A more silent SX38

[JoeKerr]

Hi all,

I've been wondering what to do to make my SX38P2 Pro more silent. I'm totally fed up with the noise it makes.
My first idea (without any thought to the matter) was to move the innards to another case and fit a full fledged atx psu and other goodies to get it silent.
I quickly abandoned that idea as the mobo does not sit well in a normal case due to the fact that the pcie slots are on the "wrong" side.

Then I went back to the idea I had a while back. Changing the PSU and the cpu cooling set.
Silvertek has a nice 450w sff psu (http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_spec.php?pno=ST45SF&area=usa).
After I read a few reviews I came to the conclusion that it should handle the load at least as well as the shuttle psu.

I've finally found a PSU that should fit the shuttle case rather nicely, but I'm totally lost on what I should get for the CPU.

So do you see any challenges for using that psu and do you have a good recommendation for the cpu. I've read the forums from left to right
and I've noticed all sort of solutions, but is there a cooler on the shelf that sits nicely on the mobo. I will probably pair a nice cooler with a bigger fan on the side and some sort of tunnel to isolate the cpu (not quite there yet as I don't know what cooler to get).

Any and all help much appreciated.


My current set:
sx38p2
E8400
8gb ram
1x hdd
dvd writer
8800GT 512Mb

Cheers!

[jrturbo]

Hi there

 I agree with you that given the cooling performance engineered by Shuttle on the SX38 is not exactly quiet, I own an SX48 which is identical to sx38, and I can make a few recomendations

The original PSU is a 450 watt unit and is fairly quiet and rather than replace it with another unit and all agravation involved in modifying another unit to fit, I would mod the original psu and case to improve the cooling which also lowers the noise from the psu.

The mod for the psu, requires you to remove the exit grill onthe psu fan, And I would also sugest you use a rounded metal file to enlarge the hole on the rear of the case where the it lines up wth the psu fan as for same strange reason shuttle decided to make the hole a couple of mm  smaller than the fan.


In the above foto you can see the psu inside my sx48 with the grille that needs to be removed and the circular hole that needs to be enlarged slightly to match psu exit hole.


I also removed the 2 60mm  fans above the psu as In my experience thay are noisiest fans in the shuttle, they whine even at low rpm and move very little air, I even tried running them with out grilles but they are still noisy.

My next sugestion is you improve the cooling to the shuttle ICE cooler,  although with the original fans there isnt a huge difference, its worth reversing the flow of the fans so they blow air in rather than out. I found the optimal arrangement to be a 120mm fan and a 92 mm fan. more info regarding this mod can be found here.

http://www.sudhian.com/index.php?/forums/viewthread/106275/

Regards

Joe Rubido

[JoeKerr]

Thanks for the reply and I've actually read your post already and liked what you did.

For me starting to modify the psu and the case is a bit too much at the moment (lacking the tools and a place to do it).
My 2 kids keep my PC fiddling time in the bare minimum and in the late nights.

I'm fairly certain that I can get that psu that I meantioned in my first post to sit nicely where the shuttle psu is.
It has a atx "face plate" that can be used so I think that if that doesnt' fit of the bat, it's easier to modify it (the faceplate).
Size-wise the psu is a fit (meaning that there is enough room for it, it should be a little thinner than the shuttle one and since it has a bottom fan it should suck warm air from the case also).

After reading a few reviews I'm more than certain that it packs enough punch to handle to job as well as the shuttle psu if not better.
If I don't find anything better for the ICE, I'll follow your lead on reversing the fans and see what the effect is. The 2 small fans I've already disconnected and blocked the hole.

oh yeah, here's a review on the silverstone psu

[JoeKerr]

So I got the new psu that I was thinking about and it's just brilliant (silent). Sure it took a bit more work than I expected to get it into place. The atx fitting frame that came with it was just a bit bigger than the holes on the back. I also needed to open it up a bit.
Next is the cpu cooler setup and vidcard (which is the next noisiest).