Cooling Dilemma in Gigabyte 3D Aurora 570

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n0x1ous

n0x1ous

Platinum Member
Sep 9, 2010
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System contains:
Q6600 B3 @ 3.15ghz @ 1.37v
3x BFG GTX 260 core 216 55nm in Triple SLI
4GB Corsair Dominator DDR@ 800
EVGA 680i SLI
Raptor 150 plus Caviar Black 1TB
Zalman 9700 CPU cooler

For those that aren't familiar with the case, it has a terrible intake solution for cooling. It has 1 120mm fan (1000 rpm) in the the lower front of the case that is blocked by a thick air filter, metal mesh, and hard drive cage. As stock, if you put your hand in the harddrive cage you feel almost nothing. You can imagine the kind of effects this has on the temperatures in this case....

The case ships with a mesh side window preinstalled with a clear plexiglass side window as an option. I have always used the mesh side panel because putting on the clear side makes temperatures go up anywhere from 10-15C degrees for the cpu and 7-10C for chipset.

I always wanted to use the clear panel for the better looks and now that I have the sexy triple SLI setup I decided i refuse to be held back by this poor cooling situation when using the clear side window.

For a frame of reference, Cpu temps with mesh side panel are 40C idle 58C Load. With clear side panel it idles @ 50C and hits 70C on load.
chipset 45-57 with mesh 57-65 with clear side.

The Gpus go up about 5 degrees but those idel at 50 and load at 75 which is cooler than the dual G80's that i had before so those aren't an issue.

I started by removing the air filter in the front intake fan and then spaced the hard drives out as much as possible. This made a little different say 2-3C but not enough for me to be satisfied. There is still too much blockage for this air to get through. My new thought is cut a little 50mm square out of the bottom right of the clear panel and put a 50 mm fan there that can suck air from the outside and help cool this stuff down.

I don't see any other way of getting some more fresh air in this thing without doing some serious drilling.

My other option is to WC the cpu/chipset.....however, the 680i has shared heatpipe cooling on the chipset. i could WC the northbridge, but then there is no way to cool the soutbridge as its completely covered by the GTX 260's...unless there is some super tiny chipset block that doesnt have the inlet/outlet/ sticking straight up...
moz-screenshot.png

this link has pictures of the case so you can see what I'm talking about.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...s/801-gigabyte-3d-aurora-570-case-review.html


What is my best bet here without getting into too serious of modification?

Thanks
 
C

CurseTheSky

Diamond Member
Oct 21, 2006
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Buy a better 120mm fan for the front intake. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but with the hard drive cage blocking air flow, you'd do well with a fan that has decent static pressure, like Scythe's GentleTyphoons. They're not cheap, expect to pay around $15, but they're awesome fans. Something around 1450 RPM should do nicely, though higher RPMs will push more air if you don't mind a bit more noise.

You could also consider buying a 5.25" to 3.5" bay converter and putting your hard drives up above the actual hard drive bay. Many of these converters come with built-in 120mm fans, which would also be a huge help. I think Scythe makes one called Kama Bay, and the Antec ones from the 900 series are also quite popular. Silverstone may make one as well.
 
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zagood

Diamond Member
Mar 28, 2005
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Remove the hard drive cage and get 5.25 to 3.5 converters for mounting HDDs in your optical bays. If you have 3 bays open, grab one of these.

I would recommend also cutting a fan hole on the bottom for intake, but with 3xSLI you may not have the clearance. And if it's sitting on carpet it's a bad, bad idea.

DOH! Curse you, Curse!
 
n0x1ous

n0x1ous

Platinum Member
Sep 9, 2010
2,574
252
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Thanks for the ideas guys! I do already have quite a bit of sata/power cables stuck i the empty spot's for extra 5.25inch drives. This case does not have cutouts/grommets on the mainboard tray so cable management is difficult if i don' t tuck things in the open drive bays. I will look into that Scythe fan that curse recommends.

Its not on the carpet its on a solid oak desk.....do you think my idea for a small say 50mm fan that i would cut out a corner of the clear side panel would help or is that too small to make a difference?

Noise isn't my top concern as I almost always have headphones on there so i am okay with small fan high RPM if it gets the temps where they need to be.
 
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zagood

Diamond Member
Mar 28, 2005
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Other than noise, and it potentially being pretty ugly from cutting the plexi, the 50mm fan would work fine.

If you're going to go through the trouble of cutting, I highly recommend getting rid of the HDD cage completely. I haven't worked with that case myself, but you can usually either a) unscrew or slide it out, b) drill out rivets, or c) dremel it as close to the frame as you can.
 
n0x1ous

n0x1ous

Platinum Member
Sep 9, 2010
2,574
252
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yeah i suppose if i am going to cut the window whole i might as well get the cage out as well.

I do have a swiftech WC kit (ultima XT plus which has the apogee XT block) which I have been wanting to install forever but haven't had the time/nervous that I'll screw something up....the kit comes with a northbridge block which would solve this issue too. Are there any waterblocks in existance that would fit the southbridge on a 680i with all the PCIE slots full?

That would be the best solution, but i guess i just asssumed there was no block for this, but somebody has to have run into this situation regardless of case where they want blocks on everything with a 680i and the southbridge covered by graphics card...????
 
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WoodButcher

WoodButcher

Platinum Member
Mar 10, 2001
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zagood said:
Other than noise, and it potentially being pretty ugly from cutting the plexi, the 50mm fan would work fine.

If you're going to go through the trouble of cutting, I highly recommend getting rid of the HDD cage completely. I haven't worked with that case myself, but you can usually either a) unscrew or slide it out, b) drill out rivets, or c) dremel it as close to the frame as you can.
Click to expand...

I disagree, a 50 mm fan won't help. The HD cage removal will help but If you go with GT's and cut out the honeycomb mesh front and back you should be fine.

If you go the WC route by removing the HD cage you will have a place for the pump and res. What size rad?
For the SB you could use a low profile copper Enzotech sink. I think the one I have is about 15 mm tall including the 40 mm fan. They are made for just your situation.
 
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zagood

Diamond Member
Mar 28, 2005
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Why wouldn't a 50mm fan help? I'm not saying it'll bring us world peace, but an extra 20cfm directed at a video card will make a difference.
 
WoodButcher

WoodButcher

Platinum Member
Mar 10, 2001
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zagood said:
Why wouldn't a 50mm fan help? I'm not saying it'll bring us world peace, but an extra 20cfm directed at a video card will make a difference.
Click to expand...

For me , IMO,,,. Sure, it would add air but I can't see the gain to be worth the effort. Not to mention not knowing the OP's skill set and availability of the tools to do the job professionally. On the side panel a small slip could make a mess of the acrylic. Drilling the floor of the case as someone mentioned for a fan would be my first choice, and most definitly bigger than a 50mm.
 
n0x1ous

n0x1ous

Platinum Member
Sep 9, 2010
2,574
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Got a link to the enzotech 15mm??

To answer some of the questions, I am not very skilled with any tools that would be used to do any cutting so if i can avoid that all the better.

So basically the consensus is the best air cooling solution to this issue is to cut a hole in the bottom of the case for a good 120mm or if i go WC then i can use this enzotech on the SB?
 
WoodButcher

WoodButcher

Platinum Member
Mar 10, 2001
2,158
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76
lol...yer killin me. I agree with you. In fact...


Quote:
Originally Posted by zagood
Other than noise, and it potentially being pretty ugly from cutting the plexi...

Quote:
Originally Posted by zagood
I would recommend also cutting a fan hole on the bottom for intake...

However, adding a 50mm fan will help airflow. Just won't help like *we* would want it to.
Click to expand...

ROFL! We would be hell in the same room!

That enzo is the sink. I've used them a few times and found them to do the job well.
If your case has 3/4" or more space underneath a 120 fan intake at the bottom would be the best. You can put thicker feet under to raise the case. 1/2" to 3/4" is the minimum space needed for the fan to pull air.
 
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