My second mortgage - Dual core SLK 3000B

Show off your quiet rig.

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ozdoc
Posts: 138
Joined: Tue Aug 16, 2005 4:35 am
Location: Perth, Australia

My second mortgage - Dual core SLK 3000B

Post by ozdoc » Wed Sep 07, 2005 6:45 am

After weeks of lurking at SPCR, the time had finally come to take the plunge into the spiralling addiction of quiet computing. To put things into perspective, my old rig is a Celeron 400. Here’s a pic for all of those too young to remember.. The suspension was just for practice. The hard drives whine more than my kids…
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With SPCR forums taken into consideration, the new system was decided on. (Prior to finding SPCR, I was about to invest in a fast Prescott or Pentium D. I’m thankful for google, SPCR's members opinions and El~Jefe's humour….)

Case Antec 3000B, with acoustipack
Motherboard Asus A8N SLI premium.
CPU AMD 64 Dual core 4400
CPU heatsink Thermalright XP 120, with artic silver 5, Nexus 120.
Memory 2 GB Corsair Value
PSU Antec Phantom 350
Hard Drives WD Raptor 74 – operating system and programs
Samsung SP 200 GB SATA – storage and Raptor image back up
External SP 200 GB SATA – back up
Case Fans Nexus 120 x2, EAR grommets
DVD Pioneer 110D
TFT Samsung 173pPlus, plus old IBM E74 monitor
VGA Gigabyte 6600GT 128 MB NX66T128VP
HDTV card Compro VideoMate DVB – T300
Key / Mouse Logitec LX 700

The initial pics are for those who live for the dream of the build, and want to get a vicarious thrill. There’s something intoxicating about the smell of new hardware. And speaking of intoxicating, the 1974 bottle of Grange is included for the benefit of the Aussie forum members. I was keeping it to celebrate the birth of a child or something similar, but now it’s off to ebay to pay for the dual core… Grange or dual core?? That could be a good thread discussion..

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Talk on the street is of the drive cage in the 3000B being a bit rattly. No problems. Suspend the cage horizontally. The drive cage is held firmly in place from below with elastic to minimise movement when transporting the case.

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The next pics show the relationship of the XP 120 and the memory and heat pipe.

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More details re: ASUS A8N SLI Premium and XP120 can be found at
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... highlight=

Rig assembled. No problems apart from breaking one SATA power connecter coming from the phantom. It was easily replaced with a spare from the old truepower. Which bright spark came up with the design for these connecters? A bit flimsy if you ask me

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The ugly side of town.. I still need to shorten the black leads that go to the top front Bezel LEDs. Fans on a 7v connector, LEDs on 12v.

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The completed case, with modded front bezel LEDs (with help from Mr Dremel). Bright, blue, and only visible with the door open. Great for finding the DVD eject button after a big night on the Grange..

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Internet addiction …. Need help…. The final set up, with the dual core multitasking beautifully..

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Did I succeed? From a budget perspective, well, ahhem, lets see, … not even close. Quiet? – very. Sitting at my desk the only component I can hear is the very soft ‘chatter’ of the raptor seeks, which strangely, is quite pleasant. I guess noise really is in the ear of the beholder. Up close (6 inches) the ‘air whoosh’ idle of the raptor can be heard, otherwise all is quiet. Unfortunately my hearing is quiet acute for high frequencies, and I am getting some very high frequency whine from my DSL modem and surge protector! Needless to say the surge protector has been ‘acoustipacked’ (with leftover foam) and the DSL modem relegated to under my shelves.

Comments and suggestions welcomed. Thanks guys.
Last edited by ozdoc on Fri Sep 23, 2005 6:40 am, edited 3 times in total.

vertigo
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Post by vertigo » Wed Sep 07, 2005 9:40 am

Well I think you are mad to take a mortgage to pay for a PC, unless that computer will make you a substantial amount of money.

You should rather have saved money, then bought a PC. Saving isn't impossible, you know.

nici
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Post by nici » Wed Sep 07, 2005 10:37 am

vertigo wrote:Well I think you are mad to take a mortgage to pay for a PC, unless that computer will make you a substantial amount of money.

You should rather have saved money, then bought a PC. Saving isn't impossible, you know.
Me thinks e was jokin´ :lol:

Anyway, looks plenty nice 8) For some reason i especially like the pictures of all the components in their packages :lol: I also noticed the bottle, when being emptied during installation bottles certainly help during installation :mrgreen:

ozdoc
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Location: Perth, Australia

Post by ozdoc » Wed Sep 07, 2005 3:24 pm

Well I think you are mad to take a mortgage to pay for a PC, unless that computer will make you a substantial amount of money.
Hmm, the loan shark I borrowed from thought it was a good investment....
?Mad or joking. You both could be right.

(Reminder to self.... Use smilies in the future to give forewarning of humour. :lol: )

hyperq
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Location: Ithaca, New York, USA

Post by hyperq » Wed Sep 07, 2005 4:01 pm

Very nice setup! Love it.

Just make sure all the passive components have enough airflow around them. I prefer to have all of my components under 40C, I guess that is difficult to achieve with passive components.

The passive 6600GT can get very hot during gaming. So you might want to use a Zalman fan mate to control the front and exhaust fans. Or you can add a seperate Panaflo 80L and control its speed dynamically.

ozdoc
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Location: Perth, Australia

Post by ozdoc » Wed Sep 07, 2005 4:16 pm

Temps at idle (ambient 22- 25 degrees, upstairs in a loft):
34-36 C - CPU
38 - 42 C - Motherboard
28 C Hard drives
66 C - Passive 6600GT
Perhaps a fan on a zalman arm blowing across the VGA?

vertigo
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Post by vertigo » Wed Sep 07, 2005 5:20 pm

the loan shark I borrowed from
Here we call them banks.

hyperq
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Location: Ithaca, New York, USA

Post by hyperq » Wed Sep 07, 2005 6:06 pm

Nice temps except the 66C. The small difference in temperature between hard drives and ambient makes me believe that the PC hasn't been on for too long. Try leaving it on for 8 hours and see how much heat will build up in it.

Zalman FB123 should be able to do the job. Or you can just hang a fan there with two steel wires. My Panaflo 80L at 7v is inaudible in my SLK3000B.

Cooling a passive Gigabyte 6600GT has been discussed in other threads. Just do a search and you should find a bunch of info.

ozdoc
Posts: 138
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Location: Perth, Australia

Post by ozdoc » Wed Sep 07, 2005 8:32 pm

Nice temps except the 66C. The small difference in temperature between hard drives and ambient makes me believe that the PC hasn't been on for too long. Try leaving it on for 8 hours and see how much heat will build up in it.
Actually it has been on now for 36 hrs.. Ambient temp now 24, HD temp up to 30 C. I wonder if the suspended drive cage is guiding thru front air.
Zalman FB123 should be able to do the job. Or you can just hang a fan there with two steel wires. My Panaflo 80L at 7v is inaudible in my SLK3000B.
Where are you hanging the wires from? Is there any risk of short circuiting something by using steel?

hyperq
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Post by hyperq » Wed Sep 07, 2005 8:56 pm

36 hours? Wow, then these temps are really nice, except the 66C. =)

Just hang wires from the PSU support beam. The wires should go through two top holes on the fan. As long as you don't shake the case when the PC is on, the wires won't touch anything.

hyperq
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Location: Ithaca, New York, USA

Post by hyperq » Wed Sep 07, 2005 9:17 pm

There are two advantages of using wires.

1) Steel wires are malleable and easy to work with. This allows you to hang a fan at any location and at any angle in a case. Zalman FB123 cannot do that. It cannot reach the chipset on my mobo, so I had to use wires.

2) Wires hardly transfer any fan vibration to the case. Again, FB123 cannot do that because it has to be hard mounted.

xarope
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Post by xarope » Wed Sep 07, 2005 9:18 pm

only someone who is familiar with australian wine would understand the significant $$$ of the '74 penfolds grange hermitage... :shock:

oh what the heck, sell the wine, silence is golden... :P

ozdoc
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Location: Perth, Australia

Post by ozdoc » Wed Sep 07, 2005 9:25 pm

Hyperq. Thanks. I might give that a go (with insulated wire for me!)

Does anyone know how accurate speed fan is? It is telling me that the CPU fan is at 3500 RPM, when it is a Nexus 120, which I understand has a max of 1000 RPM.

Googlie
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Post by Googlie » Fri Sep 09, 2005 7:08 pm

xarope wrote:only someone who is familiar with australian wine would understand the significant $$$ of the '74 penfolds grange hermitage... :shock:

oh what the heck, sell the wine, silence is golden... :P
Sell the wine?? :shock: Good god man - have you no sense of the appropriate use of a noble grape? You have achieved cool and quiet! Celebrate!

(he says savouring a glass of Aussie Red - from a can!)
http://www.wineinacan.com/cabernet_shiraz_merlot.htm

Nice Wine... I mean rig!

Deathlife
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Location: Valencia, Spain

Post by Deathlife » Sat Sep 10, 2005 12:18 am

Excelente rig, that's just what I was going to do, except for a Seasonic PSU instead of the Phantom :)

ozdoc
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Location: Perth, Australia

Post by ozdoc » Mon Sep 12, 2005 9:11 pm

Excelente rig, that's just what I was going to do, except for a Seasonic PSU instead of the Phantom
Yeah, I would have gone for the Seasonic if it had been available at the time in Australia. It became available a week after purchasing the Phantom. :oops:

The Phantom has been very stable, however I do note a fair bit of heat build up in the upper compartment. I was wondering if the acoustipak on the top surface above the Phantom might be limiting heat conduction / escape. Would anyone know if a passive (non fanned) blow hole would help?

coldmist
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Post by coldmist » Mon Sep 12, 2005 9:40 pm

ozdoc wrote:Hyperq. Thanks. I might give that a go (with insulated wire for me!)

Does anyone know how accurate speed fan is? It is telling me that the CPU fan is at 3500 RPM, when it is a Nexus 120, which I understand has a max of 1000 RPM.
Speedfan can have problems reading some fans. My Panaflos used to read 2x their normal value. I had to max out the PWMOUT* clock values to 48KHz and then they read normal from 5V-10V. At 12 V, they spike to 2x sometimes still.

Play with fan diviser too. Configure|Advanced should get you going.

elec999
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Post by elec999 » Mon Sep 12, 2005 11:27 pm

Very nice rig.
I hope you enjoy it.

brynte
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Post by brynte » Fri Sep 16, 2005 1:54 am

ozdoc: You have almost ecactly, the system i´m going to order today :wink: Which Seasonic would you have ordered? Should I go for the 600w?
I will also order Nexus fans (thanx to this thread), but do I have to modify the fan, to fit on the xp-120 :? ?

brynte
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Post by brynte » Sat Sep 17, 2005 11:41 pm

Forget the question about the Nexus fans! Found the answer in the "nexus fan mod guide"- thread! :wink:
The question about the Seasonic is still open, though! The 600w is probably "overkill", I guess!? Maybe 500w will be the best choice, for this kind of system?

ozdoc
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Location: Perth, Australia

Post by ozdoc » Sun Sep 18, 2005 1:30 am

Brynte:
We only have two Seasonics currently available in Australia - the S12 430 and S12 500W. From all articles seen, power needs are usually grossly overestimated. Considering I've currently got the 350W Phantom, and this gives great stable power, I'm sure the S12 430 would have been my preference. Mind you, I have no intentions in going SLI dual cards, I just got the Asus premium for the fanless chipset. I guess if you're going to go dual cards, and plugging in a USB fridge or something, then perhaps the higher wattage. The dual core XP 4400 is rated somewhere around 110W, still 5-10 W less than a Pentium 4. Other than that, the power needs of the system are generally not excessive.

Re: the nexus. It either needs the flanges to be dremmed out, or Thermalright does offer optional larger clips, for a few dollars, to accomadate a closed flange fan - this doesn't come with the XP 120 kit.

brynte
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Post by brynte » Sun Sep 18, 2005 5:07 am

Ok! I´m not sure about SLI, but I´m thinking it´s probably better to be safe than sorry so IF I do "go SLI", I don´t have to worry about the PSU being too weak!? The 430w is probably sufficient, but not sure and the 600w is probably "overkill", so I guess the 500w will be perfect!?? What do you think?

ozdoc
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Post by ozdoc » Sun Sep 18, 2005 5:41 am

I guess it would depends on your aims.

According to SPCR reviews, S12 430 gets the highest quietness rating for a fanned PSU, while the S12 500W is rated as slightly louder but possibly more efficient. My argument would be how efficient does the thing need to be, and does that really make an impact on your computing experience? I guess most people around here are more focused on the quietness aspect, hence the recommendation for the 430W, assuming it has enough grunt for your needs. I find it difficult to believe that it wouldn't have.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article28-page6.html

Estimates of power usage in different systems.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article265-page1.html

I understand most online power estimation calculators are quite inaccurate. Also consider that most PCs will never stress all of their components at the same time, so the "Max" power draw is usually only theoretical. Basically by sticking to a good quality power supply you should be guarenteed a decent power result. A cheap 500W PSU wouldn't come anywhere near matching my 350W Phantom. (in noise obviously, and reliability.... I hope.... assuming it's not one of the early ones... :lol: )

What's going to go in your rig?

brynte
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Post by brynte » Sun Sep 18, 2005 9:11 am

I´m going to use my computer for music recordings, so it´s very important to me, that my new system is as silent as possible, but I also want to use it to play the latest videogames!
I don´t know if I´m going to go SLI, but I want to be prepared for it in case I do!
If I have to make a choice, if my system (possibly SLI) will be quiet and stable (with 500w), or extremely quiet and (possibly) unstable (with 430w), I would choose the first option!
But if I can only be sure that the 430w will be sufficiant for my system (extremely quiet and stable), I will buy the 430w!
Here´s a link to my new system: http://forum.sweclockers.com/showthread ... did=501174
The only 2 components I´m not 100% sure of, are which Seasonic S12 PSU to get and if I should go for XP-120 or Big Typhoon, for CPU-cooling

brynte
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Post by brynte » Sun Sep 18, 2005 9:16 am

As you can see, it´s very similar to tour system;)
The biggest difference is probably the videocard and that I might possibly go SLI!?

Gxcad
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Post by Gxcad » Sun Sep 18, 2005 10:04 am

pardon my ignorance if it has been discussed as I only scanned the thread, but why did you choose the 3000B for such a high budjet machine? Why not for instance, a P180 or Sonata 2? Just curious.

-Ken

kloppe
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Post by kloppe » Sun Sep 18, 2005 10:46 am

brynte: The 430W version will be more than enough for your system.

ozdoc
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Post by ozdoc » Sun Sep 18, 2005 4:13 pm

pardon my ignorance if it has been discussed as I only scanned the thread, but why did you choose the 3000B for such a high budjet machine? Why not for instance, a P180 or Sonata 2? Just curious.
Basically it just came down to personal taste. With all respect for Mike C and Antec designers, the P180 just doesn't do anything for me. I'm sure it's a fine enclosure. And I don't like the glossy black finish of the Sonata. Kids fingerprints, dust etc.. I'm very happy with the 3000B.

ozdoc
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Post by ozdoc » Sun Sep 18, 2005 4:26 pm

I´m going to use my computer for music recordings, so it´s very important to me, that my new system is as silent as possible, but I also want to use it to play the latest videogames!
Is this setting, you might have to consider some form of noise reduction for the Raptor, as the seeks can be noticable. Not unpleasant, but not something you would want while recording. It is the loudest part of my system, and the acoustipak does a good job at reducing the idle whoosh.
The only 2 components I´m not 100% sure of, are which Seasonic S12 PSU to get and if I should go for XP-120 or Big Typhoon, for CPU-cooling
I don't know much about the Typhoon. Xp-120 is working fine for me. I assume the height of your RAM is standard. How about the Scythe Ninja?
As stated, the 430W will be adequate, but if it's going to put your mind at peace, go the 500W :D Dual 7800 cards on a 4400. I'd like to see that. :o

brynte
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Post by brynte » Mon Sep 19, 2005 1:28 pm

ozdoc: Yes, I am a little worried about the seek-noise of the Raptor, but attatched under my desk, there is a "case" for my computer!
Almost like an extra case (of wood) with a front door , but open in the back, surrounding the 3000b! It should help to reduce most of the seek-noise (hopefully all of it;)!?
Questions about the acoustipak: Did you cover the holes on the side of the 3000b, or cut holes in the acoustipak?
Do you have the precut acoustipak for 3700 BQE?
I don´t know the height of my RAM, but sure hope it´s "standard"!
It looks like you´ve got the perfect fit in your system (XP-120 and RAM)!
I don´t think Scythe Ninja is available in Sweden yet!
One last (?) thing about the PSU: Why doesn´t the 430w come prepared for SLI, just like the 500w and the 600w (with dual PCI-E-cables)? One can almost think that Seasonic themselves, doubt the power of the 430w, to be sufficiant for an SLI-system (even though we don´t)!??
kloppe: Thanx for your input!
Gxcad: It´s pretty cheap, but its known to be a very good case to build a quiet system in!
You get to choose your own PSU!
A very popular case, which means lots of tips, guides etc...

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