(Yet another) P182 build

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 6:58 am

A few monts ago I posted pictures of my setup here. Pretty soon afterwards I changed quite a few components and now I decided to post pictures of the updated setup. Suggestions are welcome!

Here's the hardware list:

Case: Antec P182 with Nexus fans
PSU: Antec NeoHE 550W
Motherboard: Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 5600+
CPU cooler: Scythe Ninja Rev B
GFX card: Asus Radeon X1950Pro
RAM: OCZ Platinum PC2-6400 Revision 2
HDD: Western Digital 250GB SATAII
ODD: DVD+-RW

And now for the pictures.

Heres a couple of overview pictures with the case open:

And the CPU cooling, no fan on the Ninja, Nexus fans at 650-700 rpm:

I did a filter door mod inspired by Mr. B. I should make the cuts tidier though

Here's a couple of pictures of the cabling work:

And a couple of the PSU and the lower Nexus fan:

That's about it, feel free to comment!

laguz1 · Post by **laguz1** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 8:25 am

damn, thats one nice looking pc

what vid card do you have there?

laguz1 · Post by **laguz1** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 8:26 am

oh nevermind...it was on your earlier post, heh sorry

but yes, thats one good (and neatly routed) pc you've got there

Mr. B · Post by **Mr. B** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 10:15 am

Looks good.

Have you considered removing the upper drive cage?

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 10:09 pm

Mr. B wrote:Looks good. Have you considered removing the upper drive cage?

Yes I have, but on the other hand it helps hide some cables

The biggest issue would be that I don't know where I would put it so I could find it if I need the screws later (the ones in the black little box).

Considering a Nexus drive-a-way or a Schythe Quiet Drive for my HDD though, so I might have to remove at least the lower drive cage.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 10:11 pm

laguz1 wrote:damn, thats one nice looking pc

Thank you.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 9:15 pm

Does anyone have any opinion on Nexus Drive-a-way for silencing HDD?

angelkiller · Post by **angelkiller** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:25 pm

Hi,

How do you like your NeoHE 550? Compared to to the rest of your system, how loud is it? I ask because I have the 500W version and I can clearly hear it over my 800rpm S-Flex's and HDD's. (When the CPU is loaded) Can you tell when (if at all) the fan ramps up?

If you have time, could you remove the lower nexus fan? Does the PSU ramp up faster? What about your HDD temps with and without the fan?

-Thanks

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 12:30 am

angelkiller wrote:Hi,

How do you like your NeoHE 550? Compared to to the rest of your system, how loud is it? I ask because I have the 500W version and I can clearly hear it over my 800rpm S-Flex's and HDD's. (When the CPU is loaded) Can you tell when (if at all) the fan ramps up?

If you have time, could you remove the lower nexus fan? Does the PSU ramp up faster? What about your HDD temps with and without the fan?

-Thanks

I like my NeoHE 550 very much. There has been no noticeable difference in noise compared to the Seasonic S12-430 I had earlier. It is not inaudible though. I kinda regret not going for the Phantom 500, though, but since it is a longer PSU and doesn't have detachable cables, it might have been a bitch to fit in there.

I am not quite sure of how it (the fan on the NeoHE) ramps up, since if I do play a game, my GFX cards fan ramps up too, which causes some increase in noise. At idle it is very quiet though. I am considering passive cooling for my GFX card though, so that might make a difference.

With the NeoHE the HDD was a bit hotter without the Nexus there, I guess mainly because the 80mm moves less air than the 120mm Nexus. Don't remember the exact temps though. I am considering adding a second HDD so I decided to leave the 120mm there for better cooling.

I did not notice any big difference to the fan speed of the NeoHE without the Nexus, although I must admit my testing with this was very brief and not very thorough.

Also my current CPU is not too power hungry, so that reduces the load too (compared to your E4400), but I am gonna change to some Intel goodies within the next few days, using the cheapo E2160 CPU and planning (hoping) of reaching 2,7-3GHz with it, so that might add some load. I might have to add a fan on the Scythe with this. That is only a temporary solution though, will change to Penryn quadcore when they become available.

So I will be pretty much rebuilding this system, and while doing that, if I find the time to test the fan solution on the lower chamber I will post the results.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:14 pm

First tests with new motherboard and CPU.

I am a bit disappointed. With no fan on the Ninja, it reached 80 degrees after 30 mins of load with orthos when OC'd from 1,8 to 3GHz. I browsed around and it seems that many have these sort of temps with their overclocked e2xxx series CPUs, but I'd still like it better if it were cooler. There's no knowing what it would have reached if I had left it running over night.

Then I installed a fan on the scythe (the one that came with it). The results after running orthos for 8 hours are:

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/4509 ... hosov4.jpg

The temps jumped up and down a bit, around 70 degrees is the average I suppose. Better but not very cool still, considering the CPU fan was running at 12V.

Also, at first I applied a very thin layer of thermal paste on the ninja, and pressed the cpu against it. Thermal paste was applied about from 2/3 to 3/4 of the surface are of the heatspreader, leaving a small gap in the middle. Also running at around 75 degrees the Ninja felt cooler than with my previous AMD at around 60-65 degrees. This makes me wonder if I'd need to do some lapping on the heatspreader for a better contact between the CPU and the cooler. Any thoughts? It doesn't seem unstable, at least not at the moment, though.

Also the MSI P35 Neo2-FR has worse fan control than my previous motherboard (which was Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe), it only controls the case fan1 and cpu fans, so I might need to add some zalman fanmates in there to lower the fan rpm of the two remaining case fans that are uncontrolled. It is not what I would call a quiet setup anymore

. Hope the fanmates are able to fix that problem. Lowering the rpm of the fans will raise the temp back up, but to which point, remains to be seen.

SebRad · Post by **SebRad** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:21 am

Hi, sorry to go a bit off topic but I too had issue with noise level of my NeoHE (430 model from P150). The fan had developed a bit of a ticking and was generally a little louder than I would have liked

I ended up swapping the fan for a Noctua 80mm with RPM monitoring, the fan speed changes quite a bit depending on conditions. With the case fans on high enough negative case pressure is produced to cause the NeoHE fan to speed up! Iâ€™ve seen up to about 1300rpm with case fans on max, CPU overclocked to 3.5GHz and full load applied to CPU and GPU. At default speed (2.4GHz) with case fans on low, even under load, the fan doesn't spin fast enough to produce a tach. signal, which means less 900rpm. As it's a decent 80mm fan thatâ€™s pretty quiet

Read all about it here.
Anyway back on topic of Suosaaskiâ€™s impressively tidy PC, just seeing these pictures of tidy P180/182s makes me want one! Iâ€™m curious how good/quiet the graphics cooling is? I also have a X1950pro and know itâ€™s not a very hot card but still needs cooling, the (Asus?) cooler looks like an Arctic Cooling silencer type but doesnâ€™t seam to extend to the side of the case to exhaust hot air. I can believe itâ€™s quiet though, especially idle if the fan speed is low, or lowered with software, eg ATI Tool?
Regards, Seb

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:57 am

The radeon is an Asus one with stock cooler. It is quiet at idle. It is not quiet when under load, but not very loud either. I can live with it.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:23 pm

Updates:

- CPU lapped
- Scythe Ninja lapped
- Voltage at 1,275V (set from BIOS, previous was 1,325V), stable
- EIST enabled in BIOS
- fans set to about 800rpm with Zalman fanmates (all four of them -> what a cable mess, need to tidy this up

)

...result: Temps are about the same as without lapping, changing voltages and lowering the fan speeds, but at least it is a lot quieter now.

Considering ordering a Thermalright LGA 775 Bolt-Thru-Kit for use with the Scythe, as the standard S775 retention system simply sucks. Maybe it will give a firmer contact between the CPU and the cooler and thus perhaps lower the temps, maybe not. At least it should be more secure than that P.O.S. it has now.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 6:03 am

Finally some updates with a couple of pictures.

I suddenly remembered I had an old CPU cooler from a Fujitsu Scaleo that had a backplate for LGA775. Then I decided to browse through my things and there it was! So I took the backplate and screws of it, and applied it to my Ninja. Well, it ain't any cooler, but I would guess it is more reliable than the crap Scythe originally had.

I still need to add some spacers, even though it is secure as it is now.

Here are the pictures, first of the new screws with springs.

Then one of the backplate.

And then one of my RAM... which is irrelavant, I just decided to post the pic

CyberDog · Post by **CyberDog** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 6:24 am

Hi

I have a Nexus Drive-a-Way. I'm a bit dissapointed on it. I'll have a Samsungs p120 in it and I had to suspend it. But in suspended it's allright. But for now I would go to Scythes box because they are allmost the same prize in Finnland.

protellect · Post by **protellect** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 6:38 am

Those temperatures seem hot. Have you thought about mounting the vertical scythe fan blowing towards the other exhaust fan? I've got a feeling that would be more effective.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 7:04 am

protellect wrote:Those temperatures seem hot. Have you thought about mounting the vertical scythe fan blowing towards the other exhaust fan? I've got a feeling that would be more effective.

Well, with the same voltages/fan speeds/etc, and stock speed, it is "only" 60 degrees running Orthos. So after a 70% increase in clock speed, that rise is not so bad, and since it is stable I don't see that big of a problem.

PS. I have not tried that fan configuration. But the temps do lower if I open the sidepanel, so I'm in need of improvement in airflow. Just need to figure out what to improve it with.

cmthomson · Post by **cmthomson** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:58 pm

Suosaaski wrote: Well, with the same voltages/fan speeds/etc, and stock speed, it is "only" 60 degrees running Orthos. So after a 70% increase in clock speed, that rise is not so bad, and since it is stable I don't see that big of a problem.

PS. I have not tried that fan configuration. But the temps do lower if I open the sidepanel, so I'm in need of improvement in airflow. Just need to figure out what to improve it with.

60C at stock is high but tolerable.

You will see a large drop in CPU temperature if you either duct the Ninja to one of the case fans, or bolt a fan onto the Ninja (or like my system, put a fan on the Ninja and duct to a case opening without a case fan).

If you don't want to do that much work, I'd suggest putting a fan on the Ninja and removing one of the case fans, and blocking its hole.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 8:22 pm

cmthomson wrote:
Suosaaski wrote: Well, with the same voltages/fan speeds/etc, and stock speed, it is "only" 60 degrees running Orthos. So after a 70% increase in clock speed, that rise is not so bad, and since it is stable I don't see that big of a problem.

PS. I have not tried that fan configuration. But the temps do lower if I open the sidepanel, so I'm in need of improvement in airflow. Just need to figure out what to improve it with.
60C at stock is high but tolerable.

You will see a large drop in CPU temperature if you either duct the Ninja to one of the case fans, or bolt a fan onto the Ninja (or like my system, put a fan on the Ninja and duct to a case opening without a case fan).

If you don't want to do that much work, I'd suggest putting a fan on the Ninja and removing one of the case fans, and blocking its hole.

Those temps are with a fan on the Ninja...

The fans are all set to as low a speed that they can start with.

I think I need to lap the HS a bit better (lapped with 600 grit, but it was too rough for my liking, as now I can't just simply wipe the HS clean of thermal paste, there's always a notable amount left on the surface, need to buy 1000-1200 grit and lap some more), and figure out a way to make a better retention for the Ninja, as compared to the Athlon I had before, the Ninja doesn't seem to get as hot, which would still suggest there is not as good a contact between the CPU and the cooler as there was with the Athlon.

Edit: Tested again with no fan on the Ninja and case open. The Ninja does seem to get warm, but if I remember correctly, it was hotter with the Athlon, while coretemp reported the Athlon to be cooler than this E2160 when overclocked.

Edit2: As a comment on the fan on the Ninja, there is not as big a difference as some suggest there should be, only a maximum of 3-5 degrees. Any ideas why this is the case?

CyberDog · Post by **CyberDog** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:28 am

Looks like a Ninja can dissipate it heat out even without an fan. So I would guess that heat does not transfer from core to sink. the problem could be in the contact of heatspeader-core or heatspeader-sink.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 7:01 am

Lapped again with 1200 grit. Also tried the Scythe Universal Retention Kit as an optional retention. Temps are still the same. They are higher with the case closed than with the case open, so I'm guessing not enough cool air gets in the case. On the other hand the AMD did report 10 degrees lower temps... and on the other hand, it is impossible to compare them

I'm starting to regret buying this crap from Intel.

On the other hand, it is stable so why should I care, I'll be changing to quadcore CPU anyways, but I think I'll wait and see how penryns perform.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 9:16 pm

I was thinking... should I perhaps try out another cooler for comparison? I have the boxed on that came with the e2160, and then a boxed one that came with an e6300. The latter has copper base and probably better performance.

As a side-note, now the system is running at a roughly 20% CPU load. Simply opening the side-panel of the case has now dropped the temps from 47/48 to 40/42 in about a minute. So I'm still suspecting an airflow-problem, rather than cooler related.

Perhaps I will try to install one of the tricools that came with the P182 as an intake fan at the front and see if that changes anything.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 7:22 am

Did some testing (again):

First of all, the front Tricool at low setting seemed to help around 2 degrees. Still is hotter than with the case open.

Then, testing two of the retentions for the Ninja, stock speed (1,8GHz), case open, all fans set to the lowest possible speed where they start spinning. Running Intel TAT, 100% load for both cores, temps by Intel TAT.

Ninja + Scythe Universal Retention Kit, cores 58-60 degrees (40-42 idle).
Ninja, stock LGA775 retention, cores 56-58 degrees (37-40 idle).

So, at least I were able to prove myself that the SCURK is a waste of money.

I think I'll give up, make a compromise (run it at 2,5GHz or so to lower the temps) even though it is stable at 3GHz too.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 7:29 am

A slight pic update, my lapped e2160

It is no mirror finish, but sufficient.

Wibla · Post by **Wibla** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 7:39 am

before/after temps?

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 8:12 am

Wibla wrote:before/after temps?

You mean the lapping?

I did not make a direct comparison, only that I can run the fans a little lower rpm for the same temps, I'm guessing only 1-2 degrees lower after lapping.

Will be getting a "Penryn" quadcore when they become available (unless they are notably more expensive than q6600, in which case I'll get a q6600), and I will NOT be lapping that. I think it was not worth it, at least not for my e2160 (some might be more uneven), but since it was such a cheap CPU I decided I'd give it a try.

Wibla · Post by **Wibla** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 8:49 am

Ah, okay.

I did the "credit card test" on my new/old E6600 I got for $130.. a week 28 one that should hit 3.5GHz without hassle, compared to my Week 39 that wont even do 3.3... seemed flat enough to me, so im not bothering with lapping

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 10:22 am

Fans at minimum speed they start at, e2160 @3GHz, case open, 10 mins into orthos, 62 degrees... The original Scythe retention for LGA775

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/1172/3ghz62cqt9.jpg

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 10:36 pm

There's some updates on the way:

Will be getting one of these for fan control to replace 4 fanmates, that create an awfull mess in there.

http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/vie ... 4&code=017

I've heard it is not especially good, but since I get it for free, it can't be worse than having fanmates inside the case and having to open the case up to adjust rpm

Also CPU will change from E2160 to Q6600. The CPU-change will happen earlier, in the next few days, might post a few new pictures then. In a couple of weeks will be getting that Zalman, but I might post some "early production" photos with those fanmates. Probably won't even bother to try and hide them though

Anyways, I have not posted the updates after mobo + cpu change simply cause currently it looks awful due to those fanmates and rest of the cable mess, hopefully will get it cleaner when I'll try to re-arrange the cables during the CPU change. Who knows, I might even take a few pictures of the current mess too

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Fri Nov 02, 2007 1:27 pm

Teaser: