p180 cooling questions

[imported_browsing]

I've got two p180 setups. The more pressing of the two is my main rig, which has the following specs:

P5W DH Deluxe
6600 @ stock (for the time being)
Big Typhoon
2 gb g.skill 800
4x 320gb seagate .10
150gb raptor 16mb
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750
Sapphire x1900 xtx

I've got the raptor in the top hd rack, while the bottom rack is full of the 320gb drives. Currently I've got 4 fans in the case; the stock fans in their regular positions, save that I've turned the top fan into an intake, but I've added one of those tri-speed Antec fans in front of the top HD rack. My x1900 xtx is sitting at between 58-60 idle, though it doesn't raise too much up. Before I installed the Big Typhoon it was happily at 49-52 or so. I've also noticed a slight increase in temperature on my hard drives as well, maybe 1C or so. Is there a way to combat the hugeness of the Big Typhoon? What are the absolute best fans as far as quiet/airflow goes? I've heard the Yulane Yates (spelling) talked about quite a bit but I believe this is because of their price as well as their decent ability? Is there something more pricey that would really move some more air through my case without sounding like a turbine?

My wire management should be just fine, I took a few hours to really clean it up, especially the 5 sata cables. So I'm just curious as to why (while I've seen an improvement from my Zalman 9500, especially in keeping Orthos load temperatures under 50) everything else seems to be suffering at the mercy of my Big Typhoon.

 

[Banzai042]

First off i think the name on the fans you're looking for is Yate Loon, known for being quiet fans.
One thing to try would be to turn the top fan into an exhaust, using it as an intake is killing your airflow in that case because most of the air that gets pulled in the top gets pulled right back out of the rear exhaust, which hurts you in two ways. First none of the cold air from the top intake is making it to the rest of the case. Second if you have both fans set fairly even then you are exhausting almost none of the hot air in the case because all of the air being pulled out comes from the fan right next to the exhaust fan.
One other thing to keep in mind is that when your temps on the proc improve it means that more heat is being dumped off of the heatsink and into the air in the case.

 

[imported_browsing]

Thank you for the well thought out reply. I'm not 100% sure now in retrospect I switched the top fan to an intake. I suppose it was single mindedness in an attempt to cool the cpu further. In any case, I've switched the top fan back to an exhaust so we'll see what happens.

 

[idiotekniQues]

that top fan set to be blowing in was definitely killing the airflow pattern in your case.

 

[imported_browsing]

I think you guys are dead on. Also, could someone give me clarification (if they know) which of the three graphic card temps is the most important to watch in everest? I've been watching the gpu vrm because it's the hottest constantly but there's also just plain gpu and gpu ambient.

 

[nealh]

place a 1200 mm fan in front of bottom HDD cage...you will need to do some modding

BTW when I was air cooling I actually found the top 120mm blowing in lowered my temps more than blowing out

 

[idiotekniQues]

putting a fan there is not worth the effort. the lower fan is a powerful one that should easily create enough power by pushing air towards teh powersupply which in turn draws in air from the front over the hard drives. also, what is putting a fan there going to do for his video temps? it is another compartment nentirely.

one small mod to do on the bottom is to tape over the holes on the bottom of the case by the powersupply that arent actually over the power supply.

i know the x1900s run hot, my 1950 runs at 48 normally and goes all the way to a stable 76 @ load. try making that blowhole fan an exhaust and then check your temps.

which way did you mount a fan on the big typhoon?

 

[imported_browsing]

It mounts on the top, and came preinstalled as blowing down into the heatsink. There isn't a great deal of clearance in the p180 with this heastsink but it has significantly lowered temperatures, especially at load. I'm now overclocking (hopefully stable) to 3ghz with load not going above 48c, which is a big improvement over the Zalman 9500 I was using before. Switching the top fan to an exhaust has lowered the x1900 2-3c idling. Once again, what temp are you reading, because mine are as follows in everest:

GPU: 51
GPU Ambient: 45
GPU VRM: 58

Not positive which is the standard to read.

 

[idiotekniQues]

i just used the catalyst control center thing where you overclock. it gives just one temp there which is the one you need.

i dont like that design of the big typhoon but i am just a noob so take my opinions as just that. it seems top heavy and the hot air gets blown into the case whereas with other coolers like the ninja or the ultra-120 etc, the fan blows the air right out of the case. that may have something to do with it. the cool thing about the p180 is that you can aim the fan on the heatsink either up or out the back, and the hot air gets sucked right out

 

[imported_browsing]

Yeah, I was a little limited. I didn't have time to order a heatsink online, plus I was worried about clearance, so I went with what Fry's had in stock- the big typhoon.

Edit: According to Catalyst, I'm at 51- so that GPU must be the temp that ATI reads. So I guess my x1900 might not be so hot after all.

 

[idiotekniQues]

nope, 51 is not so bad. see what it is under load. i hit 76 and it stays there and i have no problems with that. 76 is fine.

 

[imported_browsing]

Is there a test program to heat it up or am I supposed to just boot up something like oblivion for a few minutes?

 

[idiotekniQues]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/atitraytools/189/

i use the omega drivers that come with the ati traytools installed, but just install from that link.

there should be an option to open the renderer under the HARDWARE>OVERCLOCKING menu. youll see a small image of a spaceship figure spinning rapidly. that should load up your gpu nicely, it is what they use to test for the best oc you can get by looking for artifacts. youll see your gpu temps start flying the moment it gets started.

 

[imported_browsing]

Thanks for all the help, I downloaded the program and it looks like my x1900 xtx slides up to 74 fairly quickly and then remains there. The CPU pops up about 5c with the test, but I think that is to be expected.