Making a QUIET sff

T

Tonybologna23

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 29, 2002
Messages
214
I am very interested in a SFF PC for college next year but i need it to run very quiet. I know that relative to most PC's they are quiet but can you make then as quiet as you can make regular ATX?

right now i have passive cooling on my ati card, a zalman 7000 copper cooler thinger running at 1400rpms, a single fan silent powersupply, and 3 other low voltage 80mm fans all in a lian li. This is really really quiet (barely audible unless you sit still for awhile in my room).

My options for next year would be similar quiet components in a sonata with big 120mm fans or a SFF computer. I would MUCH prefer the SFF but im not sure i'd be willing to sacrifice noise.

Compents i would want in the sff:
top of the line or just below top of the line P4 (in august)
mid-level video card that comes standard with passive cooling (i wont do much gaming
a WD raptor drive and a second 250gb storage drive

will i be able to use the powersupply provided and will it run quietly?
thanks
 
Well...If money was no object, I guess you can get a Shuttle - replace the ICE fan with a Papst or Panaflo one and get a Sapphire 9*000 Ultimate and dump a GeForce 2 that's lying around
 
i just bought a sn85g for college actually, still haven't gotten the parts yet, only the shuttle itslef, but my plans were the same as urs.. i quiet sff, so far i think that this model is one of the quietest shuttles (zen being the queitest)
 
Even though the shuttle boxes are 'relatively' quiet, you'll never be able to keep it silent as a normal pc (unless you want to run the system at high temps).

I think the ranking for the quietest shuttles are:
1. Zen XPC (quietest by far)
2. ST61G4
.
.
.
3. SB75S and the SN85G4
 
Definately look into the Shuttle Zen XPC. It has a nice external, fanless 180W PSU too :).
 
I didnt find it that difficult. I added a 1u copper cooler to the top of the base of the ice above the cpu with a very quiet slim fan. Replaced the 40mm ps fan with a slow mover, added an additional fan to the PS on the other side blowing into the ps...another slow mover. Replaced the sunon fan with a blue UV fan, removed the grill and added an additional fan to the rear outside of the case. 4 fans run off t vantec fan controler up front.

I also replaced the fan on my 9700aiw with one of those vantec copper with blue led fans. epoxied it on as I picked the bigger one then the hoels alow. Its pretty quiet.

Then I took the whole system apart. lined the bottom with dynamat. I also placed squares or strips of it around the rest of the case anywhere I could find room. The inside top of the case was a good place and the inside front also was a good place.

Yes it took time and some $ but it is very quiet, looks good, and is just as fast.

Greg
 
not of the finsihed project. I have some lying around of some of it though. liek the updated ICE and stuff. Ill see if I can find them.

Greg
 
Replace ICE fan with silent fan and run it at 1 or 2 % in speedfan. That will make the CPU cooler silent.

I replaced my stock PSU (with the horrible 40mm ADA fan) with an external MicroATX PSU that is very silent since it uses 80mm fan that doeasnt speed up since it wont get that warm outside the case. I hide the PSU behind the desk.

To tell the truth, with the ICE fan at 1% and a fanless GFX board its still annoying sometimes!
 
nexus_7 said:
I added a 1u copper cooler to the top of the base of the ice above the cpu with a very quiet slim fan.
Click to expand...

That one actually sounds counter intuitive. Cooling the ICE base will upset the temp gradient that the heat pipes use to function.
 
IMHO, look into the Antec Aria case ... there's a thread in this forum about it too, someone got that big ol' Zalman to fit in it :D
 
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