Noise and Thermal Testing

Some data
Processor	Intel Core i7 Haswell QDE8 2.6 GHz 4C/4T, Turbo: 3.0 GHz idle voltage: 0.815v load voltage: 0.916v
CPU usage during playback	50%
iGPU usage during playback	65% 512MB
Power consumption	idle: 23W load: 43W
Room Temperature	23°C
Sound level meter	Voltcraft SL-200
Thermometer	Voltcraft K102

• The noise level testing was conducted in a quiet room with no noise source other than the HTPC. When the HTPC is off the noise level measured is 32 dB(A). The sound level meter is placed at 1 meter away from the front of the HTPC.
• To create load we played the movie Pacific Rim (Blu-ray, AVC, DTS) using the softwares described on page 2. Temperatures and noise levels are taken after one hour of video playback.
• In the graphs, "Silent" means we  did load the "Silent" mode for all fans in the BIOS of the Z87I-Pro.
• In the graphs, "Manual" means we manually set the fans to work at a specific fan speed (noiseless) using ASUS' AI Suite III.
• To monitor temperatures we used HW Monitor for the processor, GPU-Z for the iGPU and two thermal probes for the case interior and the power supply. The case probe has been placed in-between the motherboad and the power supply right above the PCIe slot. The power supply probe has been placed inside the power supply close to the vent output.

PSU fan position

As expected, placing the power supply with the fan facing down leads to better temperatures for all the components inside the case but for the power supply itself.

Noise levels

Here we see that it's the SSHDs that make more noise. Unfortunately there is no way to quiet them down in this case other than swapping them for SSDs or mod the drive cage to add noise reduction material. The power supply fan is quiet but could have quieter since the power draw is not going to go above 55W (in our case). When loading the "Silent" mode profile for the fans in the BIOS the results is as expected, bad. Setting the fan speeds manually with the ASUS AI Suite III software greatly help to reduce noise.

Temperatures under load

For this test we left the power supply fan facing up. This graph shows you the difference in temperature between ASUS' "Silent" mode fan profile versus our manual setting under load.

Fan speeds

Same as before but for the fan speeds this time. Since the "Manual" fan speeds are the same in both idle and load conditions we mentioned it only once.

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Page 1 - Presentation

Page 2 - Building the HTPC - Setup and Software

Page 3 - Building the HTPC - Part I

Page 4 - Building the HTPC - Part II

Page 5 - Noise and Thermal Testing

Page 6 - Conclusion