[mythtv-users] Much less noise on a atc-620

[Boyd II, Willy]

Yesterday I finally got around to quieting my mythbox, which is a
Chaintech 7NIF2 w/ pvr250, housed in the popular ATC-620 case.  So for
anyone using this case and/or motherboard, I thought these notes might
help:

First, I already had a quiet power supply (Zalman something-or-other)
and a pretty quiet cpu fan (cooler master something).  The real noise
was coming from the included 60mm atc-620 case fan, and the northbridge
fan on the chaintech board.

So, I first installed a 60mm->80mm fan adapter, and a quiet Panaflo fan
on a Zalman FanMate, which lets me run the 80mm even quieter and still
get airflow.

The adapter:
http://directron.com/fanadp.html

The fan (and fan mate):
http://directron.com/80l1a.html

This should help people with this case, because I can attest that the
above *does* fit (looked close to my eyes also, but fit just fine)

And for the northbridge, I used this passive heatsink:
http://directron.com/zmnb32j.html

* Be very careful removing the stock heatsink/fan on the 7NIF2
northbridge.  It's not hard, just take your time because the little
black pushpins can be a pain to pull off.  Installing the passive
heatsink was really easy.

Results:
With the FanMate at it's lowest voltage (and thus fan speed), my temps
are looking the same as they were with the 60mm case fan and noisy
northbridge fan.  I can probably speed up the 80mm case fan a little now
and see where my noise comfort level is to cool things off more.

It's much, much quieter.  When I first turned the machine back on, my AC
in the apartment was running, so I thought it didn't come on and I had
broken something ;-)  With the AC and my stereo cut off, I can just
barely hear a hum from across the room.  Most likely from the
average-quiet cpu fan.  That will be my next target :-)  (This quieting
thing can get addicting...)


==========================
William Boyd, II 
Web Developer 
Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. 
713-651-5687