Case Fan question / Audio Case question

[Gray]

I recently bought the Chieftec BX 01 case, and im very impressed with it at the moment, its a new type of case which ive never had before, but goodness it is extremely roomy and especially heavy.

Anyway

I am able to fit 3* 80mm fans into the case, but at the moment im looking into using 2 of them inside the case. Ive been checking OcUK/Aria/etc but unable to find what i can see as a suitable 80mm Case Fan. All except for the AcoustiFan which you guys at TechNation did. Unfortunatly, the placed im looking are all sold out or dont stock them at all so rather than just wait i may have to look at other products (UNLESS you guys know of places which are selling them at this moment).

Ive been trying to find one which has high airflow, but not loud, but it seems the Vantec Tornado is a big hitter which looks to give the best airflow, but sadly its way too loud (50dB) so having two of them is a big no-no. Well unless someone tell me what 2 of them sound like anyway, because last time i had the Volcano 9 CPU Fan and that was just absolutely evil.

And the second question:

I have as i say the Chieftec case, and on it it has wires to plug Audio into the front of the case. I referred back to my manual to see were to plug in the audio, but, i cant locate the pins to actually get it on. I know were about it does probably go, but i dont want to risk it because the number of pins dont match up...

Here is the Diagram of the Case connection, i cant find any pictures of my Mobtherboard ---- Which is an Abit NF7-S v2, but looking at my manual there is something called "J41 and J42" but im unsure about it.

Chieftec BX 01
Abit NF7-S v2.0

 

[Tom]

I have zero casefans on my computer. I think that casefans are a load of bollocks, just leave a hole at the front of the case near the bottom, and a hole at the rear near the top, and convection does the rest. Just a marketing scam IMO.

As for the audio, unless one of the pins is carrying voltage (for a microphone), the chances of you doing any damage is practically zero.

 

[Danya]

50 dB is loud. I have a couple of 45dB fans and they're loud enough that I can't use them due to excessive noise.
For reference a modern HDD is about 22-25 dB and a louder older HDD is around 30-35dB. 50dB is 4 times louder than 30dB so that's pretty darned loud.

 

[Gray]

Problem is at the moment, since ive got this new case, my computer has been hitting problems were im getting Bluescreens and PCs resetting.

Its not from what i can see the CPU heating up, as its staying at its standard 50º but my graphics card for some odd reason is heating up badly in Counterstrike, going above 55º causing the game to crash which is worrying.

I think a few case fans may help lower the temperature a little bit, and should hopefully sort out the heat issues.

And back to the Audio:

I did a quick picture, which is a bit blurry (grr) but you can see all the required info, i THINK (again that word) it is the one were its meant to be connected:

 

[Tom]

What fan do you have on your gfx card? I have a zalman flower, and its much much better at cooling than the stock rotary lawnmower they put on.

As for cooling, my front room fireplace doesn't need fans. Its fed by a draught from the colder parts of the house, and the heat disappears right up the chimney. If you put a newspaper page on the front of the fire, it gets sucked in VERY quickly and powerfully. No fans there.





1 and 2 are for your microphone input. Black of your mic to 2

3 and 4 don't use

5 and 6 are front speakers right (6 is likely to be ground or -ve)

7 and 8 don't use (can't quite see what 8 says)

9 and 10 are as 5 and 6, but front left channel

12 and 14 are spdif in and out, 11 and 13 are probably power and ground for this, although get help as I don't know the spdif standard. I'm surprised it needs power though.

 

[Gray]

yeah the ones 11/12/13/14 im thinking i dont need to plug in which is why im thinking its the one to plug into.. will try it tomorrow

and im using the standard GFX Cooler, have never added a fan onto a graphics card, dont wanna try it with my £250 card either for "testies" ;o

 

[Tom]

What card is it? Goto www.quietpc.com

It was a bit tricky to fit the fan on my 6800GT, but basically all you have to do is unscrew the fan assembly from the PCB (easy), remove it, and then unscrew the heatsink (easy), remove it.

Then you install a brace over the back of the CPU, it uses 2 of the old heatsink holes, so again thats easy.

Then you clean all the chips with a dry cloth (easy), stick a load of small heatsinks to the RAM chips (no silicon, just adhesive - easy), then you fasten the Zalman heatsink (silicon paste on the GPU first) to the brace and GPU at the same time, and it all fastens securely on top of the GPU.

Its really not very different to installing a CPU fan, in fact its probably less stressful, as there is less force involved in getting the bugger on.

The difference in noise levels is astounding, and my GPU temperature has dropped by a consistent 7'C

 

[.Wilier.]

As for cooling, my front room fireplace doesn't need fans. Its fed by a draught from the colder parts of the house, and the heat disappears right up the chimney. If you put a newspaper page on the front of the fire, it gets sucked in VERY quickly and powerfully. No fans there.

erm, thats because you have a chimney Tom, without which, your room would quickly fill with smoke.

A chimney isnt just a convienient way of getting smoke into the atmosphere, it also acts as a suction to the fire below. Wind (or even a slight breeze) passing over the opening in the chimney causes a suction effect within the stack, drawing air in the opening in the bottom (your fireplace) thus giving the fire a good coat of oxygen to burn and dragging the smoke up with it.

Take an industrial heater as an example.
Our process heaters have an Induced draught fan (ie sucking air through the heater) and a Forced draught fan (pushing air through) which working together balance the air flow through the heater.
If there is ever a problem with one of these fans, we can place the heater into whats called Natural Draught, ie, we rely on the draw from the stack to suck air in the bottom of the heater, through the burners and out the stack (just like your fire) BUT this greatly reduces the efficiency of the heater, due to the lack of airflow.

If Gray was to just leave an opening at the front and one at the back of his case, hot air would just sit there since there is no way of moving it around. The addition of a front fan drawing air in, and thus forcing it out the back, or vica-verca, or a combination of both would greatly improve the cooling within the case.

Marketing scam? I think not.

 

[Tom]

Yeah I know how chimneys work, I didn't ruin my carpet and my hands rebuilding it for no good reason A tall case is much like a chimney itself. And you've got 2 fans inside the case circulating air. The temperature difference between the surface of a heatsink and the surrounding air is always quite large - unless you overclock your system to stupendous levels, you just don't need them. Don't believe me? Turn your case fans off, and watch the temperatures, I bet they rise by no more than a degree or two.

Scam. The end.

 

[Gray]

Thinking about looking into the Zalman ZM-80D-HP Cooler, and the Zalman ZM-OP1 Fan combo, £30 in total

But probably first also look into the 2 case fans as they maybe cheaper alternative and less hassle for me..

But now gonna check that audio thing

 

[Clown]

Yeah I know how chimneys work, I didn't ruin my carpet and my hands rebuilding it for no good reason A tall case is much like a chimney itself. And you've got 2 fans inside the case circulating air. The temperature difference between the surface of a heatsink and the surrounding air is always quite large - unless you overclock your system to stupendous levels, you just don't need them. Don't believe me? Turn your case fans off, and watch the temperatures, I bet they rise by no more than a degree or two.

Scam. The end.

Ahh the internet child, full of good advice.

I turn off my fans and I get a rise of about 20 degrees. Shut your face Tom.

 

[~Yuckfou~]

I have a Zalman CPU cooler, it's fan is running at 942rpm right now. There are no other fans. My Athy 3000 cpu is at 48C.
When I play games I crank up the fan to 1700rpm and the temp generally raises to 50C.
Previously I had an athy 1700, 6 case fans well positioned + an 80cm CPU fan on an SK7. Sounded like a hovercraft and ran 10 degrees hotter, I'm using the same case.
My Gfx card (6800) has no fan and the PSU is a silent Zalman.

 

[Tom]

I turn off my fans and I get a rise of about 20 degrees. Shut your face Tom.

Perhaps you shouldn't have everything clustered in the space of a matchbox then?

Casefans = nerds with money.

 

[Clown]

Makes my £250 graphics card faster than a £400 one, and my £50 quid CPU faster than a £100 quid one. It makes sense. You're just stupid.

 

[Tom]

I could do both those things, and still not need case fans.

Actually, I could just buy the £400 gfx card and the £100 cpu, since I can easily afford it. I choose not to, because at the end of the day who gives a shit? Some cock-boy troll who thinks he has a diploma in funneh?

 

[Clown]

Do you not read the idiot posts that you make?

 

[Gray]

:OOO

Anyway... The Audio is now working spot on so im chuffed in that sense, but still on the look out for Case fans.

Id be a lot happier if i did have one or two more case fans, even if they arent needed, as when i checked inside the case earlier they're right ontop of the graphics card, so it should give it a much needed blast of air.

But anyone know were to buy the Acoustifan 80mm Its just all sold out

 

[Danya]

I run case fans at 7V rather than full speed, they are very quiet (less than HDD noise) and keep enough air flowing that I don't get hotspots (main problem seems to be ram). I've found with no fans at all, unless you have a big case which not much in it, you tend to get heat build up. Given the huge snarl of cabling and water tubes running through my case, I like a few fans there.

 

[.Wilier.]

:OOO

But anyone know were to buy the Acoustifan 80mm Its just all sold out

QPC

Says there in stock, 9 quid for 80mm clear fans.

 

[Gray]

I ordered some Enermax Fans from OcUK, came this morning...

Its shaved 15º off the CPU temp, its now running at (According to HW Doc) 30º with my system temp at 23º

Impressed, can hear the noise but will see how bad it can be tomorrow, so does look like Case fans sort out problems weee ;o...

Only thing is i checked my GFX, it was idling at 43º which was again, about 10º change in it, but in CS it was running again at 55º+ but it was still "green" and not showing as Yellow/Overheat, system crashes at least once a day so will see if these fix it, if no, back to the drawing board for a GFX fan ;o

 

[Tom]

If your 6800 is dying at 55', either your thermostat is reading incorrectly, your gfx card is in buggeration, or its something else. Mine quite happily does 65' with no failure.

Have you got a zalman flower on the gfx? Fucking brilliant fan.

BTW case fans are still for girls.

 

[Chilly]

real men use non conductive, super cooled liquid-immersion cooling - ALL fans are for girls

 

[Gray]

*win*

Ive not correctly identified as Graphics looking into it..

I have just checked the Events Log, and a few errors (Red X) popped up, cant remember the times my PC shut off but heres what i gets...

Red X'
Event Type: Error
Event Source: nvidesm
Event Category: None
Event ID: 9
Date: 10/01/2005
Time: 15:21:16
User: N/A
Computer: GRAY
Description:
The device, \Device\Scsi\nvidesm1, did not respond within the timeout period.

---
That NVDidesm sounds like Nvidia drivers, maybe.. second error

---

Event Type: Error
Event Source: System Error
Event Category: (102)
Event ID: 1003
Date: 10/01/2005
Time: 15:22:27
User: N/A
Computer: GRAY
Description:
Error code 1000008e, parameter1 c0000005, parameter2 804eebc8, parameter3 b7d68a50, parameter4 00000000.

---

This error (Yellow !) has got me somewaht concerned:

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Disk
Event Category: None
Event ID: 51
Date: 11/01/2005
Time: 14:04:14
User: N/A
Computer: GRAY
Description:
An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging operation.

Im gonna have to maybe look into these later on, or at least, wait until (IF) my PC gets a Blue Screen and resets again...

May try old drivers, or the new ones if it does happen... am on 66.93 atm...

hmm

 

[Dr_Weasel]

Download and run the disk diagnostics from your HDD manufacturer (Eg, Maxblast for Maxtor drives, Drive Fitness Test for IBMs, etc). Itll find any disk errors for you and hopefully patch the drive up.

At the very least schedule a windows scan disk...

 

[Danya]

\Device\Scsi\nvidesm1 is your IDE driver. Looks like you have a NF2 based board which runs an nvidia southbridge including the ide controller.
Either yor disk is on the way out, or your ide controller is on the way out. Either way you should backup anything on it and run diagnostics asap.

 

[Gray]

oooh, no, not my hard drive. noo noo nooo

Saying that, i have for aaaaages been getting the "Click of death" ie, sounds like its 2 large beeps coming out of nowhere

I remember i have a spare hard drive in my old case.. Do you think its affecting my PRIMARY hard drive, since its showing up quite a lot? Hmm

 

[Danya]

It looks to be Harddisk0 which is usually the primary - It also says "D", which I assume is the drive letter, do you have a drive D on your primary disk?

 

[Gray]

I have 2 hard drives, Partitioned into 3...

So i must be sharing the hard drive between 2 partitions..
Shit. shit. heh

 

[Gray]

oooh ow.

Just checked inside the Admin tools and Device manager, 2 drives:

IBM Deskstar IC35l040avva07-0 (40gb / Primary)
and
Maxtor 6 Y120L0 (120gb / Secondary)

Take a REAL wild guess as to which one is fuxxing up...

I cant even remember having a Deskstar. Shit. Altho my D: Drive is fine, its 120gb and from what i can see above, it doesnt have a problem... just that pissing IBM.

*Rage*

 

[Gray]

Quick update, realllly wish you could edit your posts.. Anyway

My computer is now crashing on average, 3 times a day, usually if im playing a game and i just finish it, it will crash, once it resets, then if i go back onto it straight away, the computer will again crash.

I looked around for the error (which is the nvidesm one), and it looks like it is my IDE Drivers causing the problems - Which NVidia done, i found an interesting thread on another forum stating that the Nvidia IDE Drivers are causing shitloads of problems, only problem is, the thread is a year and half old, so im quite buhhh into if there is new drivers out working.

Looks like it wasnt my IBM hard drive after all.. hope it dont crash on me now ;o, but im gonna go get some more news from the people over at that forum to see if they possibly know