New Media PC - Changing FSB & PSU

Okay

Basically ive rehoused an old computer in a new shuttle (details in signiture)and have 2 queries;

Firstly this pc is stone dead quiet (graphics card passivly cooled and the ICE fan to cool the cpu half the time isnt on as it isnt required) or at least it would be if it wasnt for the silent x psu. This thing just whines on and on. Most people wouldnt notice it as the ICE fan would normally drown this out when cooling a more powerful processor but its really annoying. Is there any reasonable alternative that people know off. A passivly cooled psu would be superb but would have to be housed outside the case. Any suggestions?

Secondly my other concern is regarding the FSB of my processor. Currently it runs a 200 FSB which limits my memory access by half. My memory is currently running at 400 Mhz with a ratio of 3:6. Basically the chipset and memory can handle a 400mhz FSB but could my processor. If I dropped the multiplier from 12x to 6x and pumped up the FSB to 400 could the athlon handle it? Has anyone ever tried anything like this?

Any help really appreciated.

does the v2 have the silentx psu in it? If not that is certainly quieter. Also the ice fan can be noisy if it is the stock sunon one, therefore replace it! Try a noiseblocker or papst or summat.

I have as far as I can tell a 250W silent x in it. I also have the stock sunon one but it makes no noise as half the time its not even rotating. Maybe it is the fan making the noise,but im sure it the crappy 60mm psu fan. I only put the thing together last night so ill have a proper inspection tonight.

Strange, my silentx psu is really quite quiet.

silentX 250s are really quiet, i have mine on 24/7 and you cant hear it all.
teats with a reserator cooling the cpu/gpu.

basically only fans are the 14db 120mm case cooling fans (which are inaudiable anyway) and the silentX 250 which is the same.

Right, ive done some tests and its definitly the psu making the noise. Should this unit be stone deaf quiet? Do I have a faulty unit. Also does anyone have any experience of popping the FSB upto 400MHz?

You'll noice it if the rest of the systems quite enough. I've got a silentX and its very quiet in my system but thats because the rests noisier

Have a look at the Seasonic S12 for fanned or the Antec Phantom for fanless

The antec Phantom looks good. Have you any experience with the unit.

just to check you know the Antec Phantom and the Seasonic are full sized psus and wont fit in a shuttle

As for running the CPU at 6x200- in theory it's possible, in practice the CPU may not like it. Some CPU's do seem to have an upper limit on the FSB they can tolerate for some reason. You'll just have to experiment- even 168x7 (for example) would be a fairly big bandwidth improvement. Don't run your memory out of sync with the FSB- on NForce2 that always results in a performance hit.

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Originally Posted by YorkieBen

just to check you know the Antec Phantom and the Seasonic are full sized psus and wont fit in a shuttle

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Yes I know that. I checked them out. I dont really want an external PSU though because things will get messy. Has anyone tried soundproofing the psu?

Regarding the FSB. The NForce2 Ultra chipset is the limitation here isnt it. Is there any chance i could do any damage to the processor by cranking up the FSB. As long as the operating frequency doesnt go over 1.2GHz I should be safe shouldnt I?

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Originally Posted by Kef9

Also does anyone have any experience of popping the FSB upto 400MHz?

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By FSB, you really mean external, or reference, clock.

EDIT: oops, you are talking about your t-bird, that would be FSB then. Still, most t-birds start to crap out around 180-200 FSB.

I've never seen a board with a clock generator that could handle that speed.

Even if I drop my memory to DDR200, HTT multiplier to 1x and CPU multiplier to 4x, I have dificulty getting my system to even boot much past 300-310 external clock.

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Originally Posted by Kef9

Regarding the FSB. The NForce2 Ultra chipset is the limitation here isnt it.

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Nope, the Ultra is rated for 200MHz FSB processors. The limitation is likely to be the processor.

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Is there any chance i could do any damage to the processor by cranking up the FSB.

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Overclocking of whatever sort is never risk free, but it's unlikely you'll damage it.

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As long as the operating frequency doesnt go over 1.2GHz I should be safe shouldnt I?

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That's the theory, but in practice you don't see a lot of Tbirds running at high FSBs. I don't know if that's because hardly anyone ever bothered, or if it's because it's hard to get them stable. In any case all you can do is try; set the multi to 6 (and the RAM to run in sync) then increase the FSB by 5MHz at a time (although you could probably start at 135MHz, it should manage that with no problems, my old Tbird 1.1 did even though it was a rubbish overclocker). Make sure you know how to reset the CMOS of course;).

yep im going to give it a whirl. Should do me any harm.

Im new to this kind of thing so why is it so important to reset the CMOS? Whats this all about. If it doesnt work you could just reverse all the settings in the bios?

Clearing the CMOS resets all the settings in the bios. If you overclock too far then you often find that the computer won't even post, so you have to clear the CMOS to get everything back to stock settings. It's not hard, just make sure that you know how to do it- read the motherboard manual:).

Okay Im going to give it ago this weekend and see what happens.

Can anyone provide some light on the fan issue?