CPU's for a windows 7 x64 update (plus other build talk)

[ntom]

Dude.. Yours is upside down. The right way to put it is to make it suck air from underneath the case. A picture from the manufacturer clearly shows a grill at the bottom of the case in where the PSU is located.



Is this not your case? Or is there some older 330 without that feature?

Yes...except my computer stands on thick carpet and sinks into it...so what would the fan be doing reall if there is thick carpet butt-in up next to the bottom of my computer?

I knew what I was doing when I built my computer.

[JCJR]

So that filtered positive air flow idea seems real good, except I suppose the power supply still blows air out of the puter? Or is the power supply input vent aimed "outside" the chassis with a positive air pressure system, so that power supply ventilation draws air from outside, expels air to the outside, and makes no cooling contribution to the rest of the puter?

The PSU sucks air from outside and vents it outside. There are still exhaust fans in my system, besides the PSU, there's the main 120mm exhaust fan behind the CPU, then two 120mm fans on top. But there are 3 140mm fans in the front, and two 140mm fans on the side, resulting in positive pressure. All the intake fans are filtered, and you just vacuum them off from the outside once a month. I still blow out the inside, but much less often, and the best part is the little nooks and crannies no longer fill with dust - they're really clean years later. You can test the pressure by holding a hanky in front of any crack in the case, like the DVD drive. If it's sucked in, then you know dust is collecting. If it's blown outward, then you have a cleaner, cooler system. It's a bit anal, but it works, and is especially good for a big air-cooled system with a lot of HHDs. The PC-A75 is perfect for this type of approach.

I prefer PC Power and Cooling PSUs, and hate modular PSUs. With modular one rail is always maxed while the other is underutilized, and the connections are a bit loose and funky. I had a Corsair 1000W PSU fail within a couple months, so I'm biased.

Thanks for the good ideas, Gonga. I'll take a look at the PC Power and Cooling PSUs.

The positive air pressure idea sounds interesting. I might try copying your idea. Last time I tried the DVD drive in my 5 year old Mac Pro, the drive was so choked with dust it wouldn't work, even though I routinely blow out the puters. Last time I blew it out, paid extra attention to the optical drive, but never got around to testing whether extra attention blowing out that drive fixed it.

Is your PC pretty loud with all those fans? I've had some pc's in the past that sounded like a jet winding up when you'd turn em on.

Of the two on the desk right now, neither is real loud, but the HP is louder than the Mac Pro. Haven't counted internal fans, but both machines have two main output fans, one in the power supply and one in the bottom rear. Then the 4 hard drives in the mac and 3 in the HP make a little noise, but it is masked in the low level hum. Can't "pick out the whirring sound" with the ear.

Hmmm, got curious and dragged out the old sound level meter. No telling if it is anywhere near calibrated any more. It will only measure down to about 60 dB. I mainly used it for measuring loud stuff, not quiet stuff.

So anyway the only time it can get the SLM needle to twitch (presumably the ballpark of 60 dB) is within a couple of inches at the rear of either the Mac or HP. Needle won't twitch near the sides or fronts, or at my usual position at the desk.

Most likely a positive pressure approach could be made as quiet as a negative pressure approach. I've never purposely tried to make an "ultra-quiet" puter, but it would be nice I suppose.

[mkdr]

Dude.. Yours is upside down. The right way to put it is to make it suck air from underneath the case. A picture from the manufacturer clearly shows a grill at the bottom of the case in where the PSU is located.



Is this not your case? Or is there some older 330 without that feature?

Yes...except my computer stands on thick carpet and sinks into it...so what would the fan be doing reall if there is thick carpet butt-in up next to the bottom of my computer?

I knew what I was doing when I built my computer.

Now that was the answer i was looking for. Because of the carpet. A perfectly good explanation. Thanks.

[hibidy]

There's this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817139040

But then there is this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 9-051&nm_m

The second come out to be 50 bucks after rebates, seems a bit TGTBT

[Gonga]

So that filtered positive air flow idea seems real good, except I suppose the power supply still blows air out of the puter? Or is the power supply input vent aimed "outside" the chassis with a positive air pressure system, so that power supply ventilation draws air from outside, expels air to the outside, and makes no cooling contribution to the rest of the puter?

The PSU sucks air from outside and vents it outside. There are still exhaust fans in my system, besides the PSU, there's the main 120mm exhaust fan behind the CPU, then two 120mm fans on top. But there are 3 140mm fans in the front, and two 140mm fans on the side, resulting in positive pressure. All the intake fans are filtered, and you just vacuum them off from the outside once a month. I still blow out the inside, but much less often, and the best part is the little nooks and crannies no longer fill with dust - they're really clean years later. You can test the pressure by holding a hanky in front of any crack in the case, like the DVD drive. If it's sucked in, then you know dust is collecting. If it's blown outward, then you have a cleaner, cooler system. It's a bit anal, but it works, and is especially good for a big air-cooled system with a lot of HHDs. The PC-A75 is perfect for this type of approach.

I prefer PC Power and Cooling PSUs, and hate modular PSUs. With modular one rail is always maxed while the other is underutilized, and the connections are a bit loose and funky. I had a Corsair 1000W PSU fail within a couple months, so I'm biased.

Thanks for the good ideas, Gonga. I'll take a look at the PC Power and Cooling PSUs.

The positive air pressure idea sounds interesting. I might try copying your idea. Last time I tried the DVD drive in my 5 year old Mac Pro, the drive was so choked with dust it wouldn't work, even though I routinely blow out the puters. Last time I blew it out, paid extra attention to the optical drive, but never got around to testing whether extra attention blowing out that drive fixed it.

Is your PC pretty loud with all those fans? I've had some pc's in the past that sounded like a jet winding up when you'd turn em on.

Of the two on the desk right now, neither is real loud, but the HP is louder than the Mac Pro. Haven't counted internal fans, but both machines have two main output fans, one in the power supply and one in the bottom rear. Then the 4 hard drives in the mac and 3 in the HP make a little noise, but it is masked in the low level hum. Can't "pick out the whirring sound" with the ear.

Hmmm, got curious and dragged out the old sound level meter. No telling if it is anywhere near calibrated any more. It will only measure down to about 60 dB. I mainly used it for measuring loud stuff, not quiet stuff.

So anyway the only time it can get the SLM needle to twitch (presumably the ballpark of 60 dB) is within a couple of inches at the rear of either the Mac or HP. Needle won't twitch near the sides or fronts, or at my usual position at the desk.

Most likely a positive pressure approach could be made as quiet as a negative pressure approach. I've never purposely tried to make an "ultra-quiet" puter, but it would be nice I suppose.

There are other great PSUs. I've heard LOTS of good things about Seasonic this year too. But PC Power and Cooling are legendary, and I've used many over the years. every one has always worked perfectly and is still going.

My puter is loud by music studio standards. It has 13 HHDs (with room for two more) and a monster GPU. I record with the mic in the next room using a long cord. On the other hand, the noise isn't so loud that it bothers me at all. It's just a pleasant whooshing sound. I don't have a sound meter. I don't think I could have avoided it unless I went with liquid cooling which I wasn't prepared to do. But if you want ultra-quiet, don't use a lot of fans. What fans you do use, as a rule the larger fans are quieter. And always keep a front/bottom towards top/back flow. The bottom line is what are the temps of your components after testing. As long as you're happy with the temps, the lack of dust on the inside will prolong the life of every component. In going with positive pressure, the other thing is make sure every intake fan has a filter. This is another thing I love about Lian Li - you can get tons of accessories to customize your rig any way you want. Frozencpu.com has all their stuff. I really should post a pic of my rig

[ntom]

Indeed, I use Seassonic PSU and have no complaints here. It is 80+ Gold and I rarely hear it have to kick it's fan on....of course I have some rediculous cooling in my computer too.
(Ignore the MoBo temp - this is a glitch with the software that I haven't been bothered to fix.)
So I mean, it doesn't seem like THAT super awesome...at least not compared to liquid nitrogen cooling
But it rarely exceeds 40*c even under intensive loads.


Also, speaking of filters this is the bad news that I hate about the carbide; it's weak link....no filter over the (albeit large) window to mount the case fan on to (the White LED fan as seen in the pics) I was trying to come up with a solution that would not look ghetto-rigged but help keep dust out. None yet...but haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it either.

[Gonga]

This is the one in my daughter's and wife's putters, complete with 7-year warranty that won't be needed:

http://www.amazon.com/PC-Power-Cooling- ... 672&sr=1-7

I have the 910W one.

Don't get modular and don't skimp here. My 2c.

[JCJR]

Also, speaking of filters this is the bad news that I hate about the carbide; it's weak link....no filter over the (albeit large) window to mount the case fan on to (the White LED fan as seen in the pics) I was trying to come up with a solution that would not look ghetto-rigged but help keep dust out. None yet...but haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it either.

If it would make you feel any better about going ghetto, I could post a pic of my Mac Pro with nearly the entire front covered by black filter panels, attached with blue painters tape.

Well I wasn't ashamed of going ghetto, but thinking about it, I do wood and metal work as a hobby, and it wouldn't be that hard to build a frame of pretty wood or aluminum to fit over the entire front of the Mac Pro, to hold the filters. I'm thinking a frame, then put wire mesh hardware cloth inside the frame to keep the filter material from sagging. Maybe even use tiny rare earth magnets to hold the filters in the frame.

[ntom]

oh....gosh if you do metal work.....do this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyjWXAY1n2M
The things I would do for this being done to my computer :drool: :moredrool: :Puddleofdrool:
(I recommend you watch all 5 parts, but if you don't have the time, part 5 is a good starting point)

As my case is now; it's so pretty. I really love the White metal against matt-black plastic look that it has, and the white-LEDs really complete it too. So that's why I am hesitant about ghetto-afying it. My case before didn't even have a front face plate...just exposed metal (which, if you weren't paying attention and walked into that case, it was a good defense mechanism because that metal HURT!)

[hibidy]

This is the one in my daughter's and wife's putters, complete with 7-year warranty that won't be needed:

http://www.amazon.com/PC-Power-Cooling- ... 672&sr=1-7

I have the 910W one.

Don't get modular and don't skimp here. My 2c.

I guess that is a no to my PSU comparison ?

[ntom]

IMO, Hibidy, do yourself the favor and get something that is atleast 80+ Gold rated. For cable management, I do prefer modular systemss - if it's a GOOD modular system. i.e. my Seassonic has EXACTLY enough ports for a typical PC set up...so what's the point in it being modular?

[hibidy]

This isn't a power gaming machine though, and I thought I was doing myself a favor with corsair

But alas, I thought that "rating" was fine, I didn't realize there is also gold.

[JCJR]

I agree get a solid power supply, but that still opens the question of defining what is "solid enough". Some catastrophic power supply failure modes can within a few milliseconds kill everything else inside the box, so it isn't a component to pinch pennies on.

The trick would be to size it properly. Finding a tough-as-nails PS that isn't "crazy overpowered" or "more features than we'll ever need". For instance, if I'm not gonna run more than a 2 GB modest dual-head video card (for dual monitors and I NEVER do any game playing)-- Then I need a solid power supply but I don't need one spec'd to run multiple thermonuclear gamer video cards.

[ntom]

It goes up through platinum in rating, but for some reason Platinum seems to cost quite a pretty penny when compared to Gold. Really, you would only want to get Platinum if either you plan to use that PSU over an extended period of time (like longer than you normally would with a computer) or are just an environmentalist concerned about the environment...I guess both are good reasons...

Well I know you're not building a high performance gaming rig meant to simulate the next 100 years of weather physics!!!
The idea is future proofing you computer as much as possible; plenty of head room with power, good efficiency for long life, up-to-date MoBo connections (USB 3.0, PCIex3.0, ect) to make sure you don't have to spend the money again so soon in the future.
I'd say really the only places you can skimp on your build is graphics, and subsequently cooling (to an extent - not trying to contradict what I said in a previous post, but one less high-performing piece of hardware means one less piece to cool)
Other than that, your build will need to accommodate a lot for your music. So, again; key words: Future proof.

[hibidy]

Right. I'm going to be running a 60 dollar fanless viddy card. I really don't think I need anything other than a good, reliable PSU.

Hell, I have a master cooler right now It runs all day every day, doesn't seem to be a problem.

I am kinda nervous about modular though. Sounds nice on paper.......

edit....and where is my new toy?