This system is fully passive (there are fans in teh case, but they don't run). The two overclocked ATI X1950Pro graphics cards, CPU (3.8GHz Q9450) and the Northbridge are cooled by two Zalman Reserators in series. There are two electric pumps, but they are submerged in the base of each tower and you need to check a light is on, or feel the slight vibration in a tube to know it's running until the optical drive spins up, at which point you realise there is no such thing as a silent PC.

If you really prefer air cooling then this Thermalright HR-01 with the fan duct removes a fan completely and it doesn't really reduce cooling capacity at all.

I've gone down the watercooling route before... its just expensive really and had nothing but problems with it.

Plus air has the advantage of creating air flow through the case and cooling everything and not just the key components.

That thermalright duct is pretty good... can you buy them seperately or do they just come with the heatsink?

I think if i were to go back to water cooling I would want an internal solution as moving the pc with something outside could potentially be a pain.

My CPU or FSB aren't overclocked at all btw.

p.s. my PSU is a Thermaltake Toughpower 700w and has a 140mm fan not 120mm as i first thoght.

Edited 23 January, 200917 yr by philje123

Thanks for the recomendation for the fan duct.

Picked one up today from Scan along with one of the Silver Stone psu covers and I can barely even hear the computer now!

Has affected cooling slightly though but only a couple of degrees which I can live with!!

I always seem to be obsessed with the noise that my pc produces and right from the word go I have always ripped the noisy standard fans out of my systems and put something a little kinder on the ears in.

Only now its got worse... I got my hands on some foam blocks and now look whats happened!

LOL!

Thats a bit excessive.. that particular case has foam-filled side panels anyway! you nutter!

Its just not enough foam for my liking!!!! hehe

I'm happy with it now though and will stop... for now

Well I didn't stop and went the water cooling route and now too have two Zalman Reserator towers. One ole one (thanks BigDave) and a new one. I only have one pump which is just about managing to shift the water around fast enough although think I will install a pump in the blue one.

Taken a fair bit of the foam out and just kept it in certain places around the edges just to neaten it off a bit.

I have just one fan running at 7V in the top that blows some air into the memory heatsink, north-bridge and on the components in general. I have since cut out the grille from the top vent though.

I also realised last night that I should have put the tubing through the holes that are pre-cut in the case for this very purpose

I also changed the fan in the PSU from a very noisy 14cm fan to a 12cm fan at a set speed (12V- 1000rpm) and it still pushes a lot of air through but is now pretty much inaudible.

The temps were very hot until I got the second tower thanks to the very hot 8800GTX!

Phil

Same case as I've got

Although mine's got 3 HDDs so is slightly more cramped!

Yeh it's a nice case I like it... As you can see I have been at mine with the tins snips and drilling rivets to remove the unwanted bits.

Just the one HDD suspended in the bottom for me.

Phil

Oh god! Somebody stop me!

After just buying an EVGA 780i motherboard off Fluffmeister I have also bought a Scythe Quiet Drive to house the HDD in which is now suspended in the bottom.

I have also removed the stock fan from the PSU which was a noisy 140mm jobby with a 120mm Sharkoon Silent eagle 1000 running at 7v. I have also turned the PSU upside down and removed the little 'plinth' that is sat on to improve air flow greatly.

I have also just ordered a northbridge and southbridge water block to go on the motherboard so that I can remove the second silent eagle fan from the case.

I have also blocked the top fan hole up as that was letting out a huge ammount of noise.

I have removed a lot of the foam when installing the new motherboard and probably won't put it back in to aid in cooling in the absence of a fan. If I find it running too hot in there I will find a decent fan capable of starting/running at 5v and pop that in there.

Heres the quiet drive enclosure I have:

It almost eliminates all seek noise from the drive and greatly reduces the running noise of the already pretty quiet samsung F1 drive in there.

Phil

Antecs FTW !!!

Good to see your obsession gaining pace Phil! :eek:

Good to see your obsession gaining pace Phil! :eek:

No... quite the opposite... it's slowing down... can't you tell?! :)And the best thing is... even with all this silence I can still crank the settings up in all my games to max and not have to worry about it!Phil

Mine's quite noisy now lol, more through actual air flow... got 4 Scythe Kamaflow 120mm fans in there now, need to drop the voltage methinks... and replace the PSU fan, cause it's knackered!

Mine is bad on the noise front. Especially when on the mini gun lolol

Yeh and bet your raid array doesn't help matter much either!

You think if I get another reserator tower I could run tripple SLI?!

Geek :P

Well spotted!

Geek :P

This is my new avatar... I'm not quite as pretty so I have to hide behind the internetz.

It's for the best Phil - you know it makes sense :P

Yeh and bet your raid array doesn't help matter much either!

You think if I get another reserator tower I could run tripple SLI?!

Why don't you get a proper watercooling setup?

Why don't you get a proper watercooling setup?

Haha! I have already been scouting ebay for a reserator bargain... the I will need a bigger pump to deal with the lower pressure in the system... then I will be officially dead at the hands of Sven!

Well I have now finished adding the other northbridge and southbridge water blocks and it's running great!

I have removed the fan in the case so there is just the one fan in the PSU now.

The Southbridge chip was my main concern with it idling at over 60c and getting up to 80c under some load!

It now sits very comfortably at 39c at idle. This has obviously increased the CPU and GPU temps slightly but they were well within tolerances and I am much happier having them running slightly warmer for the greater good of the system!

The whole thing didn't go off without issue unfortunately though and there was a slight leak from the SB water block which then ran down the case and into the bottom and into the PSU which I left plugged in! The first I knew was when the power tripped off in the house. I drained the water out and dried it out on the radiator over night and left the system to dry out too. All was well in the morning though once it had dried out... very lucky!

I left the mosfet heatsink on obviously and just cut and sealed off the heatpipe that joined onto the original cooler and that's running cooler than before. I think the SB and NB were passing their heat across to it with them kicking out a lot of heat.

Will get a picture up later.

Phil

Here it is then... A pic as promised now that I have sorted my annoying memory timing issues.

I also re-seated the SB water block as it wasn't seated properly.