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P150 Cooling and OC

Z

zagood

Diamond Member
Heya.

Been pretty busy lately, don't have as much time for posting other than making fun of LW07. This weekend though I had some time to complete some minor projects and do some benchmarking. This post actually started out as a PM to Galvanized Yankee, but got fairly detailed so decided to make it a fullblown post.

With GY's advice, I'm very happy with my cooling setup. Many thanks for:

- Description on how to use zipties/washers/grommets to attach fans.
- Selling me the Sanyo Denki 120x38mm fan.
- Badgering me to replace the Neo430. I'll have the money for it in the next month.

For those that are interested, GY's ziptie fan mounting (I think from SPCR originally, and edited for space):

So instead of buying a $6 silicone vibration gasket for a 120mm fan, cut thin weather stripping to be stuck to the mounting face of the fan.

It will take 8 zip-ties to make four mounting nuts&screws. Cut off the zip part to use as a nut.

Slide a small washer as back-up onto the zip-tie followed by a soft grommet. Then put the zip-tie through the fans mounting hole and through the case. Now slide another grommet onto the zip-tie onto the face of the case.

Now install the grill onto the zip-tie, followed by another small washer. Now use the zip bit that was cut off another zip-tie like a nut or holding device.
Click to expand...

Couldn't find the silicon grommets I wanted, so instead bought a 6"x6" sheet of rubber flange material and cut my own grommets. Not as squishy as silicon, but only 97 cents and still effective. Used grommets between the fan and case instead of stripping, and added grommets between the grille and the last washers.

The SD 120mm has a little growl to it (running at 5v with Zalman resistor that came with a vf700) but can't hear it with the case closed. There's a little whoosh coming from the rear of the case but it's very mellow.

For those that don't know, the P150 has two front 92mm mounts. I'm using an Akasa Amber 92x25mm and Delta Triple Blade lowspeed 92x38. The Akasa is dead silent, and the DTB is very, very quiet undervolted.

I'm unhappy with the noise and vibration my Zalman 9500 is putting out. It's the loudest thing in my case. Speed is pretty much at 2100rpm all the time (max rated is 2600rpm). The cooling is fantastic, so I don't want to replace it, but...gah. I thought at first it was because I've got it through the motherboard header, but PWM couldn't cause vibration, just feedback noise, right?

I'll try some different configurations next weekend and putting it on some sort of fan controller, but it's pretty much moot. We've got an air filter in the room with the machines now, so the ambient noise far overwhelms anything coming out of them. Now I'm just on about efficient cooling.

I've been running my machine with the side door open for cooling until I installed the 120. I cut out all fan grilles to reduce noise and airflow blockage, and placed a wire grille on the back 120mm.

Next up is a new PSU and deciding on a fan controller. Currently I'm using the mobo PWM for the 9500, 5v plug for the 120 and DTB 92, and a FanMate2 controls the vf700. I'll probably pick up the Sunbeam Rheo if I can still find it for under $10. Also going to tighten the timings of both system ram and flash VGA bios with tighter timings and permanent OC.

Current setup and OC:

Proc - P4 3.0E
Memory - 2x512mb OCZ Value PC3200 - 2.5-4-4-8
GPU: XFX 6800NU @375/850 16/6
Fans (cfm approximated for undervolted fans - 43% of rated 12v cfm) -
1x Akasa 92x25mm front intake @12v - 29 cfm (lower front, HD cooling)
1x Delta Triple Blade 92x38mm front intake @5v - 24 cfm (upper front, case cooling)
1x Sanyo Denki 120x38mm rear exhaust @5v - 43 cfm

Tests (both tests returned stable results):
Prime95 - 2 instances for HT - for 30 minutes. Temps had peaked after 10mins.
3dMark06 (free version).

3.3ghz 1.4v 1:1 (DDR 440, 1.65v) - Standard Config
CPU Idle: 34c
CPU Load: 42c
MB Idle: 32c
MB Load: 35c
GPU Idle: 42c (vf700 "low" on FanMate)
GPU Load: 55c (vf700 "high" on FanMate)
3dm06 Score: 1891

3.9ghz 1.5v 5:4 (DDR 416.6, 1.6v) - Fun with OC
CPu Idle: 36c
CPU Load: 49c
MB Idle: 33c
MB Load: 37c
GPU Idle: 42c (vf700 "low" on FanMate)
GPU Load: 57c (vf700 "high" on FanMate)
3dm06 Score: 1989


-z
 
Hmmm, yeah, I've seen that mod. If I were to do it, it wouldn't be with the Nexus fan, since even at 12v it doesn't match the stock fan at 5v. I wonder how goofy it would look with a 92x38mm fan like the DTB...well, couldn't look as bad as the 120mm mod they show.

Honestly, I'd really worry about getting the drill holes right, and what's the point of modding if you're not willing to destroy a $12 fan?

-z
 
Hey GY, you might not be "the expert," but I trust your opinions.

Cooling can be such a random thing, something that works for one person may not work for another. Following your advice and adding my own experiences, I overclocked a Prescott to 133% on air, keeping the temperature below 50c and without it sounding like the Millenium Falcon.

I'd call that pretty sweet 😉

-z
 
Velcro...hmmm...interesting. Nice soft mounting, but with the vibrations inherent and the small amount of contact area (see third picture down), it wouldn't be very stable.

However, you could cut a square piece of thin sheet metal to screw onto the mounting points, giving you a larger contact area for the velcro. Anyone in San Diego with sheet metal tools wanna do a little experiment?

-z
 
-z I'm strange in that I have never use a hot glue gun but use GOOP silicone adhesive
instead. The problem is it takes 24hours for a working cure and 72hours for full cure.
The advantage, imo, is it remains flexable while bonding very well indeed. It tolerates
150F well and if the componet is not pressed down hard, offers a boundry layer that can
be sound/vibration attenuating (love that word 🙂 ).

Over in GH, Ms Dawn reccomended this http://eclecticproducts.com/sealall/home.asp
The advantage over my tube of GOOP Plumbing Adhesive is cure time.

Rather than using screws or hot glue I would bond w/silicone. The sink would have to set
fan side up for several hours, over night would do.

If you ever consider a change of fan on the 9500, consider bonding it in place w/silicone.
As long as it has been preped properly it will never fall off. Removal would be facilitated
by sliding a single edged razor between the fan and sink.

...Galvanized
 
GY: Thanks for the advice on siliconE adhesive (😉 howard). Didn't know it was that easy to remove. I do like the velcro idea though.

EDIT: Hmmmm, thinking more about it, both of these concepts could be used. Sheet metal attached by silicone adhesive to the posts, then velcro the fan onto that. Much easier than trying to drill screw holes exactly 4cm apart into metal.

-z
 
Make a metal plate to fit the fan hub diameter to the mounting screws. Kind of like a Mickey Mouse head upside-down. Remove the new fan's lable after cutting a circle around the port where oil*could* be dropped in, prep the remaining surface to be clean&rough, bond on the metal plate, install new fan at leisure.

Mail me a very accurate templet made of thin stiff cardboard. The plate could be knocked out in <half hour. I might make more than one as I *might* need one someday.


...Galvanized
 
You're on. I should have some downtime to take it apart this week.

Wait, well...hold on a minute. Let's think of adhesive stability in regards to the velcro. In this setup the velcro has to be glued (either by supplied backing or epoxy) to the hub of the fan.

I was thinking that if you remove the label, that'll take away the main contact area for the glue that holds the velcro onto the hub. But even if you keep the label there, you're still dependent on that label staying bonded to some thin edges of plastic. Anyone have success or examples of mounting velcro to a fan hub instead of the frame?

The last thing I'd want is that fan coming loose when running my machine, falling off and still spinning against who knows what.

Maybe attaching with silicone directly to the frame is a better idea.

-z
 
Re better idea...Yep.!
Just leave a bit of label over the port to keep silly-cone ( 😉 howard) out of the port.
Four tiny bits of rubber could be placed on the fan hub before bonding. This would permit
a decent boundry layer of adhesive, I would think 1/16"atleast but no more than an 1/8".
The bits of rubber would keep the silly-cone from being all squished out.
I like projects like this and KNOW you will report back to this forum because you don't
cut&run. 🙂
PM me for an address if you lost it.

...Galvanized
 
replacing PSU is serious overkill as it is one of the quietest psu's out there, and unless you have a top-of-the-line SLI rig, the 430 should be plenty.
 
TJ - It's not a question of wattage, it's a question of reliability.

GY - I'll have to wait a little while, but I want to go forward with this. I'll let you know when I'm going to pick up the fan for the mod. I'm thinking the DTB 92x38 (should have room for the extra 13mm to stick out the side), you know the other 40-60cfm 92mm fans that I've looked at previously. Any other suggestions?

-z
 
Civility has it's rewards, I know from personal experiance. 😉

I gave it a full half hour of my time and will PM you my thoughts, much rather avoid being
mis-quoted or my homework being used/claimed by the lazy 😀

Think I found the perfect fan but it has no tach monitoring and another is cheap, undervolts
very well but can ramp-up to 70cfm. If your interested in the latter it can be bench tested
as I have several here.

Lets do the rest of this via PM.

...Galvanized

________________________________________________________________________



 
Update:

The two lower HD suspension cables have broken. Argh. Waiting for reply from Antec, but probably heading out to the hardware store to find a better solution.

Also waiting for a response from Scythe regarding a new fan on the market, if it fits it'll be applied to the 9500 mod.

Edit:

Antec responded within an hour.

-------------------------------------------------------
Trouble Ticket ID: XXX37
Description: P150 - Broken hard drive suspension cables
Comment By: Walt Willis
-------------------------------------------------------
Comment: Your part will be sent shortly.

However, I'm looking into other options. GY recommended neoprene o-rings (Ishi?) that I'm going to track down.

-z
 
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