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Post by tinpusher on Nov 24, 2004 18:37:54 GMT -5
I have been a victim of the 747 fan noise from my XPS. I took the Processor Airflow Shroud off and the fans were installed correctly. Top fan blowing out, bottom fan blowing in. On thing the bottom fan had a piece of cardboard blocking airflow over the processor. Strange? I took the cardboard out and have noticed that the noise level is down. Should I have taken this cardboard out? What is the reason it was installed? Would seem to me that you would want the air blowing on the cooling fans. I did go to the Nidec website and the fans that Dell uses are TA350DC M35291 which have a Db rating of 57dBA when full speed (6,000 rpm). I will be looking for quieter fans and do Devnulls's mod.
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Post by devnull on Nov 25, 2004 22:32:11 GMT -5
If I understand, its the black cardboard on the bottom of the shoud. I think the reason it is there is to make sure that air going right into the case doesn't get blown right back out instantly. If you can get a hardware temperature sensor of some means, you might wanna see if its really cooling the processor down or just making it so there is less actual HOT air coming over the nidec fans.
After all, if you think about it, the reason they are revving up the way they are is because hot air from your processor is heating up the thermal material of the nidec fan, and its telling the fan to speed up. If you are blowing out the cool air as soon as its going into the case, of course the fans wont be as loud, but they might not be doing their job either.
Just check it out with a temp sensor if you can and give us some feedback =\
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Post by tinpusher on Nov 26, 2004 10:19:19 GMT -5
I'll be getting tha Cooler Matser Aerogate II. So when I hook it up I'll know better.
Also Devnull did you hook up your Aerogate to the rear fans? If so how.
Thanks
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Post by sakin13 on Dec 7, 2004 3:50:53 GMT -5
Just found out about this forum , i got the link on Neowin from "rumbleph"
Having been deep inside over 30 different PC's in the last 10 years i must admit that the Dell has been the most puzzling one to say the least. I have had Dells in the past but this particular Gen 3 one seems to be the result of some poor design as far as the Cooling goes.
My 775 socket CPU is 3.6 and the thing is that it generates heat like no other CPU . So the main problem is that the little Copper/Aluminuim cooling tower cannot transfer the heat from the base up to the shroud so the Nidec fans can cool it off as fast as it is suposed to. The fans do cool down the top part of the cooling tower but the bottom stays extremely hot , hence the Board gets the reading and the fans operate at max speed most of the time. I have tried everything that can be done with the factory system , i turned the fans inside out and upside down , i removed the carton , I even used some Zalman quiet fans but then eventhough i lost the noise i did lose the performance too... in some heavy gaming applications the system would go slow...
I decided to go and replace the cooling system alltogether. That was even harder... There is nothing in the market that will fit on the particular motherboard. Nothing . period. to cut a long story short, i have managed to install a water cooling system from Asetek ( after many modifications ... )and atm i am quite pleased with the performance and the noise level which is close to nothing. I will get some pictures up .
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Post by devnull on Dec 7, 2004 14:03:33 GMT -5
Congrats on the mod. I m sorry to hear that you are having such trouble with your computer's noise. i understand what you are saying about the 3.6 ghz processor, but I don't think the fans run off a motherboard dependant value. From what most of the other people say on this forum, the fans that expell air from the rear of the case are nidec controlled, meaning that they have a thin filliment placed on them that conducts electricity better and better as it gets warmer. As the air going into the fans gets warmer (becuase of the heat supplied by the heatsink), the filliment on the fans begins to get warmer as well and compensates by increasing the flow of power to the fans, thereby increasing the speed of them. The only problem with this might be the fact that ambient air temperature in a given room might be high enough that passing air through the system isn't enough to cool the nidec strips down, thereby keeping the speed of the fan at a high level.
I am very interested in your mod of the XPS to utilize water cooling. I really have been interested in a similar project but have neither the water-cooling experience or monetary supplies (i am but a poor college student!) to do such a mod. I think it would help the performance of the computer out a great deal, as I would not have to run nearly the voltage through the motherboard that the nidec fans and other case fans require. Pictures would be totally awesome!
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Post by sakin13 on Dec 9, 2004 9:59:14 GMT -5
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Post by stevogabe on Dec 9, 2004 15:27:57 GMT -5
awesome thanks for posting the pics. do you know if that fan up top can be fitted else where. im asking because i was wondering if this mod can be done to my gen2 system.
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Post by sakin13 on Dec 9, 2004 16:45:45 GMT -5
The main issue with Gen 3 is that the motherboard is made for Dell only, hence there is no cooling system on the market to fit that board ( the holes are different than any other 775 socket board ) Whoever decides to go ahead and instal anything on it is on for a "bumpy ride" to say the least. The Chill block i used was initially designed for Amd... on the other hand, I think it would fit perfectly on the Gen 2. The readings i get atm are from 50 to 59 C As far as the materials i got them from a friend who is really wicked as far as cooling goes. he has a shop here in Greece ( yup i live in Greece.) www.checkmate.gr is his website and he has all the latest stuff, but you can get it from www.asetek.com and www.h2o-computer.co.uk. the pump the cooling block and the pipes are from asetek and the tank is from H2O. the Radiator from Asetek is the small one cause thats the only one that was available at the time but i guess the "Radiator RDT02 120 mm DUAL Black Ice Pro II " would have even better results. Also I had a Thermaltake 120mm fan on the radiator but i replaced it with an AcoustiFan 120 mm which even at full revs is like it doesnt exist ( its like 25 db or so ). And most important it does the job. As a conclusion i use this Dell mainly for Gaming and i tried it on Half Life 2 , Everquest 2 as well as World of Warcraft and it runs on max quality settings as smooth as it gets. i am content
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Post by TRow on Dec 9, 2004 19:30:11 GMT -5
Pretty sweet mod! Any idea of what Operating temps your getting at what ambient? Does the kit expand for GPU, NB? Your gonna get a lot of questions on this one T.RoW
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Post by weltonw on Dec 12, 2004 2:37:50 GMT -5
sakin13 - your liquid cooling setup looks awesome! Like many Gen3 owners, I'm very disappointed with the fan noise under high load. Although I'm a newbie at modding, I've been researching liquid cooling for a few weeks now and plan to make this my first upgrade. Seeing the pictures of your system proves it can be done. It seems like the most difficult part is getting the right size chill block and mounting clip so it fits Dell's proprietary motherboard. You mentioned this, and other people too have had problems, e.g.: forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_printer&message.id=23282&query.id=0#M23282Although we have the 775 socket, you mentioned you used a chill block made for an AMD processor. What exact size did you get? If I got a block made for the 775 socket, would it not work? It seems like it's ok if the chill block is a bit bigger than the CPU, although the opposite wouldn't be good. As for the mounting hole positions, I know that they are non-standard. I opened my rig an hour ago and measured their separation to be about 48mm x 82mm. Looking at a spec sheet from the "SAN ACE MC Liquid" I'm guessing a more standard separation is 72mm x 72mm. In any case, I'm not overly concerned about this. If I have to I'll make my own mounting clip. Ultimately it's nothing more than a piece of metal which firmly holds the chill block against the CPU. I would love to hear about all the "gore" details of your setup. You mentioned sending these via email, but why not simply post them here? I think that's exactly the kind of information that people on this forum want.
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Post by sakin13 on Dec 13, 2004 3:24:25 GMT -5
i am sorry for the delayed reply i was away for the weekend.
as i said above the main issue was not the Block itself. Both AMD and Intel cooling blocks are the same. The clip that supports the block onto the cpu is the one that i spent most my time on modifying. The one from the Asetek AMD cooling system was the only one that was close to fit that Dell board. all i had to do was to widen its holes so it would fit the existing plastic base on the dell board.
The job was a done with my Dremel but if someone is not familiar with cuting metal i would suggest you ask some pro to do it for you. The best way to do it is to remove the plastic base from the board and adjust the clip to fit it , then place it back and install the block and the clip.
I will try to find a same adapter and take a picture of it on how it is shipped and then ill take a picture of my modified one and post it up but it might take a few days.
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Post by weltonw on Dec 13, 2004 20:31:05 GMT -5
Thanks for the response. It's reassuring to know it's just the clip that needs some tweaking.
Before/after pics of your modified clip would be great if you have a chance to take some.
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Post by vojky on Dec 24, 2004 7:16:34 GMT -5
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Post by devnull on Dec 24, 2004 12:54:36 GMT -5
I would doubt that it will fit stock. I guess thats all there is to say. If you are willing to mod the heatsink, though, I think you could make it work.
BTW -- AWESOME mod man, that really cleans up the case and is soooo badass. I was thinking about how I might do such a mod, and was wondering if I could mount the radiator in front where the badge is and have a 120mm fan blow air out the front. Could you use those 3.5" bays that Dell leaves for 2 extra HDD (i only have 1 hard drive) for reservoirs and keep the same pump you have now? Also, what pump are you using, and if I was to cool my GPU and CPU with two reservoirs, would I have enough pressure to use the same pump? Thx!
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Post by tinpusher on Feb 26, 2005 7:39:53 GMT -5
See my post on the "XPS GEN 3 Technical issues" board "XPS GEN 3 fan noise fixed". They replaced the heatsink and no more fan noise. Tom
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Post by avsforsberg21 on Feb 28, 2005 19:13:46 GMT -5
Great pics and nice mod. The first temps posted didn't seem very cool and was curious if you have done further testing and could post some results. (load, idle, video card, etc.)
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Post by docpete on Mar 15, 2006 11:59:25 GMT -5
Hello, Does anyone make a liquid cooling cpu block that will fit on a 3.6GHz Gen 3 motherboard without modification. A new heatsink did not fix my noise problem. Thanks
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