Fan placement in P183

[wuptdo]

Heya, wondering if anyone can help.

I have just purchased a new P183, and i was wondering how i could place my assortment of fans i have for my case, with my priority being silence obviously.

I was also wondering as to what voltages i should have the fans at.

The following fans to place around my case, or not use at all are;

- 2 Antec Tri Cools (coming with case)
- Xigmatek hdt-s1283 stock fan
- 2 Noctua NF-P12's
- Akasa

The places i would consider mounting the fans are;

- 1 rear - 120mm
- 1 top - 120mm
- 1 lower front chamber - 120mm
- 1 upper front chamber - 120mm
- 1 middle chamber - 120mm
- Xigmatek hdt-s1283 Heatsink (possibly as a 2 fan setup, push+Pull, if you suggest).

Also if you could recommend any fans, for when i go to purchase some more in the future, and as to where they'd go, i'd be greatful.

Thanks

Wuptdo

[Broadleaf]

I highly recommend that you read this spcr article:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article255-page1.html

It can be very limiting to build a silent system. It's not difficult to build a quiet system with lots of computing power. My challenge was to get the system reasonably quiet and non-annoying at idle during the quiet evenings. In my neighborhood my computer is almost silent during the day and when things quiet down in the evening my computer then is tolerably quiet.

You can get enough air pulled into the upper chamber with only a single fan blowing out the back.

My P180 case sits on the floor and the top fan grill is blocked off. The 4 fans I use are:

* the stock cooling on the Sapphire HD 3850 video adapter.
* an Antec tri-cool set to lowest speed in the lower chamber.
* a Scythe Slip Stream (Kaze-Jyuni) 120mm Case Fan, Ultra Low Flow, 500 rpm mounted on the on the Scythe Ninja CPU connected to a constant 12 volts.
* a Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm 1,150rpm Silent Case Fan on the rear location with a 2.5 cm (1 inch) duct in between the fan and the chassis grill to give the turbulent air time to moderate before hitting that nasty cheap steel stammping rear grill. This fan is connected to the cpu fan header for temperature controlled variable speed.

Have fun...

[wuptdo]

Thanks, for your answer, and the link, its much appreciated. I'll have a quick read over that article.

But i guess, as with all things, it's down to trial and error in the end

Getting it just perfect, for you.

Thanks

Wuptdo

[wuptdo]

Right, i've got my P183, got to say it's quite a sheek looking case in my opinion.

However i was wondering as to how people mounted their front fans? Since their is a plastic 3mm shroud, on the metal. I cant use the rubber fan mounts that came with my noctua's, because the hole's too long.

However it does look like they can be removed(The tiny plastic shrouds), before i do this, which will probably permanently break the shroud, has anyone had any crafty ideas as to how they mounted their fans please?

Thanks

Wuptdo

[Shamgar]

Right, i've got my P183, got to say it's quite a sheek looking case in my opinion.

However i was wondering as to how people mounted their front fans? Since their is a plastic 3mm shroud, on the metal. I cant use the rubber fan mounts that came with my noctua's, because the hole's too long.

However it does look like they can be removed(The tiny plastic shrouds), before i do this, which will probably permanently break the shroud, has anyone had any crafty ideas as to how they mounted their fans please?

Thanks

Wuptdo

You may be interested in this thread.

[wuptdo]

Well that was in fact exactly what i was looking for.

Cheers!

EDIT: Erm well.....it didn't go quite as smoothly, as in that post. I kind of broke it. Ah well, i doubt i'll use it again anyway.

Anyway, now my pc, is pretty much silent apart from a buzzing noise, which i think is coming from the centre of the case, which i suspect to be an antec tri cool i mounted in the middle compartment. Or it could be my hdd for some reason or another, maybe knocking against the unused power supply cables?

Apart from that i think it's a pretty good case overall.

[falkenad]

I've got a P183, and I've got 4 S-flex E running in my system. Hooked up to a 4-channel Scythe fan controller, I can turn the voltage up to 12V when I'm running something computationally intensive, and back down to 4-5V when I want them quiet.

I have the S-flex fans mounted at position 1(rear),2(top), and 3(inner middle position). I also have a single S-Flex mounted on my Mugen 2B. I have yet to experiment and see how mounting a second one in a push-pull configuration changes the noise profile. A planned upgrade to the Radeon 7000 series due out this fall(ideally) may necessitate removing the upper hard drive cage. With all this positive buzz, I've been tempted to replace the aging S-Flex fans with newer Noctua ones.

Not wanting to piggyback on your thread, but I'm curious- as I haven't removed the upper drive cage, is there any tangible benefits/disadvantages to mounting a fan at position 4(the outer middle position)?

Lastly- your system's wiring looks quite clean! I've found the P183 series rather like an unbroken horse to work in. I suppose a fully modular power supply would go a long ways to keeping the wiring tidy.

EDIT: Somehow managed to post in this thread instead of viewtopic.php?f=9&t=62986, where this post was meant to be.

[klappa]

With all this positive buzz, I've been tempted to replace the aging S-Flex fans with newer Noctua ones.

Question is, is the Noctua fans any better. Much more expensive yes but better?

[Mr Spocko]

Depends which ones you are on about "Noctua" wise. They are good but personally I thnk overpriced unless they hit their MTBF numbers ala last for ages and ages!
You can't really look at the numbers on many of these fans some makers figures are pure bunk (ie not reflected in real world use) some makers claim to shift more air then they actually do, some have noise levels that are higher than the box numbers indicate. Even the MTBF numbers are open to debate we know higher temperatures should shorten bearing life but few actually quote MTBF with temperatures and if they do it's impossible to know how near to reality that is.

Folks don't just look at the box numbers try some out in various builds sell the ones you don't like simple as that.

I don't think I'll use Noctua again much as I like the 120mm ULN ones they are very quiet and so far are working out well just the price isn't really logical but hey if they really do last that long it might just be worth it, maybe