My Antec 3700BQE with AcoustiPack Deluxe v2

Longbow · Post by **Longbow** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 1:42 am

Detailed spec see my sig. HD sitting on two strips of sorbothane, still looking for a smartdrive or similar enclosure.

thanks for all your help, feedback and opinions.

w00dy · Post by **w00dy** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 3:09 am

Very nice mate - like the Acoustipack Deluxe !

Any problems closing the side door with the "egg carton" type acoustic sheet?

I notice you have no front fan? Any HDD temp issues ?

Longbow · Post by **Longbow** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 3:18 am

no issue with door closing.

however the size of deluxe kit (as well as non deluxe kit) is a few cm short on the 3700BQE either way. so instead of 1.8cm space between rear edge of case cover, and the acoustipack, i had more like 3.8 cm un-
covered.

i wished the deluxe kit comes with 2 contoured sheet and 1 flat sheet, both 3 cm wider than current size. i can't get a 3700 bqe precut kit at the time.

no issue with hd temp, currently 32'C (winter here!) via smart status. never had temp in 40's. incoming air goes through the HD cage, and the HD is raised about 1.5 cm above the bracket thingy.

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 3:18 am

Very clean looking install!

with the Phantom and fan swapped Zalman I would imagine it is nice and quiet.

perplex · Post by **perplex** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 3:20 am

how much difference in sound did it make?

Longbow · Post by **Longbow** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 3:29 am

thanks Aleksi...

cables need a bit of management

perplex, the difference is marginal, given my previous setup is rather quiet. but it does greatly reduced the case's humming sound, together with a few padding on the cover edges. and right now, i can hear almost no sound from the front, side, and top, over the background noise of the rear nexus 120mm @ 6v, fan grill not removed.

it's interesting that, i put the acoustipack on the side covers first, and the humming sound through the top cover actually increased, it's like the sound being reflected in the case and finally exited through the top cover. once i had the entire case done, those sound are gone.

chylld · Post by **chylld** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 4:09 am

looks very nice indeed

my computer used to be decked out with about 4 kg of sound dampening material, now it has probably around half that. apart from my window modi removed the dampening material around my silverstone fanless psu because i wanted to give it as much breathing space as possible (and also because with a fanless psu, it isn't as necessary to have material there.)

i'm just wondering if you considered the situation where your psu gets real hot and has a bad effect on the acoustic material surrounding it? or did you leave those areas undamped?

Longbow · Post by **Longbow** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 4:34 am

thanks, chylld

total weight of my case is now 19KG (close to 40lbs). it's really heavy...

i thought about that PSU might get hot, but no, i didn't leave area around it naked. the Phantom mainly distribute the heat from the rear panel, and air circulating through it's bottom fins, i didn't have a measurement, but my fingers told me there is little (if any) temp difference on the PSU before/after the damping.

i reckon the top panel is the major part to be damped. the biggest flat area facing my ears.

tempeteduson · Post by **tempeteduson** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 10:28 am

Very, very nice, Longbow.

How's the Pioneer DVD drive working for you? I heard it's pretty quiet.

perplex · Post by **perplex** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:22 pm

i'm hoping to get BQE with some kind of noise dampening :]

w00dy · Post by **w00dy** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 1:53 pm

no issue with hd temp, currently 32'C (winter here!) via smart status. never had temp in 40's. incoming air goes through the HD cage, and the HD is raised about 1.5 cm above the bracket thingy

Thanks for the tip on this one mate - raised up my HDD's by placing small squares of Acoustipack on the drive rails to lift the drive up slightly - I have since removed my front fan (92mm Panaflo at 5v) and my HDD temps have dropped 4c !!

Cheers

BenW · Post by **BenW** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 2:12 pm

tempeteduson wrote:How's the Pioneer DVD drive working for you? I heard it's pretty quiet.

Yea, i'd quite like to hear a few comments on that too if you dont mind

Longbow · Post by **Longbow** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 3:15 pm

tempeteduson wrote:Very, very nice, Longbow.
How's the Pioneer DVD drive working for you? I heard it's pretty quiet.

thanks tempeteduson

i got the retail version 109BXL (or called A09 here in NZ), Pioneer has a software tool Quiet Drive, which can set operation mode to quiet, normal and performance(?). the writer was factory set to "quiet". the tool can further reduce the max read speed of the drive to 8X DVD/24X CD (can't really remember) and it further reduces the overall noise

i havn't done any performance/acoustic measurement before/after limiting the read speed, what i can say is, i don't use it much but when i use it (burning or reading), it never really annoys me. it does seem to response slower when i insert a CD/DVD though. otherwise i'm quite happy with it.

it has a big faceplate and may not fit those cases with a front 5"drive attached/semi-auto-opened cover, etc.

hey w00dy, glad it worked for U.

BenW · Post by **BenW** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 12:42 am

I thought the drive was meant to go slowly when reading CD/DVD and faster when writting CD/DVD? Thats what i read anyway