Hi Guys,
Building a DAW for a musician who wants a powerful, silent, portable machine... Interesting challange.
Best mobo looks like the Neo2, but the Asus A8V is also a runner. nF4 is incompatible with pro soundcards so there is not a lot oc choice here. CPU is X2 4600, with 3 x Seagate 200GB HD.
Anyway cooling the CPU:
I've been using the search facility and reading the reviews. It seems that the best cooler is the Thermalright XP-120, with the Zalman CPNS7700 AlCu in second place.
But the XP-120 won't quite fit on the Neo2. Maybe by bending one capacitor...
Any advance on this situation?
I'm in the UK. Can anybody tell me what fan to get for the XP-120 (that's available) and where to get it. I think I'm going to need a fan that pushes 30-35 CFM at the full 12v.
I'm putting this machine into a my own case design, with a muffler made of acoustic material on the air input, and the HD suspended in mounts also made of acoustic material. The case ventialtion fans are all internal - 3 x 120mm fans running at 5v. Nothing (that makes noise) is anywhere near the surface of the case.
Seasonic PSU.
That all works, I'm currently using the Zalman and even at idle with the Zalman fan at c. 950 rpm it's the only audible component.
The big problem is that at 100% CPU load the heat builds up and the Zalman fan goes to c. 2000 rpm. Part of the problem is that the Zalman pushes air down, making it very hard to collect all the hot air (after it has cooled the CPU) and get it out of the case. The air around the CPU is definately re-circulating. I measured the air temp near the CPU at 40C, when the temp the other side of the graphics card was 30C (room at 25C).
Clearly a cooler (like the XP-120) that could be set up to push air up would work better. I can build a duct to ensure all the hot air goes out with that setup. Has anybody had any luck putting a different fan on the Zalman (it's easy ebough to get off) and reversing the direction of airflow (probably harder)?
Or some other cooler?
Thanks for your thoughts. Great site.
Peter
Cooling X2 on a Neo2
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
The cpu socket on the A8V Deluxe is in a better location. I have this board myself, the only thing I can complain about is that if the cpu fan is too slow it comes up with a 'press F1 to resume' type message. You can disable it by telling it not to monitor the fan speed. I think other boards do this too. I just use fan monitoring software in Windows.
A 'sucking' fan works really well, I use the XP/90 with an 80mm fan @ 5v, and then a Nexus case fan @ 7v. The hot air goes straight out the case. The only problem I had is that the Nexus power supply sucked up some of the hot air and was running hotter than it needed to. This is easier to deal with with a sucking fan, I used an elastic band and a piece of cardboard to create a partition so that no air coming off the cpu could get to the power supply. As I have it, it could handle a very hot cpu without affecting any other components. I would probably need to speed up the cpu-fan though. That fan hardly moves air at the moment (perhaps a CFM of 30% of the 7v Nexus). I do have a Winchester though.
So, knowing how well my own setup cools, I would say the XP/90 should be just fine. It is also less cumbersome. Don't get the Zalman, you can't easily reverse the fan, you can't easily change the fan, people have said the fan isn't great, and apparently it experiences dust problems.
What case do you plan to get?
A 'sucking' fan works really well, I use the XP/90 with an 80mm fan @ 5v, and then a Nexus case fan @ 7v. The hot air goes straight out the case. The only problem I had is that the Nexus power supply sucked up some of the hot air and was running hotter than it needed to. This is easier to deal with with a sucking fan, I used an elastic band and a piece of cardboard to create a partition so that no air coming off the cpu could get to the power supply. As I have it, it could handle a very hot cpu without affecting any other components. I would probably need to speed up the cpu-fan though. That fan hardly moves air at the moment (perhaps a CFM of 30% of the 7v Nexus). I do have a Winchester though.
So, knowing how well my own setup cools, I would say the XP/90 should be just fine. It is also less cumbersome. Don't get the Zalman, you can't easily reverse the fan, you can't easily change the fan, people have said the fan isn't great, and apparently it experiences dust problems.
What case do you plan to get?
Hi, thanks...
I just tried the XP-120 and I did get it to fit. I now have the system running Prime 95 on both CPUs with the CPU fan at 1350rpm and the PSU fan at 900rpm.
The XP-120 is acting as a sucker, like you suggested. I have it surrounded by a duct made of 1" thick acoustic NS-foam. This also acts as a heat insulator. The rest of the machine seems quite cool.
I'm not getting any case - I'm using one I designed.
Air comes in the front through a muffler consisting of layers of NS-foam (2" in total) drilled with holes offset so there is no straight line route for noise. It pasees over the HD (no route round) to the ventialtion fans - 3 x 120mm running at 5v buried deep inside the case.
The other side of the ventialtion fans is the PSU and mobo. The PSU is at the bottom of the case - like in the Antec P180 - rather than the top to keep it well away from the CPU. This case isa a prototype, but the production version will be made form 3mm aluminium sandwich as the outer case. and dense PVC foam for the intenals with NS-foam as the sound blocker/muffler material and mutmat as an interior lining to absorb noise.
If I had a decent noise meter I'd be able to tell you how quiet is or isn't. All I can say is that I think it's quiet, but far from silent, as I can just hear it from the other side of a silent room when it'd going full blast.
Must do better....
Peter
I just tried the XP-120 and I did get it to fit. I now have the system running Prime 95 on both CPUs with the CPU fan at 1350rpm and the PSU fan at 900rpm.
The XP-120 is acting as a sucker, like you suggested. I have it surrounded by a duct made of 1" thick acoustic NS-foam. This also acts as a heat insulator. The rest of the machine seems quite cool.
I'm not getting any case - I'm using one I designed.
Air comes in the front through a muffler consisting of layers of NS-foam (2" in total) drilled with holes offset so there is no straight line route for noise. It pasees over the HD (no route round) to the ventialtion fans - 3 x 120mm running at 5v buried deep inside the case.
The other side of the ventialtion fans is the PSU and mobo. The PSU is at the bottom of the case - like in the Antec P180 - rather than the top to keep it well away from the CPU. This case isa a prototype, but the production version will be made form 3mm aluminium sandwich as the outer case. and dense PVC foam for the intenals with NS-foam as the sound blocker/muffler material and mutmat as an interior lining to absorb noise.
If I had a decent noise meter I'd be able to tell you how quiet is or isn't. All I can say is that I think it's quiet, but far from silent, as I can just hear it from the other side of a silent room when it'd going full blast.
Must do better....
Peter