Antec 900 - 8800GT 120mm fan

[andyhipkiss]

First post so I hope this makes sense ...

I have an Antec 900 case with a BFG 8800GT installed. Currently there is no fan installed in the side panel and the GPU runs about 53C ambient and maybe +15C above that under load. Rather than installing an alternate cooler on the GPU, I was thinking about just installing the 120mm fan in the side panel and get additional cooling that way.

Does that make sense?

Any recommendations on what fan to purchase (quiet is good!) - not overly fussed at the cost (looking at the costs on the likes of Scan and OcUK -where fans seems to top out at around £20).

How easy are they to connect? Will I need some form of extension cable for the Corsair 620 I have. I gather the Antec has the case in BTX format (oooohh! ermmm yeah, know what that means .. erm ) so making anything reach and look tidy seems a bit of a challenge.

The prompt for all this is trying to OC the BFG card. My E6600 runs happily at 3.46GHz but the BFG card doesn't want to OC at all Not that it needs to be OC'd but its the principle of the matter!

TIA

Many thanks

[staffsMike]

BTX format just means the PSU is in the bottom. It's an ATX case though

Your fans can plug straight into the motherboard. Most come with an adapter if you choose to use molex though.

You could buy an antec tricool? Thats what you already have on the case.

These are very quiet, they wont make any more noise that the tri cools and work as well as the tri cools on the low setting.
Sharkoon Golfball

If you want to push more air these are very quiet
Scythe S-FLEX

[andyhipkiss]

Much thanks. Daft question - how do you plug the fan into the MB? Given that the side panel detaches from the case do the fans come with long leads or do I need to borrow the wife's small hands to get the lead plugged in somehow?

"Lichfield" Andy

[staffsMike]

most fans come with a small 3 pin connector (female) which fit into the small 3 pin headers on your motherboard.

I have a side fan on my case and i used to plug it into the motherboard.. just had to be a bit careful taking the side panel off.

From the links above the sharkoon at least (probably all of them) comes with an adapter which plugs into that 3 pin connector on the fan and changes it to a 4 pin (the one that comes out of the power supply or "molex") so that it give's you all the length you will need (which is what I do now)

[educatedfool]

If you have the stock cooler on the 8800GT the noise of the 120mm will be the least of your worries. Just get one that can push a good amount of air. Come to think of it I need to buy a fan to stick on the side panel of my 900, but does get rather dusty as it is though, even with the dust filters.

[andyhipkiss]

If you have the stock cooler on the 8800GT the noise of the 120mm will be the least of your worries.

It's not that bad ... at least in comparison to the Sapphire X1950 Ultimate card I had prior to the 8800GT - that was a hovercraft!

[this_is_gav]

BTX format just means the PSU is in the bottom. It's an ATX case though

OT, but it just doesn't. With BTX you end up with upside down motherboards in standard-sized cases, and officially it's supposed to have a channel for cooling down the hottest components (rather than having fans on the graphics card, northbridge, CPU etc). It's never taken off for the main part, and I can't see it happening any time soon. It's not uncommon in major OEMs though.

It's not that bad ... at least in comparison to the Sapphire X1950 Ultimate card I had prior to the 8800GT - that was a hovercraft!

I found the 8800GT much louder than the X1900XT stock cooler (haven't had a X1950 of any description). The X1900XT was extremely loud when in 3D or on start up, but wasn't intrusive in 2D mode in my opinion. The 8800GT is all the time, again IMO. It's a shame they don't offer the 8800GT in both single-slot and double-slot to give you a choice.

[kalniel]

The Sapphire Ultimate comes with a Zalaman type cooler, so isn't really standard. My X1950XT is the same as the X1900XT - blooming loud if ever ran full whack, but it's almost silent otherwise, and even Crysis doesn't take it to full speed.

[DecomposingStar]

Make sure the fan is extracting air from the GPU rather than blowing air onto it.
Try get ahold of an antec fan, similar to what it already in your case.

[kalniel]

Make sure the fan is extracting air from the GPU rather than blowing air onto it.

Surely you want to blow air onto that GPU?

[DecomposingStar]

Surely you want to blow air onto that GPU?

No, you want to draw the hot air away from it. The GPU itself is producing heat, so blowing air onto it is just going to cause heat to stir around your case. You want to extract the hot air from around the GPU.

The GPU fan is designed so that it sucks cool air in through its fan and drags it past the components. If the air it is sucking in is warm air, its not as effective. So my guess is that by extracting the hot around around the intake fan on the GPU, it should cool the temperature that it is taking in.

[kalniel]

I'd have though that'd just make the fan much less efficient because it's having to fight against the case fan for the same patch of air. You're effectively creating a negative pressure which the GPU fan then has to make more negative to get airflow to happen.

Better to blow in cold air from outside the case directly onto the intake of the GPU fan - that creates a positive pressure which would aid the fan in moving that (cold) air across the components.

[staffsMike]

OT, but it just doesn't. With BTX you end up with upside down motherboards in standard-sized cases, and officially it's supposed to have a channel for cooling down the hottest components (rather than having fans on the graphics card, northbridge, CPU etc). It's never taken off for the main part, and I can't see it happening any time soon. It's not uncommon in major OEMs though.

i should have elaborated. I meant that when they say it's BTX they just mean the PSU is in the bottom. I know BTX is a totally different layout

[DecomposingStar]

I'd have though that'd just make the fan much less efficient because it's having to fight against the case fan for the same patch of air. You're effectively creating a negative pressure which the GPU fan then has to make more negative to get airflow to happen.

Better to blow in cold air from outside the case directly onto the intake of the GPU fan - that creates a positive pressure which would aid the fan in moving that (cold) air across the components.

it's not creating negative pressure because there's other holes and fans that will bring COOL air in to compensate. This means that not only do you remove the hot air, you draw in more cool air through the pressure created.

Edit: the difference in temperature between intaking or extaking the air would be so marginal you probably wouldn't notice, so i don't know why we are debating it

[Koolpc]

You should have the fan blowing 'onto' the Graphics card. That way you will be 'helping' the GPU fan to keep the card cool. Any warm air will be travelling upwards and out of the case via any vents / PSU fan / Rear case fan.

As for which fan to get...............Noctua are awesome. Good airflow and quiet too.

[educatedfool]

No, you want to draw the hot air away from it. The GPU itself is producing heat, so blowing air onto it is just going to cause heat to stir around your case. You want to extract the hot air from around the GPU.

The GPU fan is designed so that it sucks cool air in through its fan and drags it past the components. If the air it is sucking in is warm air, its not as effective. So my guess is that by extracting the hot around around the intake fan on the GPU, it should cool the temperature that it is taking in.

The way my Antec 900 is set up at the minute, the 200mm and the 120mm exhaust fans extract far more air than the 2 x 120mm fans (all are at max speed, it's loud as anything!) so the air is being pulled quite hard in through side panel mesh, putting an extractor fan on that would do more harm than good.