I currently own a Thermatake Armor Case, and as I plan to get a new computer in the next month or so I am looking for extra cooling methods to keep my new computer cool. I plan to go for either the 8800gts, or the ATI HD 2900 graphics card, but i'm not sure what one yet. Also I plan to go for an Intel Core 2 processor meaning I will be creating a lot of heat with my gaming machine. I am looking at either getting an additional 120mm fan in the front of the case or a 250mm fan on the side of the case.

It seems many people tell me that you should have airflow simple: FRONT to BACK and only that. That side airducts mess up your airflow and will cause hotspots, is this true? I mean.... I would think a 250mm fan on the side would cool off my computer parts very well, and the 180mm fan in the front would handle my HDDs. Then my 180mm in the back and 80mm on top would push hot air out.

Well... would it work better to just get the 3hdd cage with 180mm fan for the front, or get the 250mm fan for the side of my case?

Side pannel frm Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-A2400-Sy...w/dp/B000HS6KGI

Cage from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-iCage-A2...4654625-3479904



I don't think prices get any lower then the ones I found at Amazon. I plan to use my Thermaltake Typhoon 120mm CPU cooler for my processor so the processor should be doing pretty well, my main concern is keeping the chips on the mobo, the videocard, and the overall case temp down. Also I don't want to buy a PSU anytime soon, so... keeping that cool is nice

many people have said over at forums such as silentpcreview that those side fans do cause the temps to actually go up. go and research if you want to. go for the 120mm in front. if temps are too high then we can try to do something about it.

wait for intels price drops next month.

yeah the 120mm fans in front are cheaper also, it just seems that air directly on the computer parts would work really well. Thanks for the link, as I've never heard of SilentPCReview, it looks like it could help...

Are the price drops going to be large ones?

Q6600 is suppose to be 266$
thats a quad core!

the dual cores will be dropping a couple months later

really!? awesome. I was just going to go for Dual core, but if a quad core is near $250 then I will probably go for it. I hope to spend about $1000-$1300 on my computer this summer. I take it you're getting a new computer this summer also? Oh off topic, Nvidia videocards run on ATI chipsets correct? That is in SLI...

i want a new computer, who wouldnt. whether or not i'll get one depends on how much money i'll have saved up by then..

SLI only works on nvidia chipsets

Its actually a double dual core CPU. The two halves interface over the FSB. Its not a real quad core. Its a little faster than a dual core though. Not as much as you would expect from a real quad.

I have that case with two of the cages (six hard drives in RAID5). They're designed to not only cool the case, but to cool your drives. Some hard drives can run rather warm, which just adds additional heat in the case (obviously). The cages help reduce that by keeping the drives ice cool.

The only thing I don't like about the cages is that you can only put three drives in each cage. Supermicro has some setups that allow four or five drives in the same amount of space. The system I have all of those drives in is my Active Directory domain controller, DHCP server, AD DNS, WINS, file server, etc, etc, etc. Right now it has eight hard drives in it (two in the upper bay, six in two iCages). Not that I move it that often, but when I do it's cumbersome because of the size and weight!

well you dont know how the performance would differ from true quad...
amd wont be making true quads, apparently they are too hard to make, so they will be doing the same thing that intel is.
amd also claims that the performance difference between true quad and dual dual is very small.

So what's the whole thing with Barcelona then?

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/426/1/
http://64-bit-computers.com/amd-quad-core-...na-opteron.html

Isn't Barcelona a real quad CPU? So are they scrapping it?

well the last i heard it's too hard too make. and as i've said, amd said that the performance difference is that much so they are taking the easy route

yeah I know that it is just double dual core CPU, but it still does perform better then a Dual core. Sure not 2x faster, but if it is only 50 bucks more or something, or well... even 100 bucks more to get quad core I mean... sure they don't have a lot of programs that work on it but hey, I know Steam is working on Quad core stuff, and my guess is other companies are also...





I thought I heard Barcelona was delayed till September... I haven't heard any other info about the status on it other then that though...

ya i cant find where they said it wont be true quad, but i definatly read it in some news article.

Q6600: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115017
$521

E6600: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....amp;x=0&y=0
$223

E6700: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....scription=E6700
$317


Its not 50 bucks more. Its double a E6600. And you don't get double the performance neither.


I'd get a E6700 or a E6800 when it comes out. No point in wasting money for inferior parts (inferior for the price)

Some benchmarks: http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/q6600/8.htm

That and its a hot one. Uses double the power. Runs at about 105W to 125W. Since after all, its two CPUs glued together.

read the thread first! i have already said that intel plans on price cuts. Q6600=$266

so I've been asking around and doing more research, and I'm wondering... will an extra 120mm fan really cool it off more? I plan to run 3-4 hdds so I don't need the hdd space, just the cooling. Maximum PC had their "Target your Hotspots" segment, and they stated that they where surpized that... and I quote, "we were actually surprised to find that running the second 8cm fan up front didn't have an impact on the case's ambient temperature." The case they where using was the Zalman Fatal1ty FC-ZE1 so it isn't may case, and it is an 80mm not a 120, but... would it really change temps? My temps are good right now, but when I get my new rig I assume my vid card (either the 8800 series, or the ATI HD2900XT card) will run really hot so I am wanting to keep them cool. Processor won't be an issue as I'll use my Thermaltake Big Typhoon 120mm as it works in an LGA 775 and I plan to get a Dual core anyways...

So what do you think? Will an extra 120mm fan or a 250mm side fan really cool things down at all? or cool them down enough to make it worth my money?

well you can get a 120mm fan for under 5$ (yateloon).
will this new fan put air directly onto the hard drives? this would be a good thing.

Meh. By that time there will be a E6800 on the market. Much faster than a Q6600.

An overclocked E6700 beats an overclocked Q6600.


Not only that but most games are getting to be more dual core now. Quad is not even starting to be used.

It would be a waste of money in my opinion. I'd rather get a top of the line dual core.

quad will also be used in gaming (crysis)

Maybe. But I would still bet on a blazing fast dual core rather than a slower quad core (and not even a real quad at that.)


Plus, the dual core will run alot cooler. So you can overclock it, unlike the 'quad' which already runs hot.

well thats the only difference here, overclocking. most people dont overclock and if they do, its not to the max that the processor can go. if you take both processors at idle, the quad will win. when overclocked, the dual core. so i guess it all depends on how far people want to overclock.

Well, the idea behind the iCage cooling is to cool the drives. Keeping the drives cool will not only remove a hot spot in the case, but it'll help the drives last longer. If you're planning on running four drives I'd run them in two iCages...top and bottom spots in each iCage.

I'm getting ready to swap out my six Seagate 7200.8 250GB PATA drives for four Seagate 7200.10 400GB SATA 3Gb drives. Yeah, I lose 50GB total space (in RAID5), but the drive speeds will be faster (not just from moving to SATA, but the newer controller has more optimizations as well). Anyway, my point was that I'm going to run the four drives in the configuration I suggested. The other upshot is that it'll open up the middle drive slot in each iCage so that more air gets into the system itself.

Yes. But if you overclock a regular dual core it will be faster than a quad while producing about the same heat (if not actually much less), plus its cheaper.