This is my planned revision for my current setup (all parts are in the mail). Not sure whether I'll be running the fans at 5v or 12v. Guess it all depends on how loud these yate loon fans actually are when I get everything installed. Specs:
Venice 3000+ @ 2.7 (9x300) w/XP-120 & 120mm Yate Loon
Antec SLK3000B w/ 2x 120mm Yate Loon for intake and exhaust
Chaintech VNF4 Ultra w/Zalman chipset heatsink
Gigabyte X800 256mb Silentpipe
Seasonic S12 380W
1GB Twinmos pc3200
250GB Hitachi T7K250
NEC3500A DVD+/-RW
Audigy 2
Case fans mounted with rubber Sunbeam Rubber Fan Screws
Case dampened with Akust Noisebuster - Sound absorption mat
Just trying to figure out a few final details. Should I set the fan on the XP-120 to blow or suck? Should I use the cpu duct in the case? Any other questions / comments on this build?
SLK3000B w/ 3000+ Venice XP-120 setup and 3 yate loons
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frankgehry
- Posts: 1424
- Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2004 5:00 am
- Location: New York, NY
Has anyone mentioned that the fan mounting clips on the xp-120 will require that you either cut away the corner posts on the yate loon or get the clips especially for closed corner fans. A small point, but you may want to go ahead and order the special clips. - FG
I believe they are on the thermalright site. From there you can use google with the part number to find a dealer.
I believe they are on the thermalright site. From there you can use google with the part number to find a dealer.
Cutting away the corners is very simple, i just used a small hacksaw and a metal sanding file. Takes all of five mins. Don't bother with the other clips.
I've tried suck and blow orientations on my xp120 + nexus and found pretty much no difference in cooling. I have mine sucking so as the hot air is taken straight out of the case by the exhaust fan.
I really think you should get a fan controller, I use the akasa fan control jnr (£8.00) this way you can adjust fan speed to suit your/the computers needs as and when. You should also download a program such a everest home edition to monitor temps-especially in the early days. I think that your passive card will need cooling and the hot air will need to be taken out of the case-so while gaming I'd set your fans to pretty much full, but in 2d I'd have the fans at minimum.Does your mobo have smart fan for the CPU (so it varies the fan speed depending upon usage) if so be sure to plug in your CPU fan here.
Oh and one more thing - PROPER hdd suspension is a must for a quiet computer-loads of info on that here. Again its simple but makes a HUGE difference. With your fans set on 5V your hdd will become very noticable.
Good luck, reckon your got yourself a winner there!!
I've tried suck and blow orientations on my xp120 + nexus and found pretty much no difference in cooling. I have mine sucking so as the hot air is taken straight out of the case by the exhaust fan.
I really think you should get a fan controller, I use the akasa fan control jnr (£8.00) this way you can adjust fan speed to suit your/the computers needs as and when. You should also download a program such a everest home edition to monitor temps-especially in the early days. I think that your passive card will need cooling and the hot air will need to be taken out of the case-so while gaming I'd set your fans to pretty much full, but in 2d I'd have the fans at minimum.Does your mobo have smart fan for the CPU (so it varies the fan speed depending upon usage) if so be sure to plug in your CPU fan here.
Oh and one more thing - PROPER hdd suspension is a must for a quiet computer-loads of info on that here. Again its simple but makes a HUGE difference. With your fans set on 5V your hdd will become very noticable.
Good luck, reckon your got yourself a winner there!!
I just looked around for the special XP-120 fan clips and I can't actually find anywhere. Jab-Tech has them at least, but they're out of stock at the moment.
As for sucking vs. blowing there's a graph here from madshrimp's XP-120 review that shows 5C lower northbridge temps when sucking air away from the heatsink. It seems that sucking cool air across the northbridge vs. blowing hot air through the heatsink and across the northbridge drops chipset temps significantly. I'd duct my XP-120 to the SLK3000B's air duct, but the cpu socket on the VNF4 is rather oddly placed so the two don't exactly line up.
I do have a fan controller (vantec nexus), but would prefer to have a setup that did not require its use (too many wires, visually abrasive, etc). The CPU fan at least will work with smart fan since I've got a cool'n'quiet capable motheboard. If the other two fans are hooked up directly to the motherboard shouldn't I be able to control them using a program like speedfan??
Hard drive suspension is something that I plan on - seeks are much quieter in this case than in my old one, but they're still definitely noticeable. Would you recommend taking out the hard drive cage from the SLK3000B entirely and hanging the hard drive using elastic or could I just set the drive on some melamime foam in the bottom of the case?
One last thing. I also have a 7700alcu laying around right now and am considering just swapping that into my system and swapping out my Freezer 64. It really comes down to which heatsink/fan (7700alcu vs. XP-120) will help me keep my northbridge / passive gpu temps down the best since I'm not really worried that much about a ~5C difference in processor temps. Any feedback regarding the best way to keep these two parts cool would definitely be appreciated.
If it makes any difference as far as heatsink selection goes I'm planning on closing up both vents on the SLK3000B's side panel with the dampening foam mentioned in my first post.
As for sucking vs. blowing there's a graph here from madshrimp's XP-120 review that shows 5C lower northbridge temps when sucking air away from the heatsink. It seems that sucking cool air across the northbridge vs. blowing hot air through the heatsink and across the northbridge drops chipset temps significantly. I'd duct my XP-120 to the SLK3000B's air duct, but the cpu socket on the VNF4 is rather oddly placed so the two don't exactly line up.
I do have a fan controller (vantec nexus), but would prefer to have a setup that did not require its use (too many wires, visually abrasive, etc). The CPU fan at least will work with smart fan since I've got a cool'n'quiet capable motheboard. If the other two fans are hooked up directly to the motherboard shouldn't I be able to control them using a program like speedfan??
Hard drive suspension is something that I plan on - seeks are much quieter in this case than in my old one, but they're still definitely noticeable. Would you recommend taking out the hard drive cage from the SLK3000B entirely and hanging the hard drive using elastic or could I just set the drive on some melamime foam in the bottom of the case?
One last thing. I also have a 7700alcu laying around right now and am considering just swapping that into my system and swapping out my Freezer 64. It really comes down to which heatsink/fan (7700alcu vs. XP-120) will help me keep my northbridge / passive gpu temps down the best since I'm not really worried that much about a ~5C difference in processor temps. Any feedback regarding the best way to keep these two parts cool would definitely be appreciated.
If it makes any difference as far as heatsink selection goes I'm planning on closing up both vents on the SLK3000B's side panel with the dampening foam mentioned in my first post.