Idea for cooling a passively cooled 9600gt on Antec Solo

aimless · Post by **aimless** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 5:07 am

I recently bought all the parts for my first ever build and purchased this passively cooled 9600gt from asus. It was reviewed here and on a few other sites and got decent results for being a passively cooled card.

I'm going to put it in an Antec Solo with a few other things. The only fans I have in this case are a rear 120 mm fan (Scythe Slipstream I believe, 1200 rpm) and the Mugen-2 CPU cooler. None of these will be undervolted or limited in their RPMs in any way by me (for now at least, still need to determine how quiet they really are).

Anyway, the mugen-2 came with a 40 mm fan as a free gift and currently I have nothing to do with it. My idea last night was to try and rig this in my case somewhere next to the 9600gt to help keep its temps down. None of the parts have gotten here so I'm not even sure if I will need this but I'd like to plan it.

I think I've seen some pictures of fans some how attached to the hdd suspension straps on the Solo. Is this a possibility here and how might I start it? I can't seem to find the picture I'm thinking of again but I know it was out there. If it's not possible, does anyone have any other ideas where I can safely mount this to cool the card? Lastly, does anyone even think I need to worry about this fan? My hopes are that the mugen 2 will do a good enough job and either exhaust onto the gpu or suck air from it, out of the case.

For right now I'll only have two suspended drives so that leaves the third one free to do anything with.

Thanks!

JamieG · Post by **JamieG** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 2:50 pm

A 40mm fan won't mount all that well at the end of the HDD cage in the Solo, or provide much benefit if you do manage to mount it somehow.

If you were going to use it at all, I'd undervolt the fan fairly heavily and zip tie it directly to the 9600GT. The tiniest bit of directed air flow onto the passive card may make a measurable difference in temps. I'd only really consider doing this if you could make the 40mm fan quiet though.

Oh, and if you do have the Slipstream 1200 rpm, you will need to undervolt it to make it quiet - to about 5V to 7V. If you've got a PWM CPU header, the Mugen 2's fan should be ok.

aimless · Post by **aimless** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 6:34 am

I was afraid it wouldn't mount well anywhere there and I figured it wouldn't do much good unless it was right close to the video card itself.

I don't really want to make use of it since I'm aware it will probably be obnoxiously loud to the point where it will annoy me, but its there so I may as well try it!

If worse comes to worse I'll just buy a 92 mm fan and use that in one of the front bays where its actually meant for. That should do the trick in helping to cool the video card, right?

I held off on buying zalman fanmates for now just because I'd rather hear what it sounds like for myself. I'm aware that my definition of quiet is probably different from everyone elses around here, in that I just want it to be quieter than what I have now

Plus I have a bit of ambient noise. I chose the 1200 rpm fan just because I figured the more air the better and it didn't seem like too much extra noise. If necessary I'll slow it down.

I do have a PWM CPU header (I think). The motherboard I chose comes with:

# 1 x CPU fan header
# 2 x system fan header
# 1 x power fan header

I guess the CPU fan header is PWM? Or maybe not..the notes say that the motherboard supports CPU/System fan speed control. It's the GA-MA790XT-UD4P.

I'm a bit confused about the power and system fan headers (assuming I put the cpu cooler fan into the cpu fan header).

Would the 120 mm rear case fan and the 92/40 mm fans go into the system fan headers? From what I read, that's what I gathered. But then what would the power fan header be for?

Thanks!

JamieG · Post by **JamieG** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 3:03 pm

aimless wrote:I guess the CPU fan header is PWM? Or maybe not..the notes say that the motherboard supports CPU/System fan speed control. It's the GA-MA790XT-UD4P.

I'm a bit confused about the power and system fan headers (assuming I put the cpu cooler fan into the cpu fan header).

Would the 120 mm rear case fan and the 92/40 mm fans go into the system fan headers? From what I read, that's what I gathered. But then what would the power fan header be for?

PWM fans and PWM fan headers are 4 pins, regular fans and fan headers are 3 pin.

Most recent motherboards have the CPU fan header as a PWM fan and the rest as regular 3 pin fans. Some motherboards will allow you to control speeds of fans on 1 or 2 additional 3 pin fan headers through BIOS and/or through using software that comes with the motherboard.

Case fans and aftermarket GPU fans can go on any 3 pin header on the motherboard. If you are not using BIOS or other software to control fan speed, it doesn't matter what the fan header is described as.

Fans also often come with adaptors that turn a molex power connector into a 3 pin fan power connector.

A 92mm front fan, if mounted in the top 92mm fan mount, should help cool your graphics card a bit by focusing some intake air on it.

The Fanmates will be worth it if you buy them - they're pretty cheap and useful to have around in case you do find the fans too noisy at 12V.

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 5:34 am

fanmates are great - got one with my zalman and when i moved to scythe i used it there.

although - i would use it only for a cpu fan when you need versatile control
(if your mobo can't support speed control). and for a case fan find a way to run it at 5\7v all the time.

i wouldn't start to mess around with the 40mm fan. it small but it might be noisy.
if you have a good configuration in the solo, you won't need it.

I would go by putting a quiet 92mm fan up front, quiet 120mm at the back - undervolt them constantly and connect the cpu to a fanmate.

i want to undervolt my 2 fans (rear\front) but my mobo can't support it (they have 3pin connectors).

[does some one know if i can connect 2 120mm fans to one header on the mobo?]