Cooling Questions for antec 1200, asus a8n32-sli, nvidia 7900 gtx.

Hello,

I plan on buying the antec 1200 case which will house two nvidia gtx 7900
cards (with soundblaster sandwhiched between them) and maybe the scythe
zipang cooler on the amd x2 3800 processor which is on the asus a8n32-sli
motherboard.

Question about the cooling:

1. What is the best cpu cooler for the antec 1200 case (relating to airflow
?)

I am worried about: airflow obstruction of big cpu coolers.
I am worried about: airflow disruption because of cooling fans.
I am worried about: electronics around cpu not being cooled.
I am worried about: top down coolers as well... maybe they just blow hot air
towards electronics ? though "they" say this is good... blowing cool air
towards electronics around cpu is good too.
I am worried about: little heatsinks with big fans... what if fan dies ?
would be nice if heatsink is big enough for passive cooling and airflow via
case... (zipang kinda sux without fan cooling it seems )

However the antec 1200 case has: two rear case fans... one top case fan.

So I have a little dilemma:

Maybe it's better to have a cpu cooler which blows away hot air towards the
exit/exhausts ?

But maybe this would be bad for the electronics on the motherboard... they
might not be cooled enough.

I am especially worried about the motherboard. Two motherboards have already
died probably because of overheat.

So I am mostly looking for best motherboard cooling solution. !!!

So best question is:

2. What is the best motherboard cooling solution ?

I think this comes down too:

Which cpu cooler is best to cool the motherboard as well ?

Or are there maybe even special motherboard cooling solutions ?

I do have passive heatsinks on motherboard, maybe this was a bad choice.

However I do not know what caused the failures... maybe it's near the gpu
cards which can get quite hot it seems.

Some more questions:

3. Will the Scythe Zipang fit on the asus a8n32-sli motherboard ?

Reviews are good about the zipang... it's a top down cooler which means it
blows cool air towards the motherboard which is good for cooling the
electronics on it. But will it fit on the motherboard ? It's quite big.

Any mounting issue's ? For me it's probably no problem to take the
motherboard out of the case... I have to do that anyway... So mounting
outside case should be no problem (?)

4. In which direction do the xfx nvidia 7900 gtx fans blow air ?

Do they blow air towards their chips ? Which would be in the
case-up-direction ?

Or do they blow air downwards away from their chips ? Which would be in the
case-down-direction ?

I ask this because I will have to place the seasonic s12 power supply
up-side down on the bottom.

Therefore I wonder how the airflow will be effected ?

Will the power fan and the bottom gtx fan work against each other ?

Or will they work nicely in tendem... gtx expelling heat to power supply ?

Maybe this is not a problem... but maybe it is a problem ?

At least they should both be able to suck in air side-ways.

The antec 1200 is slightly bigger than my current case but not much so
that's ok.

This mostly covers the questions I have.

Bye,
Skybuck.

I just had another idea:

Rounded serial ata ide cables for any serial ide devices like disk drive or
dvd drive.

This will probably help a bit... it might also make it more easy to bind
them to the sides or so... those original bigger/width cables are more
difficult to bend, so these roundes serial ata cables should be easier to
bend and such I hope..

Bye,
Skybuck.

One possible way to be sure about the airflow directions and such is using a
smoke kit.

Would this be better than just a sigarette ? (I don't smoke though )

Will the smoke stick around inside the components ? Hmm.

Bye,
Skybuck.

Skybuck Flying wrote:

Bye,
Skybuck.

Dear Sky****

Please STFU
--
SteveH

"Skybuck Flying" wrote in message
b.home.nl...
One possible way to be sure about the airflow directions and such is using
a smoke kit.

Would this be better than just a sigarette ? (I don't smoke though )

Will the smoke stick around inside the components ? Hmm.

Bye,
Skybuck.


Start smoking. Lots of cigarettes.

Answer to question 4:

X-bit labs has some information about the cooling system of the 7900 gtx
card.

According to that website, the cooling system is very simaliar to the 7800
gtx/quadro:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...2_4.html#sect0

Indeed the pictures look similiar.

In short the air flow works as follows:

1. Air is sucked into the card via the fan.

2. The air is blown downwards towards the gpu area.

3. The air is also split so it goes towards the heatsinks which are on
either side of the card.

Which would be left/rear and right/front.

The hot air near the rear is blown out of the case through the cards vents.
The hot air near the front is blown back into the case near where the
harddisks would be.

So maybe 50 procent of this hot air ends up near the harddisks.

Then it's guessing work... maybe some of it... is re-sucked into the fan...
and maybe some of it passes across the motherboard's chips.

Since these gpu's can become quite hot... this could be pretty hot air... I
have no clue how hot that air really is.

Anyway this could be a problem when there is a power supply under the
card... which is trying to suck the same air into it's power housing.

So these two fans... would definetly be working against each other (?).

Or maybe they help each other suck air in from the side.

Well fortunately I have a Seasonic S12 600 watt power supply which is very
efficient and requires only a modest ammount of airflow.

People with high air flow power supplies might be screwed hehe.

However I must warn myself too... not to get all smiley...

The FAN of the 7900 gtx spins at 1000 RPM mostly the site said.

And ofcourse RPM is no good indication of actually air moved.

I do know that the fan of the seasonic s12 is very advanced and can move
lots of air with slow spinning blades.

So the real question is:

How much air do both fans move.... could they really cancel each other out ?

This is stuff for air experts with the right equipment and facilities


I can only guess at it... or maybe there is some air simulation software to
be found somewhere

That would be cool.

Then I only need the air flow specifications of both fan blades... at
different rpm's... and then I still need to know the actual rpm's during
active duty...

And then there is now telling how it will all react....

When I start gaming the gpu fans will ofcourse start spinning more
actively....

What will happen then ?

Maybe the power fan blades will start spinning harder as well to
compensate...

This could start making more noise... because I know the seasonic s12 fan
can make some noise when it starts spinning harder...

I would not want that...

Kinda sux.

I might have to replace the power supply something I rather not do...

On the other hand I might replace the fricking cards lol... not really
ofcourse.. those ****ing expensive and ofcourse probably sold out
everywhere.. except on e-bay...

Anyway... I'll just have to hope for the best I guess... fingers crossed.

Bye,
Skybuck.

Answer to question 2:

The best cooling solution for the motherboard would probably be a special
fan mounted inside the case... near the motherboard... which simply blows
cool air over the motherboard.

However the motherboard is quite large... one fan would not be enough.

There would have to be multiple fans... all blowing nicely cool air over the
motherboard.

Cables would have to be nicely tucked away.

I actually experimented with placing a loose fan inside the case to see what
would happen.

It worked very well... unfortunately the fan was waaay too noise at 12 volt
(only connector left).

And ofcourse having a loose fan in the case is way too risky for my taste.

Maybe this is a nice idea for future cases:

Add extra mounting points for fans inside the case itself to blow cool air
over the motherboard !

Bye,
Skybuck.

Dear Google,

Please add filtering options to your newgroup software.

I would like to add my ban list to google so the next time my hardware has
failed and me must switch to different computer and using your terrific
google service I do not have to be confronted with people like SteveH.

I wish to remove people like SteveH from my google viewing experience.

Bye,
Skybuck.

Skybuck Flying wrote:
Dear Google,

Please add filtering options to your newgroup software.

I would like to add my ban list to google so the next time my
hardware has failed and me must switch to different computer and
using your terrific google service I do not have to be confronted
with people like SteveH.
I wish to remove people like SteveH from my google viewing experience.

Bye,
Skybuck.

Dear ******,

Consider me gone - you've now joined the other idiots in my killfile.
--
SteveH

"Skybuck Flying" wrote in message
.home.nl...
Hello,

I plan on buying the antec 1200 case which will house two nvidia gtx 7900
cards (with soundblaster sandwhiched between them) and maybe the scythe
zipang cooler on the amd x2 3800 processor which is on the asus a8n32-sli
motherboard.

Question about the cooling:

1. What is the best cpu cooler for the antec 1200 case (relating to
airflow ?)

I am worried about: airflow obstruction of big cpu coolers.
I am worried about: airflow disruption because of cooling fans.
I am worried about: electronics around cpu not being cooled.
I am worried about: top down coolers as well... maybe they just blow hot
air towards electronics ? though "they" say this is good... blowing cool
air towards electronics around cpu is good too.
I am worried about: little heatsinks with big fans... what if fan dies ?
would be nice if heatsink is big enough for passive cooling and airflow
via case... (zipang kinda sux without fan cooling it seems )

However the antec 1200 case has: two rear case fans... one top case fan.

So I have a little dilemma:

Maybe it's better to have a cpu cooler which blows away hot air towards
the exit/exhausts ?

But maybe this would be bad for the electronics on the motherboard... they
might not be cooled enough.

I am especially worried about the motherboard. Two motherboards have
already died probably because of overheat.

So I am mostly looking for best motherboard cooling solution. !!!

So best question is:

2. What is the best motherboard cooling solution ?

I think this comes down too:

Which cpu cooler is best to cool the motherboard as well ?

Or are there maybe even special motherboard cooling solutions ?

I do have passive heatsinks on motherboard, maybe this was a bad choice.

However I do not know what caused the failures... maybe it's near the gpu
cards which can get quite hot it seems.

Some more questions:

3. Will the Scythe Zipang fit on the asus a8n32-sli motherboard ?

Reviews are good about the zipang... it's a top down cooler which means it
blows cool air towards the motherboard which is good for cooling the
electronics on it. But will it fit on the motherboard ? It's quite big.

Any mounting issue's ? For me it's probably no problem to take the
motherboard out of the case... I have to do that anyway... So mounting
outside case should be no problem (?)

4. In which direction do the xfx nvidia 7900 gtx fans blow air ?

Do they blow air towards their chips ? Which would be in the
case-up-direction ?

Or do they blow air downwards away from their chips ? Which would be in
the case-down-direction ?

I ask this because I will have to place the seasonic s12 power supply
up-side down on the bottom.

Therefore I wonder how the airflow will be effected ?

Will the power fan and the bottom gtx fan work against each other ?

Or will they work nicely in tendem... gtx expelling heat to power supply ?

Maybe this is not a problem... but maybe it is a problem ?

At least they should both be able to suck in air side-ways.

The antec 1200 is slightly bigger than my current case but not much so
that's ok.

This mostly covers the questions I have.

Bye,
Skybuck.