Ralf Hutter's P4C Quiet Rig

Show off your quiet rig.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Ralf Hutter
SPCR Reviewer
Posts: 8636
Joined: Sat Nov 23, 2002 6:33 am
Location: Sunny SoCal

Post by Ralf Hutter » Sat Sep 20, 2003 6:24 am

wumpus wrote:Now if only you could afford some carpet that wasn't hideously ugly.. and maybe some window treatments.. ;)

I KID! I KID BECAUSE I LOVE!
I rent.

Ralf Hutter
SPCR Reviewer
Posts: 8636
Joined: Sat Nov 23, 2002 6:33 am
Location: Sunny SoCal

Post by Ralf Hutter » Tue Sep 23, 2003 4:58 am

Update 9-23-03

Here's my latest iteration of a quiet PC as of 9-23-03.

I was getting bored with my P4 2.4C rig so I decided to try a 3.0C CPU and a new Asus P4P800-Deluxe MoBo. My prior Intel 875PBZ board was stable but Intel's BIOS releases for that board have been disastrous. The last 7 releases have (among other things) disabled the PAT and caused cold boot/reboot and BSOD issues.

Latest Hardware is:
  • Asus P4P800-Deluxe with "PAT" enabled in BIOS.
  • P4 3.0C CPU
  • Thermalright SLK900U heatsink + 92mm Panaflo L1A "BX" rpm monitoring fan @ 9 volts via Zalman Fanmate **Had to speed up fan from 1500rpm to 1650rpm with faster, hotter CPU**
  • 2 x 512MB of Mushkin Level II Dual Pack PC3200 RAM @ 2-3-3-6, 2.65V **Will run stable at 2-2-2-6 with 2.75V**
  • ATI Radeon 8500, fanless
  • Seagate Barracuda IV, 80GB
  • Plextor Premium 52x CDrw **possibly the quietest CDrom/CDrw drive I've ever used**
  • Seasonic Super Silencer 400w PSU **Noticeably quieter than the Nexus3000 that it replaced, PSU is no longer the loudest component in my system**
  • Antec SLK3700 case with 120mm "OEM" Panaflo @ 5 volts as case exhaust fan, 80mm L1A @ 6-ish volts as HDD cooling fan
Pics will follow later.


Here's my temps with the 3.0C replacing the 2.4C:

Ambient temps in my computer room range from the mid 70°F to mid 90°F range during this time of the year. All temps will reflect this spread.
  • Mobo temp ranges from 30°C to 41°C at idle, 31°C to 45°C at load.
  • CPU temp ranges from 33°C to 39°C at idle, 47°C to 59°C at Prime95 load.
These are perfectly safe temps and this computer runs super quiet at these settings. Even when the temps are at their hottest, the PSU fan does not increase it's speed.

The swap from the 2.4C to the 3.0C required that I increase the speed of my 92mm L1A(BX) CPU fan from 1500rpm to about 1650rpm and temps are still around 3°C hotter at idle and 6-8°C hotter at load. You can now hear the CPU fan over anything else in the case but just barely and only when the ambient noise level is very quiet. I suspect when it cools down after summer I'll be able to turn the speed of the CPU fan down a few hundred rpm and be back at my prior noise level.

Wedge
Posts: 1360
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 10:59 pm
Location: NorthEast Arkansas, USA

Post by Wedge » Tue Sep 23, 2003 6:19 am

Sounds good Ralf. Glad you mentioned the BIOS issues with the Intel board. I'm not sure if my next board will be Intel or Asus but I'll keep this info in mind.

Do you know much about the 865PERL in terms of BIOS issues?

Ralf Hutter
SPCR Reviewer
Posts: 8636
Joined: Sat Nov 23, 2002 6:33 am
Location: Sunny SoCal

Post by Ralf Hutter » Tue Sep 23, 2003 12:22 pm

Wedge wrote:Sounds good Ralf. Glad you mentioned the BIOS issues with the Intel board. I'm not sure if my next board will be Intel or Asus but I'll keep this info in mind.

Do you know much about the 865PERL in terms of BIOS issues?
I think the PERL may be OK. I've only heard of one guy having a problem with it but what worries me is that he was having one of the same exact BIOS-related BSODs as the 875PBZ guys.

It may be that there's less complaints about the 865 board because fewer people are using them, or it may actually be a typical Intel board, i.e.: PnP & 100% stable so you never hear anything about it.:)

marc999
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 230
Joined: Sat Oct 26, 2002 4:05 pm
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Post by marc999 » Thu Sep 25, 2003 9:00 am

Well thanks Ralf for the info. I'm a little disapointed to hear about the Intel board. It seems like there is no 100% trust worthy company these days. They all seem to have their shit products, some just more than others.

tkortens
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2003 6:26 pm

Post by tkortens » Sat Sep 27, 2003 3:12 pm

Ralf Hutter wrote:I dont know if it's long enough, but here's an 18" SPDIF cable.

Is this anything that can help for your USB needs?
THANKS RALF! You are a pro!

I had never seen these sites,
Best,
tk

jerryk
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 141
Joined: Mon Feb 24, 2003 5:02 pm
Location: Pleasanton, California

Post by jerryk » Wed Oct 01, 2003 8:48 am

Ralf Hutter wrote:Update 9-23-03

Here's my latest iteration of a quiet PC as of 9-23-03.

I was getting bored with my P4 2.4C rig so I decided to try a 3.0C CPU and a new Asus P4P800-Deluxe MoBo. My prior Intel 875PBZ board was stable but Intel's BIOS releases for that board have been disastrous. The last 7 releases have (among other things) disabled the PAT and caused cold boot/reboot and BSOD issues.

Latest Hardware is:
  • Asus P4P800-Deluxe with "PAT" enabled in BIOS.
  • P4 3.0C CPU
  • Thermalright SLK900U heatsink + 92mm Panaflo L1A "BX" rpm monitoring fan @ 9 volts via Zalman Fanmate **Had to speed up fan from 1500rpm to 1650rpm with faster, hotter CPU**
  • 2 x 512MB of Mushkin Level II Dual Pack PC3200 RAM @ 2-3-3-6, 2.65V **Will run stable at 2-2-2-6 with 2.75V**
  • ATI Radeon 8500, fanless
  • Seagate Barracuda IV, 80GB
  • Plextor Premium 52x CDrw **possibly the quietest CDrom/CDrw drive I've ever used**
  • Seasonic Super Silencer 400w PSU **Noticeably quieter than the Nexus3000 that it replaced, PSU is no longer the loudest component in my system**
  • Antec SLK3700 case with 120mm "OEM" Panaflo @ 5 volts as case exhaust fan, 80mm L1A @ 6-ish volts as HDD cooling fan
Impressive system. I have a similar one, but I am still on the 2.4 Ghz. The biggest change for me was switching to the Seasonic PS, like you suggested. That thing is amazing.

I am just about to replace the Cuda with a Samsumg 160 GByte so we will see what that does for the noise, and the performance.

jerry

Ralf Hutter
SPCR Reviewer
Posts: 8636
Joined: Sat Nov 23, 2002 6:33 am
Location: Sunny SoCal

Post by Ralf Hutter » Wed Oct 01, 2003 9:31 am

Lately I've taken another fork in the road. I built another system around my leftover 2.4C processor using an Albatron 845PEV Pro-800 mobo that is undervoltable. It's an 845PE chipset so it supports hyperthreading but no dual-channel RAM but it also has an 800MHz FSB and supports DDR400 RAM.

What I've done so far is put the system together with the 2.4C running at 800FSB and the (2 x 256MB) RAM running at DDR400. The default Vcore for this CPU is 1.525V and when I tested the temps at default Vcore I got 35°C at idle and 53°C at 2xPrime95 load. That's at 76°F ambient with a SLK900U + 92mm L1A running at 1400rpm.

I then undervolted the CPU to 1.25V and my idle temp went down maybe 1°C but my full load temp dropped to 40°C!! That's a 13°C drop!!

I've been running Prime95 with this configuration for about 12hours so far to make sure it's stable. If it makes it to 24hrs without crapping out I'll be a happy camper and I'll run Memtest86 for another 24hrs to make sure everything's OK with the memory subsystem and that'll be that.

What am I going to do with it when I'm finished? Dunno. HTPC maybe?

Zyzzyx
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 1063
Joined: Mon Dec 23, 2002 12:55 pm
Location: Richland, WA
Contact:

Post by Zyzzyx » Wed Oct 01, 2003 9:53 am

Dangit Ralf... I know you've mentioned before WHERE you are in SoCal, but it can't be too far from Ventura. I'm gonna have to see (and try to hear) these systems some weekend.

wumpus
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 946
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2003 9:57 pm
Location: Berkeley, CA, USA
Contact:

Post by wumpus » Wed Oct 01, 2003 8:37 pm

I then undervolted the CPU to 1.25V and my idle temp went down maybe 1°C but my full load temp dropped to 40°C!! That's a 13°C drop!!
Yep, like I've been saying: undervolting is hugely important, if you're serious about a quiet (performance) PC.

MikeK
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 321
Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2003 7:47 pm
Location: St. Louis, USA

Post by MikeK » Sat Oct 04, 2003 9:59 pm

marc999 wrote:Well thanks Ralf for the info. I'm a little disapointed to hear about the Intel board. It seems like there is no 100% trust worthy company these days. They all seem to have their shit products, some just more than others.
I had the same (limited experience) impression of Intel boards that Ralf had. I'm interested to hear what people say about Tyan since my friend and I swear by them. They have been rock solid for us. My spankin' new Tyan Trinity i875P (S5101) ANNRF is DA BOMB! I still have to do some tweaking around with it to test it out but I'll let you know how it goes on my thread in the newcomers section.

By the way my new system is quite similar to Ralf's. I don't think I'm the only one that copied him though.

Ralf Hutter
SPCR Reviewer
Posts: 8636
Joined: Sat Nov 23, 2002 6:33 am
Location: Sunny SoCal

Post by Ralf Hutter » Sun Oct 05, 2003 5:20 am

MikeK wrote:My spankin' new Tyan Trinity i875P (S5101) ANNRF is DA BOMB! I still have to do some tweaking around with it to test it out but I'll let you know how it goes on my thread in the newcomers section.
I've been waiting to hear an update about your experiences with that Tyan board. Please post something when you get it shook out. One specific question I have is: does it undervolt?

Elliot
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 89
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2003 7:36 pm
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Post by Elliot » Tue Oct 21, 2003 8:28 pm

Ralf,

Did you cut a 92mm hole in the front stamped grill or did you leave it alone?

Ralf Hutter
SPCR Reviewer
Posts: 8636
Joined: Sat Nov 23, 2002 6:33 am
Location: Sunny SoCal

Post by Ralf Hutter » Wed Oct 22, 2003 5:45 am

I left it alone.

Elliot
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 89
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2003 7:36 pm
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Post by Elliot » Wed Oct 22, 2003 5:03 pm

Ralf Hutter wrote:I left it alone.
I meant to ask you why you did that, but then I got my AMB from the store and I can see now that the front grill is less restrictive than the back one.

Is it the reason?

Is it the only reason?

Ralf Hutter
SPCR Reviewer
Posts: 8636
Joined: Sat Nov 23, 2002 6:33 am
Location: Sunny SoCal

Post by Ralf Hutter » Thu Oct 23, 2003 6:37 am

Elliot wrote:
Ralf Hutter wrote:I left it alone.
I meant to ask you why you did that, but then I got my AMB from the store and I can see now that the front grill is less restrictive than the back one.

Is it the reason?

Is it the only reason?
No, the front grill is not less restrictive than the back, the hole size and spacing is exactly the same for both grills.

I left it alone for 2 reasons:

1) I had hoped I would need no front fan at all because it looked like the case had very good ventilation. So I was hoping to save my hands from having to cut out 2 sets of fan grills with the hand operated nibbler.

2) If I did need a fan, I figured it would only be needed for spot-cooling of the HDD and I've found that a 92mm L1A running at 5 volts is the best compromise of low noise vs. airflow. Since I'd need a place to mount it and that wouldn't exist if I cut a 120mm circle out of the case I left the grill in place and drilled a set of 92mm mounting holes and a set of 80mm mounting holes. That way I could mount any fan I wanted.

In fact I did not need any more case ventilation but I did need spot HDD cooling so I did mount the 92mm L1A on the front of the case.

If I was starting out with a brand new SLK3700AMB I would still do it the same way.

Seal
Posts: 522
Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2003 4:39 am
Location: Uk

Post by Seal » Sun Oct 26, 2003 9:08 am

very nice job!

engseng
Posts: 136
Joined: Mon Sep 01, 2003 10:44 pm
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Post by engseng » Sun Oct 26, 2003 10:52 pm

Good job, Ralf. How much did your new system cost?

And say, you placed your heatsink fan backwards so that it sucks air instead of blow air. Do you find that it cools more efficiently this way as well as reduce the noise?

Ralf Hutter
SPCR Reviewer
Posts: 8636
Joined: Sat Nov 23, 2002 6:33 am
Location: Sunny SoCal

Post by Ralf Hutter » Mon Oct 27, 2003 7:00 am

engseng wrote:Good job, Ralf. How much did your new system cost?
Beats me. :) Add up the prices fron Newegg, that'd be in the ballpark.
engseng wrote:And say, you placed your heatsink fan backwards so that it sucks air instead of blow air. Do you find that it cools more efficiently this way as well as reduce the noise?
I didn't put my fan on backwards. It's in the conventional "blowing down on the CPU" orientation.

rp
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2003 4:52 am

Post by rp » Mon Nov 10, 2003 8:00 am

Just FYI, heres another batch of 40...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... egory=3673

Oh how I hate this sentence: "Shipping is limited to addresses within the United States (U .S.) ONLY."

In Denmark we have absolutely no wholesale options for these things, and a similar quality 120mm fan would run you upwards of $20 a pop.

GRRRRRRRR :evil:

Schlotkins
Posts: 278
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 5:30 am

Post by Schlotkins » Thu Nov 13, 2003 10:35 am

Well, I'm thinking about coping Ralf's design there and I need one of those fans. If people want, I'll pick up the lot and I'll sell them for cost plus shipping. Let me know if anyone would be interested.

Schloktins

Ralf Hutter
SPCR Reviewer
Posts: 8636
Joined: Sat Nov 23, 2002 6:33 am
Location: Sunny SoCal

Post by Ralf Hutter » Thu Nov 13, 2003 12:43 pm

Schlotkins wrote:Well, I'm thinking about coping Ralf's design there and I need one of those fans. If people want, I'll pick up the lot and I'll sell them for cost plus shipping. Let me know if anyone would be interested.

Schloktins
I think there's someone here who bought 40 of them and still has a bunch left. Search for "oem AND panaflo" (or some derivation of that) and see what you get. You might look through the threads in the Classfieds forums too.

lenny
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 1642
Joined: Wed May 28, 2003 10:50 am
Location: Somewhere out there

Post by lenny » Thu Nov 13, 2003 1:33 pm

It's Tom Brown in this thread.

energy
Posts: 192
Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2003 4:44 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Post by energy » Thu Nov 13, 2003 3:54 pm

The OEM panaflo is rated to 0.2A; the retail one at 0.24A - this suggests that the OEM is a less powerful version. Maybe the blade design makes up for it but I doubt it. The OEM version probably has an inferior airflow.

miker
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 798
Joined: Sun Aug 11, 2002 3:26 pm
Location: Akron, OH (The Rubber Capital)
Contact:

Post by miker » Fri Nov 14, 2003 6:00 am

energy wrote:The OEM panaflo is rated to 0.2A; the retail one at 0.24A - this suggests that the OEM is a less powerful version. Maybe the blade design makes up for it but I doubt it. The OEM version probably has an inferior airflow.
That's kind of a rash statement based simply on the Amperage and no practical knowledge. I use the OEM Panaflo and I have found it to be superior to the L1A, in noise and in effectiveness. The design of the blades is intended to create a "tornado" effect, so that the fans works better in contained environs, and can concentrate the airflow to help push through obstructions (grills, heatsinks, radiators, etc.)

Ralf Hutter
SPCR Reviewer
Posts: 8636
Joined: Sat Nov 23, 2002 6:33 am
Location: Sunny SoCal

Post by Ralf Hutter » Fri Nov 14, 2003 6:32 am

miker wrote:
energy wrote:The OEM panaflo is rated to 0.2A; the retail one at 0.24A - this suggests that the OEM is a less powerful version. Maybe the blade design makes up for it but I doubt it. The OEM version probably has an inferior airflow.
That's kind of a rash statement based simply on the Amperage and no practical knowledge. I use the OEM Panaflo and I have found it to be superior to the L1A, in noise and in effectiveness. The design of the blades is intended to create a "tornado" effect, so that the fans works better in contained environs, and can concentrate the airflow to help push through obstructions (grills, heatsinks, radiators, etc.)
Based on considerable firsthand experience with multiple samples of ech type of Panaflo I totally agree.

energy
Posts: 192
Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2003 4:44 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Post by energy » Fri Nov 14, 2003 7:20 am

That is why I used the word "maybe" in my sentence :)

It was simply a suggestion.

Compddd
Posts: 276
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2003 6:06 pm
Location: California

Post by Compddd » Thu Nov 20, 2003 12:51 am

Does the guy still have OEM Panaflo's left?

Ralf Hutter
SPCR Reviewer
Posts: 8636
Joined: Sat Nov 23, 2002 6:33 am
Location: Sunny SoCal

Post by Ralf Hutter » Thu Nov 20, 2003 5:10 am

Compddd wrote:Does the guy still have OEM Panaflo's left?
Contact Tom Brown (see this post) Sounds like he's not too thrilled with these OEM Panaflos and has a bunch left over. Maybe he'll sell some.

engseng
Posts: 136
Joined: Mon Sep 01, 2003 10:44 pm
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Post by engseng » Thu Nov 20, 2003 11:01 pm

Ralf, about the way you mount 92mm Panaflo fan, from the picture it certainly looks like its sucking rather than blowing.

Post Reply