Zalman HD-135 build with Core2duo + 8800 GTS

BratWalnut · Post by **BratWalnut** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 12:09 am

Hi,

I just finished building my HTPC rig. This is my second HTPC, the first one I used an Antec Fusion (mATX board), which I found cramped. I misseed space for HDs and mostly PCI/PCIe slots. Since I didn't want to build another HTPC full of USB dongles all over the place, I tried for a slightly larger case (actually it is even smaller than my Receiver, Sony DG 1000).

Case: Zalman HD-135 Black
Chipset: Intel P35
CPU: Core 2 duo E6550
CPU Cooler: Thermalright SI-128 with Nexus 120mm fan on top
Frequency: 2.33 (stock)
Load: Prime 95 - SMALL FTT for 10min
stepping: G0
Vcore 1.325 (stock)
Memory: OCZ DDR2 800 44415
HD: 500 Gb Seagate Barracuda
Video card: Nvidia 8800 GTS 320
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R
PSU: Antec Earthwatts 500 (80 plus cert.)
Fans:
1x 80 mm Nexus (case, exhaust, bottom)
1x 120 mm Noctua 1200rpm (case, intake, side)
1x 120 mm Nexus (intake, CPU, top)

The Nexus is connected straight to the Motherboard/PSU (full speed), and the others are connected to Zalman's programmable controller. I'm still tweaking the speeds, for now, they are running in relative silent at full speed!

On this build I use a lot of foam that came inside the case box. Thanks, Zalman!

First, I tried to isolate the HD a little bit, and am trying this. Instead of the screw, I'm using double sided tape, it actually does a better job than the original screw, because you cannot tight it very hard, since the case is just aluminum.

Together with the foam between the cages and on top of them, now the drive cage is hold very tight. securely in place. It is not silent though, although it is much better than before. The stock mouting options are terrible. As it is, it is still louder than I wish.

I tucked all the cables under the DVD-RW. I may want to use the other room in the HD cage, so I put everything I'm not using there.

This is how it looks with the DVD in place (you can also see the nexus 80mm exhaust fan on you left and one OCZ memory module in the center, with the stock heatsink:

The idea was to use the Noctua 120mm to cool the video card and the motehrboard, creating some airflow into the system. This was the plan:

That is, to put the fan at an angle, so as to direct some air to the motherboard/exhaust fan, otherwise, if I put the fan in a 90 degree angle, as suggested by SilentPC review of this case, a lot of air would be "trapped" by the long videocard in one side of the case only. Hopefully, with my setup, I can put some air to move around in this case, with this videocard.

At this location, the fan can suck air from the bottom and side vents:

I initially thought about securing the fan with double sided tape, but I had so much foam from the Zalman case that I ended up securing the fan with the foam alone. So far, so good.

Still tweaking and some foam cutting to do:

After that, here is the final shot from inside:

Aparently, the case is 10C colder at idle than it was with my first build with the stock Zalman fans (Here: viewtopic.php?p=373630#373630) . I still have to do the measurements with load, and then tweak the results, fan angle, speed, etc. But in any case, it is much quieter than it was, even slowing the speed of the zalmans, the case is much quieter now. All that it cost me was two fans, 30 bucks or so, plus a round cable for the DVD and some cable sleeves left overs that I had. Not bad, I'd say!

Case closed:

Again, suggestions, comments, are very welcomed!

Thanks!

Psy · Post by **Psy** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 3:51 am

I'm interested to see your build as I am also building a computer in a Zalman HD-135. But your pictures aren't working for me.

BratWalnut · Post by **BratWalnut** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 6:50 am

Psy wrote:I'm interested to see your build as I am also building a computer in a Zalman HD-135. But your pictures aren't working for me.

Psy · Post by **Psy** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:51 am

Looks good, but I don't think you'll be able to use the second HDD cage with the 120mm fan situated where it is.

I'm planning to use two 92mm fans on the two front-side intakes. They fit quite nicely and should leave enough room to mount hard drives next to them without the cage. I'm going to block up all the bottom vents to stop any short-circuits and make sure air flows right through the case.

I'll get some pictures up soon.

BratWalnut · Post by **BratWalnut** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:38 am

Psy wrote:Looks good, but I don't think you'll be able to use the second HDD cage with the 120mm fan situated where it is.

I'm planning to use two 92mm fans on the two front-side intakes. They fit quite nicely and should leave enough room to mount hard drives next to them without the cage. I'm going to block up all the bottom vents to stop any short-circuits and make sure air flows right through the case.

I'll get some pictures up soon.

That's true, I can't, and I don't plan to. I have the other cage free (with 3 free bays, but I intend to use at most one more). All the extra cables from the PSU are stuck below the DVD-RW drive, so this cage is pretty free.

Keep in mind that I believe any fan close to the side intakes are going to make a lot of noise, due to the way the fins are. I put the stock 80mm fan there before (thinking about buying the 92mm later) but even at a low speed, they would make a loud, unbearable whooshing noise, at speeds when they would made no noise at all when hold a couple of inches fron the opening.

Also, the CPU fan opening is somewhat restricted, the Nexus I have there is inaudible when the case is open, but as soon as I close the case I can hear wind noise. I'm thinking about a lower cpu cooler, than my thermalright 128. What are you going to use there?

I might be wrong, but I think the problem is that you can't mount the fan flush with the fins (not even the small 80mm), but your mileage may vary. Please tell me if you try this and post the results.

Psy · Post by **Psy** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 12:27 am

I didn't do much research before I bought my CPU cooler and I went for a Zalman CNPS8700. It is pretty silent on the lowest setting and still keeps my CPU around 35 degrees idle. In hindsight I think I should have gone for a Mini Ninja but I don't think I'll swap now.

I've ordered a couple of Nexus 92mm fans so I should be able to try them out in the next day or so. I'll keep you posted.

BratWalnut · Post by **BratWalnut** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:22 am

Great! Thanks and good luck with your build!

Psy · Post by **Psy** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 2:41 am

Damn, you were right about the side grills increasing fan noise! The Nexus 92mm fans are almost silent on full power however, when place next to the grills, become the noisiest part of the PC by far.

I think I'll have to invent some clever duct to take air from the front-side and front-bottom intakes and blow it forwards over the HDDs. This case is hard work, but kind of fun to get working well.

BratWalnut · Post by **BratWalnut** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 7:46 am

Yeah, I don't know what they were thinking about those fan grills...But you're right, this case is fun to work with. What I like most about it is that it is actually 1/2" narrower than a Micro ATX case like the Antec Fusion (it's about the same height, and 2 inches deeper), but you get full ATX and (in my case 3 HD cases, which is one more than my Fusion).

My build is silent, but for the HD and the top nexus fan (again, too close to the grill). I think I going to buy a shorter CPU heatsink, and put the SI-128 back into the Antec. Thermalright XP-90C seems to be the best candidate, but I'm going to do some research and see if it is as good as the Thermalright SI-128.

If you come up with some ducts that works for you, please get back to me with the solution!

Edit: have you tried fixing the fans on the cage with double sided tape? It might work, since it will be no longer close to fins, I wonder if this is enough. I haven't tried this myself, but maybe I will...

Cheers.

Psy · Post by **Psy** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:37 pm

Maybe try a XP-120 although it's quite hard to get hold of these days. It's almost as good as the SI-128, see a comparison here:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article719-page4.html

Here's the review of the XP-120 too:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article186-page1.html

As for fixing the fans on with tape, that's exactly what I did! I used the spongy kind to give some isolation. Unfortunately the noise was still horrific. Whilst it stuck to the case well enough, when I checked in the morning, the fan had come unstuck. So not a perfect solution anyway.

I really don't want to sacrifice the second drive bay because I may need it for expansion. I have a couple of 500GB Spinpoints in RAID0 at the moment but I think I might need another pair in the not too distant future. Two pairs in RAID0 plus a solid state drive under the DVD drive for the OS would be the ultimate.

I think with the duct I may only have room for two drives on either side, but that suits me. I've got a design in my head, but putting it into practice is something different entirely. I originally thought I could maybe incorporate a 120mm fan but there just isn't room, so the 92mm ones will have to do the job.

kfuglsang · Post by **kfuglsang** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 1:00 am

Hi,

Very interesting project!

I'm about to build a HTPC my self based on a Q6600 and the new 8800GT-cards when they arrive in stores.

As far as I understood, you own the Antec case (Fusion 430 I assume) as well?

My mind is split between the HD135 and the Fusion 430 case. Could you possibly make a list of positives/negatives with each case - a small comparison would be great!

Best regards
Kenneth, Denmark

BratWalnut · Post by **BratWalnut** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:12 pm

Psy, with 4 drives in each sides, you'll have a lot of noise to deal with. I'm thinking about buying a single 740/1T HD and suspend it, getting rid of the remaining drive bay. I don't like the noise my drive makes one bit, not to mention 4! But the Zalman is still in my test bench, when I put on the living room I'll see if the HD still will bother me in the quiet passages.

kfuglsang wrote:Hi,

Very interesting project!

I'm about to build a HTPC my self based on a Q6600 and the new 8800GT-cards when they arrive in stores.

As far as I understood, you own the Antec case (Fusion 430 I assume) as well?

My mind is split between the HD135 and the Fusion 430 case. Could you possibly make a list of positives/negatives with each case - a small comparison would be great!

Best regards
Kenneth, Denmark

Fusion 430 Pros:

1. Silent from the factory, unless you really put something noisy in there, the case helps a lot. You have to put the stock case fans (2x Antec Trispeed 120mm) on the lowest level, though, and at that level they don't push too much air.
2. 430w was more than enough for one GTS 8800 + AMD X2 4600 (stock clocking)
3. HDs relatively cool, very good external finish.
4. Only two HDs. No more.

Fusion 430 Cons:

1. MicroAtx only. Can you do it with Micro ATX? I don't know why they put so many USB ports on the front of the case, I could use like 5 more on the back easily.

2. No room for extras. For instance, not enough PCI slots.
I have now on my Fusion:

1 USB HD turner
1 USB pad (Microsoft)
1 USB pad (Logitech wireless)
1 USB Joystick (Saitek)
1 USB Steering Wheel (Logitech)
1 USB sound card (the on board one is terrible, ADA 1986 I think, on my ASUS M2NPV-M board): this one is now gone, for the lack of USB bandwidth...boy, I could use a PCI slot with a couple of more USBs...
1 USB keyboard
1 USB mouse
1 USB remote (MS)

All my slots are taken with (1 video card, 1 turner (ATI 650), 1 Asus dongle for the SPDIF - since I can't use another soundcard anyway USB or PCI).
Is such enough for you? Can you live with all that hanging off of the back of your Case? I tell you, cable management is a nightmare. If I needed only a turner, I would go for a riser in a low profile case. You only need to care for a normal size PCI card if you go for a video card/gaming setup. There are plenty of low profiles turners out there...

3. BRIGHT leds. They are annoying and distracting. Zalman's are much colder, discreet. They perform their function very well, Antec's are like Christmas lights....

4. VFD display: the Zalman is great with Vista, LOTS of functions there. The Antec has issues with sleep mode in XP/Vista, or more to the point, there are no drivers for Vista...Check Antec's website...

Zalman HD 135 Pros:

1. FULL ATX board, but in a case SMALLER than the Antec. Yes, it is half an inch narrower, and it looks lower, although they have the same height. It is indeed longer, but who cares?

2. Lots of free PCI, lots of room for expansion. And 5 HDs, plus DVD drive.

3. Light...have you check the max weight of that wife-chosen fancy glass rack? 60 pounds. Now put a well sized receiver in there, and there is no safe way to put the steel heavy Antec there. It's got to be all aluminum, and Zalman has it.

Cons:

Noisy. Lots of work. But it can be quiet, for an HTPC at least (=<30dB).

Check some pics of both one on top of the other. They are all greasy, will need a cleanup after I finish all my measuring tests (I'm still tweaking it).

Zalman looks like a high end DVD player, Antec show off too much bling, and the USB/Firewire ports and green and pink (!) holes scream: "I'm a computer".

Zalman is narrower:

Polypro · Post by **Polypro** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 5:19 am

Been running this case since Jan, proper parts selection and arrangement is important...but the payoff is quiet and cool.

P

BratWalnut · Post by **BratWalnut** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 10:03 am

Interesting setup. Can you help me with some questions?

What PSU are you using? Have you try placing the fan blowing outside through the sidevents? I suppose that would be noisy, right?

How did you fix the fans? Only double sided tape on the bottom?

How did you fix the hard drives? Can you give some more details or pictures on that? Sounds interesting.

Thanks!

Polypro · Post by **Polypro** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 1:45 pm

Sure,

The PSU is a Seasonic S12 430. Because of the airflow problems with this case, I mounted it with the fan inward - to evacuate a majority of the hot air. It doesn't run any louder. (You also can not place it with the fan against the vent, due to where the bundle comes out of the PSU).

The two 120mm Noctua's are affixed with a small, tar side out, roll of Dynamat Extreme on the bottom of the frame

Great stuff. You can orient the fan any way you want, and it stays.

The hard drives are WD500YS RE2's. They are mounted with a hard drive bolt, washer, and rubber grommet...through the vent that is located below them. Only one screw per drive, but that's solid enough. They are moved far enough forward to get a 120mm behind them. They sit on 2 strips of adhesive backed cushion tape...but they are so quiet that sitting on the bare case floor as a heat sink, wouldn't be a problem. (No pics that show more detail though)

P

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 4:15 am

In that picture you posted it looks like a Seasonic power supply and not a Silverstone.

BratWalnut · Post by **BratWalnut** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 8:03 am

Well, I just overclocked the processor by 40% and played a little with Flight Simulator X (which is very resource hungry, but beautiful on a 60" screen). I turn on most of the eye candy, put it to fly around the Bay Bridge, even the wife and my 3year old enjoyed the ride for around 20 minutes! That was a first! Thanks to the computer on the living room! Racing simulation and soccer with all eye candy turned on...at 1080p it is a beauty! Can't wait for my friends to come for a game party.

Here's the screen shot:

FSB = 465
E 6550 @ 465x 7 = 465 = 3.265 MHz at only 1.32v (!) 39.5% overclock on an HTPC case. I never thougth this was possible, not with such bad airflow on this small case.

2X1Gb DDR2 800 = 4-4-4-15 @ 930MHz (not bad for $50.00, thanks OCz)
Idle: CPU 30C, Core 37C, HD 42C, ambient 23C
Load: 60-61C load, Core 66-68C, Hd 45 max, ambient 23C

The delta is still big @ 28C-30C. I blame the low CFM fan, apparently the Si128 needs a higher speed fan. As it is, the fan is only helping cooling the upper parts of the heatsink, and the CPU itself gets no fresh air. I'm considering putting the Si128 back into the Fusion and get a new Ninja Mini, but I'm not sure I have room for a 92mm or 80mm fan. My memory modules are pretty high, as you can see by the pics.

I could have gone higher, but then the temps would go much higher. 70 core is not that bad, but with load on the processor and the 8800GTS the HD would have gone to 50C, and I got some warning from the speed fan monitoring. I'm not sure if that is so bad. I know HDs are supposed to tolerate heat well, and it is not worth being anal with temperature below 40C (specially with 3/5 year warranty on most drives). I'll do some research and see about that.

More importantly, the noise character is unchanged, not surprising, because I never changed fan speeds: 80% for the Noctua, 100% Nexus CPU (the noisiest fan, turbolence from the case grill), 100% 80mm Noctua (completely inaudible, but very low CFM = temps don't change with it on or off, so I'm thinking of using it to cool the HD once I suspend it). You can definetely hear it, of course, specially the HD. On a very quiet evening, you can hear the CPU fan and the occasional HD use from 15-20ft...but this is still low enough for the quiet movie passages.

Next mod is to suspend the HD, as I did on my office machine (a very silent Coolermaster . I'll post some pictures when it's ready.

Psy · Post by **Psy** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 8:48 am

BratWalnut wrote:Next mod is to suspend the HD, as I did on my office machine (a very silent Coolermaster . I'll post some pictures when it's ready.

I'll be interested to see how you manage to pull that off.

I've not had much time to tinker with mine recently. I'll post up some pictures when I get it sorted out, whenever that'll be!

BratWalnut · Post by **BratWalnut** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 4:36 pm

Now I finally get to suspend the HD. What a difference did that make!

I moved the Nexus 80mm fan, undervolted to 7v (completely inaudible) and glued with double sided tape to the botton of the case. The drive temperature is actually lower now than it was before, with no effect on the case temps.

I used some very wide elastic I bought at general store. This is the first time I use this, on my other build I suspended the drives with rounded white elastic. I needed to use black, so as to make it invisible from outside, since they should go through the side vents. Side view:

Top view:

Surprisingly, the drive was easily leveled and stable, and, based with my previous experience, perhaps more stable than it would be with just rounded elastic.

Detailed view:

I think the drive is resting pretty high up there, which is good, since it leaves plenty of room for another drive below. It actually occupies less room than the DVD drive by its side. Of course I'm sure I can't safely suspend two drives AND keep the fan there at the bottom. The bottom HD would have to have elastics running through the fins on the 3.5" bay sides, located below the DVD cage. In this case I'd probably move the fan to a vertical position on the back of the drive, still undervolted, just to move some dead air around (blowing to the back of the case, sending air to the PSU in the process).

I believe that would work, I have some spare drive here, I may try this in the future. The thing is, I don't need another drive now. 500Gb is plenty, for the extender + games functionality.

Still, the seagate 7200.10 500Gb is noisy though. More so than a suspended WD Raptor 74Gb, for instance. You can still hear the drive on a quiet night, specially if defragmenting or virus scanning. Maybe it is resonance from the aluminum case. But I never hear anything with the tv on (even watching recorded tennis matches over the network with virus scanning on the background), so this is what matters. It is much, much quieter now.

I just need to solve the CPU fan issue. Since the full speed Nexus on top of the Si128 is too close to the vent, the turbolence noise detracts of a very silent build. Guess I'll have to try a mini Ninja with a side 92mm fan then.

Overall I'm fairly happy with my build. I got a decent 40% overclock, gaming is addictive on the big screen, I have no crashes while gaming or otherwise so far, and the computer was on and off standby mode since my last post. You can't ask for much more with Vista. Comparatively speaking, my older build, on a terrible mATX board (Asus M2NPV-M) inside an Antec Fusion case is much less stable with no overclocking. And since the HD are not suspended there, now the Fusion is my noisier build. Anybody ever suspended two HDs on a Fusion?

Hope this helps. Any questions or suggestions are welcome.

BratWalnut · Post by **BratWalnut** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 5:10 pm

Finally, some pics of my final setup.

Not bigger than my Sony receiver:

Besides music and movies, what it does best: Gaming...

bonestonne · Post by **bonestonne** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 5:27 pm

and a PS3 to boot!

that seriously looks amazing, but how's the resolution look outside of gaming? last time i tried running my computer on a 64" TV it looked terrible, but i managed.

that's one amazing setup you've got going.

BratWalnut · Post by **BratWalnut** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 9:39 pm

It looks good, Bonestone. But from the sofa, everything not optimized for 10' distance is simply hard to read. I already set Vista for the bigger font size and use bigger fonts in Explorer, still that is not enough. Every other page you need some adjustments to make.

Also I'm using a DVI-HDMI cable, and I believe a VGA cable would give me worse results, specially for text. But small fonts are unreadable anyway at a distance, so this would also not be a problem, I guess, unless you plan to use the 60" TV in your desktop!

Overall I'd say it's pretty good, even for applications. Not as good as a monitor of course, but pretty good. I can post a picture if you have some particular application or issue in mind, not sure if this will be accurate though.

chew-z · Post by **chew-z** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:38 am

Hello guys,

I am building similiar rig and your posts gave me couple of ideas.

Intel Quad Core E6600 with Zalman 8000
Motherboard Asus P5K
2 x 1 GB @ 800 MHz
Asus 8600GTS Silent (but decieded to give it Zalman VF900)
HDD Hitachi 160GB (7K160 ) + Hitachi 320 GB (T7K500) SATA
DVD LG GSA-H66N that one is a real pain

Power Supply Zalman 460B-APS

HTPC 135 is a nice case but needs carefull planning.
First I have removed both Zalman fans (top and bottom).

Second - my HDD started to get hot and noisy (over 50 C). So (thanks for your suggestions) I have removed both hdd bays and placed both hdd in front of 120 mm Scythe Minibea.

It works OK so far but its not finished yet. I would like to get different heatsink on CPU as Zalman 8000 isn't really truly quiet.
And LG DVD is really loud. I have put it since I have damaged my quiet Lite On but I am not happy with it.

chew-z

floepie · Post by **floepie** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 11:34 am

What do you guys think would be more effective at cooling this case with whisper quiet results?

1. A Nexus 80mm at the bottom exhaust (double-sided tape) --OR--

2. Moving the HDs toward the rear thereby covering the bottom exhaust
and inserting a 120mm rear-facing 120mm Noctua up front?

Keep in mind that a 120mm fan would be installed on the left side at an
angle that seems to be very effective. Additionally, I would have a mini
Ninja (80mm fan) + an inward facing PSU to help port some heat out the
rear.

I was also thinking of using the fan on the minja to suck air through the
cooler and having it face the rear of the case. Then, use some
80mm-to-60mm fan duct to suck the air from the case, through the cooler,
and directly out the back. Do you think there would be room for such a
duct that would have to have flexible tubing? Or, would there be too much
of an angle upward from the fan to one of the 60mm exhaust ports on the
rear of the case?

BratWalnut · Post by **BratWalnut** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 3:47 pm

floepie wrote:What do you guys think would be more effective at cooling this case with whisper quiet results?

1. A Nexus 80mm at the bottom exhaust (double-sided tape) --OR--

I have this setup to cool my suspended HD (a must since the aluminum case is like an echo chamber....the HD/DVD-ROM vibrates and the case amplifies it a lot). Necessary because it is suspended, but a Nexus won't be powerful enough to cool the whole case. Unless you try with some ducting, I can't see how this could work. And a higher CFM fan wouldn't be silent, though.

2. Moving the HDs toward the rear thereby covering the bottom exhaust
and inserting a 120mm rear-facing 120mm Noctua up front?

Keep in mind that a 120mm fan would be installed on the left side at an
angle that seems to be very effective. Additionally, I would have a mini
Ninja (80mm fan) + an inward facing PSU to help port some heat out the
rear.

Definitely you're best bet. The angled 120mm fan is just what I did, check the pictures above. The mini Ninja is also an excellent idea, I'm thinking about changing to one too.

I was also thinking of using the fan on the minja to suck air through the
cooler and having it face the rear of the case. Then, use some
80mm-to-60mm fan duct to suck the air from the case, through the cooler,
and directly out the back. Do you think there would be room for such a
duct that would have to have flexible tubing? Or, would there be too much
of an angle upward from the fan to one of the 60mm exhaust ports on the
rear of the case?

There is no room for an 80mm fan, plus adapter plus a big CPU heatsink. You also have to be careful with the motheboard diodes in there, an 80mm with a duct would be a little far from the case, and it would intrude a lot inside. Unless you're thinking of a duct around the heatsink, is that what you mean?

A 60mm with or without duct is definiitely doable. But I would get rid of the very restrictive case openings in that area, to maximize the lowly output of a 60mm fan.

Hope this helps.

floepie · Post by **floepie** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:15 pm

OK, thanks for the tips. I don't even have this case yet, so I would have
to tinker with it myself most likely to get it the way I'd want it, but it's nice
to get as much info beforehand as possible..

The 120mm on the left is definitely the way to go it seems, but I was
hoping I would be able to get away without that 80mm downward exhaust
fan. In its place, I'm wondering if there would be room for some sort of
duct from the CPU cooler to one of the 60mm fan outlets. Using an actual
60mm fan there in the rear is something I'd rather not do.

I envision the duct to be made in one of two ways:

First option: Mount the fan to blow rearward through the cooler and attach
a 80mm to 60mm adapter on the opposite side, which in turn would be
connected to a 60mm flexible tube that can be screwed into one of the
rear 60mm outlets.

Second option: Mount the fan on the rear side of the cooler to suck air
through it. Then, attach to the fan an 80mm to 60mm (flexible funnel) with a 60mm
attachment (4 screws) to one of the rear 60mm outlets.

If the whole duct thing would work, I could get away with a 2-fan system +
PSU. Do you think that either of the two duct options would work?

cboy168 · Post by **cboy168** » Sun May 11, 2008 12:28 pm

I have a similar build and I'm oc'ed to 3 GHz from 2.4 (e6600).

My idle temps are around 45-48C and at load it goes mid to high sixties. I feel like there's not enough airflow around the CPU. I'm using the cnps 8700 from zalman and it pushes the heat downwards towards the board but I feel there's not enough to push it out of the case. I put a Noctua 120mm fan behind the power button on the left side and that made a big difference but I think I need to find a way to help the CPU exhaust fan.

Anyone have any ideas?

Zalman HD-135 build with Core2duo + 8800 GTS

Zalman HD-135 build with Core2duo + 8800 GTS

Overclock

Re: Overclock

HD suspended