Cooling fan placement results

[onion]

My rig for the tests.XPS GEN 2 3.2HT Zalman CNPS7000B HSF
7800gs sc co 482/1561. 74gig raptors x2, 1 250gig caviar

In these three screenshots I experimented with fan placement and size of fans in different locations. All screens are labled with fan sizes,cfm's and locations for each test.
The test included running prime95 Torture test and ATItool simultaneously.
I have found this will get your sytem up to max temperatures in the fastest amount of time. My baseline temp is idle at desktop for ten minutes. The stress test is the first 4 phases of the Prime95 torture test while running ATItool 3d view. The cooldown after each run is 11 minutes. After each run I would rearrange fan placements for the next run




A couple of things I noticed is The HDD fan does not matter at idle,
however during the stress tests and cooldown is where the HDD fan makes a difference.
Also in the last test you can see how beneficial it is to the video card to have the 120mm fan as an intake, while using the 92mm as an intake my card temps increased at idle and at full load.
The temp increase at full load actually had a negative effect on my card performance as I lost 10fps.
And the single 120mm as an exhaust fan is not nearly effecient enough at removing hot air. Very high CPU and Case temps in that configuration as well as HDD temps.
Now video cards may throttle at said temperature..however you will lose performance the hotter the card gets.
Screen 1 is how I run my cooling..optimal for my set up I think.
So I'd like to know how you guys are doing with your aircooling.
And maybe some advice on how to improve my cooling.

Thanks I hope I was clear enough and did not lose anyone.

[crusier]

What all have you removed of the stock xps shrouds /plastics. What are your locations of the various hardware components (hdds, cd/dvd drives/fans). What are all the cards currently installed.
I ran the 3d render in ati tray tools, finding it sufficient on cpu load, at an ambient temperature of 78-80 F. I have an artic cooler on the 800 aiw vid card and am using the two rear nidecs that came with the puter as intakes under manual speed control. The cpu cooler is a hyper six with no fans mounted on it.
gen1 p4 2.8 2gb 2-250gb sata 2-dvd drives

[onion]

I have two 74gig raptors, one 250gig caviar, two optical drives. The only change is the HDDs have been moved in to allow for the 80mm fan inside the cage.
For cards I have the 7800gs and an X-FI in the bottom pci slot.
How does your cpu stay so cool using a passive heat sink?
I removed the cpu fan shroud and the black duct that funneled the air from the stock intake fan so I could place the 120mm there. My vidcard has the stock HSF.
Try running Prime and atitool together and see if your temps increase anymore.

[crusier]

Which hdd/dvd bays are filled/open and does your vid card exhaust the heat to the inside of the chassis as my 800 aiw used to?

[onion]

All Hdds bays are filled and the top two optical bays are filled.
The vidcard exhausts air into the chassis..dumb design cause it adds a heck of alot of heat to overall sytem temps.
I don't have any after market cooling options for the 7800gs as of yet.

[crusier]

Under that configuration I'd recommend trying a reverse airflow such as what I have running here. I went to it after installing the 800aiw which initially had the stock cooling. It dumped a lot of heat into the chassis which was routed over the chipset heatsink just below the cpu chip when the rear fans were postioned for exhausting. Try the two rear fans blowing into the chassis and the front 120 blowing air out the front. I found the flow past the video card was picked up that way and blown out the front without heating other components in the chassis. I did notice some vid card heat flow issues to itself and the area where the front panel ribbon cable connector is located on the chassis and went with an aftermarket vid card cooler which dumps the vid card heated air out the back. That has issues all it's own. You can try running with the dell shinny shield in and out along with the unused dvd bay cover in and out. I never got much out of the dvd unused bay covers removed. As to the how do I get away with the passive cpu cooler, It's a huge dude and is positioned where the two rear fans blow air into it. The rear fans here are mounted on the outside of the chassis. It gets the most cpu cooling because of the extreme turbulence generated in the area directly between the fans. I can gain a few c's better cooling if I put 80's on the cpu heatsink.
The chassis is still an ongoing affair here, both for cooling and component placements.

[onion]

Holy heck now thats a hdd relocation mod.
I assume that was done to allow for unimpeded airflow through the hdd cage. With the rear fans as intake airflow is pretty much a straight shot to the exhaust fan in the hdd bay,correct.
I just swapped out my rear antecs for two higher cfm fans,made no difference though.
Please, how did you do that relocation mod?
Maybe a pic showing how they are mounted at the rear. The hdd also act as a funnel set up that way ,Huh.
So you have your 120mm fan in the hdd bay correct?
Do you have a fan in the stock location beneath the hdd bay?
Thanks thats something I will definitely try once I figure out the Hdd relocation.
One more question off topic. When I run 4x512 of my Corsair XMS
CPUZ still reads Dual channel but for performance mode it reads
Disabled.
If I run 2x512 it reads Dual and performance mode enabled.
Any ideas on that?

[crusier]

There is no 120 fan. There is no hdd cage. There is no dvd cage. The hdd relocation handled any hdd cooling issues. I't s just wall shelf mounting rail notched and bent to conform to the dell adapters and mounted to the rear of the chassis. I need to get some added support in there to kill any vibrations (side to side). I initially used the agp support bracket with the top reversed and tucked under the bottom one. Since then I have removed the agp support because of issues with the artic vid card cooler reverse side plate. It fit but was a bear getting it in there. The digicam is off with my daughter and grandson on a trip currently and I'll see about getting a current progress pic up when they return.
On your memory you can check for non matching spd info on the memory sticks. The sticks all need to match up. There is info posted elsewhere on the board here. I'm not sure, but I think I dropped the text post of the spd information here.
Be sure to try the rear fans positioned to blow in, the 120 front fan to blow out the front, and the hdd fan you'll have to play by ear. The hdds may pick up hot exhaust from the vid card if the cooling fan on them is set to blow out the front also. I just kept running into issues with the cages mounted as they were in the chassis.
It sure would be sweet if the vid card chip and cooler were on the other side and a heat piped cooler finned array that could be placed in the airflow.