60 Quid Burning a Hole in my Pocket

[KpCollins]

Hi Ladies and Gents.

I was thinking about water cooling my rig to increase performance but the prices are not agreeing with my wallet and my 2 children.

Now ive been looking at different ideas to cool my rig, Right now I have as follows.

AMD Phenom II 955 BE 3.2 X4
Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7 Rev 2
Asus H3N-HT Deluxe AM2+ ( Soon to be Asus m5a97 ) --> This will Be arriving tommorow.
4gb DDR2 800 Mhz Ram ( Soon to be 8GB Kingston DDR3 1600 HyperX ) --> Already Have waiting for the Mobo
x2 GTX 275 ( one super clocked 702/1512/1260, the other just OC'd )
Antec 900 Case ( Standard 200mm and 4x 120mm fans 3 Speed Changers - Internal Changers )

EDIT --> The Fan blowing on the GPU's from the side is a standard 1 Speed fan that i have no idea about the RPM. This i Will change as this might help the GPU's temp if a faster yet quieter fan is in place.

Now there is more but ive sorted cooling them as the Antec is excellent at cooling HDD's and cable management wont be a problem with a little bit of help from a dremmel.

Ideally Im looking for anything I can put into this rig to make it that much cooler so I can increase performance a little.

As most of us know the GTX 275 is a massive card that even by todays standards is extremly powerful and just simply lacking DX11 but they get fooking hot!
Without SLI i could not run Deus Ex HR because the main card overheats and my alarm goes off at 95 degree causing me to stop playing. With 2 its fine.

Ideally I think the Arctic is fine on the CPU for anything im going to be throwing this rigs way in the near future but the GPU's im worrying about, I have been thinking about getting some new fans for this to replace the stock fans but I dont know if this would be the best option.

The air flow in my care is not excellent so I recon this will help by bringing the GPU's down about 3-5 Degree's when I modify the case.

Can anyone help me in making this rig cooler so I can overclock that little bit more?

EDIT 2--> I forgot to add, I am not bothered about noise as long as it doesnt sound like a plane as I have 5.1 Surround Sound and generally cant hear my pc anyway.

Thank you

 

[Roark]

If you already have all the fan locations filled (sounds like you've added the one on the side) the easiest way I see is:
Antec Spot Cool, nifty little fan you mount in your case and point at hot spots.
And/or if you have an open rear PCI slot, something like one of these might help as well.

 

[KpCollins]

Fooking love you

My Current Mobo would allow one of the PCI fans to sit above one GPU and below the other, My new Mobo will not and will only allow 1 below the 2 GPU's.#

I think an upgrade on the side fan is a must int this point. a faster fan and or GPU mods may be in order. Ill link both my Current Mobo and my new take a look at the possabilities for airflow and let me know please.

If you know of any software which will allow me to look at this in a more "Human" Percpective please let me know

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM2Plus/M3NHT_DeluxeMempipe/ --> old

http://www.ebuyer.com/270697-asus-m5a97-amd-socket-am3-8-channel-hd-audio-atx-motherboard-m5a97

as ya know the GTX is a bluky mofo like the rest of the performance gpu's

If I can get a PCI fan that will pull the air down that would be great, I know it wont be as good as hot air rises but hey.

These hot spot fans, how do they work? They dangle down or they fixed?

thank you

 

[Roark]

The PCI slot fans only require an open slot to screw into the rear of the case.
The Antec 900 has 7 rear slots, if your GPUs are dual slots that still leaves 3 open slots, unless you are using other PCI devices.
It may just take some hunting around to find ones that draw air from both sides.

There are a lot of 120mm fans out there that have great air-flow.
Scythe, Noctua, and Nexus/Yate-Loon make some of the best.

Software that will look at what in a more human perspective?

As to the Antec Spot Cool:

Installation is clean and easy; the end of the Antec Spot Cool is installed by a screw pass-through -- which can share a mounting hole with your motherboard.
The fan on its circular frame can also be rotated to control air direction. This will permit maximum flexibility of effective use.

 

[KpCollins]

What i mean is software that will diagram the airflow showing me where air is not hitting or could be hitting better.

I definatly need a fan with a speed changer to blow the gpu's cool.

I bought a PCI slot fan and as you say it doesnt use a pci slot which is neither good nor bad as they are still unused but I cant access them with it there.

Ive been able to turn my case fans to medium to provide happy temperatures and a little adjustment to both the hdd cages have given me more spots to hide cables in areas air flow is not a factor.

The new ram and Mobo are now installed and brings me to another question but ill post in the relevant places.

Can you recommend any fans ( 120MM ) to blow on my GPU's? Something with a little Umpf. Ideally I'd be looking for something that spins fast, Has long life expectancy and that will attatch to the mobo to give me control from Windows.

by moving the drive bays the Hdd have 1 less fan blowing directly on them, More on both the top GPU and the Ram + CPU. Its resulted in a slight heat increase to the Primary GPU.

Again, Thank you

 

[Roark]

As far as I know there isn't any software that will tell you where your fans are blowing.

If you want total control over your fans though I would say get a fan controller for one of your front bays.
The Sunbeam Rheobus and Rheosmart and most of the Scythe ones have gotten pretty good reviews.

For fans my personal favorite is the Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm (AP-14 or AP-15).

Also have you tried downloading something like MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision.
They're not only useful for overclocking GPUs, but also for direct control over the GPU fan speeds.

 

[soarwitheagles]

KP,

I agree with Roark, a fan controller would be a great idea to give you more control of your cooling needs. I presently am using a Scythe "KAZE MASTER ACE " 5.25" Bay Fan Controller with four separate temp probes attached to four separate areas of my rig:

CPU
Northbridge
Southbridge
RAM

It is really working well. You can diagram your air flow in a fairly simple way and that can help you decide how and where to place your fans. I am presently working on the diagram for a new Lanboy build.

The pics I posted here depict the air flow and temps inside a HAF 932.

Hope this helps!

Soar

 

[KpCollins]

Also have you tried downloading something like MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision.
They're not only useful for overclocking GPUs, but also for direct control over the GPU fan speeds.

Yea already got EVGA Precision, Been using it for about a year but thanks anyway I would recommend it to anyone.

For fans my personal favorite is the Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm (AP-14 or AP-15).

Ive been looking at certain fans and found this one
Antec TriCool 120mm Trilight LED | Ebuyer.com
I think the 3 Way speed changer will help for what type of gaming mood im in, Demanding or not. And giving the ability to control from within windows with something like Speed Fan is a bonus.

I agree with Roark, a fan controller would be a great idea to give you more control of your cooling needs. I presently am using a Scythe "KAZE MASTER ACE " 5.25" Bay Fan Controller with four separate temp probes attached to four separate areas of my rig:

I would love to have somthing like that but I have to keep the front of my case as basic as possible because Ive got 2 young children who would destroy anything like that lol.

 

[Roark]

Ive been looking at certain fans and found this one
Antec TriCool 120mm Trilight LED | Ebuyer.com
I think the 3 Way speed changer will help for what type of gaming mood im in, Demanding or not. And giving the ability to control from within windows with something like Speed Fan is a bonus.

Those should be the same fans that came with your Antec 900, so as long as they are working well for you, go for it.