computer desk case, P5S800-VM, Celeron 330 (very quiet PC)

whiic · Post by **whiic** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 1:54 pm

(Well, not exactly before it started. By this point the PSU and mobo tray were already screwed in but they are not visible in the picture.)

Nothing visible here. Of course the presence of a printer and three external HDDs should give away that something fishy is lurking nearby.

Opening the door reveals the computer inside. HDD is Samsung HM121HI (2.5", 120GB, 5400rpm, SATA/150), PSU is Fortron 300W with a fan swap. CPU cooler is OCZ Vindicator.

PSU fan (YateLoon) is replaced by OCZ fan which is screwed on the outside of the PSU. Jamicon branded 92mm fan on OCZ Vindicator is undervolted to 3.6 volts. PSU fan is the loudest component present. Undervolting it from 12V -> 7V makes it so slow turning that case temperature rises to ~50 deg C and PSU gets burning hot. Obviously I can't undervolt it, at least not that far. It's low-rpm fan but it makes some rattle at 12V.

The CPU it's cooling is Celeron 330, a Prescott core, OCed to 3.2GHz.
[REMINDER TO MYSELF: FILL IN SOME TEMPERATURES!!!]

These two pictures should give a general idea about the airflow. Air is exhausted by PSU fan and there's no intake fan. Intake air enters the case from lower back, close to the motherboard. Some air passes next to the GPU and exits the case. Some air is drawn into Vindicator and exits from to of Vindicator from top (fan is mounted to pull instead of push) towards PSU fan intake.

This setup should keep northbridge, VRM and electrolytic capacitors cooled down. I already needed to replace two of them right next to northbridge but now NB temp is down significantly.

Gratuitous Hot Lesbian Action needs no justification or reason... otherwise it wouldn't be gratuitous, by definition.

That'd be my Huyndai 42" FullHD TFT. I mostly use it as a secondary computer display for watching movies.

Fayd · Post by **Fayd** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 2:26 pm

nice setup. i like the desk.

there's a few things, however, i would have done differently.

for one... put the PSU in the same place, but switch it to being on its side.

second, 2x120mm fans as exhaust (either in the back, one behind the CPU hsf, the other somewhere else on the back... or on the top)

third, a large custom intake cut into the front floor of the cabinet. you could even go so far as to use something like an automotive filter, or the like.

fourth, some method of sealing around the door, so you avoid the problems of pulling unfiltered air through the door. i'd personally add some strips of wood as stops for the door, then put some rubber on the side facing out.

fifth... 3.2 ghz prescott? change the proc to something less hot.

I like the idea, but honestly it looks like it'd be way too hot. 0.o

TheAtomicKid · Post by **TheAtomicKid** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 2:38 pm

Outta curiousity, what desk is that? I've been keeping an eye out for something similar (corner build, large surface, no keyboard tray cause I hate em), and your's looks like it'd fit the build, or something similar.

Given todays prices, I'm actually tempted to try my hand at making one, instead.

Atomic

whiic · Post by **whiic** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 6:53 am

I don't remember what that desk is named or where it was bought. I've had it for years.

Fayd: "for one... put the PSU in the same place, but switch it to being on its side."

Would it give any other benefit than freeing room for PCI cards (in current setup, I can only use low-profile PCI cards)?

Fayd: "second, 2x120mm fans as exhaust (either in the back, one behind the CPU hsf, the other somewhere else on the back... or on the top)

third, a large custom intake cut into the front floor of the cabinet."

I considered something similarish... with an intake hole (possibly with a Noctua fan attached) on the locker floor. It would have sucked air in from where the printer is now and then exhausted it through PSU.

Making the hole is easy - making it look nice is difficult. Adding exhaust fan on top of the "case" would have made poorly made hole crearly visible, thus out of the question, and intake hole on the bottom (just below CPU heatsink) seemed more logical (also would have allowed ducting). But anyway, I decided not to do it as I was in doubt whether I manage to cut the hole neatly.

Fayd: "you could even go so far as to use something like an automotive filter, or the like.

fourth, some method of sealing around the door, so you avoid the problems of pulling unfiltered air through the door."

There shouldn't be much dust more than 1 meter above floor level. And even if there was, with low airflow provided by slowly spinning fans, they shouldn't collect dust too fast ... annual clean-up would certainly suffice and probably not even be necessary.

Well, if I had those 2x 120mm extra case fans, then I might have more problems with dust. I'm just wondering where would I put them for them to be useful. I want airflow around VRM and NB since the capacitors are poor quality and appear to cook themselves dead if not cooled

(I only changed 2 of ~20 capacitors because
- they were 820 uF which is quite uncommon value. I only had 1000 uF low-esr capacitors so I thought it'd be unnecessary risk to change those capacitors that aren't bulging.
- changing all 20 capacitors would have cost ~20 eur which is pretty close to what I consider that motherboard worth. Frankly, I wouldn't consider it worth a friggin' dime if my OEM WinXP wasn't tied to OEM code stored on the motherboard. (Basically meaning, my OS and Word licence would become useless if I swapped mobo.) (Again, a good reminder why a pirate copy is not only cheaper but better in every other way as well. I would REALLY have liked to soak the motherboard with gasolene and set it on fire and watching it BURN.)

Fayd: "3.2 ghz prescott? change the proc to something less hot."

I would have burned it along with the motherboard if I didn't have this legimate WinXP licence. Then it'd be REAL HOT.

It's not even a Pentium... it's a cache crippled Celeron. Stock 2.66 GHz. The only good thing is that it's stable at 3.2 without increasing vcore and it remains stable at high temperatures. I tested it with Prime95 at 75 deg C and it returned no errors nor smoke. CPU heatsink was scalding hot to touch even at the tips of the fins. It probably wasn't even throttling yet as SpeedFan temperature monitoring didn't suddenly start making a flat line on temperature. It just stabilized there.

And no, my temps aren't even near 75 deg C. I was just testing it without any fan on Vindicator. With fan volted at 3.6V it idles at roughly 20 deg C above ambient and around 30...40 deg C above ambient when under 100% utilization (how much depends whether it's Folding, Prime95, video encoding, etc.).

GPU temps are down about 10 deg C when compared to mounting it in a normal computer case that follows ATX specs. I mounted the motherboard upside down, as you might have noticed already. And PSU fan sucks air out right above the graphics card. Of course that's unnecessary amount of cooling for a crappy GeForce 6200.

I'm not worried about case temps as they are now. It was only when PSU fan was undervolted that case temperatures skyrocketed and PSU started glowing red. When fan at 12V, case temperature is cool. Exhaust air flow PSU is around 10 deg C above ambient and that includes case temperature plus heat rise inside PSU. The fact that fan is screwed on the outside decreases backpressure and increases airflow per fan rpm while maintaining low turbulent noise level... but it also cut down the cooling of PSU itself as most air simply bypasses the components. We'll see how long it lasts before failing.

whiic · Post by **whiic** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 12:11 pm

Gentlemen, behold! Corn!

Explanation might be required (since it doesn't fall into category Gratuitous Hot Lesbian Action). Some people (who have not commented on this thread) requested additional pictures showing all-the-other-stuff installed. Well, they aren't that special. (They probably assumed some high-end HiFi stuff or otherwise exotic equipment. There's just a pretty normal 19" TFT, 4:3 aspect ratio, 90 degree tiltable, and old, crappy Juster speakers with built-in amp.

zorrt · Post by **zorrt** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 4:26 pm

u hid ur computer, but why do you still keep the wired keyboard and mouse!?!?