P180 advice needed

Luffy · Post by **Luffy** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:28 pm

Hi

I am looking to update my case and go back to Air cooling from Liquid so would really appreciate advice as to whether the P180 is a good way for me to go.
I am really taken with the black version and am aware of the good and bad points from the various sources on the site. However will I be able to keep my system cool with a Scythe Ninja without resorting to loud fans? and will my PSU/Mobo connect up?
I currently have a Koolance PC2 water cooled system and tend to push my CPU's as far as they will go. Currently I am running an Opteron 146 47% overclocked to 2950Mhz and have a peak load temp of 54 centigrade. No problem temp wise, but the system relies entirely on 80mm fans and has got pretty noisy.
Having looked through the various threads here I have not noticed anyone running such high clocks on air and have used water for so long that I am not sure how well these latest heatpipe towers cool. Does anyone know how my clocked CPU heat output would compare to the Prescott 3.8 in the P180 tests?
Rough specs for the system would be:
P180, Quiet top fan, Quiet exhaust fan, Scythe Ninja with a Quiet fan onboard, Tagan 530 ATX 2 PSU, MSI Neo2 Plat (Zalman passive Northbridge heatsink), 6800GT with Artic Cooler, Seagate 120 SATA.
Note: Not looking for silence, if it runs quiet enough so I hear the drive clicking I would be happy.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

McBanjo · Post by **McBanjo** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 5:26 pm

Passive cooling on the cpu works in P180. Lots of peoples here on the forum has P180 and Ninja.
But none is overclocking to my knowledge.
Air can't beat whater.
But why don't you just keep the whatercooling? You motherboardtemps, memory and so would most likely gain on chassi-change.
Only thing that wouldn't gain on that is the noise ;-P

Luffy · Post by **Luffy** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 11:04 am

Thanks for the reply McBanjo.
I guessed that may be the case but kind of hoped that the latest and greatest Air coolers could match up to my old school water cooling with 6mm tubing. Thanks again.

vine-au · Post by **vine-au** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:54 pm

McBanjo wrote: Air can't beat water.

I disagree, if you have a high ambient temp (live in a temperate zone) then watercooling is at a disadvantage of not being able to disipate heat fast enough. In this case air can get you a lower temp, plus a lot less hassle.

McBanjo · Post by **McBanjo** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:46 pm

vine-au wrote: I disagree, if you have a high ambient temp (live in a temperate zone) then watercooling is at a disadvantage of not being able to disipate heat fast enough. In this case air can get you a lower temp, plus a lot less hassle.

Heh, yea, guess so. Haven't thought about that. High enought temp and the cooler may act as a cooker instead ;-P
Air can get an original cpu down to basicly the same temps as water with a good cooler but if you're going to overclock then air can't beat water.
You would most likely need a bigger cooler in Sahara than on Greenland I guess, and put it in the shadows

Luffy · Post by **Luffy** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 11:43 pm

Thanks for your comments vine-au, I am in the UK and it is pretty cold at outside at the the moment and 21 degrees indoors. What system do you run?

vine-au · Post by **vine-au** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 3:40 pm

Luffy wrote:What system do you run?

AMD X2 4400+ @ 2650mHz (265x10 - 1.425vcore)
A8N-SLI Premium
2GB OCZ Platinum EL PC3200 @ 265mHz (3-3-3-5 1T - 2.8v)
Antec P180
Leadtek 7800GTX @ 500/1363 (with VF700-cu)
SilenX iXtrema Pro 520W (replacing it with a Seasonic 500W finally)
Tt Big Typhoon (replacing with a Scythe Ninja/Nexus)

My idle temps are about 37-40, load temps around 50 - but i'm overclocking and have a high vcore. It's summer here too, so ambient temps are high, as it humidity. Im only running the rear tri-cool fan on low. The top fan is removed and the hole plugged. One 120mm fan on the front pulling air in.
I'm replacing the Typhoon because the case is more conducive to front-back airflow, whereas the typhoon pulls air down and onto the motherboard but sits very close to the case side, limiting its effectiveness (in a case with a side intake the typhoon is amazing)

The noise is fairly low, but im keen to replace my PSU with the seasonic, and the case fans with some soft mounted Nexus. There is some low frequency noise coming through from vibration.

Luffy · Post by **Luffy** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 5:32 pm

Thanks.
Good to see you have those results with the P180. My mind is made up now.
Thanks again

gbeichho · Post by **gbeichho** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 9:59 pm

I'm also using a P180 WITH 1 Nexus exhaust in the back, and one on the Scythe Ninja, and one in front of the HDs at the bottom. With both undervolted, I can't hear much at all.

As for cooling, I'm running stock AMD 3000+ right now. My idle temp is 34c and I can't get the sucker to go above 39C.

vine-au · Post by **vine-au** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 3:10 am

bit of an update: I was noticing some high temps and low frequency vibrations so I made a few modifications. Im saving for a trip overseas so I decided to postpone the Ninja/Nexus/Seasonic upgrade for now and make do with what Ive got:

First I tried reversing the airflow - pulling in from the top and rear and blow out the front. The cpu temp dropped slightly, the motherboard temp raised a few degrees, but the VGA temp jumped around 10-15 degrees... Not good.
I put the rear fan back in but soft-mounted it with rubber grommets and ran it on low. I removed the upper fan completely and left the intake opento allow air to flow in.
Next I grabbed the dremmel and cut out the font grille to reduce resistance (also removed the filters and plastic grilles). I run a soft-mounted 120mm fan on low pulling in the front.
On to the HSF: there are two gaps in the fins on the Typhoon which allow a lot of air to negate the cooling fins and blow straight onto the motherboard - I plugged them up to force the air through the fins and increase cooling. I also took the finger guard off (can't hurt right?)

With the door open, the case doesnt look pretty but it allows a lot more air through when the door is closed.
Results? Overall the cpu temp is down about 4-7 degrees, motherboard temp is down about the same, and the low frequancy vibrations are gone. It's quieter and cooler all round

Next step is to figure out how to soft mount the Typhoon fan to reduce vibration and torque. Also I will cut out the rear grille the next time I pull the motherboard out - they really do reduce the airflow a lot - as well as adding turbulence noise (the fan grille, not the motherboard

)

gbeichho · Post by **gbeichho** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 5:12 pm

I'm assuming you're using a quality thermal grease? That can make the difference of a few degrees as well.

vine-au · Post by **vine-au** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 2:22 am

gbeichho wrote:I'm assuming you're using a quality thermal grease? That can make the difference of a few degrees as well.

AS5 ftw

great stuff.