Help "reassembling" my Solo build in Bay Area, CA?

shleepy · Post by **shleepy** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 2:02 pm

I spent last week moving all of my PC parts from a roomie Chenbro Genie to an Antec Solo. The move seems to have been dumb, since the only things that got quieter (slightly) were the hard-drives. Otherwise, I am totally and completely unhappy with my results. The main problem is that I replaced my giant 8800 Ultra with a couple of new HD4850's, upon which I strapped on Accelero S1's.

My current idle temps:
- HD4850 #1: ~60C
- HD4850 #2: ~70C
- 3 of the 4 cores of my Q9450: ~38C
- 1 of the 4 cores of my Q9450: ~31C
- Chipset: 61C
- "System" (one of the sensors on my MB): 47C

This is with nothing overclocked, Accelero S1's on UNDERCLOCKED video cards (normally clocked cards have same temp, though), a Thermalright U 120 extreme on the CPU + 120mm Nexus fan, 3 Nexus/Scythe case fans (one in a Scythe Kama Bay), and an Enermax 625W MODU82+ PSU. I used Arctic Silver 5 on the CPU and S1's. Even with only one exhaust fan running in my old Chenbro Genie case, I got much better CPU/system temps.

I can't stand dealing with my build, especially with the cables and the video cards. The Solo is way too cramped for my tastes. Thus, I'm wondering if I can find someone who can help me locate the problems and improve my build. I'm willing to provide some compensation.

Is there someone who's good with dealing with quiet builds and who perhaps is good at managing cables / dealing with an Antec Solo in the Bay Area?

porkchop · Post by **porkchop** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 3:35 pm

sounds like to me that the 4850s are to blame- while your 8800 probably had a cooler that exhausted hot air, the 4850s are just dumping theirs into the case.
i think the easiest way would be to mount a fan between the cards and the hdd bay- exhausting the air out through some open pci slots, considering the length of those cards though, this may not be possible.
perhaps you can make the case positive pressure? mount some quiet 92mm fans on the front, remove the rear exhaust and open some pci slots. this should give you pretty much front to back airflow, which should mean that the heat from the s1s are exhausted out the pci slots.

i don't own this case, so perhaps an owner can help you out more.

some pics would help too

shleepy · Post by **shleepy** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 8:57 pm

0 space between the cards and the hard-drives :-\ Plugging in the power cables for the video cards and the hard-drives was a huge hassle because of the low amount of space. I might be able to fit a 120mm Nexus blowing up below the lower card and see if it helps.

I'll take a picture after I try some things out.

frenchie · Post by **frenchie** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:09 am

I assume 2 of your nexus fans are in the front door right in front of the HDDs ?
I think if you run them at 9V they'll still be quiet and yet get you good airflow. On my case I also cut out the metal front door grills (where the 2 fans are). It makes a BIG difference in airflow and you can't see it from the outside.

Then open the empty PCI slots and see what happens. You really should feel quite a bit of air passing through. Play for an hour and feel the air comming out of the slots. It should be pretty warm.

I don't have that much heat generated in my Solo but it never gets hot (passive northbridge and VGA coolers).

Cistron · Post by **Cistron** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:01 am

How about using the front fans as exhaust? Open the slot-covers and put a card-board separtation between the cards and the CPU.

frenchie · Post by **frenchie** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:17 am

You could do that but you'd need to leave one of the 5.25 bays open to get some air to the CPU heatsink (not a problem if looks are not a big deal otherwise...)

Cistron · Post by **Cistron** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:24 am

frenchie wrote:You could do that but you'd need to leave one of the 5.25 bays open to get some air to the CPU heatsink (not a problem if looks are not a big deal otherwise...)

It probably suffices to remove the internal 5 1/4 inch bay covers.

shleepy · Post by **shleepy** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:18 am

What made a big difference:

Putting a 120mm on the bottom of the case, blowing up (under the video cards). Now, the cards are idling at ~48C and going up by around 10C under load. Could be better, but certainly a big drop. Plus, I moved the network card to the bottom PCI slot, and it started working again.

I'm getting a high-pitched humming that I need to investigate (it was there all along, I think), but otherwise, I'll only tinker with the minor details. Can live with the PC for now.