My quad-core quiet CM Stacker rig

[pm.stacker]

Hello everyone first post from an Italian silent pc addicted! :-D:-D

First what's inside my modded CM Stacker 01 case:
Core 2 Quad Q6600 (B3, 105W)
Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6
4096 (4x1024) MB DDR2-800 (OCZ Platinum)
Modded Sapphire Radeon HD2600XT Silent
2x WD Raptor 740GD
2x Seagate 7200.10 500 GB
2x Seagate 7200.11 250 GB
Internal optical TSST SH-S182M and NEC 4551A
Terratec DVB-T card and Skystar DVB-S card
Terratec Phase 22 as 2nd professional audio card
Enermax PSU (Infiniti 720)
Various types of silent fans (SilenX, Noctua, Verax)

Performance:
Despite the very little damping on the case, my sys is fairly silent, fans are inaudible and good results from HDDs even if they're not suspended: only Raptors produce a little airborne noise and the obvious 60Hz slight whine due to 7200 rpm motors, but overall good silent . Smart Fan keeps the rear exhaust 38 mm fan and the CPU fan running at 950 rpm when idle, 1250 rpm when max. load (max. speed is 1500). Temperatures are good, despite low airflow: CPU idle 31°C load 46°C, HDDs constant 38°C, GPU constant 50°C (this was 60°C with stock HSF).
The only thing I am not satisfied with is the PSU: the big 140 mm fan swings between 1000 and 1200 rpm but it is quite noisy, most of all motor noise, maybe it is a faulty fan but returning this big thing would mean dismantling ALL the modular cables zip-tied and tidily run in the case! strange enough, over 1300 rpm PSU fan becomes suddenly silent! ...

So here's my rig, now on to your comments!

On the next post... PICS!

[pm.stacker]

As promised here are my little modded rig pics

Side (right) panel with a little damping, the other panel's windowed so no damping but that's ok...


Front: the 4 Seagate HDs are cooled with 2 Noctua NF-S12-1200 reduced to 800 via included resistor, Raptors cooled with a rare, very costly but silent and unbreakable (since 2003 no hassles!) Verax 80KPE2. Every fan is kept in place with standard plastic standoffs, only adding four industrial-grade silicone rubber washers for reducing vibrations


Hard disks are enclosed in three 4-in-3 modules to have plenty of space between them, note how every possible cable has been hidden in the white plastic channels, screwed in place of the Cross Flow fan


Rear exhaust fan is SilenX IXP-76-14, 120x38 mm, 1500 rpm, same CFM as 120x25 at 2000 rpm, I run it via Smart Fan BIOS at 1000 rpm


CPU cooled by a Thermalright SI-128SE and SilenX IXP-74-14B blue LED fan (1500 rpm down to 1000 via Smart Fan)


My modded Sapphire HD2600XT, replaced stock HSF with a big Thermalright HR-03A, and had to de-solder the fan connector to slide this piece in place , takes up 2 slots behind the video card but that's OK: I lose only one PCI-E X1 and HS is close to the exhaust fan


My Enermax 720W PSU


Rear panel, with some mods for convenience, integrated RCA audio I/O, +12V external ODD supply, home made but efficient

[toki_c]

Silent? Are you sure about that?
With all your hard drives plus 3 front intake fans... how many fans did you put up in your rig?
Even with the foam... i'm doubtful about your silent rig... you might speak about a quiet instead.

[pm.stacker]

I meant silent compared to what's inside, not silent 0 dB . Maybe for you it is "quiet", anyway for me it is quiet enough to be used even as a HTPC maybe I'll upload a sound recording . My bro has made a REAL silent HTPC but it is only a Core 2 Duo 6750, only 3 WD HDDs and only one ODD, and a Liberty 620 PSU that it ain't noisy like mine

Yeah I've got 6 fans but every single of 'em is tweaked to be the best compromise between quiet and cooling the Noctuas are like yours and powered via the included ULNA adaptor which makes 'em spin at 800-850 rpm, enough to cool 4 Seagate HDDs the good old Verax dual ball has the thermistor sandwiched between the two Raptors (you can see the tiny red-yellow cable that passes near the SATA connector of the upper Raptor and goes in between the drives ) but it never goes over 1200 rpm (max is 3200!) and it keeps 'em cool 38°C, so I'm satisfied
On the CPU cooling department I paralleled the huge 38mm exhaust and the blue LED on heatsink both on the CPU_FAN header to use Smart Fan and it works: I read only the HS LED fan and in idle it says 950 rpm, about 850 the exhaust, loading with all 4 cores to 99% brings 'em up to 1200 rpm each and in these conditions rig noise increases a little but the noise flavor remains fairly good without undesirable high pitches whatsoever . And hey I've got to cool a B3 Q6600, tried passive cooling (removing the LED fan), no TM1 throttling (58°C) but PSU fan tends to raise up too much as heat ain't forced down and then out, but goes naturally up through the PSU .

And now with the silicone washers on the intake fans the only noise you can hear up front comes from the HDD motors that's enough for me as the rear fans blow towards a wall away from everything so they're tucked away .

[Cistron]

Silent? Are you sure about that?
With all your hard drives plus 3 front intake fans... how many fans did you put up in your rig?
Even with the foam... i'm doubtful about your silent rig... you might speak about a quiet instead.

To be fair enough, no computer is silent, never. Ever since I started living in the UK was wondering about the misuse of English, but one can get used to almost anyting

[NeilBlanchard]

Hello,

It would be quieter and cooler if you cut out those front intake grills! They look to be only one step above awful.

I try to remember that "silent" means: "can't be heard above the ambient noise"...and of course, this varies greatly.

[Jipa]

The intake grills really caught my eye. Those things are SO restrictive and seeing you're using Noctuas... Not a good combination. I know it can be a pain to remove all the hardware from the case and cut the fan holes, but it's well worth it.

[Avalanche]

I like your mods to the back panel. Part of me would love to do that to stuff my router and DSL modem inside my case.

[chahahc]

How are them SilentX fans working out for you?
BTW....you use a lot....of....emoticons....

[bonestonne]

i'd say mod the 4 in 3 drive cages by cutting the grills off the front of them, they're very restrictive.

the rear grill is also pretty restrictive.

i would have chosen a soundcard with RCA outputs instead of drilling the case...one less adapter, less work.

i'd also like to know how those SilenX fans are working out for you. working in the audio industry myself, i get to see different peoples' versions of what "silent" is.

the upper-most front fan. i'm not sure how much i like that. it doesn't look very quiet.

[DriveEuro]

very nice job on routing the SATA cables. My stacker is a pig sty compared to your's