case for SLI rig

BillTheButcher · 12 Jun 2006 at 15:42

Beenom said:
Pics! We DEMAND pictures!

Be patient. :cool:

They've been delivered to work and I'm not unpacking them until I get them home. My camera's at home anyway so I couldn't take any pics here even if I wanted to.

BillTheButcher · 12 Jun 2006 at 15:48

What I can do is post some pics of the old case that I took just after I swapped the HSFs...

Here are the XFX 7800 GTXs with their original HSFs and the Audigy2 in between them (before I bought my current X-Fi).

And here they are with the Arctic AcceleroX1s. :shock: See what I mean about only having 1 available PCI slot? (I know it's dusty in there - these were taken before I cleaned the inside of the case. :wink

The Arctic HSFs really are huge. :lol:

JaseUK · 12 Jun 2006 at 17:03

Thermaltake Shark

As requested here are a few pics of my Shark case with the 120mm fan I strapped to side panel. Temps: - mobo averaging 37 celsius, GPU's 41 celsius and 2 HDD at 40 celsius. These are idle temps and granted I would like them a little lower but they are considerably lower than in my old case.

WJA96 · 12 Jun 2006 at 19:16

Actually - that's quite a tidy mod. Simple, but very effective. I particularly like the way you didn't feel the need to cut the case or anything.

As you said in your first post, you've got a big air volume and you're getting good pressure over the graphics cards, which is basically what the Eclipse side panel is.

I like it. And the dust is just an inevitable consequence of having all that fan capacity blowing into the case.

Yewen · 12 Jun 2006 at 19:18

Yeh seeing that it really makes you wonder why Thermaltake do not have that as a stock feature, would only need some plastic clipse and it would be fine.

Mikey1280 · 12 Jun 2006 at 19:38

I used to have a 92mm fan on my centurion 532 side panel but it would make lots of noise due to the small holes the air to get through, I got rid of it in the end

JaseUK · 12 Jun 2006 at 20:14

I suppose to reduce the amount of dust intake a filter pad could be placed between the fan and the mesh, this would also assist in reducing vibration noise etc.........
Thinking out loud really!!!!!!!

WJA96 · 12 Jun 2006 at 20:49

Yes, but the filters look horrid and the dust can easily be blown away. I've actually just zip tied a fan into the back of the HDD bay in my main machine. The zip ties are small and go through the screw holes in the mounting plates no problem. Dropped the HDD temperature another 2C.

It's soooo simple, I'm kicking myself for not having thought of it before.

Thanks.

Murzo · 12 Jun 2006 at 23:41

Just to add to the lian li v1000+ debate

Lian Li v1000+ cas temp = 28degrees
opty [email protected] temp = 28degrees
X1800XT temp = 35degrees
2GB GSKILL HZ
DFI Expert
200gb Seagate HD
Enermax liberty 500W

Everything in my system is air cooled so i think the case works exceptionally well in the cooling department. BTW those are my current temps in this hot weather we are getting.

Yewen · 12 Jun 2006 at 23:43

Take it your not running the stock cooler on your graphics card though?

WJA96 · 13 Jun 2006 at 06:55

@Murzo, I do not wish to belittle your statement about the V1000+, but I honestly don't think an Opteron is a good test of cooling capacity. Dual Opteron, maybe, but with the P4's requiring double the cooling of an AMD chip, I think a case cannot be called 'tested' unless it's running an overclocked P4 with SLi and the temps are still in control.

Murzo · 13 Jun 2006 at 13:01

I am running a dual core opteron overclocked to 2.7

, but i do agree that with you about P4's and the hot they get :eek:

BillTheButcher · 14 Jun 2006 at 12:00

Right everything's in the new case and seems to be working.

The only issue is that one of the screws supplied with the 120mm fans is knackered so the intake fan is only secured at 3 corners and is buzzing a bit. :mad:

Of course it's not a normal width screw thread and they don't provide any spares. Nice one.

Here's the empty case:

Here's the board on the removable (mirrored) mainboard tray - check out the reflection :eek:

:

BillTheButcher · 14 Jun 2006 at 12:03

Here are a few shots of the 7800GTXs (the third card in the first pic is the X-Fi so you can see the scale of the Arctic coolers - excuse the raisins):

Mainboard tray back in the case:

BillTheButcher · 14 Jun 2006 at 12:04

Aerial shot:

Hiper 4K580 PSU:

Akasa Amber 120mm exhaust fan:

Akasa Amber 120mm intake fan (behind its filter - this is the one that's buzzing):

Everything fitted, pre-cable tidying:

BillTheButcher · 14 Jun 2006 at 12:05

Case side panel with PCI-E blowhole:

120mm intake fan inside blowhole:

I didn't get much chance to test it last night but after a couple of runs on 3DMark06 it got up to 71 on both GPUs under load and idling temps were 56 for GPU1 and 51 for GPU2 so quite a bit cooler than in the old case. Initial findings are promising...

Now I just need an Oblivion session to see how hot it gets under sustained load.

The other noticeable thing is that the cooling is much more efficient - it returns to idle temps from load much, much faster than in the old case.

Yewen · 14 Jun 2006 at 14:35

You will have reached the maximum temperature there.

The Eclipse does not build up heat.

BillTheButcher · 14 Jun 2006 at 14:48

Yewen said:
You will have reached the maximum temperature there.

The Eclipse does not build up heat.

If neither GPU ever exceeds 71 then I'll be a very happy man indeed.

Yewen · 14 Jun 2006 at 14:53

I would say 73, as I have no idea how hot your room was.

Wont get much higher than that, usually around that amount in a Eclipse.

My mate with 6800gt SLI said his only got up to mid 80's, which is very good.

BillTheButcher · 4 Jul 2006 at 14:12

Quick update - GPU1 reached a new all-time high of 84 degrees last night during Oblivion. :eek:

The game ran quite happily at this temp and the return to idle temperature after quitting to the desktop happened within about 30 seconds so it looks OK. Even so... 84 degrees. :eek: