After throttling issues I realised that the H60 simply wasn't going to cut it on my FX 8320 when overclocked. It barely scraped by at stock clocks, but just managed to keep the temps in check (3c from TJ) when running Prime. I also found that certain levels in Crysis 3 made the CPU load as if it were in Prime, something I've never seen before (usually Prime is harder than anything else). So, when Scan got some H100 refurbs for £39 it was game on First to remove the old cooler. I've put the Intel brackets back on 'cos I'm building a media rig soon with my old E6600 MATX gubbins.. Then it was time to remove the radiator carrier and fit the crap. And t'eh other side. Which thankfully connects to the second control board of the rad carrier to save me running the fans from the pump thing which would have been messier. The block protector kept falling off and I have had that happen before with my H60 and you end up covered in TIM and none left on the block so I taped it in place until everything was back in situ. Time to put back the rad carrier which is on a hinge and slide locks back into place I'll remove the molex later (clocked it was for the fan controller I'm not using). All done ! Ooooo, shut that door ! PCIE duct closed And my temps have dropped by 19c and I can now maintain my overclock even with lots of Prime goodness
Very nice! How noisy is the pump and the fans? Can you get good cooling performance with very quiet fans?
The pump is inaudible to me. The fans? dear god, WAAAAAAAAHHHHHH I forgot they weren't PWM so I can't slow them down in the Alienware command center.. They are on full blast atm (I could live with just the F12s but those Corsairs? god damn !). A mate of mine is sending me some 7v drop downs so once those are on I'm sure it'll be much better behaved. Right now? christ, it's frightening. Good thing I sit 20ft away from the PC really
Get yourself 4 noctua's and split the power 12v->2fans = 6v a piece give or take. I've done this on my h80 in a push-pull configuration. Fans don't even make a hum and I stay beneath 60 @ 4.5ghz i5-2500k
I love Noctua fans. I've had a few PCs absolutely full of them Thankfully there's no real need to use them now. My PC isn't at a desk so I sit about 20ft away from it when gaming. The noise is bad right now but 7v resistors should be more than good enough. I had the F12s running 12v on the H60 and they were fine, so I just need to calm the Corsairs down a bit. It's a pretty high performance PC what with 670 SLI and so on so a bit of noise was to be expected really
When i get the time and money i'm going to shift my pc into the utility room and wire remote switches and extra long cables. I haven't used a CD/DVD in over 3 years, so i don't need that noisy dust-collecting tower near me either
Doesn't look like they're plugged in to the CPU block - there's a power header on the rad carrier which the fans are plugged into. Might be worth extending the fan cables down there though?
Ah yes, looking back they've plugged in to another board. Question is why? Spend a few minutes routing the cables carefully and you can control the fans off the CPU block without it being messy.
It'll be for monitoring in the Alienware control thingo I'd imagine - although being non-PWM it makes control difficult
That costs more money. Yeah the second IO board connects to the first IO board (which is much bigger) and then it connects to an internal USB header.. Once there you can control any PWM fans in the command center.. For some reason I forgot they need to be 4 pin fans.. Here is the control center, it's kinda like Afterburner but for your case fans. But yeah, failed to notice they were only 3 pin.. I'll stick some 7v resistors on and see how it goes. If they're still too noisy I'll get some Delta PWMs like the rest of the case uses
Looks like a snazzy bit of s/w - I've made the same 3pin/4pin balls up in the past too. Annoying, isn't it! EDIT: Which chassis is that, Andy?
It's the Area 51 ALX. They did two.. Regular non ALX had a hydraulic front panel that wasn't powered and had less chrome accents, A51 ALX has a fully motorised front panel that opens and closes at the push of a button.. It also has some really cool lighting toys with it that can be controlled in a similar manner. Lots of toys, but cable management is a bit poo. Not that it matters it doesn't have a window I got mine from Ebay at Christmas for £200 inc with a 1200w PSU BDR and DVDRW (NRG-IT). I love it. It's heavy, though. Tips the scales at about 32kg empty.
32Kg? Wow. That's heavy! Cool case though - what's it like to build in (save for the irritating cable management?)
Yeah it's really easy to build into. Has some really cool toys too. The hard drives go in the right side. Door opens out like a gull wing door. And there's a blower fan plumbed into ducts that cool each drive.. Doors are triple walled with an alu skin, plastic insert then steel frame to keep them rigid. They're on hinges so you can either open them or take them off completely. The case has a full set of white interior lights that come on when you open it, as well as the hard drive bays light up, and on the back IO there is a button to light up the outside back so you can see what you're doing. These run from a battery pack hidden in the cowling. GPU duct is loaded with a 120mm Delta PWM which fires air over the GPUs. Works really well ! Front door open. I've got a Patriot Convoy SSD hot swap box I imported from the USA. Me messing around with our scales (and nearly breaking them ) Playing with the vents. And a better pic of the inside. And the front which is three layers of 6mm alu. So yeah, it's built like a brick poo house
Yeah there are three Delta PWM fans that really haul some air I've got them set to 30% which is just about audible so that the GPUs get plenty of cool air.
