Some Antec p182 setup questions

[inverse]

First, these components will be in the case:
2 DVD Drives
GF 8800GT
E8400 CPU
2x2gb pc 1000 ram
Corsair 520HX PSU
1 500gb Samsung t166 and 1 360gb Hitachi deskstar hard drive
Tuniq Tower 120

The hard drives will be in the bottom chamber where the PSU is. I was planning to move the tricool fan in the bottom chamber to the upper chamber in the middle to blow on my GPU and provide more airflow to the case. Is this a good idea? I don't think my hard drives really need extra cooling and the PSU is pulling the hot air from the lower chamber out.

 

[Doclife]

I think a better idea is to remove the tricool fan from the back and place it in the middle chamber to blow on your GPU. The heat in the back (CPU area) will be pulled out by the top tricool fan and by the Tuniq's fan; thus the back fan is really not needed.

 

[DerwenArtos12]

Originally posted by: Doclife
I think a better idea is to remove the tricool fan from the back and place it in the middle chamber to blow on your GPU. The heat in the back (CPU area) will be pulled out by the top tricool fan and by the Tuniq's fan; thus the back fan is really not needed.

Very close to my reccomendation, Depending on the installed orientation of the tuniq, as most people install it blowing front to back, I would remove the top fan and place it in the middle.

 

[MarcVenice]

I would order a new fan, and place it in the middle compartment, much like I did myself. Really helped too, because under my 8800gts 320mb there's some kind of dead spot, making it hotter then necesary. And it also runs over my chipset, cooling that one as well.

 

[Magusigne]

I have a p182 and I was wondering the same thing. My Cable management needs to be a bit better admittedly (my first build). And my wife is making me put my computer in a nice oven of a desk cabinent (although it can still breath a bit because I cut out the back.

Firstly, the way my tuniq currently is, it sucks in from the top fan and blows out the back, I guess I don't necessarily need that but it might help facilitate cooler air through my tuniq a bit faster than just the tuniq fan?

Also when you say mount it in the middle can you be more specific? I was going to mount one as another intake near the front of the case by the air filter but I would like to have one blowing over my GPU

 

[DerwenArtos12]

by middle we're referring to the upper hard drive rack at the bottom of the top chamber in the front.

 

[Magusigne]

Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12
by middle we're referring to the upper hard drive rack at the bottom of the top chamber in the front.

So basically I should put my HD in the lower rack. Pull out the middle rack and just throw a fan in the front behind the dust filter and have it as an intake fan blowing straight back over the PCIE card?

 

[DerwenArtos12]

Originally posted by: Powernick50

Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12
by middle we're referring to the upper hard drive rack at the bottom of the top chamber in the front.

So basically I should put my HD in the lower rack. Pull out the middle rack and just throw a fan in the front behind the dust filter and have it as an intake fan blowing straight back over the PCIE card?

exactly.

 

[Riverhound777]

I left all of the stock fans in place in mine. I purchased two Yate loons and stuck them in the middle HDD rack in a push-pull config. One pulling from the front, the other blowing directly on my vid card. They might be redundant, but my 8800gt never goes above 60C and idles at 47, so I'd say i'm doing something right.

 

[Magusigne]

WOW...Works great although with the little black door closed it doesn't work very well, also I had to remove my dust guard

 

[Tullphan]

Can't you just remove the little black door & leave the dust guard in place?
That's what I did for the middle & lower fans. Also, regarding removing the middle drive cage, I just left mine in & used the wire clips.

 

[inverse]

Great suggestions. I was thinking of keeping the back and top fan to work in conjunction with Tuniq Tower for a push pull effect and to further cool the CPU. So I'd figure I'd just move the lower chamber fan to the HD cage in the middle of the case. I'll try all these setups out and see how they work.

Also, shopping around for fans, I noticed some fans are quieter, spins slower but push more air than the Tricools. How is it possible that the fans spins slower but push more air?

 

[DerwenArtos12]

Originally posted by: inverse
Great suggestions. I was thinking of keeping the back and top fan to work in conjunction with Tuniq Tower for a push pull effect and to further cool the CPU. So I'd figure I'd just move the lower chamber fan to the HD cage in the middle of the case. I'll try all these setups out and see how they work.

Also, shopping around for fans, I noticed some fans are quieter, spins slower but push more air than the Tricools. How is it possible that the fans spins slower but push more air?

It's all about blade design. It's way too complicated to fully explain but, the quieter fans that push more CFM are *generally* thinner blades with greater density, ie 7-9 thin, typically curved blades versus 5 thicker blades. The thinner blades *generally* mean lower static pressure though so they work better in open air situations but, when restricted with filters or radiators will not hold their CFM as well.

 

[Tullphan]

With a case like the 182, since it doesn't have a fan on the side panel, would a HSF like the Big Typhoon be less effective than a Ninja or Tuniq Tower if one is using a motherboard w/heatpipes as opposed to heatsinks??
Assuming one has the fan in the upper hdd rack, would that provide sufficient cooling for the motherboard if the BT isn't used?
Anyone using an aftermarket fan to replace the tri-cools that puts out more CFM than the tri-cools on high, but with the noise of a tri-cool on low?

 

[MarcVenice]

Such fans don't exist. The antec tricool on low is actually a pretty darn good fan, last time silentpcreview.com tested it. Once you get to medium/high there are better fans that push similar CFM whilst making less noise. As for your first question, I totally depends on the motherboard I guess. My mobo has been fine with just the regular airflow in the case for quite a long time, oh and it also depends on the overclock you are pushing. If you go high enough, some NB's can run really hot and additional cooling might be required.

 

[inverse]

Is it better to have all fans pushing the same cfm (some sort of balance) or it doesn't matter if one fan pushes more air than the other?

 

[inverse]

Also, do you think its better to have the Tuniq blowing up out the blow hole or the back? Since heat rises it would be easier for it to escape but then I would be pulling hot air off the GPU through the heatsink.

 

[DerwenArtos12]

I find it better that once you have alteast one exhaust and one intake to go heavier on the intake to create a slightly pressurized case, helps a little with dust and helps a little with cooling given the abundance of cool air, you just have to keep in mind that there has to be a way to get the hot air out first.

For the direction of the Tuniq, what VGA cooler are you using?

 

[inverse]

Yeah thats why I was thinking that the fans should have equal cfm to get an equal amount of cool air in and hot air out.

As for the VGA cooler it's stock.

 

[DerwenArtos12]

With a stock VGA cooler the directionality of the tuniq is not going to make any measurable difference. If you had something like the thermalright hr-03 or a zalman with heatpipes to the top of the card I would have to suggest front to back but, as it is, it's not giong to much matter.

 

[Tullphan]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Such fans don't exist. The antec tricool on low is actually a pretty darn good fan, last time silentpcreview.com tested it. Once you get to medium/high there are better fans that push similar CFM whilst making less noise. As for your first question, I totally depends on the motherboard I guess. My mobo has been fine with just the regular airflow in the case for quite a long time, oh and it also depends on the overclock you are pushing. If you go high enough, some NB's can run really hot and additional cooling might be required.

The motherboard in question will be a MSI P35 Neo2-FR.
The cpu will be an E2180.
I have my choice of a stock HSF, a Tuniq Tower, and a Big Typhoon (the type w/the backplate). I have the stock fans for both the TT & the BT but have some Yates-Loon & a few Coolermaster Y720DCD-25T1-GP 120mm.
As it stands right now, my temps are as follows w/the BT:
HDD (Hitachi Deskstar 7K250)-29c
GPU (eVGA 7900GT w/stock cooling-fan set @ 30%)-47c
CPU (e6300 @ 2.3)-38c
All these temps are according to Everest Ultimate. Temps were taken while typing this...nothing else going on. The motherboard is an IP35-E that will be RMA'd due to a SATA connector coming off. I'm going to use the E2180 to have a little more overclocking ability.

 

[MarcVenice]

The e6300 is a better CPU then the e2180 ? Why don't you try overclocking the e6300 first or have you tried allready and 2.3ghz is all it will do ? I'd go for the tuniq tower btw, just use the stock fan, it's pretty good. And I doubt you will need any real additional cooling on the motherboard, just decent airflow in your case and you will be fine. And use coretemp or speedfan to measure temps if you ask me.

 

[Tullphan]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
The e6300 is a better CPU then the e2180 ? Why don't you try overclocking the e6300 first or have you tried allready and 2.3ghz is all it will do ? I'd go for the tuniq tower btw, just use the stock fan, it's pretty good. And I doubt you will need any real additional cooling on the motherboard, just decent airflow in your case and you will be fine. And use coretemp or speedfan to measure temps if you ask me.

I didn't say it was a better CPU, I was just stating that with the 10x multiplier on the 2180, i'd have a little better chance getting a better overclock. I know that the 6300 has more cache, etc. & is a better overall chip.
The best i've done w/the 6300 was 2.8 (400x7) & the temps were quite high.
According to Coretemp, my temps (as I type this & running another program in the background) are Core #0-37c, Core #1-33.

 

[MarcVenice]

Sorry, it was like a rhetorical question, but yeah, you should be able to get that e2180 past 3.0ghz quite easily. Perhaps try oc-ing the e6300 again with a tuniq installed ? If it does 3.0ghz, or in fact, 2.8ghz, you've got a very speedy CPU, and I don't see any need to spend more money on a in 'theory' inferior CPU.

 

[Tullphan]

When I got the (what I think were) high temps w/the 400x7 on the 6300, it was using the BT. Both the CPU & the BT were lapped & AS Ceramique was the goo used.
I'll try again, I guess, w/the TT (unlapped) & the (lapped) 6300 & see if it'll do 3ghz. What is that...429 fsb?