What would you upgrade?

[Floodcore]

Guys,


I just assembled my new PCI-E based system. My case is a Cooler Master Praetorian with the stock HSF for an AMD64 3.2.


Cooler Master Praetorian specs.


My question is: what would you guys do to increase the cooling of the case? With only 4 total 80mm case fans whats the best options out there?

I was thinking of replacing all the fans with Panaflo's, and then adding a PCI slot-type fan to at least give me some more venting out the backside, and going with a Zalman 7000b HSF.


I'm not planning on over-clocking this rig too severely but I'd like to squeeze a little more out of it. AlsoI'm concerned about the overall longevity of my system.

After having my previous system sounding like a patrolling Apache gunship, I do like the fact that my new rig is much quieter. With all that being said, what would you all do to improve on this case and my cooling?

 

[akira34]

Ditch the 80mm fans in favor of 120mm fans.
Use AMD's Cool 'N' Quiet technology to keep your rig cool, but a hell of a lot quieter while not under loads.
Which AMD processor do you have? Is that the Athlon64 3200+? You do know there's NO 3.2GHz Athlon64, right?

My Lian-Li case is pretty damned quiet stock with the XP-120 cooler installed. I'm about to start working on my own duckting mod (thanks to the duckie that posts here ). That should make the processor fan more silent, OR give me better cooling, or even both. I'm hoping for both.

Right now, I'm seeing 34C processor temps with a case temp of 31C while under fairly light load (running iTunes and some web browsing). I'm hoping to get the temps lower than that without increasing the noise level at all. I'm 100% air cooled here, so don't think, for a second, that I have one drop of liquid cooling going on. I did change out the cooler on my 6800GT for an Arctic Cooling unit (MUCH quieter).

For reference, soft music (low volume) is playing on my 2.1 speaker system and it's more than covering any possible sounds coming from the case. I just hope that the duckt will at least let me reach the noise level I'm hunting for. I want the system to be silent from 5' away, or more. A little noise up to 4' is ok, but it better be almost silent from 4-5 and then nothing after 5'. I'll be working on this until I reach my goal. I don't care how long it takes to get there.

Oh, and as pointed out by others, I AM insane when it comes to what I want from my system as far as noise levels and temp's...

 

[Floodcore]

Thanks for the reply Akira34!

Woops yes sorry 3200+ I meant processor-wise.

Ok cool I have always read here that 120mm fans are better than 80's.
How can I convert 80mm to 120mm fans? Brackets? Converters?

As for duckting, can you point me to a link etc. please? I'd like to investigate it myself...sounds interesting.

 

[akira34]

Not sure about your case. Check to see how much room you have where the 80mm fans are. You could try using an 80mm to 120mm adapter to connect fans. Just keep in mind that that will make the depth of the fans greater. Look here for some ideas as far as adapters go.

For duckting, there's some pretty recent threads with it mentioned. Also the bonzai duckie [quak] mentions it often and can be called upon to chip in for links and such.

Personally, I just need to stop and get the foam core board to start working on mine. I'm sure I will go through at least a couple of versions before settling on one that really works, or that I'm happy with. I think one of my biggest troubles will come from the size and shape of my heatsink. The XP-120 is a MONSTER of a heatsink with a 120mm fan on top... :shocked:

 

[Nessism]

First off, what are your temps like? There's no reason to jump though a hoop unless the temps are out of line.

Cooling wise the Zalman 7000 is a good unit, it will drop your peak cpu temps and reduce noise at the same time.

 

[Spike]

The adapters are ok, but don't work very well when you go from a much smaller fan. The 80-92 adapter I have works well for case fan applications but bad for CPU HSF applications.

Adapter review
Adapter review

If you google "80 to 120 fan adapter review" there are alot of reviews, these are just two of them. Most say they work ok but you have to watch out for "dead air" caused by a large fan drawing air from a smaller hole.

My advice would be to get Panaflo L1A or M1A 80mm and forget the adapters. They cost extra and are not certain to improve your cooling. If you really want to experiment then get one to play with, thats what I did. Mine met with pretty poor results so I found they don't work for me.

-spike