- Joined
- Feb 7, 2004
I have made numerous posts about my cooling woes. I have also made a number of additional posts asking for advice on how to improve my setup. Here is an update.
Little Backstory:
Purchased the basis of the rig in my sig about 3 weeks ago. I had high hopes of OC'ing to atleast 3.5ghz on air, and doing so easily. heh. Ordered everything from Newegg and Zipfoomfly. Had some initial problems with the Fedex being lazy, sucking, and overall providing poor customer service. Regardless, I got it all within a few days and put it together.
I initially used the stock heatsink, some AS5 - inside an Antec Overture case. Biiiig mistake. Case was cool in theory, but not in practice. I was in the mid to high 50's in temps at idle. Bad experience. Returned it the next day, and ordered the best case I have ever worked with - Antec P160. I adore this case. Slapped everything in it, along with the 120mm Antec Exhaust fan, and I added a Vantec Stealth 120mm to the front as an intake. Everything improved, but still not to my liking. Temps were hovering around 50c idle, 60 load.
Did some researching around the forums, and thanks to Chixofnix ordered (2) Evercool 120mm Aluminum fans. Im a bit of a noise freak, so I wanted quiet - but effective/powerfull cooling. They run at about 30dBa, moving 80cfm. And heck, they match my case perfectly as well. Ordered them up from Jab-Tek and popped em in. Instant results. Temps dropped by about 5-6c's over the course of a few hours. So for the past 2 weeks or so ive been in the 45idle/55load range on my CPU. Case temps were about 30-35c. Still not great temps, but improving.
On to the present:
Ordered the SPp94 + Panaflow H1B from Jab-Tek. Also ordered the Nexus 305 fan controller from Newegg. I ran by Home Depot on my way home from work yesterday, hoping to pick up some various grits of sandpaper. Apparently my local Home Depot sucks, because the highest grit they had was 600. So I bought some 400 and 600, and decided it would have to do for now. Got home to the packages sitting on my kitchen table, and unpacked em!
The Nexus controller is pretty hard to install if you dont hook up all your fan extension cables and power before sliding it into your 3.5 bay. Atleast it was for me, because it sits underneath my Floppy, and its quite a bit shorter in length, so apart from some needlenose plyers and alot of light - its really hard to get anything plugged in up in there once its installed in the bay. I was a tad impatient, and didnt plan it all out as well as I could. But as usual, I ended up tearing it all apart and doing it he right way, after doing it the wrong(impatient)way. I have a bad habit of doing that - hey atleast I always end up doing it the right way. I decided not to use 2 of the extensions, as my exhaust/cpu fan cables were already long enough to hide along the top/side of my MB and still make it down into the 3.5 bay. The intake I opted to use a extension. Also plugged the 2 blue CCL's that came with the Nexus into the controller. I placed one up top on the case, and one on the side panel. I need to rethink where they will go, because of my planned future mods. More on that later.
Before I had started messing with the fans, I tore down my cpu heatsink/fan stuff - and placed my CPU in a bowl of 90% Rubbing alcohol. So once the fan stuff was situated, I got to work on this. I cleaned it off really well with a small cloth, and qtips. I lapped the SP94 with the sandpaper for about 5-10 minutes. Not the best job ever, but the sandpaper was only 600 grit - better then nothing I suppose. Pulled out my MB, and mounted the SP94 bracket. Applied AS5, and the HS + fan. Double checked everything, and powered her on real quick to check that all the fans were working, and that the controller actually controlled them. Beleive it or not, everything worked great.
Booted into windows, and checked temps. Wow. Wow. Wow. Case temps are down to the low 20's, and my CPU was 34 idle. Thats an 11c drop or so in temps. Im sure this number will improve a tad over the next few days as the AS5 settles in. I went ahead and OC'd this bad boy to 3.75 1st try, ran prime overnight, and had no errors thru 14 hours.
My temps raised to about 38idle/48 load on the CPU OC'd. vCore is 1.6 btw.
I'm very happy with my results thus far. The SP94 and Panaflow really improved my systems cooling and performance, and everything running full tilt is still pretty quiet. I slowed everything down to half speed, and the only noise I can hear is the very quiet hum of my Power Supply. I left it like this overnight, while it was running Prime - and the temps only raised a few degrees.
Future Plans:
Still planning on adding 2 more Evercool 120mm fans. One as an intake on the side, and a exhaust up top. I will be cutting a window on the side panel as well.
Also plan on removing the rear fan grill, and added a laser cut one(already purchased it). I also am going to be buying ramsinks for my 9800 Pro, and modding it with a P3 Aluminum HS + fan. I already have these, but need to figure out how to attach it all. My video card gets pretty hot(60c load), so I think I can really improve my case temps by balancing this out.
I also want to get a lapping kit and redo my HS - because I think I can achieve even lower temps doing so.
And finally I will be sleeving my PSU, and all my cabling.
Conclusion:
All in all - im very happy thus far. Temps are all under 50 at load overclocked. My system is very quiet, and stylish. Guess I really cant ask for me. Antec, Thermalright, and Panaflow are all excellent products. The Nexus controller is awesome as well. I highly suggest any of the products I am currently working with.
Sorry for the novel post and Thanks to everyone that has helped me so far, I really appreciate these forums.
Little Backstory:
Purchased the basis of the rig in my sig about 3 weeks ago. I had high hopes of OC'ing to atleast 3.5ghz on air, and doing so easily. heh. Ordered everything from Newegg and Zipfoomfly. Had some initial problems with the Fedex being lazy, sucking, and overall providing poor customer service. Regardless, I got it all within a few days and put it together.
I initially used the stock heatsink, some AS5 - inside an Antec Overture case. Biiiig mistake. Case was cool in theory, but not in practice. I was in the mid to high 50's in temps at idle. Bad experience. Returned it the next day, and ordered the best case I have ever worked with - Antec P160. I adore this case. Slapped everything in it, along with the 120mm Antec Exhaust fan, and I added a Vantec Stealth 120mm to the front as an intake. Everything improved, but still not to my liking. Temps were hovering around 50c idle, 60 load.
Did some researching around the forums, and thanks to Chixofnix ordered (2) Evercool 120mm Aluminum fans. Im a bit of a noise freak, so I wanted quiet - but effective/powerfull cooling. They run at about 30dBa, moving 80cfm. And heck, they match my case perfectly as well. Ordered them up from Jab-Tek and popped em in. Instant results. Temps dropped by about 5-6c's over the course of a few hours. So for the past 2 weeks or so ive been in the 45idle/55load range on my CPU. Case temps were about 30-35c. Still not great temps, but improving.
On to the present:
Ordered the SPp94 + Panaflow H1B from Jab-Tek. Also ordered the Nexus 305 fan controller from Newegg. I ran by Home Depot on my way home from work yesterday, hoping to pick up some various grits of sandpaper. Apparently my local Home Depot sucks, because the highest grit they had was 600. So I bought some 400 and 600, and decided it would have to do for now. Got home to the packages sitting on my kitchen table, and unpacked em!
The Nexus controller is pretty hard to install if you dont hook up all your fan extension cables and power before sliding it into your 3.5 bay. Atleast it was for me, because it sits underneath my Floppy, and its quite a bit shorter in length, so apart from some needlenose plyers and alot of light - its really hard to get anything plugged in up in there once its installed in the bay. I was a tad impatient, and didnt plan it all out as well as I could. But as usual, I ended up tearing it all apart and doing it he right way, after doing it the wrong(impatient)way. I have a bad habit of doing that - hey atleast I always end up doing it the right way. I decided not to use 2 of the extensions, as my exhaust/cpu fan cables were already long enough to hide along the top/side of my MB and still make it down into the 3.5 bay. The intake I opted to use a extension. Also plugged the 2 blue CCL's that came with the Nexus into the controller. I placed one up top on the case, and one on the side panel. I need to rethink where they will go, because of my planned future mods. More on that later.
Before I had started messing with the fans, I tore down my cpu heatsink/fan stuff - and placed my CPU in a bowl of 90% Rubbing alcohol. So once the fan stuff was situated, I got to work on this. I cleaned it off really well with a small cloth, and qtips. I lapped the SP94 with the sandpaper for about 5-10 minutes. Not the best job ever, but the sandpaper was only 600 grit - better then nothing I suppose. Pulled out my MB, and mounted the SP94 bracket. Applied AS5, and the HS + fan. Double checked everything, and powered her on real quick to check that all the fans were working, and that the controller actually controlled them. Beleive it or not, everything worked great.
Booted into windows, and checked temps. Wow. Wow. Wow. Case temps are down to the low 20's, and my CPU was 34 idle. Thats an 11c drop or so in temps. Im sure this number will improve a tad over the next few days as the AS5 settles in. I went ahead and OC'd this bad boy to 3.75 1st try, ran prime overnight, and had no errors thru 14 hours.
My temps raised to about 38idle/48 load on the CPU OC'd. vCore is 1.6 btw.I'm very happy with my results thus far. The SP94 and Panaflow really improved my systems cooling and performance, and everything running full tilt is still pretty quiet. I slowed everything down to half speed, and the only noise I can hear is the very quiet hum of my Power Supply. I left it like this overnight, while it was running Prime - and the temps only raised a few degrees.
Future Plans:
Still planning on adding 2 more Evercool 120mm fans. One as an intake on the side, and a exhaust up top. I will be cutting a window on the side panel as well.
Also plan on removing the rear fan grill, and added a laser cut one(already purchased it). I also am going to be buying ramsinks for my 9800 Pro, and modding it with a P3 Aluminum HS + fan. I already have these, but need to figure out how to attach it all. My video card gets pretty hot(60c load), so I think I can really improve my case temps by balancing this out.
I also want to get a lapping kit and redo my HS - because I think I can achieve even lower temps doing so.
And finally I will be sleeving my PSU, and all my cabling.
Conclusion:
All in all - im very happy thus far. Temps are all under 50 at load overclocked. My system is very quiet, and stylish. Guess I really cant ask for me. Antec, Thermalright, and Panaflow are all excellent products. The Nexus controller is awesome as well. I highly suggest any of the products I am currently working with.
Sorry for the novel post and Thanks to everyone that has helped me so far, I really appreciate these forums.
Don't you love it when a plan comes together? 
