P180: Reverse rear fan for better cooling???

[Webmonkey]

Hello everybody,


I feel that the chipset heatsink on my Asus A8N32 is running a little to hot for my liking. The radiator is very close the the rear 120mm tricool fan, sucking air out.

I have considered turning the fan around, so that it instead suck air in from the outside and blowing cooler air onto the chipset radiator and CPU cooler.

With the top fan still sucking out, this should create a circulation effect, should it not???

I am interested in hearing from people who have tried this and what their results were...

[McBanjo]

You might want to create some sort of duct so the air isn't going straight from back-intake-fan to top-exhaust-fan

[Combover]

I am not sure if I would do that. You will sending warm air toward your proc.
IMHO, you would be better off trying to draw more air over the chipset and out the back. Do you run both fans at top speed? If so, that top fan might be pulling some much needed air up instead of over your chipset.

What CPU cooler are you using?

I would try to create a vaccuum of sorts, drawing as much air as possible from the front and out the back.

I modded my case a bit since my video cards were producing a ton of heat that was not leaving the case. In the P-180, that front fan in the upper bay pumps cold air in that clashes with the hot exhaust from the vid card(s). This was creating a pocket of really hot air over the chipset. I changed out the stock VGA coolers for zalmans and removed the HDD carriage in the upper section. That helped quite a bit.

Comb

[Webmonkey]

I am not sure if I would do that. You will sending warm air toward your proc.
IMHO, you would be better off trying to draw more air over the chipset and out the back. Do you run both fans at top speed? If so, that top fan might be pulling some much needed air up instead of over your chipset.

What CPU cooler are you using?

I would try to create a vaccuum of sorts, drawing as much air as possible from the front and out the back.

I modded my case a bit since my video cards were producing a ton of heat that was not leaving the case. In the P-180, that front fan in the upper bay pumps cold air in that clashes with the hot exhaust from the vid card(s). This was creating a pocket of really hot air over the chipset. I changed out the stock VGA coolers for zalmans and removed the HDD carriage in the upper section. That helped quite a bit.

Comb

all the tricools that came with my case are set for low - medium is too noisy.

I have considered getting another tricool or 18dB Papst or "9dB" Scythe for the front/upper HD chamber, to try and force more cool air into the case...


My cpu cooler is the Thermalright XP-90c with a 92mm 23dB Papst pushing about 35cfm at 12volts.



I was thinking that reversing the rear - or top fan, would blow cool air from the outside directly onto the chipset/cpu area, and then let it be sucked back out by the other fan....

[Combover]

Well, it never hurts to try Nice thing is, you won't fry anything trying whatever combo you want to.

I did have my top fan blowing cool air over my proc for a while, but noticed a slight increase in temps for all components. It was blowing the air over my proc and preventing some warm air below from getting out.

The way I understand things, it's better in most cases to have 2 fans exhaust and one intake rather than two intakes and one exhaust. I honestly don't know what the CFM is for the antec fans on low, but for testing you can try different speeds to see which provides the best results. Then find yourself some quite fans that come close to matching (hopefully at lower voltage).

Are you running SLI'd GPU's? I assume this is the same mb I have. If so, have you updated to the v 12.something BIOS? It dropped my temps (I guess there was some clock change?!?!) by like 3c. Some have seen up to a 10c drop.

Again, all this is just MHO based on my own month worth of testing.

Comb

[Webmonkey]

Well, it never hurts to try Nice thing is, you won't fry anything trying whatever combo you want to.

I did have my top fan blowing cool air over my proc for a while, but noticed a slight increase in temps for all components. It was blowing the air over my proc and preventing some warm air below from getting out.

The way I understand things, it's better in most cases to have 2 fans exhaust and one intake rather than two intakes and one exhaust. I honestly don't know what the CFM is for the antec fans on low, but for testing you can try different speeds to see which provides the best results. Then find yourself some quite fans that come close to matching (hopefully at lower voltage).

Are you running SLI'd GPU's? I assume this is the same mb I have. If so, have you updated to the v 12.something BIOS? It dropped my temps (I guess there was some clock change?!?!) by like 3c. Some have seen up to a 10c drop.

Again, all this is just MHO based on my own month worth of testing.

Comb

Ok, I will try summer holliday in a week.


No, I am not running SLI card. But I have considered getting 2 7800GS passive cards - or a 7900GT MSI passive card..... or pherhaps even a 7900GTX IF it is quiet...

[Webmonkey]

Well, it never hurts to try Nice thing is, you won't fry anything trying whatever combo you want to.
Comb

BTW - How is your X-Fi getting along with the nForce4 based A8N32? I have considered getting the cheap X-Fi, but are worried after it became know that there are some compatibility problems with nForce and X-fi....

[dexton]

all the tricools that came with my case are set for low - medium is too noisy.

I have considered getting another tricool or 18dB Papst or "9dB" Scythe for the front/upper HD chamber, to try and force more cool air into the case...

My cpu cooler is the Thermalright XP-90c with a 92mm 23dB Papst pushing about 35cfm at 12volts.

I was thinking that reversing the rear - or top fan, would blow cool air from the outside directly onto the chipset/cpu area, and then let it be sucked back out by the other fan....

Get Nexus/Yate Loons, no other fan comes close to the CFM of those. Nexuses are basically silent at 600rpm but moves a whole lot more than other fans. Ive tried Addas, Papsts, Arctic Cooling(even the new suspensioned one). The included Antec tricools are among the porest in moving air. And the 38mm("thick") one was vibrating like crazy!


The back one is set to lowest start voltage from a Fan Mate, the other 2 are temp controlled through mobo BIOS, usually running at 600-700rpm.
The back intake is now also filtered.


Johan

[Combover]

Well, it never hurts to try Nice thing is, you won't fry anything trying whatever combo you want to.
Comb

BTW - How is your X-Fi getting along with the nForce4 based A8N32? I have considered getting the cheap X-Fi, but are worried after it became know that there are some compatibility problems with nForce and X-fi....

I have one problem, when listening to audio over my speakers it occasionaly cuts out for like a second. I haven't had the time to figure out where the issue is, but it could be something with my speakers since they are old POS Cambridge Works. When I use headphones...that issue goes away.

Curse Creative for not providing a rounded cable for the drive bay controller.

Comb

[MasterWerk]

Curse Creative for not providing a rounded cable for the drive bay controller.

Comb

lol i was just cursing them today and decided to make my own. i took a regular rounded ata cable and dremel'd the covered hole out.

rounded x-fi controller in about 30 seconds.

[Edward Aschan]

Combover I'm curious about your setup. I have a similar system and I experience too high temperatures. How have you handled cooling the system?

Antec P180 w/ Antec Phantom 500W PSU
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64X2 XP4200+ w/ Zalman CNPS9500LED
Corsair TwinX 2Gb CL2 (2*CMX1024-3200C2)
ASUS GeForce 7900GT Top w/ Zalman VF900
NEC ND-4570A DVD+-RW DL
Western Digital Raptor 150Gb

Using Lavalys Everest I record the following temperatures after boot/one hour idle/ a few minutes of WOW.

MB: 39°C/47°C/50°C
CPU: 40°C/45°C/55°C
GPU: 39°C/42°C/48°C

At the time of measurement the top blowhole was covered the rear fan was a Acousti DustProof @7,5V (41,5cfm/15,9dBA/1050rpm). I had another Acousti DustProof @12V (56,3cfm/24,7dBA/1500rpm) pulling air in in the front with the upper harddrive cage removed. I hae also removed the VGA duct. Both Zalman fans where running with the Fanmate2 on full. The harddrive and PSU was both cooled by an Acosuti DustProof @5V (25,2cfm/<10dBA/675rpm) in the lower compartment.

At the above settings the case is noisy and not very cool. What temperatures have you achieved and do you rate your case as quiet? Any suggestions as to how I can improve airflow in my case?

[demon]

Combover I'm curious about your setup. I have a similar system and I experience too high temperatures. How have you handled cooling the system?

Antec P180 w/ Antec Phantom 500W PSU
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64X2 XP4200+ w/ Zalman CNPS9500LED
Corsair TwinX 2Gb CL2 (2*CMX1024-3200C2)
ASUS GeForce 7900GT Top w/ Zalman VF900
NEC ND-4570A DVD+-RW DL
Western Digital Raptor 150Gb

Using Lavalys Everest I record the following temperatures after boot/one hour idle/ a few minutes of WOW.

MB: 39°C/47°C/50°C
CPU: 40°C/45°C/55°C
GPU: 39°C/42°C/48°C

At the time of measurement the top blowhole was covered the rear fan was a Acousti DustProof @7,5V (41,5cfm/15,9dBA/1050rpm). I had another Acousti DustProof @12V (56,3cfm/24,7dBA/1500rpm) pulling air in in the front with the upper harddrive cage removed. I hae also removed the VGA duct. Both Zalman fans where running with the Fanmate2 on full. The harddrive and PSU was both cooled by an Acosuti DustProof @5V (25,2cfm/<10dBA/675rpm) in the lower compartment.

At the above settings the case is noisy and not very cool. What temperatures have you achieved and do you rate your case as quiet? Any suggestions as to how I can improve airflow in my case?

mm i have a antec P180 to.. i noticed if you close the VGA duct with tape the case is forced to suck air from the front fan but youre VGA will be a little bit more hotter then when the duct is open

and another thing you can do is the following: remove the fan gril of the front fan,i did that and the fan could suck aloth more air into the case @ the same speed

but i removed the dust filter to

[Combover]

Combover I'm curious about your setup. I have a similar system and I experience too high temperatures. How have you handled cooling the system?

Antec P180 w/ Antec Phantom 500W PSU
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64X2 XP4200+ w/ Zalman CNPS9500LED
Corsair TwinX 2Gb CL2 (2*CMX1024-3200C2)
ASUS GeForce 7900GT Top w/ Zalman VF900
NEC ND-4570A DVD+-RW DL
Western Digital Raptor 150Gb

Using Lavalys Everest I record the following temperatures after boot/one hour idle/ a few minutes of WOW.

MB: 39°C/47°C/50°C
CPU: 40°C/45°C/55°C
GPU: 39°C/42°C/48°C

At the time of measurement the top blowhole was covered the rear fan was a Acousti DustProof @7,5V (41,5cfm/15,9dBA/1050rpm). I had another Acousti DustProof @12V (56,3cfm/24,7dBA/1500rpm) pulling air in in the front with the upper harddrive cage removed. I hae also removed the VGA duct. Both Zalman fans where running with the Fanmate2 on full. The harddrive and PSU was both cooled by an Acosuti DustProof @5V (25,2cfm/<10dBA/675rpm) in the lower compartment.

At the above settings the case is noisy and not very cool. What temperatures have you achieved and do you rate your case as quiet? Any suggestions as to how I can improve airflow in my case?

Sorry for the late reply... I have been on vacation

I will post some pictures once I set my site up, but here are some things I have done;

1) Replaced two of the three upper fans with nexus 120mm's. Blowhole is exhausting with a TT fan. All are at voltage below 12.
2) Bought a TT 4 fan controller (5 1/2 bay) to adjust speeds as needed.
3) Cut a BIG hole inbetween the upper and lower compartments. My PSU draws hot air away from the lower GPU
4) Cut away the beehive fan covers from front and rear fans (blow hole is still there)
5) Removed all filters/screens from fans.
6) Installed and running one of the antec 3speeds in the lower compartment.

Now I have been using this proggie to test temps;

http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/rthdribl/

I will do some testing again and post the digits. Right now, idle for days in the basement, my CPU is running 37c and MB is 38.
Top GPU is at 42c and lower is at 39.
All temps are measured using software (NVIDIA's and ASUS')

Comb

[Edward Aschan]

I've reconfigured the setup and rewired the entire case so there are no wires obstructing airflow. I have a Antec TriCool set to low in the lower chamber. Front intake I have a Acousti DustProof at full speed powered by the sb fan header. I also have a Scythe Kama with a 120mm fan in front pulling air in, at 12V it's 800rpm, 30,5cfm and 12dBA. I have the gpu running full speed off of the nb fanheader. I let cool'n'quiet and q-fan handle the cpu fan and the blowhole (Acousti DustProof). I have another Acousti Dustproof in the rear running at 7,5V. The case isn't quiet!

At idle mb, cpu and gpu all vary around 40-42ºC. Running the rthdribl puts the mb at 44ºC, the cpu at 48ºC and the gpu at peaks at 51ºC but stays for the most time at 50ºC.

I haven't gone wild on the case yet but removing some obstructions is definetly on the board. I have no kids that wil put their fingers where they shouldn't be so fanguards are a ridiculous luxury. I have to get better at cleaning before I dare remove the dust filters though.

Oh yeah, ambient is around 26ºC at the moment. It was at 28ºC when I did the earlier post.

[Combover]

lol i was just cursing them today and decided to make my own. i took a regular rounded ata cable and dremel'd the covered hole out.

rounded x-fi controller in about 30 seconds.

Oh... I had read about the possibility of using an ata cable, but couldn't find any with all the holes open. Never thought of busting out the dremel Thanks for the tip!

Comb

[Combover]

Edward,

Those temps are pretty good, and are very close to mine. There is always room for improvement though, which is what I am working on as well.

The one thing that I can say truely made a big impact on my vid card temps is having my PSU fan drawing the hot air from below them. Even open air, or with a fan blowing in or out, I got better results with a closed case and the psu sucking the hot air out the bottom. With that config, I maxed out at 48c for GPU 1 and 42c for GPU 2.

Now, since my prior post, I made an impulse buy and snagged a CoolerMaster 830. . I cut up my P180, but it just didn't look that clean since it was my first mod. I will take some pics of it so you can see what I did , but right now it is empty since I started moving my stuff over.

I will probably open another thread with my impressions of the 830.

Comb

[GrayBeard]

I tried playing with the fans and ended up with a total of 2 fans (nexus) in the upper bay. One is blowing in through the top opening right onto my Noctua NH9 heatsink. The other is on the empty drive bay drawing air from the front and blowing it on my GPU and Northbridge. Both fans are turned down to about 750-800 rpm.

I am running at 29-32C in the northbridge and my cpu idles at 39-40 and peaks at 45-46 with both cores loaded to 100%. My GPU is a passive cooled 9550 model and is barely warm to the touch.

I also have a fan in the lower bay cooling my 3 drives and keeping them in the 25-35C range.

Mike