrees.

But the Nexus 120mm has three wires leading from it, black, red, and yellow. They split off to two four pins connectors then one three pin for connection direct to the mobo. If I wanted to go 7v, would I just ignore the yellow wire, and tape it up or something?

Thanks a bunch

soujir0u · Post by **soujir0u** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 4:36 pm

The Seasonic is great, can only hear it if I turn off all the fans and put my ear near the computer. I think in a normal setup with CPU fan and case fan, the noise it makes shouldn't be an issue at all.

Post by **Rusty075** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 4:37 pm

Looks pretty good Badger.

Judging by those temps, you've got plenty of headroom to drop the fan speeds even more.

....and I swapped your IMG tags for URL's, the pics were big enough to cause side scrolling. (and they're not dial-up user friendly)

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Thu Nov 25, 2004 4:56 pm

Oh hey thanks, sorry about that, I'll keep that in mind for future reference. Everybody likes a picture of someone else's computer

With the Antec 120mm at 5v as my rear exhaust my case temp has remained 32C but my cpu is now 37C, 4C higher than with the Nexus 120mm at 12v.

I think the Nexus at 7v will be the perfect balance. I dont want to keep the Antec in there at 7v b/c I want to rectify buying an orange fan

EDIT: UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Ok I 7volted my Nexus 120mm, and 7volted the Nexus 92mm on the cpu. This thing is super eerily quiet now, I can hear my monitor that is over an arm's length away from my head giving off a slight buzz. The power supply is the only noticeable source of sound, and it sounds like it's just air moving. My temps right now look great too, 34 idle cpu and 30 case,

As i type I'm running SETI@home to warm it all up, this is at stock cpu voltages and FSB, 2500+.
And after a couple minutes now... MBM says a high of 49 and im at 47-48 right now. case is at 37 though... well, its quiet.

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Fri Nov 26, 2004 4:01 am

Badger, I understand you don't have a 120mm at the front?

It might be a wise idea to check your hdd temps regularly. Use DTemp software.

As for case temps don't worry. On most nForce2 mobos I've seen the case temp sensor is located in or near the southbridge. If you don't have a front fan as I suspect, that sensor is probably not getting much airflow thus the higher case temp. Nothing to worry about (my DFI Lanparty says 47C for case !!!)

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Fri Nov 26, 2004 7:53 am

Correct - no front 120mm intake. HD's are a little warmer, but I haven't seen anything above 45. Right now idle after leaving the computer on all night doing nothing te 80 gb is 35 and the 120gb is 31. That used to be about 31 and 29 respsectively with all my fans at 12v.

I just google'd for a hard drive stress test and found "Bart's Stuff Test v5.14". Running that, my highest temp on the 80gb drive (my OS drve) was 46C according to DTool. At the same time that was running my 120gb below it got up to 31 doing nothing. It won't let me test the 120gb without buying the program.

I turned that stress test off then found a HD Speed measuring tool, meaures the read/writes, and as I was running that right after that other stress test my temp rose to 49. Haha, so I dont know what's the better stressor here.

I guess that's warm, but how often do you put 100% stress on the hard drive for that long anyways?