Drawer Projec, need help with cooling and parts.

Morfinel

Morfinel

Morfinel

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Joined
10 Mar 2012
Posts
735
Hi All

I need bit of a help with my recent project. My plan is to build pc inside desk drawer (BESTÅ BURS from Ikea), as you can see on the pictures. Drawer dimensions are 71cm x31cmx8.5cm walls are made from MDF same with bottom part which will be replaced with 3mm aluminum.

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Components I will use are

Standard HDD
ATX Asus p5q Deluxe Mob
GTX 285 (not oc)
Hiper 750W PSU (leave it alone, I like it and it works for 7 years now)
Intel Q6600 (not oc)
Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme ( will need to be replaced with low profile)


PSU is slightly higher then the drawer so I will cut out hole and lower it slightly with fan being outside, same with gpu

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I think there is 5 mm gap between top and drawer
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Looking at the pictures do you think I will have any problems in terms of cooling or noise, having in mind top will be covered so almost no ventilation except what you see?
The fans I can use are 60mm, if I use 80mm I will have to install support rods to strengthen the construction of the walls. Option is to place addition fan on the bottom between mop and gpu.

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Are their any risks of having gpu in that position?
And what fans and cpu cooler do you recommend? I have only 8.5 high having in mind mob will be raised few mm therefore I’m looking at 8cm between processor and top
Do you think this will work with only 2 fans or will I need more?

If this work and temps are decent I’m planning to upgrade To

M-Atx Intel Core i3-4130 and R9 270x or A8 7600 65W
My first plan was to get fx 6300, but it’s running at much higher Thermal Power
What are the cons and pros ?

Thanks
 
Cool design, nice thought process but in reality I'm not sure why you're set on doing this.

The only pro of doing this is that you don't have to find a place for a freestanding tower, if space is a constraint you could always go with a smaller form factor, or a cube build?

Personally I don't think the cooling will be sufficient, you have the major issue, especially with the GPU of zero dust filtering, which you'd get on a case for instance, it being mounted like that with a blower style fan is going to dump all that hot air into the drawer and will need to be exhausted by the 1 60mm fan, which is not sufficient, especially for the R9 series of cards.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-110-TR&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2352 - Is the cpu cooler I recommend for low profile, I've fit one for my father in his micro atx case, works wonders, but again there's no directional airflow, just straight onto the mobo, putting extra strain on your one exhaust fan.

and for the fans - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-014-NC&groupid=701&catid=2331&subcat=818 .. they're lovely fans that are quite quiet even at full whack, but again you can't expect much from a 60mm.


EDIT: What you could do, is if you could change the design so you've got 2-3 60mm intake fans, and 2-3 60mm exhaust fans on the opposite side to them you could move a decent amount of airflow possibly.

EDITEDIT: I've also just noticed the gap between the drawer and the table top, this if anything hinders the use of intake and exhaust fans because you can't get a good positive OR negative air pressure to deal with the excess heat.
 
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Thanks for that, and if 80mm are used? and maybe 12mm on bottom panel
I can always do some more ventilation holes at the back of case and side and since gpu and psu will be using outside air, my only concern is heat generated from cpu and little from gpu.

For me size is not a problem, its my wife who keep complaining. so in argument I said I will keep my pc in this drawer and here we are :)
 
Morfinel said:
Thanks for that, and if 80mm are used? and maybe 12mm on bottom panel
I can always do some more ventilation holes at the back of case and side and since gpu and psu will be using outside air, my only concern is heat generated from cpu and little from gpu.

For me size is not a problem, its my wife who keep complaining. so in argument I said I will keep my pc in this drawer and here we are :)
Click to expand...

Going to 80mm fans will increase the air shifted by about 50% - Those 60mm are at MAX about 23m3/h - Average for 80mm is about 35m3 and 140mm you're talking about 3-4 times more air moved than the 60mm, with about a third of the RPM(effectively less noise).

I was going to congratulate you on your wife complaining about your size :D but look at this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-100-BX&groupid=2362&catid=1850 - I'd get some books and stack them to the approx. dimensions of that case and see what you think, they're incredible little cases.
 
I think it will work fine, can you turn the PSU upside down so it removes air from the 'draw' through he PSU and out.

The draw would be best if it was sealed, but had air intakes so it would pull in air passively over your bits, PCs work cooler with their sides on.

I would use Use a 120mm fan on the bottom of the draw at the back, maybe two, to pull air out, 120mm are quieter, efficient, you can run them slower and two will do.

Move your HDD to the back, and isolate it with rubber supports 'cos they tick and at the front it may be noisy. You could compartmentalise the inside to section off the bits.

In a normal case scenario the air comes in at the front - at the bottom of the case, filtered for dust - but yours is off the grounds should not be uber-dusty, passes over your HDD then up your MB and cpu and out the back via the fan and the PSU.

Post some piccys, awesome!
 
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My idea was to use 12cm fan on bottom however when I notice how big ATX is comparing to matx I was shocked, and since the desk is 180cm I was expected for the drawer to be longer.
Desk is not yet delivered, when it arrive I'll maybe do building log, see how it perform with standard atx and then switch to matx and add more fans or do liquid cooling

1 more question
if you have 2 fans at noise of 25 dBA does it increase dBA to 50? how is it calculated with multiple fans.
 
Morfinel said:
My idea was to use 12cm fan on bottom however when I notice how big ATX is comparing to matx I was shocked, and since the desk is 180cm I was expected for the drawer to be longer.
Desk is not yet delivered, when it arrive I'll maybe do building log, see how it perform with standard atx and then switch to matx and add more fans or do liquid cooling

1 more question
if you have 2 fans at noise of 25 dBA does it increase dBA to 50? how is it calculated with multiple fans.
Click to expand...

Sound isn't a linear thing, 25db is a soft spoken conversation, and 95db is a jackhammer.

60-65 is a normal conversation at around 3 foot distance.

So to answer your question, no, you'll barely get an increase with 2 25db fans, if for some reason you manage to get them to produce 50db - Well you're a magician
 
OK thanks, is there way to calculate it ? But not important atm.

Any other good cpu cooler I can use, the one you suggested is very good but out of my budged. Looking for 30 max. Maybe Zalman CNPS8900?
 
Morfinel said:
OK thanks, is there way to calculate it ? But not important atm.

Any other good cpu cooler I can use, the one you suggested is very good but out of my budged. Looking for 30 max. Maybe Zalman CNPS8900?
Click to expand...

Unless you had a sound meter I'm not entirely sure if there's a mathematical way of calculating the increase in sound, at least I've never used/seen it.

Zalman coolers are great regardless, so yeah ideally the one I linked, but the CNPS is good too.
 
Danny75 said:
Interesting project, just a quick question - don't you want the ports on the GPU (DVI/HDMI/whatever) to be on the side of the drawer?
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They're positioned on the back, same as you would have in 99% of standard cases, why do you think they should be on the side?
 
GefGz said:
They're positioned on the back, same as you would have in 99% of standard cases, why do you think they should be on the side?
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It's okay, I just didn't notice the graphics card wouldn't be fitted into the PCI-E slot. Your post made me have a closer look at the pics, thanks. :o

p.s. By "side" I meant any side, including back.
 
Few changes, Instead of only bottom part being metal I will buy L shape part so bottom and back will be aluminum this should make the drawer bit more solid. And on the wall with blue arrow I will have two 80mm fans and 1 80mm in back panel where red arrow is, and one 80mm or 120mm on the bottom panel between gpu and mob. if i shift gpu slightly.
Which direction should the fans blow? bottom one I think need to be intake as there is no point blowing warm air next to gpu fan which will suck it. So it's back to the drawing board.

Any good 80mm ? slightly larger choice then 60mm
 
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any update on your besta burs project?

Hey Morfinel

I'm just in the middle of redecorating my room and want a long slim desk to go in the space. Went to Ikea and saw the besta burs, came back here and saw your project, which is what I also want to do. I would need to disassemble my old tower and put all the components into a drawer. How are you connecting the GPU to the MB, is there a special extension cable?

Would love to see how you got on with this project.

Minh
 
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