Best air CPU cooler

[staffsMike]

Secret: Lian-Li PC-A05. Pushing cold air from outside the case straight into the cooler does wonders for the CPU temp. That's a c2d e6300 @ 2.8. (stock 1.83). In the p182 it was at 30 idle 40 load. GPU... there's a different story. Going to need to work out some way to cool it down.

I was going to get that case, I love the idea of it but the graphics card problem did put me off. Are you using the add in fan which blows onto the graphics area like this one
Full Size Image | TheTechLounge
Full Size Image | TheTechLounge

I'm using the asksa eclipse with my freezer pro and have a fan in the spare 5.25" slots which blows the cool outside air straight at it

Damn.. I want that lian li again now. lol

[Dreaming]

I haven't got a blower yet, they're not too cheap. Some people have put a blowhole on top which sucks air in. But I'm just going to wait a bit to see what the best solution is

[Lucio]

I haven't got a blower yet, they're not too cheap. Some people have put a blowhole on top which sucks air in. But I'm just going to wait a bit to see what the best solution is

With that case I got Kustompcs.co.uk to put two fans on the side panel, one above the GPU area and the other above the CPU area, both are set as intakes and the airflow seems to help the temperature. The card itself seems to steady at 80 degrees after a few hours playing Oblivion.

[Dreaming]

With that case I got Kustompcs.co.uk to put two fans on the side panel, one above the GPU area and the other above the CPU area, both are set as intakes and the airflow seems to help the temperature. The card itself seems to steady at 80 degrees after a few hours playing Oblivion.

Thanks lucio, I was thinking about this solution myself it seems the best really as I can use my own fans which will be much quieter than any of the lian-li attatchments... and probably cheaper too!

I'm not sure the CPU area needs an intake though. I wonder what difference it makes to overall temps with it turned off.

[Lucio]

Thanks lucio, I was thinking about this solution myself it seems the best really as I can use my own fans which will be much quieter than any of the lian-li attatchments... and probably cheaper too!

I'm not sure the CPU area needs an intake though. I wonder what difference it makes to overall temps with it turned off.

Not sure TBH, the trouble is my CPU temps are hideously misreported by any program I can get running on Vista64.

Also, if you are thinking of doing this, Multi Fan Power Circuitboard, made the wiring a lot more straight forward. Meant I could hook all the fans and the CCFL's up to the circuit board and then only had a single molex cable running to the PSU so when I take the side off, there's only a single cable to unhook.

[staffsMike]

Try and get a hold of everest. That seems to be accurate in vista 64 for me.

[Pob255]

I haven't got a blower yet, they're not too cheap. Some people have put a blowhole on top which sucks air in. But I'm just going to wait a bit to see what the best solution is

Depending what card/cooler you have I'd like to make a couple of mod sugestions.
1- cut a hole in the top for an out take fan.
Should work quite well if you've got something like that Zalman cooler on the graphics card in thoes pics staffsMike posted.

2- cut a hole in the side pannel and mount an L shaped duct on it to the top of the graphics card fan. Should work well if you've got something like the 8800gts stock cooler that blows the air out of the rear of the case, that way the card is sucking in cool air from out side the case and blowing it stight out the back.
something like this pipe might work well, or even something like this box could be adapted into a duct.

[Lucio]

Right, even using Everset I get the same temperature readings, a steady 25 degrees idle and between 30-35 degrees under load.

There's got to be a dodgy sensor here somewhere because I struggle to believe I've found the nirvana of air cooling and can get these results on a Q6600 overclocked to 3GHz...