Does/Why does the p180 have problems with VGA cooling?

markot86 · Post by **markot86** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 8:39 pm

Hey everyone! I'm really sorry for posting what probably is a very overly asked question, but I have been searching for this answer for the last 2 hours and havent found it.

I would love to buy the p180 because it seems to solve a lot of my problems (I.E. the need for a case that has good airflow and is pretty silent) however, the graphics card problems worry me. Why in the world does such a wonderful case have problems cooling graphics cards?

I have a 6800 ultra and I put a zalman cu-700 cooler expecting some radical changes in temps, when all I got was higher temps from the stock solution (aopen's cooling). I was told by many people that this is due to the lack of airflow in my case, and thus I'd like to find a case that is quiet and has good airflow for the card.

I had an interesting idea about why this case is bad for graphics card coolilng, but I'm hoping that this is not the problem. Because the exhaust of the PSU blows hot air out of the back of the computer and then this hot air rises to the pci slot cooling intake, could this hot air be the cause of the rise in temps? If so, that is a very sad problem that should have been addressed when the case was made ;_;

Basically, should I search for a different case/design if I want a quiet way to improve the graphics card's cooling? Thank you very much for helping a noob like myself ^^

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 9:23 pm

To put it simply, the VGA duct is useless; this is the consensus of multiple website reviewers and individual users. Take it out, tape up the holes meant to bring in cool air for the duct, problem solved.

markot86 · Post by **markot86** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 12:05 am

How is that problem solved? doesn't that mean that this case still provides horrible air circulation for VGA cards?

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 5:02 am

No. You ditch the duct, with the exception of the PSU chamber, it's EXACTLY like a normal case. VGA coolers either do or don't exhaust the air outwards.

Derek Baker · Post by **Derek Baker** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 5:56 am

Are you sure you put that Zalman on correctly? On my unlocked and overclocked X800 the VF700-Cu @ 5v cut the load temp from 83 to 69 C.

Post by **MikeC** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 10:46 am

This question about VGA card cooling comes up so often, I think it's worthy of a special article. One specifically addressing VGA cooling in a P180. Consider this a quick preview.

If I was running a dual-vidcard gaming rig in a P180, here's what I would do:

1) Put a 120mm fan in the front upper vent. Softmount it for lowest noise.
2) Leave the upper drive cage empty, and pull out the two trays.
3) Don't put in the supplied VGA duct - it is useless if you want quiet cooling. Also remove the rectangular plastic duct on the back panel vent next to the CPI card slots -- the end of the VGA duct.
4) Install either very good quiet vidcards or use aftermarket solutions. The best are probably the Zalman VF700 or the latest iterations of the Arctic Cooling devices. Two of the latter are probably ideal for what I intend here.
5) Remove every PCI slot cover between the two vidcards -- remove them all, in fact.
6) Run only the back panel 120mm fans, on low. Remove the top fan (use it for the front if you like), and leave the fan only. Use a tower style HS that will benefit from air being sucked in from the top.
7) Run the vidcard fans as low as you can w/o getting misbehavior on screen or very high heat on monitoring. >85C is probably about where you might see jaggies or misbehavior (at least on nVidia cards), maybe higher. You will have to run the vidcard fans off external manual fan controllers to do this. Also run the front 120mm fan on low -- <1000 rpm.

What happens with this config is that the open PCI slots, the vidcards & the HDD cage create a kind of duct for the front 120mm fan to blow through. It is straight through, like the PSU chamber in the bottom. The space between the vidcards might be really tight if you use an A-C cooler on the top card and a "back mounted" HS for the bottom card, but there still should be some space for the air to flow.

You won't have to worry about the CPU cooling -- the two top vents/fans are enough.

Just try it. With all the fans softemounted & on low, you should have decent quiet & still get high perf. vid during games.

wwenze · Post by **wwenze** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 3:44 pm

I think the problem is your 6800 Ultra:

72.09W

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ ... wer_2.html

X800 Pro only 48.2W...
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ ... ons_5.html

markot86 · Post by **markot86** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 7:50 pm

I still haven't gotten the case yet; I'm just planning for the time being. Thanks for the great input!

I read in one of the articles that one of the reasons why the graphics card may be warmer in this case than in most stems from a smaller intake fan opening on the front. Should I maybe cut out the front grill alltogether?

Are there any mods that I should do to my p180 to make it more efficient before putting my parts into the case? if this has been answered or a list has been compiled, could anyone link me to it? Thanks in advance ^^

Big Fat Duck · Post by **Big Fat Duck** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 10:43 pm

i wonder if you can mod a p180 and make it a 3 chamber case.. one for psu, one for video, and one for cpu.

that would be rockin

milo · Post by **milo** » Mon Nov 28, 2005 6:10 pm

In response to MikeC: Actually, I just did set up an A8N32 dual video system with two-slot cards over the weekend. Ninja on the CPU forced removal of the VGA duct. I had enough stuff packed in there that I did soft-mount a front fan (with the tips of the Nexus mounts sticking out, I wasn't able to engage all four clips on the fan frame), and just left the upper cage out completely. The bottom card blocked the PSU cable passthrough; fortunately I didn't need the bottom fan and just fed the cables through the disk passthrough instead. Since the motherboard is right up against the bottom of the case, the cooling looked pretty grim.

Surprise! Both cards are sitting at 40C. It gets a bit toasty in there if I run an extended benchmark, but the system seems quite usable for fairly heavy multimedia and 3D development. I think the fans on the two-slot heatsinks are recessed enough relative to the rest of the cooler that they can still draw in adequate air from above the card.

This isn't a quiet system by most measures, but it's a heckuva lot better than what I was expecting. Probably about the same noise as my last PC despite generating three times the heat.

riddles · Post by **riddles** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 7:48 am

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811998051

i have this blowing on my 6800 Vanilla and i have it OCed and getting an extra 10-15% on 3dmark03 ( 10k+, up from high 8k )

You can put this into the PCIe 1x slot and have it blow on both cards (yes, this bracket can do this)

but i also have a question...
can you put 2 120mm fans in the front?
one at the top 3.5 bay and the other on the bottom?

I have the impression from the reviews that you only mount one fan up front, and thats the one that's in the middle.

thanks

Ryan Norton · Post by **Ryan Norton** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:22 am

There's another two threads that deal specifically with a couple issues in this thread.... here's what I did.

1. VGA cooling. Was not happy with stock cooling on 7800GTX so switched to VF700Cu. Still toasty-- 70-75C at load. Tried mounting 120mm Y-L D12SL-12 at 5v in the upper 3.5" bay fan mount with the supplied mounting clip. Still gettin ghigh temps-- seemed like the fan would have to spin too fast and loud for my taste to get good cool air to the VGA card from all the way at the front of the case. So, I used some plastic Radio Shack zip locking tie thingies to strap the fan to the BACK of the 3.5" removable cage, which put it, oh, 1" from the back end of my 7800GTX. The cage itself made a nice wind tunnel to suck air straight from the front of the case; it then blows right over the card and out the open PCI slots at the back. Someone took lots of really good pics of this exact method, it's probably 2 threads below this but I couldn't find it atm. Perfect!

Here's what I'm talking about:

from http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=27485

2. In another thread I definitely saw a link to another forum where someone drilled out the little bolts holding a bracket in place over the lower air intake, which made room for a 120mm fan. Personally I'd rather have the fan there than in the middle, because I have power cables that come out through the hole between upper and lower chamber that gives access to the HD (front) part of the lower chamber, and they are presently carefully crammed through the holes at the corners of the lower chamber fan mounting. If the fan were at the front of the case I wouldn't have to worry. I may try this tonight since I just got a new Black and Decker

Here it is: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=936507

Ryan Norton · Post by **Ryan Norton** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:01 am

Tried #2 last night. Stuck a Y-L D12SL-12 in and screwed it to the grating after drilling the bolts out, and my HD cage just baaaaaaarely squeezed in there. I think it shaved a micron or two off the fan's housing

Anyway with that fan up front at 5v as opposed to sitting in the middle at 12v, my one problem HD (Seagate 7200.7 120GB SATA) is 5-10C cooler, and my Raptor is 3-4C cooler. Go figure.

Bar81 · Post by **Bar81** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 6:42 pm

There are no "problems" with the P180 when it comes to VGA cooling. As has been said it's exactly like any other case in that regard. In fact, for my X1800 XL with the Zalman at its lowest setting my temps are fine. I find that if you leave the vent holes next to the pci card slots open and even leave the pci slot cover for the slot just below the PCI-E slot open you get plenty of cool fresh air on the card that then gets exhausted into the case and up and out through the rear duct. I'm using a total of three 120 mm nexus fans fanmated to the lowest settings (one in front of the upper chamber HDs, one inbetween my Raptor and PSU and one in the back to exhaust air as well as an additional one to blow air across the Ninja) and I have no temp issues at all not to mention getting as near silent as you're ever gonna get with this much power under the hood.