Case cooling/air flow questions

[Massonite]

Hey guys, I have a few questions

I just bought myself a Chenming A2ESW Aluminum Case w/side panel window, and it came with 3 case fans. 2 of them are on the back of the case beside the I/O ports on the mobo, and one is on the window. I moved the one on the window to the front of the HDD bay to cool them, and purchased a fan with LEDs to put on the side. What's the best way to position the fans for sucking/blowing (spare me the perverted comments guys... lol) to maximize airflow and reduce heat? I'm also using round cables for all my drives.

Also, I was looking into getting "noise dampeners" to quiet the whole case. What are some quick ways to get the noise down? I have a feeling my Volcano 9 is the culprit, and I'm thinking of getting an SLK-800 or SLK-900 with a good fan. Input on that would be appreciated.

My setup is AXP 2400+, 2x512 PC2700 RAM, ABIT NF7-S mobo, Antec TruePower 430W PSU, R9500 Pro (if that info helps)

Thanks for your help guys

 

[crip11]

Front/Side = Intake

Back = Exhaust

 

[Massonite]

Both back fans exhaust or just one?

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: Massonite
Both back fans exhaust or just one?

Front and Side should be intake, and the back should be outtake.

 

[crip11]

Originally posted by: AgaBooga

Originally posted by: Massonite
Both back fans exhaust or just one?

Front and Side should be intake, and the back should be outtake.

Like I said, do both back as exhaust/outtake and front and side intake

 

[WhiteKnight77]

If you really want to quiet your system down some, try a Vantec Aeroflow GSF setup. I had a Volcano 9 on my Athlon 2400XP and replaced it yesterday. Now the only fan(s) I hear are the front intake fans.

What are safe temps? details my temps now.

 

[Massonite]

Originally posted by: WhiteKnight77
If you really want to quiet your system down some, try a Vantec Aeroflow GSF setup. I had a Volcano 9 on my Athlon 2400XP and replaced it yesterday. Now the only fan(s) I hear are the front intake fans.

What are safe temps? details my temps now.

You know, I was actually thinking of getting the Vantec Aeroflow to replace my Volcano 9. I was just reading some reviews on them and they seem OK. What do you like best about it overall, and how noisy is it?

 

[Massonite]

This is the one I've been looking at...

VANTEC AEROFLOW VA4-C7040

Is this what you've got?

 

[Massonite]

I'm also wondering about cooling, what is your system config and what are your temps?

 

[WhiteKnight77]

That is the one I have. Link to my rig in sig below. As far as sound goes, with the Volcano 9 I could hear my PC running even in the bedroom of my apartment over the TV I have in there. Now I can't even tell it is on. My bedroom door is about 14 feet from the PC with the head of my bed at the opposite end of the room.

 

[0roo0roo]

if its the chenming i'm thinking of, your not going to quiet it down much with dampeners, its got the fan holders right?

get 2 more fan intakes for the front two spots. go buy a fanspeed controller like the vantec nxp201. connect em all to it, lower rpm until its quiet. if your game and know how to deal with psu which is kinda dangerous u can connect those fans too. after you do that, u can make it so quiet all you hear is your drive.

 

[Massonite]

Yeah, it has 2 fan holders for the front and 2 for the back. They just snap into place and that's it. I have 1 fan intake on the front in front of my 2 HDD's and the bottom one is empty. The 2 on the back are exhaust. I had the 2 back ones hooked into "fan only" connectors on my Antec TruePower 430W, but the fans were moving so slowly that there was no cooling going on.

I may take you up on that idea of the fan speed control. Can I hook up my CPU fan, PSU fan and all case fans to it and control them all? I've never used one of them before.

Also, I'm going to lose this Volcano 9 because it's annoying the hell out of me and it's hard to get to sleep. It sounds like a jet engine or something... lol

 

[Massonite]

I was looking on Vantec's website, and the NXP-101 has temperature monitoring on it as well. Is it any good, or should I just get the NXP-201?

 

[0roo0roo]

the 01 doesn't control many fans i prefer the 201. temp sensor isn't that useful in my eyes, the motherboard already has em. i don' thtink it changes the speed of the fans anyhow

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Massonite
Yeah, it has 2 fan holders for the front and 2 for the back. They just snap into place and that's it. I have 1 fan intake on the front in front of my 2 HDD's and the bottom one is empty. The 2 on the back are exhaust. I had the 2 back ones hooked into "fan only" connectors on my Antec TruePower 430W, but the fans were moving so slowly that there was no cooling going on.

I may take you up on that idea of the fan speed control. Can I hook up my CPU fan, PSU fan and all case fans to it and control them all? I've never used one of them before.

Also, I'm going to lose this Volcano 9 because it's annoying the hell out of me and it's hard to get to sleep. It sounds like a jet engine or something... lol

yes you can. the nxp ones come with a variety of splitter/4pin to 3 pin converts etc. but connectors on the nxp are 3 pin like the motherboard. you can do your own splicing or crimping or soldering of wires together if u need to, or just buy the cables if u really have a ton to do. i put all 5 of the chenming case fans on the first channel. the fans chained together using their own connectors so that was rather easy. the cpu fan isn't hard, just use the extention cord that comes withthe unit. my cpu fan is low rpm so i didn't bother. psu fans require that u crimp or solder. truepower supposedly pretty quiet though. i had the turbo power or whatever that came with my chenming, it was kinda loud. anyhow, 5 low rpm fans working together works pretty good you do need all the fan spots occupied though, fans suck at fighting backpressure, having only one intake and 3 exhausting tries to create negative pressure, not good.

 

[Massonite]

Well I have the 3 fans that came with the case, as well as the 1 LED fan that I bought for the side window. You say the fans that came with it aren't that great? Too noisy or not good enough cooling? I can't really tell the noise because a certain Volcano 9 is screaming like a woman in labour...

I'm replacing my Volcano 9 with a Vantec Aeroflow HSF to cut the noise down, as I've read a lot of reviews on it, as well as getting opinions from fellow enthusiasts, and it seems to be quite good. And for $30 CDN it's not too bad of a deal.

When I get the Vantec and replace my Volcano 9, I'll take a look and see how loud it still is, and then get the fan controller if it's still bad. I know what you mean about the 101 being not that great, and the fan control is just for the CPU. And the Vantec is quiet to begin with, so I don't need CPU fan adjustments. So the 201 will probably do the job so I can adjust the noise level of the fans. Does it come with software to tell you what fan is hooked up to what control, or do you just have to remember what is where?

 

[Massonite]

Originally posted by: WhiteKnight77
That is the one I have. Link to my rig in sig below. As far as sound goes, with the Volcano 9 I could hear my PC running even in the bedroom of my apartment over the TV I have in there. Now I can't even tell it is on. My bedroom door is about 14 feet from the PC with the head of my bed at the opposite end of the room.

Now, do you do any overclocking? If so, how well does the Vantec hold up and how high have you taken it?

 

[WhiteKnight77]

I haven't tried to OC with the new HFS yet, though the dealer I get my parts from states he only sees a monir increase in temps even when doing so. I found out a game I play does not like an OCed sysyem. It may be just that way on my PC.

 

[Massonite]

I don't do a whole lot of OCing myself, but it's nice to know I can if I need to. I might get myself some good OCing ram in the next little while, but I'm not sure yet.

I've actually heard from a number of people that the Vantec can get them fairly high overclocks. Hopefully I'll have the same luck with mine.

 

[0roo0roo]

what cpu do you have btw?

and no, the speed controller doesn't have interaction with computer, so no software control. only 4 knobs though, hard to forget just twiddle with knob and u can hear which fan is changing speed anyhow.

i find having 5 case fans cools adequetly at low rpm for almost any situation. only time i might turn it up is when it goes over 100deg in the summer, havn't experience that yet

anyfan will do really, even the cheap led fans.

 

[0roo0roo]

pics of two nxp-201 in cases white case has only 4 fans, but 2 are 92mm

secondary advantage of nxp is led light also shines out back of unit, lighting part of your case. not noticable in those pics cuz cathode overpowers all.

 

[Davegod]

front (and side) = intake
rear = exhaust

to minimise noise, just use four low rpm fans, usually panaflo get the votes around here. 4 low rpm fans will be ample even for overclocking, unless youre going insane with it.

replacing the HSF is also a good call if it's making a lot of noise. the 900/900u seems unbeatable for performance and you can eveb stick a 92mm fan on it - again you should be fine with a low rpm fan, but a ys-tech adjustable gives you the most options. The problem with the thermalright series is theyre quite heavy + expensive.

HSF roundup @ dans data
another @ digit life
(i like the dans data)