I run I7 920 (not overclocked) with a Corsair H60 water cooler. I removed every fan from my system (except for a silent Enermax UC-12EB fan for the radiator on the Corsair) which turns very slowly, but provides enough cooling. My system when under load only runs about 50 Cel. often even lower. Silent video card, silent power supply, no case fans. SSD drives. Super quiet machine!

One thing I've discovered is that with all of the components inside the box it adds alot more heat to the equation. So I moved the power supply outside, moved the DVD drive to the bottom computer with long cables, moved the cooler radiator as far away as I could get it, and also removed all pieces of the case that I could to create better airflow as there are no fans in the case. Works great! I highly recommend this power supply as well (Seasonic SS-460FL). You only need to use the cables needed as each one connects individually, and that helps with airflow as well. Notice the difference in cables between the top DAW and the bottom internet computer.
Runs quiet, cool, and quick. While the pump makes a small amount of noise I can't hear it unless I stand next to the machine. Here's a pic (and yes I leave the computer like that all the time to get as much airflow as possilbe). Also, with everything so far apart it runs alot cooler so the fan does need to spin fast at all, to it's silent as well (it's on the other side of the radiator. 




 
 
  
 

Thank you to everyone who has replied to this thread. It has given me great insight to cooling....especially A 1 Mix Man.....I've always wondered about doing just that ....leaving the case open.....but my only question is doesn't it bring in a lot of dust that way?

Clifford

I've always wondered about doing just that ....leaving the case open.....

Anyone who suggests leaving the case open obviously doesn't keep pets.

Kev999

I've always wondered about doing just that ....leaving the case open.....

Anyone who suggests leaving the case open obviously doesn't keep pets.

Well I would have to agree with you.....
As much as I would love to have one I just cannot......
I actually love animals too much
My life schedule right now is not very conducive to having a pet.
They need love and attention and care and "Guidance" (yeah right)
something I am very short on right now.....so it would be very very unfair to them....
 
Clifford

Kev999


I found that the fan supplied with the i7-950 was quieter than I expected, so I decided to stick with it.  I only installed it initially as a temporary measure, intending to replace it later with something better.  But even with the (Antec P183) case open it wasn't particularly noisy and with the case closed it is barely audible.

My 950 overheated every so often with black screen of death with the fan that it came with without OC. Trying something else now. Forgot what.
John

John6528

My 950 overheated every so often with black screen of death with the fan that it came with without OC.

Mine has never done that, even though I had it running during some uncomfortably hot days last summer.

Why not get a fanless Thermalright HR-02 CPU cooler? It runs passively, so it is completely silent.

Even if you're running a CPU at stock speed, the cooler you pick can affect your system stability, especially if you're using the hotter AMD chips. If you're an overclocker, high powered cooling is essential.

Spire's Thermax Eclipse II heatsink is basically identical to the indefinable 3Rsystem Iceage 120 Boss II heatsink Frostytech before tested. That cooler was a big thermal solution.

Because of this thread, I bought a Noctua DH-D14 to replace my stock Intel cooler to fix a major problem.

Out of the blue, I started having issues mixing down my projects. The resulting wav was corrupt and it took as much as 10x the normal amount of time to bounce the final mix.

Just for sh*ts and giggles, I started up the Asus temp probe software and was shocked to find that my cpu was running at 100 degrees Celsius.

Anyways, I replaced the stock Intel fan with a DH-D14 and the cpu ran at 40 degrees Celsius. Ran the Asus overclocking utility and now my 2.8GHz is running at 3.66GHz and the temperature is a constant 50 degrees Celsius.

It's like having a new machine but without the hassle of migrating software, plugins, prefs, etc.

Thanks to everyone that recommended the Noctua in this thread.

btw, now I'm running Real Temp in the tray just to keep an eye on the temp.