Need some cooling advice on a Opty 165, Antec P180 setup

[Spike]

EDIT** I hit enter too fast, I am updating the thread now

Current System Specs
AMD Opteron 165 @ 2.52ghz
Thermalright SI-120 w/Panaflo M1A
DFI Lanparty Ultra-D w/ Evercool VC-RE on NB running @ 3500 rpm
eVGA 7800GT @ 470/1100 w/Zalman VF700cu running in "silent" mode
Hitachi T7k250 SATAII 250GB drive
Antec P180
Antec SM 500-watt modular
Sunbeam fan controller
1 Yate-loon DS12 intake fan
1 Yate-loon DS12 exhaust
1 Antec tri-cool 120x38 in upper exhaust, currently turned off and the grate is covered.

Ok, so I can run the system virtually silent by turning the Panaflo M1a on the SI-120 to ~6v and the two yate-loons to the same. This works for surfing the web but as soon as I try and game I need to increase speeds. At first it was ok as I just upped the two Yate-loons to full voltage and the slight noise increase was tolorable. The other day I kept crashing while playing CS:s so I had to crank the Panaflo up and it worked just fine after that. Funny thing is my cpu temps where fine (never above 40) but it was my PWM IC that got to ~55ish.

I need to redo my wiring as even though all my wires are round or sleeved they are a bit of a mess in front of the intake fan. There is no HDD tray there as my HDD is in the lower compartment but all the wires cross in front of that space. I am hoping that will cool down my PWM IC more so I can continue to game with the CPU fan @ 6v. Are there any suggestions people have here for quieting down the system even more? My PSU is inaudible as the exterior 80mm fan never turns on, the only fans I can here is the exhaust yate-loon and the panaflo M1A.

I know I am asking alot trying to get a highly overclocked as well as silent system but what can I say, I'm greedy . If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear about them. Thanks!

-spike

 

[Spike]

I take it no one has any experience with a similar setup?

 

[NeezyDeezy]

I'm running the exact same. I use a $9 rheobus fan controller and I'm sub 40 except for load at very quiet settings.

 

[thisbarb]

Water cool.

 

[McPudd]

I'll soon be building 2 almost identical rigs.
Here is how I've decided to set the P180 up based on the gear
I plan to use.
The fan speed controls for the HSF and upperchamber case fans will
be handy to boost the speeds when I need it.

Antec P180
My setup for air-flow/cooling/heat dissipation.

Lower Chamber:
Antec TriCool 120x38mm intake fan set to LOW and draws air IN through lower
front filter, pulls air around 2x500GB Seagate 7200.9 SATA2.5 HDDs; then pushes
air around/through an Enermax Liberty modular 620W PSU and OUT of the case.
PSU has a quiet and smart (speed controlled by need) 120mm fan that exhausts
air OUT of the case. The PSU fan shouldn?t need to spin quickly.

Upper Chamber:
I will use a Thermaltake Hardcano13 5.25in drive bay controller which monitors/controls the speed of the two
supplied Antec 120x25mm TriCool fans which need to be set to (but not necessarily used at) HIGH.
I will move the Antec 120x25mm blowhole fan to the filtered fan mount in front
of the upper driveless HDD bay and set the fan to draw air IN.
The remaining blowhole opening will be aluminum taped over (both sides) and
will use the blowhole grille.
I?m doing this to prevent 1) an excessive negative air-pressure build up in the
case which invites dust entering from unfiltered, unsealed areas; 2) the wind-tunnel effect of the
front/Zalman/rear fans from being inrefered with and 3) interior case noise coming from a vent where it would be quite audible.
The Antec VGA duct will be removed and holed opening clear duct taped over to
prevent dust from entering and hot air from the rear area of case being
recycled back in.
My motherboard has no chipset fan (heatpipe) so no turbulence from that.
My ATI X1800XT?s 92mmfan will exhaust its air/heat OUT of the case. (Intake yes but turbulence no).
Zalman CNPS9500 HS?s 92mm speed adjustible fan draws air in from the
case?s upper interior area (especially from the RAM sticks), though its own
heatpipe, onto the Asus mainboard's heatpipe fins and into the upper rear
Antec TriCool 120x25mm fan venting OUT of the case.

Relevant (heat) but not specifically mentioned above:
Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
Corsair XMS-3500LL PRO 2GB kit

Should be quieter and cooler that the Lian-Li box I currently use.

Hope something in the above helps.

Happy trailz,

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: NeezyDeezy
I'm running the exact same. I use a $9 rheobus fan controller and I'm sub 40 except for load at very quiet settings.

As I stated, I do have a Sunbeam fan controller, I think this was about $12 so pretty cheap. My CPU never gets above 40 even under load with my fan @ 6v but my PWM IC gets pretty hot so I use the CPU fan to cool that (the SI-120 pushes air down and around all the components so it helps cool the chipset and PWM IC as well). I am dead silent under normal use but have to increase fan speeds in order to get air in when playing games.

Originally posted by: thisbarb
Water cool.

For the time being I am sticking with air cool on this rig. I will probably try water on my next rig but this one was built specifically for air cooling.

Originally posted by: McPudd
...
The Antec VGA duct will be removed and holed opening clear duct taped over to
prevent dust from entering and hot air from the rear area of case being
recycled back in.
...

I read through your post and found the above most useful. The VGA duct was removed but I did not seal the vent. I figured it might help exhaust warm air as my Zalman VF700cu cools my 7800GT VERY well but recirculates warm air throughout the case. I may try various methods for covering this up and see how that effects things.

I also covered the top vent but currently there is only Micheal Crichton's Lost World covering the grate, not some fancy aluminum .

Thanks for all the tips, I seem to have a setup that is similar to most who have the same goals in mind as myself. I plan to do some rewiring in order to allow a cleaner air flow and play around with the covering of serveral vents. I will let you know how that works and what my results are. Thanks!

-spike

 

[One43637]

will using the top fan help cool down the PWM IC?

i'm not famaliar with the DFI boards.