lapped hs 15C drop untill.... (pics)

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mikeo

Gawd
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May 17, 2006
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lapped my 2yr old thermaltake sonic tower and got a 15C drop @full load w/ q6600 untill.... I put the cover back on the case, then it shot right back up and was only about 5-6c cooler. Any recommendations on how to improve the case cooling?

before lapping


after lapping:


after lapping closeup:


case laying flat and open (cooler)


case vertical and closed (hotter)


any ideas how i could improve the closed case cooling?
thanks,
mike
 
That wiring job has to be blocking a majority of the air in that case from moving where it needs to go. Clean up the PSU and other wires and you'll probably see a good decrease in temps with the case closed.
 
youre pretty lucky to see 5-6C difference actually, that's pretty significant. the different was not noticable on my a64 3000+
 
Dethred said:
That wiring job has to be blocking a majority of the air in that case from moving where it needs to go. Clean up the PSU and other wires and you'll probably see a good decrease in temps with the case closed.
Click to expand...

I agree. That's not the worst wiring job I've seen, but it has to be affecting the air flow.
 
one of my major gripes about that ocz psu is the fact that the wires are so thick that its hard to bend them, usually ill put the wires behind the mobo until they are plugged in, but wasn't able to bend them with this psu... I guess i'll try to clean up all the other wires and see if it helps.
 
Fan setup looks fine, dont like the cpu cooling dumping hot air into the power supply but thats more of a reliabiity issue. Wonder if that bottom psu fan is spinning fast enough, makers like to put 120mm low speed one in now to cut down on noise but the blowhole fan should be taking up the slack. /shrug

Bay cooler is all I can think of other then bundling the wires some.
 
If all those hard drives are running, they can contribute a significant amount of heat to the case air.
See how much difference it makes just running one and you'll get an idea of how much effect they have.

Its hard to tell from the pictures if the front fan on your PC draws its air directly from the front or has to draw it from the front/bottom of the PC case (like mine and many others).
If it has to draw air from the bottom, hang the front edge of the PC over a desk edge or raise it off the surface a bit to prevent airflow restriction.

The hole the fans sit in may have a drilled surface (many little holes).
This slows air flow and increases noise.
If you have any fan holes like this, cut out the hole so the air has a straight path into/out of the fan.
 
Like everyone pointed out the psu wires are big hinderance on the airflow, dont know how your going to clean that up though with the size of wires and case. If you could clean them up a bit and maybe put in a 2 slot bay fan in the front to help push in some more air possibly.

Previously stated but depending on the fan in the psu you could replace it with a higher flowing fan.

The cpu cooler is blowing hot air from one side of the cooler to the other. A zalman CNPS9500 positioned so its blowing directly to the exhaust port might help as well.

Even depending on your pci slots you have left they make some directional fans you could put in there.
 
You need to re-mount (rotate 90 degree) the heatsink so the fan blow hot air straight out to the rear (not to the PSU), and please get rid of those Cold Cathode, it is pointless.
 
bail_w said:
You need to re-mount (rotate 90 degree) the heatsink so the fan blow hot air straight out to the rear (not to the PSU), and please get rid of those Cold Cathode, it is pointless.
Click to expand...

Yep, rotate the heatsink. As mentioned earlier, people usually neglect the amount of heat hard drives put into the case, not to mention obstruction of airflow.

Did the psu come with wires as thick as that or is it a mod or something?
 
yep pretty much what everyone has said.

ya you need a larger case with better placed wires one that wont kill your air flow when you put 4 hard drives in it.

also is if posible to mount that heat sink so the air blow out the back . your rear exhaust fan will have more draw then your psu fan. plus other things people already said.


i prefer run of the mill 120 fans with a fan controller. gives you the option of silence or cooling power in one for dirt cheap solution. playing games all night crank up the fans. if you are just surfing turn them down.
 
PSU came with the wires, going to switch the 120 fan on the heatsink to an antec tricool (79CFM at 30dba), then maybe put the current cpu fan in the psu, and put the psu fan in the front 3 5.25 slots. Cant really do much about the thickness of the wires, its one thing that has always bothered me with this ocz psu. Would rotating the hs 90 degrees so its blowing out the back really help? I have to completely remove my motherboard to do that and I think the cfm on my psu (once i switch the fan) might be greater than the cfm on the 80mm fan thats on the back exhaust. If so ill redo it all this weekend when i have some time.

thanks for all the help
 
yikes, i have a modstream 520w myself, but i'm only using three extra cables. i'm sure my motherboard really doesn't enjoy the 24-pin atx cable exerting as much force on it as it does. :mad:

it's nearly impossible to flex and bend these fuckers. too bad the atx cable is hardwired else i'd just swap in my ultra flex-force version. now those are cables done right.
 
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