How to make an SG13 quieter

[aisle9]

So I have an SG13 with my Ryzen 5 5600 and an RX 6700 (not XT) running. The 6700 pulls 130W max, and rarely goes above 70C, but it is an open-air card in an SG13 toaster over (in size and in cooling). The Ryzen is cooled by a Wraith Spire, and damn that mother is loud. It's usually running around 40-50% speed to keep the CPU around 60C during normal use. It doesn't throttle in games or in stress tests, but yeah, noise.

 

I might consider flipping the front fan around to be exhaust, although I'm not sure how I feel about having hot exhaust air blowing out towards me. A jerry-rigged exhaust fan on the panel alongside the CPU has worked for others, but that side of my PC is only an inch or so from the wall, so while the ventilation is adequate for passive use, I suspect a fan there would just blow it right back into the case.

 

So that leads to another option: a new cooler. I have a Thermalright 67mm tall, 120mm wide low-profile cooler, which I actually pulled out because it's annoying as hell to wire everything around. My other option would be to buy the AM4 conversion kit from Zalman's site and use my CNPS8900 Quiet, which doesn't seem like a bad idea necessarily, but I'm not sure it would be any easier to work around than the Thermalright cooler, and despite it being pure copper with copper heatpipes, I'm not sure at all that it would really be any better cooling the CPU. I'm undervolted already

 

I don't really want to buy a new cooler, and wouldn't even consider a 120mm AIO. I'm trying to shed computer parts, not acquire more, but if that's what it takes...any ideas I haven't thought of, thoughts on which option above looks best, or do I really just need a new cooler at this point?

[dizmo]

• Quiet fans
• Replace the cooler with a better one, possibly an AIO depending on space constrictions

The real question is, you want it quieter when? While gaming or when doing simple desktop tasks?

You won't really quiet it down significantly under load.

[bebejapes]

cooler

 

[porina]

Which version of the SG13 do you have? Is it the solid front or mesh front? If solid, give up now. If mesh it can be ok. Yes, I made that mistake in the past.

 

Unless you want to run much lower power CPUs, then 120mm slim AIO is probably least worse solution. There just isn't the space for a decent air cooler in there.

 

The other alternative is to power limit the CPU so it doesn't produce as much heat. You'll have to see how it balances out between heat output, noise and performance drop.

[bebejapes]

2 minutes ago, porina said:

Which version of the SG13 do you have? Is it the solid front or mesh front? If solid, give up now. If mesh it can be ok. Yes, I made that mistake in the past.

 

Unless you want to run much lower power CPUs, then 120mm slim AIO is probably least worse solution. There just isn't the space for a decent air cooler in there.

 

The other alternative is to power limit the CPU so it doesn't produce as much heat. You'll have to see how it balances out between heat output, noise and performance drop.

120aio? depends on the cpu maybe but 120aio is too small to move the heat.

[porina]

44 minutes ago, bebejapes said:

120aio? depends on the cpu maybe but 120aio is too small to move the heat.

Are you familiar with the case? There isn't a lot of room to play with in there. A 120mm AIO would probably out-perform any air cooler that can fit. It can be fitted in the front so it gets fresh cool air. Airflow through the case isn't great either, if you stick with an air cooler. To fit, they often have smaller high rpm fans which are noisy.

[OhioYJ]

6 hours ago, aisle9 said:

I have a Thermalright 67mm tall, 120mm wide low-profile cooler, which I actually pulled out because it's annoying as hell to wire everything around.

I was looking, as I have a couple (well had) of SG12s, and your SG13 says the cooler clearance is 61 mm. Are you sure you have 67mm?

 

I know in my HTPCs, I have a couple that are cooled by Silverstone AR06 (58mm tall), and one with a  NH-L9 (65mm tall, or too tall).

 

I know in both my SG12s I flipped the CPU cooler fans around so they wouldn't be fighting the PSU fan. Right now I'm guessing you have the CPU cooler blowing air down on the motherboard, but the PSU sucking air up and blowing it out. You may get better results if they work together, rather than fight each other, especially since they are right on top of each other.

[aisle9]

11 hours ago, dizmo said:

• Quiet fans
• Replace the cooler with a better one, possibly an AIO depending on space constrictions

The real question is, you want it quieter when? While gaming or when doing simple desktop tasks?

You won't really quiet it down significantly under load.

Oh yeah, silencing an SG13 under load with basically anything beefier than an Atom SoC board is impossible. I'd be looking more for it to not scream at me while playing a Youtube video on Firefox with nothing else going on.

 

9 hours ago, porina said:

Which version of the SG13 do you have? Is it the solid front or mesh front? If solid, give up now. If mesh it can be ok. Yes, I made that mistake in the past.

 

Unless you want to run much lower power CPUs, then 120mm slim AIO is probably least worse solution. There just isn't the space for a decent air cooler in there.

 

The other alternative is to power limit the CPU so it doesn't produce as much heat. You'll have to see how it balances out between heat output, noise and performance drop.

It's the mesh front. I've heard horror stories from people who thought the solid panel looked cool, then realized that the solid panel was actually very hot.

 

I'd rather not mess with a 120 AIO, because it's almost like replacing the fan noise with pump noise, and that's not really all that much better. A little quieter, sure, but it's an annoying clicking instead of a whooshing.

 

I already have the CPU undervolted by quite a bit (don't recall the exact number, but it's down there). I question how much lower I can reasonably take it before either stability becomes an issue or I have to start dialing performance way back. I'll goof around with it more, but I'm thinking swap the cooler and invert the front fan first.

 

6 hours ago, OhioYJ said:

I was looking, as I have a couple (well had) of SG12s, and your SG13 says the cooler clearance is 61 mm. Are you sure you have 67mm?

 

I know in my HTPCs, I have a couple that are cooled by Silverstone AR06 (58mm tall), and one with a  NH-L9 (65mm tall, or too tall).

 

I know in both my SG12s I flipped the CPU cooler fans around so they wouldn't be fighting the PSU fan. Right now I'm guessing you have the CPU cooler blowing air down on the motherboard, but the PSU sucking air up and blowing it out. You may get better results if they work together, rather than fight each other, especially since they are right on top of each other.

Yep. 61mm is the clearance if you're using an ATX PSU. I'm using an SFX PSU facing up, so it's drawing clean, room-temp intake air from above the case, and I have a bracket that lets me mount it at the very top of the PSU mounting hole. The Wraith Spire I'm using is actually a little taller at 71mm, and it still has several mm to work with before airflow becomes restricted enough to cause a problem.

 

I think I'm going to start by putting the 67mm-tall Thermalright back in there and replacing the front fan (salvaged from a Corsair AIO) with something a little more beefcake (Aerocool DS 120mm). If that doesn't do it, flip the Aerocool to exhaust. If that doesn't do it, I mean, realistically I'm not going to get a much better air cooler in there, and I don't think there's a slim 120mm fan out there that would get the job done any better than the Thermalright fan will, so that might just be time to look at AIOs.

 

sigh

 

I hate AIOs.

[dizmo]

13 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Oh yeah, silencing an SG13 under load with basically anything beefier than an Atom SoC board is impossible. I'd be looking more for it to not scream at me while playing a Youtube video on Firefox with nothing else going on.

I can't recommend Arctic F12 fans enough. They're super cheap, I put 2 on the AIO in my system and it went from irritating to me wondering if it's even on most of the time. Temps also dropped.

[porina]

11 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

I'd rather not mess with a 120 AIO, because it's almost like replacing the fan noise with pump noise, and that's not really all that much better. A little quieter, sure, but it's an annoying clicking instead of a whooshing.

When I first got a SG13 I put in Silverstone's own SST-TD03-E Tundra AIO. It wasn't great. I think the fans were a bit rubbish. More recently I got a Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite 120 for another compact-ish build. Again, the fan wasn't great and it was better after I swapped it with a Noctua. I've not really stressed it under high power though. Seems ok for ~90W actual power sustained but not pushed further. The case I put it in has bad airflow too so that might be the bigger limiting factor for me.

 

The pump is practically silent. Occasionally I hear an air bubble go through but that should settle down over time. I personally dislike vibration from pumps but haven't had recent problems there.

[aisle9]

31 minutes ago, dizmo said:

I can't recommend Arctic F12 fans enough. They're super cheap, I put 2 on the AIO in my system and it went from irritating to me wondering if it's even on most of the time. Temps also dropped.

Dammit dizmo, I'm trying to lose parts before I move, not do the totally rational thing and invest in ones that fill my needs before going.

[aisle9]

@dizmo@porina I swapped out the cooler, put on the Aerocool fan and did nothing else. Temps are down 15C under load and about 7-8C at idle, and it's almost inaudible from arm's length on my desk 90% of the time. Even at full blast, it's whooshing air noise, not screaming fan motor noise.

 

The lesson I choose to take away from this is that Cooler Master, makers of the Wraith Spire's fan, had still not mastered cooling as of 2017...which we all kind of knew anyway.

[bebejapes]

20 hours ago, porina said:

Are you familiar with the case? There isn't a lot of room to play with in there. A 120mm AIO would probably out-perform any air cooler that can fit. It can be fitted in the front so it gets fresh cool air. Airflow through the case isn't great either, if you stick with an air cooler. To fit, they often have smaller high rpm fans which are noisy.

i dont know the case. but in according to all this im assuming its small. but still a 120 aio seems small for the cpu, in general. but yes it would be better than air.

[porina]

1 hour ago, aisle9 said:

@dizmo@porina I swapped out the cooler, put on the Aerocool fan and did nothing else. Temps are down 15C under load and about 7-8C at idle, and it's almost inaudible from arm's length on my desk 90% of the time. Even at full blast, it's whooshing air noise, not screaming fan motor noise.

Which cooler did you use in the end? The Thermalright? Nice that you found something that works.

 

1 hour ago, aisle9 said:

The lesson I choose to take away from this is that Cooler Master, makers of the Wraith Spire's fan, had still not mastered cooling as of 2017...which we all kind of knew anyway.

Cooler Master make some ok coolers, but the AMD bundled stock cooler is made on an AMD dictated budget. What is the minimum to get designed functionality?

[aisle9]

2 minutes ago, porina said:

Which cooler did you use in the end? The Thermalright? Nice that you found something that works.

 

Cooler Master make some ok coolers, but the AMD bundled stock cooler is made on an AMD dictated budget. What is the minimum to get designed functionality?

I think it's call the AXP120-X67. The fan isn't of spectacular quality and does make some clicking noises, but it works.

 

CM's become something of a form over function brand lately, using their brand, the 212 name and lots of RGB to sell higher-priced coolers that don't really outperform the $20-30 towers out there right now. In fairness, the first-gen Spire had a copper core and wasn't a half-bad cooler. The second-gen Spire did away with the copper, IIRC, and was kinda trash. The Max and Prism are still solid coolers in cases not tall enough for a traditional 120mm tower, and the Stealth has always gotten away with being awful because it's not the Intel cooler. That's the only reason I can think of why people still love the Stealth. It's weaksauce and barely keeps up with 65W chips, and the fan is loud af.

 

21 minutes ago, bebejapes said:

i dont know the case. but in according to all this im assuming its small. but still a 120 aio seems small for the cpu, in general. but yes it would be better than air.

The 5600 is a 65W CPU. It's not difficult to cool. It's the fact that I have it jammed into a case that's marginally more compact than a shoebox that's causing problems. All but the absolute crappiest of AIOs would be able to handle it. I just irrationally hate AIOs.

[bebejapes]

6 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

The 5600 is a 65W CPU. It's not difficult to cool. It's the fact that I have it jammed into a case that's marginally more compact than a shoebox that's causing problems. All but the absolute crappiest of AIOs would be able to handle it. I just irrationally hate AIOs.

hahaha cant blame you for hating the AIO because i got some lian li galahad but it failed after 5 months