I work with audio, so I need a silent PC now

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palmtree
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I work with audio, so I need a silent PC now

Post by palmtree » Thu May 13, 2010 2:41 pm

I just bought really expensive headphones, the Sennheiser HD650. The sound is amazing, the only problem is they are open headphones, that means the outside noise filters a lot inside the music.

This is my current rig:

Case: NZXT Lexa Blackline Blue with the 3 default fans at stock speeds

PSU: Enermax Infiniti 720W Modular

CPU: Q6600, clock and Vcore at default values.

CPU Fan: Asus Silent Square Pro. I configured it with Speedfan so it goes up or down depending on the temp. Now Speedfan marks 47º at 1875 RPM

Motherboard: Gigabyte X38-DQ6

Ram: 2GB Geil Black Dragon DDR2 800mhz CL4

GPU: ATi 3870 x2 at stock clocks. I've set the fan at the lowest possible (25% duty cycle) with RivaTuner.

I've been trying to undervolt my Q6600 to get the Asus Silent Square Pro running at the lowest RPM possible while mantaining a decent temperature when the CPU is stressed (remember that when working with audio, the GPU doesn't matter, but the CPU can be stressed a lot with the usage of some VST plug-ins).

Im having some problems. Im using CrystalCPUID to undervolt it. I started to get the Vcore down and run Orthos for 5 to 10 minutes and see if its stable, but I realized the Vcore is not really changing since CPU-Z and Hardware Monitor displayed still the initial Vcore (around 1.26V)

Whats going on? How do I make CrystalCPUID to really change the Vcore?

Any other recomendations are welcome. Im willing to spend money in getting the most silent PC posible to work with audio. I like to play some games too, but thats not as important for me anymore.

What would you change first, probably case? The Define R2 looks great but isn't available in my country yet. The p183 seems like its used by most folks here, but i've seen some people saying that some cheaper cases like the Sileo 500 or the Define R2 block the noise better. Can anyone confirm this?

thanks

Greg F.
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Post by Greg F. » Thu May 13, 2010 3:40 pm

http://www.cicsmemoryplayer.com/

I don't know if this is entirely relevant , but I think it would be interesting to you to read about cics' clpayer.

judge56988
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Re: I work with audio, so I need a silent PC now

Post by judge56988 » Fri May 14, 2010 12:26 am

palmtree wrote:
CPU Fan: Asus Silent Square Pro. I configured it with Speedfan so it goes up or down depending on the temp. Now Speedfan marks 47º at 1875 RPM
That temperature seems to be very high for that fan speed.
Is that degrees celsius? Computer idling or under load test? What's the ambient temperature?

nutball
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Post by nutball » Fri May 14, 2010 1:17 am

You didn't mention hard-drives - multi-drive setups seem quite popular amongst the DAW crowd, do you have multiple drives? If so that could easily be your limiting factor how quiet you can get your PC.

Other than that, the first thing I would look at changing would be the graphics cards. 3870 is two generations old now, you might find that you can get the same performance from a single mainstream(-ish) card from the 5xxx series, and you may be able to get one that's passively cooled. Not saying this will be the case - just that it's worth looking at.

Then I'd look at changing the case fans, and undervolting them if possible. Then the CPU cooler + fan. Changing the case would probably quite a long way down the list - cases aren't a magic bullet for quietness.

eddieck
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Post by eddieck » Fri May 14, 2010 7:01 am

Also consider selling that Q6600 and getting a newer 45nm C2Q if you can afford it. I would think if you sold the 6600 your out of pocket costs would be around $100. The 45nm chips run cooler.

palmtree
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Post by palmtree » Fri May 14, 2010 7:08 am

nutball wrote:You didn't mention hard-drives - multi-drive setups seem quite popular amongst the DAW crowd, do you have multiple drives? If so that could easily be your limiting factor how quiet you can get your PC.

Other than that, the first thing I would look at changing would be the graphics cards. 3870 is two generations old now, you might find that you can get the same performance from a single mainstream(-ish) card from the 5xxx series, and you may be able to get one that's passively cooled. Not saying this will be the case - just that it's worth looking at.

Then I'd look at changing the case fans, and undervolting them if possible. Then the CPU cooler + fan. Changing the case would probably quite a long way down the list - cases aren't a magic bullet for quietness.
But im sure getting a case with dampening material and fans that are designed to run at low RPM's would help a lot. Then I could start changing components from there.

Yeah, I have 3 hard drives. I'll post some pics later, with temps, voltages and so on (you need 3 posts in this forum to post a url).

palmtree
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Re: I work with audio, so I need a silent PC now

Post by palmtree » Fri May 14, 2010 10:19 am

judge56988 wrote:
palmtree wrote:
CPU Fan: Asus Silent Square Pro. I configured it with Speedfan so it goes up or down depending on the temp. Now Speedfan marks 47º at 1875 RPM
That temperature seems to be very high for that fan speed.
Is that degrees celsius? Computer idling or under load test? What's the ambient temperature?
Idle. Now it marks 44Cº

judge56988
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Re: I work with audio, so I need a silent PC now

Post by judge56988 » Fri May 14, 2010 11:05 am

palmtree wrote:
judge56988 wrote:
palmtree wrote:
CPU Fan: Asus Silent Square Pro. I configured it with Speedfan so it goes up or down depending on the temp. Now Speedfan marks 47º at 1875 RPM
That temperature seems to be very high for that fan speed.
Is that degrees celsius? Computer idling or under load test? What's the ambient temperature?
Idle. Now it marks 44Cº
OK - I've just been watching BBC i-player for an hour and the cpu temp is 29c with the cpu fan at 390 rpm. That's about standard. The room temperature is 20c. The case is a Silverstone FT01 with the two 180 mm intakes running at 420 rpm and the 120mm exhaust is 630 rpm. System temp is 30c.
At the moment I can't hear it over the noise of the central heating pump, when that's off I can hear a very faint whoosh of air.
I'm using a Scythe Mugen 2 on an Athlon X4 630 so probably producing less heat than your Q6600. As eddieck said, start with replacing the cpu and get a decent cooler for it.

palmtree
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Post by palmtree » Sat May 15, 2010 4:15 am

Also consider selling that Q6600 and getting a newer 45nm C2Q if you can afford it. I would think if you sold the 6600 your out of pocket costs would be around $100. The 45nm chips run cooler.
I have no idea of whats been out on the market for the past 2 years. Once I make an upgrade, I stop caring of whats new, because I don't want to be tempted to change components compulsively. Is that CPU as powerful as the Q6600? I don't want to loss performance. Remember im working with high end VST plugins that require power.

b_rubenstein
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Post by b_rubenstein » Sat May 15, 2010 5:12 am

I don't know where you are, but here in the US Micro Center often sells the Q9550 for $180. At stock speed it's faster than what you have, uses less power and runs cooler than the Q6600. I'm running mine at 3.6 Ghz at stock voltage.

If you don't change the CPU, then at least change to HS/fan. The ones with 120mm fans run much slower and quieter.

BlackWhizz
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Post by BlackWhizz » Sat May 15, 2010 6:09 am

I'd guess get a decent tower cooler with 120mm fans (Scythe Ninja/Mugen, CM Hyper 212 (with a more silent fan), Xigmatek HDT-S1283).

I have a Xigmatek HDT-S1283 which performs really well on my Q6600 (at 600RPM Prime95 it is only 52 degrees).

Also your 3870x2 can be replaced by a 4850 (the 3870x2 compares to a 8800GT and the 4850 is a little better than the 8800gt). 4850 go very cheap second hand and when you strap a Accelero on it with a very low speed fan it is pretty darn silent and cooled well.

bonestonne
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Post by bonestonne » Sat May 15, 2010 7:15 am

I would say if you go with a Core 2 Quad Q9650 or even any quad in the Q9xxx line, you could use a bit more RAM (2gb seems low these days for high end rigs), and maybe a graphics upgrade, that should be enough to give you some juice.

Last night i was recording a small concert, 16 tracks at 96kHz for about 3 hours came out to absolutely eat 7.96gb of RAM. Considering I only have 8gb, that was A LOT OF RAM, at least to me at the time.

My specs are in my sig, and when I do post editing, I will run several VSTs in realtime. My latency is very low, and very stable, and I don't have any problems.

While you could go with a Core i7 for some monstrous upgrade, most software is still 32 bit, so it simply can't address all the extra RAM and CPU cores.

croddie
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Re: I work with audio, so I need a silent PC now

Post by croddie » Sat May 15, 2010 11:59 am

palmtree wrote:I've been trying to undervolt my Q6600 to get the Asus Silent Square Pro running at the lowest RPM possible while mantaining a decent temperature when the CPU is stressed (remember that when working with audio, the GPU doesn't matter, but the CPU can be stressed a lot with the usage of some VST plug-ins).
Are all cores stressed? Do you make use of quad-core?
If you need quad core I'd wait a year for the 32nm parts to come out.
But if dual core is good enough go with i3 or i5 Clarkdale.
Im having some problems. Im using CrystalCPUID to undervolt it. I started to get the Vcore down and run Orthos for 5 to 10 minutes and see if its stable, but I realized the Vcore is not really changing since CPU-Z and Hardware Monitor displayed still the initial Vcore (around 1.26V)
Intel has it's own methods for adjusting voltages within its chips. Everything else is just hacks.
Any other recomendations are welcome.
Probably get clarkdale. No need for a graphics card either.

palmtree
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Post by palmtree » Sun May 16, 2010 3:54 am

Intel has it's own methods for adjusting voltages within its chips. Everything else is just hacks.
What are those methods then? All I see is people talking about that CrystalCPUID app.

Code: Select all

Are all cores stressed? Do you make use of quad-core?
If you need quad core I'd wait a year for the 32nm parts to come out.
But if dual core is good enough go with i3 or i5 Clarkdale. 
I'll wait, but I think it'll be still a really expensive update (I would need to change the motherboard too). If I update something it probably will be the case first. Because this one, besides not being known for its sound dampening features, has a piece of plastic broken (I broke it when I was mounting the PC) and the front panel causes some sort of annoying vibration because of that. I have to throw punches at the case until it stops being annoying, lol.

I have a Xigmatek HDT-S1283 which performs really well on my Q6600 (at 600RPM Prime95 it is only 52 degrees).


Holy fuck mate that looks well massive.

Anyway, I still think it's pretty weird that a cooler like the Asus Silent Square Pro is not performing better. Well right now its at 42º idle, which is not bad I think, but its running at 70% Speedfan (1900RPM). Maybe I applied the thermal paste not correctly? It was a long time ago but I remember I putted a bit on the middle of the core, then putted the fan on top so it expands due pressure. The thermal paste was a quality one (ASUS brand, came with the fan).

Also your 3870x2 can be replaced by a 4850 (the 3870x2 compares to a 8800GT and the 4850 is a little better than the 8800gt). 4850 go very cheap second hand and when you strap a Accelero on it with a very low speed fan it is pretty darn silent and cooled well.


I'll probably wait and get that famous 5870 Vapor-X that so much people talk about for being powerful and silent. Or whatever its around with similar features/price when I decide to upgrade. But I would like an nVidia solution better. I just remembered that I have a Samsung 2233rz monitor that supports 3D glasses, but you need an nVidia card for that. I would definitely like to try this out someday so I should buy an nVidia next.

BlackWhizz
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Post by BlackWhizz » Sun May 16, 2010 6:40 am

palmtree wrote:

Holy fuck mate that looks well massive.

Anyway, I still think it's pretty weird that a cooler like the Asus Silent Square Pro is not performing better. Well right now its at 42º idle, which is not bad I think, but its running at 70% Speedfan (1900RPM). Maybe I applied the thermal paste not correctly? It was a long time ago but I remember I putted a bit on the middle of the core, then putted the fan on top so it expands due pressure. The thermal paste was a quality one (ASUS brand, came with the fan).

I'll probably wait and get that famous 5870 Vapor-X that so much people talk about for being powerful and silent. Or whatever its around with similar features/price when I decide to upgrade. But I would like an nVidia solution better. I just remembered that I have a Samsung 2233rz monitor that supports 3D glasses, but you need an nVidia card for that. I would definitely like to try this out someday so I should buy an nVidia next.
It is... but its not a heavy cooler. I have mounted it with a Bolt Thru kit because i regularly go to lans and that way i transport my pc much.

And it could be that you have too much paste or your thermal paste has been dried out. Try to reseat your cooler with new quality thermal paste.

---
About the gpu. Your choice ;)

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Post by oxygen200000 » Sun May 16, 2010 9:48 pm

For extreme silence, buy a Noctua NH-D14 cooler and keep it fanless or with one fan in the middle. For insulation, try to find some AcustiPack or Nexus foam. If possible, keep the others cmponents fanless to.
Look HERE. With D14 and only 2 Noctua fans@5v(500RPM) is very silent.

palmtree
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Post by palmtree » Mon May 17, 2010 4:57 am

oxygen200000 wrote:For extreme silence, buy a Noctua NH-D14 cooler and keep it fanless or with one fan in the middle. For insulation, try to find some AcustiPack or Nexus foam. If possible, keep the others cmponents fanless to.
Look HERE. With D14 and only 2 Noctua fans@5v(500RPM) is very silent.
Mental! Can you keep cool an i7 920 with that fanless monster?

Also, whats the performance of that card? Is it as powerful as the 3870x2?
I think I wouldn't mind a more powerful card like the 5870 Vapor-X, keeping it at the lowest rpm when not gaming (almost inaudible)

And what rpm are the case fans at?

Also, im not sure I could be able to do that thing myself (installing dampening material). I would rather buy a case thats been designed already with silence in mind. What I don't get is: why the Sileo 500 and the Define R2 have so much dampening material to block sound, but the P183 that is more expensive doesn't?

BlackWhizz
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Post by BlackWhizz » Mon May 17, 2010 6:29 am

palmtree wrote:
oxygen200000 wrote:For extreme silence, buy a Noctua NH-D14 cooler and keep it fanless or with one fan in the middle. For insulation, try to find some AcustiPack or Nexus foam. If possible, keep the others cmponents fanless to.
Look HERE. With D14 and only 2 Noctua fans@5v(500RPM) is very silent.
Mental! Can you keep cool an i7 920 with that fanless monster?

Also, whats the performance of that card? Is it as powerful as the 3870x2?
I think I wouldn't mind a more powerful card like the 5870 Vapor-X, keeping it at the lowest rpm when not gaming (almost inaudible)

And what rpm are the case fans at?

Also, im not sure I could be able to do that thing myself (installing dampening material). I would rather buy a case thats been designed already with silence in mind. What I don't get is: why the Sileo 500 and the Define R2 have so much dampening material to block sound, but the P183 that is more expensive doesn't?
I think you cant. e6750 has a much lower TDP than a i7 920.

Rucker
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Post by Rucker » Mon May 17, 2010 3:46 pm

BlackWhizz wrote:
palmtree wrote:
Mental! Can you keep cool an i7 920 with that fanless monster?
I think you can't. e6750 has a much lower TDP than a i7 920.
I just tested my i860 in a Solo with Megahalems with Slipstream case exhaust only, at 600 rpm. Idle was low 30s C. In Prime95, temps got to upper 80s C. I turned on the CPU fan, Slipstream at 600 rpm and temps dropped to 73C in Prime95. Room ambient is 17C.

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