Hi, new and need some strait advice

well, then i would say get:
5 Pananflo M1A 120s
1 Panaflo M1A 92
xp-90
artic silver 5
and a fan controller cause 5 fans might get to be too much. just run them full when gaming or loading your comp out in some way

Where should I put those fans? The setup I was suggesting? You dont think the 120mms are too much? You can't have too much cooling, but is the extra noise worth it?

well, unless you really have your heart set on it, i would drop the extra intake over the CPU and have the front intake, and an intake over the PCI cards, and then the exhaust in the rear and then the blowhole. as for the noise, get a fan controller

So thats 4 120mm fans instead of 5? Hmm what is the reasoning behind removing the CPU intake? I've heard it can help a lot.

well, think of the fact that if you have that intake right over the cpu, unless you have a duct so the airflow goes right down to the heatsink and no where else then a large amount of the airflow is just going to make a quick left turn and head right back out of the case through the exhaust. so use it if you want to, but make a duct, other wise you add noise for no reason

Ahh I understand now. It would only be useful if it had a duct because otherwise the rear exhaust would reduce it's effectiveness. I had to get rid of those pics and I have to check to be sure but if these here are my fans, then arent they pretty damn good already? Though if they are then they only came with the fan and none of the accessories.

those are the vairable speed fans silverstone sells, not the ones in thier cases. those fans are rated at 103 CFM at 44 dbA, but the fans they put in thier cases they only tell you that they are 21 dbA, so even if they are the same fans just not variable then i dont think they are going to be anywhere near 103 CFM, if even half that...

I expected as much, but I was hopeful. Do you know a good place for those M1As? The 120mms are plentiful, but I can't find a good place for 92s. By the way, thanks for your help Wej.

you can get both the sizes at performance-pcs.com
they are kind of expensive, but the cables are sleeved

Alright, here's what I think. I definately think the intake over the cpu is a good idea. Cool air directly to the cpu works wonders. I got a 5 C drop by doing this without even ducting to my cpu. Now, most of that is due to poor aiflow in my 3700amb. It probably won't be as big of deal in your huge tower because there is more room. I would try to make an active duct though if you can. I'm going to finish off my intake with one. Basically, have an intake over the cpu (Same size fan, so 92mm) then a duct straight to the cpu with about 1/2" in between the cpu and the end of the duct. This will ensure cold air gets to the computer. I think 92mm is plenty big for your side intakes.

As for the fan on the xp-90, I would definately go for something that is more than 25mm thick. The thicker the fan, the better the pressure. If I'm following correctly you're looking at the m1a for the cpu fan? That is a good fan, and pretty quiet as well, but it doesn't have that much pressure. I actually have an h1a in my setup right now, and that one is pretty quiet for me. If you want higher performance, find some thicker fans. Now, higher performance also means more noise, but if you have a fan controller you can turn that baby down when you want to. A 92mm tornado is too loud even with a fan controller, so I recently picked up this fan...

http://www.so-trickcomputers.com/Me...reen=PROD&Product_Code=YT9HF&Category_Code=FF

That fan is more than double the static pressure of my h1a but does add some noise. It is however, half as loud as the tornado and shouldn't be too bad with a fan controller. I'm looking forward to using it and it seems like a great alternative to the tornado. If that is too much noise for you though, I would definately recommend getting the Sanyo Denki 92x32mm fan. This can be purchased at sidewindercomputers.com for $9.95 or coolerguys.com for $1.95. Coolerguys also has $7.00 shipping just for the fan so if you are going to buy the heatsink at sidewindercomputers as well, it's probably worth it to just get them both there. It has about 20% more static pressure than the panaflo 25mm thick fans and sounds about the exact same as my h1a (put one in my friends computer). That is a great quiet alternative for the xp-90. So to sum up, the panaflo's can cool your xp-90 quiet well at resonable sound levels, but you can get better performance with a thicker fan with more static pressure. You'll get extra noise, but add on a fan controller to control it down if you need to sleep or whatever.

If you need any more help, feel free to ask.

Oh, and also. I've been searching for high static pressure 92mm fans for a while and have sent out many emails to different companies trying to get a hold of some fans at reasonable sound levels. I have a thread entitled "ever heard of micronel fans?" that I keep updating when I found more fans. You might want to keep an eye out for it if you want suggestions for good performance cooling for the xp-90.

Hope this helped.

If you want those panaflo's though, you can get them here...

http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/home.php?cat=80

That's a really good site btw. You can also buy the heatsink there and I heard there is a deal to get a fan with it for only a few dollars extra.

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/sanyodenki92mm.html

That's the sanyo denki. Whoa, sidewindercomputers also has the best price for the xp-90 I've seen. $35.95!!

Also, this is not necessary but I really like it. Electron Chaser directed me to an aftermarket retention bracket for my motherboard. The xp-90 attaches to the retention bracket and I had stepped on my stock one so I needed to get a new one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=80143&item=6708567098&rd=1

That one is sturdier than the stock ones and also screws into a backplate. It's more of a "peace of mind" idea than anything. It worked great though, and the guy shipped it pretty quick. Just another idea.

I noticed that you said: "Another thing, my computer is in one of those cabinet things."
Although you said you leave the door open, by having it in an essentially dead air space, it will capture hot air. You need to put a vent fan at the back-top of the cabinet to suck hot air out of the cabinet.

Yes, thats a lot of help thanks, mribnik. I am going to remove the rig from the cabinet, with the extra mods it's now a necessity. What was your suggestion on 120mm fans?

Dessun said:

My radeon also gets real hot

Click to expand...

Mine used to too....then i got the vga silenecer rev 3 and it fixed everything and i could get my core up to 441 now...

Are you asking me about my suggestion for 120mm fans?

Regardless, you're getting it! If you need 120mm fans for case fans then pressure doesn't really matter, you just want a solid fan with a good cfm/dba ratio. Also, several cases use fan brackets which require you to use 25mm fans. This is not a big deal. If your case allows the fans to screw into the case and there are no space limitations, then you can get a 38 mm fan. You can also mod your case to allow the fan to screw in rather than clip onto the fan bracket.

So anyways for case fans I think 25mm is fine because the extra pressure from the 38mm fans isn't really needed and it saves some room (i have an intake behind the hard drive tray and a 25mm fan is necessary.

Right now I have globe 120mm fans which are recommended by silent pc enthusiasts. These things are pretty dang silent at full speed and push about 67 cfm of air. 67 cfm is a good amount of air but you can do better. Now that I have them in the case, I can't hear them at all so perhaps a few more db's for a bunch of extra cfm is worth it.

I recently struggled upon this fan.

FAN
This fan is only 2 more db than the globe but pushes about 20 more cfm of air. That's pretty good IMO. The only problem when searching for fans is that difference companies measure their db ratings differently. For example, a fan may sound like 30 db from 20 feet away, but it's really 45 dba when you're next to it. The fan's that I have found to live up to their dba spec so far are the globe fans, panaflo's, sanyo's and acoustifan. Enermax advertises another adjustable fan but I have a hard time believing it's db rating so I'm not sure about the fan I listed above. it's db rating seems more sensible though, so I'd give it a shot. Also, It's important to note that I believe the above fan in the link is made by globe or globe and enermax are connected somehow. The blade shapes are identical and so are the labels. It was proven already by spcr that the globe and the acoustifan are the same.

Basically, I would go with that enermax fan above, and if you have room for a 38mm thick fan, a Panaflo M1a is a great fan (japanese versions are better I hear). That same site has the m1a for a good price with grills included. Oh, and if you can tolerate a little more noise (39 db) the Sanyo Denki's are really nice fans as well. If you can access the classifieds on this site you can get them for $5 each. If not, PM a mod about it.