Silencing for a HTPC Build

t_aitch · 10 Oct 2006 at 14:20

Ive got all the components that i need for my HTPC build, however im going to be changing the coolers on them to something less noisy, as the pc will be going in the living room, so silence is key, along with cooling.

I wont be overclocking, i just was a stable machine which is quiet. I have the following components which are going to need cooling and made quieter:

Powercolor X800XT 128MB PCI-E (New quieter GPU Cooler Needed)
ASUS A8N SLi Standard Edition (Replaced with Zalman NB Heatsink, but is hot, see below)
Athlon 64 3200+ Skt939 (On stock cooler at the moment, new quieter cooler needed)
Silverstone LC16M-B (Dual 80mm exhaust fans, need replacing with quieter ones)

The above are the core components which are going to be making noise through the coolers that are on them.

At the moment they have all got stock cooling, apart from my mobo (A8N) which has got a zalman NB heatsink on it, however this gets really hot, so i was thinking about changing the NB cooler to something more adequate, perhaps a larger heatsink.

What i was wanting was recommendations for relatively silent cooling for the above components, as this will be going underneath the telly.

The psu i have is an enermax noisetaker so thats good, and the hd is a samsung.

Ive seen the arctic cooling GPU coolers which look adequate, but im not sure what these are like?

Id like any recommendations from anyone on replacement cooling for these components.

Thanks

michael baxter · 10 Oct 2006 at 14:45

What size case are you using? This may limit the fitment of some of the suggestions below.

Suggestions:

1. Zalman hard drive craddle wih rubber mounts (super quiet with a Samsung hard drive)

2. Zalman 7000B or 7700 for the CPU

3. Zalman VF700 for the graphics card

4. Akasa Ultra Quiet PSU (with large fan)

I've used all these products myself, and recommend them for a HTPC.

t_aitch · 10 Oct 2006 at 15:13

The PSU im not really fussed about as ive got a noisetaker, and thats virtually silent. I may consider changing it if it is too loud tho.

Thanks for the help on that, ill check them out.

The Silverstone LC16MB is quite a big media centre case, with no riser cards or anything.

t_aitch · 10 Oct 2006 at 15:24

Also which is quieter for CPU? The zalman 7000 or 7700?

And is the zalman hard drive cradle the Zalman ZM-2HC2, which is on ocuk?

michael baxter · 10 Oct 2006 at 15:43

Check out the Zalman website for the noise levels!

The 7700 had a larger fan and should be able to run quieter, although the figures on the website suggest otherwise. However, both are very quiet!

Yes, that is the correct cradle!

t_aitch · 10 Oct 2006 at 16:01

Ok then, thanks a lot.

The cradle might be a good idea as the sammys do get a bit hot.

Are they quite easy to stack on top of each other, or is that out of the question?

michael baxter · 10 Oct 2006 at 17:30

The cradles fit in a 5.25 slot, one per slot.

Note they cool and quieten!

Bomag · 10 Oct 2006 at 21:15

If you really want a quiet HTPC look at either of the Zalman watercooling kits. I switched from a 9500 at 1300 rpm and a 7800GTX with a VF700 at 5v to a Reserator 2 and it does make it almost silent. (in a LC16)

However, if you are wanting to be just quiet enough to whatch tv then a 9500 and a vf900 at the slowest settings should be great. Get a zalman 12v/5v splitter to run the rear fans at 5v, they will be quieter than any HDD.

Finally I would forget about 3.5" disks as even a Samsung spinpoint is fairly noisy and hot. I switched to two laptop (2.5") HDD, a hitachi 7k100 for the system drive and a 160gb samsung for data. They are 10C cooler that the 3.5" HDD the replaced and much quieter.

michael baxter · 10 Oct 2006 at 21:43

Bomag,

You consider 3.5" Samsung drives are noisy! On the basis of that, I'm going to be putting a laptop drive on my next shopping list.

My media center motherboard provides a PATA interface, and obviously would need an adaptor to connect to the smaller laptop PATA connection. Any recommendations, or are you using SATA?

Thanks for that!

Obsessed with quietness,

Michael

squiffy · 10 Oct 2006 at 21:48

There's not much difference between 2.5" and 3.5" drives really, in fact my Toshiba 2.5" 4500rpm was louder than a 7200rpm 3.5" WD.

Still I guess if you want a totally quiet HTPC 2.5" is the way to go, but space is a premium. If you have a large music/avi collection you couldn't store them onto a high capacity 2.5" compared to 3.5"

My HTPC has two 3.5" 7200rpm and one 2.5" 5400rpm the loudest components are the case fans (2x12cm 21db) you can't really hear the HD rotation noise, click is pretty low anyway only on defrag it's noticeable. The odd click-click isn't noticeable, and I'm only 5' away. The sound system drowns out any low noise from the htpc.

Bomag · 11 Oct 2006 at 01:44

Michael

Ock don't sell 40/44pin adaptors but they are fairly easy to get hold of. Also look to get a mounting bracket which you can put some material between the HDD and bracket to act as a shock absorber - bit of foam would probably do.

A modern 2.5 HDD will be quieter than a 3.5 HDD, particular on idle and sequential read/writes (random read/writes are not as good but still noticablely quieter on 5400rpm drives). Also they kick out a third less heat which mean you can run the fans slower.

Capacity can be a problem but I store all my media in a spearate room connected by a gigabit network (4TB over 2 servers and a NAS

). A decent 54mb wirless connection will be able to stream HD media.

jellybeard999 · 11 Oct 2006 at 02:07

CPU - any 120mm fan cooler with a Yate Loon or Nexus 120mm @ 5v or 7v
GPU - arctic silencer / 5v zalman
HDD - suspend a Samsung SATA drive in a 5.25" bay properly, and i guarantee you wont hear it

Case fans - 80mm Yate Loon / Nexus at 5v

t_aitch · 11 Oct 2006 at 08:43

When you say suspend the 3.5" drive in a 5.25" bay, how do you mean?

With a few rubber bands or something?

jellybeard999 · 11 Oct 2006 at 09:58

Sorry bout the quality...

basically use some elastic shock cord (the bay - i used 5mm which was a bit thicker than i thought.. 2mm or 3mm would be ideal) ...

loop through the bottom 5.25" holes front and back, then the top...

put the drive on the top strings, and lift the bottom strings over the top, holding it down... rock solid, take mine to lans and no problems

...

michael baxter · 11 Oct 2006 at 14:55

I would have concerns using the suspension technique, as this may lead to the drive overheating. This could be a particular problem for a SFF system or low airflow system. I have observed that my drive got very hot to touch when suspended, as compared to the Zalman cradle mounting.

I suspect it depends how well the case is cooled! I'm using a SFF system, so the airflow is very tortured!