Making a CPU duct to draw outside air onto CPU!

[Web-Junkie]

@AndrewJ: The idea is to keep the components firmly in the case not blow them to pieces with a deafening tornado

@Alien: I could ask my mate for his old case: Coolermaster Wave Master Probably a lot better than my current one as it's longer and won't cost an arm and a leg off him! His has a clear side panel and two side fans if needed! Dimensions: L 21.2" x W 7.8" x H 18"

Only problem, it doesn't use 120mm fans

@Keith: See above

*EDIT* Sod it! Just rung my mate, bought the coolermaster case off him for £25. Probably get it Friday/Saturday!

[keithwalton]

Thats one long case, my asus case is 45cm long and to me its plenty long enough, but then again my cpu socket is towards the back of the case and so air coolers fitted fine.
on the note of cases, why would anyone buy this one at this price! http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...atid=7&subcat=

This is my case, nothing special really but does everything i need and wasnt that expensive http://uk.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=...89&modelmenu=2

[Alien]

Originally Posted by AndrewJ

What you really should do mate is remove that front 120mm fan and fit a Delta 120mm fan on there. go on do it

Aside from reducing temps, the other point of his modding exercise was to reduce the level of noise. Delta fans didn't just get the nickname "Screamer" from the noise you make if you accidentally get your finger caught on them when they're running.

Originally Posted by keithwalton

The case i linked him to had alot more drive bays in it, if the moved his rom drives upto the top two slots then they wouldnt get in the way of the cooler. a inlet cooler could then be put in the spare bays if required. There is lots of 3 1/4" bays in which the hard drives could be tucked out of the way rather than propped in.

It had 5 more 3.5" bays, but with that case width I can pretty-much guarantee they'll be mounted lengthwise [like the 5.25" bays] rather than perpendicular to the length of the case [see pic of mine in previous post]. The problem with that in a case that's already shorter than his current 1 is that the back end of the hard drives & the IDE cables will be very close to the heatsink on his graphics card.

Originally Posted by keithwalton

Its so cheap because its simply a case, no psu, no fans, nothing else. I was mearly highlighting how cheap it would be to replace the case and i did link to one that is longer than his present one but also has all of the advantages of rom drive space that i just mentioned.

No, you only linked to the 1 that was shorter. You mentioned 1 that was longer, but the length of that 1 would still only be roughly the same as what he's got now, when what he needs is a longer 1. Well, that & some lessons in Cablegami.

[Web-Junkie]

Cablegami, lol!!

I do the real thing

No I haven't got any examples, well apart from the duct

And if you really want to know what I'm currently reading it's this:


Read quite a few of his books, Greg Mandel series and the Commonwealth Universe, but that's if you like SCI-FI of course! Peter F Hamilton! Although I do read fantasy novels too!

Anyway, back to topic!

Cabling is always a mess in small cases, that and the fact some of my round cables are just too long and end up as spaghetti in the case

The Wave Master case has plenty of space to make neater cabling. When my mate bought it we did that originally by using braided sleeving to keep the power cabling tidy and cable tieing the round cables. My mate also had loads of case lights stuck all over so more cables to tidy up. When he bought the Kandalf case we used some of that plastic round spiral sleeving to keep things tidy, might pinch some off him if he's got some left!

Another advantage of this case i'm getting is he removed the mounted panel in the top of the case and replaced it with an exhaust fan, seeing as the PSU does not have a fan in the bottom this will help to remove any heat coming out of the PSU vents into the case, although the PSU doesn't seem to get all that hot, which is the way it was designed.

In the end as long as the case has adequate space and fan mounts, shouldn't matter which one you use should it?

BTW, room is 8 feet x 8 feet with a 2 feet x 3.5 feet recess where the door is, very small!

[Alien]

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

@AndrewJ: The idea is to keep the components firmly in the case not blow them to pieces with a deafening tornado

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

@Alien: I could ask my mate for his old case: Coolermaster Wave Master Probably a lot better than my current one as it's longer and won't cost an arm and a leg off him!

Cool.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

His has a clear side panel and two side fans if needed! Dimensions: L 21.2" x W 7.8" x H 18"

The downside of having a window in your case is you'll definitely have to brush up on your Cablegami skills now. As for the length, that's about the same as mine if I don't include the front bezel, which is kinda chunky [measurements on that site are a bit off].

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Only problem, it doesn't use 120mm fans

More modding!

I will say though, that Aluminium can be a bit... awkward to work on. For 1 thing, be careful of the exterior, as it'll scratch &/or scuff very easily [I haven't worked on a Cooler Master case before, but I have worked on a couple of aluminium ones].
<reads review that has more pics>
Hmm... doesn't look like you'll be able to fit anything bigger in the rear of the case [it didn't really show how/where the front fans are mounted too well].

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

*EDIT* Sod it! Just rung my mate, bought the coolermaster case off him for £25. Probably get it Friday/Saturday!

Cool.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

And if you really want to know what I'm currently reading it's this:

Sounds interesting.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Read quite a few of his books, Greg Mandel series and the Commonwealth Universe, but that's if you like SCI-FI of course! Peter F Hamilton! Although I do read fantasy novels too!

If I like Sci-Fi? I was a bit advanced for my age. My mum taught me to read, so whilst the other kids were struggling with books about a couple of kids called Janet & John, & a dog called Spot, I was reading stuff like the Star Trek books [James Blish]. My favourite science fiction author would probably be Anne McCaffrey [Talent series, & Tower and Hive series]. As for fantasy, a fairly recent find for me, Jim Butcher. I went through the 1st 8 books of that series 1 after another, & the 9th as soon as I could get it, but now I've got to wait until April 2008 for the next 1.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Cabling is always a mess in small cases, that and the fact some of my round cables are just too long and end up as spaghetti in the case

Excuses, excuses.


In your defence I will admit that I have the advantage of having a PSU with modular cables. It's a shame that PC-Power & Cooling PSUs don't have them.
<edit>
I've used up my pic allowance [20 per post], so I'll post a link instead. These things really come in handy when trying to keep cables tidy. Instead of trying to find convenient parts/holes in your case to zip-tie cables to, you can stick those wherever you need them. I think I got them from Maplin, but can't remember what they're actually called.
</edit>

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

The Wave Master case has plenty of space to make neater cabling. When my mate bought it we did that originally by using braided sleeving to keep the power cabling tidy and cable tieing the round cables. My mate also had loads of case lights stuck all over so more cables to tidy up.

I have 2 lights in mine. 1 is on the far side of the support strut that goes across just under the PSU [that's what those cable ties are for], & the other 1 is wedged in nicely down at the bottom by that plastic accessories box thingy.

I haven't used either of them in a while though, as unfortunately the converter that came with the CCFLs kept burning out. After having it replaced twice, I bought a small aluminium "project box" from Maplin to mount the PCB in [was originally in a small plastic 1 with virtually no ventilation], made the necessary holes & also mounted a fan on it. Unfortunately I used a cheapo fan, which gave out after a while. Luckily I had the fan running off of my DigiDoc 5, so I got an alarm when it started to fail, so I didn't toast the PCB again, but I haven't got round to replacing the fan [there's now only 1 brand of 40mm fan I trust, & they're kinda scarce, & not cheap - £10 or £11, but they're worth it].

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

When he bought the Kandalf case we used some of that plastic round spiral sleeving to keep things tidy, might pinch some off him if he's got some left!

If he hasn't, you can make your own pretty easily, rather than paying for some. What you need is some plastic tube, like what's used for air pumps for fish tanks [but possibly a little bigger], & a sharp craft knife. All you have to do is just make a continuous spiral cut around the tube from 1 end to the other, & hey-presto! instant spiral sleeving.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Another advantage of this case i'm getting is he removed the mounted panel in the top of the case and replaced it with an exhaust fan,

I don't know if you noticed on the page for my case, but it has a top-mounted fan as well. It's not currently in use, as I don't really need it at the moment, but I do have an idea for a rather ambitious mod [probably too ambitious, knowing me ] to make use of it. Eventually, I plan to switch to water cooling. Whilst there is [just about] room for a 120mm radiator in my rear fan position, I was thinking that if I keep upgrading my system, it's possible I might end up with something that produces more heat than a 120mm rad can adequately deal with. My top fan is hidden under a spring-loaded flap.
Attachment 14490
What I thought would be cool [if even possible] is to have an 80mm rad mounted under that flap, & have some sort of mechanism to make the flap raise or lower when the coolant temp goes above a set threshold. The hard part would be trying to figure out if I could have some sort of valve switching mechanism that would add-in/remove the 80mm rad from the rest of the cooling loop without causing any problems [eg bubbles or whatever].

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

seeing as the PSU does not have a fan in the bottom this will help to remove any heat coming out of the PSU vents into the case, although the PSU doesn't seem to get all that hot, which is the way it was designed.

That's PC-Power & Cooling for you, quality rather than flashiness.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

In the end as long as the case has adequate space and fan mounts, shouldn't matter which one you use should it?

Well, you'll always get less airflow with smaller fans, but I think you should be ok with that 1. Another advantage it has over the Songcheer is that it's aluminium, rather than steel, so should dissipate heat better.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

BTW, room is 8 feet x 8 feet with a 2 feet x 3.5 feet recess where the door is, very small!

Well, at least it's not as small as I thought it was.

Sorry my replies seem a bit delayed/out-of-step with other posts today, I keep dozing off - dunno what's the matter with me.

[Web-Junkie]

Nothing ever goes smoothly for me! Think I'll change my nick to 'Master of Disaster', 'Dr Apocalypse' or 'Captain Calamity'

Mate brought the case up last night as he'd rung in a night off work (he works 12 hour shifts, 4 days on 4 days off, bleh!!). So today I decided to transplant my stuff from the old case to the new, another trail of disaster followed!

Firstly the PSU wouldn't fit in the PSU cradle as the hole in the back of the cradle for the cables to exit was too small so the loom could only go so far through before the thickness of the loom stopped it being pushed through and it also fouled on the fan mounting in the top of the case! But, seeing as this PSU has no fan underneath I flipped the PSU 180° and it slid in no problem, cables went through the hole no problem and didn't fould the top fan.

Then, missed a standoff on the mobo tray so when I'd put everything together the I/O connectors were 2mm lower than the I/O panel so none of the eSATA/Network/USB ports could be used. Stripped it all down and sorted the missed standoff, f***!!!

Next, saw a bent pin on a fan connector so bent it back with a flat blade screwdriver, screwdriver slipped and knocked a surface mounted resistor off the mobo , f**k knows what that has done?

Bent a pin on one of the HDD's so it wasn't being recognised, luckily I figured out what it was and bent the pin back without it breaking, just call me 'Terry F*ckwit'!!!

The two case fans on the side window fouled on the CPU heatsink and the Graphics card heatsink so I couldn't put the side panel on! The fans were bolted on with allen screws and nuts, got a tin of 40 allen keys and NOT ONE BLEEDER FITTED! Had to get a pair of pliers on the nuts and use a pair of wire cutters on the cap head to grip inside the allen hole and the outside of the cap head so I could twist the screw from the nut, the cap heads were smooth not rough!

Accidently pressed the CMOS clear button and wiped the BIOS settings, set it back up as it was before (I think) and managed to boot into XP, ran 3DMark06 and lost 500 marks?

Noticed the sound was in mono, only one speaker working! Pulled out the jack plug from the sound card and noticed the tip had broke off and was wedged inside the plug on the soundcard, you gotta be effing kidding me!! Spent 20mins trying to get the damn thing out, ended up bending the metal on the back of the connector so the tip popped out, then spent another 5 mins trying to bend the metal back into the plug! Found a spare lead with a stereo plug on it so snipped it off and the broken one then soldered up a new lead! Fortunately the sound is now in Stereo and both speakers are working!

Knocked my 4" strip light off the desk and broke it, this one takes 4 x AA Batteries but now doesn't work Saw some broken wires so soldered them back but still won't work! I use this to read at night so can't do any reading until I get it fixed/replaced. I am an effing walking disaster just lately!

Managed to boot the system and it's now working (hence I can post this drivel), PC Probe says the CPU temp is hovering between 36°C/37°C. Case temp with sensor 32°C, with PC Probe 35°C.

Ran Orthos for 10 minutes, PC Probe said:

CPU: 53°C
CPU Fan: 2400rpm
Mobo: 36°C
Sensor 1 - CPU: 44°C
Sensor 2 - case temp: 38°C (think this higher because it's near the rear of the CPU heatsink so more hot air hitting it).

Might have to re-jig the HDD's as there are 2 x 80mm fans in the slots where the HDD's slide in, so they are blowing down the gaps between the 3 HDD's I've screwed in. Might have to lower/raise the HDD's to get a bigger gap for the fans to blow through, but with the luck I've had today don't fancy touching it just yet!

Not sure if the system will stay stable now I've broke that resistor off, however a run of 3DMark06 and Orthos hasn't caused a BSOD/crash/freeze so I guess that's a good sign, fingers crossed!

And the case sticks out 5 inches more than old one so I now keep banging my knee on it when I swivel my chair around as I forget it sticks out more!

Lady Luck was not on my side today If I'd fallen in a barrel of tits I would have come out sucking my thumb!

[Alien]

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Firstly the PSU wouldn't fit in the PSU cradle as the hole in the back of the cradle for the cables to exit was too small so the loom could only go so far through before the thickness of the loom stopped it being pushed through and it also fouled on the fan mounting in the top of the case! But, seeing as this PSU has no fan underneath I flipped the PSU 180° and it slid in no problem, cables went through the hole no problem and didn't fould the top fan.

I thought the silencer series were standard size, & that it was only the Turbocool 1KW model that was bigger than standard?

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Then, missed a standoff on the mobo tray so when I'd put everything together the I/O connectors were 2mm lower than the I/O panel so none of the eSATA/Network/USB ports could be used. Stripped it all down and sorted the missed standoff, f***!!!

I always double or triple check my standoff placements. Good thing I do, as this Asrock is narrower than the last 2 boards I've had, so uses standoffs in different positions.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Next, saw a bent pin on a fan connector so bent it back with a flat blade screwdriver, screwdriver slipped and knocked a surface mounted resistor off the mobo , f**k knows what that has done?

Damn, dude, how much pressure were you applying? You have to be very gentle when straightening pins.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

The two case fans on the side window fouled on the CPU heatsink and the Graphics card heatsink so I couldn't put the side panel on! The fans were bolted on with allen screws and nuts, got a tin of 40 allen keys and NOT ONE BLEEDER FITTED! Had to get a pair of pliers on the nuts and use a pair of wire cutters on the cap head to grip inside the allen hole and the outside of the cap head so I could twist the screw from the nut, the cap heads were smooth not rough!

1 thing I've heard of, but not yet tried, for a situation like this with some sort of weird screw or bolt that you don't have the correct tool for is to use a lighter & an old biro. What you do is remove the ink part, then heat the writing end of the pen barrel until it's soft & then push it into the hole/bolt/whatever & let it cool. Apparently you may need to repeat the process a few times to get a good fit.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Accidently pressed the CMOS clear button and wiped the BIOS settings, set it back up as it was before (I think) and managed to boot into XP, ran 3DMark06 and lost 500 marks?

Probably just some performance tweak you forgot about, maybe something to do with RAM.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Noticed the sound was in mono, only one speaker working! Pulled out the jack plug from the sound card and noticed the tip had broke off and was wedged inside the plug on the soundcard, you gotta be effing kidding me!! Spent 20mins trying to get the damn thing out, ended up bending the metal on the back of the connector so the tip popped out, then spent another 5 mins trying to bend the metal back into the plug! Found a spare lead with a stereo plug on it so snipped it off and the broken one then soldered up a new lead! Fortunately the sound is now in Stereo and both speakers are working!

Holy crap dude, I think you must have a gremlin infestation or something!

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Knocked my 4" strip light off the desk and broke it, this one takes 4 x AA Batteries but now doesn't work Saw some broken wires so soldered them back but still won't work! I use this to read at night so can't do any reading until I get it fixed/replaced.

Yeah, the tube's probably knackered.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Managed to boot the system and it's now working (hence I can post this drivel), PC Probe says the CPU temp is hovering between 36°C/37°C. Case temp with sensor 32°C, with PC Probe 35°C.

Ran Orthos for 10 minutes, PC Probe said:

CPU: 53°C
CPU Fan: 2400rpm
Mobo: 36°C
Sensor 1 - CPU: 44°C
Sensor 2 - case temp: 38°C (think this higher because it's near the rear of the CPU heatsink so more hot air hitting it).

I thought the max speed of the fan on the ACF64P was only 2200rpm? That's what it says on the box anyway.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Might have to re-jig the HDD's as there are 2 x 80mm fans in the slots where the HDD's slide in, so they are blowing down the gaps between the 3 HDD's I've screwed in. Might have to lower/raise the HDD's to get a bigger gap for the fans to blow through, but with the luck I've had today don't fancy touching it just yet!

Probably a good idea. Sometimes if I've had some bad luck with a situation like that I'll just call it a day, as the stress of stuff that's already gone wrong can just make you more likely to have more mishaps.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Not sure if the system will stay stable now I've broke that resistor off, however a run of 3DMark06 and Orthos hasn't caused a BSOD/crash/freeze so I guess that's a good sign, fingers crossed!

For your sake I hope so. It could just be that it's for something you're not currently using, e.g. SATA. I very much doubt the Asus warranty covers slipped screwdrivers, which means they'd probably charge you more than the cost of a new 1 to fix it. What you could do is send them a detailed description of the part [e.g. if it has anything written on it] & anything written near to where it was [e.g. R123], although a close up photo would be your best bet, & email Asus about it to find out what part it is. Failing that, I've uploaded a high-ish res image of the Crosshair here, so you could just put a ring around it or an arrow pointing to it in your 2D app of choice.

If you find that out then you should hopefully be able to get a replacement [I don't know if Maplin do surface mount resistors, but if they don't RS will], & then find someone in your area that's qualified for surface mounted soldering.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

And the case sticks out 5 inches more than old one so I now keep banging my knee on it when I swivel my chair around as I forget it sticks out more!

Isn't there room for it on your desk, next to your monitor or whatever?

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Lady Luck was not on my side today If I'd fallen in a barrel of tits I would have come out sucking my thumb!

LMAO! I've not heard that 1 before.

[Web-Junkie]

The silencer is 1" longer than a regular PSU, this is so the fan has a 1" air gap between itself and the PCB, supposed to reduce turbulance and noise!

I only brushed the resistor (could be a capacitor?) and just shows how easy they break!

Here's your pic showing the resistor I broke:
[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

Tis only a tiny thing, me wonders what it did?

So far only had one problem in windows, opened 'My documents' folder and there was no border around it, it's as though it hadn't been drawn in and was using the background as the border instead, then explorer crashed so I ran it again and the folder worked fine after that! Coincidence or just a one off not sure?

So your running a system with a motherboard you know you have broken or you replaced the board or resistor ? I thought the system was running ok you had your temps down and the system was stable? but you have just kept on messing if you had just listened at the start and fitted a better hsf in the beginning and just left it then you would have had a hell of a lot less stress

Reading post 111 can you imagine what im thinking ? we all make mistakes I think yours was messing in the first place

[Web-Junkie]

I bought a different case to help the AF get more air into it, it was choking on the drive cables, you said yourself the case looked small! I was acting on advice, not blaming anyone for my problems!

Sh*t happens Zing, I can live with it! If the board becomes noticeably unstable I'll e-mail ASUS and ask for a repair estimate, but to knock one small resistor was just bad luck!

yeah deffo

[Alien]

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

The silencer is 1" longer than a regular PSU, this is so the fan has a 1" air gap between itself and the PCB, supposed to reduce turbulance and noise!

Yup, that's what I was on about when I was saying to make sure there was a bit of space in front of your intake fan.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

I only brushed the resistor (could be a capacitor?) and just shows how easy they break!

Luckily I've not done anything like that, though I did manage to gouge a circuit track on a walkman in my youth. Putting heatsinks on socket 7 boards was a bit nerve-wracking when they used the default clip mechanism, rather than bolting to the motherboard. They required quite a bit of pressure, & the clips on a lot of heatsinks didn't have anything to prevent the screwdriver slipping off the bit you had to push down on. 1 nifty idea I saw on Abit boards was a strip of clear plastic stuck on to the PCB next to the socket, underneath where you had to push down with a screwdriver on the heatsink clip, as an extra precaution in case the screwdriver slipped.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

Here's your pic showing the resistor I broke:


Tis only a tiny thing, me wonders what it did?

If you're very lucky it'll be something to do with the blue thing next to it, which most people will never use [chassis intrusion connector], but I'd still contact Asus to make sure, IIWY. Also, it's very close to the BIOS chip, so I wouldn't go flashing your BIOS unless you really need to. I also wouldn't use the fan header that it's near to either [not like the Crosshair hasn't got more than you need anyway ], just in case.

Originally Posted by Web-Junkie

So far only had one problem in windows, opened 'My documents' folder and there was no border around it, it's as though it hadn't been drawn in and was using the background as the border instead, then explorer crashed so I ran it again and the folder worked fine after that! Coincidence or just a one off not sure?

No way to tell with a 1-off.

[Web-Junkie]

I've sent an e-mail to ASUS. Asked them what the resistor did or controlled and is it paramount to the boards working. Asked about warranty too, just in case they are sympathetic, no crossed fingers though why should they be!

The fan plugged into that connector near the broken resistor is running OK as far as I can tell, latest BIOS '0702' was flashed in a well over a week or so ago so lucky in that respect. Chassis intrusion is always off so will never use that jumper, so if it's something to do with that then I can live without it!

Apart from that one problem not had anything go wrong since. Tried about 45mins on GTA: San Andreas and game ran fine and general windows functions are running OK as are all the programs I usually run, so can only hope it's not as serious a problem as first imagined.

So just have to wait for ASUS to reply now!

[Quam256]

You have many diff temp monitors out there ,such as .The Intel® Thermal Analysis Tool (TAT)......Speedfan.......Core temp to name a few,but they all give different readings.
Which would you class as the most stable or consistent when it comes to reading the temp?.

[Web-Junkie]

I used Everest and ASUS PC Probe II and both gave near identical readings for temp, within 1°, but if the hardwired motherboard sensors they are reading are not accurate then one of those hand held temp probes might give a better indication.