SX830/Air intake Duct needed for airflow?

[Southpaw]

Hey All,
I have also been bitten by the "coolest AND quietest" mod bug.

My SX830 currently only has 1 intake L1A and 1 output L1A as well as a PP352X dbl fan Antec PS
I have a TT6025A fan on an SK6 HS cooling a 1Ghz Athlon OC to 1.3Ghz (5500RPM..loudest thing in my case)
I have a Blue Orb on my GF3-TI200 running at 8.7V and spinning at 2500rpm instead of 5000rpm
My motherboard temp is only 1.5'C above the ambient temp
My idle CPU temp is 11'C over the ambient
My loaded CPU temp is 15'C over the ambient (Prime95 for 4 hours)
replaced the whiney D740X Maxtor with a SILENT Seagte Barracuda IV...(2% slower but 150% quieter)

Planned upgrades:
AX7 heatsink with an 80mm Sanyo Denki 36CFM/29Db fan arriving today
Variable resistor on the Blue Orb (full output for upcoming Unreal2 gameplay, midrange for surfing)


My ??? is...should I cut a hole in SX830 for a bottom-front intake duct...
at this point, I am cooling pretty well...so I am just concerned with noise...
Will an air duct make less discernable noise than the built in louvered vents in the Antec case???
I have already cut out the stamped grill... (no filter yet)

thx
Southpaw

 

[Soulflare]

One thing I would recommend with the SX830 is filing down the louvered vents
in front of both intake fans:

. ______| <-- Here
. |
. ______| <-- Here
. |
. ______| <-- Here
. |

Etc....

< Exterior - Interior >

I did that and the airflow coming through my 2 intake Panaflos easily doubled with
no discernible increase in noise. My MB dropped by 1'C and my CPU by 2'C. I'll
probably get around to removing the fan grills eventually.

 

[Jhhnn]

You're probably getting some short circuit airflow from the open rear fan mount- with the psu, you have negative case pressure anyway, so some air comes in the empty fan mount, goes right back out the exhaust fan, cools nothing. I'd move both case fans to the rear, blowing out. You might be able to wire them in series for 6v operation, or wire them both for 7v- SX 830's and 1030's almost cool themselves, they don't need much in the way of fans or mods of any kind.

Might look into a quieter HSF, it'll do more to cut the overall noise level than anything else. Always work on the noisiest fan first.

 

[HaVoC]

I agree with Jhhnn. With this SX830, intake/exhaust fan setups don't really works as well as dual exhaust as far as getting air through your case. Work on the HSF fan first...you may be able to quiet it down so much that it gets the overall noise level to a tolerable point.

 

[Southpaw]

I guess I should have expounded a bit on my setup....

Besides only having the 1 intake fan, I have taped every non-used fan grill and drive bay...

The only one I left open was the area in front of the hard drives/hard drive cage

The air that gets pulled from the back fan/power supply fan is compensated by the front intake fan and the hole in front of the hard drives...That way I dont have to put a fan in front of the hard drive cage..... 🙂

I got my new AX7 heatsink in, but not the fan...
I resurfaced the HS to a nice finish and am ready to slap on the fan once it gets here..

Once that HSF combo is replaced, I will go onto the next loudest thing in my case and quiet it down...

I will keep doing that until I cant make anything more quiet w/o going to a water cooled setup......

thx for all the input

Southpaw

 

[fell8]

You have the right idea with using a duct, but you want it to feed the CPU cooler. Simply fabricate one (if you're cheap/lazy a cereal box and packing tape work) to mount to the lower rear fan (which now intakes) and fit closely around the CPU fan. Use some foam weatherstripping around the CPU fan for a good seal. Use the upper rear and PSU fans to exhaust as it is now desirable to have negative case pressure. Another good trick for top-mount fan coolers is to skirt the top third to half of the heatsink to force the air to travel farther over the surface of the (p/f)ins.

 

[dunkster]

I experimented with case fan placement on my Antec 1030, using various combinations up to 2 front 80mm intake + 2 80 mm rear exhaust.

Best overall efficiency was with 2 rear 80mm rear exhaust. Front intake fans basically just increased case noise and PS load.

Hope this helps!