SonOfMore's Quiet Computing/Gaming Rig

Ok here goes,

This will be the second computer I've built from the ground on up. You couldn't say I'm a pro at it, but after doing the first, hopefully it should be a bit easier. None the less, there's a special satisfaction of building your own machine to spec and powering it on for the first time. Yes, we're geeks and proud of it!

This project is already in progress so I can't say that is something that was started with this forum post. Be that as it may, I'll try and fill in the details of the progress of the operation and update it with pictures regularly.

I use my computers for schoolwork, gaming, a little web development and video playback/editing. Recently Intel dropped the price of their Q6600 so I've finally been tempted to upgrade.

If you have any suggestions as to how make this build work out better, please by all means pipe up! I'll admit that half the time I don't know what I'm doing until I've broken or tried something a dozen different ways. Your feedback is most welcome and strongly encouraged. Don't be afraid to take this noobie to task if you think something needs amendments.

My previous system which is now looking a bit long in the tooth is a:

Athlon XP 2500 (OC'ed to a 3000 spec)
1.5 gigs of slow-poke DDR ram
ATI Raedon 9700 (best of show when it came out, but we all age)

The new system is as follows:

• GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3P LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
• Antec Solution Series SLK3700AMB Case
• AcoustiPack Sound Damping System (fit to spec for the case mentioned above
• Windows Vista 64-bit
• Intel Q6600 CPU w/G0 stepping
• Sticks of 2gig PAT DII800 PDC24G6400ELK RAM
• MSI 8800GTS-640mb version, OC'ed from vendor
• CORSAIR CMPSU-620HX 620W Power Supply
• Scythe Ninja Rev B Heatsink/fan
• 2 Yate Loon 120mm fans
• 3 Noctua 120mm fans
• 2 (two) 74gb - 7200 RPM Hardrives from IBM SATA 1.5
• 1 160 Seagate - 7200 RPM Hardrive IDE
• Lite On DVD Burner

The goals for this computer:

• Fast enough to play the newest games
• Fast enough to make Photoshop feel a bit more snappy
• Fast enough to playback HD content with issues
• Cool enough to overclock the Q6600 should I need to when it starts looking long in the tooth
• Quiet it enough so I can get to sleep at night (computer will be in bedroom)

I chose the Antec case after reading about the excellent heavy feel of the steel they used to build it. Couple that with the sound damping and you can get a fairly quiet rig. This is important as playing games and competing with case fans is no fun, or worse yet, if I leave the computer on all night then it makes it hard to sleep. I wanted this to be quieter than my previous rig, hence the heavy case and 120mm fans, so I can run them at lower RPM's.

All of the P35 mobos on the market these days seem very solid, so chosing the right mobo to pair up with the excellent Q6600 was hard. I finally found the DS3P that had all the features I needed plus an extremely reasonable price. I don't know how Gigabyte does it, but for the price, it is absolute steal. (We'll see if it boots up!)

MSI and EVGA both seem to make excellent GPU's and the 8800 GTS 640mb seems like the best tradeoff of price and performance these days. The MSI one I picked was a little cheaper than th evga and had a factory enabled overclock.

There isn't much to say about the Corsair PSU, other than it seems to be stealing 10's on every review site on the net. Awesome power supply.

As for all the nitty gritty, let's get down to the work in progress.



Nice sturdy box.


Excellent foam packing for safe delivery. You can never tell with UPS!



Backside of the PSU.





We'll see if the G0 stepping makes a difference. I got this special from clubit.com, as Newegg was unable to guarantee G0. They have gotten rich off me in the past, I'm not feeling too sorry for them.





I decided to take the standard purple fan mounts out so as to increase airflow and reduce noise. At first I was going to just cut out some of the extra plastic. Hacksaw time! I've spent a lot of time at www.silentpcreivew.com, great resource!



That still leaves the issue of the honeycomb grill that is blocking a lot of potential airflowI start reading SPCR more and some people have suggested that cutting out the grill will increase airflow and reduce noise impenece from the slats. I brandish some...



Fiddle sticks! My handy little snips were too light for even the light-gauge steel. Right tool for the right job eh? Time to make a trip to the hardware store...



Ah, proper snips! The stripping is going to be used as a damper near the case doors. I've heard that silicone has excellent noise stopping properties, plus it already had adhesive on it so hopefully it will be easy to install.



Back to the fans for a minute. Here's a shot with the grill out of the picture. Notice I haven't cleaned it up yet.



Here's a shot of the case with all the guts removed.



Front pannel, mmmmm, stickers!



Shot of the Ascutipac sound proofing in the rear. The strip near the case door frame is the silicone from Home Depot. We'll see if it shuts!



Pre-taped seal.



I put small pieces of the stripping under the rail that holds the door. There's small holes you can't see in this picture, but I'm really trying for a silent (as possible) machine.



Time for a coffee break. Does the computer room look lived in?



Another survey of the carnage.

I'll try to post some more pics of the progress shortly. I need to clean things up a bit before something important gets lost or stepped on.

Great choice on the PSU + CPU

Thanks. I learned the hard way with a generic one that arced back when I first got into this business. Good clean power is the way to go. I can still remember the ozone smell it left after buring to pieces. The bedroom was unable to be slept in comfortably for a full week, even with the window open!

Moral of the story? Don't skimp on a cheapo PSU.

This 620w should allow enough room to do some SLI if I ever upgrade to a second card. Not to mention, the five years coverage even beats out my previous Antec True Power 430. Not bad Corsair!

I love worklogs like this, hurry up and post another update! plz!!!111!!11

Shot of the mobo with graphics card. The colors look nice together. Too bad my case doesn't have a window.



4 gigs of Patriot memory from Newegg. The price was right and 64 bit computing is here to stay!



Time to extract the gall stone.



Well, not really. I always wear gloves when handling the CPU. You can never be too careful about not getting oils on your baby!

(I just noticed afterwards that the q6600 doesn't have pins that stick out. )

In this next pic we have our trusty Channel Locks popping out the North Bridge.



The critics agree. Standard HS paste doesn't cut the mustard. Even the camera doesn't like it!



Top-notch factory paste job.



So mommy, why is my NB overheating?



What the heck, let's rip apart a $400 graphics card.



(Interesting thermal paste tape they use on there! It looks plain white paste but is slightly fibrous. I'm going to remove it all and apply Arctic Cooling MX-2 when it arrives tomorrow. This standard stuff looks cheap-o. The layer of gray paste over the GPU was way too think IMO. I've never seen someone slather it on like that before. MSI wasn't skimping.



A close-up of the thick layer of factor gray paste.



As you can see from the image, the tape they use is fiberous. It almost looks like fiberglass shards, but is very smooth instead. It didn't easily clean off and smeared a bit.



Last update for the night. I've cleaned off the GPU, NB, SB and CPU with 91% Isopropyl Alcohol to get the best contact possible. The Arctic Cooling MX-2 isn't going to be here until tomorrow. Once it arrives I'm going to *hopefully* be able to use the whole tube on the CPU, GPU, NB and SB heatsinks. If not, I do have a backup tube of Arctic Silver 5. None the less, the MX stuff has been beating the AS5 in the tests and I'd like to use the best.

My only concern is that applying the paste to where the thermal tape on the graphics card might get kinda of messy. It makes me wonder if I should put the standard tape back. I saved it just in case. Any input on keeping the standard tape or should I dab all of the MOSFETS on the graphics card with the MX-2 as well? Your thoughts are welcome.

Lookin' good so far.

you may want to consider thumbnails or resizing your images, tho. lol.

SonOfMore said:

My only concern is that applying the paste to where the thermal tape on the graphics card might get kinda of messy. It makes me wonder if I should put the standard tape back. I saved it just in case. Any input on keeping the standard tape or should I dab all of the MOSFETS on the graphics card with the MX-2 as well? Your thoughts are welcome.

Click to expand...

The MX-2 won't fill the gap that the thermal pads did, so it won't make contact to cool well if at all. I threw my pads away and thought I was screwed but eVGA sent me replacement pads for free. If your card maker doesn't send you free pads there are places to buy the material and cut your own.

Looking good by the way.

Looking good.

I saved the tape, but it didn't stay totally intact. Perhaps it it time to write EVGA on behalf of MSI?

Regarding the image size, sorry, I don't have Photoshop or any editing software on this new laptop. Let's just say everything is in flux. I'll post more updates this evening once the MX-2 and Ninja HSF arrive.

imageshack.us for resizing needs.

you probably have paint, you can even resize, in good good paint.

Yeah.. Good call on your rear fan. I guess you are going to trim it up all nice and pretty? Everytime I get a new case, I make sure that if the rear fan area is not 100% free of obstructions, I MAKE it 100% free of obstructions and then trim it out..

I'd like to clean up the metal parts that are still coarse, but don't have a dremel or other device to easily do so. Is there a fairly easy way to smooth out medium thickness steel without power tools? I don't have much use for owning a dremel outside of building this computer. However, there is a dual-speed corded drill that I have in the garage. Do you think it could be fitted with some type of grinding wheel or other device to help clean up metal shards where the fan is supposed to sit?

Just so you know you can get like a 30 dollar black and decker dremel or somthing like that, so decent dremel's aren't that expensive.

yeah, drill bits will cost you almost as much as the dremel, so you might as well get the demel.

I'd invest in a file set. I got a new one two days ago for like $10 over at Lowes; a little bit of [h]ard (^_^) work and you'll produce much better results than the Dremel. If there is a lot that needs to be cleaned up then a Dremel or other rotary tool (like master noran said they can be found pretty cheap) would be worth while but you can work wonders with just some time and a file set.

Thermal paste and HSF should be in the mail today. I can't wait!

Ok, everything just arrived!

You can take a look at this thread for a little update I had regarding the Ninja Cooler:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1031381551&posted=1#post1031381551

Cooler mounted:



More shots, also, the Ninja clears with the capacitors:








I took off the mobo HS's and pasted them with MX-2 as well:



I'm working on getting the GPU back together and then plugging in all the power cables. I'll post again after more progress has been made.

Nice job on cleaning up the case. The clearance on that ninja is pretty close, but she makes it

Those door seals look awesome!

looking great man.

great job man, i wish my pc was quiet!! mine sounds like a tornado lol anyways keep it up and keep the pics coming

You seem to have done this before.

vietpho said:

You seem to have done this before.

Click to expand...

Actually, this is only my second complete build. Not completely a newbie, but close.

So the door can close with those seals on, right?

Yes, it can. I'm not sure if that really isn't an issue or not, as most of the sound comes from where the fan intakes/outtakes are. Still, you can never be too quiet.

I'll post the images of the final product once I find them.

Cool. I gots to try that on my next build!

Just to leave a little input although it doesn't really look like you need any but here goes:

* Fan noise: much of the noise you get from low RPM 120mm fans is turbulence, you have already cut out the fangrills, so there's not much more you can do to reduce that. One thing you can do if you don't plan to already is to undervolt the fans, all of the ones you have chosen should be relaiable even at 6-7V, maybe even lower. It's a tradeoff between how much cooling you need and how much noise you can accept. As for the NINJA I have my fan on it undervolted to 9.5V (I found a connector premade to this voltage) and that puts it at 1000RPM, it still keeps my E6600 adequately cool, so I imagine it will do fine with your Q6600 at stock also

*Harddrives: You might want to look into quieting these, my system is a lot like yours (except for the HDDs) and HDD noise is my biggest factor.

*8800GTS: I have changed my cooler to the ThermalRight HR-03+ and hooked up a 120mm fan to it, surprisingly it doesn't really do all that much for noisereduction, it does keep the card cooler though.

*Internal Falshdrive?: Have you considered installing a 2 or 4 GB flashdrive internally for the paging file? It will reduce HDD activity and may help to make your system quieter overall. (I have considered this myself but haven't gotten around to it as I usually turn my system off for the night.)

As for my own noiselevels, my system being close to yours in terms of hardware / cooling, I have my box standing right next to me ON my desk, and although it puts out enough noise for me to hear it at a distance of approximately 40cm it's certainly quiet enough for me to sleep from it at a distance of 1.5 meters, I imagine it would be even better if it's on the floor.