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Post by TRow on Nov 7, 2004 0:52:40 GMT -5
That is SWEET! Very, VERY Commendable install job.....clean to say the least. Pics are perfect, I enjoy seeing Pic's of other's creations, gives me ideas as well.
Good Job!
T.RoW
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Post by gdawg8947 on Nov 7, 2004 1:50:00 GMT -5
I got Acoustipack off of this website. www.siliconacoustics.com/acousticpackstandard.htmlI bought it for 59.99 without tax and shipping. Installation is simple. You cut the desired shapes out, remove the plastic wrapper, there's an adhesive on the back, and place it on. The acoustipack is removable, but it will take a little effort to remove it. Also, I ended up using one sheet. Thus you could think of only spending 20 dollars assuming you can find someone to sell the other two sheets to. Again, I highly recommend this mod.
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Post by danblasco on Feb 15, 2005 20:49:28 GMT -5
Hi , by the way what kind of harware did you use in your watter cooling if you could be specific, I would appreciate it. Thank you.
Daniel B
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Post by TRow on Feb 15, 2005 22:58:30 GMT -5
Welcome to the Forums! In the Overclocking and Cooling section theres a good discussion on Water cooling and Kits available. Sakin13's Water Cooling ModWeltonw's Water Cooling ModI just ordered a custom kit from Dangerden's website that cools the CPU, NB , and GPU. A little extreme, but given the overclocking potential of the XPS... Ill be sure to document "some" of the process along the way. T.RoW
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Post by avsforsberg21 on Feb 16, 2005 16:06:08 GMT -5
I thought about the sound deadening material but after inspection inside the case, you could only apply a small amount.
When I did my first mod, my objective was to cool the system down and light it up at the same time using led fans. This was good but still too noisy.
On my second mod, my objective was reduction in noise without compromising cooling. I changed out all my fans and went with ones that maximized CFM with lower DBA. I put a Silencer 3 on my 9800XT card as well. The results were great and the noise level dropped. For the lighting, I installed a cold cathode in the front behind the shield. Check out my pics in the Photography section of the forum for more detail.
I would check the fans you purchased and see if you could get fans with lower DBA without sacrificing CFM.
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Post by munski on Mar 6, 2005 0:16:13 GMT -5
After doing a trial run with some 1/2" thick melamine foam I had lying around (on the door and around the motherboard), I was satisfied that it made enough of a difference to go ahead with a real install. Not wanting to spend $50-$75 for sticky foam, I did alot of research on the acoustic dampening products used in stereo speakers, cars, and recording studios. Most turned out to be too thick for the XPS case, and the thin stuff - well, would it be worth the trouble? Ahh, then I found a $13.00 (with shipping) deal on a Spire foam kit (a lot like the Akasa) for computers and plunged ahead. It came with 2 large & 2 medium 3/8" black sheets in the box & I was ready to go. It took a lot of careful planning to cut and install the sheets so they wouldn't interfear with the sliding hinges and closing the case door. The adheasive on the back will glue a cat to the ceiling so some talcum power helped me position some of the harder pieces. I was able to use 2 layers in most of the places to double the insulating value & had enough left for another small Dell Dimension I have. It works enough for me to recommend it - high & mid frequency noise cut down and no great increase in case temps with a fairly stock Gen 3 system and 1 extra 80mm fan (so far).
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Post by munski on Mar 6, 2005 14:12:04 GMT -5
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Post by TRow on Mar 6, 2005 14:36:41 GMT -5
I second that! Pics and Illustrations are ALWAYS a definite plus. Good work!
T.RoW
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Post by munski on Mar 6, 2005 16:38:30 GMT -5
Thanks guys. It took me about 1 1/2 hours in my studio and I have all my tools and layout tables to work on. If I had to do it on my coffee table it would've taken more time. I found Spire SoundPad Acoustic Absorbtion Mat at www.censuspc.com for $12.99 with free shipping. They were fast in shipping it to me with no problems. Their prices look good on a lot of stuff. Munski
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Post by devnull on Mar 6, 2005 17:49:12 GMT -5
That really looks great. What about temperature changes?
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Post by munski on Mar 6, 2005 18:28:03 GMT -5
From what I can tell, I'm only getting 1-2 deg. Cel. increases, but none of my temp sensors have been placed where I want them yet. My ATI Silencer 4 and Panaflo's are comming soon & I hope to get a 3rd Maxtor 250 Gig Diamondmax 10 HDD to stuff in there somewhere. Then, I can start taking some real readings! I'm not a huge gamer and I want all my mods to be somewhat reversable for warranty reasons. Silence will be golden with this rig.
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Post by gdawg8947 on Mar 7, 2005 20:40:35 GMT -5
Good attention to detail Munski!
The Gen3 XPS looks completely different from the Gen1.
That card cooling fan on the door and the box for the hard drives look nice. I'm envious.
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Post by munski on Mar 8, 2005 12:06:45 GMT -5
Stay tuned, cause right now my XPS is sittin on my workbench like a gutted fish. I'm debating about shroud removal around the cpu & hdd's and will experiment with this and extra fans in the next day or two.
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Post by devnull on Mar 8, 2005 19:35:14 GMT -5
Awesome, I am particularly interested in your results, as I would like to know just how removing the shroud affects cooling, but I have neither the time nor the funds to do appropriate testing. Good luck!
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Post by avsforsberg21 on Mar 9, 2005 23:26:12 GMT -5
Nice job! Nice pics! It's another Mod I might consider! I dropped my dba's to where it's bearable but an extra drop might be worth it if the temps don't rise to much.
Great Job!!
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Post by munski on Mar 10, 2005 10:02:42 GMT -5
Right now, I've removed all the fan shrouds - re-installed the 2 rear 92mm Delta cpu fans in the black shroud bracket exhausting out of the case and the 92mm Delta that was on the door inside the black intake shroud is cable tied to the green cage bracket on the case floor - sucking air in from the front. So far I can report that stripped down like this (I'll send some interior shots later), temps are down a bit and fan noise is up. I moved one of my 160 Maxtor hdd's to the 5.25" bay behind the Silverstone fan control and temps are staying around 99 deg f. with the sensor taped to the center top of the hdd. With this no-shroud set up the temps off the bottom fins on the CPU H.S. never got above 131 deg f. during heavy fragging sessions in Far Cry & HL2. Ambient inside sys. case temps measured near the top exhaust vents stayed around 90 deg f. This is the stripped down starting point (with all stock parts) i'm building from except for the Silverstone Eudemon to take temp measurements. Fan noise (whine) even with case insulation in this set up is not bad but still too annoying for me, so on to stage 2.
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