I have succeeded in silencing my machine. Thanks all

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Sun May 09, 2004 11:27 pm

The onset of the Pittsburgh summer has already taken its toll on my computer. I finally got a chance to swap my old G400 with a nice newer FireGL X1. Doing so though raised my case temps by a lot. All the way to 54C according to MBM.

My processor temps were sitting at 66C and it can only get hotter from here. The worst is that this is AFTER I replaced the CPU fans with M1BXs instead of L1As (and I maxed out my fanmate). Watercooling is starting to look like the only possible quiet solution for me and I can't justify the costs right now. So my final solution at this point is to crank up my 120mm fan to 12V. That seemed to help a lot. Case temps are down to 47C and the proc temps are at 54C.

Once I put together my fan controller, I may be able to find a midpoint where it's quiet enough and cool enough for my tastes. But I'm at wit's end in determining what else I can do to silence my machine and still keep it stable for the future heat. I'm willing to listen to what people can suggest as to how I can cool this down and still keep it quiet, but I'm not too optimistic since I'm a regular here and I know all the basic tricks.

System specs:
Asus A7M266-D (no HS mounting holes)
Dual Athlon XP 2400+ @ 1.60V.
SLK-800 w/ M1BXs @ full throttle w/ Zalman Fanmates
512MB PC2100 Registered memory.
ATI FireGL X1 w/ stock heatsink (no space above card for retaining bracket on ACVGAS).
2xSamsung 40GB in Raid-1
2xSeagate Barracuda V 120GB in Raid-0.
120mm FBK Panaflo @ 12V (I felt absolutely horrid making this change)
Zalman ZM400B modded w/ M1A
Plextor PX-708A
Antec SLK-3700BQE w/ Duct tape covering every front opening except for filtered intake.

I can provide pictures of any of the above upon request.

Sorry I can't set a better example for the newbies.

PS - I know I could do the extreme, which is revert back to less powerful hardware, but I'm not sure I'm willing compromise on power just yet.

EDIT: Thanks to everyone's helpful suggestions, I have successfully quieted and cooled my machine to my liking. Due to my success, I have to change the thread title from "Sorry guys, I have to violate the SPCR principles" to the current one.

josephclemente · Post by **josephclemente** » Sun May 09, 2004 11:40 pm

What is your ambient temperature? Just curious...

As for keeping such a system quiet, hopefully someone here can help. I know I can't - part of my strategy is keeping the amount of stuff in the box to a minimum.

maxxymus · Post by **maxxymus** » Mon May 10, 2004 12:02 am

Those temps seem to be very high... Are you sure the motherboard probe is working properly? I would recommend getting some kind of thermometer and sticking it inside the case and seeing really how hot it is inside.

What exactly are you using for the exhaust? Only one 120mm fan? Did you cut off the grills? Where is air supposed to come in from? I can highly recommend a passive bottom vent (with our without filter) and perhaps even a passive top blowhole.

It could be a dead diode that is worrying you... I wouldnt trust the temps. You should consider perhaps reseating heatsinks with AS5.

Putz · Post by **Putz** » Mon May 10, 2004 12:05 am

Is your intake filter restrictive? You could try removing it (*gasp*) and re-opening up that front intake; if it improves your case airflow significantly, you can just bite the bullet and vaccum out your case every couple of months.

That's a lot of hardware to keep cool, though.

Pictures might help.

dukla2000 · Post by **dukla2000** » Mon May 10, 2004 1:38 am

sthayashi wrote:SLK-800 w/ M1BXs @ full throttle w/ Zalman Fanmates

I keep coming back to the same conclusion with my SLK-800a. As per Rusty's review you need an L1A @ 12V to cope if you are doing any real work (like Folding). Thereafter you are in the lap of the ambient temp gods. One thing I have observed is that the gains above the L1A 24cfm are limited: my 90mm Papst (36cfm) gives pretty much the same CPU temp. (Methinks Ralf mentioned/tested this way back when?)

Personally I hate filters: how much do things improve if you remove it? (When last did you clean it?)

Jan Kivar · Post by **Jan Kivar** » Mon May 10, 2004 1:40 am

If You don't have any other cards, You could put a fan in there after modding the case a bit.

You might want to try it without the filter for a day or two.

Cheers,

Jan

EDIT: After seeing your post on "How much will a 300w power supply run?", it seems that the card fan idea is out of the question...

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Mon May 10, 2004 2:58 am

Without knowing your ambient temp, but knowing what the intake of that case is like.....I'll make a guess you are suffering from insufficient air intake area, made worse by the filter. Try running with the case panel open. If it helps, you need to make some changes....

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Mon May 10, 2004 5:26 am

I don't know if I trust the temperature probe that I used to measure the ambient, but it says that the current ambient temperature is 25-26C. At that temperature right now, the CPUs are 53 and the Case temp is reading 45. Using said thermal probe, I measured the case temps to be at least 40, though the heatsinks were never much higher than that (43 at most).

I don't know where the thermal diodes are on this motherboard, but when I opened up the case, MBM did not report a case temp drop (which leads me to believe that that particular diode sits really close to the video card).

I've got pictures at the following link:
http://www.twolf1300.net/sthayashi/SPCR/setup/.

The cabling is a mess, but I don't think it's actually as bad as those pictures show.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Mon May 10, 2004 5:53 am

Hmmm...Does the CPU temp drop with the case open? Looks like your wiring is making your temp problem worse. Very bad idea to have any obstructions over the CPU fan. Also that board has the ATX connection in the worst place, forcing you to run the ATX cable over the board.

A re-configuration of the wiring and a bigger intake might help. A room temp of 25C shouldn't make a computer run that hot. Yesterday with the room temp at 25.5C, my Prescott peaked at 52C.....case fans about 3.5v.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Mon May 10, 2004 5:55 am

sthayashi wrote:I don't know if I trust the temperature probe that I used to measure the ambient, but it says that the current ambient temperature is 25-26C.

That's around 80°F which isn't too hot at all. My ambient temps are in the 90-95°F range everyday from June to October and my system temps don't come close to being as hot as yours.

You do have a lot of stuff in that case though so I'm not too surprised at your temps. Dual CPU's plus all those HDD's plus the sideways drive bays that reduce intake airflow plus the (sorry

) messy wiring are all working together to give you high temps.

It looks to me like you don't have a lot of options as long as you keep using your current hardware. My only constructive suggestion would be to clean up the cables and maybe install a quiet fan in front of your drives. A 3700AMB, with it's better front airflow might help a bit, but the bottom line is that you have a lot of heat-producing stuff inside your case and you need enough ventilation (fannage) to remove that heat from the case.

Uberman1080 · Post by **Uberman1080** » Mon May 10, 2004 6:44 am

Well, personally i think everyones on the right track with the wiring issue. but there is more that can be done. Its just a slightly different idea. Surface aerea is your friend in order to cool down things that are hot, and i dont really know with dual athlons, but i know with a prescott my mosfets get damm hot, mabye with a heatsink on 'em it might help reduce the case temp a little bit....also a low voltage front mounted case fan isnt a bad idea, mabye a PSU duct? Also if your really desperate you can remove the fanmates, itll give your fans an extra volt but itll add more than a db.

i guess in the end just try things out, somthings bound to work. but fix the wiring, its worth th effort, you dont have to go as extreme as ralf

are they MP or XP athlons?? because if theyre MP's your safe to 90C and there 60W units max. But if theyre XP's your only safe to 85C and there 68.3W max - also shouldnt they be at 1.65V ?
but no matter what your case will be hotter than 99% of others simply because your running 2 pretty hot processors and a hot gfx card with alot of drives

just one last thought, whats between the heatsinks and the cpus and if its generic how long ago was it put there? generic goop can go really bad over time.

and thats all i can think of, for now. silence must be preserved. Sorry for the terrible grammer but its 3am and ive been driving for like 9 hours today.

PS try more tape, mabye the rear holes need some work too, to make sure all the air goes where you want.

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Mon May 10, 2004 7:03 am

First of all, I have an ambient of 26-27C constantly and run a Barton 2500+ with a Radeon 9700 + 2 seagate 120. Even though that's less than what you have there, my CPU runs @ 46C folding.

A few things that come to mind and some suggestions:

1. Sleeve your cables. The main harness, the HDD power cables, the 12V line, the works. It's not for looks, 4 wires make for messy turbulance and heat pockets, plus routes better and duct tape has an easier time keeping things in place.

2. Do better cable routing. It seems you can route the main ATX and the 12V lines above and behind the 120mm fan. Run your 4pin lines in two sets (2 sets should be enough from what I could see) and as behind the floppy and HDD casing as possible. Use zip ties and duct tape to keep things where you want them

3. Reverse the setting of your HDDs. That will give you an installation PITA but will keep the cables out of the way.

4. Try ACVS. I know you said you can't use it but I dont understand why. The X1 is just a regular Radeon 9x00 with a different BIOS so it should theoretically fit. If you mean the back bracket, then see #8. That's going to do wonders to your case temps.

5. Reapply Arctic Silver. Those CPU temps are too high to be normal. AS settles in about 200 hours with up to 4C drop over this time, so factor that in too.

6. Get some fresh air. All your cool air is first going through 4 hot drives then a hot GFX then a hot NB before it gets to your CPUS. By that time it's already too hot to cool. Side panel ducts maybe?

7. Use a PSU duct. You're drawing a LOT of power from that PSU so THAT's going to get hot too.

8. Change your HS. Those fins are vertical. That means all air blowing into them has only so much room to get out. for example, one of them blows half the air onto the GFX, which is already hot and way too close. Try something with horizontal fins.

9. A really expensive and problematic suggestion: Move your HDDs to another case and put that in another room, connect over LAN (gigabit if you prefer) It'll both keep incoming temps down and tremendusly lower the power draw on your PSU (this is a very unscientific observation but PSUs seem to run unproportionally hot with two drives installed instead of one and you have 4)

This is how MY case looks like. And I keep the fan behind the HDDs turned off because it RAISES temps. http://www.burcakbaskan.com/albums/PCMods/index.htm

Side note: the case temp reading on my DFI LP Ultra B is on the southbridge and that's a VERY hot chip and probably secured with a lousy thermal material; take a small fan and try it on different chips on the mobo. Maybe your case temps are being measured by a chip that has hot air blown onto it.

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Mon May 10, 2004 7:16 am

I'll try and fix up the messy wiring when I get back home from work. The trouble is that I have no idea how to route the wiring a la Cablegami-style, especially given where the ATX connectors are.

To answer questions:

Bluefront wrote:Does the CPU temp drop with the case open?

Yes, it does. By about 4 degrees. The case temp, however, did not drop this morning. I'll check again this evening to reconfirm that. Removing the front bezel to take that picture DID reduce Case temps though.

Uberman1080 wrote:are they MP or XP athlons?

They're XPs that I moddified to be MPs. And I'm undervolting them by 0.05 V in a fleeting attempt to reduce their heat output. I don't think it makes much difference, but they're the lowest I can undervolt them and still make them remain stable.

Uberman1080 wrote:What's between the heatsinks and the cpus and if its generic how long ago was it put there?

Artic Silver Ceramique. Installed several months ago. Since I'll essentially be taking the system apart and putting it back together, I'll try reapplying the stuff with techniques I've learned since then and see if it works.

Other answers. I pulled the 92mm Zalman from the front when I flipped the voltage of the 120mm fan. I try to practice what I preach in that a front fan does not help at all. This is just as good a time as any to see if it makes a difference.

I didn't think a PSU duct would be terribly helpful in that I thought it was designed to keep the PSU cool and quiet. Since it isn't a major source of noise, I haven't approached it yet. I haven't seen any elegant ducting solutions that didn't require some major case modding, but I think that this is no longer the time to worry about elegance.

I'll respond to burcakb in the next post.

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Mon May 10, 2004 7:40 am

Looking at your config, methinks you'll be doing major 3D work. You would have one array to safety the data, the other to improve the speed of your virtual memory. It might be a better idea to invest in some major memory upgrades and get rid of the scratchdisk array. It'll improve your performance and drop your temps. Then again, registered mem is expensive......

flyingsherpa · Post by **flyingsherpa** » Mon May 10, 2004 7:40 am

slightly pricey, but you could replace those athlons with mobile ones (last i checked about $77 each at newegg for XP-M 2400+), these have a max output of 45W. that could reduce your peak CPU dissipation by around 20W * 2 = 40W. you can always sell your old CPUs on ebay so the overall cost would be much lower.

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Mon May 10, 2004 7:51 am

burcakb wrote:First of all, I have an ambient of 26-27C constantly and run a Barton 2500+ with a Radeon 9700 + 2 seagate 120. Even though that's less than what you have there, my CPU runs @ 46C folding.

Very few people have as big a heat producer as I do. I'm well aware of this. Unfortunately, I have some serious hardware problems that prevent me from using the best cooling hardware. I'll discuss this at the end.

1. I just received sleeving stuff this past weekend and I was going to install it when I got the chance. Since I have to pull nearly everything out anyways, I'll give it a shot. The Mainboard connectors (the 20-pin, 6-pin and 4-pin) look very tricky. As do the floppy connectors. Any advice on how to tackle them? I don't think I'm even going to bother with the SATA connectors since I don't have an SATA drive.
2. I'm going to be looking into that this evening. The trouble is that I have 7 devices that use the hard drive connector and 2 devices that use the floppy connector (4 HD, 1 DVD, 1 Fan w/ HD-style connector, 1 Fan connected to a Zalman Multiconnector, 1 Floppy and 1 Videocard).
3. I will tackle this as well.
4. The back bracket is exactly what I'm talking about, and I'll address #8 as well.
5. I plan on doing this as well.
6. To be honest, I don't think the drives are running that hot. They're barely warm to the touch, and I think THAT is due to the case heat. I relocated the Cuda V drives to the bottom of the case (instead of in their sled). They still sit on Sorbothane. The other question is, where am I going to get some fresh air to the SYSTEM?
7. I will look into this, but I'm skeptical of it's effectiveness.
8. With what? I don't have mounting holes around the socket. I considered briefly getting the SLK-800U, but they require mounting holes (just like damn near every other heatsink). I HAVE given some thought about purchasing 2 Nexus AXP-3200s. I don't know if that's a step up or not.
9. I WILL be doing this in the long term. I have a Linux box that will eventually be my personal file server. But for now, the Linux box is also acting as my router, so I'm reluctant to bring it down for any lengthy period of time.

Also, I can personally testify that a drive has very little effect on the power draw of a computer except on boot up.

burcakb wrote:Side note: the case temp reading on my DFI LP Ultra B is on the southbridge and that's a VERY hot chip and probably secured with a lousy thermal material; take a small fan and try it on different chips on the mobo. Maybe your case temps are being measured by a chip that has hot air blown onto it.

This is a distinct possibility. Though when I probed the NB heatsink, the temperature was very close the case temperature reported by MBM5.

As I've mentioned before, I don't have Heatsink mounting holes in my motherboard. This alone limits the variety of heatsinks that I can use. One thing that I do have on my motherboard is potential places for mounting holes. All the places where the WOULD be a hole looks like a hole that has been soldered in. I have given some thought as to desoldering or drilling these pseudo-holes, but I don't want to destroy my motherboard. Has anyone heard any success or failure stories about people putting holes in their MB?

MonsterMac · Post by **MonsterMac** » Mon May 10, 2004 8:15 am

cleaning up cabling really does help case temperature. i helped my friend clean up his cables in a single processor system (xp2600+) and his case temperature dropped 5C, and thats with only two 80mm case fans instead of the four he had in there before. hide the cables out of the way of the airflwo and add in a 120mm fan and cut those grills! you will see a huge difference, i gaurentee.

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Mon May 10, 2004 8:22 am

burcakb wrote:Looking at your config, methinks you'll be doing major 3D work. You would have one array to safety the data, the other to improve the speed of your virtual memory. It might be a better idea to invest in some major memory upgrades and get rid of the scratchdisk array. It'll improve your performance and drop your temps. Then again, registered mem is expensive......

Actually, the major brunt of the work that I do with this machine is A/V encoding, but I put together the parts so that I could do anything and everything with this machine and not have to worry about performance penalties. And indeed I think there is very little I cannot do at this point (except run silently). At one point, back when I had an SB Live! in there, my roommate had actually used my computer to make a long distance phone call via the Internet (since I'm also an amature musician with a couple different microphones lying around). Regretfully, it also serves my music to my HTPC better than my Linux box does (but only because I can't take the time to fool around with the Linux box).

You also have to keep in mind that much of what I have, is at least a year or two old. Back then, there was no Hyperthreading, so if you ran a computationally intense program or two, your system would slow down to a crawl when using it. Since I don't like to take a performance hit on anything, I figured duallie was the way to go.
The Raid-0 array came about when I discovered that 2 120GB drives were cheaper than 1 250GB drive (again, at the time). And I figured that Raid-0 would give me better performance than JBOD (and probably just as much security, though I never found out on that).

The FireGL is because I'd like to move my dual CRT display to a dual LCD display while simeoultaneously improving 3D gaming support leaps and bounds over the Matrox G400. Anyone who's worked with a dual-display setup can tell you that it's really nice and that it feels constraining to go back to a single display. And I preferred an ATI solution over an nVidia solution, especially with the whole Half-life 2 debacle. It's a long and drawn out transition, because I'm not ridiculously rich. But I was able to pick up the FireGL on eBay for an amazing price. In about 5 paychecks or so, I'll be able to afford a second LCD display.

flyingsherpa wrote:slightly pricey, but you could replace those athlons with mobile ones (last i checked about $77 each at newegg for XP-M 2400+), these have a max output of 45W. that could reduce your peak CPU dissipation by around 20W * 2 = 40W. you can always sell your old CPUs on ebay so the overall cost would be much lower.

Again, I considered this, but I was concerned that it wouldn't work in my system. I had read that the mobiles might not work as well in older systems. Can anyone tell me if that's true or not?

Thanks,

dasman · Post by **dasman** » Mon May 10, 2004 8:39 am

sthayashi wrote: 6. To be honest, I don't think the drives are running that hot. They're barely warm to the touch, and I think THAT is due to the case heat. I relocated the Cuda V drives to the bottom of the case (instead of in their sled).

While my mobo/cpu is different, we have (well, had) a similar system. While I didn't do it in an attempt to cool down the system itself (I was more worried about the RAID), I recently pulled my raid. Stuck it in an old P3 tower (from parts) and located it down in my basement where it's cooler. Now I have a single 120 samsung and connect to the RAID with a gigabit lan.

The changes to my case and cpu temps have been neglible -- maybe 1-2 degrees (although the ambient is a little higher now...).

Dave

burcakb · Post by **burcakb** » Mon May 10, 2004 8:45 am

A really strange idea:

Use wires and duct tape to create two funnels that come together at the 120mm fan. Reverse and slow the 120mm. That'll get cool air blowing right into your HSFs. You'll have to rely on and speed up your PSU to evacuate the heat. But you should find a full speed 80mm quieter than a full speed 120 ??

Just maybe and very getto....

Also with this way you could try HSs with less performance but horizontal fins that doesn't require mounting holes. That should give you enough room for the ACVS.

This is an idea i've been playing around for some time for Wotan in my sig. That case has two 80mm. I was thinking of using a stock AMD 60mm sink and a direct duct to one of the 80mm fans (somewhat like the duct/HS arrangement of Dell PCs) and use the other 80mm for exhaust.

AndyP · Post by **AndyP** » Mon May 10, 2004 8:57 am

cmcquistion has written a number of excellent posts on dualie's at http://www.ocforums.com. The link below has some interesting pictures of a modded CompuCase LX-6A19. The main thing he did, which I think is very appropriate for your problem is to massively increase the front ventilation on this case. With all the heat you have generated in your case you want mucho airflow and the increase in noise from having such an open front bezel probably won't be that significant for you in comparison to the reduction in fan noise you want to make and still retain good airflow.

Also I think removing the side mounted hard drive bays, and mounting them normally, combined with some uber neat cablegami (a la Ralph) with good ol ribbon cables could make a big difference.

Sleeving cables is a good idea, but a bit of a pain - easy enough for standard molexs, alot of a pain for the 20 pin cable. Spiral wrap is ugly but easier. Tommy tape is an interesting alternative, very easy to use, and helps with tidying lots of cables because you can stick them together (tommy tape sticks to tommy tape and nothing else!) http://www.tommytape.com/default.htm

There is a really cheesy video guide to doing cable sleeving at
http://www.3dgameman.com/vr/vantec/cabl ... ew_03.html. The site is uukkie, but the videos are quite useful

Finally you might consider putting your case on castors, this would keep the case higher of the ground and further away from dust. You might then be able to do bottom case venting if you needed

Good luck

Andy P

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php? ... genumber=3

Post by **MikeC** » Mon May 10, 2004 9:41 am

AndyP wrote:...massively increase the front ventilation on this case. With all the heat you have generated in your case you want mucho airflow and the increase in noise from having such an open front bezel probably won't be that significant for you in comparison to the reduction in fan noise you want to make and still retain good airflow.

I agree. Try this simple trick:

Open up the 2 bottom CD drive bay covers so that there is a clear airflow path to the CPU area. Create a simple duct, maybe, with something stiff like closed cell foam sheeting, or even card stock, to guide the air to the area. You might even try an 80mm intake fan in there, decoupled in foam or with elastic. The other alternative is a side cover hole... but that's not reversible.

Pigpen · Post by **Pigpen** » Mon May 10, 2004 10:50 am

sthayashi wrote:I have given some thought as to desoldering or drilling these pseudo-holes, but I don't want to destroy my motherboard. Has anyone heard any success or failure stories about people putting holes in their MB?

Drilling out those holes would probably destroy your board. Those holes are actually connections that pass through the layers of the board making the necessary connections to the different layers. Much the same way that a staircase gives access to each floor of a building.

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Mon May 10, 2004 10:51 am

burcakb, that sounds like an interesting and almost clever idea. However it also sounds like a massive PITA

AndyP, HOLY CRAP is the 3dgameman video a difficult watch. It IS useful though, except that I don't think I'll be able to sleeve the ATX connectors easily (unless I get the damn $25 tool). I'm certain that I'll need to cut open the fan grills, that's for sure (even though I didn't think they were that restrictive). What concerns me more is that I suspect I'll have to mod the front bezel. That's NOT going to be fun, since I got this case for its looks and my mods don't always look pretty. I'm reluctant to remove the sideways cage since that's a permanent mod (and an inconvenience), but I realize that it's seriously impeding airflow and it may have to go. That will definitely have to wait until I can come up with a way to mount the drives (i.e. until I can find time to go to Michael's or some other crafts store, which sure as hell won't be tonight given all my modding plans).

Also, my computer IS off the ground by a couple inches. It sits on a small riser that comes with my desk whose sole purpose in life is to support my computer.

MikeC, I was thinking about doing the exact opposite in order to get a duct for the PSU. Which one should I do?

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Mon May 10, 2004 10:53 am

Pigpen wrote:
sthayashi wrote:I have given some thought as to desoldering or drilling these pseudo-holes, but I don't want to destroy my motherboard. Has anyone heard any success or failure stories about people putting holes in their MB?
Drilling out those holes would probably destroy your board. Those holes are actually connections that pass through the layers of the board making the necessary connections to the different layers. Much the same way that a staircase gives access to each floor of a building.

I know that is the case with smaller real holes on other kinds of PCB. Is that the case for a 1/4"-3/8" solidified pseudo-hole? I'll try and take a picture of it when I reseat the HS.

Pigpen · Post by **Pigpen** » Mon May 10, 2004 11:11 am

Without actually seeing the holes, my thought would be that the larger ones (the size of the MB mounting screw holes) could possibly be opened, drilling is out of the question! Desoldering is a safer approach because it gives you a chance to repair a possible boo boo.
Look at the solder filling the hole if the hole was originally open the solder would have a dip in it (below the surface of the mobo, concave) if it is flat or level with the board or has a lump there is something under there and shouldnt be messed with.

This is a risky approach to your problem me thinks, cablegami and opening up ventilation would be a safer bet. Personally I wouldnt mess with the board unless it was an absolute last resort.

Post by **MikeC** » Mon May 10, 2004 11:24 am

MikeC, I was thinking about doing the exact opposite in order to get a duct for the PSU. Which one should I do?

What's to stop you from doing both? You'd have 2 cooling zones with straight-through airflow. Remove a few PCI slot covers, and you could have 3 -- one for the PSU, one for CPU/GPU, another for HDD/GPU.

Pigpen · Post by **Pigpen** » Mon May 10, 2004 11:33 am

sthayashi, your first post gave the biggest clues.
1.changing cpu fans from L1's to M1's didnt help much.
2.cranking up rear fan to 12v did help.

3.Bluefront's ques of opening side cover did help.
4.removing front cover for pics did help.

It would seem that the prob is clearly in not having enough CFM through the case. Keep in mind that the case was originally designed for one cpu and a couple drives, you have twice that in there.

In addition to taping up a bunch of holes.

HammerSandwich · Post by **HammerSandwich** » Mon May 10, 2004 11:33 am

Filtered bottom intake a la Bluefront?

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Mon May 10, 2004 11:58 am

MikeC wrote:
MikeC, I was thinking about doing the exact opposite in order to get a duct for the PSU. Which one should I do?
What's to stop you from doing both? You'd have 2 cooling zones with straight-through airflow. Remove a few PCI slot covers, and you could have 3 -- one for the PSU, one for CPU/GPU, another for HDD/GPU.

Why does that sound like the craziest solution yet? I'm going to end up turning the front of my computer into Swiss cheese with all the airflow paths going on. I'll give it a shot. I don't think I'm going to have time this evening to try out all these ideas, let alone find out which one works.

I'm also going to have to try and find a bunch of filters.

I have succeeded in silencing my machine. Thanks all

I have succeeded in silencing my machine. Thanks all

Re: Sorry guys, I have to violate the SPCR principles