**Scroll down for new pictures!**

I've been browsing SPCR for a long time. And now I've finally been able to draw upon the vast amount of knowledge contained herein.

System Specs:
Case: Antec P182
PSU: Corsair 520W HX
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz G0
CPU Heatsink & Fan: Thermalright Ultra-120 / Nexus Real Silent 120mm 22,8dBA
RAM: Corsair XMS2 2048MB DDR2 XMS2-5400 675MHz (4-4-4-12)
Graphics Card: XFX 8800GTX 768MB
Sound Card: Turtle Beach Santa Cruz (from old pc)
Hard Drive: Samsung 500GB SATA II NCQ (7200RPM / 16MB Cache / SATA II)
Optical Drive: NEC ND-3500AG (from old pc)
Misc: Nexus Real Silent 120mm 22,8dBA, Arctic silver 5

Here you have it, not the neatest cabling. I'm going to tidy it up when I'm certain there won't be any changes to the system. You can see the old rig in the background.


A closer look at the mess in the lower bay.


Top went taped shut.


Experimented with one of the Tri-cools at the front intake (now removed).


I had hoped that it would have improved the airflow over the northbridge somewhat, but that was not the case.


That 8800 GTX is a real furnace, heats up the northbridge quite a bit. And it's hard to find a good way to rout those extra power cables.


Removed the filter doors for better airflow.


Temperature Readings
Both Nexus fans were at 12V for all tests.
Temperatures read with, Speed Fan 4.33 (SF), Core Temp 0.95.4 (CT) and RivaTuner 2.05 (RT)

pretty sexy pc you got there

as usual the 8800GTX is pretty toasty

now all you need is just some better cabling, and then you got a superb setup

Hi,

Nice job on the build. Did you find that the 520 HX cables were long enough to route behind the MB and use the unique P182 holes and tie downs? I'm considering the same case/PSU and want to be sure to get a PSU with cables that will reach comfortably, especially the 24 pin MB power cable.

Thanks
Wayne

The cables are pretty long, the 24 pin cable could have been a little longer. but it's no biggie you just have to stretch it somewhat for a good fit.

why have that front fan as exhaust? it seems to me as though that would cause an imbalance in airflow/pressure.

otherwise a great build, 8800's are nice.

If you are not planning to OC your quad, you should definitely undervolt it. At stock speed, I am able to run mine with only 1.0375V...many others have had similar results, this should lower your temps significantly.
* if you do this, be sure to disable C1E & EIST in your BIOS *
Alternately, you could probably reach 3.0GHz stable without adding any extra voltage (and therefore not raising you temps much either) by simply moving your FSB up to 333MHz (333x9=2.997GHz). I can run mine at this setting with only 1.275V.
BTW - all voltages I quoted were based on BIOS settings, not the ones reported via software like CPU-Z.

And for the front fan, you can set it to vent the 8800GTX using the upper hard drive cage that came with the P182 and attach with the metal clips found in the accesories box of the chassis. I did that, and it lowered my temperatures with 5-6 degrees. It's not much but it also blows on the northbridge since is closer to it. And do not seal the upper hatch, better use a low RPM fan to exaust the hot air of the MOSFET's (VRM) and the CPU. Antec did a great job by putting there a place for a fan. The logic behind this it's simple:



The whole point is to let the air flow, and hot air which is lighter to exit through the upper and back fans. Also use a fan for the bottom chamber, the PSU and HDD's get some cool air from outside. Use low RPM fans for silcence. Also you can use the back of the chassis with some zip ties to fix the cables. Corsair PSU's don't have the longest cables, but they're ok.

The painting style of mine is awful on the picture, but i wanted to show the engineering airflow of PC's.

Ok I feel really stupid right now. It was supposed to be mounted the other way, sucking not blowing.

miahallen wrote
I already tried raising the fsb to 337MHz it worked well, but speedstep doesn't work that good when you OC. At stock it idles at 1,6GHz but at fsb 337MHz it idles at somewhere around 2GHz. I'm going to look in to undervolting it though.

deio wrote
Are you sure you have a GTX and not a GTS? Because my GTX is so big that a fan won't fit on the HD-cage.
About the bottom chamber. I'm pretty pleased with the temps there, and the PSU never ramps up the fan. So I'm probably not going to ad a fan there unless i get additional hard drives.
Gonna put one of the tricools in the upper exhaust and see if it improves cooling.

No, I have a GTS, a GTX won't fit there, but use the front fan and the HDD cage empty, not the cage attached with the fan, so that it will create a tunnel of air

You may be right about the bottom cage fan and upper fan. Not all PC's require that much airflow, especially when motherboards do not have heatpipes "plumbing like" which tend to get hotter than normal heatsinks do, because of the unification of pipes and lack of airflow.
Samsung drives are cool, mine are 29-32 degrees both (320GB each), but the fan spins very slow and it's good that some air gets through there. You can use a very slow RPM fan for upper chamber, use a Noctua 12cm with ULNA that came with the box, it slows down the fan at about 800RPM, and do not use a bottom fan. That way your PC will be quiet and running at acceptable temperature levels. But you'll need an intake front fan, because 8800GTX is rather hot without additional cooling (220W TDP), my Asus 8800GTS (140W TDP) has 60 degrees idle and 66 degrees load, a bit high, but way beyond 110degrees threshold.

Mentalswe,

Will you please post a photo of your back plane wiring...the back side of the MB tray?

Cheers,
Wayne

womiller wrote:

I'm going to redo most of the wiring, because the backside isn't that pretty right now. I'll post a pic when it's done, hopefully sometime this week.

Ok new wiring!

I'm pretty pleased with the result. Much neater, especially in the bottom chamber. Two things annoy me though. The IDE-cable to the DVDRW, it's to short to rout through the upper hole. And the front audio cable running across the motherboard.


And here's the backside. Not that pretty but it works. It's somewhat tricky to put on the backpanel, and there's a bit of bulging. But it's not too bad. If Antec make a new revision of the case they should really widen the hole from the bottom chamber. As you can see there's not much space left for additional cables.

Very nice photos, you did a great job in hiding those cables . Now how are the temperatures, especially for GTX? If they are high (80 deg for GTX) than install that intake front fan, I see you have put the cage and the plastic that holds the fan. Also can you use some zip ties? If you have an electrical store that sells them, use them, they are very good accesories in cable management. You can use them to hold together the cables that are scattered. They are really cheap and could be used for many applications, the tape will fall eventually. You have a very nice machine and I like the Thermalright, I will buy me one, soon, I hope

Nice job

I have one dumb ass question though. How did you manage to squeeze the PSU into the P182 cage. I'm using the same case and PSU and it seems it be a hair small for mine (was only able to get the front two screws on, and was curious if you removed the top bumper to achieve this.

Please an update on your temps.

I have the same system except i have these changes.

9600GT instead of 9800 (runs much cooler and i can problably run Accelero s1 passive without problem.)

Asus P5K-E wifi motherboard (not the best overclocking board but it was cheap and it will do untill i find a better one).

1xSeagate 250gb and 1xSeagate 320gb (both are going to be changed to 1xSamsung 720gb).

I also have 1xNoctua NH-12P cpucooler with 1xNoctua fan on it and 2xNoctua fans as chassi fans as well as 1xScythe kamabay fan.

I will post pics in a day or two to give a good view of how i have it.