My P180 system made of SPCR-approved parts:

agraham · Post by **agraham** » Sun May 28, 2006 9:51 pm

Case: Antec P180 (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article75-page1.html)
CPU: E-Stepping Athlon XP 3200+ (32.4 Watt TDP) (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article313-page2.html)
Mobo: ASUS A8R (http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=29036)
HS: Zalman 7700AlCu (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article30-page1.html)
HD: Samsung SpinPoint SP2504C (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article258-page4.html)
Video: Asus EN6600
PS: Antec Phantom 500 (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article28-page6.html)
Replacement case fan: Cooler Master Ultra Silent 720 RPM

Back fan is turned off and taped up.
Top fan is switched for the Cooler Master 720 as the tricools don't go low enough to be silent and don't have fan header connectors or sense lines.
HD is mounted in top section as that way I don't need to have a fan in the the lower HD/PS tunnel.

Idle temps with case and CPU fan set to inaudible levels (around 600 rpm) usually stabilize at around 36 for the CPU and mobo and 41 for HD.
Running CPUBurn takes the CPU up to 55.
I've seen a big HD copy will push the HD up to 44, but it might go higher.

Idle temps totally passive are CPU 52, MB 43, HD 49
Those are perhaps slightly high numbers for the CPU and MB, but definately a bit too hot for me with the HD, so I guess passive cooling is out.

I'm thinking of swapping the tricools back in and rigging up a two-molex-to-one-fan-header converter so I plug them both into the case fan header and tune them via SpeedFan. (The ASUS A8R only controls two fans, and one is reserved for the Zalman heatsink). I can associate the tricools to the HD temp as well as the MB temp in SpeedFan to make sure my HD is properly cooled.

I might prefer to have the HD down in the P180's HD/PS compartment, but the third fan header isn't controllable on the A8R, so I'd have to live with a fan that's either too loud or potentially too slow to cool the drive adequately during a defrag.

It would be so great if the MB came with 3 or 4 controllable headers instead of 2, but you can't have everything.

Also, the ASUS EN6600 video card doesn't have temperature monitoring. I didn't realize that. It sucks, because SpeedFan can access ASUS cards that have it and associate fan speeds with it. As it is I just have to hope I'm not overheating the card.

Comments or suggestions?

Envy007 · Post by **Envy007** » Mon May 29, 2006 2:38 am

Do you have the Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe or similar?

In the section you pointed to itÂ´s marked as SpeedFan support unknown.

Maybe you can comment on speedfan support for which headers and how the fan regulation is?
IÂ´m very curious, because iÂ´m looking at this board for my next system, but i canÂ´t find if speedfan supports it.

Besides this, a very nice build.

agraham · Post by **agraham** » Mon May 29, 2006 8:09 am

It's the ASUS A8R-MVP (not Deluxe). I didn't write that, but you can see the box in the top picture.

It has three fan headers labled Case, CPU and PS. All three can be monitored, but only the Case and CPU ones can be controlled.

You can set the Case and CPU fans to be BIOS controlled (Q-Fan) and SpeedFan can still override that and make them software controlled so that's pretty good: the Q-Fan control is actually pretty good, but I have the option to use SpeedFan, and if I install Linux I don't have to change any settings.

cmthomson · Post by **cmthomson** » Tue May 30, 2006 7:52 am

agraham wrote:I might prefer to have the HD down in the P180's HD/PS compartment, but the third fan header isn't controllable on the A8R, so I'd have to live with a fan that's either too loud or potentially too slow to cool the drive adequately during a defrag.

If you put the disks and a slow fan (like a Nexus) in the bottom chamber controlled by an NMT-3, the fan will run at <600 RPM (5V) and be silent, and the disks will stay between 32 and 36C. That's how I run my case. The NMT-3 starts the fan at 12V then ramps down after a few seconds.

EDIT: The fan also keeps the Phantom heat sink temperature below 45C. This in turn guarantees that the Phantom fan never comes on.

EvilNick · Post by **EvilNick** » Wed May 31, 2006 8:03 am

I'm not sure if this applies to the 6600, but in the case of the 6600GT, ALL of them have the temp sensor, just that some manufacturers chose to disable it in the BIOS. My Chaintech 6600GT was such a case. I followed a guide online for editing and re-flashing the BIOS using NiBiTor and successfully enabled temp monitoring on my card.

Do a Google and check if you can do the same.

tweakt · Post by **tweakt** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 5:52 am

Did you have any problems with cabling? I thought the A8R generally required cable extenders.

ShagMan · Post by **ShagMan** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 9:28 am

Looks good!

Chunk that Zalman CPU heatsink/fan and get a Scythe Ninja, the top case fan is enough to keep it cool. I keep my Newcastle 3000+ (89W TDP!) cool in this fashion (although I use top and back case fans).

Jordan · Post by **Jordan** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 10:51 am

ShagMan wrote:Looks good!

Chunk that Zalman CPU heatsink/fan and get a Scythe Ninja, the top case fan is enough to keep it cool. I keep my Newcastle 3000+ (89W TDP!) cool in this fashion (although I use top and back case fans).

I was about to suggest the same. I have a passive Scyhte Ninja in my case and run with no case fans at all, in fact the PSU fan in my Seasonic S12 is the only fan in my case.

I never have the CPU at 100% load for any length of time so CnQ does enough to keep my temps way down and steady. You could always try the Scythe fan as a case fan or try a Nexus/Yate Loon after that if you're still not happy.

I have a 3000+ too (although Venice), the TDP isn't 89W, that was for the highest CPU in that core range, which I believe was the 3700+ for S754.

My P180 system made of SPCR-approved parts:

My P180 system made of SPCR-approved parts:

Re: My P180 system made of SPCR-approved parts: