Building Your Own Graphics Workstation, Part Two
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Ok, enough horsing around, the first thing we need to do is get the case ready. The case I got from Directron.com intentionally came without a power supply or fans installed; I wanted to do everything myself. You can get cases with power supplies and an assortment of fans already installed for you, but what would be the fun in that? If you want to save some time and energy, though, get a case with all this stuff in it already.
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Why so anal? Well, one of the major causes of noise from a PC, aside from a lemur being trapped inside, is from all its fans. This thing is going to be in my home, and I don't want a whole lot of noise if I can help it. I've had the unfortunate luck of having to have my home office in my bedroom at one time, and at another in my living room, right next to the couch, and the noise is very annoying to deal with. I like to keep my system on most of the time, so shutting it down whenever I want to watch "The Simpsons" in peace -- as all fine, decent people should --- is usually not an option.
So my plan is to use the quiestest fans I can find. And that is where Vantec's Stealth fans and Zalman's Fan Mate 1 units come in.
Keeping the heat down in your PC is basically a matter of moving hot air out and cool air in. The more air you move, the cooler your system will run. The cooler things run, the longer they last. Only in cases of extreme heat will your system become "wonky," but you still never want to go there.
The typical suggested ambient temperature inside your case should be not much higher than 45° C. You should try to keep things down below that if you can, though 45°C will not cause immediate problems. This rig, now up and running, stays at about 30°C internal ambient temperature, without being in the least bit loud. As a matter of fact, if you do what I've done (and will show you), you'll hardly notice any noise from more than two feet away. [an error occurred while processing this directive]
Vantec Stealth fans (thanks to Vantec for sending me out a couple samples, and to Directron for supplying me with a few more) manage to move a good amount of air without too much noise. If you go shopping for fans, look for their airflow and decibel ratings. Keep in mind that each dB(A) higher is an exponential increase (or something like that). Each one of these Stealth fans runs at about 21dB(A) full speed, costs $9 or so and has a good airflow rating. You can find 80mm fans for much less (generic fans are $3, cheaper in bulk), but they will be noisier (typically 26dB(A)) and may not last as long (single ball bearing as opposed to double ball bearing design). Is it worth the extra cost (an extra $6 per five fans)? Up to you, really, but since the fans and the case will probably be the things you'll keep around even after you upgrade your system's guts in the coming years, I think so.
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Once we hook everything up, we'll find the perfect setting on these Fan Mates for quiet fan operation. Again, it's an optional cost, and you may find it not necessary especially if you have a secluded office or live on the tarmac of an airport.
However, if we reduce the fan rotation speed, we'll also reduce the amount of air moving in and out of the case. That's not good! But that's why we have seven fans (Dopey, Sneezey, Sleepy, etc). This redundancy will more than make up for the lost air displacement from slower fans.
The fans will eventually connect to our Digital Doctor 5 (thanks to KDComputers.com for sending me out one). The $60 Digital Doctor sits in a 5 ¼" drive bay, alongside the DVD and CD-RW drives, and controls the fans in the case. It monitors the temperatures in up to eight different zones or components in the case, and turns fans on or off according to those readings. It's a bit of a testosterone overkill thing, but since I've installed it, I'm really fond of it. I understand Vantec is debuting a similar gadget, but it doesn't monitor quite as many fans.
Another fan control option is the BayBus or RheoBus fan controllers from www.pcmods.com. These are essentially the same thing, though they only control fan speeds and do not monitor temperatures (which you really don't need). Of course, the easiest and cheapest alternative is just to use the Fan Mates, plugging the fans into the motherboard and leaving them all on all the time.
For all its niceties though, the Digital Doctor has an annoying habit of beeping when it turns a fan on or when a temperature in a zone exceeds a few degrees above what you've set. This will drive you batty until you find just the right temperature settings (which you program easily into the Digital Doctor itself). But it's not too hard to remove the little round black speaker from the circuit board of the Digital Doctor 5, if you're handy with a soldering iron and aren't afraid of such things. I did it, and man, I'm very happy I did -- no more beeping.
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For this system, I will go through installation with the Digital Doctor, but I will make note to show how to do the fan installations without it as well. This thing comes with great instructions anyway.
Right, all this talk, and still we've got nothing done.
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