Looking for cooling suggestions...

Status
Not open for further replies.
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
I've been in the process of planning an upgrade to my main machine (in sig) for a few months, and all I need are the last few components, such as a case and cooling. Here's a partial list of what the system will include:

Intel X3210 2.13GHz (will overclock to 2.5GHz or 2.6GHz, but no higher)
ASUS P5K Premium (If I can manage to get Gentoo working 100%)
4GB OCZ PC2-6400 RAM
NVIDIA 8800GT 512MB
2x Seagate 500GB 7200.11 (OS drives, RAID 1)
1x Seagate 750GB 7200.10 (Storage drive)
OCZ ModXStream 780W Modular PSU
Antec P182

At this point, I am not sure what kind of cooling I want. I'd be up for water-cooling, or air-cooling if it would prove sufficient. However, I do want to overclock that CPU a bit (to improve single-threaded applications), but I won't go higher than 2.6GHz as this is a machine I don't want to risk crashing, ever. Right now, I am using a Corsair Nautilus 500 water-cooling kit, but I am becoming less of a fan of the external units as they are ugly (especially the ones that sit right on top of the machine), so internal would be the only way I'd like to go.

I am looking for recommendations. Should I stick with one overly large CPU cooler (such as the OCZ Vindicator) with a higher-speed fan, or should I pick up a water-cooling kit and cool both the CPU and GPU together? No GPU overclocking will be done (this is a Linux machine, not for gaming), but I love the fact of knowing that components are being kept at reasonable temperatures at all times (especially since this room is not entirely nice to ambient temperatures at all times).

I am leaning a little bit towards water-cooling, but am looking for suggestions as to which parts I should select. I am a water-cooling noob and don't know what to look for, and to be honest, I'm not entirely interested in studying up. I just want parts that will work well and look good, though there is no door on the chassis, heh.

Lastly, for those familiar with the P182 chassis, you might know that behind the bottom HDD bay (front of the chassis), there is no room for a 120mm despite the fact that it looks like there is. Does anyone know if it's possible to force a fan in there, or does anyone know of a slim 90mm or 120mm fan that might have a better chance of fitting in there? That bottom bay will have a single 750GB drive, which can get VERY hot (50C for a joke), so keeping that cool would be a high-priority.

I also plan to pick up a Noctua (1200RPM, 81 m3/h, 17dB) fan for behind the mid-HDD bay (which will hold the 2x 500GB). Is that a good choice for fan? Or should I pick up a Yate Loon (1200RPM. 45cfm, 24dB)? The Noctua would cost me $12CAN while the Yate Loon would cost $4. Would the added silence be worth the price?

Thanks, I appreciate all help!
 
Merlin

Merlin

The Tech Wizard
A little pricey, but the Freezone does the best job at cooling.
I'm building another machine and I'll go with another CoolIt product

Also, if not pricey.....Then the Zalman is my second choice ( there was only about 11C to 15C difference between the two)

Merlin
 
Last edited:
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
I believe the Freezone is a little bit of an overkill for this machine, since I don't plan to go high with the overclocks. In addition, if I were to add liquid cooling to the machine, I'd like to cool the GPU that way as well, not only the CPU. I am not sure if CoolIT offers a solution that cools both the CPU and a single GPU. All I've seen were solutions for either or. I might also jump to conclusions in thinking that there would not be much room inside the case for a CoolIT setup.

For a gaming machine, I'd greater consider a CoolIT product, but this is just going to be a workstation that's mildly overclocked with no (or at least very rare) gaming in mind.
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Normally I am not a huge fan of bigger air coolers, but that one seems to be getting great reviews. I am really leaning towards that one now. Happen to have suggestions for fans to strap on that thing? Will that Yate Loon, despite being slow, still be sufficient? Quad-Cores can get hot... very hot, which is why I am concerned. I don't mind if the CPU keeps above 50 or 60 at all times, but that's unneeded room heat as well, heh.
 
madmat

madmat

Soup Nazi
Go for a Scythe S-Flex "F" series, I'll edit in the part number in a second. Here's the fan I'm talking about. Bear in mind you'll have to look elsewhere but it's a better fan than a YateLoon. They're pretty quiet especially inside a case.
 
Last edited:
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Is it just me, or is NewEgg actually down? I couldn't access it all last night either. Sometimes it would load, but it would be very slow.
 
madmat

madmat

Soup Nazi
Black Friday was the reason for that. It was working fine when I posted that link last night.
 
N

Naish

E.M.I.
Yea, that's what he's talking about. I just bought the 1600RPM version. Running it on my Ultra-120 Extreme. It's great!

Q6600 OC'd to 3.2ghz, vcore 1.376v

idle temps ~37C, (38, 34, 33, 36)

crysis and 3dmark load temps ~48C

prime95 managed to take it up to 60c and killed it on the heat/power stress test. But with the temps so low and Crysis for 4 hours not causing issues, I'm not really that worried about it. I was hoping you would be online today actually Rob, was gonna ask you about voltages.
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Oh wow, if that's the temps you are getting at THAT overclock, I should be fine. Good stuff, I will order soon. Still wouldn't mind a slim-fan for the front HDD-bay, but I don't think it's going to happen. I hate knowing the 750GB drive is going to sit down there hotter than hell.

As for being online, I can hop on tonight, but I have a lot of work to catch up on, so I am trying to keep off as much as I can. Going away next week, and I am trying to avoid taking off with so much unfinished business.

Edit: Your Q6600 must be a G0? My Xeon is a B3, so I assume it might be a little hotter because of that. Not positive though. I don't remember hitting -low- temps even with water.
 
N

Naish

E.M.I.
Yes, but keep in mind prime95(heat/power test, NOT a blend test) took me to 60c and crashed after about 70 seconds.

edit; Blend test took me to about 54c load, but was stable.

edit; This is with my P182 fans on medium (they're relatively quiet on medium, loud is a vacuum, low is whisper quiet, but you wrote the review on that one anyway)

edit; Yes, g0. Most people claim the temp diff is only a few degrees though.

Games however haven't given me any issues yet at all. I have a feeling my problem is that *puts on his dunce cap* I'm letting the voltages be handled automatically.
 
Last edited:
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Well, if I have time sometime soon, I'll install the X3210 again into the water-cooling machine, OC it to 2.6GHz and stress all cores. I bet I will receive well over 70C per core. This is still stable though, so it's not a huge problem. Considering I will very rarely stress all four cores at once (though it will be more than I do on a Windows rig), I am hoping it won't be a problem.
 
N

Naish

E.M.I.
Hopefully it won't... Damn though, 70c per core with water.. That's a HOT chip.

To my dismay, my tower, even with the mass outtake area in the back, does NOT heat my room. I've got my jacket on since I really don't want to clean the heater and turn it on. It's a medium sized room, maybe 12 by 12.
 
N

Naish

E.M.I.
Geez, the stock fans on the p182 don't help that much at all. Might replace them with a couple of S-FLEXs next time I put an order in.

I threw them both down to low and each core temp went up 1 degree on idle. On the other hand, it's now so quiet that I feel lonely, lol, so I may just leave em on medium.
 
madmat

madmat

Soup Nazi
The 1600RPM version is the F. Looking at the letter at the end of the model number you'll see one's an E (1200RPM) the other's an F and the 800RPM is D.

The F's are pretty quiet really, quieter than my 1300RPM Yate's are.
 
Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Naish said:
Yep. Btw Rob, don't forget to hit up shopbot.ca before you order.

Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F 120MM Cooling Fan 1600RPM 28.0DBA 63.7CFM FDB $14.99
PriceMatch Source: http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=14110AC5567&vpn=SFF21F&manufacture=SCYTHE 1 $11.34
PriceMatch $11.34

:) They accept just about any pricematch as long as it's from Canada.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will consider that. I might pick up more than one of those fans, since I found the one in the Antec to be a little shoddy. At least the one in the bottom of the case (beside the PSU). It never starts up when I turn on the machine... I need to flick it with a finger to get it going.
 
Optix

Optix

Basket Chassis
Staff member
thread-necro.jpg


:p
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top