AMD Spider setup (Phenom 9950 / Radeon HD4870 / Antec P182)

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 7:59 am

Remember when I said just a while ago that I think I'll leave the setup as it is...? Well, I didn't.

I bought some new fans and started experimenting with different fan layouts. Here's a couple of overview pics of the new fan layout.

As you can see, a few things has happened. First of all, all fans have changed (as you might have guessed), and second the bottom fan is gone (experimenting, don't know how well the 80mm fan of the PSU will cool the HDD). And third, gone is also the top HDD rack and the plastic rails that keep the rack in place.

Here's a pic of the rear fans, rear one is mounted with the silicone mounts that came with the fans, top one is mounted with the default method since it has screws only on other side while the other has L shaped brackets (didn't want to start drilling, since as I already said, I want a warranty build this time around).

And here is a pic of the front fan, mounted with the silicone mounts that came with the fans.

I can't say much about the noise (HD4870 is too noisy for ultra quiet setup), but the low humming sound that the Tricools had is now gone.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 9:08 am

Update with idle temps after a couple of hours just browsing the internet etc.

GPU a bit under 70 degrees
CPU a few degrees over 30 degrees
HDD at 35 degrees.

It seems that at least as far as HDD goes, the 80mm fan on the PC P&C is enough to keep the HDD cool

Now to test some load temps for the CPU with prime95

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 9:36 am

Nexus fans do big difference. Man that HD 4870 is running hot...

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 9:56 am

thejamppa wrote:Nexus fans do big difference. Man that HD 4870 is running hot...

Judging from what I've seen, average is around 80 degrees when idle.

And yeah, it sure does run hot, the exhaust air is very warm even at idle. That's why I'm waiting for those models with better coolers.

Update on the temps, it has been running Prime95 for some time now (an hour maybe?), CPU has peaked at 60 degrees, currently 57 degrees. Not bad considering what CPU that is.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:54 am

ryboto wrote:I'm curious of the power that your system requires...you don't happen to have a power meter handy do you? Just curious what idle/load power draw is.

Finally some numbers for this, although they are with a cheap meter so they might be off a bit, but still... around 350 watts from the wall under full load. About 180 watts when idle.

nici · Post by **nici** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 2:40 pm

Clean, your setup is.

The cooler on that C3D 4870 seems to be a ZEROtherm, not listed on their website however. Looks similar to the Zalman VF/GV1000 apart from the plastic shroud and the fan not being "in" the heatsink.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 8:08 pm

nici wrote:Clean, your setup is.

The cooler on that C3D 4870 seems to be a ZEROtherm, not listed on their website however. Looks similar to the Zalman VF/GV1000 apart from the plastic shroud and the fan not being "in" the heatsink.

Thank you! It is quite similar to the Zalman, I agree. There have come quite a few models with alternate cooling already, I'll keep tracking those and make a decision about swapping (or not) the card a bit later.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Wed Aug 20, 2008 9:16 pm

Here is a screenshot of 45 mins of prime95 / small FFTs stress testing.

nici · Post by **nici** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 12:52 pm

I have a Gainward HD4870 with the stock cooler, but i haven't used it yet as im still waiting for my case to arrive. So im thinking should i keep it and change the cooler, or sell it NIB for maybe a 20â‚¬ loss and get the Club3D OC edition for about 20â‚¬ more than what i paid for this, making my loss in changing the card about 40â‚¬ plus a lot of hassle.

Still a bit cheaper than getting a VF1000, or more likely the HR03GT. On the other hand 20â‚¬ more expensive than buying an Accelero S1 for the card i have.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:33 am

Installed a bit more RAM to suit the current level of load the setup is experiencing.

There is also a drawback in the load as the setup is also experiencing quite a bit of heat now very often, so I raised the case fan rpms a bit. The front intake fan is at 900rpm now, exhaust fans at 800rpm and CPU fan at 950rpm. A bit more noise but to be honest, with the HD4870 making a bit noise it really does not matter. Seriously considering getting rid of the HD4870 and getting a much cooler HD3870 (again) to replace it.

that Linux guy · Post by **that Linux guy** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 6:08 am

Here's my idea for cooling the the HD4870 better. Until the Thermalright Trad2 comes out (hopefully soon), you're best bet right now is the Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev. 2. I wouldn't run it passive on these new HD4xxx cards, as they're already idling as high as 75C+.

However, instead of those dinky "Turbo" fans AC tries to sell with the Accelero, You could get yourself some of Scythe Kaze-Jyu slim fans (120mm x 12mm). I forget the CFM ratings, but they come in 1000rpm and 2000rpm variations, and I know the former sports a supposed 14DBa. While I've seen lots of people simply strapping a 12cm fan on an Accelero, you could get a couple of these 1000 rpm slim fans, zip-tie them to the cooler, and undervolt them if you want.

With a slimmer fan, your card will become a 3-slot cooler, but with a standard 12cm fan, you render it just barely a 4-slotter. I plan to do this when i pick up my HD4850, but I just thought I'd share it with you.

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 11:02 am

Unfortunately Kaze-Jyu Slims are unavailebkle in Finland as we speak.

i have S-flex 800 on HD 4850 and S1 combo, it takes about 3 slots. 4th one is usable.. I got that... monster combo on GA-P35-DS3L

lowpowercomputing · Post by **lowpowercomputing** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 1:11 pm

Suosaaski wrote:Installed a bit more RAM to suit the current level of load the setup is experiencing.

I hope you don't mind me asking, but is that Virtual Server 2005? And is this more a server instead of just a workstation? I guess you're running Windows Server 2003.

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 1:45 am

lowpowercomputing wrote:
Suosaaski wrote:Installed a bit more RAM to suit the current level of load the setup is experiencing.
I hope you don't mind me asking, but is that Virtual Server 2005? And is this more a server instead of just a workstation? I guess you're running Windows Server 2003.

Yes, you are right, it is Virtual Server 2005 (R2 SP1 to be accurate). Depends on the day really, mostly I use it as a server but sometimes for gaming (hence the HD4870). I use VS2005 for testing different environments that run a few servers/clients within.

And yes, the operating system is Windows Server 2003.

peerke · Post by **peerke** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 1:55 am

With 8 Gig of memory do you need to use 64 bit OS?

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 2:31 am

peerke wrote:With 8 Gig of memory do you need to use 64 bit OS?

The OS is 32-bit. I don't have a license for 64-bit Server 2003.

Some 32-bit server versions support more than 4GB of RAM (some up to 64GB).

Nick Geraedts · Post by **Nick Geraedts** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 2:10 pm

Suosaaski wrote:Some 32-bit server versions support more than 4GB of RAM (some up to 64GB).

While this is true, there are still severe limitations to what programs you can run, and which ones can make use of the full memory space (they have to be compiled with special options).

Suosaaski · Post by **Suosaaski** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 8:48 pm

Nick Geraedts wrote:
Suosaaski wrote:Some 32-bit server versions support more than 4GB of RAM (some up to 64GB).
While this is true, there are still severe limitations to what programs you can run, and which ones can make use of the full memory space (they have to be compiled with special options).

That's true, but Virtual Server 2005 R2 is one of them. And that's enough for me

There is also a slight performance hit with PAE compared to native 64-bit but that I just have to live with for now