• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Quiet SFFs

K

King Og

Gawd
Joined
Feb 10, 2001
Messages
526
I'm thinking about building a SFF since my desktop motherboard died (and I was sick and tired of the ridiculous amount of fan noise anyways). I want to reuse as much of my current system as possible, but more importantly, I want a quiet SFF. Here's what I'm going to have on hand to reuse:

AMD 2600+ Barton
Sapphire ATI 9700 Pro w/128MB
512 MB PC3200 (2x256)
80GB WD Caviar HD (PATA)
ATI TV Tuner Card

What would be some suggestions for a SFF that would use this slightly older equipment? It would need to have onboard LAN and hopefully decent onboard audio as I won't have room for a sound card and I don't want an external one if I can avoid it. I've looked around a bunch and seen positive reviews of the Shuttle SN41G2, but have no idea if it's particularly noisy. This will be sitting on the desk next to the monitor, so I'd just assume not have a loud buzzing noise eminating from it all the time. I'd also like to spend $200 or less if possible, but I'm open to spending a little more if it seems worth the value. Also, I've heard there are some nice little 3 1/2" memory card readers that can match Shuttle cases, but haven't really been able to find them.

Any suggestions?
 
I'd go for a Shuttle SN41G2 V2.

Revision 2 comes with the much quieter 250W SilentX p/s.
Stay away from older models with the 200W p/s.
 
I looked around to see if I could find some basic fan noise comparisons for older systems like this, but came up empty. Does anyone have any good info on how loud the regular HSF is, or I guess in this case, the ICE system fan? What size is the ICE fan, 60mm or 80mm? If 60, is there any easy way to replace with an 80mm via an external shroud or something similar?
 
The ice fan under normal circumstances is fairly quiet.
It's speed controlled and most of the time runs at low rpm.
Shuttles in smartfan mode only run at full speed at a certain temperature threshold and you can set that in the BIOS.

The fan is just a cheap 80mm Sunon. It's easy to replace.
Lot's of people upgade the fan to a Panaflow for quiet or a vantec for airflow. Or they mod it with a larger, lower rpm fan on an adapter.

I was originally planning on modding my Shuttle's ice cooler with a 92mm Thermaltake Silentcat fan and 92-80mm adapter shroud. But after living with it I don't think I'll bother. The noise doesn't bother me that much.

It was the power supply which really made the earlier Shuttles noisy. The little 40mm fan was overworked and noisy. The newer silentX power supplies have two (push/pull) 40mm fans and are much quieter.
 
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=56-101-455&depa=0

get it.. i am mad because it came out 2 weeks after i bought my sn41g2v2... i do like my g2 case though.. but you have a video card.. so you don't need the built in video that the sn41 has..

mine is fine if i leave the fans on low.. if i turn the fans up to the max it sounds like a vacuum cleaner.. i keep thinking that i want to replace the fan, or cut out the rear grill, but the comptuer is so stable, i restart it maybe once a month.. and i just don't feel like messing with it when it is running fine...

the sn41 and sn45 are great though, they have all the overclocking and tweaking options you could ever use.. (don't change the memory voltage though, it will kill all but the very first sn45's) but you should be able to bump your 2600+ from 166fsb to 200 with no problems.. the ice fan handles the heat well in my experience.. and if you really need to cool it down you can cut out the rear grill and mount a 120 mm fan on the back.. a lot of people have done it...
 
The SN45G is a pretty decent performer. Has the Nf2 Ultra chipset and works great.

I run it with a TBred 1700+ that is overclocked to 2000 mhz (10x200) -- pretty modest overclock for that chip

1 GB Ballistix Memory
HDTV Wonder
9800 Pro -- I Think the SN45G might be cheaper -- b/c it doesn't come with built in graphics
 
scottatwittenberg said:
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=56-101-455&depa=0

get it.. i am mad because it came out 2 weeks after i bought my sn41g2v2... i do like my g2 case though.. but you have a video card.. so you don't need the built in video that the sn41 has..

mine is fine if i leave the fans on low.. if i turn the fans up to the max it sounds like a vacuum cleaner.. i keep thinking that i want to replace the fan, or cut out the rear grill, but the comptuer is so stable, i restart it maybe once a month.. and i just don't feel like messing with it when it is running fine...

the sn41 and sn45 are great though, they have all the overclocking and tweaking options you could ever use.. (don't change the memory voltage though, it will kill all but the very first sn45's) but you should be able to bump your 2600+ from 166fsb to 200 with no problems.. the ice fan handles the heat well in my experience.. and if you really need to cool it down you can cut out the rear grill and mount a 120 mm fan on the back.. a lot of people have done it...
Click to expand...


BTW - -- What do you mean by "kill" all but the first SN45s? Could you elaborate on that (I don't mean to thread hijack)
 
well.. if you change the vdimm on a shuttle sn41 or 45 it turns the motherboard into a paperweight for some reason.. there was some flaw in the design, and instead of fixing it, then just disabled the option to change it, but that is only if you flash the bios... i never updated my bios and can change my vdimm, which supposedly will kill the mobo.. i think it takes out a cap or something.. anyway, the original rev 1 sn45 boards didn't have this problem for whatever reason, and are / were a hot item to have, because they let you change the memory voltage...
 
Ok, so I got the SN45GV2, installed everything and it runs great. There is one small issue though, it's not very quiet...unfortunately, the majority of the noise is being made by my Sapphire 9700 Pro HSF, which is rattling to kingdom come. Does anyone know where a replacement HSF that would fit in the Shuttle case could be found? I searched newegg and came up totally empty for little HSF's for video cards.
 
I too would like a quieter fan/heatsink to replace my 9800 Pro fan/heatsink, but not one that will require an extra slot.
 
flippantremark said:
I'd go for a Shuttle SN41G2 V2..
Click to expand...
Any reason why one should go over this over the SN45G? I like the nF2 Ultra400 chipset that the SN45G has, and I don't think I'd use onboard graphics anytime soon. I know of the vdimm issue that the SN45Gs have, but keeping that voltage at auto should keep my RAM happy.

Apparently Shuttle has an SN45GV3 out... hopefully they fixed the issues that the earlier revisions had.
 
King Og said:
unfortunately, the majority of the noise is being made by my Sapphire 9700 Pro HSF, which is rattling to kingdom come. Does anyone know where a replacement HSF that would fit in the Shuttle case could be found?
Click to expand...

You could just undervolt the fan using a Zalman fan mate or something similar.
As long as you're not o/clocking the 9700 pro it shouldn't kill it.
There are other fan+heatsinks you can fit like Vantec's Iceberg 4, but that would be just as loud as the stock fan, maybe louder and you'd still end up having to under-volt it anyway.
 
they only difference i see on that 45 v3 is that is has sata and raid... which i would have definitely gotten if it was out when i got mine.. that way i could use a raptor.. but i wouldn't ever want to run raid in a shuttle on that 250 watt psu..

and i don't think there is any good reason to get an sn41 over an sn24 unless you want a g2 case, or a black g2 case... or you really think you need onboard video.. i only got one myself becasue the sn45 was the old 200 wat psu at the time, and this one had the silenX and a g2 case...

but now i am wondering when those 45 v3's will come out.. but then i should just wait and get an a64...
 
I've been running a 2x200Gig RAID set on my SilentX 250W for six months now and nary a problem.

Got a AIW 9800pro and an SB audigy sucking the juice as well and I've also upped the core voltages.

SilentX PS is good. It can handle it.
 
hmm. .maybe i need to drop a 2nd hard drive in here then.. i am thinking 200 gig for $80.. i don't know if heat would be an issue then though..
 
Yeah. Heat could be an issue in a closed case.

I've got an SB75G2 with the open mesh sides so air-flow is better than in a SN41G2.

With 200gig drives such good value, I couldn't help myself.
I had to get two :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top