I'm curious what everyone thinks the best setup is, for effective air cooling. I recently purchased a new system with an E-8400, and from all the things I've read about how well these processors overclock on air alone, I'd like to know what others think regarding effective air cooling. Unfortunately, my case isn't the best for promoting lots of air flow, so I'm in a position where I need to install a lot of fans. I guess my main question is this, would it be better to have fans dragging air in from one side of the case, and expelling it out the other side OR should I try to pump as much outside air into the case as possible?? (what I mean by this is should I have ALL of the case fans blowing air into the case, and none blowing air out.) On my old rig, I used the "through" method - all my fans at the front of my case sucked air in, and the fans at the rear drew it out. I'm not sure how effective this method is, because I never really tried the other method.cheers

I have 4 120 mm fans on the side blowing inI have one 120 mm fan blowing in across my HDD'sI have one 120 mm fan blowing in from the topI have one 120 mm fan on my heatsinkI have one 120 mm fan in the back blowing out.....I run a Q6600 2.4 O/C ed to 3.38My core temps are 43 43 38 38 @ idle........I too have a hugh case.....

Here it is....

One strategy is to provide the CPU's cooler the coolest air possible. In all cases, that's going to be your room's ambient air temp (it's always going to be hotter inside the computer case). Designing an airflow schematic based on that basic premise: The strategy would be to use a stand-up, flat-sided CPU cooler like the Thermalright 120. All computer cases will have a fan mount directly adjacent to the CPU cooler (see the .jpg from the previous post). Case fan and the CPU fan will mount like in the pic. If you want room air to be blowing into the CPU cooler, which way should that case fan blow? The case fan directly adjacent to the CPU cooler should be blowing room air directly at the CPU cooler. The fan on the CPU cooler should be drawing that air through the CPU cooler and into the case. ALL other fans should be exhausting . . . like crazy . . . to get that hot air out of the case. Rather than a bank of fans on the case side wall, I just leave the side wide open. I'm in there all the time anyway. I'm Priming a Q6600 at 3.6Ghz in an 85F room right now. Seems to be hanging in there.

>One strategy is to provide the CPU's cooler the coolest air>possible. In all cases, that's going to be your room's>ambient air temp (it's always going to be hotter inside the>computer case). >>Designing an airflow schematic based on that basic premise:>The strategy would be to use a stand-up, flat-sided CPU cooler>like the Thermalright 120. All computer cases will have a fan>mount directly adjacent to the CPU cooler (see the .jpg from>the previous post). Case fan and the CPU fan will mount like>in the pic. >>If you want room air to be blowing into the CPU cooler, which>way should that case fan blow? The case fan directly adjacent>to the CPU cooler should be blowing room air directly at the>CPU cooler. The fan on the CPU cooler should be drawing that>air through the CPU cooler and into the case. >>ALL other fans should be exhausting . . . like crazy . . . to>get that hot air out of the case. Rather than a bank of fans>on the case side wall, I just leave the side wide open. I'm in>there all the time anyway. >>I'm Priming a Q6600 at 3.6Ghz in an 85F room right now. Seems>to be hanging in there. I would really like to leave the side of my case open, but with a 2 year old running around in my house, that's just not an option for me. I'll most likely draw all the air in from the front of my case and vent out the back. That should provide the coolest airflow through the case.cheers

Hi Glenn,No one can beat this config for air cooling:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/188194.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/188195.jpgAs you can see, it is a thru-the-wall air conditioner ($149 Sharp ultra quiet . . . for an a/c unit), and I put a cardboard cowling with one flex hose to route air directly over the CPU HSF at point blank range, the lower hose aims at the GPU, the other one up top at memory and the rest, mainboard, NB, etc.You just need an exterior wall. Runs on 110v, and what is super great about it is, with lower cooling need situations you can either leave it off, or just run one of 3 fan only modes. I use my PC for digital audio, so need very quiet. Since this is a low-demand situation, there is no need for cooling so it's ultra quiet as only it's not on. This works well for me for overclocks up to about 3.8Ghz. Beyond that, a little AC helps and I can easily OC to 4.4Ghz and probably beyond. With FULL A/C power on, it is a low-pitched, almost white noise sound, so it's ok. Never an issue. The other super nice thing is: works with any and all PC's. So when I rebuild, no problemo! Electricity cost is really minor. It is an 8K BTU ac unit, and just doesn't draw much power. I love this set up!I tell you, when all's said and done, this is IMHO the best option, unless you must have ultra quiet and ultra cool at the same time, then you might as well go water. But really, no thanks. Don't need water cooling any more!Here are my temps at FULL load, with full A/C on, overclocked to 4.4GHz: 53-58C for my CPU (goes to 19C at idle), and of course GPU and memory are COLD to the touch. Can't beat it really! Plus, it's not that pricey to do. Plus . . . I needed a little cooling in this room in summertime anyway. And in Winter, it's just not that cool. If you are going to use air only, with a closed case, I'll bet you would be pushing 74C at this overclock, maybe more.NoelQX9650 w/ Retail HSF|8GB Muskin PC-6400|ASUS P5E|EVGA 8800GT @700|Seagate SATA 2 x 4|Seagate Cheetah 15K.x|XP Pro|Vista 64--soon to be installed

Fortunately, I already have central air conditioning in my house, so I wouldn't have to buy a window mount unit. I've considered rigging a duct or something to pump air straight into my case, but I'm somewhat limited because I need to keep my case inside of a cabinet due to children in the house. I pretty sure a few more fans inside my case will probably do the trick - I'm not experiencing any overheating problems yet, but I haven't even attempted to overclock yet. Once I do overclock, I'm not going to shoot for the highest possible clock speed. I'll be more than happy with something in the 3.5 to 3.6 gHz range, which should be quite achievable on air, from what I've read.cheers

Noel,I do have one question for you - are you concerned about condensation inside of your case??

This was indeed my concern. I can attest, it's been about a year and a half since I did this, and no worries. This may be because I live in a low humidity area. Plus, as you know, AC dehumidifies. Actually, my old P4 needed more cooling that this penryn quad, until the o'clock is maxed. Anyway, this is ok so far, but a very legitimate concern for sure. If you can route a LOW static pressure hose directly at your CPU HSF with overflow to the rest of the guts from your central air, it could be interesting and it may work well. I too have central air, just don't really need it most of the time. So this is cheap and much more effective I'm sure, since it is point blank range, with low resistance (which can kill a small AC unit) since I have ample cowling and also only run the thing on low fan speed as that's all that's needed. What I really like is that the entire PC runs cool, from my various HDs including 2 15K scsi's, mainboard, memory, etc. It's a very simple, relatively cheap, and very effective overclocking solution. Plus, it can be stone quiet when low perf needs are happening.QX9650 w/ Retail HSF|8GB Muskin PC-6400|ASUS P5E|EVGA 8800GT @700|Seagate SATA 2 x 4|Seagate Cheetah 15K.x|XP Pro|Vista 64--soon to be installed

I use a Tuniq 120 and 1 case fan in addition to the PSU fan- works well for me........Best-Carl F. Avari-Cooper BAW0225http://online.vatsimindicators.net/980091/523.png| XP Pro SP2 | 2 x APC UPS | Coolermaster Stacker 830 SE | Gigabyte P35 DS3R | e8500 @ 4gHz | Tuniq Tower 120 | EVGA 8800GT 512MB | Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty | 2 x 1 GB Corsair XMS2 | 2 x 320GB WD Caviar RAID 0 | Corsair HX620W PS | CH Products Yoke-Pedals-Throttle Quadrant | Aerosoft 747MCP-EFIS-EICAS |

Whatever you do, make sure you get yourself the Thermalright IFX-14 cooler. Other than the size (it's big!) the secret is 8 mm heatpies (when all others have 6 mm).Ratings---------1. http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticl...204&articID=6732. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-co...008,1779-8.htmlThe Cooler------------http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/pro...ler_ifx-14.htmlChills,-jahman.

Just letting everyone know what I wound up doing on my system. First, I installed two hard-drive coolers in the 5 1/4 inch drive bays on the front of my case - the intent is not to cool my hard-drive either. They were installed primarily to draw air in, through the front of my case (the front of my case has no vents whatsoever - that's why I went with the hard-drive coolers). On the rear of the case, I've installed two 80mm fans that draw air out of the case. On the side of my case, there is one 80mm fan drawing air in. Inside, I've installed a Scythe Infinity, 5 heat pipe CPU cooler, with a 120mm fan blowing air through the heat sink. After installing all of this hardware, and modestly overclocking my CPU to 3.5 gHz, I'm running consistently 8 to 10 degrees cooler than what I had prior to installing all of the fans and the CPU cooler. My idle core temp's hover around 35 degrees and load temp's are generally in the mid to high 40's, occasionally hitting the low 50's. I'm pretty happy with how it all works, and I'll definitely try to overclock my CPU even higher.....cheers

I recently upgraded my case to the Antec 900. If you're into overclocking like me, its definitely worth some consideration. I aslo added the extra 120mm fan on the side window. All fans are manually selectable 3-speed fans and I currently have all of them set to "medium." Of special interest to me was the whopping 200mm 'Big Boy' fan on top. :-hahThis combination dropped my CPU by over 10 degrees C, but now my whole house (single-story) heats up. ;)Product Page: http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=15900#http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/188625.jpg

Hi All.I am glad you got your system running at the temps you are happy with now.I am just curious though why you didn't just go over to water cooling.I did this some years ago with my system, and I have never looked back since. I have "Zero" fans running on my system, with the exception of the PSU fans.I have the CPU and GPU water cooled, and everything is nice and cool, especially as I run the water through 1/2 bore pipe that is hooked up to a Black Ice Extreme 3 radiator, with three 120mm fans on it, which is itself located out-side just below the window.This is covered of course so as to stop any rain getting on it, but allows air to enter the bottom and sides freely.Because it is covered, the direct sunlight does not get on to it even in the middle of the summer, which here in the UK does not last very long anyway, but in the winter, WoW, talk about super cool.I run the liquid, which is half battery water to stop any corrosion, and the other half of the water is made up with anti-freeze, which not only aids in the cooling efficiency, but also stops any foaming of the water as it goes through the reservoir and CPU/GPU blocks.I Just thought I'd let you know what other options you have open to you.

My current setup:Antec 900 CaseThermalright Ultra-120 w/ FanA few 120mm fans and I'm good to go.