Reserator + Fanless PSU + 2.5" HDD?

[Lifecycle]

I'm toying with the idea of building a new PC as I'd like something that is a fast games rig.

Silence-wise, this is a bit of a no-go because you're looking at having both a fast CPU and a fast graphics card - both of which pump out a ton of heat, as no doubt everyone here is painfully aware. I know there are ways of cooling quietly on air but having done a bit of research on the Zalman Reserator and seen people's success stories here, I am getting very very tempted... and we all know where temptation leads - a big dent in the wallet and some explaining to do the wife

Anyway, here's the kind of setup I'd like to go for but want some idea of whether this really will work or not:

- Athlon 64 (of some speed).
- GeForce 6800 series or ATI X800 series.
- Fanless PSU.
- No case fans.
- 2.5" HDD.
- Zalman Reserator cooling the CPU/graphics.

As far as I can tell, this is going to be pretty much as quiet as is practically possible while maintaining very high performance, and without going into "exotics" like solid state disks. Thus, the wife remains happy (ish) with the budget.

Passively cooled graphics cards and CPUs (e.g. Pentium-M, if it were actually available on desktop) still require case airflow and therefore fans.

The only two noise sources here would be the Reserator pump and the HDD.

The proposed setup above has no fans, a passively cooled external radiator and a very quiet 2.5" HDD (that could possibly be silenced further via foam/enclosure). To me, this seems like an almost ultimate silent PC built directly from off-the-shelf components without modding.

My crunch questions here are therefore:

1) How noisy/audible is the pump on the Reserator? Particularly in comparison to something like a 120mm 5v Yate-Loon (as that's something I know and cannot hear with my ear 2 inches from it).

2) Is it sensible to run a fanless PSU with no case fans?

3) Am I missing anything here?

4) Will this end in a fireball and tears?

5) Will building this PC cure my silent PC affliction?

[Edward Ng]

This looks AWESOME!!!!

[Pgh]

I have a Reserator, it’s essentially silent as long as you don’t place it on a hard surface like a bare table. I originally had mine sitting directly on a tabletop and it make a very small amount of hum. I put a piece of cardboard under it and the hum went away.

Unless your fanless PSU is external it will be adding 5-20watts worth of heat to the case. The motherboard and other components also add heat. Unless there is some airflow in and out of the case the buildup of heat will likely be a problem. A Papst or Nexus fan at 5v is pretty quiet and will provide at least some ventilation. You could try running with the case side panels removed.

[Rusty075]

1. It's quieter than any fan I've ever heard. As Pgh described, its noise is more of a vibration than an airborne sound. I set mine atop some sorbothane to prevent it from resonating on my wooden floor.

2. You're going to need airflow inside the case. Even without the CPU and VGA, there is some waste heat being generated in there. (including some coming from the fanless PSU's shell) Careful case design may let you get away just using convection. I'd skip the dampening (no need with a good suspended laptop drive) and instead look for a case with big free openings to let the air naturally move itself through

3. Make sure the Zalman VGA WB is compatible with your card.

4. Probably not...but if it does, please post pics.

5. No....you'll discover that your monitor buzzes, and that your heart makes this annoying "thump-thump" inside your chest.

[lenny]

There's a site where someone pointed out that the waterblock is essentially straight through and may not be sufficient for cooling a 6800. You may need heat sinks on the RAM as well, if the 6800 doesn't come with it. You may want one fan for HDD + case cooling. A little airflow goes a long way when compared to no airflow. A Panaflo L1A at 5V, mounted on isolators, should add little (if any) noise.

Then you'd only have to worry about coil buzz (motherboard and PSU), the fridge in the kitchen, the neighbors' kids...

For me, I don't have to worry about the neighbors' kids. Because I'm that neighbor *sigh*

[Rusty075]

There's a site where someone pointed out that the waterblock is essentially straight through and may not be sufficient for cooling a 6800. You may need heat sinks on the RAM as well, if the 6800 doesn't come with it.

The Zalman VGA WB includes a set of ramsinks. (although I'm not sure if it comes with enough to do all the RAM on a 256mb card)

I think the review you're thinking of is the one at Xbit, but it's a really poorly done review, and I don't think I'd put too much weight on his findings. He complains about the design of the WB, but then his own findings, with a FX5900 (which produces 50% more heat than a 6800, and 25% more than an X800) show perfectly acceptable temps, (despite his uneducated claims to the contrary)....and that's in spite of the fact that his Res1 was also having to cope with a CPU that was producing 116watts (!) of heat.


I don't mean to sound like a Zalman commercial, honest. The Reserator1 is far from perfect, and the GPU WB is certainly not the highest performing block on the market. (I'd call its performance, "good enough", as opposed to "good")

But I just don't like seeing people make judgements based on sloppy information. Its too often that bad info gets passed around until it gains the weight of truth.

What I would want to be sure of is that the Zalman WB will actually fit on the 6800 before you take the plunge...I know other WB's have had issues with the 6800's screw holes being smaller than normal.

[Farnsworth]

I hope you're planning to use a (very expensive) 7200rpm 2.5" harddisk, since a "normal" 5400rpm model might be a SERIOUS bottleneck in your system.

jesus, check those prices
7200rmp 2.5" hd 60gb --> nearly 250€ (in Belgium that is)

[RaNDoMMAI]

3. yes you will be mad at the AC in your house and then your keyboard and mouse and then even your heartbeat.

4. The quest for peace never ends unless you live in a cave

5. It will help?

but seriously i have a shuttle zen with a panaflo at 7V as the only fan and the only thing that i hear is the stupid HDD, i would get a notebook drive but i need allt he HDD space=(

good luck
~RaNDoM

[Rusty075]

I hope you're planning to use a (very expensive) 7200rpm 2.5" harddisk, since a "normal" 5400rpm model might be a SERIOUS bottleneck in your system.

You'd be surprised how little the performance impact is, particularly with the 8 or 16meg cache models. The rotational speed reduction is countered by the reduced head travel distance thanks to the smaller platter size. If you're coming from a 2meg cache 3.5" drive you may actually increase performance.

[wim]

Anyway, here's the kind of setup I'd like to go for but want some idea of whether this really will work or not...

please post a follow up here about how it goes. i would do something the same as you've suggested if i had enough money. actually, screw money, the only reason i haven't is because my current setup is not bad enough to warrant buying new gear yet

[Pgh]

The 1.8 inch drives are now up to 60GB and they’re used in iPods and iPod clones. Can someone with an iPod comment on the noise?

Has anyone seen a PATA or SATA adapter for them yet?

[Lifecycle]

Wow, thanks for all the feedback guys.

Some really useful tips and stuff for me to think about and chase up.

I guess this seems feasible then, although I will need to have a long, hard think about using a case fan. I know that there will be an issue with heat build-up without one but I would really really really like a completely fanless setup, as that would be fantastic. Perhaps a suitable case/mod is the key, as mentioned...

And yeah, I know about "other" noise problems. My Iiyama monitor has some pretty nasty coil buzz that is louder than even my current rig although luckily, the neighbours don't have kids

please post a follow up here about how it goes. i would do something the same as you've suggested if i had enough money. actually, screw money, the only reason i haven't is because my current setup is not bad enough to warrant buying new gear yet

Actually, I am pretty much in the same boat, just toying with the idea of building a new machine if I could get it quiet enough. I was more interested to see if someone else had built a rig like this already and just if it would work at all, really.

I don't think that cost-wise this would be a particularly expensive rig. Yes, there is additional cost for the Reserator and other quiet components, but overall I think I could do it for a reasonable budget of 20%-30% more than a conventional rig of the same specs. I could cut back the cost pretty easily but just not buying the absolute top-end CPU/graphics card/2Gb RAM etc... I guess that would save enough to pay the extra for the Reserator and PSU etc. quiet easily.

And don't worry, I'll keep you all posted if and when I do this build...

[Tibors]

Maybe you could get away with no case fan if you use the Vtech / Mercury case in this thread:
One-fan computer, quiet, clean, cheap, few mods.

[Arzela]

Hey there,

Your proposed setup sounds almost excatly like my system:

Athlon 64 3500, socket 939
Asus A8V Deluxe mobo
BFG Geforce 6800 GT
1 Gig Crucial XMS ram
80 gig Seagate 'cuda IV
Antec Phantom PSU
Zalman Reserator
0 fans!


I have the side panel off on the case, and the power supply mounted
outside of the case. According to the Asus monitoring program, my temps
are 24 C case (always), 30 C cpu idle, 42 C cpu load. According to the Nvidia driver,
my GPU temps are 48 C idle, 68 C load. This is with the reserator, at steady state,
cooling both the GPU and CPU in a cold room (68 F or so). By "steady state",
I mean after the water reaches its steady state temperature. This seems to take a day or so. You can get great temps at startup with very cold water

I'm quite pleased with the set up. It seems stable, and is nearly silent. The reserator
is inaudible (after placing it atop a piece of foam, it does induce quite a bit of vibration)
if you're a foot away from it. The Antec Phantom occasionally makes a high pitched soft whine (got
to do something about that). The seagate, although quiet, is the loudest component in
the system. I'm glad my other drives (apr. 1 terrabyte worth) reside in my file server,
absconed away in its own room, where its dreadful noise can't reach my ears. In
this room resides my gigabyte switch. This thing sounds like a hair dryer...

It was very easy to set up, with the exception that the video card's mounting holes
were too small for the bolts Zalman supplies with thier GPU block (I filed the holes out a bit).

Hope this helps,

David

Edit: The Antec PS gets rather warm; that's why it's not in the case, of course.

[Straker]

the iPod drives aren't spectacularly quiet, but it's hard to be objective (obviously you're normally wearing headphones, and in loudish places). you can hear the drive spin up from a couple feet away (in a normal quiet room) if you're paying attention, but can't hear seeks/spinning from more than, say, a foot. it's only in a thin metal/plastic case too, of course... so probably more or less what you could expect from a slightly smaller than normal laptop drive.
also, the largest of those drives have at least one extra platter, so not sure about the noise on those specifically - check Apple's site, the largest iPods have always been like an eighth of an inch thicker. i bet it'd still be trivial to get it down to literally 0dba if you used a 5.25" bay for it...