wandering goat
Member
I've finally more or less finished making my quiet system. I'll post some pics and info in case anyone else was interested in making their computer quieter and would like some of my experience doing it.
The pic of the back still has the middle HD cage which I later removed. Anyway, I kept zoning in on things that were making noise in my computer until it's about as quiet as I can get it. Here's what I did:
System Fans: This was loudest originally in my HAF922. A fan controller does wonders for that. My set-up now has Noctua fans (3 NF-S12B FLX and a NF-P12 for the 212+), and at low settings (600-700RPM) they're very quiet in the P183.
GPU: Post fan-controller, the Asus EAH6850 was easily the loudest thing in my computer, even with the fan at its lowest setting (20%). I replaced the stock cooling system with an Accelero S1 Rev 2 heat-sink. By itself though, it would get hotter and hotter at idle until it was at 60C or higher, and at load it didn't do the job, rising to over 94C in Furmark (when I stopped the test). A 120mm fan blowing toward it does the trick though - even at a very low speed (600 rpm with a quiet fan), it's cooler than with the stock cooling system, and pretty much silent.
Hard Drive: After that, the WD Caviar Black reared its head. It was relatively loud even when "stopped" after prolonged inactivity, and quite noisy when active. Putting it in an enclosure (Scythe Quiet Drive) really cuts down on the constant noise and kind of dulls the seek noise, basically making the active state sound like the unenclosed inactive state, and the inactive pretty quiet. In my final set-up, I also soft-mounted it on foam at the bottom of my case, which brings the noise down even further (active has just a slight humm and inactive is practically inaudible without putting your ear up to it).
Case: This is basically just the final touch. It just dulls the noise a bit more, especially helpful for the hard-drive. The loudest thing from it is the rear exhaust fan. I covered up the top with some acoustic foam to further prevent sound leakage. The door in the front dulls some of the inner noise, but doesn't make too big a difference except for the HDD. I might put some foam there too later on. It does have plenty of room for front fan controllers with knobs (my Scythe Kaze Master Ace fits in with room to spare).
Overall, it's very quiet, but not 100% silent (you'd basically have to go fanless for that, requiring a much less powerful system). Temps are definitely hotter than in the HAF though. The GPU isn't affected much (probably because I have the large fan blowing right at it) but CPU was idling around 10C or more higher than in the HAF (albeit with lower fan speeds all around, including the CPU cooler). I have my fans really low and at idle get around 42C GPU and 50-55C CPU. I found that putting just one intake fan in the middle position (in front of the GPU / HD cage) doesn't do much, but putting it at the front as I now have it and removing the cage that's normally there lowered CPU temps around 5-8C, a pretty decent amount. Turning on C-State though lowers the CPU temps dramatically despite the same fixed voltage, giving me idle temps of around 36-40 with a frequency fluctuating around 2.5 GHz vs. my normal overclock 4 GHz.
For load, putting fan speeds up and opening the front door gives you decent temps too, maybe around 5 C higher or so all around than with the HAF 922 at peak load, so when noise isn't a concern, cooling's not a problem.
Hope that helps out anyone who's considering a P183 or wants to quiet their system down a bit.
The pic of the back still has the middle HD cage which I later removed. Anyway, I kept zoning in on things that were making noise in my computer until it's about as quiet as I can get it. Here's what I did:
System Fans: This was loudest originally in my HAF922. A fan controller does wonders for that. My set-up now has Noctua fans (3 NF-S12B FLX and a NF-P12 for the 212+), and at low settings (600-700RPM) they're very quiet in the P183.
GPU: Post fan-controller, the Asus EAH6850 was easily the loudest thing in my computer, even with the fan at its lowest setting (20%). I replaced the stock cooling system with an Accelero S1 Rev 2 heat-sink. By itself though, it would get hotter and hotter at idle until it was at 60C or higher, and at load it didn't do the job, rising to over 94C in Furmark (when I stopped the test). A 120mm fan blowing toward it does the trick though - even at a very low speed (600 rpm with a quiet fan), it's cooler than with the stock cooling system, and pretty much silent.
Hard Drive: After that, the WD Caviar Black reared its head. It was relatively loud even when "stopped" after prolonged inactivity, and quite noisy when active. Putting it in an enclosure (Scythe Quiet Drive) really cuts down on the constant noise and kind of dulls the seek noise, basically making the active state sound like the unenclosed inactive state, and the inactive pretty quiet. In my final set-up, I also soft-mounted it on foam at the bottom of my case, which brings the noise down even further (active has just a slight humm and inactive is practically inaudible without putting your ear up to it).
Case: This is basically just the final touch. It just dulls the noise a bit more, especially helpful for the hard-drive. The loudest thing from it is the rear exhaust fan. I covered up the top with some acoustic foam to further prevent sound leakage. The door in the front dulls some of the inner noise, but doesn't make too big a difference except for the HDD. I might put some foam there too later on. It does have plenty of room for front fan controllers with knobs (my Scythe Kaze Master Ace fits in with room to spare).
Overall, it's very quiet, but not 100% silent (you'd basically have to go fanless for that, requiring a much less powerful system). Temps are definitely hotter than in the HAF though. The GPU isn't affected much (probably because I have the large fan blowing right at it) but CPU was idling around 10C or more higher than in the HAF (albeit with lower fan speeds all around, including the CPU cooler). I have my fans really low and at idle get around 42C GPU and 50-55C CPU. I found that putting just one intake fan in the middle position (in front of the GPU / HD cage) doesn't do much, but putting it at the front as I now have it and removing the cage that's normally there lowered CPU temps around 5-8C, a pretty decent amount. Turning on C-State though lowers the CPU temps dramatically despite the same fixed voltage, giving me idle temps of around 36-40 with a frequency fluctuating around 2.5 GHz vs. my normal overclock 4 GHz.
For load, putting fan speeds up and opening the front door gives you decent temps too, maybe around 5 C higher or so all around than with the HAF 922 at peak load, so when noise isn't a concern, cooling's not a problem.
Hope that helps out anyone who's considering a P183 or wants to quiet their system down a bit.
