New quiet & powerful Solo system :)

daamain · Post by **daamain** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 1:35 am

First I want to say hello, this is my first post but I've been reading SPCR for a long time

I am going to buy a new pc soon, my old Socket A machine doesn't provide enough performance in new games & 1080p movies, and is awfuly loud. I can hear it downstairs. I decided to not make this mistake again and this time I took the rig's volume into consideration. This is what I'm going to get:

- Core 2 Duo E4300
- Abit AB9
- 2 GB Goodram 667 CL 5
- Geforce 8800 GTS 320 MB
- Corsair HX520
- Antec Solo
- Thermalright Ultra 120
- Scythe Quiet Drive
- 2x Fander 120 mm (yes I'm from Poland

)

Unfortunately, my old HDD is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250 GB (I wasn't SPCR reader yet when I bought it

) but I hope Scythe Quiet Drive will help a bit. I can't buy a new one yet

I am going to OC the E4300 to around 3 GHz. I'll take the non-extreme Ultra because of mounting. Extreme has different mounting because of additional heatpipes and people say there are many problems with the new one... So I'll just stick with old, performance difference isn't big.
One Fander will go for the exhaust instead of Antec fan, and the second will be on the Ultra.
My main question is, do I need 1 or 2 92mm fans in front of Solo? I'm more into negative pressure systems, the barracuda will be 5.25s in SQD, but I will put an old 5400 rpm 30 GB HDD down there, but I don't really care about its cooling - it won't hold any important data and since it's a 5400 it's not running hot anyway. The question is, will 1 or 2 fans help with GFX & CPU cooling? Unfortunately 92 mm Fanders are unavalible at the moment, but I'll try to get Nexus 92s

But 1 or 2?

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 4:10 am

Hello & Welcome to SPCR!

How good is the Quiet Drive at cooling the HD? You might want to put one slow running 92mm in front blowing on the HD to be sure to keep the temps down (below 45C?). Oh wait, the Quiet Drive has to go into a 5.25" bay? Then probably no fan is fine; just so the Quiet drive gets good air flow.

Maybe blocking off the main intake in the rear, would pull more air of it, if needed -- and if the video stays cool enough. I think if you don't see the temps you need as you have it configured, a little tweaking would answer your questions. I think you are cerainly on the right track.

If you aren't overclocking, then just get 533 RAM.

daamain · Post by **daamain** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 4:37 am

Hello & Welcome to SPCR!

Thanks

How good is the Quiet Drive at cooling the HD? You might want to put one slow running 92mm in front blowing on the HD to be sure to keep the temps down (below 45C?). Oh wait, the Quiet Drive has to go into a 5.25" bay? Then probably no fan is fine; just so the Quiet drive gets good air flow.

Quiet Drive is really good at cooling, people report temperatures lower than when HDD was in "free air"

Maybe blocking off the main intake in the rear, would pull more air of it, if needed -- and if the video stays cool enough. I think if you don't see the temps you need as you have it configured, a little tweaking would answer your questions. I think you are cerainly on the right track.

What main intake in the rear...? I think I didn't get your idea

If you aren't overclocking, then just get 533 RAM.

I am going to overclock, in my previous post I said I want around 3 GHz

I still don't know how many fans I should put in front...

BIONIC_EARS · Post by **BIONIC_EARS** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 8:52 pm

There's nothing wrong with the U-120 Extreme mounting. It comes with a bracket that retracts to fit through the heatpipes, and is then extended for mounting. Once the heatsink is secure, it allows a certain degree of twisting movement, but it won't move on its own. The fact that it can twist can help remove any trapped air in the paste.

I read a lot about the problems people have been having with these heatsinks, apparently because of poor quality control and rushed production due to high demand. I bought a few and they were all fine.

I personally don't like exhaust-only negative pressure, so I would at least add one intake fan for a more direct and concentrated stream of air. You should experiment to see the impact of an intake fan on noise and temperatures, and then decide.

daamain · Post by **daamain** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 11:27 pm

There's nothing wrong with the U-120 Extreme mounting. It comes with a bracket that retracts to fit through the heatpipes, and is then extended for mounting. Once the heatsink is secure, it allows a certain degree of twisting movement, but it won't move on its own. The fact that it can twist can help remove any trapped air in the paste.

I read a lot about the problems people have been having with these heatsinks, apparently because of poor quality control and rushed production due to high demand. I bought a few and they were all fine.

Here you can see Ultra 120 & 120 extreme mounting:
http://zenfist.pl/foto.php/pID/578/fID/03
http://zenfist.pl/foto.php/pID/1549/fID/02

I have read a lot about problems people have with Ultra extreme mounting, not newbies but experienced people. They had to use additional pads to get good contact/pressure/whatever. No one reported any trouble with normal ultra.

I personally don't like exhaust-only negative pressure, so I would at least add one intake fan for a more direct and concentrated stream of air. You should experiment to see the impact of an intake fan on noise and temperatures, and then decide.

I need fans to experiment with first

I haven't ordered the parts yet, I will do it after 22th of July, because of Intel's CPUs prices drop. Till then 92mm Fanders should be avalible again so I think I will just get two ^^

ACook · Post by **ACook** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 7:04 am

fyi, I have 4 HD's in my p150, in the bottom, all hovering around 40C when idle, and maxing out under 50 when in sustained use, copying for half an hour or so.
The only fans in my system are the Zalman CNPS7700-ALCu, the antec fan at the back set on low, and the antec neohe fan in the psu.
It's not silent, but the zalman makes the most noise, and ramps up slightly when going full speed encoding.

temperatures are all under 50, some under 40 even at idle, no CnQ installed, and barely break 50 under hours of encoding.
This on a DFI Lanparty UT nF4 SLI-D, with Asus EN8500GT SILENT/HTD/256M and an A64 3000+.

I'm sure it could be kept cooler and quieter with a better hsf and fanswap at the back.

point is, those fans near the hd's aren't really necesary.

but 1 would be enough if you want one

speedlever · Post by **speedlever** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:39 am

I put dual 92mm Nexus fans in the front of my Solo. I have a 300 Gb Seagate 7200.7 on the bottom, a Samsung 320 Gb next up, a space and then a 10k rpm 74 Gig Raptor. I also use the Corsair HX520w and it is silent in my experience.

The Seagate 7200.7 runs hottest at 37*C, the Raptor is next at 35*C and the Sammy is coolest at 28*C.

I run the Tri-cool on low and also have a Noctua NH-U12F with 120mm fan and ULNA (ultra-low noise adapter) on the processor.

My video card is a Gigabyte 7600GT SilentPipe II... and I sometimes wonder if I have the correct pressure environment for the passively cooled video card to function properly. I don't presently have a GPU temp monitor active... had trouble with RivaTuner for some reason on Vista/64. IAC, I did see idle temps in the upper 50*C in normal ops at one point.

Your question makes me want to pull the power to one and then both intake fans and see how my system behaves.

BTW, I used that e4300 (oc'd to 2.4 GHz) in another C2D build and really like it lot. I have an e6600 in the system above and could have saved myself some $$ by using the e4300 in it instead. I don't think I would have noticed a difference in my usage.

BIONIC_EARS · Post by **BIONIC_EARS** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:33 am

Experienced people are used to having the heatsink be tight and immovable, so they might think additional pressure is needed to make the Extreme secure, when by design, it already has enough pressure, but the bracket simply allows some twisting movement.

Experience can be a drawback when you're dealing with something new and different than what you're accustomed to.

I have gotten fantastic results with my Extreme/1600RPM S-Flex and an overclocked E6420 with AC MX-1 paste. I always idle at ambient temp, and my TAT load temps stay in the 30s at stock, and go up to the high 50s/low 60s at 3.4GHz with lots of extra voltage (1.48V). My chip is not too great. I'm still in the testing phase so I'm pushing it, but I'll probably settle at 3.2GHz/1.35V.

daamain · Post by **daamain** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:49 pm

Thanks for all the replies.
As I said, there will be just old 5400 drive in the HDD cage, and I don't care about its temperatures. I just wonder if additional fans in front help with CPU & GFX cooling. I think I will get 2 Fanders, they will be inaudible at low rpm and push some air... Will they help with the 8800 GTS cooling?

Experienced people are used to having the heatsink be tight and immovable, so they might think additional pressure is needed to make the Extreme secure, when by design, it already has enough pressure, but the bracket simply allows some twisting movement.

Experience can be a drawback when you're dealing with something new and different than what you're accustomed to.

Adding additional pressure was followed by a great drop of temperatures, it definitely didn't fit well.

I have gotten fantastic results with my Extreme/1600RPM S-Flex and an overclocked E6420 with AC MX-1 paste. I always idle at ambient temp, and my TAT load temps stay in the 30s at stock, and go up to the high 50s/low 60s at 3.4GHz with lots of extra voltage (1.48V). My chip is not too great. I'm still in the testing phase so I'm pushing it, but I'll probably settle at 3.2GHz/1.35V.

Well, I know a guy who had a lot of problems with fitting the Ultra 120 extreme, but he finally managed to and now his CPU is running everyday @ 3800 MHz with nice temperatures.

BIONIC_EARS · Post by **BIONIC_EARS** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:38 am

Yeah, I read some more instances of mounting problems. On one site, a washer was added on top of the base, beneath the bracket, to add pressure after the heatsink was lapped.

Whether the problems are with flawed design, bad quality control, slight motherboard incompatibilities, user modification, or user incompetence, I just wanted to express one opinion of satisfaction.

As to your main question: I think having one intake fan should certainly help CPU and GFX cooling by supplying a more channeled flow of cool air, but it all depends on how air will be drawn by the CPU and GFX fans in the absence of an intake fan. For example, consider the difference between controlled, negatively pressured flow via a duct that allows a direct inlet of fresh air, and simple, undirected, negatively pressured flow where so many factors come into play as to how the air will circulate in your case. I personallly think it's worth it to spend the money on the fans and find the best solution yourself, for your particular situation.

daamain · Post by **daamain** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:11 am

I think I will just get 2, 92mm fans aren't expesive after all.
So now the main problem is the Ultra.

Yeah, I read some more instances of mounting problems. On one site, a washer was added on top of the base, beneath the bracket, to add pressure after the heatsink was lapped.

Can you give me a link to this site? I would like to see it.

BIONIC_EARS · Post by **BIONIC_EARS** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:13 am

http://www.exoid.com/?page_id=94

daamain · Post by **daamain** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 6:46 am

Thanks for help, I decided I will get a non-extreme Ultra. But I've got another question, about 120 mm fans this time. For front I will get 2x92mm Fanders or Nexus if Fanders are unavalible. But after checking the SPCR reviews again I've got doubts if Fander is the best choice. Maybe a 800 rpm Scythe S-Flex is better? How loud is it on 12v, is 8800 GTS fan or 3.5" HDD in SQD louder? Is it capable of keeping C2D with TR Ultra 120 cool? Is it going to push enough air out of the case?