Semi Passive A64 Rig

Fat_bloater_dave · Post by **Fat_bloater_dave** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 3:07 am

Hello there well I've been coming to SPCR For nearly a Year now and I've spend a good few hundred Pound on PC silencing and have had about 3 different versions of my PC in that time, not so much in different hardware but just getting it slicker and quieter.
Iâ€™m pretty happy with what I've got now of course there are always things I could do to make it better

but at the moment I canâ€™t hear it.

First off lets look at the system I had when I First started (this was my loud OCâ€™d Computer) I see lots of people started off like this and is why they get into PC silencing.

This my First Attempt at silencing it was a hell of a lot quieter but it just wasnâ€™t good enough.

Here we see my second attempt looks similar but was better set up and most importantly Quieter.

And finally we come to my latest setup
Let me describe it before I start posting some Pictures.

Ill start off with the components.

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9
Processor - Athlon 64 3200 Venice (Thermalright XP120 12CM Nexus)
Graphics card - Geforce 6600GT (Zalman VF900)
RAM - 2x512 Corsair Value select
Sound Card - Audigy 2 ZS
HD1 - Samsung MP0402H 40G
Power supply - Seasonic S12-430
Case - Thermaltake Xavier

Well as you can tell from the Title I am running this system semi Passive I am doing this in a couple of ways,
The CPU Fan is connected to the motherboard and controlled via the Bios It Runs passive up to 40c and then the fan turns on until it reaches 30c.
This seems to work very well when working just in windows the fan doesnâ€™t turn on but as soon as I do something processor intensive for any time it turns on, I am happy with this because to get from 30-40 using CPU burn with the fan off still takes about a min.

The semmi passive CPU

The GPU is running semi passive in the same way but using Rivatuner in windows it stabilises at 70c I've been running this for about 3 weeks and havenâ€™t had any problems.

Zalman VF900 running semmi passive

The only Fan I havenâ€™t got around to changing is the PSU Fan because it takes a lot more effort I might get around to it one day but I cant be bothered right now I cant hear it anyway. Iâ€™m planning on swapping in a Nexus and having on the CPU header with the CPU so as the CPU fan comes on so does the PSU fan seeing as thatâ€™s when its most needed, donâ€™t know if it will work out well but we will see.

Whole system

Lower Section

And the last noise making component in my system is the 2.5â€

McBanjo · Post by **McBanjo** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 1:43 pm

That fileserver looks like a altar of geekyness. Me like

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 2:57 pm

Why is there a half-used loo roll on your desk? And what is that brown stuff in the cup? Do I even want to know?

Fat_bloater_dave · Post by **Fat_bloater_dave** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 3:00 pm

McBanjo wrote:That fileserver looks like a altar of geekyness. Me like

Damn Straight it is, and i love it.

jaganath wrote:Why is there a half-used loo roll on your desk? And what is that brown stuff in the cup? Do I even want to know?

The Loo roll is for spillages (you will also see there is a Wine bottle, Coke, Tea cup and Aplle juice) and my cup is brown from Tea stains. Anything elce you wanna know

revloc8 · Post by **revloc8** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 4:19 am

wow...so thats what my room would look like if I wasnt married...Ive been wonderin...3 comps...huge monitor and speakers...food everywhere...wow

Fat_bloater_dave · Post by **Fat_bloater_dave** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 5:17 am

revloc8 wrote:wow...so thats what my room would look like if I wasnt married...Ive been wonderin...3 comps...huge monitor and speakers...food everywhere...wow

pfft 2 comptuers 3 Monitors, I mean what do you think i am some kind of Geek Â¬_Â¬

McBanjo · Post by **McBanjo** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 10:09 am

Is this classified as porno? *lol*

Fat_bloater_dave · Post by **Fat_bloater_dave** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 11:12 am

McBanjo wrote:Is this classified as porno? *lol*

o_O porno?

cAPSLOCK · Post by **cAPSLOCK** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 12:16 pm

Err, back on topic, I know those aren't very hot components, but, does the PSU ramp up alot on load? Maybe some case fans are in order (and cutting out those grilles)... I think you're nuts to think of enclosing a laptop drive

For the fan control, does the BIOS of your gigabyte board allow you to switch the fan off, or just set it at a speed where it doesn't spin anymore? I've tried the latter and found that the fan made an annoying squealing sound when it was trying to start up, this possibly doesn't happen with all fans, and in my case it happened because the controller I was using slowly increased the voltage as the temperature increased, no sudden change.

justblair · Post by **justblair** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 2:49 pm

I dont want to sound like a killjoy, but I think your HD enclosure is going to be a disapointment to you.

I just made one, but in my case I used a Flanged (I love the word flange!) Hammond box. I suspended mine. It is silent, well up to 20cm away, then it is near silent. However, and this is why you might get a bad result. When I touch mine, I can feel a vibration coming through it. The suspension looks after that for me, but your plan would tranfer it to the case.

EDIT.. I didn't twig it was a lappy drive... Dont know how my experiance would compare.

Or I might be wrong... I hope so. Will keep an eye you for your results. i take it you will post them here or on the alleycat thread?

Other than that... Good job. Dare I say so far?, i.e. You look like you have got the silencing bug.

Fat_bloater_dave · Post by **Fat_bloater_dave** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:38 am

cAPSLOCK wrote:Err, back on topic, I know those aren't very hot components, but, does the PSU ramp up alot on load?

I wouldnt say it ramped up alot on load but it does enough to becomeing audible. but it doesnt matter that much because the only time my computer is on load is dureing times where i wouldnt notise it, i dont need to quiet my comptuer for load just for idle.

cAPSLOCK wrote:Maybe some case fans are in order (and cutting out those grilles)...

Yeh i did have a case fan for a while but it seems pointless it just like putting in more noise im perfetly happy with my temps why would i need a case fan.

cAPSLOCK wrote:I think you're nuts to think of enclosing a laptop drive

eh every little bit helps, its not so much that it "needs i" but it wont hurt

cAPSLOCK wrote:For the fan control, does the BIOS of your gigabyte board allow you to switch the fan off, or just set it at a speed where it doesn't spin anymore? I've tried the latter and found that the fan made an annoying squealing sound when it was trying to start up, this possibly doesn't happen with all fans, and in my case it happened because the controller I was using slowly increased the voltage as the temperature increased, no sudden change.

it lets me turn it off i can use smart fan where it controls the fan speed for me or use my own setting, there is one for Fan off so when the temp drops below 30 the fan turns off, then there is a low speed, mid speed and high speed.

justblair wrote:Or I might be wrong... I hope so. Will keep an eye you for your results. i take it you will post them here or on the alleycat thread?

Ok well ill see what happens and post the results in here.

openwheelformula1 · Post by **openwheelformula1** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 9:34 pm

Reminds me of college life. Even then, my wire management was always great no matter how messy the place is.

Fat_bloater_dave · Post by **Fat_bloater_dave** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 12:58 am

openwheelformula1 wrote:Reminds me of college life. Even then, my wire management was always great no matter how messy the place is.

Priorities my friend Priorities.