... that has a large rear-mounted fan BELOW the video card. While I would prefer mid-tower this might have to be a full-tower. This will be a high performance Intel 940/GTX 460 build, maybe SLI in the future, not "silent" but as quiet as humanly possible.

Why a fan there?

First of all, these video cards may have PCI slot exhausts, but still exhaust a lot of heat inside the case.

Second, assuming normal M/B orientation, most gaming cases rely on side fans to displace or remove heat below the video card(s). However side fans are not great for silence- they are in line-of-site (for me) for a floor placed tower, and they provide the fan with its own sounding board, not to mention another place for internal sound to exit.

My old Antec SLK3000B had terrible heat problems until I strapped an 80mm fan across the unused PCI slots. That is not going to work with the next build as I plan to have cards in those slots.

The best I can come up with is a HAF 932 with the P/S top mounted, and put a fan in the bottom-mount P/S slot.

Any better ideas? I have spent hours viewing cases on newegg.com and haven't come up with anything better.

Oh yeah, I am open to some case modding.

-HF

Cooler Master ATCS 840. Use a softmounted 120 mm on the stock external PCI slot exhaust, or a Noiseblocker Multiframe. The external box is cheap plastic, but if the fan you use is sufficiently vibration-proof it shouldn't be an issue.

Here:

I've designed a case that has an optional feature to blow cool air onto the video card area via a bottom fed air duct (the case has a solid side panel):





I guess you could do something similar (fabricate an air duct), as long as you start off with an extra wide case.

Good luck!

690 II could be a good choice. If you add 2 bottom fans (partly remove hd cage) it becomes filtered positive pressure. most hot air frop PCI cards will be pushed out the side and back vents. PSU could stay at the bottom. Looks better too IMO.

Raven reviews by SPCR here
http://www.silentpcreview.com/silverstone-raven
had a flipped mobo that vents out the top but is a bit wierd looking.

The rotated mobo Silverstone cases are good options for you, imo. see the fortress02 and raven02 reviews here.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/section9.html

Yeah Mike,
Knew you would comment on that. The Frotress 02 looks perfect for what OP wanted.

great thread, thanks for the ideas.

here is how i handled hot air from the gpu... i7-920 @3.9ghz, p183 in a positive pressure configuration, 3 fans blowing in, no exhaust fan per se, msi gtx465 unlocked to gtx470, running unlocked gpu voltage @1.21v(factory 1.087v max).

the fan behind the card is blowing directly across the cooling fins, and it helps to exhaust the heat out the case to some degree... the video card exhausts most of the hot air right out the top of two holes in the pcb, it's a twin-fan card.

silverstone would be a much better option for a positive pressure build, due to the big fans, but i've seen arguments claiming that rotating the guts around could have a negative effect on the life of some types of fan bushings(probably a trivial concern)... the bigger question is where the fluid inside the coolers flows when they are turned in a non-standard direction, and whether that could effect the cooling????

I don't think it matters too much - heat pipes in current coolers are designed to work by means of capillary action in the internal wicking material rather than convection, so the orientation will have little if any effect.

Heat rises, so it shouldn't be above the video card?

A fan blowing perpendicular thru the back of the card (in the HD bays or something) should suffice, as with my 4850 w/S1.


Get a top PSU mid/full tower case and flip it?

"The second benchmark segment begins by simply turning the test system vertically upright, so that the motherboard and CPU are facing to the side. Many of the products we have tested utilize a "U" pattern in the heat-pipe rods, and the upright system orientation favors this particular product design because it removes the effect of gravity on the heat-pipes' thermal cycle."
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?o ... mitstart=9

maybe a lian li pc-a05nb with one of lian li's pci slot coolers in the top 2 slots?


(they make other coolers, but this was the first pic i found.)

ROFL. Did you ever read Kidder's Soul of a New Machine?
http://www.amazon.com/Soul-New-Machine-Tracy-Kidder/dp/0316491977

That's really "hanging a bag" on the side of a computer!

Anyway, when I said I wanted to use the other PCI slots, I mean BOTH .sides of the PCI slots! (Often and easily,)

-HF

Good question. The cards I have vent some hot air through the second PCI vent, and a lot more into the case below the card. Besides there is already a 120mm fan above the top card on most cases.

This system (whatever it turns out to be) will have huge amounts of air in and out, it won't have much time to rise.

On my SLK3000B/8800Ultra combination, there was an extreme "hot pocket" below the video card, and convection and two 120mm front input fans (one in a Kama Bay) and open PCI slots didn't help it a bit. The temp sensor on the lower part of the M/B was reading higher than my CPU!

I tried one, then two of those useless PCI slot fans. The first one brought GPU temps down from 99-100C to 95C, the second to 94C. Then I pulled them and I strapped an 80mm gaming fan across all the PCI slots. That fixed the problem.


Yeah but I am talking nVidia cards here...



I am seriously considering that. I would do it with my extra Three Hundred except there's not much meat to work with if I leave the P/S at the bottom. I'll be splicing sheet metal instead of just re-riviting it. Still, I may try it. It's only $50!

-HF

Yes, this is why I am a bit leary of inverted M/B systems. My X38 gaming M/B has a lot of heat pipes on it.

-HF

If only the price were a *little* lower...

-HF

Thanks, MikeC and everyone, for all the great ideas.

I just found a case that is very nearly what I want. It has space for 2x80mm fans below the M/B. It is even a silencing oriented case.

The only problem is that they put a partition in between, but a little modding would take care of that.

http://www.quietpcusa.com/NZXT-Whisper- ... 92C55.aspx

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ImageGall ... ter%20Case

The pricing is also right, however I am not thrilled about the styling. I don't mind hack-n-slash modding inside the case, but I'm not so good with cosmetics and I prefer an understated outer appearance. (Thus my recent infatuation with the Antec Three Hundred).

A review of the case had the reviewers breaking the fragile USB pop-up, and the front door makes bay mounted USB problematic. Among other things I do need reliable front USB. I guess the biggest issue is that I really don't like front doors that much. After accidentally breaking them off of both an Antec SoHo case and a SLK3000B, and not missing them after that, I have come to realize that I really don't like my optical drive or USB behind a door.

On the plus side, I could put TWO Kama Bay fans in the front of that puppy!

So, I am still open to other suggestions.

-HF

Thanks, warriorpoet. The ATCS 840 looks like a real candidate, I don't see the more-than-50% occluded PCI vent area as being that useful, but I could top mount the P/S and vent through the bottom P/S mount.

But, I was really hoping for a bottom mount system, and keep it that way...

I know, I'm picky. But what really boggles my mind, there must literally be a Thousand case variations out there, and no one has thought to do this.

-HF

Thanks, fumino. That looks like one industrial strength dual-slot PCI slot fan.

However, I am looking to use most or all of my PCI/PCIe slots, two for SLI (eventually) and a 3Ware card and some other stuff.

-HF

the p183 is a quieter case, but it'll cost more, since it's not on sale right now.

this is what i'm doing to put a couple of fans under the video card(s), but it's not what you want:
Scythe Kama Stay multi purpose solution
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811998071