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Best cooling solution for studio computer?

X

Xspringe

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 18, 2003
Messages
73
Hello everyone,

I'll be buying a computer in about 3-4 weeks which will be used in a studio enviroment. As a result, noise levels need to be as low as possible, preferrably inaudible. What would your recommendations be? I've been looking at the total fanless designs by Zalman and Silentmaxx but both are rather expensive. Are there any fanless water cooling products?

I will probably be using the Athlon 64+ 3000+ (I'm going to wait for the new, cooler stepping) along with the samsung 7200 rpm sata drive (reasonably fast, quiet and cool).

The only thing I've figured out so far is that I won't be buying any expensive HD enclosures, but instead am going to use a simple suspended HD construction that I'm going to build myself.

Thanks in advance.
 
Zalman CNPS-7000 for the CPU, the Arctic Cooling GPU cooler, at least I think thats the name. and SilenX PSU.
 
Originally posted by rayman2k2
Zalman CNPS-7000 for the CPU, the Arctic Cooling GPU cooler, at least I think thats the name. and SilenX PSU.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input!

I won't be needing a GPU cooler as I will use a passively cooled gpu (it will be used for 2d only anyway).

Do you know what the best options are if I want even less noise? That is, without shelling out 1.5k for the zalman passive case ;)
 
depends on your budget.. You could get a watercooling system for around 300 bucks that will keep your system very chilly at silent temps

Would recommend getting zalman sandwich for gpu cooling.. Totally passive.

Prommy 2 for around 1 grand will keep cpu -20C

Zalman 7000 ALCU or CU is the best silent cooler made hands down.
 
Originally posted by Cloud15x
depends on your budget.. You could get a watercooling system for around 300 bucks that will keep your system very chilly at silent temps

Would recommend getting zalman sandwich for gpu cooling.. Totally passive.

Prommy 2 for around 1 grand will keep cpu -20C

Zalman 7000 ALCU or CU is the best silent cooler made hands down.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. What is the quietest watercooling system out there?

I'm thinking the zalman sandwich will be a little but overkill for some old fanless radeon running 2d ;)
 
Sry i didnt get the fact you were GOING to use a passive card

Quitest system hrm well what makes noise is fans. I not an expert but I would get a danger den system. One i was looking at was a tad bit spenisve(400 bucks) but if you get a big enough rad, you can 7V two 120mm fans

Mod the case for another 120 mm fan

So you have rad set up liek this

120mm blowing fresh air into pc

120mm on other side sucking it through

Back side 120mm exhaust
 
Originally posted by Xspringe
Thanks for the info. What is the quietest watercooling system out there?

I'm thinking the zalman sandwich will be a little but overkill for some old fanless radeon running 2d ;)
Click to expand...

get a koolance exos and call it a day...
 
not the quietest and not the best though

All depends on how hott "studio" enviroment is.
 
Once you get the computer built use some of that studio sound deadening foam, and line the computer with it. Also, use rubber washers when mounthing fans. get like 2 120mm Panaflows, and you can even volt mod em.
Cut out all the fan grils so no airflow will be disrupted.
I too would recomend the zalman, the coper will out perform the aluminum.
 
Originally posted by Cloud15x
not the quietest and not the best though

All depends on how hott "studio" enviroment is.
Click to expand...

The studio will be airconditioned, thank god ;)

I'm afraid I'll just have to go with the zalman cooler + a silenx psu.

Those all passive solutions are a bit too expensive, and the water cooling systems still use a lot of fans >:

Thanks for your input everyone.
 
if ur gonna put it in an air conditioned room, u should consider having very few case fans

get a nice fortron psu, the FSP series i think and one low noise exhaust fan and another one for intake

if u want, u can even get a rheobus for the two fans to make them somewhat quieter
 
Originally posted by ST|FFY
if ur gonna put it in an air conditioned room, u should consider having very few case fans

get a nice fortron psu, the FSP series i think and one low noise exhaust fan and another one for intake

if u want, u can even get a rheobus for the two fans to make them somewhat quieter
Click to expand...

I don't really see why I need case fans at all though. The samsung HD I will be using runs very cool, as does the videocard. The only thing generating heat will be PSU, CPU and mobo (ram).

I'll also try to undervolt the CPU....

It's too bad that there's no completely passive CPU cooling available....
 
One other thing that may be of some concern that no one has mentioned are the northbridge/southbridge cooling devices. I know the 64 bit systems don't really have a traditional northbridge, but if they do have some sort of chipset cooling, those little fans are generally really whiny so you may want to look into that.
 
Large HSF is the way to go if you want it as quiet as possible. The Eheim 1250 still does make a bit of noise. It also transmits vibrations to the floor around the computer, which is why I doubt you really want a watercooled system.
You might also need some case fans since it could still get pretty hot in the case. I would go with the sleeve bearing papst fans. They push a little more air per dB compared to other fans. Probably the combination of good sleeve bearings, balanced fan blades, and fan blade pitch which makes it better than other fans. However, they are 20 bucks a pop and could still be heard in ultra quiet environments. So a rheobus would help in that regard. I don't really like 7V regular fans because most of the fans you can buy are all ball bearing, and they tend to have an annoying clicking sound when the speeds gets really low.
 
you can get a giant passive radiator which does not even use a fan. they are kind of expensive. there is also a fanless power supply on the market, so then you would not need any fans at all
there will be a bit of heat from chipset etc but without CPU heating the case i think it would be ok.

you could do something with the drives like mount them in aluminium drive carrier and put heatsinks on the sides. this ought to keep them almost as cool as the inside of the case anyways. locate them bleow where any heat is generated and with lots of avaliable convection airflow around them.

With passive heatsinks black ones work better than silver. (for instance the innovatek passive water cooling radiator comes in colors but the black one would work better.

radiator

http://www.highspeedpc.com/Merchant...Y&Store_Code=HSPC&Category_Code=InnovaKonvect

psu

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article90-page1.html
 
you could get an AMD mobile 2500+ which would run very cool and you could make some kind of passive thing for it, or use a cooler designed for high power chip but with a super slow fan (like zalman 7000)

The mobile 2500+ and 2400+ use 45 watts when running at maximum power, while the 2200+ is rated for 35 watts

they fit in some motherboards with just a bios update.

If you wlill be happy enough with that cpu it may be an option.

otherwise to wait for an a64 to come down in power it might take a while or a bit more ingenuity to use a new or soon to be released one.
 
Here's a vote for a Seasonic Super Tornado PSU (yes, stupid name, I know). 80% efficiency, very stable.. and the quietest on the market. Make sure to get one of the newer revisions so as to avoid any of the issues with the initial batches..
 
lookin at the above site i found this I bet you could build something like this out some mdf board or something. ya, mdf would do the trick, thats what they use for building speaker boxes.
 
they do some pretty nifty stuff on that site...but its all at a cost...the Zalman case would be awesome IMO...but the cost of it is insane really...not really for the enthusiast/overclocker...more for studio applications for sure i would imagine....
 
i have a studio box running the zalman 7000Cu. works great and is quiet as well. i would recommend a st3120026as instead of the samsung drive (seagate 120gb sata) i think that it is quieter & faster.
 
Thanks for your input everyone!

I think I have most of it worked out by now:
- Super Tornado 300 PSU (although I still need to find a good shop in The Netherlands/Europe which carries them, suggestions are welcome).
- Zalman ZM-NB47J
- Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu
- self-built HD suspension
- Samsung 120/160gb sata (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article82-page1.html)
- 120mm case fan if required (what is the quietest 120mm fan out there?)
- aluminium case (any suggestions? I don't need a special ultra flashy case, just one with a 120mm fan slot(s) and built out of aluminium).

Additionally I will be placing the computer case inside the studio wall (it's a triple wall) wall behind a hatch.

This should take care of most of the noise!
 
Zalman CNPS-7000 or the silent boost from thermal take. This months(march) issue of MaximumPC had a fanless 500w power supply.
 
I would pick the new barracuda 7200.7 in the 100GB platter version (basically only the 200GB fits this requirement). I read the review on the silentpcreview, but I am still biased against samsung hard drives. I remember them from a year ago, and they had a dismal failure rate.
Also on the review, it states that the Barracuda makes a very high frequency whine, which I noticed with the 100GB seagate drives I just bought too, but I found that simply putting the case cover on made it inaudible. High frequency noise is easier to block out than low frequency noise.
For the quietest 120mm fan, the papst from plycon is the best I've found that still pushes a decent amount of air for the amount of sound it makes. I'm sure you might want to put some sort of fan speed adjustment on it, eventhough it is realatively quiet.
 
Originally posted by Xspringe
The studio will be airconditioned, thank god ;)

I'm afraid I'll just have to go with the zalman cooler + a silenx psu.

Those all passive solutions are a bit too expensive, and the water cooling systems still use a lot of fans >:

Thanks for your input everyone.
Click to expand...


just because something has fans does not automatically mean its loud.
 
Ok I have updated the list:

- Nexus NX-3500 Special Edition PSU
- Zalman ZM-NB47J
- Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu
- self-built HD suspension
- Samsung 120/160gb sata (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article82-page1.html)
- 120mm papst case fan (if required)
- case (any suggestions? I don't need a special ultra flashy case, just one with a 120mm fan slot(s) and built out of aluminium).

I've switched to the NX-3500 PSU because it is made by a dutch company and thus is rather cheap down here, sound levels should be at least as good as the Seasonic. How much does that 500w fanless PSU cost?
I've heard Antec should release a 350w fanless PSU soon, with a MSRP of 169 dollars. The Nexus is half of that price though, which would make it a muchh better deal.

I have yet to hear any negative comments regarding the reliability of the Samsung SATA drivers, so I'll probably stick with it.

Now that I've been recommended a good 120mm fan (thanks Rix), all that is left is finding a good case with 120mm fan slots....

I'll take some pics of the project when I buy/assemble the rig, I just hope that AMD hurries up with the new revision of the AMD64 core.
 
My bad, plycon doesn't sell them anymore. I just found out because I needed some for a person who is paying me to get his computer more quiet. The last time I checked it was about 6 months ago. However I found it at www.directron.com in the quiet pc section stuff. It's now only 18 bucks. Hehe, 21 extra dollars in my pocket now :-p.
 
The Zalmans, etc, will not match the silence and efficiency of the SeaSonic. Read some reviews like on silentpcreview.com
 
If you do watercool, you only really need a 120mm fan on the radiator. You can get a low speed fan that still moves a ton of air very quietly.

Also, adding sound deadening (eggcrate looking stuff) material on the inside of the case walls will reduce noise further.
 
Originally posted by __Maad__
The Zalmans, etc, will not match the silence and efficiency of the SeaSonic. Read some reviews like on silentpcreview.com
Click to expand...

Yeah, but they recently downgraded it because almost everyone on their forum was having problems with the Seasonics.
 
Originally posted by Xspringe
Yeah, but they recently downgraded it because almost everyone on their forum was having problems with the Seasonics.
Click to expand...

Yeah I saw that.. Kind of a shame to release a product with such promising performance only to have an initial batch of screwups :eek: . Apparently the ones out now are newer revisions designed to solve these initial problems though. I'll be finding out about that within the next couple days either way.. wish me luck ;)
 
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