- Joined
- Jul 23, 2007
- Location
- Chicago
I had a Zalman 9500 in my case and was unhappy with the results I was getting so I decided to upgrade to the Ultra 120 Extreme. I have a V1000B Lian Li mid Tower case. It is actually a fairly large case and it is a stretch to call it a mid tower case. It has a large metal piece which separates the bottom compartment with the rest of the case. The bottom compartment holds the PSU and at most 6 harddrives. I had measured to make sure it would fit, and there was enough room so I ordered. What I didn't account for was the placement of the CPU not being in the center of my "vertical" space if that makes sense. The CPU is closer to the large metal piece. Because of this there is enough room for the cooler but it wouldn't sit on the CPU directly. This method would be to have the air blowing straight out the back to another fan which pulls it out the back.
I do have another option, which is to turn it 90 degrees so that it would be blowing perpendicular to the back fan however (and into my graphics card). The case came with a pretty heavy duty shroud that I think I can jimmy rig to bend the air so it eventually blows out the back after making the quasi-90 degree turn and bypassing the graphics card. The shroud is curved so it wouldn't be air hitting a 90 degree wall anymore, and it would surely "bend" the air towards the exit.
Do people think this is an alright alternative to going back to the Zalman 9500? Sad thing is, I lapped the sucker all the way to the copper before I even noticed I couldn't fit it in the normal way. My only other option would be to dremel out a sizable chunk of the the metal that separates the two compartments. This presents a few problems though. #1, it allows heat from my large PSU to enter into the main compartment where it wouldn't have otherwise. #2, the metal which separates it, spans the length of the case and is a pretty heavy duty chunk of aluminum. It would not be easy to cut through and would destroy the inside aesthetics of an overall beautiful case. I am also able to "kink" it a few degrees to further aim it at the back fan, but not much. Anyone familiar with the install will no it's range of movement after installed.
Right now it is in the case w/o fans installed because that would work the same regardless of how it is oriented. Idle temps before I do anything are pretty decent already, but once it warms up it takes a long time to cool down since nothing is blowing on it.
On a sidenote, the mounting bracket on this thing is horrible crap. After you get 1 screw in, you have to press so hard to get the screw diagonally close enough to the board to catch the threads that it is ridiculous. Since the screw is so tall and the spring so long, you have to put enough pressure to compress the spring enough. I dunno, maybe because I did the install after the motherboard was screwed in and it causes problems with surrounding components, but I did the same thing with the Zalman w/o problems. I just didn't want to have to try to slide the mobo in with this giant thing attached to it. Thermalright needs to talk to Zalman about how they mount theirs and maybe they'll learn a thing or two. Or at least send their engineers to the store to buy a Zalman and maybe learn a thing or two about a real mounting job.
I do have another option, which is to turn it 90 degrees so that it would be blowing perpendicular to the back fan however (and into my graphics card). The case came with a pretty heavy duty shroud that I think I can jimmy rig to bend the air so it eventually blows out the back after making the quasi-90 degree turn and bypassing the graphics card. The shroud is curved so it wouldn't be air hitting a 90 degree wall anymore, and it would surely "bend" the air towards the exit.
Do people think this is an alright alternative to going back to the Zalman 9500? Sad thing is, I lapped the sucker all the way to the copper before I even noticed I couldn't fit it in the normal way. My only other option would be to dremel out a sizable chunk of the the metal that separates the two compartments. This presents a few problems though. #1, it allows heat from my large PSU to enter into the main compartment where it wouldn't have otherwise. #2, the metal which separates it, spans the length of the case and is a pretty heavy duty chunk of aluminum. It would not be easy to cut through and would destroy the inside aesthetics of an overall beautiful case. I am also able to "kink" it a few degrees to further aim it at the back fan, but not much. Anyone familiar with the install will no it's range of movement after installed.
Right now it is in the case w/o fans installed because that would work the same regardless of how it is oriented. Idle temps before I do anything are pretty decent already, but once it warms up it takes a long time to cool down since nothing is blowing on it.
On a sidenote, the mounting bracket on this thing is horrible crap. After you get 1 screw in, you have to press so hard to get the screw diagonally close enough to the board to catch the threads that it is ridiculous. Since the screw is so tall and the spring so long, you have to put enough pressure to compress the spring enough. I dunno, maybe because I did the install after the motherboard was screwed in and it causes problems with surrounding components, but I did the same thing with the Zalman w/o problems. I just didn't want to have to try to slide the mobo in with this giant thing attached to it. Thermalright needs to talk to Zalman about how they mount theirs and maybe they'll learn a thing or two. Or at least send their engineers to the store to buy a Zalman and maybe learn a thing or two about a real mounting job.
Does not look promising. Try having the fan pointing 'down', ditch the triangular piece over CPU, and put a better fan on for exhaust. Might work... Should be better than blowing hot air at your video card.
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