SPCR

So this is the SPCR picture. Of course they have a P4, a tiny 9250 videocard and 1 or 2 hdd's




And this is the real world



That's a blue cold cathode tube I bought a few years ago. The intensity is high but not that high The cell phone makes it look like burning magnesium.

corsair hx520
Q6600@3ghz
Scythe Mugen 2 revb with scythe 120mm fan
Sapphire 5870 Vapor-X
4gb of OCZ pc8000
5 hdds (wd black 1tb, green 1tb, 2 x wd green 750gb, seagate 1tb

The 5870 was so long I had to pull 1 hdd out and put it above the one in the upper cage. Also, the 5870 basically blocks all the air coming from the 80m and 92mm fans blowing into the lower cage, so I removed 3 bay covers in the upper section and put a 120mm Scythe "blue" there.

Without that extra fan in the upper the temps were about

mb - 43c
cores idle - 45c
cores loaded - 58c
hdds from 38-48c

With the upper 120mm fan

mb - 31c
cores idle - 35c
cores loaded - 48c
hdds - <34c

The Sapphire idles at 50c in both setups. The only difference is the fan runs slower. I think 50c is the temp target for the card in idle. Full load it hits around 70c and is close to silent.

I got the case for $63. I think it was actually a price error at Canada Computer. I have a p182 also but I can't bear the thought of tearing apart 2 machines to reconfigure.

Specs are better than the SPCR, but the cabling is nowhere close.

I'd use a normal light rather than a cathode to light up the case for pics, the cathode is very washed and looks white in a couple of those pics.

Your build looks decent, it's got some impressive parts, but I'm sure that Q6600 could turn into something a bit beefier, like a Q9xxx, but I'm sure it's pretty fast as is.

I am in a bit of disbelief that the temps dropped 10c with that upper fan though...that's a huge drop, gives me the impression you're in a less than breathable case.

Now post some real pictures, not night pictures with a camera on the phone. And cabling is one great mess, you can do a lot better. I had a Solo a long time ago, so you can do a very good cable management in this small case.

I have a digital cam but it was orphaned with windows 7 and I don't have a card reader.

Putting the 120mm in the upper area works great like the nine hundred cases. The airflow path goes directly to the heatsink fan, which goes directly to the rear case fan. The fan on the Mugen is reading only 250rpm. I'm not sure thecpu fan header on the P5E-VM can control it properly. The sata cables are a spaghetti mess. I should tuck those in behind the lower hdd cage.

I don't really use that cathode

Thats must be quite a loud Solo/ P150

I'd clean up the wiring, suspend the hard drives, and get rid of that cathode .

Looking forward for some better pics (try XP mode for compatibility?), there aren't that many new P150/ Solo builds in the gallery anymore.

The loudest part is the antec rear 120mm fan at "medium".

As a reference noise level, if I set that to low the system noise level drops to about half. The rest of the fans are at 9 or 7V and the cpu fan is barely turning at 250rpm.

Going to try the Antec at low for awhile and see what the temps are.

IME, the solo wasnt a very breathable case.

when i had it and an 8800GTS, the 8800GTS started overheating and artifacting. i attributed it to the case.

i switched out to a p180, added another front 120mm fan, and couldnt be happier.

when i had it and an 8800GTS, the 8800GTS started overheating and artifacting. i attributed it to the case.

That was perhaps a rushed opinion. My 8800GTS (G80!) has been working for two years with no temp issues. Solo isn't perhaps the most breathable case, but it is just enough

The card idles at aroung 66*C and peaks at 90*C. No misbehaviour whatsoever.

KadazanPL wrote:That was perhaps a rushed opinion. My 8800GTS (G80!) has been working for two years with no temp issues. Solo isn't perhaps the most breathable case, but it is just enough

Yeah, my 4850 running passive with an Accelero gets 41C idle and 54C load in a Solo. You just need to know where to place your fans for maximum cooling efficiency.