View Full Version : It's oh so quiet...
my HCPC has been annoying me by drowning out the fan on the projector. And that's noisy in itself. I decided the biggest problem was that the case was just a posh looking rack mount jobbie:
http://www.networkliquidators.com/images/products/f5-big-ip-4u-225.gif
So I invested in a new case. Spent far too much money, and ended up with one of these:
http://www.silverstonetek.com/images/products/gd01/3-4view.jpg
It's quite snazzy - understated looks which is fine with me, space for 6 (!) hard drives, the psu sucks in air from the side and dumps it out the back, no taking of the already warm air inside the case. Rubber mounted hard drives etc. etc.
Came with 2 rear mounted whisper quiet fans, and space for 3 more (2 at the front, one at the side:
http://www.silverstonetek.com/images/products/gd01/back-view.jpg
The posher version comes with remote and VFD, but I decided against that as the VFD has to use the supplied software and I don't know how compatible it was with my software (and it was another £60!).
Everything went in no problems, but a couple of niggles that I found:
The optical drives aren't rubber mounted, and I know they can be pretty noisy themselves.
It comes with a card reader in the 3 1/2" bay, but the connector isn't a normal USB plug, but one for motherboard headers. And no instructions on what they convert to. I used the motherboard's USB header for the front mounted sockets anyway. I have an addon usb card that has an internal normal socket. Fortunately I have another card reader that DOES have a normal plug I can swap it over for.
And finally it has two LED's on the front - power and HDD. And for some unknown reason, both are ultrabright blue led's, most distracting :(
It also has front mounted firewire socket and audio, but I don't have anything to plug those into.
And how quiet is it? Even with the lid off, I can barely hear it :D
Looks good. :)
Due to its size and the somewhat challenging thermal design my own HCPC has started to BSOD if I leave it under full load for more than a few days (and I always leave PCs under full load), it looks like I might have to rebuild the HCPC before I rebuild the main PC, which is tres annoying (for now I've slackened off the load to extend the life as long as possible). I'd be looking at an understated case for a new HCPC and won't go as small as I did last time, so this looks like it might just fit the bill. Would certainly be interested in any additional comments you may have (e.g. how heavy is it? Does it have suitably positioned feet? etc.)
According to the box, the net weight is 8.9kg. I think it felt a little lighter, but couldn't say for sure. It's a heck of a lot lighter than the original case though!
The feet are trying to look hifi-esque. Suceeds to a point, but up close they look cheap :) They're positioned roughly where the feet on an amp would be. The case will be going in my hifi rack.
I like big cases for this type of thing to allow plenty of room for cables and airflow (I still have IDE cables for my drives, so no SATA think cable thingys yet). The case takes a full ATX board as well which is important to me as I like options :)
Here's the link to the manufacturer's info on it:
http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents.php?pno=gd01&area=
edit:
There's one other thing worth mentioning. Becuase the PSU sits to the other side of the case to normal cases, you need a psu with a long main power lead. I've got an Antec performance non-standard thingy that comes with a nice long lead on it, so it's fine for me.
I got mine thorugh ebay for about £100 delivered.
You had it in an F5 case?! LOL no wonder..
My Shuttle SN25s do me very nicely. The one with only on-board gfx and integrated cooler is quiet as a mouse, I have to peer around the monitor and grab a quick look at the power light to tell if it is on (or switch displays on my KVM which takes longer / is noisier)
Well it was only a fiver and it looked nice ;D
A pic with just a mobo installed, and the 5 1/4" and HDD drive cages removed:
http://www.saabcentral.com/phpgallery/albums/Allsorts/DSCF1241.sized.jpg
And a wonky pic of it in the rack :)
http://www.saabcentral.com/phpgallery/albums/Allsorts/DSCF1243.sized.jpg
A couple of other minor niggles - the screws they supply to hold the HDD's in are slightly too short - they are standard length, but with the rubber bits it means they're too short. Using screws from compaq hot swap caddies seems to work though :)
And the lid is a very precise fit. Took ages to get the last screw lined up.
But apart from that, fabulous :D
Ouchies that's rather deep. Might actually be too deep for my rack, and I can't hang it off the back due the rather large nest of cables out there (god knows what they all do, but I think I put them all there). Will have to measure up before considering. :(
It's about 2" shorter than the f5 case, so it actually fits in my rack :D But then I did buy the deepest rack I could find (it's american, they make everythinh hooge!).
Decided a while back that the dvd drive was far too noisy, and as it had a beige front, looked silly too. So had a hunt round, couldn't find a slot load, so ordered one of these:
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/components/samsung-writemaster-sata
as reccomended over on AV forums somewhere.
Also while i was at it ordered one of these:
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/intelcooling/samurai-z
and some of these:
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/casefanaccessories/coolink-av-bolts
Unfortunatley, the DVD drive needs the sata power connector, so I reckon a trip to maplins is in order tomorrow.
Not convinced the fan "bolts" will do much, but we'll see. And the standard P4 HSF is probably noisier than the replacement.
Need some acetone from the van to clean the proc before I can put the hsf on, and need to enlarge the fan holes slightly.
Hopefully, it really will be whisper quiet now :)
The old dvd drive will go into the "new" server I'm cobbling together.
Del Lardo
15-01-2008, 22:01
What do people actually use their HCPCs for? Is it just watching films/tv shows/music or is there something else?
Mine's used mainly for recording and streaming TV onto the LAN. How much of the stuff that gets recorded ever gets watched is another matter (in truth, most of it doesn't). Think I set the recorder for somewhere around 200GB over Christmas and haven't watched any of it yet.
That DVD drive comes highly recommended by me. I have two of 'em - the SATA one in my server and the IDE one in the new HT/HCPC. The IDE one is beige but it's under a flap so doesn't matter. Oh, and I can hear it running but then compared to my old case the cooling in the new one is rather good and rather quiet.
The thing I'm most looking forward to is the software to slow the drive done. Hopefully that'll make a difference :)
My hcpc is used exclusively for Films and Music. I don't have or watch tele :)
It is also sometimes used for the net when a couple of friends come round to "borrow" my internet, and I become an internet cafe ;D
Ooh, I'd be interested in that software please. :)
Not tried it yet (just been to maplin to buy a power adapter, so should get it all together this eve :)), but it's here:
http://www.samsungodd.com/eng/Firmware/MSpeed/MSpeed.asp
Oops, I've broken something. It won't post! Ah well, time to dig in...
Right, it's posting, but HDD not firing up. Fun and games :(
I had that happen when I rebuilt. Transferred the previously working HDD from the old system to the new - worked for a few days and then died. That was after I'd formatted it though so no data lost.
I assume from your post its not even spinning up. Power would be my first guess - particularly for SATA drives where the connector isn't as robust as the old-style molex.
It's an IDE drive (already had a sata add on card I've added to the comp to run the dvd drive, just needed power adaptor).
Seems the drive is fine - booted up on another comp. So perhaps the IDE channels have croaked on the HCPC mobo (it's a few years old now).
Every now and then before I messed with it it would say boot failure, which it's doing all the time now.
Oh well, back to clearing my main PC of a lot of junk so I can nick the 2nd sata drive out of there!
Ok, I'm getting annoyed now :(
Any suggestions why my SATA drive will run fine as a second drive in my main PC (Dell thingy with built in SATA controller), but won't be picked up by my Adaptec SATA controller in my HCPC? The controller has run the drive in the past.
I've tried both channels (if I connect the DVD drive to either channel it's picked up fine), different cables, different power sources etc.
I don't understand it at all!!!!!
Well that's wierd! Took the SATA controller card out and put an IDE one I have lying around. Tried the original drive back in it. It tried to boot. Wouldn't go into safe mode tho.
Reconnected the original drive to the onboard IDE controller and it booted into safe mode. Did a system restore to before I started messing, and it now boots up fine.
WTF??!!!!
Next step will be to take the IDE controller out and put the SATA one back in and try just the new DVD drive on it.
If that don't work I might buy a flipping normal DVD player ;D
Well I *think* I'm back up and running :)
Remind me not to do anything like that again for a while ;D
Phew.
Don't do anything like that again for a while :)
LeperousDust
20-01-2008, 21:39
I know this is a month or two too late, but if you don't enjoy the blindingly bright ultra bright LED's like most normal folk, then grab a permanent marker and draw on them, they are still more than bright (if not still too much so) but at least dimmed down a fair bit :) Most LED's around my computers are blackened i even do it to "Normal" green LED's.
My PCs really need that doing as there's now a blue glow at night in two rooms, but neither of those is the bedroom. At least on the one in the lounge I can turn the LCD panel off. While it may look ugly I've used insulation tape in a few places too.
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