Was doing some tinkering so figured I may as well take some snaps and put this in the gallery.
Old Specs;
CPU: Intel E8400 (3.0 Ghz)
CPU Cooler: Scythe Ninja (The original one with proper mountings)
RAM: 4 Gb (2 x 2Gb) OCZ Platinum PC2-8000
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R
Graphics: ATI Radeon 5850 - Stock cooling
PSU: Antec Neo HE 430W
SSD: 60Gb OCZ Agility
Case: Jeantech Phong with 1x Nexus PWM fan, 800-1800rpm Speedfan Controlled
As you can probably tell, the case is rather old, and has been modified according to the "ghetto" school of thought. Drive bays have been removed, fan grills cut out, case covered in Akasa sound deadening material, and various chunks of foam stuffed into any dead space. The PSU is fed cool air via the high-quality card duct from the top 5.25" drive bay. The only air intake for the main body of the case is bottom front of the case (bottom right in picture).
This was fine for most purposes, the graphics card cooler was starting to get annoying though, and I wanted a bit more temperature headroom to overclock the CPU a bit, plus I was getting fed up with having to transfer data to my server every few days - 60Gb is not a lot with Windows 7...
Hence I upgraded to:
CPU Cooler: Thermalright IFX 14 with backside cooler.
GPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev.2 off my old 3870, with Thermalright VRM R4 for the VRMs and Enzotech BCC9 9mm RAMsinks.
Storage HDD: Western Digital Blue 250Gb 2.5" Notebook drive
Naked 5850 with RAMsinks. The chip under the silver coloured heatsink in the top left of the photo was attached to the stock cooler so I assumed it was important and stuck an old RAMsink on it. The old goop didn't want to stick though, hence:
A cable twist-tie, tightened up, seems to do the job.
The finished graphics card assembly, quite weighty...
The finished article:
The IFX14 will only fit in that orientation due to the PSU being in the way, and the backside cooler does partially block airflow to the VRM R4, though it doesn't seem too bad.
Temps, Before (Scythe Ninja + stock 5850 cooler):
Idle: (Case fan @ 1800rpm)
FurMark Load: (Case fan @ 1800rpm)
After (IFX14, Accelero S1, VRM R4):
Idle: (Case fan @ 800rpm)
Load testing was not ideal... Graphics temps quickly went up to high 90s, so I stopped FurMark. Poop.
Stuck a 1000rpm fixed speed 120mm Nexus under the Accelero, blowing up into the fins.
Idle: (Case fan @ 800rpm, GPU fan @ 1000rpm)
FurMark Load: (Case fan @ 1800rpm, GPU fan @ 1000rpm)
3 Hours of Left 4 Dead 2 Load: (Case fan @ 1800rpm, GPU fan @ 1000rpm)
Success! The extra Nexus only shaved a few degrees off the GPU at idle, but the difference at load was night and day. I think there's enough cooling headroom to drop it to 5V or 7V, but I am satisfied for now.
The system is not dead silent, but at idle is below my noise floor 95% of the time, which I think is pretty good considering how much horsepower it has.
To get it any quieter will require a new PSU, and probably case too, or a passive watercooling setup, but that starts to get awfully expensive for such small returns.
With hindsight I would probably not have bothered with the IFX14, it only shaved a degree or two off the temps, and it is a lot of weight to have hanging off the mobo. The Ninja really is hard to beat at low airflow.
Thanks for looking, happy to answer any questions. (Though I lack the equipment to measure power draw or noise level)
My Main Rig; Powerful but quiet.
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Thanks for posting. I think this is the first time I've seen that VRM cooler paired with an Accelero- it's good to know they fit together and are effective.
I like the ghetto PSU air intake. I did something similar a few months ago on my game rig (but didn't update pics), but my PSU is the kind with a 120mm fan on the bottom. I'm not gonna lie and say it looks good, but it is practical.
I like the ghetto PSU air intake. I did something similar a few months ago on my game rig (but didn't update pics), but my PSU is the kind with a 120mm fan on the bottom. I'm not gonna lie and say it looks good, but it is practical.
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