my lil silent media/game box

Show off your quiet rig.

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Matt3o
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2010 9:43 am

my lil silent media/game box

Post by Matt3o » Thu Dec 09, 2010 10:34 am

First of all I wanted to thank SPCR for the great reviews and for this precious forum.
First post, first silent PC. Here's my experience.

Image

Bigger picture
http://img6.imageshack.us/i/mediapc.jpg/

I started with a Grandia GD05 as a base. I must say that I'm not completely satisfied by this case, mostly because the fans are constrained inside the chassis and it's almost impossible (at least for me) to completely remove vibrations. Apart from that I think it's a good small case.

The other components are:

CPU: i5 650 (for reduced power consumption)
CPU cooler: shuriken big with stock fan replaced by an akasa apache black
GPU: cyclone 460 768mb
PSU: seasonic 430w
Mobo: Gigabyte h55m-usb3
case fans: 120mm scythe s-flex (good from 600 to 900rpm)
HD: 500gb spinpoint f3
RAM: 4gb corsair ddr3 1600

I was not sure the shuriken big fit together with the cyclone, but luckly it worked out pretty well. It was a pain to lock it into the socket, though.

The cyclone cooler fit just by a millimeter into the case http://img6.imageshack.us/i/gpuw.jpg/. I was worried about the GPU noise, but I'm completely satisfied by this little beast, in idle/standard-use is inaudible.

The akasa apache black is one of the best pwm fan I've ever had. I had to set the speed with voltage (not pwm) though because the mobo was not sending it at less than 1000rpm. All the other fans are at ~600rpm.

With all the fans spinning at max speed (~1200rpm) the CPU stays at 26°C (idle), at 600rpm I have it at 32°C (22-24° room temp).

Power consumption is at 60w idle, 180w load.

Thanks again

frenchie
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 1346
Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2008 4:53 am
Location: CT

Re: my lil silent media/game box

Post by frenchie » Mon Dec 13, 2010 6:00 pm

Nice setup !
If you got rid (read hide) of those fan cables, that'll be great :)
Do you have temps on the GPU like you have on the CPU ?

RoGuE
Posts: 540
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2009 9:11 am
Location: Massachusetts, USA
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Re: my lil silent media/game box

Post by RoGuE » Thu Dec 16, 2010 9:46 am

I just bought that same GPU card to upgrade my rig a little for HDMI action to my TV...LOVE the card. I bought it for the massive stock heat sink on it..it cools the card even better than my old aftermarket zalman cooler, probably because of the increased thermal mass.

The fact that this is your first silent build is impressive, the components you chose are well thought out it looks like. As for your vibration problem, have you tried soft mounting the fans? Those little rubber "screws" are super cheap and can make a difference if you're feeling vibration. My case is so massive that the fans really don't make a difference, but I had to decouple my HDDs to prevent them from humming the case.

Matt3o
Posts: 22
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2010 9:43 am

Re: my lil silent media/game box

Post by Matt3o » Mon Dec 20, 2010 10:06 am

frenchie wrote:Do you have temps on the GPU like you have on the CPU ?
I think it spans from 37 to 70 C. I'll take more accurate ratings.
RoGuE wrote:As for your vibration problem, have you tried soft mounting the fans? Those little rubber "screws" are super cheap and can make a difference if you're feeling vibration.
Yes, I've tried the rubber screws, but the fans are really constrained into case (they touch the chassis from top, bottom, and front). The rubber screws remove vibration from front but the fans still touch the case.

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