Akasa Hi-engineered professional side panel

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Does anyone have one of these ?

1. Does it ruin the front fan / rear fan airflow or does it help keep your video card cool.

2. How is the fan that is included ? They quote 17.5db on Akasas site which I have a hard time believing. The quietest fan I ever heard and the best sounding was the Nexus 120mm Orange fan and that is rated around a "real" 22db.

By the way, I am building a new PC for a friend based around an Intel sli mobo, 3.73 extreme edition cpu overclocked to 4.4ghz, and a pair of 7900gtx's in sli. Probably use a Forton 700w psu to drive it. I am thinking the Eclipse would probably be the best case to drive that rig.
 
A PC7+ could handle that rig, your PSU is going over the top but if the budget allows it why not.

The Eclipse with the side panel will cool better, as to the fan, nobodys noise or CFM readings can be trusted. Having not heard the fan that comes with it (unless it was the amber I saw) I can not comment.

A akasa amber would be a good option, the only thing is with two cards in SLI the noise of the case fans is not a issue, as the graphics cards will handle all the noise. :p
 
Might go down the Lian-Li route. I like the removable tray on the Akasa though, and nice and airy over the width, plus lots of space to hide the psu cables around the side of the psu cage.

Actually the 7900gtx's are dead silent. I have one in my system right now and can barely here it, even under load. Which is the reason I went for the 7900gtx instead of the 1900xt. The ambers fans are also too noisy (well at least for me).

Any other recommendations on the psu ? I don't think the Forton is overkill because the cpu really drinks a lot of juice. Dual core with hyperthreading and it is easily good for 4.4ghz on air. I failed to mention this rig as well as sli will be running a xifi, 2 WD 150gig raptors, 2 WD 500gig drives, 2 opticals, and bunch of usb stuff connected up - tvtuner, printer, scanner, wifi, etc...

I wanted to go for an Antec Neo HE 550 which actually maintains a full 550w at 50 degrees and can peak close to 700w. The Forton looses almost 100w at only 40 degrees. So in many respects the Antec is better then the Forton. However sli compatability issues put me off. I also want something that is sleeved so the Seasonic is out (plus the pci-e connectors are too close together). I considered the Tagan 580w easy connect too, but that has some powerloading issues as well whereby if you don't load the 3.3v and 5v rails sufficiently this causes instability in the 12v area, even in combined mode. Same problem with the Silverstone PSU's. Solution is to use pci-e to molex adaptors. The Enermax libery irritates me over the way each cable has 2 molex's and 2 sata connectors. And the Akasa 650w is a tad noisy under load. <Sigh>
 
You could run that rig of a 450w PSU. :p

Stick with what you think best, both your top choice PSU's would run it fine.

As to the Ambers, they only really shine at 7v and 5v, 12v performance is lacking. (But who runs there fans at 12v anyway ;))

Noise really bothers me and I find the reference 7900's cooler to be a noisey piece of work. All personal preference really.

For that system, the cases I would be considering would be a Eclipse, V1000+/1100+ or maybe the S80 when it comes out. (Going to be getting one myself).

The Lian Li G70 may also be just the perfect case for the rig, although it is a little big.
 
True, but only with a 12v eps connector for the ee cpu.

Really...you think the 7900 coolers are noisy ? The gt's certainly. But the gtx's are very quiet I think though the fan makes a slighy buzzing noise. I can easily hear my case fan over it.

For this rig, I think the fans will be on at 12v as this person does not want to bother with a controller. For that reason the Nexus 12v which can be had for the same price as Ambers are a great choice.
 
If it makes audable noise through a case panel at 30cm away, then yes it is noisey.

If it makes no noise, then it is something I would have in my rig.

Raptors are excluded because I like the seeking noise. :rolleyes:
 
I think the fans on the 7900gtx are acceptable to me for what it does...cools a high end card much quieter then the stock x1800, x1900 or previous 7800gtx generation. I do admit I can hear a very low hum, and if I put my ear to my case I can hear the buzzing from the fan (due to pwm). But so far this has been the quietest stock fan ever. If it was any noisier I would definitely consider a mod. Of course you probably have your cards watercooled and I guess once you go down that route there is no going back to air :)

Another choice for this rig would be an Antec P180...the thick panels would definitely muffle the quiet video cards even more and deaden the hdd seek. Plus good cpu cooling with those 2x120mm fans on low. But from the 3 or 4 of these I have built for friends, this is all at the cost of poor cooling of the gpu and chipset. I found nvidia chipsets can run up to 10 degrees hotter idling compared to using a normal atx case setup, even with a 120mm fan blowing onto the gpu's from the front, and the gpu duct is pants for sure.

It's the PC-7 or the Eclipse then. Only minus is the front panel, and the replacement on the Mirage or whatever it's called looks even worse.
 
PC7 can handle SLI, bit of a smaller space to work with mind.

The Eclipse is the one I would go for out of the two, money does not seem to be tight enough to force the PC7. :p
 
I agree. It's the Eclipse then.

Going back to one of my original questions....does the sidepanel with the fan help do you think, as I always thought these things messed up airflow.

Thanks
 
Does not mess up the Eclipses airflow as it is designed for it, should not see reason to use one mind as the Eclipse is capeable at stock. Knocks a couple of deg off your case temp and a bit of the graphics cards; however it is not stunning value for money but if you see a need to buy one why not!

(On a side note it may add some more 'expensive' PC feel to the whole thing; especially if the person spending the money is not to hot on the latest hardware then it may help them to think that it was money well spent, as if you do not build or upgrade systems the only parts that tell you that it is a high end system are the case, mouse, monitor and keyboard; making these high end makes the whole system seem higher end to the end user.

Why I always stick PC's I make for people in good cases, makes it seem more special than a £20 Estar Benz cheap job.
 
Actually I am have thinking of transplanting my PC's inards into an Eclipse too, as I want an SLI setup :)

The replacement for the Eclipse really has a horrid front. What you reckon ?
 
The Mirage may also have fans on the side, or a huge fan, which in my opinion will ruin why the Eclipse is great.

Just get the Eclipse.

The Mirage will have to be more expensive, taking it into V series territory where it will probably be out of its league as it is afterall based on a Globalwin Chasis from 2001.
 
So do you reckon the Eclipse is the best cooling case out there without going down a brute force route like the TJ07 ?

I don't mind the front panel on the Eclipse to be honest. I had an Eclipse before and did not hold onto it long enough to really give it a chance as I sold it to buy a P180 when they came out. Pity.

Only weird thing I noticed with the Eclipse was I had to bend the top of the mobo tray slighly to get the cards to screw down into place. Also terrible for fingerprints :)
 
Yeh for the cooling / noise ratio the Eclipse will beat the P180 and anything else you care to throw at it; from what I have used anyway.

Not much can touch it for cooling until you cram a case full of Delta Screamers. :p
 
I just ordered one from OcUK, along with a new PSU, Motherboard, and a 2nd 7900gtx. Everything else I can take out of current case. Good times ahead next week. 2 systems to build now :) Only problem is I have a VX922 LCD so limited to 1280. I guess I will have to play everything with 6x or 8x AA :)
 
I can do that with a single 7800gt at that res bar oblivion. :p

Waste having that kind of horsepower for graphics on that res! But if you have the money. :(
 
Everyone says that 1280/SLI is a waste, but I find it means at 1280 you can push the eye candy way up....some games might let you run 1600 4xaa/16xaf, but at 1280 they can run with 6xAA or higher. Other older games like HL2 which are still a bit cpu dependent will play nicely on this rig using Nvidia's 16x SLI AA, helped slightly by the fact the mobo I ordered uses 2 x 16x lanes and does not share them. Other games like Oblivion I think should be able to handle most of the eye candy turned on and maybe 6xAA at 1280. I think you really need to push up the graphical detail to let the cards do it's thing at the lowish 1280 res. Of course I would get a bigger screen if I could find something that performs as well as the 2ms Viewsonic.

By the way, the credit card has the money :)
 
Don't usually use acronyms, but L O L :D

I just can not justify SLI, the games look good enough to me with 4xaa and af. :)

Does for me! :)
 
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