P182: Air Flow

M

mis3

Gawd
Joined
Jul 4, 2000
Messages
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I just built a new PC with the following components:
P182, P5E-WS, Q6600-G0 @2.88GHz, Zalman 9700NT, 8800GTS-512MB, 2x2GB OCZ, WD-750GB SATA, 2 SATA DVD-Writers, Cosair 620W.

From CoreTemp; my core temps at idle are 31-34C, at load (Prime-95) are 49-54C. Ambient is 21C.

I added another 120mm Tricool fan in the front middle cage for air-intake and this fan is set to Mid. I do not want to set this fan to High because of noise. The other 3 case fans are all set to Low.

I noticed that if I open the front panel, the temp will drop 1-2C. If I open the middle door, take off the filter in front of the tricool fan, the temp will drop 1-2C again. But I like to close the front panel because this is a great looking case.

Although I think my temps are acceptable, is there any way I can further decrease the temps without increasing the noise level substantially? I read that the PCI slot cooler do not work well.

Quoted from the following review http://www.silentpcreview.com/article741-page6.html:

The ambient conditions were 23°C and 19 dBA. No special effort was made to lower the noise of the system. The two upper fans were set to LOW speed, and the lower chamber fan was removed. The extra vents on the back around the PSU were blocked with electrical tape. The HDDs were cooled only by the PSU fan. The front door of the case was left closed; opening it will tend to improve the cooling by a few degrees at 1~2 dBA increase in noise.

Why block the extra vents on the back around the PSU?
 
If you seal off the vents then you can make sure that the airflow flows the way you want the fans to flow them. If you have vents around the psu air will be sucked in from those vents and blown out of the case through the psu, while at the same time airflow from bottom fan to psu will be reduced because there's air flowing in through the vents.

It's basically like having a long tube with a fan at the end. If you have vents just in front of that fan, barely any air will be sucked in through the front of the tube, it will all come in through the vents. If the tube has no vents you have maximum flow at the start of the tube.
 
I picked up some new fans. I'll let you know how it works when I get them in... I'll probably end up sealing the end where the PSU is.
 
There is 1 fan blowing in and 2 out of the main part of the case, which is why you are running the intake at Mid - a drive bay fan will allow the mid fan to run at Low. (ideally a 120mm fan, but then you wouldn't be able to fit both DVDs.) It could be both quieter and cooler, but check graphics temps as well as CPU as the P182 is much better at keeping the CPU cool than the graphics card. The Try-Cools could be replaced by better fans such as Slipstreams although they aren't bad at Low - a fan controller would also help, even if it's just Fanmates or similar to permanently set fan speeds without being limited to 3 speeds. You can probably also disconnect the bottom fan without affecting temperatures, it's really there for fanless PSUs. Silentpcreview is the place to look for P182 info, though.
 
I activated Asus Q-Fan in the BIOS.

Right now with a few browsers opened, the CPU is running at 1.92 GHz (Speedstep), Coretemp reports the core temps to fluctuate between 36-37-36-36 and 35-36-35-35. Ambient temp is 23C.

According to PC Probe,
CPU temp = 28C
MB temp = 36C
CPU fan = 1258 RPM
Chassis fan = 937 RPM

With the front fan set to MID and the other 3 fans set to LOW, the noise level is very good. I am just looking for a way to further increase the air flow, thus lowering the temp.
 
My suggestion would be to replace the antec stock fans. I have 3 yate loons running in my p182 and with a speed controller up front I can either go for all cooling, or take it down to near silence while downloading/sleeping.
 
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