Okay folks, the metamorphasis continues...
Sprocket has been re-uberMuffined yet again.
This go round she is sporting five of these honeys along with three 80mm, one 60mm and the 92mm Zalman HS fan.
Airflow is not an issue in this case.
At reasonable sound levels ( my definition would be "Can I sleep with it running?") the performance is great.
At ridiculous soundlevels ( definition- "Am I bleeding from my ears yet?") the performance is astounding.
What precipitated this most recent makeover was a desire to do a better job with the PSU relocation.
Since the move from it's stock location to the front of the case the airflow around the HS has been dramatically improved, but I just wasn't crazy about my mounting of the PSU.
Hours of intense scrutiny ( and gallons of French Roast coffee), provided the solution...the two empty 5.25" drive bays.
Indeed, the naked power supply snuggled right into place, no modification necessary.
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The PSU sits on a 3/8" piece of foam with it's stock plastic isolator sheet sandwiched in between the circuit board and the foam. More foam was used to wedge the board into place and further insulate the case from contact. A separate ground wire was installed to insure that the whole case was properly grounded.
As a test I inverted the case and the PSU didn't budge an inch so I feel pretty safe.
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Here she is with the grillwork in place. The 80mm fan is an intake and exhaust is handled by the front roof Muffin.
Heat soak doesn't seem to occur, the case roof and baycage sides are cool to the touch.
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Sideview...general layout.
You can see how the entire interior of the case is now completely free of obstruction...airflow should be optimal.
The casefloor is now covered with a foam layer ( sound insulation?) and the HDD is mounted on aluminum standoffs and rubber isolators, I can't hear the seek noises at all unless all the fans are off. and then only barely. The combination of the Zalman HDD heatpipe cooler and the front Muffin fan keep the HDD right at case ambient temp. I even reverted back to a ribbon IDE cable for the HDD as I could fold it away almost completely out of sight.
The three Muffins on the roof are all exhausts. The front one deals with the PSU which sits right below it. The middle and rear fans deal with the rest of the case...primarily the heatsink at this point. Fresh air is ducted directly onto the heatsink from the case back.
The sidepanel/motherboard wall fannage is handled by the last of the Muffins.
There is still work to be done with the wiring for the Muffins.
As they run on 115v I had to add a whole separate circuit to power/control them and it adds a lot of complexity to the wiring in the case. I used shielded power cable to eliminate potential EMI problems and lots of quick disconnects so everything is removable. Now I simply have to deal with the resulting rat's nest of cabling. Fortunately, the new black interior hides a lot of the clutter in these pics, but in person it is more noticable and I shall work on a solution. Most of the wiring is actually very neat, but I had to leave enough extra length so that components could be installed/removed without straining the wires. I also still need to make a mounting panel for the TT temp display, which has had to migrate to the sidepanel...no room left on the front bezel.
The large white knob on the front panel is the speed control for the Muffins...I need to machine a nice aluminum knob for this, too.
So far today, at the lowest fan speed that will still spin the Muffins, diode temp has maxxed out at 35°C, socket, board and HDD are all at 28°C.
Cranking up the fans to a faster, but still tolerable level will drop all temps by 5 or so degrees.
Letting the Muffins rip at full whack will drop the diode to 26°C, which is very near to room ambient ( it's snowing again here...).
All temps are taken while Folding with 100% CPU usage.
This performance equals or betters the results achieved by many of the watercooled rigs that I've seen.
