cooling conundrum, best course of action?

I

Imitation

2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 18, 2004
Messages
2,536
Cliffs for how we got here:
bought this case a few years ago: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811196014

Bought swiftech apex watercooling, got the dual 120 rad hanging off the back, rig in the sig cooled but had an 8800GT in the loop as well.

Everything was great till the 8800GT died and i hadn't registered it so evga said screw you.

bought 5770, the reverse atx on my case now pwns me cause half the heat is collecting in the top of the case and i've got no blowhole.

5770 isn't enough for bad company 2, have 5870 incoming with the ref cooler, so i'm going to have even MORE heat collecting in the top.

Last issue is that the pod that holds the usb on top is JUST far enough back that a 120mm fan won't fit behind it.

Solutions:

1, add an antec dbl slot fan and hope it can dump enough out the back.
cheapest solution, no cutting involved.

2. buy/borrow dremel, remove top usb pod, cut 120mm fan hole, install 120mm blowhole.
2nd cheapest, loss of usb but mitigated by use of usb hub, best option to keep 5870 aircooled

3. drop my currently unused mcw60 onto the 5870 and buy one of the passive sinks for the rest of the card. Swap dbl rad for a triple to hang off the back.
more quiet solution, but requires complete replumb of water setup and now the rad is HUGE and is taller than the back of the case.

4. combo of 2 and 3. remove usb, add 120mm blowhole. Install mcw60 and passive sink for 5870, add 120mm rad to top blowhole to help dissipate the extra heat in loop from 5870.
Probly the most work of all of em, probably equal in terms of price to 3.

What do you guys think would be best? I'm leaning toward option 1 to start with, and if that doesn't cut it go to something more drastic like option 3 or 4.
 
for a cheap fix, remove whatever is in the topmost drive bay and either run with it open or mod up a fan to fill that spot. that would take care of any stagnant hot air sitting in the very top.
 
yeah i've moved my intake fan all the way to teh top and I also removed the pci slot covers and that gave me about a 3C improvement on the 5770. I took the side of my case off for the mean time and that gave me an 9C improvement over that, so a 12C over the original setup. We'll have to see how bad it ends up once I get the 5870 installed and running.

I might actually end up going with none of those options and going dbl 120 rad on top and not even bother with the air cooling at all if the fan is screaming the whole time when gaming. I figure if i'm going to put a hole in the case, might as well get plenty of cooling for the work i'm doing.
 
Cool case!

From the pictures it seem you have three 80mm fans on the side panel? Those should be cooling the video card adequately, no?

I would just start out by adding a 120mmx38mm low speed Panaflo to the exhaust and possibly add something to the intake (looks like 2 80mm or 92mm).
 
SlipperyPete said:
Cool case!

From the pictures it seem you have three 80mm fans on the side panel? Those should be cooling the video card adequately, no?

I would just start out by adding a 120mmx38mm low speed Panaflo to the exhaust and possibly add something to the intake (looks like 2 80mm or 92mm).
Click to expand...

Actually those 80mm on the side blow over the hard drives below the mobo. The reverse atx puts the vid card about 2/3 up instead of close to the bottom of the case. This case would be near perfect if it had a 120mm blowhole :(
 
imo that case has pisspoor airflow. any case with that design should have an upper exhaust fan at the as you now have a huge deadzone up there with nowhere for the heat to go. i would just go case shopping instead of trying to remod a case that really isnt built right for good airflow. second option would be to at least install a 120mm blowhole fan.
 
Rogue71 said:
imo that case has pisspoor airflow. any case with that design should have an upper exhaust fan at the as you now have a huge deadzone up there with nowhere for the heat to go. i would just go case shopping instead of trying to remod a case that really isnt built right for good airflow. second option would be to at least install a 120mm blowhole fan.
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm leaning more and more toward the blowhole + top mounted radiator option since that would maximize my cooling capability and be cheaper in the long run. I looked at my case last night and because it is swappable to btx, the top panel is held on by screws and not rivets, that could make things WAY easier when i go to cut the hole out.
 
Meh, I would just get some nice quiet Panaflo's for the intake and exhaust and call it a day, unless you are going to be overclocking.
 
SlipperyPete said:
Meh, I would just get some nice quiet Panaflo's for the intake and exhaust and call it a day, unless you are going to be overclocking.
Click to expand...

Hmm not sure you really understand the issue here. I've already got an intake and an exhaust fan and because the case is a reverse atx case so the motherboard is upside down compared to a normal case. The exhausted heat from the video card rises and its pooling above my video card and essentially baking itself because there's no place for that hot air to go. The exhaust fan is below the card itself so its really only exhausting the heat coming off the ram and chipset heatsinks.
 
Oh my...didn't realilze that. I don't know what to tell you, turn the case upside down? Lol...I guess try drilling the hole for the 120mm.
 
You could make a slightly smaller blowhole, like 100mm.

Is it possible to angle the 120mm fan a bit (have the back down a bit toward the slots, rather than flush against the top panel)? It looks like the last slot is pretty close to the top, but if you don't have anything in that slot, it might not be a big issue to have that end of the fan sticking down there. It might be tricky to get it mounted there securely, but that would be a way to get a 120mm fan into a space shorter than 120mm.
 
If you are not using the top 3 PCI slots then the quickest and dirtiest solution is to simply remove the covers and zip-tie an 80mm fan to them. If done right it can actually be very fast, simple, quiet, stable, and effective. It will probably push more air than the Antec slot fan option actually.
 
Now we're getting somewhere, i've got a spare 80mm here that I might need to put to good use! And if that doesn't cut it well there's always watercooling :) thanks guys
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top