One more P180

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 9:44 pm

Hi,

A month ago I visiting the biggest finnish computer retailer with a friend and happened to stop by their "returned items corner". Basicly they have items with shipping damage, other minor bumps or that have been returned by customers within the 14 day return period. I noticed they had a P180 for sale for 59â‚¬, the "problem" with it was that one of the plastic clips holding the front panel in place was broken. However, it was otherwise in mint condition so I jumped on it like a fly on... and snatched it for my brother. His computer update had been long overdue, so we went ahead and ordered components for him and which I then got the pleasure of assembling.

The system is

- P180 with a Seasonic S12II 380W
- Asus M2N 1394 with 3800+ X2 65W and a Scythe Ninja
- 2GB of Kingston 667MHz DDR2
- Seagate 7200.10 500GB
- Asus 8500 (DX10 yadda yadda)

First off I cut some the fan grill on the black and used some U-rubber on the edges. I've had problems with the rubber touching the fan frame, so I took a midsized EAR grommet split it in half and used Richco fan mounts to mount the fan. It's raised enough to clear the rubber.

The top fan hole was closed. I used a metal 120mm fan filter that had duct tape all around to close the hole.

Also, all of the rear intakes were taped shut (PSU area and the GFX intake)

And a few pics of the internals... Some of the wiring is still undone because I'm waiting for one more IDE HDD to be installed in there.

Thanks for looking!

derekchinese · Post by **derekchinese** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 10:09 pm

Very nice build! Thanks for sharing with us.

So how is the noise level? Dead silent?

Also, are there no intake fans? I wonder if temperatures decrease alot when the side panel is removed.

Derek

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 10:33 pm

Hi Derek,

no it's not dead silent. Basicly I didn't want to void any warranties (meaning the PSU) and I also had to build the system so, that it could be safely transported etc (meaning the HDD and suspensions).

The biggest noise sources in the build are the fan in the Seasonic (which emits an annoying rumbling, like with my other Seasonic S12II) and the Seagate mounted with the silicone grommets. The Seagate really needs suspension, which I couldn't do for this build. The rear NMB-MAT (Panaflo) at is running at 5V...6V and I cannot hear it over the other noise makers.

Overall it's not the quietest system I've built, but as my brother's old system sounded like a hoover he will probably think this is "silent".

And no, there are no intake fans. I often use the 120x38mm Panaflo, because it really has a good pressure capability and can suck air in quite nicely. The PSU fan sucks air in from the front and cools the HDD also. So no, the temps don't drop when you remove the side panel.

The next time I put this system on the table I could try and test the temp differentials for you.

jaldridge6 · Post by **jaldridge6** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 10:48 pm

wow, cool. like you said, the seasonic has weird noisy coming out of it and the seagate drive is not the best choice. the samsung 501lj is probably a better choice for this case since the heavy steel will absorb the vibrations. anyhoo. great work. I like it very much.

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 11:01 pm

Thanks jaldridge6,

the Seagate is in there because a) my brother wanted Seagate b) it has the five year warranty. Five years seems like a long time, but my brother's current system is SocketA with a Duron, so he does keep his systems for a while.

The P180 was a good pick also because of the front air intake filters. He doesn't have his head inside the case every week like I do, so I'm hoping hoovering the front filters is enough maintenance.

Just doing the stress testing as I write, will be back with the results.

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 11:27 pm

It's summer holiday and I have too much time on my hands...

So I run two instances of Prime95 for stressing the CPU and RTHDRIBL for stressing the GPU. I warmed up the system for 30 mins with the stress tests running, got the temps from Speedfan and the removed the door, waited 15 mins and got the temps.

The rear fan is running at about 6V.

Door closed:

CPU 42C
Core (don't know how accurate this is?) 48C
GPU 85C
HDD 39C

Door open:

CPU 43C
Core 49C
GPU 98C
HDD 42C

When you remove the door, the air doesn't get sucked from the vented PCI slots over the GFX card, which increases GFX temps. Same goes with the HDD in the lower compartment because the PSU doesn't suck air from the front to the back.

The CPU / Core temp differences are so small and in the error margin that they should be ignored.

derekchinese · Post by **derekchinese** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 12:28 pm

Wow, that proves that you have done some seriously good work! Having lower temps with the door open proves that your airflow design was carefully planned and works well.

What is up with the temps of the 8500gt? 85C full load? I thought these babies were meant to be used without any fan at all. I would have hoped for temps more like 60C full load.

Thanks for testing Aleksi. Very good work!

BIONIC_EARS · Post by **BIONIC_EARS** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 1:03 pm

8800 GPUs with stock active cooling run in the mid-80s under load, so that's a perfectly fine result for a passively cooled 8500.

Nice-looking tape, hehe. And everything else.

That's a bad position on the motherboard for the power connector though.

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 11:42 pm

Derek,

I knew that I would go with a single Panaflo 120x38mm at low voltages because it has good pressure capability. Taping everything shut was a necessity to get a) proper airflow paths b) to avoid clogging everything with dust as my brother will not most likely bother with blowing it with air.

Bionic ears, I know the taping sucks

I only had Jesus tape to work with and it was a pain to cut in smaller pieces. Will swap the tapes in the PSU area when I get my hands on proper tape.

I also thought the audio connector (the grey cable going across the motherboard) and the power connector were at a bad position as you have to run the wires across the board.

Well, thanks for looking and for the nice comments!

derekchinese · Post by **derekchinese** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 11:47 pm

Aleksi, I am gonna cheap out and go with a gigabyte 8400GS. It too is passively cooled and uses the same chip as the 8500gt. The difference is 64bit memory as opposed to 128 bit memory.

How is the 8500gt? Does it work well for media and windows vista aero graphics?

Thanks,
Derek

Aleksi · Post by **Aleksi** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 12:20 am

Sorry Derek, can't help you with that one. My brother uses mainly Debian. I've only used the build when I installed XP / software and when I stress tested it. Didn't even realise to look at the frame rates during RTHDRIBL.

derekchinese · Post by **derekchinese** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 2:19 am

no problem, I will buy the 8400GS and cross my fingers. I know it is capable of some games, so I can't see windows vista aero graphics being a problem for the card.

BIONIC_EARS · Post by **BIONIC_EARS** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 3:28 am

No, I wasn't being sarcastic...that's a nice colour of duct tape.