EDIT: I made a few changes:
1. re-did some wiring (mainly changing to a ribbon IDE cable so I could fold it)
2. Moved HDD from lowest position to highest position
3. Experimented with some different fan setups (see below pics)

Thought I'd share pics and info on my new system - any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated! Full specs are in my sig. I had to DIY a fan mount for the Ninja using some "Jewelry & Craft Essentials" 1mm elastic monofilament (found at Wal-Mart). The metal clips Scythe included were just too frustrating to deal with. I also taped off most vent holes in the case using 3M Electrician's Bundling Tape so that all the air would be drawn in through the filter.

New wiring and hdd location:


Ninja fan mount:
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/6307/ninjafanmount6ki.jpg

http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/2373/ninjafanmount23go.jpg

I also had an issue trying to soft-mount the case fan using Verax sticks. The mounting holes on the P150 were too big, so the rubber flange kept pulling right through. The solution was to cut a slice of rubber automotive tubing and use that as a washer.
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/3520/veraxmod1fl.jpg

UPDATED:

I tried a few things to improve temps. The first thing I did was to move the hdd from the bottom to the top suspension mount. That lowered the drive temp 5deg. right there.

Next I decided to try the Ninja passive. Idle temps were only slightly warmer, but what really surprised me was how little the load temps went up.

Next I tried adding a 92mm intake in the top position while keeping the Ninja passive. The only 92mm I have is a Dynaeon Top Motor that came with a Chenbro Gaming Bomb. This thing is NOT quiet (buzzing) but I was only concerned with temps so it served its purpose. Drive temps lowered about 4-5 degrees, but cpu and mobo were essentially unchanged.

I finally settled on my original setup with the Ninja active and no front intake. Having the second YL on the Ninja is inaudible (to me, at least) and unless I add a second hdd or put in a more restrictive filter I see no need for a front intake at this point.

Below is temp info as reported by Speedfan. I loaded the cpu by running CPUBurn for at least 20min. set to K7 - High priority, then I stopped burning and let it sit for about 30min. to read idle temps. I did my best to "load" the hdd by running HDTach several times, but couldn't really get temps to budge.

ORIGINAL - 1 YL D12SL-12 on Ninja @ 880rpm; 1 on exhaust @ 860rpm:
CPU: 29/39
Chipset: 27/36
HDD: 35/35

Passive Ninja and no front intake - exhaust turned up to 1000rpm:
CPU: 30/43
Chipset: 30/41
HDD: 30/30

Passive Ninja w/ 92mm intake @ ~1100rpm (as low as it would go!):
CPU: 30/43
Chipset: 29/40
HDD: 25/25

Final setup - Like original but exhaust @ 900rpm, Ninja @ 800rpm:
CPU: 29/39
Chipset: 27/36
HDD: 30/30

The question is if I should now go passive on the Ninja. My main reason for not doing so was the the rise in load temp for the chipset, not for the cpu. Am I being too cautious?

What CPU is that?

AMD Athlon64 3000+ (Venice E3 is the core and stepping)

I'm wondering why it was so frustrating to have the Ninja Fan mounted with the provided clips.

Why did you switch to elastic?

Were you hearing any reverberation on the fan?

Thanks

It was very difficult getting the fan mounted at all with the clips, and when I did the clips only engaged the outermost fins of the Ninja, bowing both the fins and the clips themselves. It looked and felt like it was going to spring itself apart at any moment. Vibration was not a factor. The elastic mount allows the fan to be swapped out while the heatsink and mobo are in the case, and it also allows some lateral adjustability for the fan to clear the DIMMS.

I'm in the process of putting together a similar system with the ASrock mobo and an Opteron 144. (the Opteron should get here on Monday ) I was very interested to see how the Ninja fits on this board. You pictures clearly show that it works just fine. Thanks!

I don't have a P150, but I have an old Antec SX830 that has the same 3 pin power led plug and I appreciate your warning. Where did you find the connector to fix the problem?

Good trick with elastic YL suspension, I will do the same in my case. Thanks!

As for the airflow/temp ratio, coming from Zalman 7000 I'd say it's outstanding, however, in reality all systems with Ninja get similar temperatures.

RE: the LED wires, its dead easy to fix.

Just get a knife or something similar with a this point, lever ip the plastic clip/flap on the plug on the end of the wire wher you ft it into the motherboard, pull the wire. To put it into a different position, just push it.


Andy

I had a few of them from an old Gateway "ivory tower" case that I scavenged for parts. If you have an old computer case somewhere then you have several spares. Good luck with your Opteron! I hear it is a better OC choice than my A64. One more tip: There are "cold boot" issues with the Asrock that are not resolved by bios or driver updates. If you run a SATA drive with it, you need to enable RAID in bios even if you are using a single drive. If you don't, the system will post before the drive has a chance to spin up, and you will get a non-system disk error. There is no way to program a hard disk pre-delay like you would on a SCSI controller. Again, a quirky problem, but for an otherwise great mobo that costs under 70 bucks I'm not going to complain!



I remember trying that method first, but I could not find a suitable tool. Soldering/splicing the connectors was the only thing I could do - thankfully a very easy job.

Thanks for the compliment on the elastic mount. It was born out of frustration!

I see your point about the Ninja. It has exceeded my expectations, and it's probably overkill for the (relatively) low heat output of the Venice. I probably could have gone with a less expensive cooler, but I wanted something that would still be effective when I upgrade to an X2 someday.

Yep, that should work. With the way the connection block is set up, the third, soon to be empty, space in the plug won't be in the way.

I haven't tried it yet, but I suspect a staple will fit in there to free up the pin so I can move it. I saw that in an article I read yesterday about removing 20-24 pin motherboard power connectors so that you can sleeve the wires. This is a smaller connector, but we have lots of sizes of staples.

If that fails, I'll use guava's method. There's probably an appropriate connector in that 386-33 sitting in the store room.

I'm running an ASRock 939-DUAL with a Ninja and Opteron 144 in a Sonata. I'm running an AGP card instead of PCI-e, and I'm running my Ninja in passive mode, and I'm not having any overheating problems (CPU under heavy load is ~ 38 degrees C).

-Derek

Is your Ninja ducted or do you have some other modification? From what I have read, your 144 should be running a bit hotter than my 3000+. Mine runs ~43 degrees load when passive (see update above).

how does the noise profile of the PC change from having 2 YL at 800rpm compared to one at 1000rpm?

When the case is closed and on the floor, the 2 at 800rpm are definitely a bit quieter, all I hear is a little airflow noise from the rear of the case. When I lift up the case and put it on the desk to my right (to adjust the fans) a strange thing happens. The system seems significantly louder there when the left panel is on, and quieter when it is off. When it's back on the floor, I don't notice it anymore, since it sits just to the right vertical support of my desk and the offending noise is off-axis to my ear. I initally thought the panel was resonating, but it seems unlikely since all of my fans and the hdd are soft-mounted. Besides that, the panel is well-damped, and I can't feel any vibration in it. I'm thinking that it might be a parallel-hard-surfaces-constructive-interference effect going on (think of the acoustics in a gymnasium) but I'm not really sure. The acoustic foam I have is way too thick to clear the Ninja. Anyone else have any theories?

On a separate note, anyone know how I can kill the poll attached to my original post? Editing it does not give me this option.

You say you have thick acoustic foam in your case. Maybe the fans are having to work harder to pull air through the case when the left panel is on because the foam acts as a brake? Just a thought.

Greetings,

The only temp that I would be at all concerned with is the HD -- cooler is better. Your CPU temps are excellent -- and you are not even undervolting, right?

I would go with the quietest set up that keeps the HD under 30C. As for the nopise drop with the side cover off -- it might be that the front intake is restricting things? Maybe you can turn down the exhaust fan a little more, and/or figure out a way to increase the flow through the front? Or, maybe it is a "cavity resonance" -- the solution is the same for this as above...

There is actually no foam in this case at all - I just meant that the only foam I have is 3" eggcrate, and that would not fit on a side panel.

Is 30C an unsafe temp for a raptor? This is the best I think I'm going to get without adding more fans, short of ducting the PSU.

Right now I do not have any quiet 92mm fans, and I'm not shelling out the $$$ for Nexus. What I was considering was to drill a few more holes in the fan mounting plate so I could mount a 120mm instead of 2 92mm. I would do it in such a way that I could still change to 92mm fans in the future and tape off the holes only used by the 120mm. I have an extra medium-speed YL that I could swap in for the low speed currently as my exhaust, and put the low-speed up front. This would also allow me to try some better (but more restrictive) filter material I have.

Hello,

30C is probably fine, you're right.

On the 92mm Nexus -- are you sure it wasn't really running at 550RPM? I could be wrong, but is it running in the 1100RPM range at 12v? How much were you undervolting it?

WD quote operating temps for the 740GD of 5-55 degrees C, non-operating from -40 to 65C! That's got to be a typo surely? So theoretically this HD could be left at the North Pole with no ill-effects whatsoever.

WD specs page

30C is fine.

the north pole reaches temps much lower than that - just a side note

Neil,

I don't own any Nexus fans. They are too expensive. The 92mm I used was a Dynaeon Top Motor that came with a Chenbro case, and Speedfan was showing it running ~1100rpm with a FanMate set to its lowest setting. That seems pretty accurate judging from the amount of air it was moving, and also how loud it still was.

A 92mm Nexus runs ~1100RPM at 12V if it is pointing up (away from the center of the earth, not the mobo!).