Entertainment Center Cooling Mod - Silence Upgrade - DIY Project
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
2,317 words · ~11 min read
0:00
okay so I might have done goofed when I did my last Media Center PC upgrade
0:05
thing because while I did put fan
0:08
control in place using the Noctua industrial 2000 RPM fans definitely
0:14
resulted in um louder Just even idle
0:19
noise levels from that computer than I consider uh good enough for a media
0:24
center so I'm going to show you guys we'll do like a baseline reading here
0:28
and then turn on the computer even from from the listening position my not super
0:32
exceptional sound level meter is going to be able to pick up a difference so go
0:36
ahead have a look at the screen and then I'm going to turn on the
0:43
computer all right so there's our Baseline reading I'm going to go ahead
0:47
and turn my media center PC
0:56
on so even with fan control enabled you
0:59
you can see that I done kind of goofed on the configuration of this I set it up
1:05
with noct to industrial fans and even though I went with the 2,000 RPM ones
1:09
and I do have them on fan controllers
1:12
it's not good enough and there's still a noticeable difference even from this far
1:16
away from the computer on the couch here where I would typically be sitting to
1:21
watch a show or a movie or something um
1:25
so something needs to be done today we'll be trying to address this because
1:30
even at idol it is pretty loud and actually noticeable over a movie
1:34
especially because I have kids upstairs and I can't like you know just crank the
1:38
sub to overpower
1:48
it The Cooler Master Nova touch tkl is
1:52
powered by toer hybrid capacitive switches for the ultimate typing
1:55
experience and is now available for a reduced price click my face to learn
2:02
more so of course you can always put quieter fans into a system in this case
2:07
we're going to be using noa's new nfs2 a
2:10
so these are the replacements for the bees and the main Improvement seems to
2:14
be these like anti- stalling bumps on
2:18
the blades so um yeah okay cool at any
2:23
rate these run at a mere 800 RPM without
2:27
the low noise adapter inside and 600 RPM
2:30
with the adapter so I'm planning to use the adapters which means we need to find
2:34
out if that's having an adverse effect on our temperatures cuz if you guys
2:39
remember the reason I put fans into this cabinet in the first place was what was
2:44
that the temps of the system inside were so high that it was thermal throttling
2:47
anyway so we're getting a baseline here our GPU runs at a power percentage of
2:51
about 68 at its 80° cap it's actually
2:55
more important to look at that power percentage in a benchmark like this
2:58
because that tells us how much it's throttling back and then our CPU tops
3:02
out around 75° on the little graph on the right so we're going to go ahead
3:07
we're going to swap these fans and we're going to find out how much of an impact
3:11
that has on temps but first I need to
3:14
get this cat off my
3:18
lap he's like surely you misunderstood I
3:22
would like to sit here and your pushing is not
3:28
helping
3:33
there we go there we go and I need this
3:36
little man uhuh thank you sir all right
3:39
let's shut this baby down and tear her apart
3:45
again there we go there we go what are
3:49
you going to take a picture of are you going to help me fix the computer a
3:53
little man mhm d i just already fixed it
3:57
you already fixed it what we didn't do anything anything yet I didn't do
4:01
anything yet can you take this one for me yeah okay how about this one can you
4:05
put that somewhere safe okay you go put those somewhere safe yeah I'm going to
4:09
put them on the table I'm going to put these on the table just get this all
4:16
unplugged this is a good chance to have a look at how dusty it's gotten in here
4:21
not too bad actually even though I have my filter
4:26
and it's not ideal position on the
4:29
exhaust side of these fans they're they're not bad at
4:33
all all right let's uh let's get to
4:36
swapping out all those fans my camera person is being assaulted
4:47
here little man do you want to open one uhh
4:53
P there fans in there yeah see the fan
4:58
are you going to take out all the pieces pieces let take out all the pieces you
5:03
see another fan all done okay how many
5:06
fans do we have now have one two three four awesome four
5:13
time to install them now right yeah okay are you going to help me mhm I am going
5:18
to help you you took off all the
5:21
screws you took off all the screws Dad
5:24
yeah we got to take out the old fans before we can put in the new ones these
5:29
are Brown do you think the brown one looks nice or do you think the black one
5:33
looks nice uh Brown looks nice I don't
5:36
know how many people you'll find to agree with you but you're entitled to
5:40
your opinion can you pass me a screwdriver
5:43
sweetie uhhuh I'm going to get the orange one for you okay great thank
5:49
you um honey the orange screwdriver is over here oh
5:54
dang dang it there's your screwdriver thanks
5:59
sweetie
6:02
oh I think the mesh is the problem uhoh
6:06
that could be really bad then a
6:09
finally there we go there we go all
6:13
right I guess we should clean this out since we're in here
6:16
anyway I'm I'm going to put the fans in
6:20
okay hey did you put all the fans in while I was gone yeah oh did you put the
6:25
screws in put the screws in please let's vacuum it out first okay now don't
6:30
vacuum with my foot okay I won't vacuum your foot okay why would you think I
6:36
would vacuum your foot because you don't have the vacuum my foot
6:52
okay okay I'm going to have to get those back out from under there oh wow your
6:56
arms are small okay can I have two more
7:00
screws yeah you want two more screws here oh thank you I'm going to puty
7:06
screw dad all right you can help me with the screws on the next one okay does
7:12
this one goes in look I put for n
7:19
screws
7:23
okay can I have that mesh now yeah
7:26
that's a fan not a mesh this one
7:30
yeah thank
7:37
you are you screwing in the nuts
7:42
yeah I scw what in there okay should we
7:45
replace two more fans all right I'm
7:48
going to need your help with these ones okay I want you to reach in here and get
7:53
the screws while I undo them from the back okay yeah see that one this one do
7:59
you see them moving yeah I see the moving you got to grab those ones grab
8:03
those ones to now can you help me find
8:07
them please sure just a
8:11
sec okay honey these ones I'm pushing them
8:16
out see there
8:19
thanks you're
8:25
welcome I got all GL good job how many
8:28
do you have I don't want anymore you don't want anymore no three then one two three oh
8:36
you should have one more you should have four you see one right
8:40
there thank dad this one goes in there
8:45
all right I need you to uh yeah I need you to hand me one of those new fans mhm
8:50
and then we're going to go ahead and install those in the back uhhuh oh I
8:54
think the uh I think the screws actually go in from the other side yeah it's
8:58
going to go in this way way this
9:05
way Mom I'm playing with
9:15
Daddy hey Dad hey hey you what I doing
9:19
how'd you get back here because I got back here I was surprised oh you brought
9:25
the fan yeah I brought the fan from you
9:28
oh thank you okay I'm going to put it
9:32
inside o n n o
9:39
and so here's the progress we've made so far we've got the new fans installed in
9:44
the bottom with the filter so these are the intakes right under the system and
9:48
then we've got the two new fans also other two new fans installed at the back
9:53
as exhausts so now all that's left to do
9:56
is take the Y cables that I had four so
10:00
these ones plug in each of these sets of fans and then plug them right into the
10:05
back of the computer because if you
10:08
didn't see my last Media Center upgrade
10:11
Vlog I can show you guys the way I have it set up at the
10:15
back of the system
10:19
whoops is with either MOX power out to
10:23
that splitter or just two four pin fan
10:27
controllable connectors just coming Direct off of extensions from the
10:30
motherboard so that's what I'm going to be plugging them into okay move your
10:34
butt little man move butt okay we're going to get it silent
10:40
for sure this time okay little man we're almost done
10:45
okay I'm going to plug in our
10:48
HDMI HDMI and then our
10:52
USB must be Ethernet
10:57
Ethernet oops oops o no we're not going to plug in the oops
11:03
let me just see I think we're good yep I
11:07
think we're good yep I think we're good I think we're good all right back inside
11:12
we go that antenna needs to come up close
11:17
to the front so that it gets a signal all right oh just
11:23
wait okay let's plug in uh let's plug in
11:27
this oh I wait little man oh well that's
11:31
already quieter that's already quiet oh we didn't plug this in
11:36
yet so so we've got our uh Core i5 4570
11:42
processor in there to close this we've got our GTX 980 16 gigs of RAM we got to
11:48
close it Dad we got the close it there you go sweetie
11:55
thanks and um um let's go ahead and set these a
12:01
little bit lower cuz these fans might actually run lower than 600 RPM on
12:07
occasion I don't want an alarm to go off so I guess we'll leave the fan
12:12
control on there we go we can see what speed our fans are running
12:16
at and let's reboot and find out if our
12:20
temps are still
12:24
okay much quieter wow that made a big
12:28
difference
12:31
phone all right so let's um let's why don't we start by getting our sound
12:36
reading then and then uh and then we'll
12:39
go ahead and get our temperature reading okay hun can I get you to go in the
12:43
other room so we can get our sound reading yes I love you very much but
12:46
you're
12:51
loud that's kind of bizarre that's lower than our baseline from before well let's
12:57
not put too much stock in in what the uh sound level meter says at any rate it's
13:04
definitely way quieter like I can barely hear it from here so let's just find out
13:09
if it adversely affected temperatures all right so there we have it it's
13:13
results time uh pretty much what I expected so our CPU temps are a little
13:17
bit higher you can see there's one hovering around 77° there and our power
13:22
percentage on our GPU is a little bit lower but this is all very very
13:28
reasonable levels and for how much quieter it is I will take that tradeoff
13:34
every single time like it went from being obviously noticeable over the
13:39
sound of a movie to I can hardly hear it even without
13:43
anything else playing so there you go
13:47
yay lower RPM yay using the right fans for the job guys thanks for watching
13:52
like this video if you liked it dislike it if you thought it just plain blue
13:55
chunks leave a comment at the link in the video description at the Linus Tech
13:59
tips Forum or under the video player whichever works best for you if your
14:03
feelings are a little more complicated than this as always also linked in the
14:06
video description we have a place where you can buy cool Linus Tech tips t-shirts not like this one we have this
14:11
is not a Linus Tech tips t-shirt we have Linus Tech tips t-shirts though I assure you it's linked there also in the video
14:16
description you can find a link to contribute to us if you think what we're doing is important and you want to
14:20
support it and finally you can change your Amazon bookmark to one with our
14:23
affiliate code that kind of thing helps us out a lot because we get a small Kickback whenever you shop on Amazon as
14:27
long as you click through that link so thanks again for watching and as always
14:31
don't forget to subscribe and follow and all that noise if you want to see more videos just like this one we're probably
14:36
different from this one this is sort of different from our usual
14:49
format