The sound of SilverStone
Long time no post. Among other things I've been tinkering with my new computer and revisiting the fantastically addictive World of Warcraft. I have a few half-finished journal entries queued up and will hopefully get around to posting them soon.
If you're building a system with similar components, you'll definitely want to find some way to mitigate the noise. Since I prioritized performance over silence I was prepared for some noise, but this computer is way too loud for comfort as it is. Although it's a bit difficult to tell all the different fans from each other, I strongly suspect the prime culprit to be my SilverStone power supply.
To be fair, the Zeus ST65ZF is a solid PSU and it's virtually impossible to find silent units with similar or better specifications. I wanted to avoid having to buy a new power supply for future upgrades; in hindsight it might have been a better idea to get a reasonably silent PSU in the range around 550W (which should be enough for now) and wait for the more powerful units to mature.
I am however very satisfied with the SilverStone chassis, which I find good-looking as well as roomy. Its four fans certainly contribute to the noise level, but not by much. A minor but annoying problem is that the chassi power LED cable can't be connected to the motherboard: there's a 3-pin connector and two pins. Is there a standard for this?
This is the first motherboard I own with its own fan site. After reading about all the problems people have experienced with the Tyan Thunder K8WE I was cautious, but so far I have found no major problems with it. The board requires 4-pin fans in order to be able to control fan speed, which doesn't exactly help with the noise situation (all CPU and chassi fans are of the more common 3-pin variety).
24 October, 2005
Million Dollar Homepage
Feedback
by Johan
That's exactly what I've been planning to do, I just have been unable to find a suitable connector. Since there are only two wires and two pins on the motherboard, the trial and error should be limited to at most two tries. ;-)
Feedback is closed for this entry.
by John Hubbard
Hi Johan,
I take it from the tone of your log entry that you like the chassis well enough to keep it. Therefore, you'd probably like to get it completely working, including the chassis power LED. Following that line of reasoning, the next question is, what is the simplest way to fix it?
The nice thing about LED problems is that LEDs require exactly two wires, and reversing them doesn't hurt anything (due to the "diode" part of "light emitting diode"). So it is perfectly safe to use the LED itself as part of the troubleshooting tool kit; it provides the same information you'd get from hooking up your voltmeter. So, for these kinds of problems, I usually force the issue: clip off the connectors, solder or crimp on salvaged connectors, and use trial and error to see which two pins will light up your LED.