Silent and cool P190 with no CPU fan and no VGA fan?

[ddrueding1]

oops. dupe.

[Valein]

Stian, the thing is - you are planning to put together some pretty hot components... quad-core is pretty hot-running as opposed to dual-cores and using two 2900xt is, well, you can fry eggs on a single card, two will make that case an easy-bake oven when loaded

getting a p190 or p182 is a good start but i wouldn't expect to have it all quiet right out of the box. some work will be needed.

i can't tell you how loud exactly those fans are inside those particular cases, i am sure someone here can though. however, there are better fans out there that would make the sound signature less agressive than stock antec fans (well, i am sure you know that already.) there are numerous builds documented around here that might give you some clues.

what are you building that pc for? gaming, i take? what resolution you play at usually?

and out of curiosity, what were the specs on your last system?

A Quad 6600 and a pair of high end vid cards means you DO need some pretty effective airflow. I'd probably start with a Aerocool or Xclio or Enermax case with the large 250 mm door fan that can be run at 400 rpm or less....would use an Aerocool Dominator with it's 140 mm fan. A Corsair or Seasonic PSU of about 500 w should do.

The Antec's tend to try to seal noise in---but with a hot rig-that that can also mean sealing in heat.....then using too many case fans at too high RPM to move the heat.

You want a fairly large case. A small space heats up faster. A congested space won't have efficient airflow.

I do NOT advocate having intake fans and exhaust fans. If I put 2 fans at 1000 rpm in a box-one intake and one exhaust...I move a certain amount of air...but using BOTH as Exhaust-or intake will move MORE air if the corresponding passive opening is adequate. The size and location of that passive opening or openings is how you tune the air path.

A jumbo door fan rather simplifies the airpath issues in that significant air hits everything. If you are trying to go fanless on a CPU however...a lot of that air just bypasses the heatsink (especially a tower which is not made for air coming from the side of the case)

The Dominator is a "tabletop" type like a Big Typhoon or the original Thermalrights.....but huge It's 140 fan focuses the air supplied by the big door fan. Because it draws....more of the incoming air gets routed throuh the cooler. With a 3600 Brisbane and on board Vid...you could skip that 140mm.....but you have a LOT more heat source.

If I was building from scratch....the PSU and HDDs would be in a seperate area,so the PSU is pulling some air over the HDD's and not ramping up from the heat of the rest of the rig.

The alternatives? in the usual upper location....you mount the PSU upside down-cutting a hole to correspond to the inlet fan. The PSU is getting room air-not pre-heated CPU/GPU exhaust and so it's fans run slower.

Overall....The strategy would be to have the 250 mm at 400 rpm...the 140 mm cpu fan at 1000 or less (with it slowing when the CPU is not working hard) The PSU fan,controlled by the PSU would still ramp up some-but not bad.

POSSIBLY....cut a hole in the floor,mount an 800 rpm Scythe 120 mm and duct to cool the vid cards. You MIGHT not need this....and if you do this-it can be something you turn on for heavy game sessions.

You'd want the best temp monitoring panel you can get-or a mobo with a real good monitoring utility-or both. You want to find your "worst case" and a more typical situation. The Crystal CPUID utility looks pretty geeky to set up----but is quite well suited for this rig which for MOST computer stuff is brute overkill. CPUID as I understand it----lets you pick-a-CPU so when all you NEED is a basic Sempron----that's what you get...along with lower wattage -heat-noise.

If you are PUSHING a Quad /SLI machine.....don't think it's gonna be quiet.
You can't get good gas mileage driving at 140 mph. However....you can get RELATIVELY good gas mileage at 140 mph.

I knew a guy years ago who built himself a car that COULD hit about 130+ but actually got a bit over 20 mpg if driven gentle......and he did it for about $1000.

Thanks for your comments!

I looked with interest on the Enermax Uber Chakra Case and really like that big side-fan. At the moment I am leaning towards the P182, though.
If the P182 can keep things cool enough without too high RMP on the case fans, the system will also be silent enough for me.
I will miss that big side-fan though, so I am yet undecided.

I will try to avoid having to make new holes in a case - if it gets to that, I'll rather place fans on the VGA and CPU

I still got plenty of time to plan this setup, and I am open to suggestions such as yours. There's a balance between cooling and noise-level, and putting too much effort into it.

Stian

[Valein]

The most difficult thing to cool will be the video cards. There is the brute force approach, where you blow a lot of air into the case hoping that air will be cool and that it will escape somehow. And there is the finesse approach. By using cardboard/plastic/whatever to make all the air to the fan come from outside, and make all that air pass over the heatsinks, and make sure all that hot air leaves. Think of it as a wind tunnel, make it approximately the same cross-section all the way through, with as few obstacles as possible. Extra space in the case will do nothing but mess up your airflow and slow the speed of the air passing over your heatsinks.

I really like the look of that solution!

Do you think this would work in the P190? The P190 case is longer, so there would be more space that the air would need to travel through, but then again the fans are larger and you have the large side-fan that might help much.

If this sort of setup would cool enough with all the fans set to low, then It would be a pretty quiet and neat solution.

I am getting more and more certain that I will buy a P182 or a P190.
With the adjustable fan speeds and compartmentalizations I will have lots of options for controlling the airflow. I think it should work out

Btw - what would be a solid, quiet and powerful enough PSU to be used in a P182 for two 2900XT cards + Q6600, 4GB Memory and 2 HDDs?

Stian

[ddrueding1]

Btw - what would be a solid, quiet and powerful enough PSU to be used in a P182 for two 2900XT cards + Q6600, 4GB Memory and 2 HDDs?

I would get a Seasonic of at least 600W. The same power supply that I am running now would work great: Seasonic M12 700W.

[Valein]

Btw - what would be a solid, quiet and powerful enough PSU to be used in a P182 for two 2900XT cards + Q6600, 4GB Memory and 2 HDDs?

I would get a Seasonic of at least 600W. The same power supply that I am running now would work great: Seasonic M12 700W.

Thanks, mate - I'll check it out.

Stian

[ddrueding1]

Do you think this would work in the P190?

Yes, it would work fine in a P190. My 2 concerns are:

1. If the 140mm or 200mm fans aren't quiet enough, you are kinda screwed. I assume the 200mm fan is the same as I have here on the Nine Hundred, and it is borderline quiet. I'd love to get the spcr take on it, as mine is pretty well drowned out by 8 hard drives.

2. Fan in the side. In addition to giving sound a way to exit, it tends to weaken the side panel, so it is more prone to vibrations. Due to the construction of the sides, we can pretty much rule this one out.

Additional design considerations could be as follows:

1. CPU chamber. With 3 large fans at the rear of the case, you could avoid removing the front 5.25" bays completely. Instead have the rear 120mm as an intake, remove and block off the rear 140mm fan and have the front 140mm fan do the exhaust.

2. Video chamber. Have the 200mm fan on the door act as an intake, and build a short duct on the door that puts all this airflow directly onto the video cards.
2a. Build up walls around the video cards to limit the size of this chamber, and remove all the PCI blanking plates for use as exhaust. Concern: This hot air could be taken in by the CPU intake ~7in above.
2b. Direct this hot air out the front of the case, where the upper drive cage used to be. Concern: This is a longer path, and may require another low-speed fan in front to assist in evacuating the hot air.

I think the P190 design has more of a safety margin than the 182, but I don't think it will be as quiet.

[Valein]

Do you think this would work in the P190?

Yes, it would work fine in a P190. My 2 concerns are:

1. If the 140mm or 200mm fans aren't quiet enough, you are kinda screwed. I assume the 200mm fan is the same as I have here on the Nine Hundred, and it is borderline quiet. I'd love to get the spcr take on it, as mine is pretty well drowned out by 8 hard drives.

2. Fan in the side. In addition to giving sound a way to exit, it tends to weaken the side panel, so it is more prone to vibrations. Due to the construction of the sides, we can pretty much rule this one out.

Additional design considerations could be as follows:

1. CPU chamber. With 3 large fans at the rear of the case, you could avoid removing the front 5.25" bays completely. Instead have the rear 120mm as an intake, remove and block off the rear 140mm fan and have the front 140mm fan do the exhaust.

2. Video chamber. Have the 200mm fan on the door act as an intake, and build a short duct on the door that puts all this airflow directly onto the video cards.
2a. Build up walls around the video cards to limit the size of this chamber, and remove all the PCI blanking plates for use as exhaust. Concern: This hot air could be taken in by the CPU intake ~7in above.
2b. Direct this hot air out the front of the case, where the upper drive cage used to be. Concern: This is a longer path, and may require another low-speed fan in front to assist in evacuating the hot air.

I think the P190 design has more of a safety margin than the 182, but I don't think it will be as quiet.

Some very good suggestions there!

One last question regarding the P190:
Would it be possible to use the Seasonic M12 700W instead of the stock PSUs? Would it fit properly in the case? I don't really like the thought of two PSUs with a 80mm fan each.

Stian

[ddrueding1]

One last question regarding the P190:
Would it be possible to use the Seasonic M12 700W instead of the stock PSUs? Would it fit properly in the case? I don't really like the thought of two PSUs with a 80mm fan each.

Sure. They are 2 standard form factor power supplies, you would just need to block off the opening. FYI: The Seasonic I mentioned has a 120mm fan that runs all the time and an 80mm fan that kicks on when needed. The best of both, IMHO.