Two questions, one quick, one not

[UnheardEcho]

My first question is whether the difference in cache for a HDD between 2mb and 8mb is a noticeable difference if the HDD will be used for backup purposes only, connected through USB for the majority of time?

The second question is in regard to my case's airflow. I want to know what the best setup of fans would be to get the best cooling. The case is setup in a very narrow desk compartment (about 2 inches clearance on each side).
I numbered all the places that fans can go for easy reference, with 5 and 6 being places where I would DIY mount an 80mm. If you do post what you think is a good setup, please tell which way the fans would be blowing, and how many fans and where. There is currently an ATI 9600XT with its own fan/Heatsink residing in the PCI area, with a 6800 slated to go there.

Thanks for help with either question

P.S. Fan 1 is on a swinging door that is right next to the PCI slots when closed, and that isn't my picture

Case:
http://img240.echo.cx/img240/5072/caseair3uu.jpg

 

[MobiusPizza]

1: Probably not if you are not random assesing your HDD a lot

2.
5 and 6 and 2 for air intake;
1, 3, 4 for exhaust.

 

[UnheardEcho]

Thanks for the quick reply

 

[UnheardEcho]

Anyone else?

 

[UnheardEcho]

Bump

 

[Melectricus]

Are there any other vent openings on the sides or front? Besides the #6 fan position?

The reason I ask is that 1,2, and 5 will only circulate inside case air. If you have a power supply exhaust and put two fans in position 3 and 4 you will have 3 exhaust fans and only 1 intake fan at position 6. Unless there is some other place for the air to enter freely, the static pressure created by the inbalance will greatly reduce actual exhaust cfm.

 

[CrispyFried]

AnnihilatorX, why number 1 for exaust? I would think as intake blowing on the vid card. Other than that I agree.

My Antec Plusview 1080 has a very similar fan setup except no fan where 5 is. My intake/exaust setup is as you listed. 2 and 6 draw from the front grill (filtered). Once I accidentally flipped the side fan (number one in his setup) from intake to exaust and the case temp was about the same but vid, memory and north bridge did go up a few degrees. (I have 4 thermal probes plus the 2 mobo temp sensors).

UnheardEcho, do 2,5 and 6 draw air from the front grill? Or do they just recirculate? Cant really tell from the pic.

 

[UnheardEcho]

Thanks so far guys. I do have a power supply exhausting air, forgot to consider that. 5+6 may be able to draw in some fresh air, but it would be obstructed by a fair amount.
To clarify a bit:
-Fans 1,2,3, and 4 are "official" fan spots, built into the case which can either blow in fresh air or exhaust inside case air. 2 and 1 only have about 2 inches of space between them and the sides of the desk compartment. (they blow in directions perpendicular to 3+4)
-Fans 5 and 6 would be fans I would mount in the 5.25" bays, to possibly try to draw in fresh air or circulate inside air. They wouldn't work well for exhaust.

If it would benefit the overall temp, I would have no quandries about cutting at least 1 hole (maybe 2) in the front cover and bezel to allow fan 6 (maybe 5 if I cut 2 holes) to have an unobstructed pathway to fresh air for exhaust or intake. If we can get comparable temps w/o cutting holes, I'd rather not cut them just because I'm lazy and have no time.

P.S. Do you agree with Annihalator's assesssment of the HDD question?

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: CrispyFried
AnnihilatorX, why number 1 for exaust? I would think as intake blowing on the vid card. Other than that I agree.

My Antec Plusview 1080 has a very similar fan setup except no fan where 5 is. My intake/exaust setup is as you listed. 2 and 6 draw from the front grill (filtered). Once I accidentally flipped the side fan (number one in his setup) from intake to exaust and the case temp was about the same but vid, memory and north bridge did go up a few degrees. (I have 4 thermal probes plus the 2 mobo temp sensors).

UnheardEcho, do 2,5 and 6 draw air from the front grill? Or do they just recirculate? Cant really tell from the pic.

I was thinking about that but it's best to balance number of input channel and output channels. Otherwise efficiency would decrease

Sucking air out near video card will lower overall ambient temperature. Although the cooling effect is not emphasised for the graphic card. If you use 1 for air intake turbulance and unbalance air flow would raise ambient temperature but would cool GPU down more.

GPU should handle fine anyway; shouldn't really need extra fan blowing over it. That's why I chosen 1 to suck hot hair out instead. It would be more efficient that way

 

[MobiusPizza]

Originally posted by: UnheardEcho
P.S. Do you agree with Annihalator's assesssment of the HDD question?

As the HDD is solely used for backup purpose performance of the HDD really doesn't matter much. If you use it as a storage drive as well then you might consider using 8MB cache where genrally assessing file would be faster.

If you defragment the backup drive often then it minimise the performance impact of a small cache

 

[CrispyFried]

Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX

I was thinking about that but it's best to balance number of input channel and output channels. Otherwise efficiency would decrease

Sucking air out near video card will lower overall ambient temperature. Although the cooling effect is not emphasised for the graphic card. If you use 1 for air intake turbulance and unbalance air flow would raise ambient temperature but would cool GPU down more.

GPU should handle fine anyway; shouldn't really need extra fan blowing over it. That's why I chosen 1 to suck hot hair out instead. It would be more efficient that way

My Antec PS also exausts so i wind up with 3 exaust, 3 intake. The 2 front fans cool the HDs (they mount between the front grill filter and the HDs so they draw outside air, no recirculated) but they encounter a lot of stuff like the HDs and cables etc so they probably dont draw was well as they could. I actually have negative air pressure as I get dust build ups aound crevices in the case and drive bays. The vid card does run a few degrees hotter when the side fan is exausting rather than blowing but its not a big deal. My primary reason for the side intake it it hits the northbridge passive heatsink and the memory. I have thermal probes on the NB heatsink, memory and GPU and they do run about 5 degree F cooler with the side as intake so in my setup its better. Other cases may vary of course. My whole setup runs very cool anyway so I could go either way, but I just go for every degee drop I can

 

[CrispyFried]

Originally posted by: UnheardEcho
Thanks so far guys. I do have a power supply exhausting air, forgot to consider that. 5+6 may be able to draw in some fresh air, but it would be obstructed by a fair amount.
To clarify a bit:
-Fans 1,2,3, and 4 are "official" fan spots, built into the case which can either blow in fresh air or exhaust inside case air. 2 and 1 only have about 2 inches of space between them and the sides of the desk compartment. (they blow in directions perpendicular to 3+4)
-Fans 5 and 6 would be fans I would mount in the 5.25" bays, to possibly try to draw in fresh air or circulate inside air. They wouldn't work well for exhaust.

Fan 2 sits sideways? It doesnt draw from the front grill?

You may not need 5 and 6 if they are just recirculating, mount the HDs in the bay where 2 is. This is the way my Antec is set up, the 2 front fans sit in front of the HDs in the cages and draw fresh air from the front grill. What is going to be in the area where 5 and 6 are? Optical drives typically dont get very warm and if the fans just recirculate (by being mounted sideways) they may actually add heat to the overall setup. You just use fans like that to eliminate hot spots and you probably wont have any there.

As AnnihilatorX said ideally you want a balance between fresh air intake fans and exaust fans. You might want 1 to be an intake for a total 2 intakes, 3 exaust (not counting 5 and 6 because they dont draw fresh air and counting the PS fan).

If it would benefit the overall temp, I would have no quandries about cutting at least 1 hole (maybe 2) in the front cover and bezel to allow fan 6 (maybe 5 if I cut 2 holes) to have an unobstructed pathway to fresh air for exhaust or intake. If we can get comparable temps w/o cutting holes, I'd rather not cut them just because I'm lazy and have no time.

That would help. In that case fan 1 could be exaust for a balance between intake/exaust. 5 and 6 would need to be oriented like 3 and 4, not sideways. May not be possable, depends on how the front grill is set up. But the gains may be minimal. Try it stock and see what temps you get.

P.S. Do you agree with Annihalator's assesssment of the HDD question?

Yes, in that situation the 8 meg cache would have minimal impact. Big caches really come into play on lots of small file access, like heavy duty multitasking or database stuff.

 

[UnheardEcho]

I'm pretty satified with my temps as they are now, its just my CPU seems to be higher than what it should be based on my other parts. Everst reports GPU as about 29-31C, and others all below 29C, but the CPU is consistently about 41C. I have Fans 1+2 as intake, 3 as intake, and 4 as exhaust, with the powersupply doing exhaust as well, though there are some wires blocking some of it I think. I went for more intake than exhaust to reduce dust, though I'm still getting it. I'd like to get the CPU down a bit, maybe play with 3 and 4?