Please review my rig

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miahallen
Posts: 305
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:31 pm
Location: Japan

Please review my rig

Post by miahallen » Fri Mar 09, 2007 10:14 pm

I've had a P180 for a couple months now and tried a few different things. But my 8800GTX is arriving in a couple days, and I'm thinking about the following setup. I'll start by listing my components:

A8N-SLI w/ Opty 165 @ 2.7GHz, cooled with Ninja
My only expansion card will be a reference 8800GTX
2x 320GB Caviar SE16 WD3200KS in lower chamber
Enermax Liberty 500W (I've been very happy with it, but I'm hoping it will remain quiet with the additional GPU load....TBC) cooling lower chamber

I have 4 new Yate Loon 120mm fans for the main chamber. Top fan will be removed, front fan and rear fan will be soft mounted in normal locations. Then I'm adding the Silverstone CFP51-B, which will convert the top three 5.25" bays to four 3.5" bays, and adds another 120mm intake fan (which will be swapped for one of the Yate Loons). BTW, the picture says "remove drive case"...should be "cage".
Image

Then I plan to soft mount the 4th fan on the outside of the rear of the case, over the bottom 6 expansion slots. I'll tape up the vents around the P/S & the vents next to the expansion slots. I'll also be cutting out the metal fan grills (front and rear) for improved airflow.
Image

I'll be controlling the 4 Yate Loons with a Vantec NXP-205 3.5" fan controller. I figure normally I'd be able to run them all at 7V.

BTW, I'm not worried about seek noise from the hard drives, they don't bother me at all, and are already fairly quiet.

Any comments/suggestions are welcomed. What do you think?

thejamppa
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Post by thejamppa » Sat Mar 10, 2007 3:31 am

Looks intresting. Be warned though 8800 series card will rise your temperatures few degrees, even up to 4 or more degrees celsius.

I am not sure how that 120mm fan outside case on PCI slot covers work... It can help cooling or it can completely mess your airflow. I can't tell since you have that Silverstone 5,25" ->3,5" converter with 120mm that might help things bit.

But your plan looks really intresting. I let now peoples who have more experience from case air flow and 8800-series do the talking now.

miahallen
Posts: 305
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:31 pm
Location: Japan

some more thoughts....

Post by miahallen » Sat Mar 10, 2007 4:43 am

thejamppa wrote:Looks intresting. Be warned though 8800 series card will rise your temperatures few degrees, even up to 4 or more degrees celsius.

I am not sure how that 120mm fan outside case on PCI slot covers work... It can help cooling or it can completely mess your airflow. I can't tell since you have that Silverstone 5,25" ->3,5" converter with 120mm that might help things bit.

But your plan looks really intresting. I let now peoples who have more experience from case air flow and 8800-series do the talking now.
Thanks for the comments. I've thought a lot about keeping that 8800 cool, her are a couple ideas:

1) Using the lower exhaust fan outside the expansion slots - form a duct that would allow it to draw warm air directly out of the heat vents at the rear bottom side of the 8800. Looking at the side view diagram above, You could clearly see how I could creat a really simple duct that would force the fan to draw all that excess heat right out of the case.

2) Another idea would be to make a divider just above the 8800 running the full length of the case, to creat seperate chambers for cooling the CPU and the GPU. Two wind tunnels each using a 120mm intake and exhaust fan.

3) A combination of option 1 & 2.

I think I'm leaning toward option 1, because I think it would offer the most effective cooling for the 8800GTX (I might try to OC it).

where?wolf
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Post by where?wolf » Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:07 am

You wont need any fan in the cd bay area.

Just get some foam strips and tape them to the cd bay opening, using double sided tape. Then just wedge a 120mm fan filter in there. It works very well in my P180B. And seal all holes inside the cd cage to prevent air leakage.

Also, tuck some foam in the small compartments, under the psu and hd cage, Those compartments amplifies noise.

I guess you are going to duct the Ninja to the exhaust fan?

miahallen
Posts: 305
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:31 pm
Location: Japan

Post by miahallen » Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:33 am

where?wolf wrote:You wont need any fan in the cd bay area.
Just get some foam strips and tape them to the cd bay opening, using double sided tape. Then just wedge a 120mm fan filter in there. It works very well in my P180B. And seal all holes inside the cd cage to prevent air leakage.
I do want the Silverstone CFP51-B as I plan to use at least two of the 3.5" bays it'll provide. And it does have a filter installed for the fan. I was planning to try my setup with and without this fan in use and compare temps. I plan to OC quite a bit. :wink:
where?wolf wrote:Also, tuck some foam in the small compartments, under the psu and hd cage, Those compartments amplifies noise.
Thanks for the reminder, I've seen others do this and was planning to do it as well. :)
where?wolf wrote:I guess you are going to duct the Ninja to the exhaust fan?
I'll check temps with and without, and most likely the duct will be much better...so, yes :roll:

ultrachrome
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Post by ultrachrome » Sat Mar 10, 2007 12:04 pm

I would recommend what cmthomson did with his P180.

Basically isolate the video card in its own cooling chamber. Instead of using the fan on the back, using a fan at the front would retain your ability to install additional cards down the road.

miahallen
Posts: 305
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:31 pm
Location: Japan

Alright, how does she look?

Post by miahallen » Sun Apr 08, 2007 4:56 am

Here's a quick video:
Image

MikeC
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Re: Alright, how does she look?

Post by MikeC » Sun Apr 08, 2007 9:38 am

miahallen wrote:Here's a quick video:
Image
Looks pretty good. ;)

miahallen
Posts: 305
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:31 pm
Location: Japan

not quite happy yet

Post by miahallen » Sun Apr 08, 2007 1:30 pm

What is bugging me now is temps though. The video card is doing OK, @ stock speed, it's idling at 65C and runs up to about 75C at load. But the CPU is also reaching upper sixties under load. That's too hot for a non-OC'd CPU at stock voltage.

I'm hoping however, that the high temps are due to a deteriorating die. What I mean by that, is that about 10 months ago when I bought the CPU, it OC/UV increadibly. But over the last year, it's OCing ability has progressively gotten worse and worse. I used to be able to reach 2.4GHz on only 1.225V very stable (on air). Now, I'm running at stock speed, or slightly over 1.8-2.0GHz, but I have to give it stock voltage 1.35V to remain stable. And I can no longer reach the higher OCs I had before.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the Barcelona/Penryn battle, because it will be the next step :)

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