Antec solo with E8400 and lowpower VGA, but which CPU cooler

Cooling Processors quietly

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mbibt
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Joined: Wed May 14, 2008 8:37 am
Location: Norway

Antec solo with E8400 and lowpower VGA, but which CPU cooler

Post by mbibt » Wed May 14, 2008 9:04 am

I believe the Antec solo is the best case for my use ( mainly because of the option of mounting HDs in elastics, I will anyway not use more the 2 HDs, probably 2 Samsung T166 500gb, which are known to be both cool and silent HD's)

I never play games and will therefore go for a passived cooled VGA card (probably Matrox P690, because I use dual monitors and it's a card which uses very little power, although it's vastly overpriced).

The E 8400 CPU is also ideal in my case.

Motherboard: ASUS MB P5K3 Deluxe (LGA775 Intel P35 ) passively cooled motherboard, but a lot of heatpipes which may be a problem with a big CPU cooler.

Powersupply: Antec Neo HE 430 W, which is more than adequate for me


I have read that there has been som issues with the Antec Neo HE and asus boards, but this is supposed to be fixed now, or.......

If anyone can recommend a better MB for this system to avoid compatibility problems I am happy for any advice

Now, the problem: which CPU cooler? Will the Scythe Ninja Mini fit?

Other option?

Any advice is highly appreciated

Bjorn

NeilBlanchard
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Post by NeilBlanchard » Wed May 14, 2008 11:50 am

Greetings Bjorn & welcome to SPCR!

You should consider the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 (or it's KingWin twin):

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article818-page1.html

sun.moon
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Post by sun.moon » Wed May 14, 2008 12:47 pm

You might wish to consider the P5K series instead of the P5K3 series. The DDR3 RAM on the P5K3 is still quite a bit more expensive than the DDR2 RAM, and the performance improvement is not in any relation to the price difference. (You'll find a lot of reviews and comparisons if you google that.)

-sun.moon

p.s. The Thermalright Ultra 120 fits just fine on my P5K in the Solo.

KyleSTL
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Post by KyleSTL » Wed May 14, 2008 12:55 pm

The Scythe Mini Ninja will fit in almost every case (so long as it has full-sized expansion slots, even the very small Antec NSK2480). The Ninja or Mini Ninja would be good for passive cooling. Also look into the Infinity, TRU, TRUE, S1283 or S963 and a low-speed fan (800 rpm for 120mm, or 1500-2000 for 92mm/80mm). The Scythe Zipang and Shirken (sp?) are also good cooler, but come will an ultra-high-performance price tag.

I second the comment about going with DDR2 memory. DDR3 at the moment is not worth the cost for 99.9999% of computer users (unless money is no object).

mbibt
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Joined: Wed May 14, 2008 8:37 am
Location: Norway

Post by mbibt » Thu May 15, 2008 1:38 am

Thanks a lot everyone for friendly advices. And I believe the Asus P5K is a better choice too. I didn't know DDR3 was that much more expensive, ( about 3 x as much as DDR2 here in Norway, where I live)

I have also see reports that the wifi in the more advanced of these are unstable. I really don't need wifi so I will go for the cheapest of these P5K MB's

I am getting more and more uncertain about the PSU though. Seem like many on this forum have had bad experience with Antecs PSU, especially in combo with ASUS MB's.

I have to look into that before I buy the PSU


But I will definitely go for the Solo case. Hanging HD's in elastics is in my experience some of the most important thing one can do to eliminate annoying vibration noise.

Thanks guys
Bjorn

Tzupy
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Post by Tzupy » Thu May 15, 2008 6:49 am

If you don't plan to overclock and won't use a high-power graphics card, you may try the Thermalright HR-01+ ducted to the exhaust fan.
AFAIK it should fit in the Solo, even if it's a relatively tall heatsink. In worst case, if you can't run it passive, add a 500 rpm Slipstream fan.
It may be difficult to control the speed of the case fan by the mobo in relation to the CPU temp, since the CPU temp sensor may be innacurate.
As for the PSU, the Enermax Pro82 525W would be my choice. Your system would be fine with the 385W version, but I believe the 525W is better built.

bgavin
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Post by bgavin » Sat May 17, 2008 1:01 pm

IMO, the solution for passive cooled video cards is the Evercool Rocket V cooler. It occupies two PCI slots, and uses two 80x10 fans with Ever Lubicate bearings. This is important, because these fans have their axis in the vertical direction when mounted in a typical tower case. I understand vertical mounting is murder on sleeve bearings.

I bought several Rocket V from Newegg for $9.99 each. I have two systems running the MSI NX8500GT video card with the huge passive sink. It idles quite hot to the touch without the Rocket, but is completely cool with the Rocket on Slow speed.

The Rocket has a Lo/Hi switch for fan speed. Hi has too much noise for SPCR tastes, but the Lo speed is quite acceptable. The Lo speed is more than enough to cool the very hot video card, plus it keeps the southbridge cool in a GA-P35-DS3 board.

Rocket V is one of the most useful, nice toys I've found in awhile. At $9.99 it is a steal. It also comes with a replacement bracket, so you can mount where it blows down on the PCI slots.

Nick Geraedts
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Post by Nick Geraedts » Sat May 17, 2008 2:32 pm

Might I recommend getting an older nVidia 7600GS (with dual DVI output) instead of the PCI based Matrox? You'll save some money (quite a bit in fact) and you'll still be able to run dual monitors. Chances are that you can get an aftermarket heatsink to run the video card passively (the Accelero S2 would fit IIRC), and when at idle, it wouldn't add any considerable power draw to your system.

The Accelero VGA coolers are downright incredible. I've got an 8800GT (with S1) and an 8600GT (with S2) in my system (yes, dual video cards - I run three monitors). At idle, the GPUs sit at 39C and 36C respectively, and when I'm gaming, the 8800GT never goes above 55C. Both cards are running passively, although the S2 is sitting right next to the fan intake of my PSU... but anyways! For about $20 (~ 150 NOK - maybe a bit more) a piece... how can you go wrong?

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