Because my workout session today was cancelled, I switched early days with a co-worker and got off at 4pm. I knew that my power supply and northbridge heatsink would be waiting for me at home, so I figured I'd come home and try and get the heatsink installed. Unfortunately, after unscrewing the fan on top of the northbridge, I discovered the miniscule heatsink lurking below. To take off the stock heatsink, I had to take the whole motherboard out of the computer which required me to completely take everything apart.
So, after upgrading the heatsink, since I had everything out of the computer, I decided to switch out the power supply as well. I didn't need to since the one I had in there before was pretty damn quiet, but if you're going to quiet the computer, do it right. Also, with everything else out of the computer, I rearranged the hard drives at the bottom of the case and re-routed some wires.
Now, with the new power supply in the computer and the northbridge heatsink fan removed completely, the computer is very quiet. I can hear the hard drive from my DVR 10 feet away over my computer which is 2 feet away. The 120mm fan in the power supply is not noticeable at all and I was quite surprised as to how much noise that stupid northbridge fan put out. The loudest fan in my system is the Thermaltake on top of the heatsink on the CPU - it's running pretty slow right now and could probably be turned up a little, but I've been monitoring my temperature for the last hour and it's stabilized at 47°C. I'm thinking about turning it up a little, but I figure I might be able to only shave off 3-4°C, which, when compared with the extra noice put out by the fan wouldn't be worth it.
This morning, I ordered a new heatsink for the CPU along with a big 92mm fan to sit atop the new heatsink. I had considered waiting for the heatsink to come in to use it on my current computer, but I just couldn't put up with the noise for that much longer. So as long as I can stay at 47°C and almost no sound, I'll stick with this heatsink. That XP-90 is pretty sweet though (see post below).
Anyone want to give me $945 so I can finish putting together my new computer? Or make that $1065 since I think I need another NeoPower.
URL: Antec.com - NeoPower 480
So, after upgrading the heatsink, since I had everything out of the computer, I decided to switch out the power supply as well. I didn't need to since the one I had in there before was pretty damn quiet, but if you're going to quiet the computer, do it right. Also, with everything else out of the computer, I rearranged the hard drives at the bottom of the case and re-routed some wires.
Now, with the new power supply in the computer and the northbridge heatsink fan removed completely, the computer is very quiet. I can hear the hard drive from my DVR 10 feet away over my computer which is 2 feet away. The 120mm fan in the power supply is not noticeable at all and I was quite surprised as to how much noise that stupid northbridge fan put out. The loudest fan in my system is the Thermaltake on top of the heatsink on the CPU - it's running pretty slow right now and could probably be turned up a little, but I've been monitoring my temperature for the last hour and it's stabilized at 47°C. I'm thinking about turning it up a little, but I figure I might be able to only shave off 3-4°C, which, when compared with the extra noice put out by the fan wouldn't be worth it.
This morning, I ordered a new heatsink for the CPU along with a big 92mm fan to sit atop the new heatsink. I had considered waiting for the heatsink to come in to use it on my current computer, but I just couldn't put up with the noise for that much longer. So as long as I can stay at 47°C and almost no sound, I'll stick with this heatsink. That XP-90 is pretty sweet though (see post below).
Anyone want to give me $945 so I can finish putting together my new computer? Or make that $1065 since I think I need another NeoPower.
URL: Antec.com - NeoPower 480
posted by Blake | 19:35
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