HPTC Silence

borich_planner · 1 Sep 2011 at 17:08

I need to make my HTPC as near silent as possible and the system has three fans. CPU, MOBO, and PSU.

To make it silent I'm thinking of doing the following:

Silverstone Tech. ST40NF-S Nightjar 400W Fanless Power Supply (PSU)
socket 775 passive cooler
Replace fan on mobo with passive cooler.

I will also look to replace the hard drive with a SSD. My nas is in the other room so it should be a near silent setup. Anyone here done anything similar?

Edit: can someone correct the subject to HTPC Silence!

R088ieS86 · 1 Sep 2011 at 18:17

You don't want to remove all fans from the setup otherise you will get over heating problems.
What case do you have? Vaguely remember you saying it was ATX in another thread?

My HTPC is power by a Seasonic X-460FL Fanless PSU.
I have a silent graphics card. The only hardware fan I have is on the CPU which is this one: Scythe Shuriken BIG Quiet Low Profile CPU Cooler
Apart from that I have 2 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon's (850RPM) to draw the hot air out.
My Sky HD box is louder than my HTPC!

borich_planner · 1 Sep 2011 at 18:28

Atx case and its a lot louder than my sky box. I did a test and disconnected the cpu fan and my psu was almost as loud. Could i get away with with the following:

Seasonic X-460FL Fanless PSU
2 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon's (850RPM)
Thermalright HR-02 Passive CPU Cooler (without fan)

R088ieS86 · 1 Sep 2011 at 18:32

could you find out the make of the case? just to check it out for u.

borich_planner · 1 Sep 2011 at 21:27

R088ieS86 said:
could you find out the make of the case? just to check it out for u.

Lian li pc60

R088ieS86 · 1 Sep 2011 at 22:04

is it this one:Here?

borich_planner · 1 Sep 2011 at 22:06

its

Its sites behind the tv stand so cannot be seen from any point,

R088ieS86 · 1 Sep 2011 at 22:41

Right ok, sorry it took a while, was trying to find some info on the case.
Its the "PC-60USB" for future reference.

According to a few sites (Lian Li's website doesn't seem to list it anymore) it has 2x 80mm intakes at the front. You can see the holes. And a single 80mm exhaust fan at the back.

Scythe don't make a gentle typhoon in that size so you be better off going with some (3) of these:
Noctua NF-R8 80mm Silent Case Fan - 3 Pin

borich_planner · 1 Sep 2011 at 22:55

Cheers for the info, so if i have those three fans, do you think i could avoid cpu fan?

R088ieS86 · 1 Sep 2011 at 23:01

Did you get a silent graphics card? If so your CPU really won't be doing much. Therefore won't output much heat.

Thoughts, check your motherboard beacuse you might not have enough inputs for 3 fans to be controlled by pwm. You may need to find some 3pin to molex adapters.

Just getting that PSU will really help! Its fantastic!

borich_planner · 1 Sep 2011 at 23:09

I have the Asus HD 6450 1 gig silent graphics card passive cooled

R088ieS86 · 2 Sep 2011 at 11:21

You are set for a pretty quiet rig then!

borich_planner · 2 Sep 2011 at 13:08

R088ieS86 said:
You are set for a pretty quiet rig then!

Hopefully, ill be spending over 200 quid, so it has to be silent!

Coln · 10 Sep 2011 at 22:19

How did you get on with replacing the fans m8? Have the same case and looking to do either this or build a silent htpc for myself.

Cheers

saitrix · 12 Sep 2011 at 12:32

Personally I have had more success with negative pressure cooling. So you block up any holes at the rear, then just use a rear fan to extract with.

Also try under volting your CPU as that will help your temps overall. I did the same and now just have both my rear case fan and CPU fan at 500rpm with 120mm nexus fans. That's an undervolted e7200 which is still overclocked to 3ghz.