Antec 1080 AMG case cooling

[dakels]

I ordered an Antec 1080 AMG. I really was really unsure if I was going to get a Thermaltake Xaser 3 case with 420 watt PSU or this 1080. I finally decided on the 1080. Mainly because of the price point (Got it for $110) and the Antec Truepower 430. I was also a little concerned about the noise factor of the Xaser 3's from what I hear is a small heat difference. I'm also not really interested in the Xaser design unless it was the silver/alum and thats too much $ with a good PSU. The rheobus sounds crappy too from what I read.

My main concern with the 1080 is how well it will push the heat away from my CPU. I have a zalman 7000 AICu, which I hope will be close to the side exhaust to push the heat out asap. Another thing is that I plan on tossing in 2 raptors. This case doesn't have active HD cooling, but it appears to have a fan mount in a lower HD bay. Can I add a fan there? Also this will push the heat to the rear towards my CPU. Is that a concern? Would some sort of CPU hood help here? Are there any that will even fit a Zalman 7000?

thanks

 

[dakels]

aaaw freakin #@$*@#$!!!
Just got an email that Staples is out of the 1080AMG case and they cannot complete my order. I guess I will have to order it from newegg and pay $30 more after shipping (was using a staples coupon). What a PITA. At this point I am almost reconsidering the Xaser case...

antec 1080 AMG or The Thermaltake Xaser III V1420+U
I'll pay the $40 difference if it's a better case but the main iss ue is the thermaltake PSU? Does it rate with the Truepower 430?

 

[dakels]

omg... Staples charged my card for the case and whole order, now they are forcing the other filler items I had (CD-Rs to meet the $150 coupon amount). They will credit me for the case later. Then when UPS comes for me with the packages, I have to deny the order so I can get credit back. I have to make sure my office's shipping and recieveing is aware not to authorize the order for me. Then when they get those filler items back they will give me another credit for those. what a PITA!!!!!

urge to kill.... rising....

 

[shock311]

I have the 1080 amg and have no regrets yet, the placement of each fan works effectively, you can add a fan into one of the 3.5 " drive cage. Right now, I'm only running two exhaust fans and my p4 2.4 overclocked to 2.7 runs idle at 33C and 43C under load. I'll be adding more fans later as soon as my project is completed.

 

[dabuddha]

How does the 1000AMG compare to the 1080 AMG? What are the real differences?

 

[AntecCSR]

1000AMG has no power supply and has a windowed side panel. Those are the only differences.

AntecCSR

 

[Icewind]

Good to see you AntecCSR. You guys rule, I love my 100amg


I have the same setup as you, Zalman 7000 and all. Take a look at my pic to get an idea of how my coolijng seup works.

The Antec PSU sucks plenty of the heat away by itself. I installed the blowhole to be thermall controlled and that allows for the hot air up top to escape with no noise. I have twin panflo's in the front attached to a baybus to adjust the speed during heavy gaming or just surfing the web. Its a great balance of airflow and noise. The backfans arn't needed to keep the clutter down and and were unecassary. The back air grills alow the air to "flex" accordingly to the temps. If the cases need somewhere to push excess air out, or to pull a little extra air in. Works great, my Zalman never goes over 38 even on my current OC of 2.8 to 3.0 on my P4c and ASUS P4C800-E on full load. I use a single WD 8cach Special Edition HDD so heat from that isn't an issue. See pics for a better idea.

For your setup, those raptors are gonna put out some heat, So I would defientll put them in the drive bay with a fan blowing directly on them. THis will effect your intake temps, so i would suggest using a side panel fan to increase cool air to the system. A blowhole wouldn't be a bad idea. If your really concered about temps, then I would install the 2 rear exhausts fans to make sure the air from those HDD's gets outa that case and your CPU doesn't suffer as a result



Interior

Front

Blowhole

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: AntecCSR
1000AMG has no power supply and has a windowed side panel. Those are the only differences.

AntecCSR

ahhh great cause I had already ordered a truepower 430w psu. Now I just have to figure out which fans to put where

 

[Icewind]

Read my post dab, It might help ya. And my 430 True power hasn't skipped a beat. Totally awesome PSU

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: Icewind
Read my post dab, It might help ya. And my 430 True power hasn't skipped a beat. Totally awesome PSU

nice case

 

[0roo0roo]

antec/chieftec cases are wind tunnels. don't worry about it. yes the bottom hd cage has a fan. adding one or two hds to it is ok. the case has 5 fan mounts! if thats not enough i dunno what is and having the rear ones filled is a good idea, it helps ease the air flow through the case since fans suck at fighting back pressure.

 

[Icewind]

Im not having any back pressure. Having them just open allows my case to "flex" with the air temps and what not. I"ve actually tried covering them up with some smoked plexiglass, and amazingly my system did very poorly as there wasn't enough exhaust leaving the case, but just allowing them to be open makes the system work in a perfect balance. End result? A nice efficent and QUIET setup, even with the fans on full for the intake, its not to bad. *though I think panaflos are overated* In quiet computer time mode you can barely hear much from it.

 

[0roo0roo]

what do you mean by flex? air flow is air flow, unless your rpms change based on temperature, theres a set amount of potential cooling. and of course the temps went up when you closed off the vents in the back. fans are bad at fighting back pressure so blowing into a closed box would lower effective cfm big time. having rear fans would lower the burden on the front fans and bring the front fans cfm more nearer their rated output. you would also be able to lower the fan rpms more effectively.

 

[Icewind]

There a method beyond my madness I guess. As the air temp rises it wants to expand. Well as it rises the blow hole on top will allow most of it to escape. As the intake fans push air into the case, some of it is allowed to push warm air directly through the back, carrying along CPU heat as well. Basically, I elimanted the need for excessive exhaust fans when I really don't need them.

Right now even though its pretty warm in my room My Zalman 7000 is cooling my cpu at 37.7c OC 2.8@3.0 Lower case temp is 35.5 and upper is 38.6c. Both temps confirmed by DigiDoc and MBM 5. And this is with my intake fans on low speed Im one for cooling efficency, I don't add fans just cause I can.

 

[Nebor]

I have the same case, but I have all 5 Antec Blue LED fans mounted, as well as 2 coolermaster 11 front mount blue led HD coolers. Throw in my GF4 hsf and my intel stock hsf... and you have an F15 in your computer room. I'm OCed from 3.0 to 3.3 @ 1:1 and I'm idling at 48C. At load I hit 52C. I need to get a new cooler... and earmuffs.

 

[Johnbear007]

Originally posted by: Icewind
Im not having any back pressure. Having them just open allows my case to "flex" with the air temps and what not. I"ve actually tried covering them up with some smoked plexiglass, and amazingly my system did very poorly as there wasn't enough exhaust leaving the case, but just allowing them to be open makes the system work in a perfect balance. End result? A nice efficent and QUIET setup, even with the fans on full for the intake, its not to bad. *though I think panaflos are overated* In quiet computer time mode you can barely hear much from it.

I don't know how you get quieter than panaflos.

 

[Davegod]

sucks that they charged you for the full order before they completed it.

i've a coolermaster ATC-710 (review, which i beleive uses the same internal chassis. there is one fan holder in the lower 3 1/4" drive cage, which you can put a 80mm fan in to blow air over the raptors - probably even a low rpm one will do, especially if you put 4 low rpm fans in each fo the 4 holders. Alternatively use two medium rpm fans and two low rpm fans, one at each end, and put the medium rpm ones on the fan conoller line on that antec PSU (afaik it will basically do a 7v mod on them, and kick the power up when the psu gets hot). Someone also posted here that if you take the fan holder out of the cage, a 92mm fan fits in there perfectly - cant say ive tried it but would be interested in finding out if it's true.


ps. AntecCSR, or anyone else, is there some method I havent noticed for cleaning the front fan filters on the 710? ATM all i can figure out is to take most of the front off, including the 5 1/4" bay door, which is a ridiculous PITA, It turns what could be a 1min job into 15mins of fiddly hell; so much so I'd never reccomend this case soley due to this (the rest of the case is great). What kind of takes the piss is after getting through 6 screws and 6 holder rods, the actual filter is held with thumbscrews... I'm tempted to try a little modding, sanding down the lower front cover edges and using some ball bearings (er, or something, tbh i wouldnt even know where to find them) instead of the screws to hold it in, so i can take that lower bit off to get at the filter holder without taking the whole fronting off.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Johnbear007

Originally posted by: Icewind
Im not having any back pressure. Having them just open allows my case to "flex" with the air temps and what not. I"ve actually tried covering them up with some smoked plexiglass, and amazingly my system did very poorly as there wasn't enough exhaust leaving the case, but just allowing them to be open makes the system work in a perfect balance. End result? A nice efficent and QUIET setup, even with the fans on full for the intake, its not to bad. *though I think panaflos are overated* In quiet computer time mode you can barely hear much from it.

I don't know how you get quieter than panaflos.

apparently the new neon coolermaster led fans are quieter or just as quiet, and far far prettier look up some reviews, new rifle bearing fans. no more boring panaflo, and wwwell, these come with wires/connectors and grill i think

 

[RalfHutter]

Originally posted by: Davegod
sucks that they charged you for the full order before they completed it.




ps. AntecCSR, or anyone else, is there some method I havent noticed for cleaning the front fan filters on the 710? ATM all i can figure out is to take most of the front off, including the 5 1/4" bay door,

The way I do it on my 710 is to open the 5.25" door then remove the top and bottom screw from the bottom panel on the side opposite the door hinge. Then you can just swing the bottom panel open like a door. The "hinge" is actually the two remaining door screws that you didn't remove! Works great and takes about 1 minute instead of 10.

 

[Davegod]

hmm nice tip, i tried it before but found the bottom panel was too stiff, its wedged in there quite hard and didnt want to break/warp anything. didnt fiddle with it for long though so will give it another try - maybe slacken the left-side screw a bit aswell. still quite tempted with the ball-bearing thing but bth wouldnt have a clue what i was doing, if i can get your idea working that'd be just fine, cheers


edit: wtf did i address the original point to anteccsr for? its a coolermaster case

 

[RalfHutter]

Originally posted by: Davegod
hmm nice tip, i tried it before but found the bottom panel was too stiff, its wedged in there quite hard and didnt want to break/warp anything. - maybe slacken the left-side screw a bit aswell.

Bingo!

Originally posted by: Davegod
edit: wtf did i address the original point to anteccsr for? its a coolermaster case

Hmm? Maybe a minor brain-fart coupled with the fact that the ATC-710 is actually the same case as an Antec SX10x0 except for the front bezel. It's OK though, I forgive you.