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Cooling a Lian Li PC65

Z

Zinn

Guest
Hey,

I just picked up one of these, and it seems pretty nice. Only problem is, it runs a little hot. I've got two 80mm intake fans in front, one exhaust in back, one on top and a PCI slot blower. Even with all of this, I get load temps of up to 50 C on my Athlon and 90 C on my 6800.

I'm newer to the realm of taking care of my components than I'd like. I kind of fried my last system and I'd like to NOT do it again if it can be avoided. If anyone can offer advice on how to cool my system better (without water) with a budget of < $75 I would be much obliged!

Couple of questions:
1) Should I replace my 4 stock 80mm fans?
2) Does anyone know if these are worth 20 bucks: http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/vauvspfanca.html

Thanks ppl!
 
Zinn said:
Hey,

I just picked up one of these, and it seems pretty nice. Only problem is, it runs a little hot. I've got two 80mm intake fans in front, one exhaust in back, one on top and a PCI slot blower. Even with all of this, I get load temps of up to 50 C on my Athlon and 90 C on my 6800.

I'm newer to the realm of taking care of my components than I'd like. I kind of fried my last system and I'd like to NOT do it again if it can be avoided. If anyone can offer advice on how to cool my system better (without water) with a budget of < $75 I would be much obliged!

Couple of questions:
1) Should I replace my 4 stock 80mm fans?
2) Does anyone know if these are worth 20 bucks: http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/vauvspfanca.html

Thanks ppl!
Click to expand...

Hey.

Iwould deffenately looking in on changing your CPU and GPU HSF.
Do you ave a Socket A AthlonXP?

And Your GFX card, does it get 90C hot? That ALOT.
 
The stock lian-li fans are not that bad, but you could improve things and still keep the noise down with some good panaflo fans I used the H1A's, but you may want to go the the higher cfm M1A ($10ea), as for the card cooler...I dunno, have no experience there, although most people seem to replace the stock 6800 hs with the NV5($30ish) As for the cpu...go with the Zalman cpns7000 ($34).... all total about $80
 
having a pc65 and loving it, i suggest you make the following changes:

remove all the stock fan-grills.
take off the dust filter
get some better fans
if you want quiet/efficent get some panaflo's
if you want noise/performance get some whatevers.
cut another fan hole below the rear exhaust
mod the intake to make it a 120mm fan, it's possible.

what i'm planning/thinking about doing to help quiet it down and cool it down is:
WTX mod (flippin the tray from what it is now to opposite and upside down so the CPU is on the bottom)
maaaaybe a top 120mm fan, not really seriously thinking about it though.
 
the stock ADDA fans push decent airflow, so I think your problem is probably elsewhere
what CPU cooler are you using?
and how is your wiring job? make sure it's not interfering with the airflow

I wouldn't recommend replacing the stock fans unless you really need the extra airflow and don't mind more noise
and I wouldn't bother with the 120mm intake mod, because it's a lot of trouble, it's not going to do anything you couldn't do with 2 80mm fans as far as CFM, and you'd lose your dust filter

I'd suggest looking into the XP-90 with a Panaflo fan for your CPU and a NV Silencer for your 6800

if you want to do some modding, I'd suggest a second 80mm exhaust fan, making that 80mm blowhole into a 92mm or 120mm, and replacing all the grills (except the front one) with wire grills

I'd leave the dust filter because it's not going to make a noticable difference in temps, and mine does a very good job at catching dust
 
I have a PC65B and don't really have any problems with cooling. My CPU is usually around 40c with my GPU around 45-50c. During peak usage these go up to about 48c and 54c, respectively.

Two things I'll recommend:
  1. Make sure you have your case fans directing air the correct way
  2. Maybe consider improving your component cooling

My case fans in the front have their faces facing to the front of the case, the rear case fan has it's face facing toward the front as well. The top fan has it's face pointing downward. Granted, I replaced all of mine with CoolerMaster fans, they were only replaced for aesthetic (LED) reasons. The stock fans shouldn't be a problem. I don't know what component cooling you have.. But you may want to invest in a better fan/heatsink combo for your CPU/GPU.

Aside from that, just make sure there's not too much inhibiting airflow inside the chassis and if you have the case inside an enclosed area (such as a closed closet under a desk) then you might want to take it out and make sure there's at least a few inches of clearance in every direction except the right.


__
AMD 64 4000+ (939, 1mb cache, stock voltage) | 2x512 Corsair TWINX-3200XLPRO (LEDs!) @ 2-2-2-5/2.7v | 1*74GB Raptor (TCQ), 2*200GB Seagate Barracuda in RAID0 (w/NCQ) | 2*BFG 6800 Ultra OC | Plextor 716SA SATA DL DVDRW

... NO IDE or floppy, baby!
 
Thanks for the hints people. I'm seriously considering buying the Thermalright XP-90. Some of the reviews make it look better for load temps than some water cooling kits I read about. I'm a bit more wary of removing my GPU cooler as it would void the warranty. Also I will be buying different case fans... hopefully some pretty LED fans that will increase both bling and airflow. And some UV cold cathodes... booyah I love this case even if it is a little toasty!

Everything's staying at stock until I get some better cooling!

Eventually I want to get some Raid0 WD Raptors in there, but I suppose I'd better wait to get a bit better temps too...
 
Mmkay, I just ordered the Thermalright XP-90, a Thermaltake "Smart Fan" and some AS5. Hopefully that will take care of the temp problem.
I'll hold off on the bling until after I get those raptors in there...
 
Zinn said:
Mmkay, I just ordered the Thermalright XP-90, a Thermaltake "Smart Fan" and some AS5. Hopefully that will take care of the temp problem.
I'll hold off on the bling until after I get those raptors in there...
Click to expand...
you may want to do a little research or start a thread over in disk storage systems before going RAID0
not going to get into it here, but don't expect to see any difference between a single Raptor and two in RAID0 as far as gaming goes
 
Yeah, i second the no RAID on the raptors, it only gives you about a %1 ACTUAL performance increase overall from Anandtech.com and StorageReview.com's tests. I've tried it and I didn't see any increase in performance and it was nice with them unRAIDed to have a windows drive and a programs drive/paging file drive to keep things peppy. Really research before you RAID 0 because you can setup the 2 drives to be a *transparent* drive in windows 2000 or XP and that way you don't risk the unstability or RAID 0...
 
Wow, thanks you guys. I checked out those sites, and indeed you're right. I guess theoretical vs. practical performance differences can be huge! Kind of like how now with this AMD I get much lower 3dmark scores, but noticeably smoother FPS in games.

Nikola, I am concerned with load/swap times in games and based off of your recommended reading, a single Raptor 74gig seems like a much better choice than dual 36s (and cheaper)

So thank you for saving me from my ignorance! You just saved me a ton of money :-D

One 74 gig raptor coming right up...
 
I almost made the same mistake, Zinn. I ended up going with one 74g Raptor and two large 7200rpm drives for storage. I run most of my games off of the RAID0 setup after trying from the Raptor and the array... I didn't notice too much of a difference.

Make sure you use plenty of thermal paste if ya change up cpu heatsinks!
 
EnderW said:
No, use a small amount as explained in the Artic Silver instructions:

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions_big2.htm
Click to expand...
I put an even layer on there at first, but it didn't cool very well. I don't even know what the load temps were because I'm afraid to go too much over 50C. Following those instructions yielded idle temperatures 4 C lower. I'm still loading at 50C, but I suspect that the stock AMD heatsink is the culprit and the XP-90 will do me right...

Man I can't wait for all this stuff to arrive so I can *finally* be satisfied with my system for a week...
 
Zinn said:
I put an even layer on there at first, but it didn't cool very well. I don't even know what the load temps were because I'm afraid to go too much over 50C. Following those instructions yielded idle temperatures 4 C lower. I'm still loading at 50C, but I suspect that the stock AMD heatsink is the culprit and the XP-90 will do me right...

Man I can't wait for all this stuff to arrive so I can *finally* be satisfied with my system for a week...
Click to expand...
Keep in mind it takes AS5 up to 200 hours to settle, and make sure to shut your system off a few times during that period so it can cool to room temperature.

http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions_big2.htm
Due to the unique shape and sizes of the particles in Arctic Silver's conductive matrix, it will take a up to 200 hours and several thermal cycles to achieve maximum particle to particle thermal conduction and for the heatsink to CPU interface to reach maximum conductivity. (This period will be longer in a system without a fan on the heatsink or with a low speed fan on the heatsink.) On systems measuring actual internal core temperatures via the CPU's internal diode, the measured temperature will often drop 2C to 5C over this "break-in" period. This break-in will occur during the normal use of the computer as long as the computer is turned off from time to time and the interface is allowed to cool to room temperature. Once the break-in is complete, the computer can be left on if desired.
Click to expand...
 
Zinn said:
Man I can't wait for all this stuff to arrive so I can *finally* be satisfied with my system for a week...
Click to expand...

Hah! Dude, you've got it bad.

The stock AMD cooler is pretty good, although the XP-90 is better. Do like Wiggin says and let the goop set before you go cranking up the heat. Once it's cooked the temp will drop more and the cooling will be more stable.

Since you're using multiple drives on seperate controllers, you can probably improve your pagefile performance by moving it off of the primary drive+controller.

RAID 0 is a bad thing (well it's a GOOD thing - but overused and for the wrong applications), also Windows's Dynamic Drive Spanning is NOT fail-safe and basically has all the vulnerabilities of running in RAID 0. Ask me on StorageReview and I'll tell you the same...actually it's all in the FAQ anyway. Run the games off the Raptor if you haven't already moved them back there anyway, and either put the 2 storage drives to seperate volumes, or if you must, get a cheap JBOD controller. NTFS even supports mounting to folder if you prefer.
 
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