SPCR

I finally took the plunge this week and bought myself a 120mm Nexus. And I've got to say that I am seriously impressed. Initially I tried replacing my front fan (Arctic Cooling 12025 PWM) with it, but there was a buzzing sound to it when mounted in the bottom fan cage on my 300 case. So I tried it on the rear, where it has replaced an Arctic Cooling 12PWM. The difference is amazing. Speedfan reports that it's spinning at about 755 rpm, which I think puts it at around 8 volts, but my CPU temp has dropped by 3-4C; system by 2C and the norhtbridge by 1C. Even my 4850 has dropped a couple of degrees. Woohoo!

I'm thinking about getting another Nexus for the front, shortly after getting some tin snips to cut out the mesh for the front cage(s). And maybe then I'll get an Accelero Twin Turbo to replace the stock fan on the GPU. I can barely wait.

It is fun, isn't it?!

NeilBlanchard wrote:It is fun, isn't it?!

So much fun, in fact, that I couldn't sleep and had to get back up again because my brain wouldn't shut off, now that I've started planning the next stages of silencing my rig. For example; it occured to me that if the reason the AC 12PWM was rather inefficient at moving air is due to its design -which it is, according to what I've read- then it seems logical to believe that maybe the fan on my Arctic Freezer 64 isn't the best fan that could be on there, seeing as it has the same design. That naturally led to me looking at the recommended 92mm fans on here, and how one could be mounted on the heatsink.

I'm also contemplating whether it would be better to get an Accelero S1 and attach a fan, rather than buy the Accelero Twin Turbo. If any of the fans fail on the latter, I'm fudged. But if I opt for the former and the fan fails, I just replace the fan.

I can't buy anything until the 22nd of this month anyway. So I guess I have time to figure a few things out, and hopefully get some sleep too.

The Accelero S1 has the advantage of being able to have pretty much any fan mounted to it, and the huge surface area allows slow fans to be used. It's one of the best options for silent cooling on a video card.

I have an Accelero Twin Turbo mounted to my 8800GT video card, and it cools so well that I can keep it running at 5 volts no matter how much of a load is being put on the card (Age of Empires 3 and The Sims 3 put quite a load on it!). Except for a little buzzing with the case panel off, it's silent to me. And if any fans fail, the whole fan case can be removed very easily for replacement with other 80mm fans.

Thanks for the info, Darth Santa Fe. You put forward a good case for both options. It seems it's going to come down to cost and/or convenience. Not sure which to opt for though. One of my main issues is that I only have 2 fan headers on my mobo, so I'm thinking that it will be best if I can plug the fan(s) in to the GPU and still have them controlled by the card or through software.

I was just wondering if I could get some feedback on which of these would be best for cutting out the mesh on the front fan cage for my case. If none would be suitable, could someone advise on a decent pair/set.

Thanks

http://www.mptools.co.uk/products.asp?partno=CT17

http://www.mptools.co.uk/pp/Engineering ... Snips.html

http://www.mptools.co.uk/pp/Engineering ... Snips.html

Haych wrote:I was just wondering if I could get some feedback on which of these would be best for cutting out the mesh on the front fan cage for my case. If none would be suitable, could someone advise on a decent pair/set.

How's the mesh fixed to the case? Can you remove it from the inside?
Cutting it out with tin snips would leave a messy and sharp edge to the hole. You'd certainly want to do a bit of fettling after cutting.
I wouldn't go for the heavy duty ones. I'd probably use a hacksaw blade myself if it was not possible to remove it from the inside.

I use either tin snips, the red handled one seems best to me, or a metal cutting blade in a jigsaw or scroll saw, and finish the rough edges with files or a die grinder. If there is no starting point, I drill a hole.

Either the red handled one or the third of your choices with its sharper angled blades would be best from my experience. The thicker the end of the blade the larger hole you need to get a cut started -- heavy duty can work against you.

judge56988 wrote: How's the mesh fixed to the case? Can you remove it from the inside?

This is what the fan cage looks like:



If the material for the cage is the same as the rest of the case then it's probably 0.8mm steel.

Thanks for the advice, guys. I'll probably get the three piece set of snips, and then I'm covered for any modding jobs in the future that may warrant them

That grill looks pretty similar to the rear grill of the P182 that I snipped out. I used tin snips to cut the grill near the edge of the honeycomb part, and used a nibbler to clean up the ends of the bits that were left after I snipped out the entire grill.

If you are adding u-channel around the edges, a little bit of roughness left on the edges helps to keep the u-channel in place.

Hope that helps!

JamieG wrote:If you are adding u-channel around the edges, a little bit of roughness left on the edges helps to keep the u-channel in place.

Untill you mentioned it, I'd never heard of u-channel, lol. I'll see if I can source some and how much it costs. I'm guessing it's not essential to use it, but having quickly looked up what it is, I must admit that it makes things look a lot neater.

Thanks, JamieG!

Haych wrote:

judge56988 wrote: How's the mesh fixed to the case? Can you remove it from the inside?

This is what the fan cage looks like:



If the material for the cage is the same as the rest of the case then it's probably 0.8mm steel.

Thanks for the advice, guys. I'll probably get the three piece set of snips, and then I'm covered for any modding jobs in the future that may warrant them

I didn't realise this mesh was not seen from outside the case.
So +1 to JamieG.

Haych wrote:

JamieG wrote:If you are adding u-channel around the edges, a little bit of roughness left on the edges helps to keep the u-channel in place.

Untill you mentioned it, I'd never heard of u-channel, lol. I'll see if I can source some and how much it costs. I'm guessing it's not essential to use it, but having quickly looked up what it is, I must admit that it makes things look a lot neater.

Thanks, JamieG!

You can get U-rubber cheap ála yours truely: Go in local shop that fixes bicycles and ask if they can give broken bike innertube or sell it cheap. When you have.

1) Cut it so you have one straight piece (near the vent and cut the vent out)
2) Measure how much you roughly need.
3) Cut the piece
4) cut the sides so you have have 4 pieces: 2x u-shaped rubber mounts which came from the inntertube sides and 2x slim center pieces (these can be used later suspending HDD ). With this, you get easily u-rubber for 2x 120mm fan places.
5) wash the pieces. They have white power stuff on them and dry them before using glue.

I get my bike innertube free from local shop. You can use box-cutter, hoppy knife or scissors.

I managed to find some u-channeling, and it only costs 89 pennies for a metre of the stuff. So consider it on the shopping list for next week.

There should be enough for me to do the mesh for the rear fan, too. So I'm probably going to be emptying out the case for that, which also affords me the opportunity to perform some cablegami. Maybe then I'll post some pictures.

One last question, if you don't mind me asking, guys. As there are two fan cages on the front of the case, should I buy two Nexus fans for the front, or leave it at one. IIRC more air in is required to create positive pressure within the case and leave hot air no option but to be forced out. I could probably stretch the finances to get another fan if it will help, otherwise I'm thinking I might just cover over the second front fan intake. Any opinions on what might be best?

Ooop! Sorry Jampa, I didn't see your post until I'd submitted my last post. Thanks for the info though

Mate, I have the Antec 300 as well and i used Akasa Apache's instead of the nexus, Im impressed with mine so far. But i did excatly the same and tin snipped the rear and front cages. *i actually used cabletie cutters as they made a neater finish* but i then used a half round file to take the edges off *im an engineer so used to working with tin/metal work*

To silence mine even more i then used Acoustipack in and around the case to dampen inside it. I opt'd to cover the side exhaust/intake with it and also cover the bottom front intake, leaving the 1 front and 1 rear along with PSU fan..

All this can be seen in a build thread i made a bit ago mate.. viewtopic.php?t=54822&highlight=

Thanks for the reply, markyb.

I placed my order for all my parts yesterday. Hopefully I'll have everything by the weekend, and then I can get started on making things a little quieter. I might nip into my local Wickes on Friday and see about getting a half round file, but it depends on how much they cost.

I dampened the side panels on the case a few months ago with bitumen tape and some speaker foam that also had a layer of bitumen on it. The inside of the case has egg crate foam on the bottom and the top. I sealed off the 140mm fan area, as it was just another place for noise to escape from. My temps weren't affected by covering it, either.

I'll try to post pictures once I get everything done. Though my camera isn't really that good, compared to what's around these days (when I bought it, a 1 megapixel camera had more of a 'wow' factor, lol.) Maybe I'll ask my neice if her dear sweet aunty can borrow her fancy camera

After several hours of work, I finally got the new parts in my rig today. It would have been done late last week, but after briefly reverting back to onboard audio, I decided that if I want to listen to a lot of 'snap, crackle and pop' I'll eat a bowl of rice krispies. Which meant finding a solution so I'd be able to keep my sound card, now that the aftermarket cooler for the 4850 was going to cover that slot. After a lot of googling, I found a PCI-E x1 to PCI adapter late last Thursday, and as soon as it arrived today, I got down to business.

I'll post pictures later this week. I forgot to buy some batteries for my camera last Friday (d'oh!).