Every case is too noisy, read this (MSI Mega PC) (1 Viewer)

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Anonymous

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im useing a qtec desktop case and have modded its psu fan to 7v and put a zalman cooler on the cpu wich is running at the lowest possible speed, also i have given the cpu a little less power so itl be a little cooler.
 
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Anonymous

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Silent enough...finally!

I started with a Silverstone LaScala LC03, similar looking to NetAdam's. It came with 2x60mm exhaust fans and a spot for an 80mm intake. I started with an 80mm Stealth, an Antec 550W PS, an Radeon ATI 9600xt, and a Zalman heat sink.

the heat sink was too big (120mm fan) so I had to go with the AMD stock heat sink.

the video card was by far, the noisiest component, I read this thread, then went with the following:

+ ATI 9500 which is a fanless 128MB card and cheaper than the 9600
+ replaced the AMD heat sink with a smaller Zalman heat sink
+ replaced the Antec with an FSP 430W (less $$)
+ replaced the Stealth 80mm and the Silverstone 60mm fans with the SilenX brand 80mm and 60mm

What a big difference! The SilenX 14dB fans made more of a difference than I thought they would. Of course if you turn the CPU and the PSU fans all the way up it will be noisy, but it's just a little noisier than my Dell Laptop.
 

jameson_uk

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    jcee said:
    I will sell the MSI therefore.. Before anybody argues that nothing will be perfect, here some (new) ideas that I do have...

    1) The smaller the fan, the more noisy
    Smaller fans tend to produce a whinny noise which is more audible than lower fans. This is normally because the fan is smaller and therefore to shift a lot of air it needs to sping faster. anything less than 80mm tends to be noisy.
    2) The smaller the case the more difficult to cool and to handle all the heat
    Not sure how true this is. A lot of it depends on the flow of heat through the case and how well heatsinks can take heat away from heat sources
    3) The more fans the more noise..
    Indeed :)

    Conclusion:
    1) No doubt, Shuttle and MSI do great jobs building their barebones but in the end they cannot overcome physics.
    Shuttle use their ICE system which is basically a set of heatpipes which take heat from the CPU directly to the rear of the case and a fan then blows air over this. My friend's shuttle runs an P4 550 and it is very quiet (not silent)

    The source of all problem is the heat which comes mainly from CPU and from gfx board.
    The CPU is the main source of heat. Making sure that you have a decent heatsink / fan combination here is the most important thing[/QUOTE]
    It seems to be better to reduce heat at first, before trying to get rid of it. The less heat the better.. the better to control,, the less fans/ventilation
    There is a balance between silence and heat. If you want a silent case, you have to be prepared to run it a little hotter than if you wanted a well cooled case. A decent heatsink on a high power CPU will take away heat quickly and therefore be better than a bad heatsink on a lower power CPU.

    Use the slowest possible gfx board, no active fan, no extra Mhz
    There are some pretty decent fanless cards out there. I have seen a Geforce 6800 and Radeon 9600XT. I use an old (£30) radeon 9200SE which is fine if you are only using the machine as HTPC.

    Use a CPU that gives as low as possible heat.
    I would say use whatever you need. There is no need to install a P4EE inside a HTPC case. Be sensible and run an older processor if this is all you are using it for.

    I am running an XP2800 and even in a silent room I can not hear it. The DVD drive is noticeable if it is whizzing round and occasionaly I hear the hard drive if it is doing something like defragging but otherwise it is silent.

    I have spent the best part of a year achieving this but it has been worth it.

    How far have you gone with the MSI ?? I am presuming it comes with a brick PSU so that is silent ?? Have you tried running the fans at 7V or 5V ?? Have you tried replacing the fans with quieter ones ?? (you can even rip out the northbridge fan and repalce it with a passive heatsink)

    Also I am struggling to see how you could get 4 fans in that case !! The shuttle only has one 92mm rear fan. Have you actually tried just unplugging some of the fans ??

    Can you actually replace the heatsink in the MSI ??
     

    r32godzilla

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    February 19, 2005
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    Use a CPU that gives as low as possible heat
    I would say use whatever you need. There is no need to install a P4EE inside a HTPC case. Be sensible and run an older processor if this is all you are using it for.

    Hehe sorry I can't be sensible. A mate gave me a P4EE 3.73ghz CPU for my HTPC system. Been having a great time getting a nice balance of cool/quiet. So far I have reduced the CPU temperature under heavy load in ambient 22c room from 59-62c back to 52c. Have the following setup:

    Intel P4EE 3.73Ghz CPU
    Gigabyte GA-8I945P-G-RH Motherboard
    512MB DDR-2 RAM
    Gigabyte Radeon X300 PCI-E 256MB Video card (passive cooled)
    Maxtor 120GB DiamondMax 10 SATA HDD
    DVICO Fusion PCI HDTV card
    Generic Midi Tower Case
    Atrix extreme power 650watt power supply (silent, seperate 12v rails, dual fan, adjustable speed control)
    Gigabyte Neon Pro 775 series CPU cooler 10.8cm (speed adjustable fan)
    Thermaltake Smart Case Fan II 12cm(Adjustable speed fan, mounted at rear of case)

    Will probably get another Thermaltake Smart Case Fan II 12cm fan for the front intake and see how we go. The HTPC is sitting inside a well ventilated cupboard (back of cupboard is removed,slits at front) in an entertainment unit in the Loungeroom. Its good in the cupboard because theres less noise, but still need to see how hot in gets in there over a few days testing. Can upload some pics if anyone is interested.

    Cheers,

    Jason.
     

    r32godzilla

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    February 19, 2005
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    Ok I bought a couple for case fans on the weekend. They are an 8cm and 12cm Coolermaster LED silent. Installed them both and running under load using Prime 95 the CPU temperature was maxing out at 45c with ambient temperature of 20c. Currently the case is configured as follows:

    Front lower case intake: Coolermaster 8cm LED Silent

    Front upper case intake: removed 2 x 5 1/4 bays and cable tied the Coolermaster 12cm LED Silent at the front of the bays. Have a huge intake sucking in cool air. Not pretty but seems to work VERY well.

    CPU cooler: Variable speed Gigabyte Neon 775 Pro

    PSU cooling: Dual 8cm variable speed fans in Altrix 650 PSU.

    Rear middle case extraction: Thermaltake Smart Case II 12cm variable speed.

    Not bad for the furnace like P4EE. Will have to do some more testing now and see hwo it goes back in the loungeroom entertainment cabinet.
     

    r32godzilla

    Portal Member
    February 19, 2005
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    Ok I have had the HTPC in the cupboard in my entertainment cabinet for about 1 week now. I have been recording some shows and have left in running for about 5hrs nonstop at a time. Still haven't had it running overnight yet, want to test a bit more first.

    I have set the Gigabyte mb monitoring software for 55degrees for the CPU alarm and have yet to hear it go off. Will have to set the temp a bit lower and see what happens and also run MP in a windows and see what the temps read.

    The Motherboard monitor temp plugin is outdated and also doesn't support my motherboard. Is there any good plug-ins for Media portal to monitor the system temps?

    Considering the number of fans I have, the noise level is quite good especially being in the cupboard. The air intake is not ideal through the cupboard as there is only a slit between the doors, but so far it hasn't seemed to affect the temp much. Might have to make up a mesh intake to replace the frosted glass bit on the cupboard door if things get too hot, but at the moment things are looking good.

    WIll also try and get some photos shortly too.

    Cheers.
     

    r32godzilla

    Portal Member
    February 19, 2005
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    Ok guys heres some photos of my setup. The case is obviously not pretty but behind the cupboard door who cares? It does the job nicely:) Would love a Plasma TV but at the moment my trusty Panny 80cm TV does the job. I still have my Panny AE700 projector to mount on the roof so once thats done I can output to HDMI so it should be awesome.

    htpc-1.jpg


    htpc-2.jpg


    htpc-3.jpg


    htpc-4.jpg
     

    hakuna

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    October 15, 2004
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    r32godzilla said:
    Ok guys heres some photos of my setup. The case is obviously not pretty but behind the cupboard door who cares? It does the job nicely:) Would love a Plasma TV but at the moment my trusty Panny 80cm TV does the job. I still have my Panny AE700 projector to mount on the roof so once thats done I can output to HDMI so it should be awesome.
    What's the projector doing on the roof, projecting the Bat-sign in the sky? ;-)

    Nah, I was really writing to propose to make the holes in the cabinet for the orange fan bigger. Now it looks like it's just blowing into a wall? This I think makes the air flow restricted.

    /Niclas
     

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