Case set up

[Meat Jesus]

I just overclocked my rig to 3.6 and I am pretty happy so far. The temps are a manageable 41-60C.

-Case Antec P185
-Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core -Processor BX80570E850
-SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit

Things really heat up when I game and I would like to upgrade to a h50 and put 1 more fan in the front of the case. Can a few people chime in with tips on my rig and how to set up the fans?

The h50 specifies for cool air to be brought in from outside the case and pulled over the radiator. I am cool with this, but need to know the best exhaust port for my set up. Also, is there upgraded video card cooling systems or should I just get more cold air in the case?

Trying to order the parts today

 

[Meat Jesus]

or feel free to rag on my set up. It's my 1st one so things might look a little off

 

[BillParrish]

Nice clean job there - good show!

If that where mine, I would cut out that rear fan grill before mounting the H50/70 and not worry as that nice top fan just above will suck the warm air right out. And would think abou it for the top fan depending on skill level/tools and if there was a fan guard I liked the looks of. I dont think that there is or will be much better for air cooling the vid than you have, so the more air in the front is my call too. A bay cooler depending on front panel design (I could not find a P185 gallery anywhere, odd) that would have its bottom about level with the video card so it tosses air both at the card and into the lower cpu area would be worht moving some drives around. That vid card looks like it is dumping heat direclty into the case, more than the H50 would. So that top fan, I would want to be a high speed fan on a controller maybe, so I could turn it down when surfing and crank it up when gaming and just up the volume to cover the noise an inexpensive Fanmate woud do the trick.

Its always good to play with fan direction and placement but with that vid card I think its going to work best with everthing but the top fan blowing in and an unrestriced top fan with some oomph (replace it with a 38mm thick med or high speed Panaflow and use the old fan in the bay cooler ? )

Just a quck look see and off the cuff look. The heat from the vid card concerns me 3x as much as the heat the H50/70 would put in, thats my real point.

 

[Meat Jesus]

Bill,

Thanks for the insight. I must have had a moment, I have a p182 case. There are 2 inlets on the front of the case. here is someone who has the same case and put in 2 front fans.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1342100

If I put a fan in the top bay(front of case) it will blow directly over the video card. Which is great.

It just seems like a lot of hot air being blown around inefficiently. The CPU fan blows directly into the mobo. The video card fan blows up into itself and vents out the sides.

I am stressing over this way too much, but I am more of a measure twice cut once kind of person. I want to plan everything out instead of ordering parts, finding a new better idea, returning parts, etc.

Coming from the auto industry I usually run ducts to everything that needs cool air. This PC game is all new to me and its financially draining

So do you agree that fan in front, fan in rear, hot out the top?

 

[Little_4nic8er]

So do you agree that fan in front, fan in rear, hot out the top?

Though with a slight difference, that's what I did with my 800D. Instead of the front intake you have, the 800D has a fan on top of the PSU area sucking air from the bottom. I have 3 fans on top exhausting and the H50 in a push/pull config as an intake on the rear.

 

[aberchonbie]

BTW, i noticed that your ram is in the OJ slots. Does that matter? Because I have a x48 t3rs and people said to put mine in the light green slots where your yellowish slots are right now.

I think it makes more difference when OC cuz people got higher OC in the other slots.

 

[RhoXS]

In my opinion, from experience, as I stated in another thread, if you do not fight mother nature but let her work for you, you really do not need a lot of noisy fans. I have been very successful, when the case design allows it, bringing cool air in low in the case (usually via a slow large fan mounted at the bottom front) and exhausting the hot air out the top (via another large slow fan in the top cover). This allows the natural (and strong) tendency for hot air to rise to do a lot of the work for you, without adding to the noise level. This approach also works even more effectively when using a packaged water cooler such as the H50.

I have never found multiple fans mounted on the sides and back of the case to be a good trade off between noise and effective cooling of the equipment.

I am waiting impatiently for Corsair to get their new 600T to the retailers. It is my intention, to use only three fans; 1)a 200 mm supply fan front bottom behind drive bays, 2) a 200 mm exhaust fan in the top of the case, and 3) an H50 120mm fan using outside air as supply air. The "warm" exhaust air from the H50 will be inside the case but just below the 200 mm exhaust fan so I expect it will be immediately exhausted.

I intend to start with the factory supplied fans but replace them with quieter fans (such as Scythe or Noctura units) if I can more than just barley hear them.

Overall my design basis is not to achieve equipment core temperatures as low as possible. It is only to maintain reasonable temperatures that assure reliability and as close to dead silence as I can get (recognizing I cannot do much about the power supply - Corsair HX850W).

 

[Meat Jesus]

Thanks for the input guys!

So my CPU temps are as follows:

Idle and general surfing

C1 39c
C2 45c

Prime95

C1 66c
C2 67c

Gaming

C1 56c
C2 59c


Was the h50 that I just purchase a waste?

 

[investinwaffles]

My Q6600 (lapped) @ 3.4ghz and 1.3v idles at 35 and P95 loads at 60*C. BFBC2 for an hour makes my proc top out at 56*C and average around 52*C with my H50. Ambiant temps are 72*F.
Fans are Yate Loon 12cm Medium speed's in push-pull intake configuration.

Are you OC'd at all? If yes, then your temps are fine if not you should undervolt. I had my quad at 1.10v stock clocks and my processor idled at 29*C max (dropped down to 19 at night all the time). When running the H50 as an intake ambient temps make my core temps go up very exponentially.

Is the heatsink mated properly (did you tighten it down properly)? Its pretty hard to mess up the H50 install I think, with the rediculous amount of thermal paste hey provide.
What are your ambiant temps?

 

[Meat Jesus]

OC'd from 3.2 to 3.8

H50 not installed yet, but do I even need it with max temps never exceeding 67C?