Finished my Antec P150 build, with spcr duct mod *56k AVOID*

Sejin · Post by **Sejin** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 11:00 pm

Well I finally caved in and bought an Antec P150 once I heard that the local NCIX Burnaby had just received their stock of fixed NeoHE's. At this time I decided to do the Nexus fan swap to my Zalman 7700Cu and upgrade my rev1 NV Silencer to the better rev3. Here is my system after transferring my components into the Antec P150.

Intel P4 3.4C @ 3.6Ghz
2GB Samsung Ram (4x512MB) **replacing w/ 2x1GB kit soon**
Gigabyte 8I875-Ultra Motherboard
2x 160gb Seagate 7200.7 SATA Hard drives
BFG 6800GT 256MB AGP @ Stock
Creative SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS 7.1
Pioneer DVR-108 DVDRW
--------------------------------------------------
Zalman 7700Cu w/ 120mm Nexus @ 10v
1x 120mm Antec Tricool Exhaust @ Low
2x 92mm Nexus Intake @ 6v
Arctic Cooling NV5 Silencer Rev3
Zalman Northbridge Heatsink

While that setup worked very well, once I saw that SPCR article for the PC being sent to Thailand I had to duct my power supply, even aesthetically I think the vent in the front looks pleasing. At this time I chose to purchase my honeycomb 20guage mesh from CrazyPC since their shipping prices fell within the realm of reason. While at their site I noticed how cheap the Scythe Ninja was and it reminded me that my Zalman was touching the power supply forcing me to leave the bottom two screws mounting the psu out. This started bothering me so I purchased the Ninja also. Since my 120mm nexus was chopped to bits for the Zalman I decided to leave it where it was and put that heatsink into my HTPC(replaced stock 7000A-Cu), and to just buy some YateLoon low speed fans which I obtained from a forum member here J-Mag for a great price especially considering my options since I live in Canada.

Here are some photos of the duct and the completed computer.

The total time spent replacing the heatsink, making and installing the duct and vent grill took approximately 1-1.5hours. The system is definitely quieter and a lot more efficient in terms of cooling. Please excuse the rats nest of cables behind the case, I've come to accept that keeping them organized is a futile endeavor. The piece of MDF the case is sitting on is there to free up the bottom intake on the front of the case and to make it easier to slide out the case to work on.

Scythe Ninja w/ Yate Loon D12SL-12 @ 6v
Artic Silver 5 Thermal Paste
1x 120mm Antec Tricool Exhaust @ Low
2x 92mm Nexus Intake @ 6v
Arctic Cooling NV5 Silencer Rev3
Zalman Northbridge Heatsink

Zalman 7700Cu-Nexus/No Duct

Room Temp: 20.5C
Idle Temp: 31.0C
Load Temp: 54.0C

Scythe Ninja-YateLoon/Duct

Room Temp: 20.5C
Idle Temp: 29.0C
Load Temp: 45.0C

However with the increase in cooling and silence I now notice my two hard drives and video card a lot more. I am very likely to replace my two drives with a single 400gb very soon, but the video card is another problem, my attempts to control the fan speed with Riva Tuner did not seem to work since I noticed no change in noise or increase in temperature after following a guide found in these forums.

If anyone has any suggestions regarding my video card fan speed problems let me know, or any other input you may have would also be appreciated.

Also I would like to say my experience with the Antec P150 and the NeoHE psu has been excellent despite the torn warranty sticker issue which was quickly resolved by Antec and NCIX to my satisfaction. The powersupply is completely stable with Rthrbl(auto transitions off) and 2x Prime95 running together for 24hours straight.

Sejin

liquid_celica · Post by **liquid_celica** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 11:56 pm

nice setup!

looks simple and clean. good ducting.

hey!! i have those same koss headphones...in fact, im wearing the right now. hahaha...they're 6 years old.

Gxcad · Post by **Gxcad** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 12:21 am

Was the mesh and front top drive bays really necessary? I mean you could just leave them open and get air from the side, preserving the clean look no? You mentioned you actually liked the mesh so I guess thats ok, but I'm curious; shouldn't there be air going in from the side intakes even with no mod to the front? I've always thought one of the strengths aesthetically of both the P180 and P150 was the clean simple look.

-Ken

Sejin · Post by **Sejin** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 12:31 am

I suppose the standard intakes could be used, but this couldnt hurt, also its still very clean looking, one thing that I've noticed in the photo's is that the filter material sparkles (likely cause of the flash) making it look a lot more flashy than it really is.

Also I think it really comes down to, "whatever floats your boat".

Sejin

sanse · Post by **sanse** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:40 am

Sejin wrote:If anyone has any suggestions regarding my video card fan speed problems let me know, or any other input you may have would also be appreciated.

nice build. that p150 is a nice case.

about your videocard: maybe you can do something with the program nbitor. it's a bios-editor and maybe your bios has options for defining fan-speeds for the different modes the card can work in. like 25% fan-speed for 2d-work and 100% for 3d-gamework.

this should be possible in rivatuner too btw.

i managed to switch on temperature-sensing in my geforce 6600 with that program. had to extract a copy of the bios with nvflash, hack the bios with nbitor and than reflash with nvflash.

you can find this software on guru3d.com.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 4:50 am

Was the mesh and front top drive bays really necessary? I mean you could just leave them open and get air from the side, preserving the clean look no?

IMO blanking plates are so boring, that honeycomb mesh + filter foam looks awesome, I bet his is the only P150 with that particular grill shape (the original Thailand PC had a slightly different grill).

Congrats on a terrific build. By the way, what is the duct actually made of? Is it foamboard like Mike used in the Thailand PC?

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 5:01 am

Oooh pwetty. Very tempting to get the P150 as well.... Verrry...

moritz · Post by **moritz** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 5:19 am

Very nice. Please get rid of the floppy, though.

JimX · Post by **JimX** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 5:23 am

Or just paint it white!

epiphane · Post by **epiphane** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:29 pm

like the look of that grill...neat interior wires also.

agree w/ the above posters though...ya gotta blend that floppy in.

Cheers

Sejin · Post by **Sejin** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 3:58 pm

Thanks for all the input guys.

Jaganath - The duct is made from foam board similar to the one used in the Thailand build, I picked it up at a Grand & Toy store for around $5 canadian (the board is big enough to make 2 of these ducts, maybe 3).

Moritz - A USB floppy drive has already been ordered, once it arrives I will be yanking the one installed in the case immediately. (some instructors still insist on using floppys)

Sanse - Thanks for the info, I will definately try those settings/tools out, I dont care how noisy my video card is when I am playing a game cause the speakers/headphones will be louder, so the 25% 2d and 100% 3d would be perfect.

Well Im off for awhile, have to pick up Command & Conquer: The First Decade, came out today, woot!

Sejin

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 4:22 pm

I am curious, how did you mount the front Nexus fans? I mean, did you use Directron rubber sticks, Fan Isolators from Silicon Acoustics, or some other method?

Also, how would you translate the 6V into rpm speed?

Sejin · Post by **Sejin** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 5:05 pm

JVM wrote:I am curious, how did you mount the front Nexus fans? I mean, did you use Directron rubber sticks, Fan Isolators from Silicon Acoustics, or some other method?

Also, how would you translate the 6V into rpm speed?

Well this might sound a little obsessive but I pull out my AC to DC power convertor and set it to 12volt output, I then plug in my fanmate 2 controllers into it. Then I hook up a multimeter to the output end of the fanmate 2 and adjust the fanmate till the multimeter reads ~6 - 6.1volts. Once that has been done I install it into the case.

The rear 120mm tricool has been mounted using the silicon screws that came with an 80mm silenx fan I bought (crap, ticks like mad), for the front two 92mm nexus fans I purchased some E.A.R rubber screws to hold them into place, while they have to be the worst rubber screws EVER when it comes to installation, they do the job, however the ones that came with the silenx fan are 1000000x times better. I will likely replace the E.A.R rubber isolation screws with some Acousti... fan dampening kits I've seen mentioned here.

Sejin

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 6:14 pm

Which one of these do you plan to get:

http://www.quietpc.com/uk/casefansacc.php#gaskets

http://www.quietpc.com/uk/casefansacc.php#afm02b

Krazy Kommando · Post by **Krazy Kommando** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 7:25 pm

nice case!

Sejin · Post by **Sejin** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 9:55 pm

JVM wrote:Which one of these do you plan to get:

http://www.quietpc.com/uk/casefansacc.php#gaskets

http://www.quietpc.com/uk/casefansacc.php#afm02b

I was planning on getting 2 of the 92mm and 1 of the 120mm of those gaskets, black or clear doesnt really matter since you cannot see them.

So far the problem has been finding somewhere to purchase them locally, or at least inside of Canada.

Sejin

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 10:18 pm

Sejin wrote:
JVM wrote:Which one of these do you plan to get:

http://www.quietpc.com/uk/casefansacc.php#gaskets

http://www.quietpc.com/uk/casefansacc.php#afm02b

I was planning on getting 2 of the 92mm and 1 of the 120mm of those gaskets, black or clear doesnt really matter since you cannot see them.

So far the problem has been finding somewhere to purchase them locally, or at least inside of Canada.

Sejin

I read a review here somewhere that said Ultra Soft thingies were better at reducing noise. I mean these things:

http://www.quietpc.com/uk/casefansacc.php#afm02b

JVM · Post by **JVM** » Wed Feb 08, 2006 10:21 pm

Here's the review:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article262-page1.html

matva · Post by **matva** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 2:11 pm

nice case... what are your observations on temps with and w/o the duct?

HiFi · Post by **HiFi** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 10:20 pm

the duct idea is interesting...but doesnt it make more noise escape from the system?

Tephras · Post by **Tephras** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 11:12 pm

If any noise escapes it's from the PSU, however, since the air the PSU gets has a relatively low temperature the temp-controlled fan will run quite slow and not make much noise. To reduce the risk of noise escaping through the duct a couple of noise barriers could be added - it was discussed in Lillas PSU intake thread.

HiFi · Post by **HiFi** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 9:52 pm

Hey in the picture, is that audio wire going to your soundcard for the front audio ports? i was wondering where to put that audio wire.

diver · Post by **diver** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 8:15 am

Nice build.

It never ceases to amaze me how much more difficult it is to cool an Intel processor than an AMD. However, ingenuity and a Ninja come to the rescue.

patord · Post by **patord** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 6:43 pm

Keep the floppy as is. I think it gives the case a sexy retro look

Old Skool style!

I still have floppies in all my Antec cases.. more for practicality (testing purposes, etc) then looks at this point for me.

Mike_P · Post by **Mike_P** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 6:06 am

I have two suggestions for you regarding the video card noise.

#1

Leave the NV Rev.3 as is but use Riva tuner to slow the fan speed during 2d and low power 3d. then crank it to like 85% for 3d high power. I found (with my 6600gt stock fan) if i set it to 95% the sound was way way better.

#2 (what i did)

Replace the heatsink w/ a VF700Cu and a fanmate. turning the stock zalman fan @ 1,500rpm (about 7v?) it doesnt become the loudest thing in the computer. I have the fanmate mounted backwards to yours protruding the little dial out the back honeycomb for easy adjustment if needed. As a safe guard i have Riva Tuner displaying the GPU temp in an OSD in any d3d or openGL use. Using ATiTool to stress the card (artifact test) it got up to 58c and stabalized. I've seen this temp go up to over 80c w/ the stock cooler, which im sure wasnt seated right from the factory) so I'm happy w/ 58.

oh.. i also have a p150, 3.0E, antec NeoHE 430, oem intel HSF (next to be replaced).

hope that helps.

oh.. and when u get that 400gb monster, keep me in mind for the 160's!

xinzhitan14 · Post by **xinzhitan14** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 7:00 am

hey nice job on the zalman 7700 mod. can you show us how you did it?? i want to know because my 7000 is squeeking a bit. thnks

Mike_P · Post by **Mike_P** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:16 pm

HiFi wrote:Hey in the picture, is that audio wire going to your soundcard for the front audio ports? i was wondering where to put that audio wire.

firewire going to Audigy2 ZS is my guess

Trunks · Post by **Trunks** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:27 pm

Mike_P wrote:
HiFi wrote:Hey in the picture, is that audio wire going to your soundcard for the front audio ports? i was wondering where to put that audio wire.
firewire going to Audigy2 ZS is my guess

I think HIFI is asking how to hide that wire.

DonQ · Post by **DonQ** » Sun May 21, 2006 2:29 pm

Hey, you inspired me to buy a P150 and duct the power supply. I cut a rectangular hole on the bottom of the duct in front (not top) of the CPU fan because I thought my Athlon XP-M was getting too warm. My CPU temps dropped 2 to 3 degrees Celsius and that doesn't seem to affect the PSU any. Does your PSU fan click at very slow speeds?

Finished my Antec P150 build, with spcr duct mod 56k AVOID

Finished my Antec P150 build, with spcr duct mod 56k AVOID

Re: Finished my Antec P150 build, with spcr duct mod *56k AV

video card solution!!

Re: Finished my Antec P150 build, with spcr duct mod *56k AV