i7 with "ducted" HR-01 Plus

Show off your quiet rig.

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alleycat
Posts: 740
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2002 10:32 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

i7 with "ducted" HR-01 Plus

Post by alleycat » Fri Jul 03, 2009 6:46 am

A friend recently asked me to build a computer to be used primarily for Photoshop. After some assistance from members of these forums (thanks everyone!), we finally decided on an i7 based system. I tried to choose components that represented good value, rather than getting all high-end gear. The video card is overkill for Photoshop, but at least it's fanless. Here's the list:

Intel Core i7 920
Thermalright HR-01 Plus, with LGA1366 Bolt-thru kit
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P
Kingston DDR3-1333 (2GB x 6)
Gigabyte 9800GT 1GB Silent Cell
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB HDD
OCZ Vertex 60GB SSD
Liteon DVD burner
Antec NSK4000BII Case
Seasonic S12II 430W PSU
Welland ME-240 Dual Bay Mobile Rack
Scythe Slipstream 1200 case fan
Windows 7 RC 64-bit

The build went fairly smoothly, and Windows 7 installed without any problems. This is how it looked initially; the cables to the eSATA backplate tend to dominate the picture:

Image


Here you can get a closer look at the bolt-through arrangement. Temperatures at idle were reasonable, and the system was very quiet. Although not perfect, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the rubber grommets worked with the HDD. The Scythe Slipstream was connected to the CPU fan header on the motherboard. The BIOS allowed selection of either PWM or voltage control for the fan.

Image


Prime95 (64-bit version, 8 instances, small FFTs) and Furmark were used for stress testing, Realtemp for measuring temperatures, and Speedfan for checking the fan speed. With the system under full load, temperatures were climbing into the high 80s, and the PSU fan sounded like it was ramping up to the max. Not a great result, but I had been expecting something like this. I was, however, pleased with the performance of the PSU. It ramped up smoothly only when both Prime95 and Furmark were running at the same time. The PSU fan made a feint whine when working hard, but this was mostly drowned out by the sound of air movement. In future I would choose a modular PSU, as there were a lot of unused cables that needed to be jammed here and there, and because they are good quality, they're quite stiff and bulky.

I installed this simple duct over the heatsink. It's just a piece of folded cardboard with some bits cut out of the bottom corner for clearance around the motherboard's heatpipe. It's wedged in firmly around the case fan, with just two pieces of adhesive tape holding it in place. Temperatures at full load dropped by 12degC.

Image


The case seemed a bit too restrictive on airflow, so I removed the slot cover below the video card. Temperatures dropped 4degC for the video card and 3degC for the CPU. Also, the PSU fan doesn't spin up quite as much at full load.

Image


A two-bay mobile rack was used to house the SSD, which contains the OS and applications. The other bay is for future expansion, or can be used to make backups onto a laptop drive from the internal 640GB HDD. Kind of reminds me of the old days when I backed up my company's minicomputer onto tape cartridges (only a lot faster!).

Image

Mysteriously, although it's covered with the usual advertising hype, there is no brand name on the box that the mobile rack came in, it's just marked as "ME-240" in tiny letters. Here's the verbatim description on the back of the box:
The dual bay mobile rack features the Trayless HDD installation , Tool-Free HDD Hot-Swap & the patented Scratch-Proof SATA connector , you can just integrate it easily and perfectly in the 3.5" bay of Mini PC or Desktop PC. Saving your pocket to support 2 units of 2.5" SATA drives simultaneously !

ME-240 supports safe and "REAL" Hot-Swap by using the up-to-day Scratch-Proof SATA connector. This patented connector is particular about the reliable "Anti-Scratch" when connecting HDD to the mobile rack. Without damaging or scratching the gold pin of HDD , now you don't have to worry the frequency of HDD exchange anymore !
Gotta love that (sorry, couldn't resist)! I just hope it lives up to all its promises. I also put one in my own system. I quite like it so far.

Anyway, final temperature results at 25degC ambient were:

Code: Select all

                 CPU  GPU  Case Fan (max)
Idle              38   52    1000
Prime95           69   50    1283
Prime95+Furmark   70   84    1283
It's not the absolute quietest system I've ever built, but I'm very satisfied with the result nonetheless. The i7 is a fairly hot processor at load. I tried enabling Turbo Boost in BIOS, but found that it increased temperatures dramatically when stress testing, with an insignificant increase in performance. However, considering the intended use for this system, the kind of load placed on the system during stress testing would never be reached in real world operation, so Turbo Boost could probably be enabled without any fear of high temperatures.
Last edited by alleycat on Thu Jul 16, 2009 3:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

danimal
Posts: 734
Joined: Mon Jun 08, 2009 2:41 pm
Location: the ether

Post by danimal » Fri Jul 03, 2009 11:42 am

nice build... i bet that you could bolt a fan onto that cooler, and run the i7 to the max.

thanks for posting the temp drop with the fan shroud, it will be helpful for those who want to purse similar fanless cooling solutions on their cpus.

lodestar
Posts: 1683
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2005 3:29 am
Location: UK

Post by lodestar » Fri Jul 03, 2009 11:48 am

As an alternative to the cardboard and tape there is an official Thermalright cooler to exhaust fan duct, see for example
http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=610116

alleycat
Posts: 740
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2002 10:32 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by alleycat » Fri Jul 03, 2009 6:03 pm

I saw that duct on someone else's build in these forums, however I haven't seen it available from any of my suppliers. The cardboard works well enough for my purposes, and I like a bit of DIY. It's actually a very neat fit and didn't cost me anything :wink:. Thanks for the tip though.

robbie13
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Joined: Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:55 am
Location: Rijeka, Croatia

Post by robbie13 » Mon Jul 20, 2009 4:07 am

And your's is less restrictive.

colm
Posts: 409
Joined: Tue Jan 31, 2006 8:22 am
Location: maine

Post by colm » Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:50 pm

nice. this is the stuff I like to see.
furthering this to thin painted aluminum one could choose the case fan to hel hold up the 800 pound heatsink and keep the northbridge in the draft. I see the memory has alot just by the way it is.

ducting is the original atx standard. I had one from compaq in 1998. I have mimicked it ever since.

alleycat
Posts: 740
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2002 10:32 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Post by alleycat » Fri Jul 31, 2009 4:44 am

I agree, there is potential to build a better, more efficient duct. What this project goes to show is that it can be done easily without special materials or techniques, and works quite well even in a fairly hot system like this one. It's also very easy to remove and replace (eg I forgot to take a photo of the initial build so I pulled the duct out for the shot).

I've always been a 'fan' of ducting :wink: , having built several systems with ducts. I find efficiency and minimalism appealing, something I'm sure many SPCR members can relate to. A lot of systems use their fans wastefully, or use too many fans unnecessarily, and with just a little guidance it's possible to move air to the places it is really needed, delivering surprisingly good results.

Trip
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Location: SC

Post by Trip » Tue Aug 25, 2009 10:34 am

Beautiful. Good to see an i7 can be tamed.

If the PSU fan is the noisiest, maybe an 80mm model would be better - seems like what MikeC would recommend anyway. Danimal's got a good suggestion too.

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