ihe photos by pigs in space show what i dislike about that cooling set up ,which I use,it is  to bloody big ,when I want to clean the fans/fins change memory etc its a night mare for me ,the cooling however is excellent keeps my i2600k at 4.5 nice and cool which is it,s job ,but I feel that a Swiftech H20-220 is calling ,does anyone use this cooler,is this a good choice ?

peter

 

 

 

Yes I agree, cleaning the fins on the D14 is a bit of a pain. I usually shove some paper or card between the grills to clean it out.

 

I've heard good things about the H220, and I believe it's expandable, refillable.

the motherboard carrier already had a large square cut out for heat exhaust so I made 140 mm hole is the case side panel and added a 140mm fan to help draw that heat out.

 

 

 

Rob

 

 

Looks an awesome set up Rob.

 

The only thing I would say, is that you didn't need the 140 fan mounted on the side panel. The "large square cut-out" in the motherboard tray isn't for heat exhaust, it's for access when mounting coolers that require a rear bracket.

 

 

Given the prodigious cooling courtesy of the HAF, I'd say it's simply adding a source of noise for no good reason. Have you tried without, and checked the temps?

 

 

I feel that a Swiftech H20-220 is calling ,does anyone use this cooler,is this a good choice ?

 

I've not used that model, but I have used Swiftech before, they are quality products.

 

 

 

The "large square cut-out" in the motherboard tray isn't for heat exhaust, it's for access when mounting coolers that require a rear bracket.

 

Going to disagree, although that certainly is a valid reason, I don't think it is the only reason ... the OE square would not need to be as large as it is for just rear bracket access.

 

The 140mm fan I added is about exhausting heat.  The HAF 230mm fan sucks outside air in and blows down, the front 200mm fan sucks air in and blows it over the SSDs and motherboard, the 140mm rear fan exhaust air out, the H100 fans exhaust out from top (thru rad), there was nothing that exhausted heat from the other side of the motherboard, so I added the hole and fan to "complete" the flow out.  Exhausting heat is as important as air intake.

 

But specifically, that fan has allowed me a stable 5Ghz for use with FSX and gaming ... something I couldn't achieve without the fan (regardless of voltage settings).  For daily work, rendering, coding, etc. I run at 4.8Ghz ... the Asus AI Suite can store profiles for my specific application needs and change voltage/frequency "on the fly".  What Asus haven't done yet is allowed me to associate an OC profile to an executable similar to how NVidia Inspector works ... at least I haven't found a way to do this yet??

 

In terms of actual FSX fps improvements, I gained about 4 fps (going from 4.6Ghz 1600Mhz to 5Ghz 2133 Mhz) ... other variable is the updated UEFI 4601 (which seemed to trigger a esellerrate re-activiation process for all my couatl products - didn't expect that).

 

Rob

 

 

Going to disagree, although that certainly is a valid reason, I don't think it is the only reason ... the OE square would not need to be as large as it is for just rear bracket

 

Rob

The manufacturers tell us that's why they put it there Rob. The reason it's large is that CPU sockets vary in regard to location. My case no longer has the hole in the right place, as CPU sockets have moved on new boards. If you can make use of it for cooling, fair enough. So what difference did it make in terms of temperature? I would be very surprised if it made much at all.

 

Exhausting heat is as important as air intake.

Absolutely it is. balanced or negative air pressure is the way to go.

 

 

but I feel that a Swiftech H20-220 is calling

 

Had mine three months now. Loaded into the roof of an Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 case and cooling a 4770K running stock and o/c to 4.4.  It is excellent. Yes, it is not a totally sealed system. I can add additional radiators or GPU cooling if required. It is also very flexible in that it comes with a PWF splitter. Eight devices (fans/pumps) can be connected, all controlled by CPU temperature. The splitter uses the CPU fan motherboard connection. Brass/copper radiator, larger diameter hoses and quiet fans speak of the build quality.  Runs all my simulations (flight, racing, railway) cool. 

 

Happy with mine to date. Wouldn't change it. Pity, last I heard due to legal issues the H220 is longer available for sale in the US.

 

 

If it's worth it for you, buying two new expensive Noctua fans, and going to the trouble to cut out your rear fan grill, for a mere 2-3 degrees, then great stuff. For me though, it would be pointless. The D14 in standard form, is the quietest high end cooler I have ever owned, I have no need to make it even quieter, I can't hear it anyway. And my overclock certainly isn't on a thermal knife edge, and requiring a mere 2-3 degrees temperature drop. 

 

My response was concerning near dead silent solution, since you are not into that kind of thing and have grown accustomed to the leaf blower box I can understand your response, but does it hurt you so much to think?  :lol:

 

Yeah.. mere 2-3 C @ 500-750 RPM LOL...  900, 1200 RPM etc?

 

  

 

Oh the logic.

I love my H100i with push/pull setup. I bought a fan controller and four SP120's for the rad and a whole bunch of AF120's for the case. But realized it was total overkill for H100. I'm OC'ed 48x on my 2700K, and I can't get 100% CPU load temp over 65ºC with case fans idleing and I live in Florida!!! Love it.

 

 

So what difference did it make in terms of temperature?

 

Motherboard temps dropped approximately 16*F under load (via Asus monitor).  Independent case temp sensor (dangles in air just to the left of the chipset and below CPU) and shows an overall drop of 8*F under load.  Case sensor reads about 2*F high than actual and the Asus motherboard sensor reads about 4*F higher than actual.

ihe photos by pigs in space show what i dislike about that cooling set up ,which I use,it is  to bloody big ,when I want to clean the fans/fins change memory etc its a night mare for me ,the cooling however is excellent keeps my i2600k at 4.5 nice and cool which is it,s job ,but I feel that a Swiftech H20-220 is calling ,does anyone use this cooler,is this a good choice ?

peter

 

Its two whole screws, if its that hard for you get a cordless...

Oh Martin, forgot to mention -- I also seal the fan perimeter with black silicon and then using insulation strips to make a seal between the case panel and the motherboard carrier plate around the square ... this was an important step to maximize heat exhaust efficiency.  I also use my a separate external temp sensor on the MOSFET and my approach helped reduce that temp by about 12*F.  The 140mm fan is a Corsair unit that runs anywhere from 600 to 1100  rpm with <21 db noise level.

 

I also do audio work so it's important for me to keep an quiet PC even under load.

Oh Martin, forgot to mention -- I also seal the fan perimeter with black silicon and then using insulation strips to make a seal between the case panel and the motherboard carrier plate around the square ... this was an important step to maximize heat exhaust efficiency.  I also use my a separate external temp sensor on the MOSFET and my approach helped reduce that temp by about 12*F.  The 140mm fan is a Corsair unit that runs anywhere from 600 to 1100  rpm with <21 db noise level.

 

I also do audio work so it's important for me to keep an quiet PC even under load.

 

 

Very interesting Rob. Something else for me to mess with when I'm bored. :smile:

 

Are you a positive, negative, or balanced enclosure pressure advocate? I'm not sure how the HAF fans are orientated to be honest.

My response was concerning near dead silent solution, since you are not into that kind of thing and have grown accustomed to the leaf blower box I can understand your response, but does it hurt you so much to think?  :lol:

 

Yeah.. mere 2-3 C @ 500-750 RPM LOL...  900, 1200 RPM etc?

 

  

 

Oh the logic.

 

Ha, leaf blower indeed! :biggrin:

 

Noise is purely subjective of course, but no, I don't like noise, I like a very quiet PC. One of my main concerns when I build.

 

To be honest, I'm not sure why anyone would need the D14 to be quieter, it's one of the quietest coolers out there. But there you go. If you're happy, you're happy.

 

I have all my fans controlled by Asus Fan Xpert 2. Does a great job, they never run anywhere near their max, always low RPM even under load.

 

Too many people think that they must provide a huge amount of cooling, when in reality it's rarely required. More isn't always better, in fact too many competing fans can set up turbulence and compromise cooling. Enclosures need to be cool enough to enable a stable system, and that's all.

 

 My two top mounted 140 fans are running at very low RPM. Single 120 at the front, same for that low RPM, sane for the rear 120.

 

3770K overclock is nice and stable.

To be honest, I'm not sure why anyone would need the D14 to be quieter...

 

I understand why you might think that, the D14 is indeed quiet compared to many solutions needing to employ much louder fans to generate enough static pressure and turbulence (=noise) in an effort to keep things as cool.

 

But to also be just as "honest" I'm not sure why anyone might think that unless sleeping under a rock or half deaf maybe?, (just kidding) considering how the demand for ultra silent powerful cool and quiet systems is driving the market for the fastest growing and most profitable $egment in high-end to custom PC from cases, complete Solid-state systems thru to video card design and beyond.

 

Take care.

I understand why you might think that, the D14 is indeed quiet compared to many solutions needing to employ much louder fans to generate enough static pressure and turbulence (=noise) in an effort to keep things as cool.

 

But to also be just as "honest" I'm not sure why anyone might think that unless sleeping under a rock or half deaf maybe?, (just kidding) considering how the demand for ultra silent powerful cool and quiet systems is driving the market for the fastest growing and most profitable $egment in high-end to custom PC from cases, complete Solid-state systems thru to video card design and beyond.

 

Take care.

 

 

Mr Pigs, when I said "why anyone" you may have mistakenly taken that literally. I wasn't referring to the PC market as a whole, I was obviously referring to the enthusiast, those of us on this forum, overclocking our PC's. Pushing our PC's to medium and high overclocks.

 

Ask anyone that owns a D14 and they will tell you it's very quiet, very comfortable in terms of noise levels. They would have no desperate need to make it quieter, why would they when it's already quiet. Appreciation of noise levels is subjective of course, but when the majority tell us the D14 is quiet it becomes more of an objective determination.  No one complains about D14 noise levels. So perhaps you can tell us why you require hyper quiet PC's? Do you have a specific requirement that means you must reduce your noise levels even lower than the already comfortable levels of the D14?

 

 

You say you have achieved that, the holy grail, a "near silent" but very heavily overclocked system, but to  be honest, unless I come round to your house and set up equipment to monitor your PC's noise levels, I have no idea just how quiet your set up is compared to mine. To be honest, I don't think you have achieved a quieter CPU cooler than me, see below...

 

My only motive for giving you a bit of an interrogation [perhaps unfairly] is to determine if this mod is worth my while attempting.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

EDIT:

 

My response was concerning near dead silent solution, since you are not into that kind of thing and have grown accustomed to the leaf blower box I can understand your response, but does it hurt you so much to think?

 

 

I've just looked at the noise levels quoted for your fans, and mine, on the Noctua site...

 

Your fans 

 

150: 19.2 dB(A)  150: 19.2 dB(A)  120: 19.8 dB(A)

 

Total 58.2

 

My standard Noctua fans:

 

140: 19.2 dB(A)  120: 19.8 dB(A)  120 case fan Noise Blocker: 20 dB(A)

 

Total 59

 

The difference between the two, 0.8 dB(A) wouldn't be audible. We are both running our fans at less than full rpm of course. You have gained a couple of degrees by moving your fan closer and 0.8 dB(A).

 

Sorry not worth it for me.

 

 

 

 

I do have a DB meter, if I get time this weekend I'll post pics of my PC db readings at my listening position, under normal load and full load.

 

FYI, I use my DB meter for a couple of things, setting levels of my studio monitors (audio work) and checking sound levels of my race car as some tracks have DB limits (Laguna Seca, Sonoma, Thunderhill, etc.).

Mr Pigs, when I said "why anyone" you may have mistakenly taken that literally. I wasn't referring to the PC market as a whole, I was obviously referring to the enthusiast, those of us on this forum, overclocking our PC's. Pushing our PC's to medium and high overclocks.

 

Ask anyone that owns a D14 and they will tell you it's very quiet, very comfortable in terms of noise levels. They would have no desperate need to make it quieter, why would they when it's already quiet. Appreciation of noise levels is subjective of course, but when the majority tell us the D14 is quiet it becomes more of an objective determination.  No one complains about D14 noise levels. So perhaps you can tell us why you require hyper quiet PC's? Do you have a specific requirement that means you must reduce your noise levels even lower than the already comfortable levels of the D14?

 

 

You say you have achieved that, the holy grail, a "near silent" but very heavily overclocked system, but to  be honest, unless I come round to your house and set up equipment to monitor your PC's noise levels, I have no idea just how quiet your set up is compared to mine. To be honest, I don't think you have achieved a quieter CPU cooler than me, see below...

 

My only motive for giving you a bit of an interrogation [perhaps unfairly] is to determine if this mod is worth my while attempting.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

EDIT:

 

 

 

I've just looked at the noise levels quoted for your fans, and mine, on the Noctua site...

 

Your fans 

 

150: 19.2 dB(A)  150: 19.2 dB(A)  120: 19.8 dB(A)

 

Total 58.2

 

My standard Noctua fans:

 

140: 19.2 dB(A)  120: 19.8 dB(A)  120 case fan Noise Blocker: 20 dB(A)

 

Total 59

 

The difference between the two, 0.8 dB(A) wouldn't be audible. We are both running our fans at less than full rpm of course. You have gained a couple of degrees by moving your fan closer and 0.8 dB(A).

 

Sorry not worth it for me.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh my, I think we can see what you did there, the noise of your leaf blower must be getting to you.. :rolleyes:

 

Why you used figures at max RPM without taking into any consideration the obvious points already put in front of you to make some point I have no idea. ???

 

The 150mm  produces 6% more airflow at the equivalent RPM of the 14-FLX than you are using (comparing Noctua's own figures) so We are already more efficient and then we can add the much less restrictive cut out, there is really moving vs obstructions and loss of airflow plus the added noise of the grill with a fan attached - fact.

 

So If I'm going to slow things down a little going big helps not only in raw airflow but also in effecting a bit more of the cooler as it covers more (but we already know that) but I digress....

 

Those funny DBA figures you posted:

 

The 150mm fan @ 900 RPM is 13.8 db. The 120mm is 12.6 @ 900 RPM certainly not 19 DB you strangely used.

 

But the system I showed you is even less than that isn't it?

 

@ 750 & 500 RPM in fact, which puts the noise level at just above 10 db.

 

Db is logarithmic unit of measurement, do you actually know how loud 10 db is? 

 

Right exactly!

 

10 db is the equivalent of normal human breathing, vs 19 or more?

 

Give me a break!

 

The case fans I have running at 500 RPM? A pin dropping from 3 feet, heard 3 feet away is significantly louder - Hello?

 

And no we don't add the DB levels together as you have done, that is not how it works at all and was a dead giveaway.

 

As for for your "motive",  I have no idea but why you keep grasping for straws just to try to put me down is a waste.

 

I hope you have a pleasant weekend, you take care.

Why you used figures at max RPM without taking into any consideration the obvious points already put in front of you to make some point I have no idea. ???

 

 

Irrelevant, we have to use max RPM for an accurate comparison, because that's what Noctua give us. The noise level of your fans, and my fans, are comparable throughout the RPM range. Noise levels reduce at a lower RPM, something we both benefit from. The miniscule difference in noise levels between our fans is still maintained at lower RPM. [To a reasonable degree]

 

 

The 150mm  produces 6% more airflow at the equivalent RPM of the 14-FLX than you are using (comparing Noctua's own figures)

 

 

 

Irrelevant, as we have already established, the extra airflow in terms of your 150 fan, is bypassing the cooler, not passing through the heat sink at all, so not contributing to CPU cooling. What it is doing is contributing "slightly" to enclosure cooling. And given that all of us have latitude when it comes to enclosure cooling, the extra airflow from your 10mm increase in fan diameter isn't required at all. I'm sure your enclosure temps are NOT on a thermal knife edge, and I'm sure you aren't desperate for a miniscule decrease in enclosure temps. Something is seriously wrong with your set up if you are.

 

 

We are already more efficient and then we can add the much less restrictive cut out, there is really moving vs obstructions and loss of airflow plus the added noise of the grill with a fan attached - fact.

 

 

Irrelevant again, your CPU temp has only reduced by a couple of degrees, and the contribution to your enclosure cooling is small, and not required. Most of us that have thought about our enclosure purchases don't have restricting grills. Mine certainly isn't. I tested earlier, no difference at all in temps or noise with it in or removed.

 

And lets not forget, that you did clearly state that the point, is that you can achieve "near silent cooling", the "holy grail", near silent with a big overclock. You even make a point of it in your forum signature. Well I think it's quite clear, that at full RPM, and therefore throughout the RPM range, that your noise levels are barely any different to the standard D14 set up. Slightly less at full RPM, barely audible. That miniscule disparity will obviously be maintained  at lower RPM [with a margin of error] for both your set up, and the standard D14 set up. At lower RPM yours gets quieter, at lower RPM so does the standard D14 set up.

 

 

 

But the system I showed you is even less than that isn't it?

 

@ 750 & 500 RPM in fact, which puts the noise level at just above 10 db.

 

Db is logarithmic unit of measurement, do you actually know how loud 10 db is? 

 

Right exactly!

 

 

 

 

Irrelevant again. As we have already established, I too [with the standard D14 set up] have the facility and CPU temp margin, to run at lower RPM. Most with the PWM version of the D14, won't be running at full RPM, dependant on how they configure the fan curve. In addition, as we have already established, the extra 10mm fan diameter is bypassing your CPU heat sink, so not contributing to lower CPU temp and thus lower CPU cooler fan speed at all. 

 

 

 

The case fans I have running at 500 RPM? A pin dropping from 3 feet, heard 3 feet away is significantly louder - Hello?

 

 

 

 

Irrelevant, so do mine. As I speak, according to Fan Xpert 2, my top mounted 140 fans are at 524 and 509 respectively, fixed RPM, that's all I need.

 

 

And no we don't add the DB levels together as you have done, that is not how it works at all and was a dead giveaway.

 

 

 

Irrelevant again, that was done for comparison purposes only. Please ignore if you so choose. Feel free to compare the decibels of each individual fan. Same applies, barely any difference in sound output.

 

 

As for for your "motive",  I have no idea but why you keep grasping for straws just to try to put me down is a waste.

 

 

 

No straws, just facts.

 

And "why" you ask... simple, I need to know if your mod is worth it for me, in addition, no doubt there will be other D14 owners out there, who will see your claims, and think they can achieve something of worth. For that reason, it's worth establishing if you really have carried out a modification that's worthwhile for others to try. The "holy grail" of PC cooling, near silent and a big overclock.

 

Scepticism is essential, in fact it's the corner stone of the scientific method, without it we question nothing and learn nothing. Others contemplating you modification can now read the points I have made, and read the points you have made, and decide for themselves.