Big Heatsinks

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Big Heatsinks

Yup! This case caught my eye because of it's low bling-factor. No curved sides, no cheesy plastic flip down doors.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Big Heatsinks

Don't forget to account for the PSU fan in your air balance.

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Big Heatsinks

Alright, so how does this sound: The 120mm will be an intake, the PSU will be exhaust, one of the 80's in the front will be in and one will be out.

Two 80's blowing out, one 80 and a 120 blowing in.

That would give positive pressure, but do you think it will cool the case effectively?

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Big Heatsinks

Look at the CFM of those fans my friend. (Cubic-Feet/Minute)
The diameter doesn't mean all that much.

[zandrax]

Re: Big Heatsinks

@ weirdlookinguy: your case is nice and seems well built. If you plan plugging a low or middle level graphic card and one or two silent 7200 rpm drives (e.g. Samsung ones), I think your configuration will be a low noise one.
According to SilentPCReview forum, the Solo has an air flter and space enough for two 92 mm fans: you can get the same air flow (expressed in cubic feet per minute, or cfm) of two 80 mm fans at lower rpm.

@ PCBONEZ: positive pressure helps to avoid dust getting into the case, but an intake flow greater than exaust one would lead to more turbulence. I'm more fond with hydrodynamics than aerodynamics, but I suspect turbulence can lessen the air tunnel effects. No evidence for my thoughts, only a suspect.

Zandrax

[bgavin]

Re: Big Heatsinks

I ask because this system needs to last me a good six years.

I want to know if you guys have seen these huge heatsinks warp boards, and your thoughts on my plans for the cooling.

I have been using very heavy heat sinks (Alpha PAL8045) on socket-A boards for a long time. These are through-bolted to the board, to support the huge weight. The heat sink weighs 520 grams without the fan. Warping is not a problem.

If you are earnestly concerned about maximum cooling, investigate the BTX board configuration. This is the follow-on evolution of the standard ATX layout, but redesigned for improved cooling. Most new commercial Dell, etc, use the BTX layout. It does NOT fit an ATX case, and this is a problem. Newegg doesn't sell any BTX cases that I could find.

As noted above, the only real heat problem processors are the Pentium-D series. These are typically in the 95w to 130w range. The 940 processor is nice because it offers virtualization, etc, but it also draws 130w. No thanks. Typical Intel: brute force performance. Core 2 Duo is much lower power consumption.

Premium fans are more reliable, but as noted above, dust is the real problem. Most systems are unfiltered, so regular vacuuming is a priority. I have a stock of Panaflo, but will investigate the Noctua when my stock is exhausted.

[starfury1]

Re: Big Heatsinks

thanks for the info Bgavin

Zandrax you could be right on that but I think the idea is to try and get it a little more positive.

anyway the theory sounds nice if you can get it to happen.

since the box is not a totally sealed unit getting this balance could be tricky.
(with leaks and the extra vents)

Ive got NO experience with trying to achieve this....
I like the idea of less vacuuming

probably have to clean or replace air filters more often since intake points are a much smaller area.

haven't read the review on the case but it does look like some thought has gone into it
if I didn't already get a case I consider it from what I see.

cant really help you with fan air flow thing wlg

Cheers All

[starfury1]

Re: Big Heatsinks

just thinking about this...and considering servers run 24/7 is there anything
like this considered for them (apart from possibly filters) ?

thinking on those perspex window side panels this is probably the single most practical use for them...seeing how much dust is in there

[zandrax]

Re: Big Heatsinks

just thinking about this...and considering servers run 24/7 is there anything
like this considered for them (apart from possibly filters) ?

thinking on those perspex window side panels this is probably the single most practical use for them...seeing how much dust is in there

[JOKE=demented one] What about putting some nice neon tubes? - Yeah, a modded server case: transparent windows, bright red paint, multicolored leds, waterblocks on Sas drives ... I want it! [/JOKE]
I think server towers and rack units employ detachable air filters, otherwise they would host an army of dustbunnies

Zandrax

[starfury1]

Re: Big Heatsinks

yes the window thing was a bit tongue in cheek

yeah figured filters was about it

[acstech]

Re: Big Heatsinks

Here's some info from Intel with regards to airflow. A bit dated, but still good info IMHO:



They go into a lot more detail on things we really don't care about here, but the general idea is in a picture on page 9.

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Big Heatsinks

Tricked out servers... lol. Too bad blinged out PC's are a joke. They're not unique or modded, it's just cheap blingy parts slapped together inside a mediocre case. Most of the time. Sometimes you see blinged cases that look pretty nice, but those are rare. A simple, quality case looks a hell of a lot more attractive to me than some POS loaded with CCFLS and LED fans.

Anyway, you're right PCBONEZ, CFM is more important than size. Here's the specs for the fans I want to use:

Noctua NF-R8 80mm: 31.2CFM @ 1800 RPM
Noctua NS-F12 120mm (When Using low noise adapter): 35CFM @ 540RPM
Nidec Beta SL (in PSU): ??? (As an estimate, I'll use 30CFM)

I was sitting in math class today (hehe) drawing diagrams of the case and I realized the last revision to the plan I posted was stupid, so I started rethinking it. How about both the 80's in the front running at full blast as intake, and the 120 in the back running at half speed as exhaust, plus the PSU? That would give us 65CFM of exhaust and 62.4CFM of intake. BUT, since the PSU is a whole other box inside the case, I don't think it pulls the full 30CFMs (estimate) that it is capable of out of the case.

Thoughts?

[shadow]

Re: Big Heatsinks

A simple, quality case looks a hell of a lot more attractive to me than some POS loaded with CCFLS and LED fans.

Totally agree with this statement!

[davmax]

Re: Big Heatsinks

I read in this thread about using filter paper with fans. From my experience this can severely restrict fan air flow. I find that going and buying air conditioner filter material is far better, it comes in different grades of thickness.
My system case comes filtered on all the front panels and dust etc gathers on the outside of thes panels, it can then be wiped or vacuum cleaned. One side panel has side vent holes, this is where I have applied aircon filtering material.

[zandrax]

Re: Big Heatsinks

A simple, quality case looks a hell of a lot more attractive to me than some POS loaded with CCFLS and LED fans.

The BMW approach: a wolf (M models) disguised as a lamb (stock ones).
I like them too, but I love beige boxes - old, sturdy brand towers. A computer case need to be a good case, not a fancy one.

I was sitting in math class today (hehe) drawing diagrams of the case and I realized the last revision to the plan I posted was stupid, so I started rethinking it. How about both the 80's in the front running at full blast as intake, and the 120 in the back running at half speed as exhaust, plus the PSU? That would give us 65CFM of exhaust and 62.4CFM of intake. BUT, since the PSU is a whole other box inside the case, I don't think it pulls the full 30CFMs (estimate) that it is capable of out of the case.

Thoughts?

1st: study math - it can be boring but it's useful.
2nd: which model is your psu? Recent ones usually employs a termocontrolled fan, so they run almost never at full speed: a reviewer may have got into your psu and may have tested its fan.
3rd: I suggest keeping the fan knob in a handy position. You may need to increase fan speed during hot summer days and a controller inside the case is quite uncomfortable.

Zandrax

[Mootsfox]

Re: Big Heatsinks

I use a Tuniq Tower with a 120mm thunderblade (30-90, silent to tornado) in it. It keeps my overclocked (about 40%) C2Q nice and cool.

Oh, and since you are getting a C2D, you need to overclock it. It's free performance. Almost every single model will hit 3GHz, and the new 45nm chips have been doing 4GHz on air.

Tuniq Tower, or Thermalright Ultra Extreme (TRUE) 120.

[acstech]

Re: Big Heatsinks

and the new 45nm chips have been doing 4GHz on air.

But at what voltage? And is it prime stable? I know my QX9650 I had to fight it to get it to 4GHz, and this is with a Vapochill LS. I had to slightly exceed Intel's VID value for the chip! Yes, you can overclock 'em to obscene speeds, but you need IMHO dangerous voltages to do it, especially with 45nm.

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Big Heatsinks

I'm not too crazy about OC'ing, doesn't it significantly reduce the life of the processor?

[acstech]

Re: Big Heatsinks

Only when you raise the voltage. As long as you keep it under the max recommended voltage, you'll be fine. Think of it as free performance. Be sure to properly test it though so you know it's stable at the faster speed.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Big Heatsinks

Air conditioner filter material is what I was thinking of when i said washable filter.
-
I don't know what you have for that down under.
Here it's a mesh micro-screen similar to window screen only with tiny holes.
It works surprisingly well.
I've seen it used stock on some cases with built-in filters.
Easy to work with for custom filters too.

.