I currently have a zalman 7000cu, and an Antec sonata case. I know, bad case decision, my fault for being uneducated. I sold the truepower to my roommate, and ended up only spending $50 bucks for it. Currently I've got a 465W Enermax ancient whisper series, and while I'm sure some think they're loud, it's quiet enough for me. The loudest components in my case are the hard drives(whine). I was thinking about a CPU duct of some sort, possible to reduce the number of fans, and/or temps.
I plan on 'sealing' the hard drive rack with some foam to direct airflow/reduce noise, and as well, I'll probably do some sort of bezel adjustment.
My current setup has a single case fan in the rear. I might try to make a duct in the 5 1/2 bays for the psu, but it never gets loud, or hot, so i'm not sure if it's necessary. Idle temps are CPU-34C, case-40C, don't know the others cause I don't have the means to measure them. I really want to make some sort of CPU duct without really killing the case, a suction hole in the door would be nice, but I really don't want to attempt that. I saw a review about using suction to cool the zalman, and ducting that to the rear of the case, but then wouldn't I lose some negative pressure??
Also, any ducting I can think of would restrict airflow to the second PSU fan which is positioned above the cpu hsf. Eventually I'll get a vga silencer(I'm going to attempt to bear the possible noise) when i upgrade my video card, which could help to draw air out, but until then, is there any way I can help airflow?? It just doesn't make sense to have my psu sucking up at a 90 degree angle from my exhaust fan, and sitting in the middle is my cpu sucking air straight down. The airflow just doesn't seem to make much sense. Any ideas???
CPU duct
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
I had a few airflow problems to the CPU area with my Sonata. I have an NVIDIA GF 6800GT with an NV Silencer 5 on it. The whole rig takes up two slots, and extends from the back of the case to about 2-3 inches away from the drive cage. It's huge.
I had no airflow issues until I installed the NV Silencer. I figured that the air that was being drawn in the front was going directly to the NV Silencer and ejected out the back. I removed all of the extra drive trays and moved my HDD to the bottom slot. Then redid all my wiring, making sure to keep all wires running down the back wall of the case (which is fun in a Sonata
). I also removed the air filter.
Initially, these changes made things worse until I covered the intake holes below the HDD. This made all the difference. Everything runs much cooler, especially the HDD and the CPU at idle. Another thing that seems to make a minor difference is covering the Antec holes on the removable door (leave the ones on the fixed side alone).
The grille behind the front bezel on my case was opened up from the factory (I guess Antec revised this part). The bottom of the bezel is still a choke point which I plan to open up this week.
I had no airflow issues until I installed the NV Silencer. I figured that the air that was being drawn in the front was going directly to the NV Silencer and ejected out the back. I removed all of the extra drive trays and moved my HDD to the bottom slot. Then redid all my wiring, making sure to keep all wires running down the back wall of the case (which is fun in a Sonata
). I also removed the air filter.Initially, these changes made things worse until I covered the intake holes below the HDD. This made all the difference. Everything runs much cooler, especially the HDD and the CPU at idle. Another thing that seems to make a minor difference is covering the Antec holes on the removable door (leave the ones on the fixed side alone).
The grille behind the front bezel on my case was opened up from the factory (I guess Antec revised this part). The bottom of the bezel is still a choke point which I plan to open up this week.