Tuning my Antec 180 to new heights, advice welcome! Updated

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bsdie
Posts: 42
Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 3:57 am
Location: Lund, Sweden

Tuning my Antec 180 to new heights, advice welcome! Updated

Post by bsdie » Sun Aug 20, 2006 12:33 pm

Hello masters of silence! Im going to upgrade/tweak my not-quiet-enough system in the coming week and I would appreciate any comments before I commence. This post is actually a follow up on a post I made several months ago, building the very system that I am tweaking today. So if I refer to anything from my old post, this is where you find it:

Several months earlier..

Since my last post Ive been running the suggested system with a few changes, including giving up the idea of SLI due to cost and heat (se the above post). Since I was plagued by different hardware issues I finally took a break when my computer was up and running. The problems that I had were..

-7800GT that was dead on arrival due to bad packing, I was sent a 7800GTX instead as compensation so I didnt complain (Althou this has proven to a somewhat of a problem, as you will soon se).
-My Abit motherboard died after a week. Wich made me order the only other passive board the store had, the Asus that I use today.
-One of my harddrives died.
-The computers harddrives kept turning themselves off, wich turned out to be due to my seasonic 500 psu (new, but the 12v was actually running at 9v).

After I finally got the system to work I had the following setup:

Asus A8N32-SLI
AMD 64 3700+ with a Zalman 7000cu at 5v. (The cooler from my old system)
2 gigs of Corsair ram
7800GTX (Bfg) with a Zalman VF700cu at 5v. (Again, re-used cooler)
Antec 380 (from the Sonata 1)
Asus quiet-tech DVD and CDRW (two drives, had the CDRW in my old system)
WD Raptor 74
WD SE 320GB
SPCR 180


Except the fans included above I use 4 x 120 mm fans to cool the case. 2 are Adda fans with low noise and the other two are the ones included in the 180. I use the Adda fans at the front of the upper chamber as well as the rear top of the case, then the two included fans on minimum in the lower chamber as well as the top.

I recently ordered a x2 4600 due to the pricecuts (in the end I took your advice McBanjo!), and when I install it Im planning to do some changes to my system. The system as it is now isnt very quiet by my standards, most of the people around me would beg to differ, but I am sure the crowd at SPCR would not. I can easily hear the fans working, and on top of this I noticed that Im having some heat issues that I will show you below.

Heres the heat of my system on a decent summer day in Sweden, roughly 24 degrees indoors (In a 1930's building like ours, the heat outside affects the flat's temperature alot) ambient:

Load: (Cpu-burn, rthdribl and compressing a large folder)

Cpu: 59c
Motherboard: 53c
WD Raptor: 36c
WD 3200: 36c
VGA: 83-84

Idle: (5 minutes after Load)

Cpu: 49
Motherboard: 49
WD Raptor: 36
WD 3200: 36
VGA: 53


As you can se my harddrives are nice and cool, I couldnt belive it that they didnt warm up under load, but that might be due to the large amount of CPU power going to Cpu-burn and rthdribl, not leaving enough power for the harddrives to work properly on their task. The CPU is hot but alright, the graphics card is burning up.

What I want to do is to make my system cooler and more quiet. All at the same time. Here are my suggested changes:

-Fan swap in the Antec psu, since it has one fan only and its pointing the right way (out, not down) I hope to use it to cool the entire lower chamber. A nexus 80mm will be used.
-Removing the top fan and the lower chamber fan.
-Fan swap on the 7000-cu to a 92mm nexus, hopefully this will be enough to cool the new 4600.
-Swapping the fan on the 7800GTX to a AC Nv 5 instead of the VF700-cu.

What I want to acheive is to lower the noise, remove the heat from the gfx in the upper chamber, and cool the new cpu adequately. To do this I figured my best shot would be to remove the bottom fan (since the harddrives will probably be fine with the Antec psu + some duct tape), remove the top fan and seal the opening, and then most importantly lower the heat in the upper chamber, by switching to a Nv 5. A VF900 would be better for the card itself, but would heat up my passive motherboard as well as the new CPU.
I want to keep as many parts as possible and keep my costs down where possible. Ive considered a Ninja or a 9500 for the cpu, but the 7000-cu is free, they are not.

Any comments are welcome and I promise to post the finished project in a few weeks time in the system section. It wont be anything revolutionary, but it might be an aid to others with hot hot graphics cards, a decent system and an 180. If nothing else my temp raitings before and after might help someone. The answers I seek:

-Will a 7000-cu be able to handle a 4600 x2 with a nexus fan even if I remove the top fan?
-General advice and opinions. Feel free to bash the setup if you like, I wont be offended.


If you read this far, thanks for bearing with me!

/Johan

Edit: added some pictures, people love pictures. Its very dusty at the moment, that grey thing clogging up the 7000-cu, dust.

Heres a lousy sideview shot from an unsteady hand:
Image
And heres the desk that the system calls home. Its usually pushed into the corner, jutting out since I moved it doing tests.
Image
Last edited by bsdie on Sat Dec 16, 2006 10:08 am, edited 3 times in total.

darthan
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Location: San Francisco

Post by darthan » Sun Aug 20, 2006 1:36 pm

Hmmm, mostly sounds good. It sounds like you'll be making things hotter and quieter, not cooler and quieter since most of what you're going to be doing is removing fans and reducing fan speeds. I would hold off on replacing the fan in the Sonata PSU if I were you. I'm using the same set-up with the Sonata I PSU in a P180 and that fan is dead quiet. You're much more likely to be hearing your hard drives and the stock P180 fans than the one in the PSU. Of course replacing it also entails opening the PSU, never the safest thing, and risking busting it because a Nexus attached to its fan controller won't provide as much airflow as the stock fan. Especially if you're going to use it as the sole airflow source for the hard drives I'd avoid replacing the fan.

Again I have the same caution about replacing the fan on the 7000cu: you're CPU is going to be hotter, and the 4600+ is significantly hotter than the 3700+. It may work, or the CPU temp may move out of the range that is comfortable. Generally CPUs will throttle if they go over 70C and anywhere in the 60s is probably a little to toasty for regular work. On the other hand, the AC Nv 5 will probably improve your graphics temps and can't hurt the CPU. I don't think it will improve CPU cooling much, your set-up has too much airflow in the CPU area for graphics card heat to be seriously warming it.

bsdie
Posts: 42
Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 3:57 am
Location: Lund, Sweden

Post by bsdie » Sun Aug 20, 2006 2:11 pm

Your right, overall system temperature will probably rise some. Trying to make it quieter and cooler isnt really correct. What Im trying to acheive is to even it out some.

Basically Id up the heat on the harddrive some, hopeing that the Antec will be able to cool them. Do you think I can do that without it ramping up? Ill listen to it carefully after reading your advice before swapping the fan. Im not sure about it, but subjectively the system seemed noisier after I returned my defect Seasonic (I used it for a while before discovering the defect) and switched to the Antec.

I had a quick peep at the CPU ratings when the graphics card was idle. Wether its 5v or 12v didnt seem to matter, it was still 53c (tried it just now for a few minutes, if I started it at 12v and leaving it on would probably lower the temp). So your conclusion that the airflow around the CPU is good enough seems to hit the spot, the big fans probably do alot of the cooling. I was just hoping that since the 4600 can be run passively with two 120mm's and a Ninja in the 180, I should hopefully be able to run it with one 120mm fan and an active heatsink. If I have to swap it, do you think the stock heatsink that comes with the 4600 x2 is a viable option with a nexus fan? Ive heard its pretty decent, might even be better then the 7000-cu?

Thanks for your reply, its great to hear others opinions. Especially before such a daunting task as taking the 180 apart.

Edit:

How does a 7000-cu with a nexus at 12v compare to the stock fan at 5v?
And how big is the difference in airflow between the nexus 80mm and the stock fan in the Antec PSU?

bsdie
Posts: 42
Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 3:57 am
Location: Lund, Sweden

Post by bsdie » Mon Aug 21, 2006 5:27 am

Did some further testing. I disconnected the lower chamber fan as well as the top one to se how much the case would heat up. Both the CPU fan and the vf700 are at 5v. The lower chamber fan is still there obstructing, and the vents at the back arent sealed as they should be, so the temps should be lower once I remove the dust and seal the case properly. These were my results, old values in brackets:

Load:

Cpu: 59c [59]
Motherboard: 55c [53]
WD Raptor: 42c [36]
WD 3200: 43c [36]
VGA: 84-86 [83-84]

Idle: (5 minutes after Load)

Cpu: 49c [49]
Motherboard: 52c [49]
WD Raptor: 42c [36]
WD 3200: 43c [36]
VGA: 55c [53]


Im guessing that with a proper sealed lower chamber as well a removal of the obstructing fan the temps will go down some for the harddrives, wich should make it acceptable for them.
The motherboard is still fairly hot, and should run cooler when an Nv 5 is installed, loosing the largest heat villain in my case. Im somewhat worried about the noise of the Nv5, the VF700 is very unobtrusive at 5v's. But Im hoping it will be ok with Rivaturner controlling the fan.
The graphics card is burning up, even more so when the top fan was removed. The VF700 isnt able to handle a 7800GTX at 5v's thats plain to se.
The CPU is running a bit to hot for my taste as well. And I guess I have tree options based on what Ive read on the forum, and your suggestions darthan. Either I can use the stock fan supplied with the 4600 with an 80mm nexus, if its the good one with the 4 heatpipes, or mod the 7000-cu with a Nexus on 12v. Im uncertain wich of the two coolers will cool the 4600 the best, 7000-cu with a 92mm nexus or the stock cooler with an 80mm nexus. If that is inadequate Ill have to invest in either a Ninja or a Zalman 9500.
I turned off all the fans except the PSU and listened, its clearly audible but not obtrusive. The fan in combination with the 7000-cu stock fan is the most audible component in my case. The question is if a 80mm nexus is enough to cool it properly in the lower chamber. I could move the harddrives up into the upper chamber to lower the heat in the lower chamber, alternatively move just one of them.

Mats
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Location: Sweden

Post by Mats » Mon Aug 21, 2006 10:50 am

Have you undervolted the CPU yet?

Maybe you should consider a VF 900?



Lundabo du med ser jag....

bsdie
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Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 3:57 am
Location: Lund, Sweden

Post by bsdie » Tue Aug 22, 2006 1:46 am

I dont know much about undervolting, but Ive considered it. I guess it depends on how hot it runs with wichever fan I pick (7000-cu or the stock with a nexus).

I really like my VF700, so a VF900 would be a natural choice. But I suspect that the my graphics card is the main heat-hog in my system, warming the motherboard and other components up. Only way to handle that is either more large fans, a cooler graphics card or an Nv 5 or similar construction. I could try the VGA duct of course.

With Rivaturner or NiBiTor I think the Nv 5 will be a wise choice.

warriorpoets review

I listened carefully to the system last night and its mainly the powersupply and my cpu fan that is making noise. The PSU is working very hard to run this system and is probably ramping up due to the effort. So Im swapping it for a Seasonic M12, since my friend desperately needs a PSU for his computer and would like my old Antec.

Now if I could just find the money for a Ninja... =)

Mats
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Location: Sweden

Post by Mats » Tue Aug 22, 2006 3:14 am

Start with undervolting, since it won't cost you anything except time. Then you change heatsink if needed.

bsdie
Posts: 42
Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 3:57 am
Location: Lund, Sweden

Post by bsdie » Tue Aug 22, 2006 6:50 am

After reading some more about the two coolers Ive changed my order (hope I still can, it isnt shipped, but I payed with VISA, wich might make it tricky) to a VF900. I used to have a Silencer Rev. 1 that wasnt very quiet and I hoped that Rev. 3 had solved the issues. But since that doesnt seem to be the case Ill go with the trusted Zalman VF-900. My VF700 has been great but it doesnt manage to cool my 7800GTX properly at a decent setting.

This is my suggested setup at the moment:

Asus A8N32-SLI
AMD 64 x2 4600+ with the stock cooler + an 80mm nexus (if its the 4 heatpipe version, still not sure if the 7000-cu is better or worse)
2 gigs of Corsair ram
7800GTX (Bfg) with a Zalman VF900-cu at 5v (If its possible to run it at that speed, but my VF700 almost manages, so it should be fine)
Seasonic M12 500
Asus quiet-tech DVD and CDRW (two drives)
WD Raptor 74
WD SE 320GB
SPCR 180
2x 120mm adda's


Ill seal the lower chamber hoping that the seasonic will draw the air from the harddrives, even thou its fan is placed downwards.
Ill keep one adda pulling air from the front and blowing it over the graphics card, and the other at the top-back.
Ill seal the rest of the case.

Hopefully the stock cooler + nexus + adda will be enough to cool the cpu.

bsdie
Posts: 42
Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 3:57 am
Location: Lund, Sweden

Post by bsdie » Thu Sep 07, 2006 3:10 pm

The system is almost complete now. And Ive been running some test on different configurations.

1. Nexus + Stock = temps over 50c during load. Booo!
2. Zalman 7000cu + Nexus (92mm) = temps over 50c during load. Booo!

So Im ordering a Ninja.

As soon as the setup is complete I promise to post pictures!

geofelt
Posts: 23
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 9:05 pm

Post by geofelt » Thu Sep 07, 2006 6:48 pm

I had some problems with an intel 670 and a7800gt. I changed to an arctic silencer rev5? vga cooler, and I got relatively cool and quiet on both the cpu and the vga. Why?? The arctic silencer which is a two slot solution expels the heated vga air out of the case, instead of recirculating it throough the cpu, then out.

bsdie
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Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 3:57 am
Location: Lund, Sweden

Post by bsdie » Fri Sep 08, 2006 1:30 am

I actually ordered a Nv5 cooler, but swapped it for a VF900 due to reports of the fan having low quality. Im fairly sure that exhausting the air out of the case from the VGA would help my CPU quite a bit. Hopefully a Ninja will do the trick, if its to hot Ill add a fan to it for a push-pull effect.

bsdie
Posts: 42
Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 3:57 am
Location: Lund, Sweden

Post by bsdie » Sat Dec 16, 2006 8:57 am

Hello SPCR!

Im still working on improving my decently quiet system, its the same system that Ive posted about earlier in this thread.

This time Im experimenting with ducting. The problem has always been my hot 7800gtx, which heats up my processor which then causes speedfan to ramp up the fans. As a solution Ive experimented with a temporary cardboard duct to se what whould happen if I separated the 7800 from my 4600x2. Temperatures dropped about 5c, which has made it possible for me to leave the fans running below whats audible to me even under max load (cpu tops out at 55c when its been working hard for several hours).

The cardboard duct is just a quick cutout, with lots of room for air to slip up to the processor, so when Ive actually made a proper one the temps should be even better.

Image
This is my system without the duct, my apologies for the blurry picture.

Image
And heres the duct in place, you can se that it is quite crude.

Image
Another picture, this time with flash.

Image
And the system from the front, with the "intake".

I need to find some for of front for the intake. The scythe kama is great, but it needs 3 slots and I only have 2 to spare. Ive found this front intake from Lian-Li:

Image

It appears somewhat restrictive, and to compensate I suspect that I would need an 80mm nexus to avoid starving the two 120mm fans cooling the top compartment. Im not sure. Id like to avoid another fan in my system since I already have 4 120mm's (would love to get rid of one of them). Perhaps the fans cooling the cpu will be strong enough to pull air from the front without the aid of an additional fan?

Does any of you have suggestions for intakes that look decent in the P180, or further suggestions for a good ducting. Im going to take the computer apart and finish all the cables (they are all over the place since Ive been experimenting, turning on and off fans, and moving things around) after christmas, and Im thinking about ordering the Lian-Li front since I cant seem to find any other 2 slot options for my case.

Here are my current temps for those interested (running cpuburn and Real-time HDR IBL for 10 minutes):

Load (running cpuburn and Real-time HDR IBL for 10 minutes)
CPU: 50c
VGA: 71c
Local: 54c

Idle
CPU: 41c
VGA: 47c
Local: 41c

The hardware has changed a bit:

Asus A8N32-SLI
AMD 64 4600 x2 with a Scythe Ninja, running the stock fan at 5v
2 gigs of Corsair ram
7800GTX (Bfg) with a Zalman VF900 at 5v
Seasonic M12 500w
Asus quiet-tech DVD and CDRW (two drives, had the CDRW in my old system)
WD Raptor 74
WD SE 320GB
SPCR 180


Before I pick my system appart Id like to find a good intake, and perhaps decide whether to remove some of the 120mm fans. Any advice is appreciated!

bryzzz
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Post by bryzzz » Sat Dec 16, 2006 9:30 am

to my knowledge, I do not know of any front intakes for p180 (due to the rail system, but if any SPCRers out there have intakes, please let me know! I'm dying to install one myself!

I think scythe kama and that lian li are the only options, but i heard scythe kama wont fit?

bsdie
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Location: Lund, Sweden

Post by bsdie » Sat Dec 16, 2006 9:33 am

Im not 100% certain that the Lian-Li will fit, and Im still dubious since it looks like its restrictive. For Lian-Li cases its guaranteed, and its supposed to work on most standard cases according to their site.

pyogenes
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Location: Chicago

Post by pyogenes » Sat Dec 16, 2006 10:20 am

bryzzz wrote:I think scythe kama and that lian li are the only options, but i heard scythe kama wont fit?
It fits fine. You need to screw the included extensions to the main grill part then attack the rails to that.

s_xero
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Post by s_xero » Sat Dec 16, 2006 10:29 am

In your "old system" ........ehum, DUST geeez

sickening dude, love your attempts though

bsdie
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Location: Lund, Sweden

Post by bsdie » Sat Dec 16, 2006 11:08 am

s_xero wrote:In your "old system" ........ehum, DUST geeez

sickening dude, love your attempts though
I noticed that as well when I compared them to the new pictures. When I installed the ninja and removed the 7000cu I tried to clean it, whew! That fine layer of micro-dust really was a pain to remove from the flower design. Both the Cpu cooler and the fans in that first picture have been in 2 computers prior to this one, so its an old finish of dust thats been gathering. The soundcard at the bottom is even older.

Since then Ive purchased air-on-a-can.

MikeC
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Post by MikeC » Sat Dec 16, 2006 11:15 am

So you want the 2-bay intake grill just for cosmetics, right? Surely you can find some mesh of some kind somewhere and just a bit of glue -- a hot glue gun is useful.

With the divider duct in place, you now have 3 thermal zones -- PSU and HDDs on the bottom, the VGA in the middle and the CPU/VRMs in the top. This seems to work fine already.

Your temperatures are perfectly good -- in fact, you have headroom to let them rise a bit in order to reduce the noise.

Here's what I'd do for cooling / noise...

1) remove the "grill" covers from both the front intakes. This will increase the airflow. Leave the filters on. It won't look as "exposed". Paint any visible metal black if you want. Run the system with the front door closed -- it is quieter than way.

2) remove all the PCI slot covers. This will ensure that the hot air around the VGA card blows out -- and increase the overall airflow down there.

2) turn the top panel fan off -- and remove it.

3) add a "duct" -- just a straight piece of cardboard or whatever -- parallel to the back panel, going from the top panel and reaching an inch or so below the NInja. It has to be wider than the Ninja. This will force air to be pulled in from the top vent and across some of the HS fins.

I painted your photo to show you what I mean:

Image

4) You should be able to run all your fans at 5~7V. And you might be able to remove the fan on the HS... or maybe leave the HS fan on and remove the back panel fan.

bsdie
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Location: Lund, Sweden

Post by bsdie » Sat Dec 16, 2006 12:07 pm

MikeC wrote:So you want the 2-bay intake grill just for cosmetics, right? Surely you can find some mesh of some kind somewhere and just a bit of glue -- a hot glue gun is useful.
Its just for cosmetics, Ive considered modders mesh from mnpctech.com as an option. I could give it a go, would be less restrictive Im sure. But if I turn off the top fan, and duct it like youve suggested, will I even need a front intake?
MikeC wrote:With the divider duct in place, you now have 3 thermal zones -- PSU and HDDs on the bottom, the VGA in the middle and the CPU/VRMs in the top. This seems to work fine already.

Your temperatures are perfectly good -- in fact, you have headroom to let them rise a bit in order to reduce the noise.

Here's what I'd do for cooling / noise...

1) remove the "grill" covers from both the front intakes. This will increase the airflow. Leave the filters on. It won't look as "exposed". Paint any visible metal black if you want. Run the system with the front door closed -- it is quieter than way.
I did a boo-boo when I cut out the grills. I removed the top-front grill properly, but when I took out the lower one I took all of it, even the part where the filter latches on. Might be able to fix that with modders mesh or some form of grill thou.
MikeC wrote: 2) remove all the PCI slot covers. This will ensure that the hot air around the VGA card blows out -- and increase the overall airflow down there.

2) turn the top panel fan off -- and remove it.

3) add a "duct" -- just a straight piece of cardboard or whatever -- parallel to the back panel, going from the top panel and reaching an inch or so below the NInja. It has to be wider than the Ninja. This will force air to be pulled in from the top vent and across some of the HS fins.

I painted your photo to show you what I mean:

Image

4) You should be able to run all your fans at 5~7V. And you might be able to remove the fan on the HS... or maybe leave the HS fan on and remove the back panel fan.
Ill definately try your suggestions Mike, thanks for the tips! Ill close up the front intake at first and se how it behaves, perhaps it will be enough with the top one.

EDIT:

I did some quick and dirty testing with a peice of cardboard and turning the top fan off (but didnt remove it):

Image

Temps under full load, both vga and cpu:
local 54
vga 72
cpu 57-58 (but with the fan at 80% instead of 55% under speedfan, sometimes ramping up to 100% when it reaches 59c)

Temps with just cpu load, no vga load:
local 46
vga 51
cpu 57-58 (same as above)

But this is with bad ducting, no front intake and small vents at the back. Hopefully it will drop the 2-3 degrees that is needed to avoid the fans/fan ramping up when its properly done(Speedfan is set to avoid 59c, the cpu's max temp). If that doesnt work perhaps I can use two fans for a push-pull effect.

JohnFL
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Question Mike

Post by JohnFL » Sun Dec 17, 2006 9:13 pm

MikeC wrote:Here's what I'd do for cooling / noise...

1) remove the "grill" covers from both the front intakes. This will increase the airflow. Leave the filters on. It won't look as "exposed". Paint any visible metal black if you want. Run the system with the front door closed -- it is quieter than way.

2) remove all the PCI slot covers. This will ensure that the hot air around the VGA card blows out -- and increase the overall airflow down there.

2) turn the top panel fan off -- and remove it.

3) add a "duct" -- just a straight piece of cardboard or whatever -- parallel to the back panel, going from the top panel and reaching an inch or so below the NInja. It has to be wider than the Ninja. This will force air to be pulled in from the top vent and across some of the HS fins.
Mike, i am running a Zalman CNPS7000B-ALcu fan, instead of the Ninja, and i just did some of the mods that you mentioned up above.

I did #1 like you said.

Then i added a piece of cardboard to create a duct ( splitting the upper compartment into two like you guys showed in the pictures ). So now i have a 120mm fan sitting in front of the upper hard drive bay, which pushed the air over the 2 drives, and then goes out the back where i removed the PCI slot covers. Also, let me say, that i have the older style P180 ( cause Fry's Electronics sent me the older version.. just got it a week ago ), and i am using the VGA duct, with an 80mm fan in it exhausting the air out the back.... another no no i guess, but if it keeps my VGA card cool, that makes me happy.

I then tackled #3. First let me say that i have ordered a Kama Bay, which when i get it will be put in the upper 3 bays. I then took a 120mm fan and placed it in the top 3 bays, at the very end of the bays ( not at the front, where the Kama Bay will be at, but at the rear so it is about 8 inches from the Zalman fan), and set the 120mm fan to blow onto the Zalman fan.

I then ran some tests with MBM5 and noted that at idle my P4 3.0gig overclocked to 3.3gig at idle was running 42c.

I then removed the top fan that you talked about in step #3, and put a book over the vent hole and the temps did not change, ( strange ).

Then i put the top fan back in, but turned it around so that it was blowing directly onto the Zalman fan.... I know this is a no no, but if I'm gonna be a modder, i might as well try some stuff hi hi. Right away, i noticed a drop in temp of 4c. This really surprised me.

I realize that now i will have to figure out how to put a filter over the top hole, but if my CPU is running cooler, i figure it can't be all bad.

So Mike my question is, why would the Zalman CPU heatsink and fan be running cooler, when all the posts seem to indicate that I either have to take the top fan out, or keep it in, and have it exhaust the air. Is this cause it's a Zalman, and not a Ninja? I am sure that the air must really be turbulant in the upper compartment, but it seems to be running cooler....

bsdie
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Location: Lund, Sweden

Post by bsdie » Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:23 am

Stress tested the computer some last night after I removed the top fan completely and left the hole open. I also tried facing the fan inwards, blowing down on the ninja.

My cpu was ok but my motherboard started heating up, getting near 60c. I experimented some further and the configuration that had the best result was the close the top vent with a book, open up the front bays and just letting the two fans (one of the ninja, one at the back) pull air from the front. Subjectively the sound is better as well, since I cant hear anything escaping from the top.

So Ill go for 3 chambers, all pulling from the front, and a total of 3 or 4 (depends on the harddrive temps, I get about 10c lower with a 5v down below) 120mm fans.

jackal2513
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Joined: Sun May 11, 2003 9:28 am

Post by jackal2513 » Tue Dec 19, 2006 3:26 am

i have my rear Nexus fan at 7v and no fan in the upper hole but its left open..
that way the rear fan can draw clean air straight from the top intake then immediately over the ninja. this seems to be quite efficient as the air in that chamber does not heat up under CPU load. The space near my ram, to teh right of the Ninja, remains nice and cool and only a few degrees above ambient.


my cpu load in this config is ~57C (undervolted)
idle can be anything from 35-40C


what make is your rear fan and what voltage ?

bsdie
Posts: 42
Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2005 3:57 am
Location: Lund, Sweden

Post by bsdie » Tue Dec 19, 2006 2:39 pm

Its a NMB-MAT (NMB-MAT RB-4710KL-L @ http://www.dorothybradbury.co.uk/) and its controlled by speedfan (from 55% to 80%).
My processor isnt the main source of heat in my system, its my 7800gtx wich heats up the entire motherboard. With a better duct between the cpu and the graphics card that should become less of a problem (and less restriction at the back).

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