[mythtv-users] Re-finishing a low-profile case w/ silent parts

[Clay]

James Orr wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 1:27 PM, Quinten Steenhuis <qsteenhuis at gmail.com>wrote:
> 
>> Hi,
>>
>> I put together a nice MythTV box about a year ago. Now, I'm wishing I
>> spent a little more on silent components.
>>
>> I have a small case with a custom-sized power supply--the HEC 7K09. It
>> is nicely sized--3.9" high, but I feel like this is tight for a lot of
>> the truly silent components I've seen.
>>
>> I have a WD Green drive, which I think is pretty quiet. The noisiest
>> components are definitely the fans. I've tried unplugging the front
>> case fan, which mostly just makes the CPU fan work harder and noisier.
>> I'm using fancontrol at pretty aggressive settings so that the fan
>> barely spins at temps 50-60 C. But especially in the summer, it's just
>> not enough to keep it quiet as the fan still has to spin constantly,
>> and it's noisy even at a medium speed. At the highest speed it sounds
>> like a jet engine (only spins at max speed now when it first turns on
>> due to fancontrol). I have an Athlon XP CPU, AM2 form factor, and I'm
>> using the stock CPU fan.
>>
>> Any suggestions on CPU fans that folks have used in similarly sized
>> cases? I spent a few hours trying to digest some of the reviews out
>> there, but it seems mostly you make a tradeoff between size of the fan
>> and noise, and the best fans just don't come in a small enough size. I
>> guess I want anyone who has real-world experience with these fans
>> too--I don't know if I go with what looks like a good medium-range
>> one, it will really be an upgrade on what I have now. I want something
>> significantly better, otherwise it's not worth the hassle of taking
>> out the existing fan, getting heatsink compound, etc.
>>
>> If not CPU fans, any other suggestions on what is the best route to
>> take to make this case pretty quiet?
>>
>> Ideally I'd spend no more than $100 to make it quieter. I'd be willing
>> to go up to $150+ if that $100 figure is just unrealistic.
>>
>>
> I'd also be interested in seeing suggestions for quiet CPU fans that'll fit
> in a low-profile case.  I have a Sempron 3000+ (Socket 754).
> 
> You said your hard drive was quiet already, but what I did was use an 8GB
> Compact Flash card with a IDE/CF adapter (http://amzn.com/B000YUMLPI).
> 
> This is of course front-end only, and theres no video storage on it.

They're no longer made but the Zalman cnps7000 series are low profile, 
quiet, and cool well. I have them in a couple cases. One in a frontend 
has been up 4 years+ and still quiet (no fan failures/bearing noise).


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