- Joined
- May 5, 2004
- Location
- Virginia
Hello,
First I'll lay the groundwork and tell you all what I have and what's cooling it.
AMD 2500+ Barton 333Mhz
1GIG Mushkin PC2700 (with stock ramsinks, like it matters)
Shuttle FN45 Motherboard (I have a Shuttle SN45G Case)
nVidia Geforce 5900Ultra 256mb (Leadtek Ultra TDH350)
120gig WD 1200JB Special 7200RPM
All in all, a nice system, enough for what I need.
For those not familiar with shuttle systems, they run heat pipes up from the CPU and cool it through fins, which a fan blows over, they call it ICE.
Now for my video card, the cooling was poor, the entire card was encased in aluminum w/ two 40mm fans, one blowing in and the other out.
When I played farcry, things got HOT. Talking 80c here, hot.
I had a Vantec Stealth on the CPU and was running stock video cooling, was running too hot.
I took the stealth off and mounted a Tornado in it's place, well the tornado is 38mm wide, not the standard 25mm, so I actually mounted it on the outside of my case, blowing in. The slot to the inside of my video card is not used, so I took the backplane plate off and ran the wires through that opening.
I took the encasing off of my videocard, it had a nice heatsink, but it was only held on by the case. I got some brass nuts and bolts, used plastic insulators against the boad, held the heatsink on.
So, I cut a hole in the side of my case, directly next to my video card, so whatever I mounted there, would blow on my video card. Again, because of the size of my case (read: small) I mounted the fan on the outside.
Can you guess, that fan is a tornado too.
So I have 2 80mm Tornados and a small 250watt PSU with 2x40mm fans.(small form factor PSU, yet they fit two fans in, pretty neat)
Think a matchbox for the PSU, with a fan on each short edge, lemme get a picture.
http://www.us.shuttle.com/images/productimages/pc40.jpg
(there is a fan on the other end, thus dual fans)
Ok, there's the book that outlines my current setup.
I am over FPS games, I've just moved on, I have an appreciate for the less-graphic intensive, but more gameplay games. I play Everquest more than anything, some Diablo II after that, etc. I still want to be able to play my copies of UT2004, Doom III, HL2(soon).
I have a temptation to under-clock my PC and Video card and replace my two fans with Stealths.
I'm kinda proud of myself, I've lasted over a month with my computer being as loud as it is. Not being able to talk on the phone, or to other people for that fact, is somewhat...disturbing.
When I play Everquest, I use headphones, so it's not to bad. I had to box up my surround sound, cause I couldn't turn it up enough to drown out my pc, well without also annoying the neighbors.
I am ready for a quiet computer again, if I have to underclock it to be quiet and then clock it back up for the rare FPS splurge, I will do.
This system is small, so no internal water cooling and IIRC the external water cooling systems don't work too well.
What alternatives do I have to making my computer quiet again?
HHEEAALLPPP!!!!
-Jason
P.S. I did not proof-read this for grammer or cohesivness (sp?)
First I'll lay the groundwork and tell you all what I have and what's cooling it.
AMD 2500+ Barton 333Mhz
1GIG Mushkin PC2700 (with stock ramsinks, like it matters)
Shuttle FN45 Motherboard (I have a Shuttle SN45G Case)
nVidia Geforce 5900Ultra 256mb (Leadtek Ultra TDH350)
120gig WD 1200JB Special 7200RPM
All in all, a nice system, enough for what I need.
For those not familiar with shuttle systems, they run heat pipes up from the CPU and cool it through fins, which a fan blows over, they call it ICE.
Now for my video card, the cooling was poor, the entire card was encased in aluminum w/ two 40mm fans, one blowing in and the other out.
When I played farcry, things got HOT. Talking 80c here, hot.
I had a Vantec Stealth on the CPU and was running stock video cooling, was running too hot.
I took the stealth off and mounted a Tornado in it's place, well the tornado is 38mm wide, not the standard 25mm, so I actually mounted it on the outside of my case, blowing in. The slot to the inside of my video card is not used, so I took the backplane plate off and ran the wires through that opening.
I took the encasing off of my videocard, it had a nice heatsink, but it was only held on by the case. I got some brass nuts and bolts, used plastic insulators against the boad, held the heatsink on.
So, I cut a hole in the side of my case, directly next to my video card, so whatever I mounted there, would blow on my video card. Again, because of the size of my case (read: small) I mounted the fan on the outside.
Can you guess, that fan is a tornado too.
So I have 2 80mm Tornados and a small 250watt PSU with 2x40mm fans.(small form factor PSU, yet they fit two fans in, pretty neat)
Think a matchbox for the PSU, with a fan on each short edge, lemme get a picture.
http://www.us.shuttle.com/images/productimages/pc40.jpg
(there is a fan on the other end, thus dual fans)
Ok, there's the book that outlines my current setup.
I am over FPS games, I've just moved on, I have an appreciate for the less-graphic intensive, but more gameplay games. I play Everquest more than anything, some Diablo II after that, etc. I still want to be able to play my copies of UT2004, Doom III, HL2(soon).
I have a temptation to under-clock my PC and Video card and replace my two fans with Stealths.
I'm kinda proud of myself, I've lasted over a month with my computer being as loud as it is. Not being able to talk on the phone, or to other people for that fact, is somewhat...disturbing.
When I play Everquest, I use headphones, so it's not to bad. I had to box up my surround sound, cause I couldn't turn it up enough to drown out my pc, well without also annoying the neighbors.
I am ready for a quiet computer again, if I have to underclock it to be quiet and then clock it back up for the rare FPS splurge, I will do.
This system is small, so no internal water cooling and IIRC the external water cooling systems don't work too well.
What alternatives do I have to making my computer quiet again?
HHEEAALLPPP!!!!
-Jason
P.S. I did not proof-read this for grammer or cohesivness (sp?)