P180 Major Cooling Improvement

M

msg1285

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 30, 2006
Messages
243
I ordered some new fans for my P180 and I decided to mess around a bit and see what kind of cooling I could get with diff set ups.

After a day wasted on every configuration I could dream up. I got some unreal benefits to share. I used the rig in my sig but I know have a Enzotech HS.

When I changed the fan on the top of the case to blowing in right to the heat sink, my temps dropped huge. I went from 50-53 load temps all the way down to 40-42c max load temps. These are temps with orthos after about 20-25 minutes.

So if you guys have the P180 you might wanna try to turn the fan from stock out to in. The results I got were amazing.


If you are going to try this here is my recommendation on how to set up your fans for the best cooling to noise ratio.

You want your rear exhaust fan to be running the highest (I.E. the most flow)
The front intake fan can be set to a low setting. (I'm assuming your HD are in the bottom bay if not move them there.)
Most importantly is the Top Case fan.I would set it at about a medium setting maybe 1200-1700 RPM s.

Obviously you can tweak these to what ever works best for you, but these seems to do quite well for me.

One more thing to keep your eye on. DUST.
Since you are switching a fan that is in the most likely place to pull dust into your case and it is blowing on the worst place have dust CPU HSF. I would either get a filter to put over the top fan or periodically check your case and blow out the CPU to stop build up.
 
I wouldn't of even thought about that...i wouldve just guessed top fans/higher up are exhaust, lower fans/front of case are intake.
 
ya i kinda figured that out a long time ago when i ordered the scythe ninja for my case. Nothing new here, but if you got spcr they do it alot there also.
 
delerium said:
I wouldn't of even thought about that...i wouldve just guessed top fans/higher up are exhaust, lower fans/front of case are intake.
Click to expand...

I think the intent is for the top fan to be exhaust, but my guess is that having the fresh air blowing right onto the HSF is still the best air cooling you can have.

If anybody else tries this let me know what kind of results you get. it could have been that maybe had really poor flow and didnt know it.
 
I also have my top fan set as an intake. It pulls in cool air for my Tuniq Tower and also cools my RAM. I had to do this because my 8800GTX pretty much blocks all the air from the front intake fan.

I added a 2-slot, 3 speed Antec blower below the 8800GTX that pulls out a lot of hot air also. This blower rocks if you have the room for it.

My P180 is now super quiet, but with excellent cooling.

I have my Antec 3 speed fans set to the following:

TOP: low
BACK: medium
FRONT: medium (I bought this fan seperately)
BOTTOM: medium
BLOWER: medium

Setting the fan on top to anything but low adds a lot of noise.
 
I'd be weary about having too many intakes, might lead to hot pockets around the case..
 
awwc said:
What did you change your stock antec 3-speeds to?
Click to expand...

I have a yate loon as the top intake fan and I also one as the front intake fan. Then I on the back I have a higher CFM fan for exhaust.
 
TehQuick said:
I'd be weary about having too many intakes, might lead to hot pockets around the case..
Click to expand...

I was worried about the same thing but so far I haven't noticed anything that would indicate that it's happening. The only temp I can't really monitor is my southbridge. I wish I had a sensor for it because if there is any hotspots I would think that is where it would be.

My GPU temps are about the same as always 70-73c at load and since all my hardrives are in the lower bay I don't have to worry about them.
 
ya, I was thinking about doing this before, and wondering if it might work. I actually found that even turning the top fan off, and covering the hole up, lowered my cpu temps by a couple degrees. I guess the airflow was a little better that way.
 
Cool thread. I just changed the direction of the top fan to blow down and it has improved my temps significantly . I maxed out in Orthos at 55c at 75F ambient versus topping out at 56c in 68F ambient. :)
 
When I built a P180 system, I had similar results. However, I left the top fan blowing out (exhaust) but reversed the rear fan (which is almost as high) and used it as an intake. Like described here, it blew directly on the Thermalright SI-128 CPU heatsink and dramatically improved CPU idle and load temps.

I liked the idea of having the top one remain an exhaust fan. But was still able to get the same effect as noted here.
 
After reading this thread I promptly opened my P180 and reversed the top fan. I am getting 31-33 degrees Celsius idle and 61-65 under load while Folding @ Home. All this with a stock Opteron heatsink. Why didn't I do this earlier?
 
Hurin said:
When I built a P180 system, I had similar results. However, I left the top fan blowing out (exhaust) but reversed the rear fan (which is almost as high) and used it as an intake. Like described here, it blew directly on the Thermalright SI-128 CPU heatsink and dramatically improved CPU idle and load temps.

I liked the idea of having the top one remain an exhaust fan. But was still able to get the same effect as noted here.
Click to expand...

I thought the rear fan was already an intake fan? If not then that would explain the high temps in my case!!!
 
This makes a lot of sense, although it goes against the generally accepted method of doing things when it comes to case cooling. I'm gonna have to play around with reversing the rear or top fan also.

At first blush, I would think reversing the top fan would be best for your system as a whole, since the top fan would help blow cool air down towards your video card.
 
Damn... just by doing this my temperature drop 7*c. Thank you msg1285 for sharing this.
 
clayton006 said:
I thought the rear fan was already an intake fan? If not then that would explain the high temps in my case!!!
Click to expand...
It might have been that way from the factory. But I wouldn't know since I replaced them all immediately. I should have probably mentioned that my results were with after-market fans (though still quiet!)
 
Cypther said:
Damn... just by doing this my temperature drop 7*c. Thank you msg1285 for sharing this.
Click to expand...

No problem man glad it helped.

I'm gonna mess around with changing speeds and configurations and see if there is a sweet spot with intake and exhaust.
 
It's now been a few days since I switched out the fan everything seems to be working perfectly. Every temp in my case is lower and my CPU temps are significantly lower.

If you are going to try this, here is my recommendation on how to set up your fans for the best cooling to noise ratio.

You want your rear exhaust fan to be running the highest (I.E. the most flow)
The front intake fan can be set to a low setting. (I'm assuming your HD are in the bottom bay, if not move them there.)
Most importantly is the Top Case fan.I would set it at about a medium setting maybe 1200-1700 RPM s.

Obviously you can tweak these to what ever works best for you, but these seems to do quite well for me.

One more thing to keep your eye on. DUST.
Since you are switching a fan that is in the most likely place to pull dust into your case and it is blowing on the worst place have dust CPU HSF. I would either get a filter to put over the top fan or periodically check your case and blow out the CPU to stop build up.
 
I did this last night as I am forced to use a stock cooler on my Kentsfield at the moment. I need to do some tweaking with my fan speeds I'm assuming, but I didn't notice any appreciable drops in temperature. In fact, it seems to have made my temps less uniform over my cores.

My idle temps now are (stock speeds): 51, 52, 56, 58. Before the intake tweak I was idling at about 56 evenly.

I know, I know. Horrible idle temps. But that's what happens when you have to use the stock cooler when your water pump dies... before it died I was getting 45 idle (stock speeds)

So, until I get my water cooling going again, I don't think I can appreciate this tweak too much :-\
 
I have the P180B sitting at home right now...empty. (waiting for the rest of my system to arrive :D )

But what I was wondering was about the bottom partition where the PSU and HDDs are. I think the stock setup is for air to flow from back to front, meaning you have hot air blowing into the case as it passes through the PSU. That right? If so, here's my question. Which is more heat sensitive, PSUs or HDDs? And if all that air does not get exhausted out the lower partition, you're adding heat to your system, which we obviously don't want to do. Maybe reversing the lower partition fans will also reduce temperatures in the case?

What I had to do with my current case (old Supermicro tower) was reverse the PSU fan to have it exhaust air out of the case (PSU at top rear of case), which dropped my cpu temperatures 5-6 °C. So the heat added by my old 300W PSU is pretty significant, is probably even higher with today's PSU's.
 
Juardis said:
I have the P180B sitting at home right now...empty. (waiting for the rest of my system to arrive :D )

But what I was wondering was about the bottom partition where the PSU and HDDs are. I think the stock setup is for air to flow from back to front, meaning you have hot air blowing into the case as it passes through the PSU. That right? If so, here's my question. Which is more heat sensitive, PSUs or HDDs? And if all that air does not get exhausted out the lower partition, you're adding heat to your system, which we obviously don't want to do. Maybe reversing the lower partition fans will also reduce temperatures in the case?

What I had to do with my current case (old Supermicro tower) was reverse the PSU fan to have it exhaust air out of the case (PSU at top rear of case), which dropped my cpu temperatures 5-6 °C. So the heat added by my old 300W PSU is pretty significant, is probably even higher with today's PSU's.
Click to expand...
Not sure exactly what you're getting at here.

Here's what most P180 systems do:

In the lower partition, the big fatty fan sucks cool air from the front of the case, which blows over the hard drives. The air is then pushed back towards the PSU, and *most* PSUs have a fan that spits hot air out the back of the case. The PSU doesn't blow hot air into the case....unless you have a really odd PSU.
 
jebo_4jc said:
Not sure exactly what you're getting at here.

Here's what most P180 systems do:

In the lower partition, the big fatty fan sucks cool air from the front of the case, which blows over the hard drives. The air is then pushed back towards the PSU, and *most* PSUs have a fan that spits hot air out the back of the case. The PSU doesn't blow hot air into the case....unless you have a really odd PSU.
Click to expand...
If what you say is true....excellent. My 300W PSU fan blew ambient air across the coils and into the case. I assumed they all did that. Guess not. Thanks.
 
I keep the top and the rear as exhausts, simply because the air between the rear of my P180 and the wall is very warm. Especially when my 8800 is exhausting out the rear...dont want to suck that hot air back in.
I also sealed up all the rear vents(not counting fan spots). There is the grill right where the expansion slots are and my 8800 was blowing hot air out of the case, sucking it right back in and getting warmer. Sealing it so the rear only exhausts forces the case to suck all its air from the front...doing otherwise makes your dust filters useless.
Sealed up the grills around the PSU, so again, its not recycling hot air.
The front of my P180 is a foot or two from my window, so it usually pulls in cool air, and when it gets real hot, its about 6 inches from my AC.
 
Definately makes sense... it in a sense creates a fresh air 'loop' between the top fan and the rear exhaust. My only concern is that the airflow in the rest of the case could suffer some.

I must try this out today in my Antec Nine Hundred. :)
 
On a semi-related note, this thread inspired me to do something I hadn't done in a long time--pull the side off my case.

Dropped CPU temps 7-8 degrees.....guess the tricools on low aren't quite getting the job done :)
 
Droc said:
Sealed up the grills around the PSU, so again, its not recycling hot air.
The front of my P180 is a foot or two from my window, so it usually pulls in cool air, and when it gets real hot, its about 6 inches from my AC.
Click to expand...


I don't think sealing those vents up is going to do you any good. If you have your fan set up right then those are exhaust vents. The fan should pull the air across your hard drives and then push out the vents. Now you are just forcing the warm air through your PSU. Not a good idea IMO.
 
Hey, what's your opinion of the Enzotech cooler? I'm waiting for the 6240's to come out to build a system and was thinking about getting one of those, possibly for a P180 case. How does it fit in the case? Any troubles with the mobo when attaching? How's the noise? How's the cooling? thanks! :)
 
kosmonautbruce said:
Hey, what's your opinion of the Enzotech cooler? I'm waiting for the 6240's to come out to build a system and was thinking about getting one of those, possibly for a P180 case. How does it fit in the case? Any troubles with the mobo when attaching? How's the noise? How's the cooling? thanks! :)
Click to expand...


I love it, its one of the best I've ever used. It fits in the case great and install was simple and it comes with a suport bracket for the back of the mobo. Cooling at 55% fan speed is tremendous and not to loud, full speed fan is about on pair with full speed Zalman 9700. I'm gonna put a Yate loon on it and see what happens.
 
msg1285 said:
I don't think sealing those vents up is going to do you any good. If you have your fan set up right then those are exhaust vents. The fan should pull the air across your hard drives and then push out the vents. Now you are just forcing the warm air through your PSU. Not a good idea IMO.
Click to expand...

I only keep one drive down there, and I left a 1"x1/2" section open. The drive doesnt heat the PSU up anymore then recycling hot air does.
 
On my p180, what i noticed made the biggest change:

1. Get the old p180. Replace the stock door with the newer version, free from antec. Old door will warp. These have the best cooling and silencing.
2. Remove the lower mid fan.
3. drill out the front lower bracket that the hard drive cage screws into, and slide a 120 in there. electrical tape up the entire bracket, to kill vibrations.
4. remove the upper cage, and put a 120 there.
5. Seal up ALL the holes in the case except fan holes. the area around the psu, beside the pci slots, etc.
6. Set the rear to low speed exhaust with a normal fan.
7. Set the top to a 38mm thick non-sleeve-bearing fan. sleeves suck at flat placement like that. 38mm's will move more air, if you get one that will do it silently too.
8. Remove the upper grille with wire cutters. You're going to use the spoiler anyways..

That's how I got 24 c idle on my opteron, with a system temperature of 31.
 
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