I wondered if anyone could kindly give me some advice for a case suitable for optimal cooling of a passive graphics card.
I currently run MythTv as my PVR with the following core components:
- e5200
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Cooler
ATX sized ASRock 4CoreDual-Sata2 Motherboard
2GB RAM
Passively cooled Nvidia FX5200 AGP
Hauppauge Nova T-500
320GB Seagate SATA HD
DVD Writer
400W Zalman 20pin PSU
This computer currently is housed in some generic case cooled by a couple of 80mm Panaflos.
I hope to upgrade this with a(n already bought) passively cooled GT 240 (Asus ENGT240 Silent) which uses a PCIe slot (the motherboard has both AGP and PCIe!) to enable VDPAU based decoding for high definition video. Such decoding raises the temperature of the graphics card....I'll probably add a second drive and maybe a gigabit network card too.
I would like to keep this card reasonably cool and my current case is not too good in that respect AND the way the card slots in, the heatsink and the fins point down towards the bottom of the case - I would have thought that an inverted motherboard case would be an idea (the heat rises approach?). I appreciate that a case with good airflow might simply be the answer, but have got a bit confused as to whether the airflow would be simply out of the rear fan/PSU and that it would not get to the downward pointing heatsink around the graphics card and I am not too sure about the pros and cons of side fans (i.e. - do they interfere with the airflow of the rest of the case; some people say the side fans can be (especially) noisy because of the mesh grills).
My other constraints are:
- that the case is currently housed under the TV in a open backed cabinet which is 48 cm high.
I would like to minimise dust
whilst I would like to keep the noise down, we are not next to the PC (about 10 feet away) so I can accept a bit more noise than if we were speccing for a silent PC sited next to me
the ATX sized motherboard should fit in the case
I have looked around and, with a budget of up to £75 wondered about the following:
- Bitfenix Outlaw
- Inverted design - permits graphics card to point the right way up for heat dissipation
Top cooling fan locations adjacent PCI(e) slots
Side cooling fan possible
Cheap
Kit out with additional (say Noctua) fans to improve cooling
- Cheap
Bit garish for a PVR
Kitted out with 4 fans by default
Side fan probably noisy unfortunately
- Cheapish
Can take out a drive bay and then the front fan could possibly cool the video card
- Expensive
Concerned that I would still have to buy a side fan and that may be noisy
- Inverted design - permits graphics card to point the right way up for heat dissipation
Ta
Chorltan