.:) Guidos Paper (:.. .

It was a real bad day. The air was so dry that I found my tastebuds had evaporated when I woke up, and the water was so hard I cracked my tooth on it. The winter was really getting to me... and on top of it all, I had a computer in the room rattling louder than a room full of starving penguins. Something had to be done, and since I couldn't do anything about the winter, I figured I may as well quiet the mofo in the corner down. So I set out researching, and stumbled across a most informative site-- SilentPC Review. I spent the next three days and nights with a rapidly intesnsifing headache as I swept through information on fans, diodes, voltage, carpet, owl feathers, and god knows what else. This of course led to me modding my PC, and I'll try & describe the experience in the following article...

This article goes over a lot of de-warranty-ifying and potentially dangerous processes. I refuse to take any responsibility for any consequences of the use of my information.

After much research, I popped the hood off of my PC and began to devise a gameplan. The first steps to quietting my PC were apparent. I had way too many loud fans-- 2x92mm Sunons blowing over the motherboard, 1x80mm exhausting PSU air into the 92mm fans airpath, an 80mm Sunon working as the case exhaust, and a 60mm stock AMD CPU fan. I figured if I cut a hole in the top of my PSU, and another parallel one in the top of my case, I'd be able to exhaust the heat generated by the 300w power supply w/ a 92mm very efficiently, rather than blowing the warm air through the entire case. I also decided I could remove the 2x92mm Sunons completely, and replace with a very quiet Panaflo 80MM L1A blowing over the CPU and RAM . I also wanted to use an undervolted panaflo as exhaust. The AMD Retail heat sink and fan just wasn't going to cut it. The high RPM assosiated with smaller fans (in order to move enough air) along with the restricted air intake made this fan louder than a crying baby. Rusty's PC gave me the inspiration that my 80mm Panaflo L1A would sufficiently cool a Zalman CNPS6000-Cu Copper Flower heatsink. I drafted a list of parts and ordered from the well priced and lightning fast FrozenCPU Retailer.

Part	Cost
Zalman CNPS6000-Cu*	39.00 USD
2x80mm Panaflo L1A	11.00 USD (for 2)
* I'm using the 92MM Fan included with the Zalman for my PSU exhaust	none

A look inside the original Badboy

My first step was to redirect the airflow in the case. The stock setup had an 80mm fan blowing air from inside the warm powersupply and into the case. I thought this was an absolute no-no, and decided the best method was to cut a hole in the top, and allow air to exhaust from there. This provided a very effective way to remove heat generated from the 300w PSU due to a very short travel path and the principal that hot air rises. Also, I could posistion the fan so that there would be no obstructions in the intake. Intake obstructions are louder than ones in the exhaust flow, and produce a loud and annoying whine. Further, heat generated from the hard drives, CDROMs and the CPU would also be dissipated through this exhaust vent. I used my Skil oribtal & scoping jigsaw to make the cuts.

oh no.. the warranty?!

Check the exhaust grille - note the filtered air intakes up front

Vibrations caused by hard drives and fans travel through the case and turn it into an audible speaker of crap. Fortunatley companies like Ear Specialty Components have gone through the trouble of providing vibration(noise) killing machines. A few of their products, namely the G-410 hard drive grommet and the F-344 fan mount, found their way into my machine. They worked very well. In short, I couldn't feel the vibrations I felt before when touching the case with my palm. I am working on a cost effective way of supplying these parts, if you're interested drop me a line.

G-410 grommets are silencing my drives.
ISODAMP material is placed to further hinder cage vibration

Note the F-344 fan mounts on the 92mm PSU exhaust fan

A primary method of quieting a computer is to limit the voltage going to the fan(s). Lowering the voltage decreases RPMs which significantly decreases the noise level of the fan. A common "undervolted" fan runs between 5-7volts, and is MUCH quieter than it's 12v counterpart yet still stirs enough air to provide sufficient cooling. There are many methods to go about controlling fan voltage, from commercial controllers to simple wiring techniques. I've settled upon a technique using the forward voltage drop of diodes, as discussed in the "diobus" article at fan noise solutions, an extremely informative site.

Aligning diodes in series - guido style.
Note: Bitburger is required drinking

I've yet to build my switch, so you can see the diodes wrapped
in electrical tape on the positive 12v wire.
Check the copper clad blocking the air intakes on the side of the case

Because I've significantly reduced the amount of air flowing throught the case, it is extremely important that it passes unhindered. I decided to wrap all my power and IDE cables with TommyTape. Using a modified technique of 7volts method, I rounded my IDE cables using a jewelers screwdriver. This freed up plenty of space inside. I also directed the airflow by blocking certain air intakes with copper.

WARNING
don't heed advice from people with bruised thumbs

Guido's hard work

As all of us know, that AMD stock heatsink and fan wouldn't even last a second with a woman. This had to be replaced with something that dissipates heat more efficiently over a broader surface area. The Zalman flower turned out to be a perfect choice. I posistioned an 80mm Panaflo L1A (at full 12v) in a way that draws cool air from the far intake and pushes it towards the exhaust, covering an area which cools the CPU, RAM and videocard.

You can see the air intake at the far end

The memory and CPU are direct targets

After all of this.. the puppy had better turn out! After discovering that I need to have a 3500+ RPM signal being fed to the CPU header in order for my mobo to boot, everything turned out well. I just boot the thing up Guido style... popping the hood and attatching the stock fan during bios startup. In the future, I'd like to finish my diode project to allow for manual switching between voltages, although my current settings are proven rock-solid-- even at 100% CPU use [ see screenshot ]. Also, I could possibly loose a degree or two if I was able to undervolt my AMD athlon to 1.6v or so. It would make more sense to buy a different CPU/MB that generates less heat, than to deal w/ a new MB for my Athlon 1600+. SPCR has a great recommended hardware section overviewing various models. I'm also looking into building a acryllic duct from the CPU to the exhaust fan. All in all, everything is cool and calm...

Over&Out

Specs
Enclosure	Antec 3U20 w/ 300w Switching PSU
Processor	AMD Athlon XP 1600+ (Palomino core)
Memory	512MB mix&match DDR
Monitor	IBM T750 17" LCD Monitor
Video	Creative Labs Riva TNT2 w/ a whopping 16MB
OS	Gentoo Linux, kernel 2.4.20 with ck patches

Thermal Comparisson
Before Mod:	Idle	Burn
CPU	42	50.5
Case	33.5	35
Room	22.5	22.5
After Mod:	Idle	Burn
CPU	44	58
Case	29	30
Room	23.5	23.5
All temperatrues are in Celsius and are the average of 3 unique tests