Looking into new heatsinks...

[night_2004]

Alright, so sometime in the next week and a half I am doing a cross country move for the summer and I'm taking my rig with me. Since I'm not driving, but flying, I plan to ship my desktop partially disassembled.

The hard drives are being shipped in anti-static bags and wrapped around with a few inches of bubble wrap. The GPUs might suffer the same fate.

But the heatsink on my system (the Dark Knight S1283V) definitely has to come off for shipping. No way in hell I'm going to trust that it would stay put during a move.

The heatsink isn't all that bad at all, but I can't run the fan beyond 40% without it bugging me. Temperatures are okay (50C idle, mid 70C load) given the silence that I enjoy in my system. Idle and load temperatures used to be better, but for silence reasons I moved to the 60FN so temperatures went up by around 8C overall.

Maybe for my build this heatsink is as good as it gets. Maybe not. But I swore that the day I had to remove this heatsink I was going to look into alternatives just to take advantage of the opportunity.

Either I swap out the fan for something quieter, or I swap out the entire heatsink. Airflow isn't superb in the system but it does get the job done right now. I've given the H50 some thought but I'm not sure if that is the right choice for me. I might add another top fan to evacuate the heat from the H50 if I go that route.

Any recommendations? Silence is definitely key though.

 

[BillParrish]

Airflow isn't superb in the system

There is your main problem, Fix it first.

New Parts Coming! - Lian Li PC-60FN

Very pretty very high quality case but with the drive trays orientated like they are blocking the front intake fans this is a very poor OCing case and if you fill all those bays a horrible one. No side fan/vent for video card if you are a gamer.

Point is working on the cpu heatsink is going to be moot until the case airflow issue is resolved.


Sorry Bud, not trying to be so negative but only intended in really helping you solve your issue before you toss cash and are not happy with results.

 

[ehume]

so, there you have it: a new case and a Noctua NH-D14 - the best for silence and cooling.

 

[night_2004]

There is your main problem, Fix it first.

Very pretty very high quality case but with the drive trays orientated like they are blocking the front intake fans this is a very poor OCing case and if you fill all those bays a horrible one. No side fan/vent for video card if you are a gamer.

Yeah all the bays are filled (2x 2.5", 2x 3.5"). Like I said airflow isn't super and that's part of the problem. The other part of the problem is that the GPUs are essentially blocking intake airflow to the CPU area. I know that much. Then of course I hate the fan on my heatsink; I can hear a higher pitched whine to it.

I'd swap the whole heatsink too, but maybe something smaller that would be just as (if not more) effective?

Point is working on the cpu heatsink is going to be moot until the case airflow issue is resolved.

Good news is that I'm already working on that. I've got a fan mount on order that will match up nicely with my case; should be here this week or next. That'll direct some air right from the outside of the case through the empty optical drives straight to the CPU area.

Sorry Bud, not trying to be so negative but only intended in really helping you solve your issue before you toss cash and are not happy with results.

That's fine!

so, there you have it: a new case and a Noctua NH-D14 - the best for silence and cooling.

I just moved to this case to quiet the system down so I'm not re-building any time soon .

Going to take a look at that CPU cooler though, thanks.

 

[night_2004]

There is your main problem, Fix it first.

Well that part is fixed. Idle CPU temperatures are down to 38C.

Added another fan to the front, my idle CPU temperatures went from 50C to a full 12C lower. Getting ready to test load temperatures.

The CPU fan is still a bit loud when I turn it up, not sure if it is going to be worth swapping out now though.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

Well that part is fixed. Idle CPU temperatures are down to 38C.

Added another fan to the front, my idle CPU temperatures went from 50C to a full 12C lower. Getting ready to test load temperatures.

The CPU fan is still a bit loud when I turn it up, not sure if it is going to be worth swapping out now though.

replace the fan with a quieter one that movies more air.. especially if your using the stock fan that came with it..

 

[night_2004]

I'd replace it with a 120mm Cooler Master fan that I have in the closet, but it is as loud as...well...as loud as anything I've heard in a while. No way the 19dBA rating is accurate.

With the temperatures I'm seeing, I can run the fan low enough that I don't care anymore. I need to stop spending money .