Which HP XW6*** computer to buy for 3 cards + Scope 5.1

[vascomusic]

That's a great price indeed
The XW4600 is by far the best and most solid PC for a 3-PCI board configuration I've had since I started with Scope 14 years ago.
Rock stable with Scope, even while I overclocked the FSB to squeeze some more power out of the system

[garyb]

yes, that is a bargain and it should work great!

[tomylee]

That's a great price indeed
The XW4600 is by far the best and most solid PC for a 3-PCI board configuration I've had since I started with Scope 14 years ago.
Rock stable with Scope, even while I overclocked the FSB to squeeze some more power out of the system

did you compare/try a xw6000 or 6200 once? what about the dp35dp?

[darkrezin]

I recently got hold of an old XW4400 machine from work, unfortunately it was extremely noisy and I'm in the process of trying to silence it. I thought I would post my experience in case it's helpful for others (this may apply to the XW4600 too).

I assumed the PSU would be an easy thing to start with as I already had a quiet 450W spare. I quickly discovered that HP did something incredibly annoying in these machines by using a non-standard size of PSU. There are no new HP replacement PSUs available - the only thing I could find was this:

http://www.atxpowersupplies.com/365-Wat ... 65BB-A.php

You can specify 460W with this thing but the price is too high IMHO.

The good news is that it *is* possible to 'hack' a standard ATX PSU into it - there are 2 holes on 1 side of the case which will mount one side of the ATX PSU. The best I could do for the other side was to somehow jam a screw into one of the other PSU holes which also held it against the case. It's not exactly a 'clean' solution because the screw goes in at an angle and there's large gap due to the smaller standard ATX PSU size, but it works and is much quieter already.

The next step is to replace the 92mm case fan (PWM 4-pin). I have a Nanoxia fan on the way and I'll report my findings after I change it over (I'll also upload a pic of the PSU mounting).

The only thing that will remain is the cooler fan - unfortunately it seems impossible to find very quiet fans in 70mm size. Therefore it looks like the entire cooler needs to be replaced.

[garyb]

an xw4400 should be pretty quiet.
mine are nearly silent. the cpu cooler is probably the loudest part, but since it rarely runs at full speed, it';s never been an issue here.

i did replace the case fan on one machine.

[vascomusic]

did you compare/try a xw6000 or 6200 once? what about the dp35dp?

no, sorry, didn't try any of the above..



I tried to reduce CPU fan noise even more by replacing the stock HP XW4600 CPU cooler with a Zalman CNPS9500A LED CPU cooler.
It soon turned out to be not as easy as I thought.
Anything else but the stock HP CPU cooler would not fit easily.
In the end, after hours of tinkering, it was only slightly quieter and even more surprising,
it had exactly the same cooling performance as the stock HP CPU cooler






(but I do have a blue light inside my computer now )

[darkrezin]

an xw4400 should be pretty quiet.
mine are nearly silent. the cpu cooler is probably the loudest part, but since it rarely runs at full speed, it';s never been an issue here.

i did replace the case fan on one machine.

Unfortunately mine was super noisy the PSU was full of dust and fluff All fans get noisier over time, I guess it's worse if it's in a dusty environment.

Also, PSU's can go pop and die at any time, it's nice to know it's possible to change it for a standard ATX.

[garyb]

if you clean out the dirt really well with a lot of compressed air, the noise will probably disappear.

[darkrezin]

Changing the case fan made a huge difference, I think it was the noisiest component by far. Unfortunately HP made the system fan socket slightly non-standard (grrr) which made it necessary to file down a part of the fan plug. But everything seems to work fine and now I can barely hear the machine (although I've yet to test it under very heavy loads).

vascomusic - thank you for your input on replacing the CPU fan... it doesn't sound like a fun job! I think the tray underneath the mobo on these HPs might actually be part of the heatsink mounting so if I ever feel the need to change the cooler it might be best to transplant the entire damn thing to a different case, hopefully HP didn't do some other stupid shit which would make that impossible.

Also it might be worth trying some other off-the-shelf 4-pin PWM 70mm fan first, there are a few around... maybe no super-premium ones like Noctua or Nanoxia (which can be amazing) but an average-quality new fan will always be an improvement over a dusty old one with fucked bearings.

[garyb]

you can get a 4pin to 3pin fan adapter. i got one from amazon.
a 3 pin fan works fine, but the system will complain that the fan is missing when you boot. the adapter solves that issue.

about the cpu cooler, those HP computers use a XEON-style cooler. there is a plate on the back of the motherboard. to use a standard cooler, you would need to remove the backplate and replace it with a standard consumer version.

[darkrezin]

Gary - thanks, interesting to know about the Xeon cooler - do you know which Xeon socket?

The problem with the 4-pin fan socket is the shape of the standard PWM plug:



The guide at the front that is aligned with the 'tach' pin conflicts with the shroud for the System fan socket in the XW. So the guide needs to be filed down. The CPU fan socket doesn't seem to have this problem.

[garyb]

it's not a problem, you just need the adapter. it's about $1.

the socket on the xw4400 is 775. there are XEONs and Core2 processors that are 775.
the cooler on the XW4400 is pretty good and it's normally pretty quiet. i wouldn't mess with it.

[darkrezin]

Good stuff to know, thanks Gary! The cooler is indeed pretty quiet, I think it was mainly the case fan howling away.

[garyb]

yeah, i had one with a bad case fan and four or five others that i just cleaned with compressed air. it's really a pretty quiet machine for one with fans.

the XW machines were made for heavy 24/7 100% uptime use in big businesses. they have pretty nice quality components, for the most part.