Hey guys,
Whats the best way to setup an entirely air-cooled box, if you are generating a lot of heat. E.g. I have a lot of fans, but I don't think they are exactly functioning "optimally".

Thanks

My knowledge is limited, but you would typically want to create air flow from one direction to another. EG, front to back.
Also, you should have more fans blowing out of the case than sucking in, so that you create negative pressure. This allows cool air to be sucked in from where you dont have fans.

Best air cooled fans? Do you want it to be silent as well?

I would recommend these:

CPU:

All Support (Intel and AMD) - zalman CNPS9500LED : 3 x 8-shape bending design copper heatpipe with 0.2mm ultra slim copper fin , aero-dynamically tunnel , 92mm opaque fan with blue led + Fan mate2 : 1300/2600rpm , double ball bearing , noise 18/27.5db - for all Intel cpu ; Amd 754/939/940/AM2 ( AM2 require ZM-oC1 optional clip support )

LINK

Otherwise

Zalman CNPS7700-Cu Red led : pure copper FHS+ 120mm red led Fan+ Fan mate2 : 1000/2000rpm, double ball bearing, noise 20/32db - for Amd 754/939/940 , all Intel cpu

LINK

GPU:

Zalman VF900-CU Led + fan mate2 - all copper fin + dual heat pipes with 0.2mm ultra slim copper fin with blue E-LED , 8 x vga memory heatsink included , support silend/ normal mode ; 2 ball bearing 80mm fan with blue Led ; speed: 1350/ 2400 rpm ; noise level : 18.5/25dB , weight : 187g - pls note : not to be used with Matrox , radeon 9600/9550series , nvidia 6600 agp

LINK

Northbridge:

vantec iceberq ccb-a1c , Copper All-In-One Chipset or VGA Cooling Kit. with fan

LINK

Case Fan:

120mm - antec 120mm TriCool Trilight ( red+green+blue) ; 3 speed switch ( manual ) , 120x120x25mm , double ball bearing , 1200/1600/2000rpm , 39/56/79 CFM , 25/28/30dba - 3 years warranty

LINK


With this combo your system would be quiet as hell


Oops you want the optimum setup, this is how i usually setup my box: use only 120mm fans one in front and one at the back, PSU usually have 120mm. so the front fan will draw fresh air in while the back fan sucks the air out of the case.

as you might have notice, CPU HSF generate a lot of heat so if you have the back fan extracting the hot air. if you have the PSU sitting above the CPU it helps to also suck the air out of the box.

If you have a side case fan then have that draw cooler air into the box/cpu/gpu. if you are using one of the newer generation cards I would recommend a extraction fan placed beneath the GPU to dispel extra unnecessary heat from the case.

In my experience, front and side intake fans are largely useless. One decent 120mm rear exhaust fan is sufficient to extract warm air and to create enough negative pressure to allow cool air into the case. If you're after a quiet solution this is the way to go.

Also, buy a decent sleeve bearing fan for your CPU cooler: they're quieter than ball bearing ones and have a longer life expectancy too.

GO H2O. hehe. I did, and all I can say is it is well worth the moolah I spent on it.

sleeve bearing breaks so easily and does not product half the airflow to ball bearing, I was always told the ball bearing is quieter....

Dave, air cooling isnt all that. You cant get much better without compromising on noise levels (extra fans = extra noise)

Seriously, go for a water cooling system, there are relatively cheap kits available and the setup is easy.

You can also get your water blocks fitted onto gfx card, hard drives, etc

Wow thanks everyone Firstly -- water cooling isn't for me unfortunately. The maintainance and setup on its not my style. My current setup is *roughly* like this --

3 SATA drives spaced 1" apart at the front, generating a lot of heat, running around 40-55 C
1x LG dvd at the top, well spaced, generates heat but not really an issue.
1x CPU with Tower cooler on it, large fan and heatsink raised off board. Rusn hot though, 58 C at the moment.
1x Nvidia 7900 GTX - runs around 60 C. Close to CPU and large
2x Corsair DDR2 - not sure the heat around these, but they are close to my problem area.
1x 800W power supply, lots of cooling in it but its HOT.

The problem area (mainly) is between the processor, memory and SATA drives. Its really hotted up there. My setup has grown from heat issues, so its kinda loosely put together - how should I best structure it really? What I do at the moment is something like this --

Turbine like blower above the Graphics Card sucks air our of case +/ 3000 RPM.
Single medium sized fan at front of case sucks air in.
Opened spare floppy slot for air intake (dumb?)
Power supply fan blowing around 2000RPM
Power Supply+Turbine are hooked up to variable control plate on the front - so I can adjust speed but I hate noise.
2x medium fans above power supply sucking air out the back of case.
1x PCI fan below Graphics Card - has two fans, one blows one extracts air. GFX card also has a big fan
Big fan on side of heatsink, blows backwards through heatsink towards back of box.

Maybe I should try take a photo

Basically the cluster in the middle, processor, mem, gfx and drives is an issue. I'm worried the gfx cards fan, and the PCI fans are breaking my smooth "backwards" flowing air pattern?

Fish stole my idea, that's prob the best setup. Zalman IMO are the best for Air.

With the Zalman VF-900CU on my GFX idle is around 47Degs so it would make a big difference over the stock solution, you should see temps of around 55 with the GTX

At 60 deg for gpu idle is already generating too much heat atm...

if you are looking to change the CPU and GPU cooler I would definately recommend the zalman set as noise and heat ratio it's the greatest solution... otherwise remove the stock HSF and reapply some artic silver or the new "Coollaboratory Liquid Pro Thermal Interface Material" should drop temps by 3-7 degrees.

you could water cool your CPU and GPU as those two would most likely generate a lot of heat that would reduce your CPU temps to around 30-40 deg and GPU would be around 40 odd.. add a nice quiet extraction fan and volia... as for HDD replace the medium fan and place a 120mm there to cool all 3 drives

hmmm if the two fans are above the PSU and the PSU is above the CPU with no fan at the back of the case you will have a problem... cos the two fans are drawing no heated air out of the fan, try provide us with a pic of your case.


hmmm I can't quiet picture this... but if you have a fan blowing directly on the GPU fan it might cause some problems with airflow and restrict air from cooling the GPU.

Thanks again Fishfly - I will try to take a pic. On the side though, isn't water cooling an issue because you get buildup etc from the water, and need to do a lot of cleaning?

Also where do you guys buy your stuff from? This Zalman stuff for example. I also want to get a new, nice, easy to use case...

er... The only maintenance I do with my rig, is to add some Fluid-XP to my system. That only happens from time to time, otherwise I do sweet nothing. hehe.

Don't you need to clean it out on account of the water ? I've heard the maintainance is quite a bitch actually

bah, I haven't cleaned mine. I am running Fluid-XP in it. Better than water.

actually cyfer with fluidXP you suppose to replace that once every 6months-year just to ensure that your fluid remains non conductive (it does become conductive from all the materials it picks up)...

generally if you don't throw funny things in the water then it should be fine... I've seen people use the asetek water mix and it's created some green like alge... needless to say they had to replace the piping.

I'm currently using a Ehiem Pump with innovotek blocks and using normal distilled water with a few ml of Innovaprotek for over 6 months now system still going strong.

I have a dealership directly with Frontosa IT www.frontosa.co.za or Corex www.corex.co.za pretty much supply all my pc needs at distribution price

btw if you looking at a light case rather get a Lian Li casing or the antec... just be warned with some of the antec casing and water cooling you'll be lugging around a +40kg system!

www.synapsys.co.za has very nice water kits

Cleaning and replacing are two different things trout.

you try clean a 30cm in length and 8mm thick pipe...

Mine is longer than 30cm. All you would need to do is run some hot water through it. I was meaning I don't need to clean mine as I don't get crap in it. I just need to replace the Fluid-XP from time to time, and that isn't a tough job at all.

If you use water, Use distilled. Water is easer to move and nothing cools

like water.

The best AIR cooling is the Ultra ChillTech CPU Cooler ! best thing I have ever used !

Hi

I am trying to figure out if i need any fans installed on my new PC. I am a first time builder and still in the phase of collecting hardware

I have

Case ATX Mid-Tower ULT31795

Motherboards IP35-E ATX

CPU (Processor) Intel core duo 2 E6750

Graphic Cards/Video Cards 512 MB

Modem s 56k / V.92 Internal S20-03 Sterling V.92 PCI Softmodem

Memory 2GB (2x1GB) PC26400 crucial - CT2KIT12864AA80E DDR2 800Mhz 240-pin DIMMs

Software (O/S) Vista Home OEM (Pending)

Hard Drives 200 GB ATA Maxtor L01P200 200GB 7200RPM 8MB

Mouse Microsoft

Keyboard Microsoft

CD/DVD-ROM/DVD Writer 16 DVD +/- DL Writer idvd16dd

Power Supply Coolmax V-500 V 500 500 W with 120 mm fan

120 mm fan Pending

80 mm fan Pending

Do I need any 80mm or 120mm fans?

How many? ( case manual says it supports 2 80mm fans but i had read somewhere that it will also support an additional 120mm fan)

3 pin or 4 pin ? (Motherboard instruction says it will support 3 pin or 4 pin CPUFAN, but it also has other connectors like sysfan and 2 auxfans)

any suggestions?