New quieter case

Dr.EM

Dr.EM

Dr.EM

Soldato
Joined
15 Jun 2006
Posts
3,900
Location
Swindon
Hi. I have decided that I would like to make my computer much quieter. It is a ready assembled machine and at the moment there is very little that can be done to silence it. So I thought the best thing to do would be to move it into a more suitable case and get a new CPU cooler, PSU and some of that sound deadening material. I have very limited knowlege of computer hardware though so am not sure on what is suitable.

The computer uses currently a 250W PSU, a Micro ATX motherboard and one case fan. It has a Radeon 9600 card, an Audigy 2 card, a 120GB HD and a DVD/CD-RW drive. The processor is a Sempron 2800. I have been looking through parts and am thinking about:

Lian-li PC-G50 or PC-7
Tagan TG330
Thermaltake Golden orb 2

But have very little idea if that is all suitable. Mostly, i'm not sure on how the CPU cooler might fit to the board, and whether there is enough space to fit it. Also, that case looks nice (G50), but i'm not sure if it will be very suitable for fitting the acoustic material to :confused:

Any advice or other suggestions much appreciated. I would like to keep this under around £100 if possible. Also, I don't think this can be done as well as the silencing, but because I have a Micro ATX board, it would seem I have the option to use a small case. If there is any way to use a small case and still have the silencing treatment that would be great, just haven't seen any silent micro PSUs.

A picture of the current inside is here if it helps:
 
Thanks for the suggestions :) . I prefer the appearance and dimensions of the G50 case, but will prioritise on the acoustics anyhow. I like how the P150 has the acoustic treatment and quiet PSU already in place, it works out good value like that. I'd still prefer the G50 if it will take the acoustic material, but would need a PSU too.

My motherboard says MSI KM4M on it and i'm not sure if it will accept the Golden orb cooler, that type of cooler seems to need quite specific mounting :confused:
 
Yeah, i'll definately consider that one actually, it seems to have the sound material built in so works out cheaper. Must be pretty solid build, looking at the weight, 14Kg :eek: .Only qualm being it is rather big.
 
Ok, for the PSU, if i'm likely to need more power, I was thinking that the Akasa 400w paxpower would be good. It measures a nice low 18dB and seems good value. Something I noticed there though, that PSU and a few others use a 120mm fan mounted underneath. The Antec case has the PSU mounted at the bottom of the case. So that the fan isnt obstructed, the PSU would need to be fitted upside down? The Lian-li case seems to have the PSU mounted sideways.

For the acoustic material, your right and and I probably would try it first without. The amber fans will be my first choice if I require them.

The cooler you suggested looks good in that it is easy to fit with just a clip and no screws. Its rating of 0.8 sone equates to a rather high 29dBA though, but apparently the sound is less annoying as the sone scale takes the human perception of a sound into account and is not a flat measurement. If you have that cooler yourself, would you say its quiet (i'm looking to the point that its virtually inaudible in a normal room).
 
The speed is adjustable through software isn't it?

If I go with the Tagan, I think it would have to be the 330 like you have as the 380 is a bit of a strech (either way 330 is quite a lot more than the currently installed 250). I'm not decided totally on that yet though.
 
I think that fan doesn't as some by the same make mention different speeds and thier respective noise levels yet that one does not.

Looking into cases again, i'm not too keen on how the PC-G50 seems to have its USB and headphone jacks on the top. The Silverstone TJ08 is looking quite nice. I originally thought it would be too expnsive, but from looking at others it seems it's not really. It can take advantage of the fact I have a Micro ATX board so the system can be smaller. So, it's more between that and the Antec P180, which is likely to perfom better on the acoustic front but is really quite large.

So, at the moment my thinking seems to be toward the Silverstone TJ08 with the arctic cooling CPU cooler and probably the Akasa 400w supply. I would then add the acoustic treatment if it was felt to be needed. Because I am running a fairly low powered machine in there, I expect I can lower the CPU fan and probably the case fans to achieve a good balance of noise and temp.
 
Ok, not to seem like i'm changing my mind too much, but that P150 case does sound good for what i'm trying to achieve. I'm not hugely keen on the appearance, but it seems like one of the only ways to achieve a quiet system for my sort of budget as it includes the PSU. But my question is about that PSU, the Neo HE 430. It sounds like a great PSU, but apparently earlier runs of production had incompatibility issues with certan chipsets, Nvidia, Intel and VIA. Is my MSI motherboard likely to use any of these? Even so, the currently sold ones should be the updated fully compatable models :confused:

Also, it seems unlikely, but could I mabye use the Scythe CPU cooler with no fan? I imagne it has enough cooling for my Sempron 2800 processor, but then its a very big cooler for a very small board and mounting seems unlikely.
 
I'm fairly sure the supplied one is normal sized :confused: in which case the answer should be yes. The supplied one is listed as "ATX 2.0" if that helps.
 
Thanks for the suggestions :)

The case i've been looking into a lot recently is the Antec P150. That case includes a kind of deadening material inside it, but it is not the normal sort and is a thin coating. It's more to stop vibrations I think. In a review, that case ran with lower temperatures than the others they had.

I will use the Freezer pro then, but I expect I will want to run it on lower than full speed and just need to confirm there is a painless way to do so ;) . I was using speed fan to check temperatures, but also noticed that my CPU fan runs at a rather high 5000RPM, so your probably right thats the biggest noise contributer.

The P150 case includes a PSU worth quite a lot by itself. The reviews i've read of that case reckon its very good and the included PSU is definately useable. It seems like one of the only options for keeping this around £100 (except for not changing the case at all). That case isn't aluminium though, but the reviews seemed to say it had very good thermal performance. But yes, if I do choose a "PSU not included case", then i'll stick with the (LED-less) Akasa :)

I would quite like to use the PC-7 case with amber fans yeah. I prefer its appearance to the P150 myself, but with that case I will have to buy the PSU and those fans, and it will take it all a bit over budget. I will still keep it in mind though.
 
Hello again. Ok, my plan for the CPU cooler after realising its an old school socket A is to get the Akasa AK-827 cooler, which may not be the quietest, but then change the fan on it for an 80mm Akasa amber case fan, it seems it would fit? I know it may not achieve the 20db quoted because the airflow over the heatsink block is bound to be more turbulent than in free air, but it should be acceptable. Possible I could also lower the speed (the amber case fan, can it plug in where the CPU cooler fan usually does?)

The case, i'm probably going with the PC-7. It is reccomended frequently and should be nice to work with. I do prefer the appearance too over my other possible ones.

My overall list should now be:

Lian-li PC-7+
Akasa AK-827 CPU cooler
Akasa 80mm amber fan
Akasa 120mm amber fan (to replace one of the supplied case ones)
Akasa 400w PSU
Arctic Cooling Rev.2 ATI 1 GPU cooler (I have a 9600 card, but have no idea of the version/make as it was supplied as a replacement for my broken 9250)

I'm hoping thats all compatible otherwise :)
 
Ok, I might go for one of those coolers then, thanks. So long as it says socket A, it is compatible with my 462 pin Sempron 2800?

Looking at GPU coolers again, i've managed to find out what exactly my card is. It appears to be a 9600 Pro made by Advantage. Looking on Zalmans site, thier cooler is not suitable with that particular make (a capacitor gets in the way of the clip). The Arctic cooling cooler says it is compatible with the 9600 Pro's, but does not mention makes or models. Is it likely to have the same issue?
 
Thanks, think I might need to remove the card to check for compatibility there, or take pot luck :eek:

I have got one of those copper silent 3 coolers you mentioned now, it looks good, thanks for the suggestion :)
 
Ok, thanks for all your help. I ended up going for the Lian-li PC7 case, Akasa 400W PSU, a quiet arctic cooling graphics cooler and the arctic cooling copper 3 CPU cooler (already installed). I will post pics over at the case gallery once it is done :)
 
Me and mr.orb set up the new quieter system today, the result can be seen here in the case gallery

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=7346798#post7346798

The GPU cooler didn't fit at first as I almost expected, but after an hour or so of "modding" we made sure it did :D



And eventually, the system is a lot quieter. I am using stock case fans on full voltage at the moment, and intend to lower thier speed sometime. They are mounted with the rubber fan mounts too. The proof is in the pudding, and its now quiet enough to hear the beautiful sounds of the hard disk :rolleyes: :p
 
Yeah, it was nice to work with, much more spacious. Suprisingly light too.

I think the guide is pretty well written, it makes sense, but just seems harder to do in practise. I may add in a (home made) speed controller, but would like for it to control both fans simultaneously, which means cutting a PSU wire and I don't really want to do that.
 
Ah, I got the 7 volt mod working :D

I noticed you mentioned the watch makers screw drivers, which I happen to have a set of, and they made it pretty easy. Both case fans now run on 7v, I checked with the DMM. Quite an improvement in noise levels, and I haven't seen the temperatures go up either.
 
Agree completely :D

The temps are around 27 in the case, 47 at the CPU when idle and the CPU temp rises to no more than 55 when under load, so no worries there. The graphics card should be happy too with the cooler, which has around 3 times more dissapation than the stock one.
 
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