OT: Silent, overclocked PC for less money (E6600 / Q6600)

[Micha_cg]

Hi,

the last days I try to get my PC so silent as possible. And finally I got it, all other noises in my room are louder.

What I have done:
- the CPU fan is a Zalman CNPS9500
- I bought this power supply
- set all fan controler at lowest motion
- conect all fans to the mainboard conectors
- set fans at the BIOS at "silent" mode
- use only one housing fan
- close all air openings with adhesive tape except the one in the near of the HDD and at the backside: now the air flow from front to backside
- build in my HDD fixed by rubber bands (trouser rubber band), so that all deep sounds are gone
- set CPU voltage at default 1.25 V (the automatic overclocking set it at higher value that cause more heat)
- place a cover in front of the incoming air opening, so that the air flow from the ground and no opening is direct visible

Now, the CPU show me a temperature of ~42° C at full load.

If somebody like, I could post some photos of the system (HDD fixage and ...).

-Micha

[dalomar_cg]

Re: OT: Silent Dualcore E6600@2.9GHz for less money

Micha,

I've found (at least for me ) that the case and fan set up has allot to do with how noisy or quite a computer is. I just finished building a system with a Lian-Li case. Its a really solid case (all aluminum) so there really isn't to much noise from things like the HD or anything else. The case itself is really big so its has a really good airflow as well as having several 120mm fans. I think the 120mm fans make a big difference b/c they can move more air at lower rpm. The 80mm fans have to be running at pretty much full speed to move enough air to keep the system cool. I don't have too much experience so I can't say much else, but congrats on having a superquite machine.

-Damien

[Micha_cg]

Re: OT: Silent Dualcore E6600@2.9GHz for less money

For me it's a little wonder, that it is so easy to get a quite system - no expensive water cooling or passiv cooling.

[Jean-Paul Paloux_cg]

Re: OT: Silent Dualcore E6600@2.9GHz for less money

water cooling needs a pump that makes noise.
the benefit of watercooling is not on noise is on performance if you overclock and you refrigerated your fluid on each cycle. bad things happens when pump die when you are not there to shut down the monster pc.

[Micha_cg]

Re: OT: Silent Dualcore E6600@2.9GHz for less money

Also one of my favourit tools for silence: CD Bremse. This "CD bracket" slow down the DVD/CD device, the user can set the wanted speed. So, it's possible to look DVDs with 3x speed without extra noise.

http://www.cd-bremse.de/

Only in german language.

[heavyweather]

Re: OT: Silent Dualcore E6600@2.9GHz for less money

You should put the PC behind the wall, in the next room. External DVD drive and you are ready to go completly noise free.

;D

BTW I have not keept track of processors since they introduced dual core and 64bit.
Still run a P4 3200Ghz...the Pentium D of my father seems so much faster.

But I`ve read Intel got a 80core proto that does 1TerraFlop! (compared to a P4EE that does about 7-10Gigaflops)

[joe_b]

Re: OT: Silent Dualcore E6600@2.9GHz for less money

I would love to see 80 little buckets tearing through my renderings...Real-time GI ray-tracers at 120 fps in no time :P

[dalomar_cg]

Re: OT: Silent Dualcore E6600@2.9GHz for less money

Silky smooth realtime GI...that would be heaven

[Micha_cg]

Re: OT: Silent Dualcore E6600@2.9GHz for less money

You should put the PC behind the wall, in the next room. External DVD drive and you are ready to go completly noise free.
...

I think about this too befor, but my little daughter don't like the noise of my computer too.

[Micha_cg]

Re: OT: Silent Dualcore E6600@2.9GHz for less money

Upgraded from E6600 (2x @2.8GHz) to Q6600 (4x @2.7GHz) and CPU case temperature is lower than befor (idle temp is much lower !!), render times are halved. Great CPU.

My overclocking BIOS settings are for E6600 and Q6600:

CPU frequency 300 (Q6600) or 312 (E6600)
DRAM DDR-644
PCI Express 100
PCI Clock 33,33
CPU voltage fixed at default 1.2750V

Cinebench 2003: ~ 1500

[caje]

Re: OT: Silent Dualcore E6600@2.9GHz for less money

What was the price for Quad, and for C2D?

[Micha_cg]

Re: OT: Silent Dualcore E6600@2.9GHz for less money

Quad 694,- Euro, but a friend tell me, that the price will fall within the next two weeks below 500,-.

What is C2D? The E6600?

In my hometown is a technical university with many students and so I can choose between three good price companies. I bought here: www.winner-dresden.de/, but also good www.mmcomputer.de and www.cyberport.de .

[magnatizerr]

Re: OT: Silent Dualcore E6600@2.9GHz for less money

Hi Micha

Any chance you could post the list of the components you've used in your current PC build?

Motherboard, Ram, CPU, HD, Graphics Card etc??

I'm looking to build a new system soon and thinking to go to Quad core (even thinking about 2 x Quad, but I might be dreaming :-\ )

Anybody using dual Quad??

Cheers

[Micha_cg]

Re: OT: Silent Dualcore E6600@2.9GHz for less money

* Asus P5B deLuxe
* 4GB RAM Kingston PC667 (I'm not sure, but this could be a limit for overclocking, because I got the FSB at max 330 only (stable at 322) -> approx. 3GHz CPU frequency)
* E6600 bzw. Q6600 (@2.7GHz now)
* HD ... I can not see it now
* GeForce 7600 GT (passiv, noiseless)
* Air CPU cooler Zalman CNPS9500 (at full speed it could be more quiet)

The system need approx. 210W at the 220V side. The power supply is this one.

Temperatures: at the evening the temperature was 10° higher, it dosn't help so much to increase the chassis fan speed, but after I open the housing, it fall again.

I think about other cooling methods and high overclocking. But it's not so important.

Dual quad - sounds good

[flipside]

Re: OT: Silent Dualcore E6600@2.9GHz for less money

Hi there,

I have a dual quad E5320 (2*4*1.86Ghz). It is very fast, and still affordable. BUT! Most apps (also rhino!!!) use only one core... So it's only in vray that you will have 100% CPU load.

The fastest dual quad is 2*QX6700 (2*4*2.67Ghz). Don't know what micha's Q6600, but I guess this would be lower than 2.7Ghz? Anyway, this dual costs a fortune since MB is expensive too, and you need special expensive ram. But, the QX6700 is super fast!

I recently bought a single QX6700, and it is only 10% slower than my dual E5320. But since one core of the qx6700 is much faster, the pc performs better overall. Also for test rendering this is better, because some startup tasks for the render also only use 1 core, and the first bucket to be rendered will also be rendered quicker

So my advice, don't go dual unless you can afford a dual QX6700. If not, just buy a single quad, but then buy the QX6700. Dual quads are great for renderfarms I guess.