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The Quest for Quiet Computing with Air Cooling
Date: Thursday, January 8, 2004
Author: Rbreb13
Provided By: None
Page: 2 of 5
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First order of business was to find a new case. After a few weeks of research and talking with colleagues I decided on the Antec Sonata from their Lifestyles series. It also is a very good looking case, it fit the bill perfectly and would require little if any modifications to meet my goals. I wrote a short review of it here. It was designed with quiet computing in mind so it only made sense to see if it would also meet my demands for cooling efficiency.
Second was to install all of the above mentioned hardware into the case. I also reseated the Heatsink with a fresh application of Arctic Silver Ceramiqué so that everything would match the original configuration for the tests.
Changing all the hardware around was relatively uneventful and went very smoothly. For a Mid Tower case the Sonata is surprisingly roomy.
One thing I did note was that the sideways hard drive bays are actually a very good way to do this. At first sight I wasn't to sure how this arrangement was going to work. After installing the 3 hard drives it was apparent that the design works well. By using this type of mounting the power and IDE cables are automatically routed out of the way. I could see right away that airflow would not be restricted at all like a normal hard drive cage does. Add to that the rubber grommets on the removable trays for reduction of vibration noises and you can see someone put a great deal of thought into the design.
Another nice design touch is the use of rubber pins for the fan mounting instead of screws. This eliminates any metal to metal contact and another vibration reduction.
The more I worked with this case the more I was impressed with the design. Even the Power Supply is specifically made for this case. It's an Antec (of course!) 380 watt TruePower that has been designed with one fan instead of the normal 2-3 fans.
Now that the case is setup the way I want it. It's time for a few tests. This is my main workstation for my business, this website and pleasure. It has to be absolutely stable at all times. I do overclock it mildly. My reasons for overclocking are because I can and that's it. I like the little added performance boost it can give you.
Testing Procedure:
Since the main thing I am concerned with in this article is temperatures and noise. There are not really a lot of tests needed. For the idle tests I do nothing but normal everyday activity and check the temperature after 30 minutes. For the full load tests I ran the Distributed Folding program for 15-30 minutes until the temperature leveled out. This program stresses the CPU to 100% when it's running and also may help find cures for diseases while I'm at it.
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