My quiet cosmos

[Maju]

First work log so please be gentle.

My PC is in my living room and basically it is still too noisy. Fan controller burnt out a couple of weeks ago which resulted in spending some money to replace the fan controller and whilst not strictly necessary I decided to get myself a new case. The Cooler Master Cosmos RC1000


also Got myself a 8800 GTX, HR-05 Plus and another 2GB OCZ RAM.
Gotta love the credit card.
I can't really justify spending too much more on hardware so will be sticking with what i've got
OCZ 700W GameXtreme PSU, ASUS M2N32SLi Deluxe MB, 4GB OCZ RAM, AMD64 X2 6000 with Zalman 9700 heatsink, XFX8800 GTX with ThermalRight HR-05 Cooler with 120mm noctua fan(55 degree under load-nice), Audigy 2 Platunim, TV card, 2x250Gb WesternDigital SATAII HDD, 250Gb Hitachi HDD SATA, 160Gb Maxtor SATA & 160Gb Maxtor IDE HDD


So, after spending 24 hours stripping and rebuilding the computer into the cosmos and a nice job on the cable management it was looking good and a fair bit quieter. But still too noisy.....SO.
This is where I am at the moment

prior to stripping the case I had to cut down the mounting plate on the graphic card so that it only used one expansion slot on the case.
My workshop facilities are rather limited so tried at first using an angle grinder.
The metal grinding disk shattered ! Talk about a lucky escape and adrenalin rush.
Second attempt, screwed the plate through the DVI mounting holes to some wood and used the jig saw.
Unfortunately when the card is fitted the dvi connector was touching the case metal of the expansion slot so ended up having to (fake) dremmel the case so the the dvi connector didn't touch the case


Next up i've swapped out the main cause of the noise, the PSU fan, replacing it with A Sharkoon Silent eagle 120mm

I don't know if this will be upto the job of cooling the PSU adequately. It's working at the moment and is much quieter than the OCZ fan but am not sure if it has enough throughput. Might have to swap it out for one of the coolermaster fans - which are surprisingly quiet. Your thoughts anyone?

So the basic plan is to basically quieten the case and to give it a minor facelift. I've masked and primed the plastic panels and next up i'll prime and paint the case and panels.

If you've got this far then I thank you.
I know I have enjoyed watching your worklogs and how you've modded your rigs so I thought I share my trials, tribulations and successes.
And once its built I'll head on over to the overclocking forum to find out how to tweak my ram and discover whats holding back my system (only getting 10552 in 3d06 or am I being unrealistic expecting more)

Wish me luck

[Fitseries3]

Originally Posted by Maju

First work log so please be gentle.

so far so good. just keep the pics comming and we'll be happy. this looks like it's gonna be pretty good.

good luck.

[WarEagleAU]

Amazing man, amazing, Cant wait to see more.

[DanishDevil]

One thing I will say about replacing the PSU fan is you are recommended to use a fan with the same amperage requirement. As far as if it will be adequate, once you get it up and running, stress the system in every way you can (to make the PSU give it a lot of juice), and feel the air coming out of the PSU. If it's moving a tiny bit of really hot air, that's bad. If it's moving a lot of air, or the air is fairly cool, you should be fine.

Are you looking for ideas to make your case quieter? If so, all those hard drives have got to be a bit noisy...

[Maju]

OK, Day 2
Welcome to Maju's Make Do Mod and Paint Shop. It's rather cramped but it'll do.



First up priming the panels


next up is the case, all sanded ready to prime


primed.

Unfortunately made a slight miscalculation and have run out of primer so can't do the back of it yet - and a bit of a sod as it's easter monday tomorrow and shops are shut. Oh well, at least it'll give it a bit more time to cure.

Have sanded the primed side trims and got the backside of the case ready for painting


I suppose I could've gone onto painting the trims but I think as the trims are going to be visually prominent i'm going to give it a second coat of primer and sand again before painting. Or am I going over the top and just leave it at one primer coat ?

So after priming and sanding the front door of the case the first application of the colour.
Heres the inside face of the front door and the FDD mounts.


Only the first coat but even so I'm rather pleased with the result. After seeing the colour outside of the tin I am really pleased. If I don't screw up the painting this case should look pretty good I reckon.
I plan on three coats of purple pearl paint followed by several clear laqueur, although going on how much this is turning out I may have to reduce the number of coats. Time will tell.

with reference to the psu fan, do you know why the replacement should be of the same ampage? I know the Sharkoon is a lot lower ampage than the OCZ one (0,45A) but all of the 120mm fans i've got range from .09 to .25A and they aren't as quiet.
Seems to be working fine though, very slightly warm air coming out the back under gentle use and only slightly warmer under load.
Might well swap it out for a Noctua P12 which pushes a lot more air and is only marginally louder.

Time to stop for the night and start modding some fans for the case.

[Spacegoast]

lookin good man. keep the pics comin

[blkhogan]

Like the color choice. Should turn out great. Keep the pics coming.

-Hogan

[AsRock]

Cool now just more pics. I was going change the fan in my coolmax but found it's still under warranty lol. But i was going mount the fan on the outside of the PSU case so there be much better airflow + a better fan in there with a 120x38mm.

[Maju]

Well, slowly but surely seems to be the order of the day.

@AsRock,
Didn't even worry about the psu warranty, although there was a kind of sick/exillerating feeling scrapping off the Void if removed sticker-not half as strong as dismantling the 8800GTX though. Sure if it goes wrong then i'm out of pocket but i'd rather that than listen to the loud(ish) psu fan growing progressively louder. As it is i'm pleased with the fan swap as even with the psu out of the case you can barely hear the fan.
Have also ripped out of an old case that I found on the street a HDD Led which I may wire up to the fan and mount on the top panel to show that the fan is working - or I might just stick a temperature probe in the PSU so that I get a siren if the temp gets above 90.
Yet to decide/opinions anyone?

Which leads me on to the next minor mod, the HSF fan. I've got a Zalman 9500 installed but the fan on it is rather noisy, even with the voltage dropped to 7V. So removed the fan and dug out the 92mm that was cooling my old gfx card, a Noiseblocker - still not the quietest 92mm i'm sure but noticibly less then the zalman, not as much throughput but I think it'll be ok


After a nit of sawing and sanding and drilling this is what I now have


Coretemp shows that at present the (AMD64 6000X2) cores are running at 26/22. Ok I guess. With the zalman they were running at about 19-23 degrees.


Bit of a shock on removing the fan - I hang my head in shame. Hopefully wont be so bad in future as the cosmos has filters on the air intakes


Then a bit of wire cutting, soldering and sheathing and here it is installed (in Tempery setup - this is NOT how I do cable management)



Have also given the trim panels a second coat of primer and am letting them cure for 24hrs before sanding and painting



Also had to sand out some dust specks on the front panel door and give it a third coat of paint - it's looking good so far.





Can't wait to get the clear coats on and take the masking off.

Also managed to find some more primer so got busy on the chassis




It;s looking pretty purple inside. Not 100% sure that i'm happy with the colour. Shall wait and see how it looks when it's dried.
Also primed and painted the expansion slot blanks to match in when installed.

[MKmods]

LOL, a bad fan controller and you go nutts getting a case and a bunch of hardware (sounds familiar)
I think your purple is to "Pastel" for me. A reg purple may match better with the blue. I have a couple of purple paints here that I keep saying I will use sometime.
Its always interesting to watch new color schemes/ideas, Good job so far.

[Maju]

Back again
@MK
Yeah, did go a bit nuts but what the heck. Unfortunately the colour reproduction in the photo's doesn't really show the true colours. The purple is a metallic paint and is a lot darker when it isn't being lit with the flash. Likewise the 'blue' inside the case is in fact a darkish purple.
Looks good now though.

So onto the latest update.

Painted door finished


And now for me the exciting part. putting it all together and seeing the result for the first time

Case View 2


Haven't bothered cleaning the fingerprints off yet as still have work to do inside the case and a fare bit more stuff to do to the panels. Suffice to say they won't be staying all silver for too much longer. Just wanted to see how it looked.

Case from front


Case - door open


Case - panel open


Case - panel open back


From Rear - panel off


From Rear - Panel On


The post man also delivered some odds and sods that I was waiting for. After looking through various fan specifications I came accross this SilenX IXTREMA 120mm fan. 90cfm @18db. Unfortunately when I ordered didn't realize that it was a 38mm deep fan. Will still fit though. However it is a LOT louder than 18db. I might try it rigged up to the fan controller but I don't think it's going to make the grade. It did cool the graphics card well though, dropping a further 5 degrees off the temp down to 49 when running through 3DMark06.
The Noctua is what I origonally planned to use and probably shall do. SO much quieter and still cools the card well (55 degrees/3DMark06)

Noctua p12 and SilenX 120mm*38



My first go at sheathing cables - looking good so far.


Thats all for today. Tomorrow see's the innards replaced and I have some ideas for additional cooling of the CPU.
Plus I am looking forward to getting busy with the side panels but need to do a bit of research first.

[DanishDevil]

Wow. That looks great! Amazing job on the paint!

[Maju]

Thankyou DanishDevil.
I am quite pleased with it.
Shall have to wait a bit before finishing the panels as a) waiting for parts, b) have to fabricate other parts and c) got to pack and move house.
Have also just made a bit of a cock up with some overenthusiastic drying of the dvd front panel and I now have a warped front panel.
DVD should still work but bit of a toss up whether it'll stay or not.

More haste, less speed !

[MKmods]

Yep, that purp looks much better in the newer picts. Very Nice. If you want to sell the Silenx PM me.

[DOM]

purple & blue where did you get the idea for those colors ? are you going to paint the side panels think it would look better

[Maju]

Hi Dom

Aside from liking the colour purple this was partly the inspiration for the exterior colour.



The blue inside the case is a lot darker and closer to a dark purple but for some reason the photo's consistently show it closer to blue.

The side panels aren'y going to remain all silver. Have an idea for them but I shall wait before revealing all.

@MK
I want to see how noisy it is inside the case first but shall get back to you if I need to get rid of it.
Time to start putting the guts of the comp inside the case now.

[Maju]

Hurrah !.

Phase one completed.
The main aim of this work was too quieten my computer and I am pleased to say I have succeeded beyond my best hopes. This thing is quiet! with just a very faint background hum.
Spent best part of the weekend getting to this point and one mammoth task of cable management later and here is the result.
Looks a bit of a rats nest from the back but considering there are 5 HDD's in the rack, breakout box, the front panel wires and 4 fan controller wires and 4 temp probes it's not too bad. At least good enough until I get onto phase 2.

Left side - wiring



Right side panel off - looking pretty good if I say so myself.



Right side - air channel removed





inside - closer up.
Didn't like the native colour of the Noctua fan so a quick spray later and voila.
Have ended up using the SilenX fan as an exhaust connected to the fan controller. Its ok when the rev's are turned down.



Right side





Rear - assembled. Again, I think it looks pretty good. Glad I took the time to paint the blanking slots



Front - door closed



Front - door open



And a close up of the drive bays.

Shall try to find some smaller knobs for the soundcard breakout box as these one's look a little too large.
Have also had to re drill the mounting holes on the fan controller and sound box as the knobs protruded too far to allow the door to close.



Have a new dvd drive on order in order to rectify the melted and distorted face plate.
Left it a bit too close to the fire and was distracted. Thankfully dvd drive prices have dropped dramatically.


So, there we are, My quiet Cosmos.

The cooling could be a little better. Inside the case it's 22-24*c
The CPU cores are running between 27-35*c so I might have to change the fan back to the original one.

Are these temps too high for continuous use as I don't know?

The graphics card is running at 55*c. Again, not as cool as i'd like ideally so I think i might end up swapping the SilenX over with the Noctua and drop 5*c off that temp when I run the fan at full.
When running 3dmark6 the temp shot up to 71*c max. Again a little higher than i'd like but I don't think it will be too detrimental. I don't know how hot the 8800gtx usually runs on stock cooling.
Ambient room temp is 24*c so that certainly isn't helping the temps.

Anyway, Busy for the next two-three weeks so the panels need to wait. I'm planning on making a digital image, printing to Canvas, mounting on the panels under perspex, illuminated with LED's. Hopefully not too ambitious. I think (hope) it'll look great.

Thanks for your input and I hope you've enjoyed seeing how it's progressed.

Maju

[MKmods]

The more I see it the more the colors grow on me, very nice job taking a different color and making it look very nice.

As to temps, try removing the PCI slot covers and the fan above the GPU, than add a fan blowing the warm air straight out the back.
(try to straighten the airflow, in the front than straight out the back)

[Cold Storm]

The fan controllers and front panel for your sound card didn't have a problem with the door?? I've been thinking of getting something, but worried about all that..

[Maju]

Yep, they would have been a problem if I used the Coolermaster quick fitting mechanism as the knobs protuded too far.

Solution was to drill a couple of holes about 8mm to the right of the existing holes (on the drive bay devices) and just use a couple of screws to fix them in place. Allows for the drive bay units to sit back a bit further so that the door closes. Also meant that I had to spray a strip on top of the DVD writer the same colour as the case so that when the sound card breakout box is fitted you don't see a nasty strip of grey of the DVD.

[Cold Storm]

Thats pretty nice right there man! I might think about doing that!

[Ripper3]

Wow, I have to say, that's a pretty nice paint job, and I don't hate the colour. Love the fact it's not just all purple, how you've broken it up inside and out. Very nciely done.
I was thinking of getting those SilenX fans too, but considering I find the case and fans too loud as is, I think I might just go all water, and have some Noctuas just on the rad, and above the HDDs, and that's it.
I was wondering about the fan controller as well. Kind of a shame, I don't like drilling things in a perfectly good, and rather expensive case, but if I find a fan controller I fall in love with, I might just have to fit it somehow.

[Maju]

Thanks Ripper

Must admit, I was a little disappointed with the SilenX fan. rather noisy at full, but in fairness when turned down it is fairly quiet and still pushes a fair amount of air.
Knowing what I know now I would have stuck to the Noctua fans as they are pretty quiet.

Didn't actually drill the case, drilled the breakout box and fan controller cases.

At some point I think watercooling is probably the way to go, but for now i'm happy with the results.
Am in the middle of moving house at the mo so the second part of this project will have to wait but I look forward to finishing this case.


Phase 2 of this build can be found here http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=62702