New Gaming Rig - self build

[PubZombie]

Just had a mail from Scan asking me to return the true spirit cooler as they believe there may be compatibility issues.
will send it back asap, but need to order one that fits the cosmos s case. any ideas folks?
there is only about 150mm of space i reckon. was thinking of the H50 hydro cooler by corsair.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Corsa...-2plus-AM3-NEW
never used water cooling - does this come with everything i need? how is it mounted and the radiator fixed?
dont want to find any hidden expenses
thanx for your time
steve

[PubZombie]

hi chaps,
well the Corsair H50 turned up this afteernoon and i am starting to build
is there a best order to start a build in?
the case manual starts with psu installation.
however a builders guide I got with a TPCG starts with the mobo spacer lugs, then optical and hd drives.
then puts the cpu on the mobo before installing the mobo.
what do you guys recommend?
cheers
thanks for your time
steve

[kmac]

Don't think it matters a great deal. i usually go for:
1a) Fans onto case
1) Power supply and drives into case
2) CPU onto Mobo ( outside of case)
3) Heatsink onto CPU ( outside of case)
4) Mobo/CPU and Heatsink into case
5) Memory onto mobo
6) Other cards onto mobo as required ( GPU, sound etc)
7) Connect power to mobo and other devices
8) Load OS

[PubZombie]

cheers Kmac
yes that seems a good order,
i have gone for the psu first so i can ground the case then ground myself to the case whilst i work on the mobo.
cheers dude
steve
cant wait to run this baby

[PubZombie]

right - bit of a colour clash here but it will have to do. all drives in and time for bed.
i have an extra fan for the bottom of the case, so far there are 2 intake fans and 2 exhaust fans. the cooling fan on the water radiator is intake also. the extra fan is going on the bottom of the case. Should it be intake also or exhaust?
the case is the cosmos s
cheers dudes

[PubZombie]

hi guys
couple of questions.
I have run out of fan headers on the mobo for the case fans as the watercooler takes up 2 fan headers.
I have a one to three female fan adapter that has been in a drawer a while [pictured below] -can i use this safely on this make of mobo fan header?
i have also ran out of the molex [if thats the right word] plugs on the psu because of the amount of old hdd's i have to install and the external sata port that needs powering; so cant use thes for fans.
also do you guys know what this left over pci panel is for? [pictured]
thanx for the help
steve
http://s858.photobucket.com/albums/a...4_07-01-10.jpg
http://s858.photobucket.com/albums/a...8_07-01-10.jpg

[kmac]

Fan header splitter looks fine.

Not sure why you need so man fans though:
1) two header for the two fans on the rad
2) one for the 200mm fan on the side
3) One for the top fan
4) One for the front fan
Should be enough fans without installing the one at the bottom but if you do this should be an intake fan ( as hot air rises you want to intake cool air from the bottom/front and have it exhaust near the top/rear)

No idea on the panel - could it be a fan bracket of some sort?

[kmac]

You can also get splitters for the power connectors from the PSU which can be used for additonal fans....but you won't be able to monitor the fan speed unless connected to motherboard headers.

Not sure what happens to fan speed monitoring when you use a motherboard header splitter.

To be honest you could probably reduce the number of fans since you have water cooled the CPU - bear in mind the gPU and PSU will also have their own fans

[PubZombie]

Thanks guys, I have used the fan header splitter on header 3 and the water pump on header 1. according to the vid on hexus
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=21479
i need to disable the throttle on the pump header. should i do the same on header 3 cos of 2fans?
ok heres a pic of the inside
http://s858.photobucket.com/albums/a...0.jpg&newest=1
- what a mess, need to learn some cable tidy tricks me thinks
thanks for your time and help, much appreciated.
cheers
steve

[kmac]

Looks fairly neat - I've seen worse (e.g. mine)

If you are referring to throttling fan speeds then yeah disable as you would usually throtle to reduce fan noise.

[Zak33]

can I make a suggestion pls?

If you have the ability to put a fan to blow over your hard drives... do.

It is a quite remarkable difference in reliability terms, long term, if you can have a cooled drive bay area. PC's get hot... hard drives still rely on spinning disks and motors and capacitors and stuff that hate to get hot.

Many cases have a space infront of the drive bays to place a fan. If so... do it

[kalniel]

can I make a suggestion pls?

If you have the ability to put a fan to blow over your hard drives... do.

It is a quite remarkable difference in reliability terms, long term, if you can have a cooled drive bay area. PC's get hot... hard drives still rely on spinning disks and motors and capacitors and stuff that hate to get hot.

Many cases have a space infront of the drive bays to place a fan. If so... do it

Actually I'd disagree with that - as would google. They studied the effect of hard drive temperature on reliability and found that it wasn't as large a factor as previously thought.

Here's the paper they wrote about it:

http://labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf

[Zak33]

Actually I'd disagree with that - as would google. They studied the effect of hard drive temperature on reliability and found that it wasn't as large a factor as previously thought.

Here's the paper they wrote about it:

http://labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf

we've discussed this before. I stand with my own findings

So, Kal.. do you deliberately NOT cool your hard drives?

[kalniel]

we've discussed this before. I stand with my own findings

So, Kal.. do you deliberately NOT cool your hard drives?

If I valued a quiet computer then yes. In my own case however it's a side effect of providing cooling for my GPU that my HDDs get cooled by the same fan. So I don't go out of my way to avoid cooling the hdds, but if I didn't have the GPU concern then I would disable my front case fan (as I did before I started running hot GPUs). As it is I have the hard drives arranged so as to obstruct the airflow as little as possible.

[Zak33]

In my own case however it's a side effect of providing cooling for my GPU that my HDDs get cooled by the same fan. So I don't go out of my way to avoid cooling the hdds,

the reason I ask is that the Google findings were that cooler drives failed more than warmer drives in a lot of cases, so if we're to believe the findings, we should be aiming for disk temperatures of around 35 to 40 ish degrees on most modern drives, possibly a tad higher.

Which goes against my own beliefs and is seems that most cases designers still put a space there for the drive to have a fan.

In my opinion, which is not google's in anyway at all ! some small and medium cases can get bloody hot inside, not in the winter, but in mid summer. I've taken hard drives out that were hot to the touch, around 50 degrees. In those cases, I smack a fan in. It makes me feel better, even if it doesn't agree with Google!

[kalniel]

the reason I ask is that the Google findings were that cooler drives failed more than warmer drives in a lot of cases, so if we're to believe the findings, we should be aiming for disk temperatures of around 35 to 40 ish degrees on most modern drives, possibly a tad higher.

The reality is a desktop hard drive isn't under the same kind of loads as a data server, so there's no point worrying about it as using a fan or not will have no effect on reliability.

Which goes against my own beliefs and is seems that most cases designers still put a space there for the drive to have a fan.

The lower case fan isn't especially there for hard drives, but to bring in cold air at the base of the case. Cases like the silverstone Raven take this to extremes!

It makes me feel better, even if it doesn't agree with Google!

That's the main thing then - we buy these over-spec'd beasts of burden for our own pleasure anyway - so feeling good about something is far more important than actual practical relevance