Newbie air cooling questions...

[KillerDr3w]

Hi Folks,

I have a CoolerMaster Elite 300 case that accepts two fans, one at the back and one at the front. I was going to order three Akasa AK-191-SM Smoke Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - 3 pin, two for the case, and one for the top of a Thermalright Ultra-120A CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775).

I want to overclock an Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB), hoping for around 3.0GHz to 3.2GHz.

The case will also have two HIS ATI Radeon HD 3870 XT ICEQ3 TURBO 512MB GDDR4's in it.

Can people comment on if this enough cooling for this system? Will I need more powerful fans?

When installing the fans, which way around do I do it? Do I put the fan on the CPU to blow air onto the heat sink, or suck air away? Again, with the case fans do I blow air out of the case, or suck air into the case, or put the different way around so I cause a flow of air through the case?

Thanks for the help in advance!

 

[Aero]

Firstly welcome to the forums

Secondly /claimed

But on a serious note you want to be drawing the air through your case with intake and outtake fans to bring i new cooler air and shift the hot air.

The cpu fan/heatsink would already come pre assembled I should imagine which combination are you using? Finally just check on your case that they are 120mm fan mounting and not 80mm (i doubt they will be but worth a look)

Aero

 

[Cob]

Hi and welcome

The heatsink fan should blow air through the heatsink. And you should have the front case fan sucking in air, and the back fan blowing out. That should give you a steady flow through the case.

I've no experience of those particular fans tho.

 

[KillerDr3w]

Firstly welcome to the forums

Thanks!

I am not new to Overclockers though! The last system I bought from them was a Slot-A Athlon 500MHz that was pre-overclocked to 800MHz It came already installed in a BioStar motherboard too - I loved that system, it lasted me years!

Secondly /claimed

But on a serious note you want to be drawing the air through your case with intake and outtake fans to bring i new cooler air and shift the hot air.

The cpu fan/heatsink would already come pre assembled I should imagine which combination are you using? Finally just check on your case that they are 120mm fan mounting and not 80mm (i doubt they will be but worth a look)

I am going to order:

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM
Thermalright Ultra-120A CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775)
Akasa AK-191-SM Smoke Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - 3 pin

Are you saying if I order these all at the same time, Overclockers.co.uk will fit the heatsink and the fan to the CPU for me?

This is the case I have link. I didn't get it from Overclockers, but I will be getting the CoolerMaster 700W PSU from them thats going to replace the 460W one that came with it.

The fans are definitely 120mm, I just need to know that I am going to be shifting enough air through the case to cool it!

 

[Brian Stuart]

You should have enough cooling there but TBH it is only when you start looking at your overclocked temps will you know for sure. OCUK won't fit the HSF for you. Aero was suggesting that the HSF will come pre-assembled but the TR 120A does not come with a fan so you will have to fit it yourself

 

[JackRegan]

One thing to be aware of when buying the TR120. There has been many threads about the base of the Thermalright's not being flat, topics of much discussion.

This is no doubt it's a top class air cooler, however it would seem to give the best results when it is lapped. Is this something you are able to do or have any exerience of? the various grit paper needed is not expensive although will take you a little time in achieving a good flat surface.

There are plenty of topics on here about it, if you decide against it a good alternative would be the Tunq Tower which comes with a fan. The performace of this is about on par with the TR120.