S
Strontium
Well, I am one step away from a nearly silent box. I love this server
tower, for it's cooling (2x80mm front intake, very open grill...2x80mm back
exhaust, 1x80mm side blowing on video card, 2x80mm in PSU). However, the
sheer noise was horrendous!
I started off by getting the Zalman ZM60a VGA heatsink. No fan, as silent
as it gets. Cools, even better than the stock hs/f because of sheer surface
area combined with that 80mm fan blowing on it, from the side of the case.
At the same time, I got the Zalman Al-Cu 7000 hs/f for the processor. They
didn't have the full Cu version, or I would have gotten that. I'm not
disappointed, though. I can barely hear that fan, when I have it set to
2500rpm. Can't hear it, at all, when it's at 1300rpm. Gained about 4degC
cooling, over the stock Intel hs/f.
Once I did this, the only thing (or so I thought) left was the blaring case
fans. Just got a fan speed controller, today. All 5 case fans hooked up to
it. Can't hear even one of them, with them cranked to low (5V). Now, all I
can hear is the whine of the PSU, the hard drive activity, and the CPU fan
(when I have it running at full 12V or 2500rpm...even then, it's barely
noticeable).
Idle processor temp has only increased by 4degC, putting me back where I was
with the stock CPU hs/f. My case temps actually went down, when I switched
to the VGA and CPU Zalman's. Got down to between 30 and 27degC, idle,
depending on my room temp. Have only lost about 2degC cooling, with the
case fans at 5V. And, when I game, I can just crank the knob and bring all
the case fans back to 12V.
I can't wait to get a quieter PSU. Noise levels never really bothered me,
until I got this server tower with 5x80mm fans. My old case had 2x80mm fans
and a CoolerMaster hs/f (Socket A), and it sounded like a jet. This server
tower sounded like a row of 50 turbines!
tower, for it's cooling (2x80mm front intake, very open grill...2x80mm back
exhaust, 1x80mm side blowing on video card, 2x80mm in PSU). However, the
sheer noise was horrendous!
I started off by getting the Zalman ZM60a VGA heatsink. No fan, as silent
as it gets. Cools, even better than the stock hs/f because of sheer surface
area combined with that 80mm fan blowing on it, from the side of the case.
At the same time, I got the Zalman Al-Cu 7000 hs/f for the processor. They
didn't have the full Cu version, or I would have gotten that. I'm not
disappointed, though. I can barely hear that fan, when I have it set to
2500rpm. Can't hear it, at all, when it's at 1300rpm. Gained about 4degC
cooling, over the stock Intel hs/f.
Once I did this, the only thing (or so I thought) left was the blaring case
fans. Just got a fan speed controller, today. All 5 case fans hooked up to
it. Can't hear even one of them, with them cranked to low (5V). Now, all I
can hear is the whine of the PSU, the hard drive activity, and the CPU fan
(when I have it running at full 12V or 2500rpm...even then, it's barely
noticeable).
Idle processor temp has only increased by 4degC, putting me back where I was
with the stock CPU hs/f. My case temps actually went down, when I switched
to the VGA and CPU Zalman's. Got down to between 30 and 27degC, idle,
depending on my room temp. Have only lost about 2degC cooling, with the
case fans at 5V. And, when I game, I can just crank the knob and bring all
the case fans back to 12V.
I can't wait to get a quieter PSU. Noise levels never really bothered me,
until I got this server tower with 5x80mm fans. My old case had 2x80mm fans
and a CoolerMaster hs/f (Socket A), and it sounded like a jet. This server
tower sounded like a row of 50 turbines!
