why the side panels of a case matter

shadowscotland

shadowscotland

shadowscotland

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As all you cooling gurus will know the mark of bad airflow is temps drop when you take the side off.
And I'm embarised to say, that WAS the case untill yesterday. Well my 9500gt was hitting 100c in games,
so I had no choice. Well I could have used a fan - but it pains me to use the one I have :D

Anyway I've been meaning to add the gpu into my loop for a while so in went a 3870, EK full cover block plus HR-11.
Any excuse for an upgrade (and I'm no major gamer so the 3870 is perfect for me)
After draining, relocating the D5 to the bottom, tubing up the new block, and leaking testing yesterday.
It was all ready for me this evening when I got home.

No leaks \o/
So after playing with drivers (oh the joy of swapping team Green to Rad)
And running speedfan - my E8200 was 42c idle (NB, cpu, gpu loop)
On go the inner and out left hand side panel (S80B is a double box design)
and watch my cpu temps drop now the airflow is focus

42 > 41 > 40 - at this point my system temp drop too 37>36

40 > 39 > 38 - system drops another degree to 35

37 > 36 - system down again to 34 temps starting to level out

35 > 34 > 33 :D - remember everything takes longer to equalise in a passive/semi passive loop

Air flow is in through PA120.3 (roof) and PSU - out rear (NoiseBlocker S2)
That a 9c cpu drop by adding thermal load to my loop - all because I closed up my case and focused my air flow.

Not bad if I do say so myself.
Now running two super Pi's (16M) and at 40c load with one fan
Ocing to follow - but I've very impressed with the ultra low airflow performace of the PA120.3
It's better that my Zalman Res2.
All copper passive loop for the win :D

passive1.png
 
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I put it down to the temp sensor getting saturated at low temps as per Intel's white paper :D

Been watching your build in the case central I am wondering when you are going to go to gold for its thermal properties :) keep up the good work.
 
Just checking, you're using the psu fan only, and the only route air can take into the case is through a thermochill triple? Interested in how you've sealed the various holes/around the radiator etc. I've used a mixture of bitumen sheet and pvc tape, pretty sure air is going the way I want it to but haven't set up any ducts to enforce this.

Any idea what the internal case temperature, or ideally internal psu temperature is? You're effectively pushing the entire heat load of the system out through the psu, so I hope it's a good one.

It's bordering on the obsessive, but have you considered taking the fan out of the psu and remounting it using rubber pins and/or shrouding the psu? Pins cut down vibration (marginally), shrouding the exhaust if appropriate helps direct the noise away from you. I should track down your build log to see what you've done with the pump too.

Good temperatures SS, always good to see someone taking a better approach than "drill more vent holes" to airflow.
 
I'm pretty sure it's a passive PSU he's using and he has one 120mm case fan running as an intake.

[Edit]Actually, I don't think he has any fans at all - true passive[/Edit]
 
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my 4.0ghz overclock bundle from OCUK was roasting at up to 110C until i realised there was no front intake fan (or rather some good fellow on this forum realised for me!). i had previously had case sides off. i installed a new intake, put the sides back on and the temps dropped by about 40C.... :)
 
its suprising how much you can drop temps (or raise them !!) with a single fan, the problem is how to test what is going to work without redesigning/draining your whole loop everytime you want to try something. ive recently change my top RAD to a pull configuration into my MOBO position (as im now passive cooling my mother board) and have seen load temps for the CPU drop 6C.
 
Thanks for the comments guys - some answers/clarifications

As WJA96 said I use a passive psu - yesico 550w and it's built like a tank complete with a rear mounted heat gun (well Heatsink fins that project anyway)

Only have the one fan - And it's used as a rear extract - MF12-S2
It's mounted on the rear with the special corners of the highend Noiseblocker fans.

The Lian Li S80 is a 'quiet' designed case - but the HHD trays are not good by todays standards and the 360 hole in the roof does kill the 'double box' isolation some what :D
But it had no direct sound paths, and weights a tonne.

Loaded up OCCT last night for an hour - system temps stayed at 34c (as above see solid green line in graph) and cores hit 46c peak 44-45 adv
Ambient was 20c

Out of intrest while running OCCT I covered up the top grill a third and my cpu load temp droped 1-1.5c !
was expecting it to go up but I guess the reduced opening increased the airflow.
If I was to do it again a 120.2 may be the optium size.

After a full day - my cpu and system temp are at 33c (speedfan)
Raptor in GUP is 36c
WD black in finned tray is 37
seagate in finned tray is 35
3870 is 26 (according to CCC)
psu heatsink is just above ambient to the touch
 
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Upped the FSB to 400 - which is my day to day clock for this E8200es
Sits at 3.2 24/7 with 1.15 volts and with the new loop a meer 0.5c load temp rise :)
Happy days

3200.png


running OCCT now - after 15min's peak is 45.5c
 
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